York Botanical Garden. Here is where the very first film adaptation of Shelley’s Frankenstein’s Monster was shot. The more modern Frankenstein with electric bolts protruding from his neck came much later in Boris Karloff’s 1931 version along with the line “It’s Alive! It’s Alive!” By Olga Luz Tirado id you know that BATMAN Patience and In his book Bill the Boy Fortitude were made Wonder, author and comic in The Bronx? Not the book historian, Marc Tyler virtues Ralph Waldo Nobleman, introduces us to Emerson claimed conquer DC-Comics legend Bob Kane’s all things, but the lesser-known partner Bill sculptures of the two Finger. Finger, who lived in marble lions that an apartment near Poe Park “protect” the New York on the Grand Concourse, Public Library on Fifth NYPL opening day circa May, 1911 Photo Courtesy of Library of Congress thought Kane’s concept of Avenue in Manhattan. the “Bat-man” seemed a little too Though the concept was the brainchild of reminiscent of the very popular Superman, sculptor Edward Clark Potter, the iconic who made his debut just a year earlier. The sculptures were carved in The Bronx by the two would engage in brainstorming sessions famous Piccirilli Brothers. Their work also with the home of the famous horror and includes the Lincoln Memorial and the dome detective writer Edgar Allan Poe as a on the United State’s Capitol Building. What backdrop. It was there that Finger else was made in The Bronx? conceptualized the dark superhero who would emerge at night to protect Gotham FRANKENSTEIN from evil-doers with pretty nifty gang Actually Frankenstein names like the Joker, the Riddler and or A Modern Catwoman, all Prometheus was of which were written in 1815 by also created Mary Wolstonecraft in The Bronx. Shelley in Geneva, Switzerland where much of the story Edison Studios in The Bronx takes place. In 1910 Edison Studios Thomas Edison had invented the Kinetograph, a revolutionary motion Bob Kane’s original picture camera. concept of the Bat-Man according to Edison Studios was Marc Tyler Nobleman then located on Decatur & Oliver The original Place in Bedford Frankenstein Park, just a few had no bolts blocks from the New BRONX FUN GUIDE WINTER 2018
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