There was more to the [Lon] Chaney mystique than morbid mutilation anxiety, however. In an America still very much in the thrall of Horatio Alger, with aspirations further energized by the booming, speculative 1920s, Lon Chaney was an almost inevitable development. Film historian David Thomson summed up Chaney’s appeal: “There is not a screen performer who so illustrates the fascination for audiences of the idea, promise and threat of metamorphosis…. Chaney’s fluctuating appearance seethed with the audience’s lust for vicariousness.” [That must have been painful–ed.] The protean spirit of Lon Chaney so permeated the American consciousness that a familiar saying of the time, referring to spiders, lizards, or other crawling things, was “Don’t step on it–it might be Lon Chaney.” Another popular myth about the actor was that he was fond of using his natural appearance as yet another disguise, one that enabled him to mix unrecognized with the public. You might be rubbing shoulders with him, and never know it. The idea of Lon Chaney was everywhere.

–David J. Skal, The Monster Show: A Cultural History of Horror, p. 70