Much of the content of this site was originally published in the magazine of the Phantom Appreciation Society, Beneath the Mask. The following history of the PAS was written by its founder Christine Daae in 1997.
Author profile: Christine Daae
A Phantom of the Opera fan who legally changed her name to Christine Daae.
She ran an international Phantom of the Opera fan club and published a Phantom fanzine, and put up the second ever Phantom of the Opera site on the web. She saw the show 83 times with 18 different Phantoms, in 4 countries.
She ran an international Phantom of the Opera fan club and published a Phantom fanzine, and put up the second ever Phantom of the Opera site on the web. She saw the show 83 times with 18 different Phantoms, in 4 countries.
The Phantom Appreciation Society was dreamt up in 1993 by a naive and innocent Phantom of the Opera fan who had no idea quite how much there was about Phantom that she didn't know. Considering that, it was quite successful.
It must have been at the end of 1992 that I saw the limited edition "Music of the Night" model on display at Her Majesty's theatre in London. To someone who bought anything with a mask on it, and who already had everything on sale in the theatre's gift shop, it was a mesmerising sight. I took down the phone number of the company who were making them, and phoned them the next day to find out whether I could possibly afford it.
After I told them my name (legally changed to Christine Daae a month or two before), we got into a long conversation about Phantom, other fans, and the making of the model. Jill Walk, from the company who were making the models, told me that the Really Useful Group were planning to put together some sort of fan magazine for Phantom fans, and promised to give them my name for their mailing list. She also said she was working on the publicity material for the model, and asked if I'd like to come on any TV or radio slots they got - of course I said I'd love to.
As the weeks turned to months and the Realy Useful Group still hadn't approved the press release, and didn't look as if they were ever going to get a fan magazine together, Jill suggested to me that I start one. By now I'd found a penfriend who was as mad about Phantom as I was, and we wrote about some ideas for it - she was a member of the Dave Willetts fan club, which put out a one page newsletter whenever there was any news on Dave, which was roughly every month or six weeks. We could do something similar, with tit-bits of gossip and facts on Phantom, keeping fans in the UK in touch.
That idea went out of the window pretty quickly; after more thought and trudging around photocopy shops to get some pricing quotes, I guessed at producing a ten-page newsletter four times a year, and fixed a membership fee to cover the various costs. Jill Walk was eventually successful in getting the RUG to ok the press release, and she kindly sent out a copy of my PAS press release with each copy. I had a few letters from fans she'd sent information to, and I began to put together the first newsletter.
My first big surprise was getting a phone call from someone in Chicago, asking if I took members from the US. It hadn't occured to me that I'd have people from overseas being interested... I said yes, and to get around the currency exchange she agreed to send me a bottle of the Phantom of the Opera body lotion (my second surprise, I had no idea what merchandise you could get over there) for the membership costs. The next day I had five letters from America wanting more details - within a month, I'd had 150 inquiries, mostly from the US, from people who had seen my address in the Michael Crawford International Fan Association newsletter, thanks to Jill Walk sending them the press releases. I rushed to the bank to find out how much it was going to cost to take US$ cheques, and set an overseas membership fee.
We grew slowly at first, gradually gaining more members through other Phantoms' fan clubs, meeting other fans, and members meeting other fans. In September my penfriend Laura and I saw the show together, and met a fan there who'd seen it 97 times - amazing, to us. She seemed to know everything there was to know about the show, and had a friend on the crew. The next newsletter had a lot more content, but I was beginning to run over budget with the copying costs. Rae came to the rescue by getting a job at a copy shop in London near the end of the year, and copying our third issue free after work one day.
By issue five my father had got a new computer and a laser printer, meaning I could make a much smarter newsletter with smaller type. I also found a copiers who didn't charge the exorbitant prices of the high street places. Membership was flourishing - we had our first membership survey, each issue had pages of readers' letters, and we were getting interviews with cast members and some great pieces. By issue 8 the newsletters had around 26 pages, and covers by an excellent artist (Paul Day Clemens). We also sold copies through Dress Circle in London and the Avon Boutique in Hamilton, Ontario, and our circulation rose to around 400 copies.
Although the Really Useful Group and Cameron Mackintosh Ltd knew about us (and I even had an extremely nice letter from Andrew Lloyd Webber's office wishing us success), getting up-to-date cast information from them was virtually impossible, and our material always came from other fans around the world who'd send bits and pieces about their local productions. And although I say "we", it was just me dealing with all the inquiries, memberships, and producing and mailing each newsletter. At times it was frustrating, like when I heard that some fans of Dave Willetts were complaining that we had too many letters praising Peter Karrie and hardly any about Dave. Did they ever actually write in with reviews or praise of Dave? Nope. I could only print what I got, and if fans of some Phantoms are more eloquant or literate than others, there wasn't much I could do about it, short of inventing letters about the less frequently mentioned stars!
In spite of the irritations, I learnt a huge amount, made many friends, and built up quite a collection of playbills from around the world which people sent to me purely out of generosity.
At the end of 1995 I had to have a short stay in hospital, and the admin of the fan club was beginning to be too much work, but there was no one near by who could help out. Then at the beginning of 1996 an old illness recurred. I thought it would be sorted out in time to bring out the spring issue, but it wasn't. I stopped paying in membership fees, but thought I'd be back on my feet again soon enough; then I realized I'd have to close down the PAS at least for a time, but thought I'd be able to put out a final issue in the summer. Unfortunately things got a lot worse before they got any better, and in June and July I was much worse than I had been earlier in the year. I discussed handing over all the money and membership details to Carrie Hernandez, who was planning to start up a Phantom fan magazine, but it was quite a while longer until I was able to actually get all the administration work done in order to give her the necessary details.
