Almanac of Story Tellers: Gaston Leroux

 Every day brings a new story.  And each day contributes to the art of story telling -- in prose and poetry, in music, on the stage, on the screen, and, of course, in books. 

Today is the story of  May 6th

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    It is the 126th day of the year, leaving 239 days remaining in 2022.

 

    On this date in 1868, the French journalist and author Gaston Leroux was born.

    Also one of the early practioners of the detective fiction genré, Leroux's great claim to literary immortality is his writing of the novel Le Fantôme de l'Opéra -- The Phantom of the Opera -- in 1910.

    The story's plot is simple: A hideous, disfigured phantom haunts the opera house in Paris, where he lives in a subterranean encampment. He forces one singer to abandon her role, and falls in love with and kidnaps her replacement.

     The novel never set the world afire, but its screen and later its stage adaptations did. In 1925, the silent movie starring Lon Cheney was released to critical acclaim. Four years later, a sound mix was added. Voices were dubbed over many of the actors, with the exception of Cheney, whose contract was held by another studio.

    While several screen adaptations were made over the next few decades, it wasn't until 1986, when Andrew Lloyd Webber wrote and produced the stage musical, that it reached legendary status. The musical premiered at Her Majesty's Theatre in London's West End, and at the Majestic Theatre on Broadway. It still plays at both theaters, and holds the record for the longest performance on Broadway.

    But back to Leroux.

    As a journalist, he covered courts for L'Écho de Paris, where one of the cases reveolved around the Paris Opera House and its basement jail cell. He also was an international correspondent for the Paris newspaper, Le Matin,

    In addition to writing Le Fantôme, he also wrote mystery novels. inspired by Edgar Allan Poe and Sir Authur Conan Doyle. In the sub-genré he write, the "locked-room" scenario, a crime has been committed inside a room with seemingly no entrance or exit, implying a horrific, supernatural predator. 

    Leroux's debut novel, Le Mystère de la Chambre Jaunes (The Mystery of the Yellow Room), was published in 1907. It introduced an amateur detective, Joseph Rouletabille, who appeared in several sequels.

    Leroux died in Nice, France, in 1927.