美国国家公共电台 NPR The Forgotten Woman Who Designed The Creature From The Black Lagoon

 

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

The Creature from the Black Lagoon¹ has re-emerged.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON")

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character) Science couldn't explain it, but there it was, alive in the deep, deep waters of the Amazon, a throwback to a creature that had existed a hundred million years ago - immensely strong and destructive.

CORNISH: First immortalized on film in 1954, that elusive² creature and the woman who designed him are now the focus of a new book. NPR's Mandalit del Barco reports on "Lady From The Black Lagoon: Hollywood Monsters And The Lost Legacy³ Of Milicent Patrick."

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON")

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As character, screaming).

MANDALIT DEL BARCO, BYLINE⁴: The terrifying movie creature swam in his lagoon and also walked on land. His feet and hands were webbed with long claws. His scaly⁵ body had a dorsal⁶ fin⁷. And his round, fishy⁸ head had big eyes and gills. Ricou Browning was one of the two actors who got zipped into the creature's costume for the movie. He was the one who swam.

RICOU BROWNING: At first, it was a little awkward, but I got used to it. And I got to where I could swim in it very easily.

DEL BARCO: Browning, who is now 89 years old, doesn't know for sure who designed the costume. But he remembers meeting Milicent Patrick on set - twice - when she measured him for leotards and once when he was in costume.

BROWNING: She was painting something on my chest with a paint brush. She said, I'm giving it a touch up. I said, well, OK, but you better let it dry. I'm going in the water. And that was the last I saw of her.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON")

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #3: (As character, screaming).

DEL BARCO: More than 60 years later, Milicent Patrick shows up with the creature as a tattoo⁹ on Mallory O'Meara's forearm.

MALLORY O'MEARA: He's embracing her, which I kind of love because it looks like he's saying, thank you for creating me. Thank you, Mom.

DEL BARCO: The 28-year-old is an indie horror, sci fi and fantasy film producer. She tracked down Patrick's life for her book "The Lady From The Black Lagoon."

O'MEARA: She's the first woman I ever saw working on a monster movie, and she just became my hero because of that.

DEL BARCO: Milicent Patrick was born Mildred Rossi in 1915. When she was 6, her family began living on the property of Hearst Castle in San Simeon, where her father, Camille Rossi, was the superintendent¹⁰ of construction. Years later, she talked to an estate historian about growing up there in style - swimming pools, French pastry¹¹ chefs, pet leopards¹² and lions. She recalled William Randolph Hearst as an enormous frightening man who threw lavish¹³ parties with movie stars. Mildred says she changed her name to Milicent, same as Hearst's wife. Over the years, she would add the last names of her various husbands.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

DEL BARCO: In Hollywood, Milicent Patrick had a few forgettable bit parts. In one Abbott and Costello flick¹⁴, she was a dark-haired beauty. And in the TV series "Ramar Of The Jungle," she played a white goddess of an African tribe.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "RAMAR OF THE JUNGLE")

MILICENT PATRICK: (As The White Goddess) So you say you friends. You no make trouble?

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #4: (As character) Why - why, you speak English.

PATRICK: (As The White Goddess) Come inside.

DEL BARCO: Patrick was also a skilled visual artist. After attending art school, she became one of the first women animators at the Walt Disney Studios. Her pastel chalk artwork was featured in the 1940 movie "Fantasia."

(SOUNDBITE OF LEOPOLD STROKOWSKI AND THE PHILADELPHIA ORCHESTRA'S "TOCCATA AND FUGUE IN D MINOR¹⁵, BWV 565")

MINDY JOHNSON: When you look at the "Toccata And Fugue" sequence, it really is this abstract impressionistic suggestion of musical tones.

DEL BARCO: California Institute of the Arts instructor¹⁶ Mindy Johnson is an expert on the history of women animators. She says Mildred Rossi, as the artist was known at Disney, also worked on another "Fantasia" sequence called "A Night on Bald Mountain."

(SOUNDBITE OF LEOPOLD STROKOWSKI AND THE PHILADELPHIA ORCHESTRA'S "A NIGHT ON BALD MOUNTAIN")

DEL BARCO: There's a winged creature named Chernabog.

JOHNSON: Walt wanted this creature of darkness to be defeated by light. As the bell tolls¹⁷, you see this blue pastel reflection of the light cross the body of Chernabog, and it's powerful. And it's actually, interestingly, her first monster.

DEL BARCO: The artist moved to Universal Studios to design special effects makeup¹⁸ and monsters, her most famous being the Creature from the Black Lagoon. Mallory O'Meara's book includes a photo of the artist that her easel with a sketch¹⁹ of the creature. O'Meara says, at the time, Universal's publicity²⁰ department sent Patrick on a promotional tour for the movie.