So the PAS died. My beautiful issue 12 was put together, and 100 (of 400) copies made, but only a handful of copies sent out. Perhaps it will become a collector's item one day! Meanwhile this web site will keep the spirit of the society alive by putting pieces from past newsletters online for new fans to read.
It must have been at the end of 1992 that I saw the limited edition "Music of the Night" model on display at Her Majesty's theatre in London. To someone who bought anything with a mask on it, and who already had everything on sale in the theatre's gift shop, it was a mesmerising sight. I took down the phone number of the company who were making them, and phoned them the next day to find out whether I could possibly afford it.
After I told them my name (legally changed to Christine Daae a month or two before), we got into a long conversation about Phantom, other fans, and the making of the model. Jill Walk, from the company who were making the models, told me that the Really Useful Group were planning to put together some sort of fan magazine for Phantom fans, and promised to give them my name for their mailing list. She also said she was working on the publicity material for the model, and asked if I'd like to come on any TV or radio slots they got - of course I said I'd love to.
As the weeks turned to months and the Realy Useful Group still hadn't approved the press release, and didn't look as if they were ever going to get a fan magazine together, Jill suggested to me that I start one. By now I'd found a penfriend who was as mad about Phantom as I was, and we wrote about some ideas for it - she was a member of the Dave Willetts fan club, which put out a one page newsletter whenever there was any news on Dave, which was roughly every month or six weeks. We could do something similar, with tit-bits of gossip and facts on Phantom, keeping fans in the UK in touch.
That idea went out of the window pretty quickly; after more thought and trudging around photocopy shops to get some pricing quotes, I guessed at producing a ten-page newsletter four times a year, and fixed a membership fee to cover the various costs. Jill Walk was eventually successful in getting the RUG to ok the press release, and she kindly sent out a copy of my PAS press release with each copy. I had a few letters from fans she'd sent information to, and I began to put together the first newsletter.
My first big surprise was getting a phone call from someone in Chicago, asking if I took members from the US. It hadn't occured to me that I'd have people from overseas being interested... I said yes, and to get around the currency exchange she agreed to send me a bottle of the Phantom of the Opera body lotion (my second surprise, I had no idea what merchandise you could get over there) for the membership costs. The next day I had five letters from America wanting more details - within a month, I'd had 150 inquiries, mostly from the US, from people who had seen my address in the Michael Crawford International Fan Association newsletter, thanks to Jill Walk sending them the press releases. I rushed to the bank to find out how much it was going to cost to take US$ cheques, and set an overseas membership fee.
We grew slowly at first, gradually gaining more members through other Phantoms' fan clubs, meeting other fans, and members meeting other fans. In September my penfriend Laura and I saw the show together, and met a fan there who'd seen it 97 times - amazing, to us. She seemed to know everything there was to know about the show, and had a friend on the crew. The next newsletter had a lot more content, but I was beginning to run over budget with the copying costs. Rae came to the rescue by getting a job at a copy shop in London near the end of the year, and copying our third issue free after work one day.
By issue five my father had got a new computer and a laser printer, meaning I could make a much smarter newsletter with smaller type. I also found a copiers who didn't charge the exorbitant prices of the high street places. Membership was flourishing - we had our first membership survey, each issue had pages of readers' letters, and we were getting interviews with cast members and some great pieces. By issue 8 the newsletters had around 26 pages, and covers by an excellent artist (Paul Day Clemens). We also sold copies through Dress Circle in London and the Avon Boutique in Hamilton, Ontario, and our circulation rose to around 400 copies.
Although the Really Useful Group and Cameron Mackintosh Ltd knew about us (and I even had an extremely nice letter from Andrew Lloyd Webber's office wishing us success), getting up-to-date cast information from them was virtually impossible, and our material always came from other fans around the world who'd send bits and pieces about their local productions. And although I say "we", it was just me dealing with all the inquiries, memberships, and producing and mailing each newsletter. At times it was frustrating, like when I heard that some fans of Dave Willetts were complaining that we had too many letters praising Peter Karrie and hardly any about Dave. Did they ever actually write in with reviews or praise of Dave? Nope. I could only print what I got, and if fans of some Phantoms are more eloquant or literate than others, there wasn't much I could do about it, short of inventing letters about the less frequently mentioned stars!
In spite of the irritations, I learnt a huge amount, made many friends, and built up quite a collection of playbills from around the world which people sent to me purely out of generosity.
At the end of 1995 I had to have a short stay in hospital, and the admin of the fan club was beginning to be too much work, but there was no one near by who could help out. Then at the beginning of 1996 an old illness recurred. I thought it would be sorted out in time to bring out the spring issue, but it wasn't. I stopped paying in membership fees, but thought I'd be back on my feet again soon enough; then I realized I'd have to close down the PAS at least for a time, but thought I'd be able to put out a final issue in the summer. Unfortunately things got a lot worse before they got any better, and in June and July I was much worse than I had been earlier in the year. I discussed handing over all the money and membership details to Carrie Hernandez, who was planning to start up a Phantom fan magazine, but it was quite a while longer until I was able to actually get all the administration work done in order to give her the necessary details.
So the PAS died. My beautiful issue 12 was put together, and 100 (of 400) copies made, but only a handful of copies sent out. Perhaps it will become a collector's item one day! Meanwhile this web site will keep the spirit of the society alive by putting pieces from past newsletters online for new fans to read.
