:29:04
Bromberg was born in Hungary
and came to America as a boy.
:29:09
He first appeared on stage in 1926
at the Provincetown Theatre,
:29:13
and from 1927 to 1930
:29:16
he played opposite Eva LeGallienne
at the New York City Repertory.
:29:20
In Hollywood he made
a career playing villains
:29:23
in pictures like Charlie Chan on
Broadway and Mr Moto Takes a Chance.
:29:27
At Universal, he made
a memorable Dr Lazlo,
:29:30
a Van Helsing-type vampire hunter,
in Son of Dracula.
:29:34
His best role at Universal
was in Robert Siodmak's Phantom Lady,
:29:38
where he played the relentless,
hounding police inspector.
:29:42
Bromberg, a leftist, was called before
HUAC to testify in the early '50s,
:29:47
and was so rattled by the stress that
he died in December 1951 of heart failure.
:29:54
Stage 28, which houses
the Phantom stage,
:29:57
has seen service in the last 75 years
in scores of pictures.
:30:01
Some of the highlights include
:30:03
Paul Leni's 1929 haunted-theatre
mystery comedy, The Last Warning,
:30:09
and its 1939 remake, The House of Fear.
:30:13
Also in 1925, PáI Fejös
made The Last Performance,
:30:17
starring Mary Philbin and Conrad Veidt.
:30:22
Bela Lugosi attended
the ballet in The Raven.
:30:26
David Bruce as The Mad Ghoul
attempted to throttle Turhan Bey,
:30:31
while Evelyn Ankers sang her heart out
on the Phantom stage.
:30:35
In A Double Life Ronald Colman
played a mad actor
:30:38
in a legitimate New York theatre,
which was doubled by the Phantom stage.
:30:42
John Barrymore, in Svengali, again
brought madness to the forefront.
:30:47
The interior of the theatre
had supporting columns to give it variety,
:30:50
and in Svengali the grand staircase foyer
was also featured.
:30:55
More mundane, normal presentations
:30:58
include the 1926 Universal film
The Midnight Sun,