INTERVIEW

RON CHANEY

LON CHANEY JR.'s GRANDSON
COMES OUT TO HOWL!

Ron Chaney at the 1997 Monster Bash's east coast unveiling
ceremony of the Classic Monster Stamps
with the United States Post Office!

An interview by Ron Adams

Ron Chaney is the grandson of Lon Chaney Jr., and it follows, is the great grandson of Lon Chaney Sr. He's a bright, sincere and wonderful human being to know. And, most importantly, he loved his grandfather and spent a lot of time in his younger years with him. His sincerity and care for perpetuating the images of his grandfathers is a life pursuit, along with keeping the family in the entertainment business! Ron is the president of Chaney Entertainment (formerly Chaney Enterprises). On February 15, 2000, I spoke with Ron and asked him the following questions to help satisfy the ever growing fans of the Chaney family.

BASH: What are your favorite Lon Chaney Jr. movies?

RC: Favorites...well, OF MICE AND MEN,THE WOLF MAN, FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLF MAN and I really enjoy HIGH NOON. Actually, I like 'em all (laughing). Just great to see my "Gramps" in the movies.

BASH: How did your grandfather feel about the Wolf Man?

RC: It was his favorite character. He had a great fondness for the Wolf Man; and his dual personality...

BASH: Did your grandfather ever talk to you about HIS father?

RC: Sure, he occasionally spoke about his father. He used to talk a lot about his father practicing for his role in THE PENALTY. He said he would rehearse at home walking around in the stumps and how it would hurt him. He'd walk around trying to get the balance down, so it wouldn't waste production time. (***BASH note: Chaney Sr. played a legless man, very convincingly, in the film THE PENALTY from 1920. And without any CGI special effects!).

BASH: How did Chaney Enterprises, now Chaney Entertainment come about?

RC: Wow, let me think. I guess the genesis was when my brother Gary and I were moving our grandma Patsy in San Diego and found boxes which contained the materials, photos, comments etc. that my grandfather had been assembling for the picture book "A Century of Chaney's." It revealed a part of our family past that I found very exciting. You can look for it in the future. I'm involved in so many projects right now, it is temporarily on the back burner.

BASH: Most people don't realize how VERY active Chaney Entertainment is....can you tell us some future projects to look forward to?

There will continue to be new products licensed through Universal and Chaney Entertainment, t-shirts, models...Sideshow's Phantom polystone, Hunchback of Notre Dame. The polystone Wolf Man is doing very well and a company named Westland Giftware is developing several Chaney character figurines and waterglobes: I've seen some photos of the early sculpts, very nice, also Janus Co. will be releasing the long overdue "The Phantom of the Opera" in the near future, the fans will enjoy this one. Coming soon is lonchaney.com! I've been putting together a few shows such as The Phantom of the Opera 1925 original silent film with live orchestra performing the original music, and am also working on creating Lon Chaney presents Haunted Houses hopefully to debut next Halloween in the desert area.

BASH: You're working on a movie project! CURSE OF THE WOLF MAN! What is the genesis of the CURSE OF THE WOLF MAN project and where do you hope it will go?

RC: It's in development, looking for investors presently. We shot a short teaser film -- limited budget, a short feature to show folks what we have in mind.

BASH: Now the teaser film has played at The Nortel Palm Springs International Film Festival on the West Coast, right? And, a sneak peek at the Monster Bash!

RC: I conceived the story, co-produced and acted in the part as The Wolf Man in this 9 1/2 minute teaser. Ed French was the make-up artist. Ed has done some great work in major films such as Eraser, Batman Returns, Star Trek VI -The Undiscovered Country in which he was nominated for an Academy Award along with Emmy nominations for Space Rangers and Star Trek-The Next generation along with television and commercial work. My partner Rich Oliphant, wrote, co-produced and directed this teaser. We're very excited about it.

BASH: Can you tell us about the Lon Chaney Jr. Star Fund?

RC: The "Star Fund" is to put Lon Chaney Jr. on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Something for the fans. We'll have information about donating to the Star Fund on the forthcoming website, lonchaney.com. Every contributor will get listed on the web site. I've been keeping track of everybody. It went up in cost, it was ten thousand, they've since upped it to fifteen thousand to get a star on the Walk. We'll get there in time.

BASH: Well your grandfather would have turned 94 just a few days ago. On a last note, can you bring to the table, what none of the historians studying the films really can, which is give us a slice of real life with Lon Chaney Jr.? Perhaps just a snippet of a memory over a dinner at your grandparent's house back in the 60's or early 70's?

RC: Yes, I wished him a personal Happy Birthday, I'm sure along with many others. Well, I would have to say one of the fondest memories is, we would wrestle with him in the backyard. He was very good. He'd show us all the moves. We'd try to pull them off on him. We could never get him down, naaaa, not even when we ganged up on him!

BASH: By we, you mean you and your brother?

RC: Yeah, Gary and I ganged up on him, but we could never....(laughing), get him down. He loved to cook, he had great recipes, chili and great dishes. He was just a wonderful storyteller. Hearing him tell stories was wonderful. He made them come alive, really...he used his hands, voice and face so much for expression.

BASH: Thank you Ron from me, personally, and all the other SCORES and SCORES of Lon Chaney Jr. fans.

Ron Adams and Ron Chaney

Lon Chaney Jr., Ron Chaney and Lon Chaney Sr.
(Ron's addition through the courtesy of time travel, or...Photoshop)

The legacy rolls on, Ron Chaney's son, Creighton!

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