Every so often, I like to read a book for pleasure. With no expectation of a review or author interview. With no pressure on my back. Just for the enjoyment of the book.

Mallory O’Meara’s The Lady from the Black Lagoon was supposed to be one of those books. Alas. I enjoyed it so much that I knew I had to have O’Meara on the show. And here we are.

The Lady from the Black Lagoon tells the story of Milicent Patrick, lead designer on the Creature from Universal’s original Creature from the Black Lagoon. But Patrick’s story is one that was essentially lost to history.

Nay, it was intentionally scrubbed from history. She did the work, she designed the mask, but Bud Westmore took all the credit and robbed her of her rightful legacy.

O’Meara’s book puts the pieces back together, from Patrick’s childhood at Hearst Castle (her father was an architect there) to her days at Disney’s Ink & Paint department to her time creating monsters and beyond. It’s part biography of Patrick, part detective story, part memoir of O’Meara.

But it’s all awesome. And it’s one hell of a fascinating and entertaining read.

You can listen on iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, TuneIn, Stitcher, and YouTube; you can follow the RSS feed; or you can listen right here!

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Connect:

• Mallory O’Meara is online here and on Twitter here.
• The show is on Twitter here.
• Jamie is on Twitter and Instagram as @theroarbots.
• Shiri is on Twitter as @SWSondheimer.