O'MEARA: Her boss at the Universal monster shop, a man named Bud Westmore, said, no, I don't want it to be the beauty who designed the beast. We're going to rebrand it, and it'll be the beauty who lives with the beast. He said, OK, we'll do this tour. We'll send you all around the country. But you have to tell people I designed it. You cannot take credit for it.

Bud Westmore was so jealous of all of the attention she was getting that he fired her, and she came back to Los Angeles. She never worked behind the scenes in Hollywood ever again.

DEL BARCO: To back up this version, O'Meara found Universal Studios memos²¹ archived at the USC Cinematic Arts Library. Universal declined to comment to NPR about not acknowledging its first female monster designer. The director of the Westmore Museum did tell us Bud Westmore supervised a woman who created the creature. As the head of the studio's makeup department, it's his name on the movie credits, as was the custom.

DOUG JONES: Having played so many creatures over so many years, I can tell you that it takes a village to make a monster.

DEL BARCO: Actor Doug Jones portrayed²² the amphibian²³ man in the Oscar-winning 2017 film "The Shape Of Water," Guillermo del Toro's homage²⁴ to "The Creature From The Black Lagoon." Jones says crews of artists rarely get accolades²⁵.

JONES: Designers and creature creators and makeup artists are, you know, it's a tight circle of people. Legacies²⁶ have been passed down from one generation to the next. And so for her name to never have come up until now is a travesty²⁷.

DEL BARCO: Milicent Patrick Rossi Trent continued to sketch portraits as she lived as a society lady in LA. She died at age 82 in 1998, and now you know her name. Mandalit del Barco, NPR News.

(SOUNDBITE OF UNIVERSAL STUDIO ORCHESTRA'S "THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON")

1 lagoon   

n.泻湖，咸水湖

参考例句：

• The lagoon was pullulated with tropical fish.那个咸水湖聚满了热带鱼。
• This area isolates a restricted lagoon environment.将这一地区隔离起来使形成一个封闭的泻湖环境。

2 elusive   

adj.难以表达(捉摸)的；令人困惑的；逃避的

参考例句：

• Try to catch the elusive charm of the original in translation.翻译时设法把握住原文中难以捉摸的风韵。
• Interpol have searched all the corners of the earth for the elusive hijackers.国际刑警组织已在世界各地搜查在逃的飞机劫持者。

3 legacy   

n.遗产，遗赠；先人(或过去)留下的东西

参考例句：

• They are the most precious cultural legacy our forefathers left.它们是我们祖先留下来的最宝贵的文化遗产。
• He thinks the legacy is a gift from the Gods.他认为这笔遗产是天赐之物。

4 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

5 scaly   

adj.鱼鳞状的；干燥粗糙的

参考例句：

• Reptiles possess a scaly,dry skin.爬行类具有覆盖着鳞片的干燥皮肤。
• The iron pipe is scaly with rust.铁管子因为生锈一片片剥落了。

6 dorsal   

adj.背部的，背脊的

参考例句：

• His dorsal fin was down and his huge pectorals were spread wide.它的脊鳍朝下耷拉着，巨大的胸鳍大张着。
• The shark's dorsal fin was cut off by the fisherman.鲨鱼的背鳍被渔夫割了下来。

7 fin   

n.鳍；(飞机的)安定翼

参考例句：

• They swim using a small fin on their back.它们用背上的小鳍游动。
• The aircraft has a long tail fin.那架飞机有一个长长的尾翼。

8 fishy   

adj. 值得怀疑的

参考例句：

• It all sounds very fishy to me.所有这些在我听起来都很可疑。
• There was definitely something fishy going on.肯定当时有可疑的事情在进行中。

9 tattoo   

n.纹身，(皮肤上的)刺花纹；vt.刺花纹于

参考例句：

• I've decided to get my tattoo removed.我已经决定去掉我身上的纹身。
• He had a tattoo on the back of his hand.他手背上刺有花纹。

10 superintendent   

n.监督人，主管，总监；(英国)警务长

参考例句：

• He was soon promoted to the post of superintendent of Foreign Trade.他很快就被擢升为对外贸易总监。
• He decided to call the superintendent of the building.他决定给楼房管理员打电话。

11 pastry   

n.油酥面团，酥皮糕点

参考例句：

• The cook pricked a few holes in the pastry.厨师在馅饼上戳了几个洞。
• The pastry crust was always underdone.馅饼的壳皮常常烤得不透。

12 leopards   

n.豹( leopard的名词复数 )；本性难移

参考例句：

• Lions, tigers and leopards are all cats. 狮、虎和豹都是猫科动物。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• For example, airlines never ship leopards and canaries on the same flight. 例如，飞机上从来不会同时运送豹和金丝雀。 来自英语晨读30分（初三）

