Women in horror: Mary Philbin

LITTLE ROCK — February marks the ninth anniversary, and the beginning of year 10 for Women in Horror Month. The purpose of WiHM is to salute the fantastic contributions of women in all realms of horror whose work still finds itself marginalized. Such an example of belittlement happened all too recently when Blumhouse's CEO, founder and producer Jason Blum made the following statement last October.

"There are not a lot of female directors period," Blum said. "And even less who are inclined to do horror."

It is hard to believe such an attitude still exists, but unfortunately a bias toward female artisans of scary movies still haunts modern times. Surely, enough is enough. WiHM is well-known for its tireless efforts spotlighting women in horror, and this 28-day celebration will focus on film and television. As such, each day this month will celebrate a different woman whose contributions have left an irrevocable mark on the horror genre.

4.

MARY PHILBIN

Mary Philbin's love of drama and the arts were born thanks to local trips to theaters and the opera with her father in Chicago, Illinois as a child. Despite not being able to sing, Philbin was adept at playing piano and the pipe organ. Philbin studied classical dance, including ballet, but she did not attend any professional acting schools. Despite this, Mary enjoyed a relatively short career as an actress from 1921 until 1929. Genre fans will undoubtedly recognize her as the ingenue Christine Daae in 1925's Silent-Era classic "The Phantom of the Opera" alongside Lon Chaney's Phantom.

Curiously, due mostly to her domineering parents, Philbin abandoned Hollywood after making her final film "After the Fog" (1929). She took on a life of celibacy and dropped out of the limelight completely by 1931. Philbin made her first public appearance in nearly sixty years in 1988, but by this time she had been battling with the symptoms of Alzheimer's Disease since the early 1970s.

At the behest of her lifelong friend Carla Laemmle, Mary again appeared in public for the opening night of Andrew Lloyd Webber's "The Phantom of the Opera" at the Ahamasohn Theatre in downtown Los Angeles. Later, and once more at the request of Laemmle, Philbin promoted Philip Riley's "The Phantom of the Opera" publicly. It was Philbin's final public appearance. On May 7, 1993, Mary Philbin passed away from pneumonia. She was 90 years old.

For more information on #WiHM, please visit their Facebook page.