Ghoulish music

How can Scott Timberg write about Bach’s longtime connection to Hollywood psycho-killers (“Is Bach Playing? Look Out!� Aug. 24) without even mentioning Toccata and Fugue in D minor, the Bach organ piece that immediately conjures stark, rictus-grinning images of Tinseltown’s very first homicidal maniac, the Phantom of the Opera?

I don’t know if movie palace organists actually accompanied Lon Chaney’s 1925 original with it, but every 1950s and ‘60s phantom-inspired late-night TV horror movie host (Ghoulardi, Zacherly, Gaylord et al) invariably hunched themselves over an organ, miming Toccata & Fugue in D minor.

Jim Dawson

Hollywood