The unmasking scene from 'The Phantom of the Opera' was rather perfunctorily recreated, with an actress playing Mary who did not resemble her. Not very long after that evening, we went to a neighborhood theater in Pacific Palisades, Calif., to see James Cagney in the 1957 Universal-International biographical film about Lon Chaney, Sr., 'Man of a Thousand Faces,' again with Mary Philbin in our company. We joined the rest of the audience that night in enjoying the experience of seeing the film, however, and Mary was relieved that she had consented to accompany us (though she insisted that we shield her from any possible recognition, not too easy to do, since she had hardly changed in appearance in the quarter-century since that classic's production.) I, for one, remember being amazed at the care and expense that had obviously been lavished on its production. Mary dreaded the experience of seeing one of her old films amid a mid-Fifties audience, which she feared would find the film a subject of comical curiosity rather than a piece of genuinely enthralling entertainment. Management had obtained a print of this film in acceptable condition, though I don't recall that the Technicolor sequence had been preserved in that print and, on that evening anyway, there was no musical accompaniment. and the site of Grauman's Chinese Theater and other first-run movie palaces, to see a revival of 'The Phantom of the Opera.' That old theater, not in the least luxurious and quite small, was a virtual shrine for lovers of silent films. (They took a trip to Europe one summer, for instance.) One evening she persuaded Mary, who was extremely reluctant, by the way, to accompany us to the silent movie theater on Fairfax Ave., not far from Hollywood Blvd. Our mutual friend was constantly prodding Miss Philbin, who had become quite reclusive after retiring from the screen, to get out and enjoy life.

She was a friend of an unforgettable lady our family had met when we moved from New England to southern California.

My goodness.close to fifty years ago I saw this film in the company of its leading lady, Mary Philbin.

Phantom of the opera cast 1920