February 12, 1954: Creature from the Black Lagoon -- no "The" in the title -- premieres. It is part of the brief craze of three-dimensional, or "3-D," films that seemed to fit science fiction and horror movies, and this one was both.
Ricou Browning (1930-2023) played the Creature, or "the Gill-man," underwater, and later co-created the Flipper franchise and directed the underwater scenes in the James Bond film Thunderball. On land, the Gill-man was played by Ben Chapman (1928-2008), a 6-foot-5 Marine veteran of the Korean War. It was alleged that he received several decorations, including a Silver Star and 2 Purple Hearts, possibly as a way of promoting the film. But he never claimed this, and a check of records after his death found that he hadn't received them.
Richard Carlson (1912-1977) played Dr. David Reed, who investigates the Creature. Julie Adams (1926-2019) played the endangered heroine and Reed's girlfriend, Kay Lawrence. Unusual for the 1950s, especially in film, she, like her boyfriend, is a scientist. Jack Arnold (1916-1992) directed.
There were 2 sequels: Revenge of the Creature in 1955, also filmed in 3-D; and The Creature Walks Among Us, in 1956, filmed in regular 2-D, as the craze had fizzled out. Director John Landis planned a remake in 1982, but it was canceled for budgetary reasons. In the 1990s, Universal Pictures offered a remake to directors John Carpenter, Peter Jackson and Ivan Reitman, but nothing came of it.
In 2002, Guillermo del Toro signed to direct a remake, but that also fell through, and he rewrote the script, and turned it into his 2017 film The Shape of Water. In 2005, Breck Eisner was signed to direct, but, in 2007, before production could begin, the Writers Guild of America strike began, and that killed the project. In 2020, Marvel Cinematic Universe veterans Chris Evans and Scarlett Johnson were brought on board by Universal, but the COVID pandemic canceled their plans.
*
February 12, 1954 was a Thursday. Baseball and football were out of season. No games were scheduled in the NHL.
There were 2 games in the NBA. The Philadelphia Warriors beat the Baltimore Bullets, 75-72 at the Baltimore Coliseum. And the Milwaukee Hawks beat the Minneapolis Lakers, 71-62 at the Milwaukee Exposition and Convention Center Arena (a.k.a. The MECCA, now the UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena).
Neither home team lasted much longer. The Bullets went out of business early in the 1954-55 season, while the Hawks moved to St. Louis at the end of it, and to Atlanta in 1968. There would be another Baltimore Bullets from 1963 to 1973, and the team is now known as the Washington Wizards.
