Gadget Geeks Meet the Creature From the Black Lagoon

It's pretty safe to say that of all the monsters spawned under the Universal Studios banner, the Creature From the Black Lagoon is most likely the single most popular. Don't get me wrong, I love Dracula, the Frankenstein Monster, the tortured Lawrence Talbot, and the two Mummies, but it's the Creature in all his cool, scaly glory who seems to have the strongest hold on a lot of Universal Monster mavens.

Isn't it he one monster whose licensed items become the most desired by Universal fans? How hard was it to get that PEZ dispenser, or the Soaky toy or those action figures? What about all those garage kits?

But rather than focus on all those other Creature trinkets, doo-dads and whatever else, we're here to look at an oddball item which is not only served as promotional material for the 1954 theatrical release of the first movie, Creature From the Black Lagoon, but could almost be considered a vision of things to come in monster movie themed magazines only short years later.

Mechanix Illustrated was a long running magazine devoted to covering a wide variety of gadgets with a focus on do-it-yourself stuff, very often things like boats, airplanes, etc. Fawcett was the company behind the magazine, who for years had also been the publishers of Captain Marvel Adventures and other related comic book series.

 Then, in the May 1954 issue, something truly strange popped up on the cover of the quirky though still normal publication: a moss green, fishy looking being along with a blurb that said, "Science Creates a Monster." Could this be for real? Had the editors flipped their collective lids?

Nope. What they had done is approach the making of the movie Creature From the Black Lagoon as if it was just another out-there science project. Within three and 1/4 pages, the magazine provided images of the Creature, behind the scenes production and make-up crew shots, and some well written, though slightly erroneous, information on the making of the film.

By erroneous, the article pretty much seemed to be focused on the California facet of the pic's filming, not really mentioning the Florida location shooting. Ben Chapman is mentioned, though Ricou Browning is not, in spite of a couple of underwater shots featuring Browning in the rubber suit.

Not erroneous, though interesting and in keeping with how, in part, Universal was pushing the project, the Creature's designer, Milicent Patrick is discussed and given her due credit... years before the monster magazines to come ever got around to doing so.

All in all, it seemed to be a canny attempt on Universal's part to go directly to the audience a film like this would have: teenage boys. Fortunately, while hyping the film, the article is also nicely written and actually quite informative.

But rather than tell you any more about it, I thought I'd just show you the pages themselves for you to view and read. Click on the gallery function on the title graphic above and (hopefully) each image will increase in size enough to read it or, at the bottom right is a magnifying function on your browser.

Oh, and I'm under the impression that even though Mechanix Illustrated was printed on terribly cheap pulp paper, this particular issue may not be all that hard to find. MI used to sell quite a few issues each month, and this issue's unusual cover subject may have prompted readers to hang on to it. Then again, if I was a kid back then, I may well have cut it up for the pix. Good luck finding a copy.

Please note: I'm honestly not sure who owns the rights to Mechanix Illustrated or even when (or if) it stopped publication. I can only presume that it is owned by Fawcett (if they still exist at all). Regardless, the duplication of this material is for historical documentation only.

-- Franklin J. Kurtz