It did become a little more family oriented, but he never lost sight of the villains. Socially, his life took on a new dimension with his marriage and children, but he never lost sight of his calling to fight evil and injustice.
FOTP President Ed Rhoades & Joe D'Angelo
Joe D'Angelo former president of King Features recalls
humorous times:
The fun for me was the night that Lee decided to prepare a meal for Marsha and I... it was the four of us with Elizabeth. And he did the cooking and he cooked lobster. He threw them in this pot, the pot was boiling and the lobsters came out like rocks. (laughter) He had to put them back in. It was really a wonderful weekend and special for Marsha and I because he was a legend. It was a real thrill for Marsha and I.
Sy Barry & Keith Williams
Syndicated Phantom artist, Keith Williams recalls Lee's
interest in Star Trek:
Every month he would actually give me a call and ask me how I'm doing, if I got enough pages... if there was anything I needed... things like that. We talked for a little while. We'd talk about things like Star Trek. He was a Star Trek fan. He liked Deep Space Nine and he liked Star Trek Next Generation when it was on. But he never liked the Ferengis. That's something we had in common. Whenever the Ferengi episodes came on, we didn't like it. (laughter)
Kreskin, Ed Rhoades, & Lee Falk
World famous mentalist The Amazing Kreskin recalls
a moment at a Friends of the Phantom dinner:
One of the special memories of my life was the dinner with Lee Falk when he turned to me and said in so many words that yours truly came closest to personifying the character of Mandrake to any performer he had ever seen and that remark and moment is one of the most cherished of my life.
Fred Fredericks was one of Lee's longtime collaborators:
Memories of
Jim Shepherd, editor of Frew remembers Lee's interests from ballet to boxing:
We had a wonderful evening and Lee and Elizabeth were openly amazed at the standard of the Sydney Ballet Company. As we were leaving, I casually mentioned to Lee that I had once been the television commentator for a professional boxing bill staged in the very same ballet theatre. (It was the one and only boxing show every held there - the main event erupted into a free-for-all brawl involving not only the fighters, but the seconds, two managers, the referee and a dozen or more spectators and boxing was banned forever from the hallowed hall!) Lee was amazed at the story and then surprised me by admitting his passion for boxing, adding that he had been at ringside in New York for the Joe Louis-Tony Galento heavyweight title fight back in the 1930's.
Egmont editor, Ulf Granberg discusses a discussion about Devil:
The very first time I met him back in the 1970's, we were talking about Phantom stories yet to be written. I told him I would very much like to do a story about how the Phantom got Devil and he said "Save that for me... I would like to write that one."
Pete Klaus recalls his first meeting with Lee:
Needless to say, Lee and I had a wonderful time talking, exchanging ideas, and enjoying each other's jokes. Before I realized three hours slipped away and before leaving, Lee asked me to keep in touch through King Features and he said, "I hope we meet again and have a safe trip back to Baltimore."
Phantom historian, Bob Griffin reminisces:
... a summer stock poster which read: "Week of August 6, 1956 - LEE FALK Presents - CHICO MARX in THE FIFTH SEASON." I wrote Lee to ask him about it and this was his answer: "Yes, I did present Chico Marx in my Boston Theatre in 1956. A charming man. Will be glad to tell you about the show sometime. Yours, Lee Falk." To my mind, in this note, Lee really provides a perfect description of himself: he was indeed "a charming man"!
Lee Falk & the Phantom by Ed Rhoades & Keith
Williams
Colored by Scott Dutton
FOTP editor, Ed Rhoades, relates an anecdote showing Lee's sense of humor:
As I look back at those magical stories he, Lee, infused so much humor into the strip and so much of himself. He always had that twinkle in his eye. When Phantom fan Pistol Pete Klaus asked Lee when he first came to Sardi's restaurant, site of several Friends of the Phantom dinners, Lee replied, "Before the war... the Civil War."