Happy 135th Birthday, |
 |  |
Ok, let me start this with...
Count Dracula is not my favorite movie monster, but he is in the top 2.
Now we can move on.
Count Dracula is not my favorite movie monster, but he is in the top 2.
Now we can move on.
While he was not the only man to ever portray Count Dracula,
Mr. Legosi was definitely the man who made the Count.
Born on this day 1882 in Hungary, (Lugoj, Romania) the youngest of four children.
By 1902, he had begun acting with his earliest performances (bit parts in plays and operettas) being in smaller theatres the following season (when he adopted the name Legosi in honor of his hometown).
He moved to Budapest, 1911, acting in the National Theatre of Hungary until 1919.
In 1914, he joined the Austro-Hungarian Army. By the end of his enlistment, 1916, he had been made a Captain and was awarded the Wound Medal for injuries sustained while in position on the Russian front.
After returning home, he made his first of twelve motion pictures, Az ezredes (The Colonel, 1917), under the stage name Arisztid Olt.
Over the next year, he made 11 more films before leaving for Germany (due to his participation in the formation of the actors' union).
While in 'exile', he began appearing in a collection of 'well-received' movies. Acting in one film opposite Dora Gerson.
Emigrating to America in October 1920, he entered New Orleans 2 months later. From there he made it to Ellis Island, where he was 'legally inspected', in March 1921. It wouldn't be for another 7 years until he declared his intention to become a citizen and another
3 before he became naturalized on June 26, 1931.
Since his arrival, he had worked as a laborer before entering the theatre in NYC's Hungarian immigrant colony. He and other actors formed a small stock company touring Eastern cities for immigrant audiences. It was during these tours he broke out into his first Broadway play, The Red Poppy (1922). In 1925, he played Arab Sheik in Arabesque at the Teck Theatre in Buffalo, before moving back to Broadway and accepting three more roles, including a short run in The Devil in the Cheese.
It was during this break into Broadway, he made his first American film role (The Silent Command, 1923). Several more roles (all produced in NY) came with him typically playing a villain or continental types.
Summer of 1927 brought the offer to star in the Broadway production of Dracula (adapted from Bram Stoker's, of course) with the Horace Liveright Production. During the 1928 tour of the production, Bela decided he wished to stay in California when the West Coast run of the show was finished.
However, it was not before he drew the attention of Fox Studios.
The following year, he appeared in Fox's The Veiled Woman and in the lost film, Prisoners.
(Both films were eventually released in both silent and sound versions.)
Returning to the stage as Dracula for a short tour of the play to make money while Fox wasn't working him.
Universal Studios decided to produce Dracula, though Bela wasn't their first choice (regardless of his critically acclaimed stage performance)
it did not stop himfrom lobbying for his prized role in the film version of
Dracula.
(BTW, Lon Chaney had been their first pick to play Dracula. Imagine that.)
While he eventually won the role (and the movie was a hit), it led to a time of terrible typecasting for him as a horror villain;
He had chosen a minimal amount of makeup and to use his own unaltered accent which limited the amount of parts he could play even though he continued to audition for 'out of type' roles he would lose out to others (even if he would have been a fantastic Rasputin).
He continued making films, and being typecast, through the next 7 years,
but as with all great actors who are never recognized his career began to nosedive.
However, in 1938, his career took a dramatic uptick when a little playhouse owner in California revived Dracula and Frankenstein as a special double feature offering performances to Bela.
Bela was remarkably grateful for the opportunity, he was quoted as saying,
"I owe it all to that little man at the Regina Theatre. I was dead, and he brought me back to life."
("Showmen, Sellin' It Hot", McElwee, John, 2013)
This, of course, caused Universal to stand up and take notice.
In turn they relaunched the monster movie duo, rehiring Bela to star in the new films for the franchises.
This glory did not last long. By the early 1940s, he had developed severe, chronic sciatica because of his battlefield injuries.
Come 1947, he had been through asparagus juice, opiates, morphine and methadone. Each of these showing direct proportion to the fewer and fewer screen offers. One of his final role was as Dracula in the "A" film Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948).
For the rest of his life his appearances became fewer and fewer and in some of the most obscure, low-budge features, often in productions of Dracula, Arsenic and Old Lace or as personal appearances in a touring 'spook show' and early commercial television. Though he did show great interest in spreading his wings to test out his comedy chops.
During all this time he managed to marry 5 women, divorce 4 and have 1 son (who is in his 90s).
Bela Lugosi never quite made the mark on the silver screen to the level of which he desired or deserved, but he
has made a mark in the hearts of all of us true horror lovers.
Bela Lugosi died of a heart attack on August 16, 1956 alone in his LA apartment. He was buried
in one of his Dracula capes at the behest of his son and 4th wife because they believed
it was something he would have wanted.
Mind you, I have skipped over quite a bit of his history (i.e. the Ed Wood scandal shit and some of the later mistreatments/misjudgments and some things I just feel don't need to be mentioned.
