What was the first shared universe? The answer may be surprising (unless you listened to our last episode). Join us as we discuss the little-seen 1943 classic Frankenstein Meets The Wolf Man, as well as the following Universal Monster movies, and Ross compares Halloween as a kid in the US and the UK.
Ross’ Notes
- Check out Part One of our Halloween special here!
- I’m trying to reference Arsene Lupin Contra Sherlock Holmes, a lost silent film serial. Characters from different stories — or what we would call franchises or IPs (Intellectual Properties) had met each other before this movie, but these characters had not been previously established in their own movies, and thus would not qualify as the first shared universe as Wolf Man and Frankenstein did.
- The chronology of the Univseral Monster movies is from Wikipedia.
- Here’s the “Monkey Tennis” scene from I’m Alan Partridge, season 1, episode 1:
- The Mexican project that Lon Chaney, Jr. was a part of was Face of The Screaming Werewolf (1964).
- Below is a picture of me (left) and my brother, Halloween either 1988 or 1989. I’m in a homemade Ghostbusters uniform, and my brother is sporting a very Bela Lugosi-inspired Dracula outfit.
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.fiction-hack.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/GBhalloween.jpg?resize=434%2C572&ssl=1)
- It is fun finally being back in the States for Halloween, and I still enjoy making my costumes from scratch. And not just mine, either. This is what I did to my son last year:
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.fiction-hack.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/20181026_234119.jpg?resize=718%2C746&ssl=1)