Milicent Patrick should be a recognizable name and a role model for several generations of young girls with filmmaking dreams. As the only woman ever to design a classic movie monster, The Creature from the Black Lagoon, and one of the first female animators at Disney, she blazed a trail that up-and-comers should have been able to follow. But instead, her story was lost. She was denied credit for her work. And for over sixty years, her legacy was buried.
When author Mallory O’Meara f...
Milicent Patrick should be a recognizable name and a role model for several generations of young girls with filmmaking dreams. As the only woman ever to design a classic movie monster, The Creature from the Black Lagoon, and one of the first female animators at Disney, she blazed a trail that up-and-comers should have been able to follow. But instead, her story was lost. She was denied credit for her work. And for over sixty years, her legacy was buried.
When author Mallory O’Meara first watched The Creature from the Black Lagoon as a teen, her monster-loving heart fell hard. As she began to investigate the film, she made a game- changing discovery: the identity of the Creature’s creator. Milicent instantly became her idol and Mallory needed to find out more about this visionary. But her inquiries were frustratingly inconclusive.
Why, Mallory wondered, isn’t Milicent Patrick celebrated for her transcendent achievements? How is it that women especially are in the dark about her significance? What happened to her? And why has she been erased so completely from cinema history?
Eventually the writer and filmmaker realized that if she wanted answers to these questions, then she needed to unearth them herself. A standout debut that doubles as a call to action, THE LADY FROM THE BLACK LAGOON: Hollywood Monsters and the Lost Legacy of Milicent Patrick chronicles Mallory’s journey to find the enigmatic Milicent Patrick and her own, similar trials in the male-centric world of film and horror.
Extensively researched and vividly rendered, this true-life detective story uncovers a fascinating woman blessed with talent, looks, charisma and resilience whose pursuit of an unconventional path yielded movie magic. Piecing together the evidence, Mallory tracks Milicent from her early years spent on the periphery of Hearst Castle and her training at a prestigious art institute to her flourishing career, which was snuffed out by a jealous male colleague at Universal Studios, and her reinvention in the wake of that devastating blow. Along the way, Mallory explores Milicent’s thorny family dynamics, examines her personal and professional relationships, traces her artistic evolution, delves into the gender bias she contended with on the job and so much more.
A strikingly original blend of history, biography, and memoir, THE LADY FROM THE BLACK LAGOON unfolds an eye-opening read from a unique perspective. Reporting from the inside, Mallory gets candid about her experiences in Hollywood, which illustrate the importance of Milicent Patrick as a pioneer and the resounding impact of her work to this day, including how her creations have inspired countless films and spinoffs, most notably The Shape of Water, Guillermo del Toro’s 2017 triumph.
At once a passion project and an incisive take on movie industry sexism then and now, THE LADY FROM THE BLACK LAGOON offers an essential appreciation of an influential innovator as it foregrounds a behind-the-scenes cinematic culture that would seem all too familiar to Milicent Patrick.
Mallory O’Meara is an author, screenwriter and genre film producer. Every week, she co-hosts the literary podcast Reading Glasses. Whether it's for the screen or the page, Mallory seeks creative projects imbued with the weird; horror and monsters are her passion. She lives in Los Angeles with her partner and their collection of books and cats. THE LADY FROM THE BLACK LAGOON is her first book. For more about Mallory, please visit, www.malloryomeara.com,
Photo Credit: Allan Amato
