1:07:00
instantly killing her
and horribly mutilating her body.
1:07:04
Like any good novelist who had been
a journalist, Leroux used facts.
1:07:09
He had the chandelier fall on a concierge
in his novel, The Phantom of the Opera,
1:07:14
only he made her the newly hired keeper
of the phantom's Box Five,
1:07:18
who was attending the opera
for the very first time.
1:07:21
Box Five is traditionally one of the most
expensive seating areas at the opera.
1:07:27
In the 19th century, a subscriber
would have paid 25,200 francs a year
1:07:32
in order to attend and watch
from the box three times a week.
1:07:37
Modern visitors report
that the plaque on Box Five,
1:07:41
if not different every time they return,
1:07:44
is often missing-an Easter-egg-hunt
souvenir of modern scavengers,
1:07:48
inspired by the success
of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical.
1:07:55
Leroux drew on
his knowledge of the real world,
1:07:58
and it is still being debated today
whether the tale of the opera ghost
1:08:02
is actually based on fact.
1:08:04
Some factions claim
it is a legitimate basis.
1:08:07
Certainly, the character of Christine Daae
1:08:09
was drawn from a real opera favourite
in Paris of the 1870s -
1:08:13
the Swedish singer Christine Nilsson.
1:08:15
As a 13-year-old, Nilsson
had been brought to the attention
1:08:19
of a singing teacher
named Madame Valerius,
1:08:22
who as Mamma Valerius was created
Christine's guardian in Leroux's novel.
1:08:26
Nilsson is a character in Edith Wharton's
novel The Age of Innocence,
1:08:30
and is portrayed
in Martin Scorsese's recent film,
1:08:33
singing Marguerite
in Gounod's Faust, of course.
1:08:37
Gaston Leroux was born in Paris in 1868.
1:08:40
He became a lawyer
in middle-class fashion,
1:08:43
but soon became a reporter
for the newspaper Le Matin,
1:08:46
covering a crime beat.
1:08:48
He witnessed
five executions by guillotine,
1:08:50
which made him adamantly opposed
to capital punishment.
1:08:53
His journalistic beat
took him around the world
1:08:56
to Russia, Asia, Africa and the Mideast.
1:08:59
He is said to have stood
in Mount Vesuvius during an eruption.