tampa’s horror film star rondo hatton
tommyBefore we get to Thanksgiving, enjoy a leftover from Halloween:
The 1930 drama Hell Harbor was filmed in Tampa - most of it at Rocky Point. Although the title sounds like it, I don’t think the film can be considered horror. I haven’t seen the movie, but it sounds like a drama.
Anyway, Tampa Times writer Rondo Hatton was sent to write a story about the production, found himself cast as a bartender in the film, and eventually became a regular in Hollywood horror films.
Rondo Hatton was born in Maryland, but his family moved him to Tampa when he was a teenager. He went to Hillsborough High School and the University of Tampa. Hatton joined the American Legion, and went off to fight in WWI. When he returned from the war, he got a job writing for the Tampa Times. By this time, Hatton had contracted acromegaly, a disease which disfigured the face and extremities of sufferers (see 007’s Jaws, Lurch, Andre the Giant). While covering the filming of Hell Harbor, director Henry King took notice of the “monster without makeup,” put him in the movie, and told Hatton to look him up if he were ever to make it out to Hollywood.
Seven years later, Hatton went out west and contacted the director. He was cast as an uncredited extra in a bunch of horror films before getting a credit as The Creeper in the Sherlock Holmes thriller The Pearl of Death. His best known film is likely 1946’s House of Horrors.
Hatton died on February 2, 1946, at the age of 51. He is buried with honors at the American Legion Cemetery on Kennedy Boulevard just west of Dale Mabry.
Other links and interesting tidbits:
- Moviefone biography of Rondo Hatton
- The “world’s foremost authority” on Rondo Hatton, Art Director Robert A. Burns was hoping to make a movie about Hatton, but killed himself before it was finished.
- Winners of the Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Awards get a statuette - a miniature version of the bust of Hatton seen in House of Horrors. The Rondos have been praised by recipients for their quiet beauty and evocation of classic horror.
- Frank Zappa sometimes introduced himself as Rondo Hatton.
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November 21st, 2006 at 1:43 pm
I didn’t know that Robert A. Burns died! Thanks for the update. My sister-in-law is a huge fan of Rondo Hatton and got me interested in him. Both the Tampa Trib and South Tampa Magazine have done stories on Hatton in the past year or so:
http://tampafilmfan.blogspot.com/2005/05/tampas-own-rondo-hatton-monster.html
November 21st, 2006 at 2:58 pm
I’ve seen Hell Harbor a few times. It’s not a horror story, it’s a romantic comedy. It’s also the first “talkie” filmed in the Tampa Bay area (almost completely filmed in the Rocky Point area, btw).
It’s an interesting film, and the story of its star is perhaps even more interesting than that of Rondo.
November 21st, 2006 at 3:11 pm
Cool picture of the Rondo busts. Would make for good album art, like that gargoyle on “Chronic Town” by R.E.M. (I feel like Randy on “My Name is Earl” typing this. But he don’t type, he just talks. I like saltines. Catalina, the rat catcher’s full again!)