Nov. 24, 2020

This Day in Halloween: "The Phantom of the Opera" opens across the U.S. in 1925. / Illustration by Justin Pakneshan.

The Phantom of the Opera opens across the U.S. in 1925. The first adaptation of Gaston Leroux’s 1910 novel Le Fantôme de l’Opéra, is a silent horror classic and features an iconic performance and makeup work by Lon Chaney. Though the production is turbulent and the reviews mixed, audiences reportedly scream and faint, making it a hit. The film is added to the U.S. National Film Registry in 1998.