Unfortunately, the Chaney Family suffered a series of setbacks and often struggled financially. Starting in 1882, Frank Chaney was employed as a barber at Phil Strubel’s Barber Shop for over thirty years. A search of the Colorado Springs City Directories during these years illustrates how the family moved frequently, always trying to find spacious yet affordable accommodations for their growing family. Leonidas “Lon” Frank Chaney was born on April 1, 1883, the second out of five children. Sadly, baby Earl Chaney born in May 1887, died of pulmonary consumption that July. Colorado Springs Opera House at 18 N. Tejon Street, ca. 1900 Lon attended several elementary schools and stated he had a “reasonably happy” childhood. He played sports and had many friends. However, in 1893 his mother Emma became bedridden with inflammatory rheumatism after the birth of her last child George. Lon dropped out of fourth grade to care for her and his younger siblings. As biographer Blake describes, “It was here that Lon began to develop the talent that later won him praise as one of the great mimes of the silent screen. For three years, Lon took care of his mother in the silence of her bedroom, relaying the events of the day to her, while using every dramatic technique he could invent, Lon mimicked his friends and neighbors at play and work, and even performed an occasional skit. Through this daily ritual Chaney’s talent of pantomime, with his graceful movements and his expressive hand gestures, began to grow and take shape.” As his siblings grew older, Lon went to work to help support the Chaney Family. During the summer months he worked as a tour guide on Pikes Peak, and was often employed as a wallpaper hanger and carpet layer by Brown’s Wall Paper and Paint Company on North Tejon. Chaney was introduced to the inner workings of theater through his older brother John, who was a stage hand and later stage manager at the Colorado Springs Opera House. Young Lon worked there as a “prop boy,” and stage hand, occasionally appearing as an “extra.” According to grandson Ron Chaney, Lon first took the stage in a production titled The Little Tycoon, which he co-wrote with his brother John. The show traveled around the country and Lon went with it. By 1910, Lon Chaney was living and working in Los Angeles. After a public scandal involving his wife Cleva Creighton, Chaney left stage acting for work in the silent film industry. Starring in over 150 films, he became a Hollywood legend. For his craft Chaney underwent tremendous physical suffering, binding his feet to his thighs behind him to play an amputee in The Penalty, and wearing a 50lb artificial hump on his back for The Hunchback of Notre Dame. He also mastered the art of “stage makeup.” He famously transformed into any character — completely unrecognizable from himself. In fact, despite being one of the biggest movie stars of the era, Lon Chaney could walk the streets of any major city incognito. Throughout it all, he never forgot his friends and family in Colorado Springs. In 1925 he held a special screening of The Phantom of the Opera for the students at the CSDB. One of the brightest stars ever to emerge from Colorado Springs, April is officially “Lon Chaney Month.” In 1986, the theater at the Colorado Springs City Auditorium was renamed in his SILENT FILM SOIREE: ROARING 20s COSTUME PARTY & CONTEST Friday, February 14 Tickets (Click here) MUSELETTER JANUARY 2020| PG 7
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