Max "Bunny" Sparber

THERE ARE A FEW makeup artists who are well-known to horror fans. There is Lon Chaney, of course, who provided his own makeup for his performances in films such as The Hunchback of Notre Dame and The Phantom of the Opera; he was so famous for transforming into monstrosities that a popular Hollywood joke in the 20s was "Don't step on it! It might be Lon Chaney!" Then there was Jack Pierce, who created the makeup for such classic Universal horror characters as Boris Karloff's monster from Frankenstein and Lon Chaney, Jr.'s werewolf in The Wolf Man. More recently, Tom Savini's splattery effects for George Romero's zombie films have given him enough name recognition to appear as himself in The Simpsons, and Rick Baker has won six Academy Awards for his work films such as An American Werewolf in London and Ed Wood.

There is a pair of names that should be added to this list: Minnesota-born George and Gordon Bau. Firstly, because they were collectively responsible for special effects makeup in almost 200 films (Gordon, who was head of Warner Brothers' makeup department, gets the lion's share of credits.) These include such classic (or notorious) films as The Omega Man, Them!, and The Ape.

Further, the Bau's should be better known because they were responsible for one of the most important innovations: Foam latex appliances. For those of you unfamiliar with makeup, it's hard to describe how significant this innovation was. When Boris Karloff played The Mummy, it took Jack Pierce many hours to apply the makeup, which was built up out of cloth, cotton, and a chemical called collodian. It also took hours to remove, and the process destroyed the makeup, meaning that it would have to be recreated from scratch every single time. With foam rubber, it was possible to mold pieces of the makeup and apply them relatively quickly, by gluing them onto the actor. Additionally, more than one copy of the makeup could be made, saving innumerable hours. Foam latex is flexible and moves like skin would, creating opportunities for subtler and more realistic makeup.

George and Gordon both worked at a California company called Rubbercraft in the late 30s, a company that designed specialized rubber parts for industrial uses. While there, the Bau's moonlighted for Hollywood, building, among other things, rubber eye prosthetics designed to make Occidental actors look Asian. There, George created a porous rubber that both moved and wrinkled like skin, and the brothers created the makeup for Charles Laughton's Hunchback of Notre Dame. Gordon separated from hi brother during the Forties, creating prosthetics for soldiers that had been disfigured by the war; this is still a frequent sideline business for Hollywood makeup artists.

George eventually returned to Hollywood, and was responsible for the astounding makeup effects in the Vincent Price version of House of Wax, including the climactic scene when Price's face breaks away to reveal a hideously scarred visage beneath. It's a scene as iconic and terrifying as anything found in fantastic cinema, and would not have been possible without the brothers' pioneering work in foam rubber makeup.

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