Villagers get your torches and run
Elsa Lanchester was not Frankenstein’s first bride!
It was a woman from British Columbia.
That bit of Vancouver Sun headline hyperbole was then clarified in the news report featuring a shocking revelation just unearthed by Greg Nesteroff, a Canadian history buff.
Nesteroff discovered documents about William Henry Pratt’s early years in the little hick town known as Vancouver. So what’s so shocking about that?
After chewing the scenery on local stages, Pratt moved to Hollywood and changed his name to Boris Karloff.
According to archival records, in 1910 at Holy Rosary Cathedral, the 22-year old Pratt (Karloff) secretly married 23-year old Grace Hardy, a Vancouver resident. That marriage ended horribly in 1913 with accusations of adultry.
None of the official Boris Karloff fan sites nor any other documents list this first marriage of Karloff.
In fact, the researcher contacted one of Karloff’s daughters who was completely surprised at hearing the information.
The details of Karloff’s British Columbia acting roots as well as this unknown gem about his first wife have been published in a recent edition of BC History magazine. Volume 39 Number 1, 2006.
Karloff died in 1969 with an official tally of five wives. I guess he made a memorable Frankenstein but was a horrible husband.