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837 reviews for:
The Lady from the Black Lagoon: Hollywood Monsters and the Lost Legacy of Milicent Patrick
Mallory O'Meara
4.11 AVERAGE
837 reviews for:
The Lady from the Black Lagoon: Hollywood Monsters and the Lost Legacy of Milicent Patrick
Mallory O'Meara
4.11 AVERAGE
This was like a biography and a detective story all at once. And it's... I can feel the love, the admiration, just all the emotion from Mallory. It's clear she cares so much about getting Milicent's story told. It's a story that should be told. Milicent did not get the credit she should have, and in fact was actively kept from getting credit for her talent. She broke a lot of ground, too, more than once being the only woman in the room working along with the guys. And her personal life is covered too, from childhood to death, as best as could be managed. But like I said, there's more than a biography here. We get Mallory's journey too. Her love of horror films, how Milicent had been such an influence on her, things she has had to endure as a woman in the field, and how much digging she had to do to find out enough to write this book. By the time I finished this book, I cared so much about Milicent. I felt emotionally invested in this woman, one I had never heard of before I picked up the book. This needed to be told and Mallory did an amazing job.
Loved this book. Lots about early monster movies, women in hollywood, finding your heroes and california (hearst castle, for instance). Was a great read.
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
While I’ve been excited to read this book since it came out a year ago, it was only recently that I was finally able to snag a copy from my library. This is probably because of the book’s myriad awards, and because it’s good. The timing works out pretty nicely, though, as this is a great read for Women’s History Month and International Women’s Day (which is tomorrow, at the time I write this).
I have to admit that I didn’t fully understand the title until I finished the entire book. Yes, it’s about Milicent Patrick, the woman who designed Gill Man from the classic horror film The Creature from the Black Lagoon. She never got the credit she deserved in Hollywood history until recently. That’s part of the story: Patrick was the lady from the black lagoon and Gill Man is the monster. It’s also about the other kind of Hollywood monsters, the Harvey Weinsteins, the limos full of unnamed guys, and other obstacles keeping women and marginalized people away from doing what they love in Hollywood and elsewhere. Finally, it’s about author Mallory O’Meara’s own Hollywood experience as a genre film producer.
O’Meara manages to weave together all of these stories, as well as a lot of California history, with ease. I’m sure working as a producer helps her juggle the myriad aspects of the book and somehow make them work. Her writing could perhaps best be described as conversational. It’s almost as if she is informally sitting down with you and explaining her own journey with discovering the horror genre, finding her way out to Hollywood, figuring out how to research a book, and evolving as a person as she learned about the ever-evolving Milicent Patrick.
While I did think this was a fun and also thought-provoking read, I’m most looking forward to reading what Patrick writes next. I think that if she chooses to write another book her writing style will have evolved into something even more powerful. Definitely someone to watch!
I have to admit that I didn’t fully understand the title until I finished the entire book. Yes, it’s about Milicent Patrick, the woman who designed Gill Man from the classic horror film The Creature from the Black Lagoon. She never got the credit she deserved in Hollywood history until recently. That’s part of the story: Patrick was the lady from the black lagoon and Gill Man is the monster. It’s also about the other kind of Hollywood monsters, the Harvey Weinsteins, the limos full of unnamed guys, and other obstacles keeping women and marginalized people away from doing what they love in Hollywood and elsewhere. Finally, it’s about author Mallory O’Meara’s own Hollywood experience as a genre film producer.
O’Meara manages to weave together all of these stories, as well as a lot of California history, with ease. I’m sure working as a producer helps her juggle the myriad aspects of the book and somehow make them work. Her writing could perhaps best be described as conversational. It’s almost as if she is informally sitting down with you and explaining her own journey with discovering the horror genre, finding her way out to Hollywood, figuring out how to research a book, and evolving as a person as she learned about the ever-evolving Milicent Patrick.
While I did think this was a fun and also thought-provoking read, I’m most looking forward to reading what Patrick writes next. I think that if she chooses to write another book her writing style will have evolved into something even more powerful. Definitely someone to watch!
Such an interesting eye opener about women working in Hollywood back in the day! And such an incredible talent!
I laughed a lot, gasped a lot, and cried through this well-told story of Milicent Patrick and the overarching story of all women in creative industries. It’s written in a unique and engaging way and maintains a good pacing.
This book was thought provoking, funny and really cleved into the life of a marvellous lady. It makes me want to educate people on inequality in the industry and how many unseen talent there is.
Full Disclosure: I had no idea who Milicent Patrick was when I picked up this book. I had heard amazing things about the author, about her writing, how this book was so amazing and everyone should read it-but never about the subject of whom it was written.
Milicent Patrick is a badass.
Milicent Patrick is the incredibly talented designer and artist who created the iconic costume for the iconic monster in The Creature from the Black Lagoon. She led a truly interesting life. Daughter to one of the designers of Hearst Castle, Milicent was surrounded by lavish luxury and excess but lived a life of chastity and modesty. Forbidden from dating or having male friends, Milicent grew up with her behavior tightly controlled by her parents. When she left her family to make her way as an animator in Hollywood, she was disowned by her family and cut off from her connections to her previous life.
Honing her skills at Disney working as an animator, Milicent went on to have a successful career-and what would have been an extremely successful one if a string of jealous men hadn’t gotten in her way. Dealing with daily misogyny and getting more attention for her figure than her talent, Milicent struggled to be taken seriously even as her work proved to be exceptional on all levels.
The Lady From the Black Lagoon is part investigative journalism, part biography, and largely a love letter to an incredibly talented woman who would spark the creative spirit in generations of young women. Reading through this story, Mallory O’Meara shows us how difficult it is to research women from the past who have had their work either stolen from them by men, or who never received credit for their work. We get to follow O’Meara’s journey up and down California as she tirelessly tracks down any scrap of information on Patrick she can. And let me tell you, Milicent Patrick and her ever changing names was not helpful in the least!
Reading this book felt far more like sitting with a best friend and talking over drinks. O’Meara writes with an engaging conversational tone and the footnotes are a must read.
Milicent Patrick is a badass.
Milicent Patrick is the incredibly talented designer and artist who created the iconic costume for the iconic monster in The Creature from the Black Lagoon. She led a truly interesting life. Daughter to one of the designers of Hearst Castle, Milicent was surrounded by lavish luxury and excess but lived a life of chastity and modesty. Forbidden from dating or having male friends, Milicent grew up with her behavior tightly controlled by her parents. When she left her family to make her way as an animator in Hollywood, she was disowned by her family and cut off from her connections to her previous life.
Honing her skills at Disney working as an animator, Milicent went on to have a successful career-and what would have been an extremely successful one if a string of jealous men hadn’t gotten in her way. Dealing with daily misogyny and getting more attention for her figure than her talent, Milicent struggled to be taken seriously even as her work proved to be exceptional on all levels.
The Lady From the Black Lagoon is part investigative journalism, part biography, and largely a love letter to an incredibly talented woman who would spark the creative spirit in generations of young women. Reading through this story, Mallory O’Meara shows us how difficult it is to research women from the past who have had their work either stolen from them by men, or who never received credit for their work. We get to follow O’Meara’s journey up and down California as she tirelessly tracks down any scrap of information on Patrick she can. And let me tell you, Milicent Patrick and her ever changing names was not helpful in the least!
Reading this book felt far more like sitting with a best friend and talking over drinks. O’Meara writes with an engaging conversational tone and the footnotes are a must read.
hopeful
informative
reflective
medium-paced
informative
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Misogyny, Sexism, Suicide