The Phantom of the Opera (1925 film) was working in the French film industry. Laemmle mentioned to Leroux that he admired the Paris Opera House. Leroux gave Laemmle a copy of his 1910 novel "The Phantom of the Opera". Laemmle read the book in one night and bought the film rights as a vehicle for actor Lon Chaney, Sr.. Production started in late 1924 at Universal Studios. French artist, Ben Caray, whom had worked at the Paris Opera House, was brought in to design the backstage and cellars which Universal could not replicate; and although his English limited, Caray was able to speak clearly with his charcoal
The Phantom of the Opera (1986 musical) make the leap from film to stage. Later, in New York, Lloyd Webber found a second-hand copy of the original, long-out-of-print Leroux novel, which supplied the necessary inspiration to develop a musical: "I was actually writing something else at the time, and I realised that the reason I was hung up was because I was trying to write a major romantic story, and I had been trying to do that ever since I started my career. Then with the Phantom, it was there!" Lloyd Webber first approached Jim Steinman to write the lyrics because of his "dark obsessive side", but