David John Skal (born June 21, 1952 in
Garfield Heights, Ohio
Garfield Heights is a city in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, United States. It is a suburb of Cleveland. The population was 28,849 at the time of the 2010 census.
Geography
Garfield Heights is located at (41.421423, -81.602682).
According to the Unit ...
) is an American
historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the st ...
,
critic, writer, and on-camera
commentator known for his research and analysis of horror films, horror history and horror culture.
Early life
Skal studied journalism at
Ohio University
Ohio University is a public research university in Athens, Ohio. The first university chartered by an Act of Congress and the first to be chartered in Ohio, the university was chartered in 1787 by the Congress of the Confederation and subseq ...
, where he worked as a film critic and assistant editor for the college's newspaper. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in 1974. After graduation, he
interned
Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simpl ...
with the
National Endowment for the Arts
The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal ...
and became the publicity director for the
Hartford
Hartford is the capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It was the seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960. It is the core city in the Greater Hartford metropolitan area. Census estimates since t ...
Stage Company.
He later held positions with the
American Conservatory Theater in
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...
and the
Theatre Communications Group
Theatre Communications Group (TCG) is a non-profit service organization headquartered in New York City that promotes professional non-profit theatre in the United States.
The organization also publishes ''American Theatre'' magazine and ''ARTSEA ...
of New York. During the 1980s, Skal completed three science fiction novels: ''Scavengers'' (1980), ''When We Were Good'' (1981), and ''Antibodies'' (1988).
["David J. Skal". ''Contemporary Authors Online''. Gale. September 27, 2005. Retrieved from GaleNet on October 25, 2008.]
Non-fiction writing
Skal's first nonfiction work was 1990's ''Hollywood Gothic: The Tangled Web of Dracula from Novel to Stage to Screen''. This book discusses the various adaptations of
Bram Stoker's 1897 novel ''
Dracula'', and the role of the vampire archetype in
popular culture
Popular culture (also called mass culture or pop culture) is generally recognized by members of a society as a set of practices, beliefs, artistic output (also known as, popular art or mass art) and objects that are dominant or prevalent in a ...
. A large portion of the book describes the efforts of Stoker's widow
Florence
Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany Regions of Italy, region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilan ...
to protect the rights to her husband's work. The book also contains the first in-depth study of a
Spanish-language Dracula film produced in 1931. Kathleen Quinn of ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' praised ''Hollywood Gothic'', writing, "Skal tracks Transylvania's most popular vampire with dry wit and the skills of a fine detective."
Kenneth Turan
Kenneth Turan (; born October 27, 1946) is an American retired film critic, author, and lecturer in the Master of Professional Writing Program at the University of Southern California. He was a film critic for the ''Los Angeles Times'' from 1991 ...
of the ''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...
'' called it "witty and comprehensive", and quipped that it was "something to gnaw on long after those trick-or-treaters are gone". Writing in 2004, David Colton of ''
USA Today
''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgi ...
'' noted that the book had "become one of the field's essential reads" and had "
aisedthe standards for horror researchers".
In 1993, Skal released his second non-fiction book, titled ''The Monster Show: A Cultural History of Horror''. In this book, Skal analyzes the history of horror films, drawing parallels between those films and the cultural crises of their times, such as
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
,
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
, the
thalidomide
Thalidomide, sold under the brand names Contergan and Thalomid among others, is a medication used to treat a number of cancers (including multiple myeloma), graft-versus-host disease, and a number of skin conditions including complications o ...
controversies, and the
AIDS epidemic. M.L. Lyke of the ''
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
The ''Seattle Post-Intelligencer'' (popularly known as the ''Seattle P-I'', the ''Post-Intelligencer'', or simply the ''P-I'') is an online newspaper and former print newspaper based in Seattle, Washington, United States.
The newspaper was f ...
'' called ''The Monster Show'' "the perfect intellectual primer for a Halloween weekend". Stefan Dziemianowicz of ''
The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'' argued that some of Skal's arguments were "pretty far-fetched", but added that, as a whole, the book "offers persuasive evidence that in order to understand a culture, you must know what it fears".
Skal collaborated with
Elias Savada to produce 1995's ''Dark Carnival: The Secret World of
Tod Browning
Tod Browning (born Charles Albert Browning Jr.; July 12, 1880 – October 6, 1962) was an American film director, film actor, screenwriter, vaudeville performer, and carnival sideshow and circus entertainer. He directed a number of films of vari ...
, Hollywood's Master of the Macabre''. ''Dark Carnival'' was the first book-length biography of Tod Browning, best known for directing ''
Freaks'' and the 1931 version of ''
Dracula''. Writing in the ''
Journal of Popular Film and Television
''Journal of Popular Film and Television'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal published by Routledge, which purchased it from Heldref Publications in 2009. Michael Marsden, who was the dean of the College of Arts & Sciences at Northern M ...
'', Martin F. Norden described it as "a compelling, in-depth examination of one of America's first
cult film directors". Steven E. Alford of the ''
Houston Chronicle
The ''Houston Chronicle'' is the largest daily newspaper in Houston, Texas, United States. , it is the third-largest newspaper by Sunday circulation in the United States, behind only ''The New York Times'' and the ''Los Angeles Times''. With i ...
