253. WEIRDBOOK No.29 - A black ink and black color pencil drawing on an 11 x 14 size coquille board. It is based on a TV movie I watched the night before, "The Phantom of the Opera".

I had the pleasure of watching, "The Phantom of the Opera" on Broadway some years ago. The story was written in 1909 by a Frenchman, Gaston Leroux and first appeared in print as a serial in a Paris newspaper. It was published in book form in 1910 but did not sell very well and soon went out of print and was forgotten. In 1925 two silent film producers found the book and decided to make a movie of the story, featuring Lon Chaney. Their silent film was a huge hit and ever since then the story of "The Phantom of the Opera" has been entertaining us in one form or another.

While on the subject of "Stage Shows," Oscar Wilde, the famous Irish Writer and poet said, "I love acting. It is so much more real than life". . .

"More real than life?" - But during Wilde's lifetime, 1854 - 1900, these dramatic events were happening to men, women, and children, all over the "real" world;
In America the Civil War began and ended.
A revolution took place in Spain
Napoleon attacked Prussia
The great famine in India killed 5 million people
The Russo-Turkish war took place
The Zulu war happened in Africa
Japan invaded China

So, while all those incredibly dramatic events were happening to people all over the world, Oscar Wilde was more impressed by the stage shows he saw?