13 lavish   

adj.无节制的；浪费的；vt.慷慨地给予，挥霍

参考例句：

• He despised people who were lavish with their praises.他看不起那些阿谀奉承的人。
• The sets and costumes are lavish.布景和服装极尽奢华。

14 flick   

n.快速的轻打，轻打声，弹开；v.轻弹，轻轻拂去，忽然摇动

参考例句：

• He gave a flick of the whip.他轻抽一下鞭子。
• By a flick of his whip,he drove the fly from the horse's head.他用鞭子轻抽了一下，将马头上的苍蝇驱走。

15 minor   

adj.较小(少)的，较次要的；n.辅修学科；vi.辅修

参考例句：

• The young actor was given a minor part in the new play.年轻的男演员在这出新戏里被分派担任一个小角色。
• I gave him a minor share of my wealth.我把小部分财产给了他。

16 instructor   

n.指导者，教员，教练

参考例句：

• The college jumped him from instructor to full professor.大学突然把他从讲师提升为正教授。
• The skiing instructor was a tall,sunburnt man.滑雪教练是一个高高个子晒得黑黑的男子。

17 tolls   

（缓慢而有规律的）钟声( toll的名词复数 )； 通行费； 损耗； （战争、灾难等造成的）毁坏

参考例句：

• A man collected tolls at the gateway. 一个人在大门口收通行费。
• The long-distance call tolls amount to quite a sum. 长途电话费数目相当可观。

18 makeup   

n.组织；性格；化装品

参考例句：

• Those who failed the exam take a makeup exam.这次考试不及格的人必须参加补考。
• Do you think her beauty could makeup for her stupidity?你认为她的美丽能弥补她的愚蠢吗？

19 sketch   

n.草图；梗概；素描；v.素描；概述

参考例句：

• My sister often goes into the country to sketch. 我姐姐常到乡间去写生。
• I will send you a slight sketch of the house.我将给你寄去房屋的草图。

20 publicity   

n.众所周知，闻名；宣传，广告

参考例句：

• The singer star's marriage got a lot of publicity.这位歌星的婚事引起了公众的关注。
• He dismissed the event as just a publicity gimmick.他不理会这件事，只当它是一种宣传手法。

21 memos   

n.备忘录( memo的名词复数 )；（美）内部通知

参考例句：

• Big shots get their dander up and memos start flying. 大人物们怒火中烧，备忘录四下乱飞。 来自辞典例句
• There was a pile of mail, memos and telephone messages on his desk. 他的办公桌上堆满着信件、备忘录和电话通知。 来自辞典例句

22 portrayed   

v.画像( portray的过去式和过去分词 )；描述；描绘；描画

参考例句：

• Throughout the trial, he portrayed himself as the victim. 在审讯过程中，他始终把自己说成是受害者。
• The author portrayed his father as a vicious drunkard. 作者把他父亲描绘成一个可恶的酒鬼。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

23 amphibian   

n.两栖动物；水陆两用飞机和车辆

参考例句：

• The frog is an amphibian,which means it can live on land and in water.青蛙属于两栖动物，也就是说它既能生活在陆地上也能生活在水里。
• Amphibian is an important specie in ecosystem and has profound meaning in the ecotoxicology evaluation.两栖类是生态系统中的重要物种，并且对环境毒理评价有着深远意义。

24 homage   

n.尊敬，敬意，崇敬

参考例句：

• We pay homage to the genius of Shakespeare.我们对莎士比亚的天才表示敬仰。
• The soldiers swore to pay their homage to the Queen.士兵们宣誓效忠于女王陛下。

25 accolades   

n.（连结几行谱表的）连谱号( accolade的名词复数 )；嘉奖；（窗、门上方的）桃尖拱形线脚；册封爵士的仪式（用剑面在肩上轻拍一下）

参考例句：

• Unlike other accolades for literature which tend to value style or experimentation. 有别于其他偏重风格活实验性的文学奖项。 来自互联网
• Build your trophy room while amassing awards and accolades. 建立您的奖杯积累奖项和荣誉。 来自互联网

26 legacies   

n.遗产( legacy的名词复数 )；遗留之物；遗留问题；后遗症

参考例句：

• Books are the legacies that a great genius leaves to mankind. 书是伟大的天才留给人类的精神财富。 来自辞典例句
• General legacies are subject to the same principles as demonstrative legacies. 一般的遗赠要与指定数目的遗赠遵循同样的原则。 来自辞典例句

27 travesty   

n.歪曲，嘲弄，滑稽化

参考例句：

• The trial was a travesty of justice.这次审判嘲弄了法律的公正性。
• The play was,in their view,a travesty of the truth.这个剧本在他们看来是对事实的歪曲。