'' remarked, "''Dark Carnival'' succeeds in resurrecting the reputation of one of Hollywood's long-buried eccentrics."
Skal's other major publications include ''V Is for Vampire: The A to Z Guide to Everything Undead'' (1996), ''Screams of Reason: Mad Science and Modern Culture'' (1998), ''
Death Makes a Holiday: A Cultural History of Halloween'' (2002), and ''
Claude Rains: An Actor's Voice'' (2008). Skal also co-edited the 1997
Norton Critical Edition of Bram Stoker's ''Dracula'' and compiled the 2001 anthology ''Vampires: Encounters with the Undead''.
[ His biography of Bram Stoker, ''Something in the Blood'', was published in October 2016.
Skal regularly contributes film reviews to '']The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction
''The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction'' (usually referred to as ''F&SF'') is a U.S. fantasy and science fiction magazine first published in 1949 by Mystery House, a subsidiary of Lawrence Spivak's Mercury Press. Editors Anthony Boucher ...
''.
Other work
Skal has made several appearances in television specials
A television special (often TV special, or rarely television spectacular) is a standalone television show which may also temporarily interrupt episodic programming normally scheduled for a given time slot. Some specials provide a full range of ent ...
, such as ''The 100 Scariest Movie Moments
''The 100 Scariest Movie Moments'' is an American television documentary miniseries that aired in late October 2004 on Bravo.(November 2004)Liner Notes ''Starlog'', p. 20 Aired in five 60-minute segments, the miniseries counts down what produce ...
'' and ''The Perfect Scary Movie''. He has produced DVD supplemental documentaries and/or audio commentaries for a number of films, including '' Dracula'' (1931), ''Frankenstein
''Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus'' is an 1818 novel written by English author Mary Shelley. ''Frankenstein'' tells the story of Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist who creates a sapient creature in an unorthodox scientific ...
'' (1931), '' Freaks'' (1932), '' The Mummy'' (1932), ''The Invisible Man
''The Invisible Man'' is a science fiction novel by H. G. Wells. Originally serialized in '' Pearson's Weekly'' in 1897, it was published as a novel the same year. The Invisible Man to whom the title refers is Griffin, a scientist who has devo ...
'' (1933), ''Bride of Frankenstein
''Bride of Frankenstein'' is a 1935 American science fiction horror film, and the first sequel to Universal Pictures' 1931 film ''Frankenstein''. As with the first film, ''Bride of Frankenstein'' was directed by James Whale starring Boris Kar ...
'' (1935), '' The Wolf Man'' (1941), ''Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein
''Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein'' is a 1948 American horror comedy film directed by Charles Barton (director), Charles Barton. The film features Count Dracula (Bela Lugosi) who has become partners with Dr. Sandra Mornay (Lenore Aubert), a ...
'' (1948), ''Creature from the Black Lagoon
''Creature from the Black Lagoon'' is a 1954 American black-and-white 3D monster horror film produced by William Alland and directed by Jack Arnold, from a screenplay by Harry Essex and Arthur Ross and a story by Maurice Zimm. It stars ...
'' (1954), and '' Gods and Monsters'' (1998).
Skal appears in the 2008 documentary film
A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in te ...
'' Wrangler: Anatomy of an Icon'' in which he discusses, as an openly gay
Coming out of the closet, often shortened to coming out, is a metaphor used to describe LGBT people's self-disclosure of their sexual orientation, romantic orientation, or gender identity.
Framed and debated as a privacy issue, coming out of ...
cultural critic
A cultural critic is a critic of a given culture, usually as a whole. Cultural criticism has significant overlap with social and cultural theory. While such criticism is simply part of the self-consciousness of the culture, the social positions of ...
, the cultural impact of iconic gay pornographic film
Gay pornography is the representation of sexual activity between males. Its primary goal is sexual arousal in its audience. Softcore gay pornography also exists; it at one time constituted the genre, and may be produced as beefcake pornograp ...
star Jack Wrangler
John Robert Stillman (July 11, 1946 – April 7, 2009) billed professionally as Jack Wrangler was an Americans, American List of male performers in gay porn films, gay and heterosexual, straight pornographic film actor, theatrical producer, and ...
.
Filmography
*''The World of Gods and Monsters: A Journey with James Whale'' (1999)
*''She's Alive! Creating the Bride of Frankenstein'' (1999)
*''Mummy Dearest: A Horror Tradition Unearthed'' (1999)
*''Monster by Moonlight! The Immortal Saga of 'The Wolf Man (1999)
*''The Road to Dracula'' (1999)
*''In Search of History: The Real Dracula'' (2000)
*''The Opera Ghost: A Phantom Unmasked'' (2000)
References
External links
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Skal, David
1952 births
Living people
20th-century American biographers
20th-century American male writers
20th-century American novelists
21st-century LGBT people
American LGBT novelists
American film historians
American gay writers
American male biographers
American male novelists
American science fiction writers
LGBT people from Ohio
People from Garfield Heights, Ohio
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction people