JACK PIERCE'S MAKEUP ASSISTANT

Considering the usually daunting work of making up the entire cast of a movie, it was not unusual for Jack to employ the use of makeup assistants. Pictured above is Joe Bonner, who assisted Pierce in preparing Lon Chaney Jr. for his role as Kharis in THE MUMMY'S TOMB (Universal 1942).

Bonner was born in England in 1881 and died at the age of 77 in 1959. The snipe on the reverse of the photo reads: "Makeup man Joe Bonner puts a touch on Lon Chaney's outfit to ready him for the cameras in Universal's latest horror epic, "The Mummy's Tomb".

THE JACK PIERCE MEMORIAL GALLERY

The Cinema Makeup School on Wilshire Blvd in Los Angeles is where you will find the Jack Pierce Memorial Gallery for Makeup and Character Arts. The Gallery is housed in a wing off the second-floor lobby.

Pictured here is the placard affixed at the entrance of the gallery (above) and the invitation that was sent out for the open house dedication on May 30, 2013 (below).

Doug attended the Open House and both Doug and I visited the Gallery together on March 31, 2014 after attending the Monsterpalooza at the Burbank Marriott the weekend before.

The Gallery is free to the public during the School's open hours.

JACK PIERCE AFTER UNIVERSAL: 'GIANT FROM THE UNKNOWN'

Ten years after he was released from Universal (the official notice states that he "resigned"), Pierce was still working, albeit with a little less inspiration for creating the memorable characters that marked his triumphant earlier years. In GIANT FROM THE UNKNOWN he had the job of creating the visage of Vargas, the Diablo Giant, titular character of the film released by Astor Pictures in March, 1958.

Produced by Screencraft Enterprises and directed by Richard Cunha, GIANT FROM THE UNKNOWN was lensed in Big Bear Lake and the San Bernardino mountains of California. It was Cunha's first directorial role and he managed to make an adventurous and thrilling monster movie on the reported $55,000 budget. It appears from photographs of the "Monster of Devil's Crag" that Pierce was still mining his go-to makeup materials, cotton, collodion and Fuller's Earth.