Who are the real monsters in this ‘Black Lagoon’?

On the surface, Mallory O’Meara’s first book appears to be about an iconic movie monster and its lost creator. But readers who peer a little deeper into “Lady From the Black Lagoon: Hollywood Monsters and the Lost Legacy of Milicent Patrick” find a page-turning quest for information, inspiration and finally insight.

The latest gathering of the FYI Book Club focused on O’Meara’s biography-memoir, which revolves around the woman who designed – and then was denied credit for – the gilled star of the 1954 big-screen hit “Creature From the Black Lagoon.” The discussion was held, fittingly, at the Screenland Armour Theatre in North Kansas City, where “Creature” will be shown Sunday as part of the “Shocktober” series of horror movies.

Mary Maxine Luber of Kansas City found the book “a perfect read leading up to Halloween. Not just for its history of horror movie monsters but also as a timely reminder that not everything is what it seems.”

She noted, too, “Nothing piques my interest like women getting credit for their work, even when it’s long overdue.”

The classic movie that inspired O’Meara’s book invited the standard horror-tinged icebreaker: What scares you? For Andy Dandino of Kansas City, it was a later film, 1984’s “Gremlins.”

“When I was a kid, the idea of something happening after midnight was scary,” he said. “Then, I saw the movie and realized, ‘Hey, this is funny,’ Now, I think ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ is frightening.”

Lindsey Foat of Kansas City agreed. “Chaos and the breakdown of society are terrifying,” she said. “Some monsters, I can compartmentalize – like vampires and zombies. These are monsters that do not exist for me. … It’s the more apocalyptic scenarios, the things we don’t understand and don’t expect to happen.”

Said Marian Palmer of Kansas City, “Paranormal elements don’t scare me, either. ‘The Road’ and ‘The Silence of the Lambs’ are books and movies with no paranormal elements. They are scenarios that are either happening now or very likely to happen. Things that are real terrify me.

“In this book,” Palmer said, “the abusive and vindictive characters of Camille Rossi and Bud Westmore (Milicent Patrick’s father and boss, respectively) are upsetting because there’s no control over them or fighting back.”

At that point, O’Meara joined the conversation via video conference and immediately responded to Palmer: “It’s still going on right now. That’s the scary part.”

Readers moved into a conversation about the real monsters in O’Meara’s book.

Foat pointed to the film industry’s patriarchy and its dismissiveness of creative work done by women. “O’Meara elevated the work of women who don’t always get the credit they deserve,” she said. “I now think of the Creature as an opportunity to talk about women’s role in the creative history of movie making.”

She asked O’Meara, “Is there a part of Hollywood that could be the monster?”

“It’s the mechanism that makes it all work,” O’Meara said. “It’s the table that Frankenstein’s monster lies on. It’s what supports this entire system that discriminates against women, people of color, queer people, fat people, trans people, anyone who isn’t what Hollywood wants them to be.

“This story is about a woman who works with monsters and she’s afraid she’s becoming one herself because of the way people treat her. I think that was one of Milicent’s great fears, especially with her family. I don’t think we, as women, are the monsters. But we are made to feel like we are. That’s what gaslighting is.”

Dandino wondered whether Patrick’s life provided a road map for the author, herself a screenwriter and film producer specializing in horror and science fiction.

First and foremost, O’Meara said, “Milicent taught me to be kind to myself. She never let anything stop her from being her. She’d put on her ball gowns and pearls, and she still loved herself even through the darkest times.

“At first,” she confessed, “it made me angry. Then, it made me love her even more. … This system forces women to change, and Milicent didn’t let that happen to her. She continued to be Milicent Patrick. I remember this when I think I should be more this or less that.”

Palmer chimed in: “Milicent enjoyed putting on the best face possible. It was her confidence booster.”

Dandino appreciated the way O’Meara structured her book. “I liked following Milicent’s journey and comparing it to where you were in your own career in certain stages,” he said. “It’s unfortunate that some of these elements haven’t changed in over 50 years.”

Palmer was curious about O’Meara’s research into the elusive woman behind the Creature. “What did you leave out of the book?” she asked.

O’Meara’s answer: Nothing.

“In this book is everything I have from three years’ worth of research,” she said. “I’m still searching for more information. … The only things I left out were my own nerdiness. I could have written a whole chapter on 50 sci-fi movies and what they meant to me, or about animation and Disney (for whom Patrick once worked as an illustrator).”

The author, who has endured her own brushes with sexism in the film industry, was quick to point out that any detail about her own life shared in the book was “information that illuminated Milicent’s life and was relevant to what was going on in her career.”

“There were some spooky elements that I left out of the book because I didn’t think readers would believe me. The day I got the Milicent Patrick tattoo (on her left forearm, depicting Patrick being embraced by the Creature), long before I started writing the book, was Milicent’s 100th birthday. I did not know that at the time. I didn’t put it together until after I’d written the book and went looking for a photo of my tattoo to use for the cover.

“Then,” she added, “the publication date for ‘Lady From the Black Lagoon’ (March 5) turned out to be the same date (in 1954) that “Creature From the Black Lagoon” premiered. We did not plan it that way.”

Book club attendees hoped that, with the publication of Milicent’s story, new information might come out about Patrick’s life. O’Meara is doubtful, she said, but added, “The paperback comes out in March, and I’m hoping somebody out there in the world has some new information I can include.

“I have my fingers crossed. I’ll never stop searching.”

Kaite Stover is the Kansas City Public Library’s director of reader’s services.

This story was originally published October 5, 2019 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Who are the real monsters in this ‘Black Lagoon’?."