The Ghosts of Frankensteins Past
Think of FRANKENSTEIN and I defy you to not think of Boris Karloff, Colin Clive, Mary Shelley and James Whale. But have you ever heard of Kenneth Strickfaden? Long ignored in the annals of horror movie fame, Strickfaden is the man whose electrical designs made Frankenstein the movie that it is. He was called "Dr. Frankenstein's electrician" and was directly responsible for all of the electrical effects used in the monster creation scene. He also created all the electrical effects for the slew of other Frankenstein sequels. He was even a stunt double for Boris Karloff, who was deathly afraid of electricity.
Methodical about his special effects, Strickfaden concocted various unique laboratory equipment pieces, as well as secured the use of a Tesla Coil built by the legendary scientists himself. Rest assured, all the electricity in the film was real, and the equipment he used to produce them became known, in fandom, as "Strickfadens."
He was responsible for all those spectacular electrical devices Frankenstein and Fritz, in various movies, clutched, clung to, and recoiled from. Strickfaden also coordinated the memorable lightening bolts that shot across the lab. Without the aid of Tesla's coil, those fantastic discharges would be impossible to create.
These coils channel very high voltage, low current and high frequency alternating current electricity. The electrical discharges produced those lighting-like plasma filaments that were so extensively used in the film. Believe it or not during the early 1900s Tesla coils were used to apply high frequency current directly to the body in what was then considered therapy!
Kenneth Strickfaden was heralded as an innovative special effects genius, especially in the 1930s and 1940s. He worked on movies from "Frankenstein" to "The Wizard of Oz" to "The Mask of Fu Man Chu." In his later years, he worked on various television series, including "The Munsters." With more than 100 motion pictures to his credit, he still managed to give 1500 traveling science demonstrations and lectures across the U.S. and Canada. He remains one of the lesser known heroes of early film and television, where the lightening bolts were real, the laboratory dangerous, and stuntmen walked into electrical storms. - 23806
Methodical about his special effects, Strickfaden concocted various unique laboratory equipment pieces, as well as secured the use of a Tesla Coil built by the legendary scientists himself. Rest assured, all the electricity in the film was real, and the equipment he used to produce them became known, in fandom, as "Strickfadens."
He was responsible for all those spectacular electrical devices Frankenstein and Fritz, in various movies, clutched, clung to, and recoiled from. Strickfaden also coordinated the memorable lightening bolts that shot across the lab. Without the aid of Tesla's coil, those fantastic discharges would be impossible to create.
These coils channel very high voltage, low current and high frequency alternating current electricity. The electrical discharges produced those lighting-like plasma filaments that were so extensively used in the film. Believe it or not during the early 1900s Tesla coils were used to apply high frequency current directly to the body in what was then considered therapy!
Kenneth Strickfaden was heralded as an innovative special effects genius, especially in the 1930s and 1940s. He worked on movies from "Frankenstein" to "The Wizard of Oz" to "The Mask of Fu Man Chu." In his later years, he worked on various television series, including "The Munsters." With more than 100 motion pictures to his credit, he still managed to give 1500 traveling science demonstrations and lectures across the U.S. and Canada. He remains one of the lesser known heroes of early film and television, where the lightening bolts were real, the laboratory dangerous, and stuntmen walked into electrical storms. - 23806
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If you need real laboratory equipment for real labs, minus the Monster, you can find great bargains online.
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