Love him for who he was or walk away.
"Now, I am the boogie man." - Bela Lugosi
Mr. Legosi was definitely the man who made the Count.
Born on this day 1882 in Hungary, (Lugoj, Romania) the youngest of four children.
By 1902, he had begun acting with his earliest performances (bit parts in plays and operettas) being in smaller theatres the following season (when he adopted the name Legosi in honor of his hometown).
He moved to Budapest, 1911, acting in the National Theatre of Hungary until 1919.
In 1914, he joined the Austro-Hungarian Army. By the end of his enlistment, 1916, he had been made a Captain and was awarded the Wound Medal for injuries sustained while in position on the Russian front.
After returning home, he made his first of twelve motion pictures, Az ezredes (The Colonel, 1917), under the stage name Arisztid Olt.
Over the next year, he made 11 more films before leaving for Germany (due to his participation in the formation of the actors' union).
While in 'exile', he began appearing in a collection of 'well-received' movies. Acting in one film opposite Dora Gerson.
Emigrating to America in October 1920, he entered New Orleans 2 months later. From there he made it to Ellis Island, where he was 'legally inspected', in March 1921. It wouldn't be for another 7 years until he declared his intention to become a citizen and another
3 before he became naturalized on June 26, 1931.
Since his arrival, he had worked as a laborer before entering the theatre in NYC's Hungarian immigrant colony. He and other actors formed a small stock company touring Eastern cities for immigrant audiences. It was during these tours he broke out into his first Broadway play, The Red Poppy (1922). In 1925, he played Arab Sheik in Arabesque at the Teck Theatre in Buffalo, before moving back to Broadway and accepting three more roles, including a short run in The Devil in the Cheese.
It was during this break into Broadway, he made his first American film role (The Silent Command, 1923). Several more roles (all produced in NY) came with him typically playing a villain or continental types.
Summer of 1927 brought the offer to star in the Broadway production of Dracula (adapted from Bram Stoker's, of course) with the Horace Liveright Production. During the 1928 tour of the production, Bela decided he wished to stay in California when the West Coast run of the show was finished.
However, it was not before he drew the attention of Fox Studios.
The following year, he appeared in Fox's The Veiled Woman and in the lost film, Prisoners.
(Both films were eventually released in both silent and sound versions.)
Returning to the stage as Dracula for a short tour of the play to make money while Fox wasn't working him.
Universal Studios decided to produce Dracula, though Bela wasn't their first choice (regardless of his critically acclaimed stage performance)
it did not stop himfrom lobbying for his prized role in the film version of
Dracula.
(BTW, Lon Chaney had been their first pick to play Dracula. Imagine that.)
While he eventually won the role (and the movie was a hit), it led to a time of terrible typecasting for him as a horror villain;
He had chosen a minimal amount of makeup and to use his own unaltered accent which limited the amount of parts he could play even though he continued to audition for 'out of type' roles he would lose out to others (even if he would have been a fantastic Rasputin).
He continued making films, and being typecast, through the next 7 years,
but as with all great actors who are never recognized his career began to nosedive.
However, in 1938, his career took a dramatic uptick when a little playhouse owner in California revived Dracula and Frankenstein as a special double feature offering performances to Bela.
Bela was remarkably grateful for the opportunity, he was quoted as saying,
"I owe it all to that little man at the Regina Theatre. I was dead, and he brought me back to life."
("Showmen, Sellin' It Hot", McElwee, John, 2013)
This, of course, caused Universal to stand up and take notice.
In turn they relaunched the monster movie duo, rehiring Bela to star in the new films for the franchises.
This glory did not last long. By the early 1940s, he had developed severe, chronic sciatica because of his battlefield injuries.
Come 1947, he had been through asparagus juice, opiates, morphine and methadone. Each of these showing direct proportion to the fewer and fewer screen offers. One of his final role was as Dracula in the "A" film Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948).
For the rest of his life his appearances became fewer and fewer and in some of the most obscure, low-budge features, often in productions of Dracula, Arsenic and Old Lace or as personal appearances in a touring 'spook show' and early commercial television. Though he did show great interest in spreading his wings to test out his comedy chops.
During all this time he managed to marry 5 women, divorce 4 and have 1 son (who is in his 90s).
Bela Lugosi never quite made the mark on the silver screen to the level of which he desired or deserved, but he
has made a mark in the hearts of all of us true horror lovers.
Bela Lugosi died of a heart attack on August 16, 1956 alone in his LA apartment. He was buried
in one of his Dracula capes at the behest of his son and 4th wife because they believed
it was something he would have wanted.
Mind you, I have skipped over quite a bit of his history (i.e. the Ed Wood scandal shit and some of the later mistreatments/misjudgments and some things I just feel don't need to be mentioned.
Love him for who he was or walk away.
"Now, I am the boogie man." - Bela Lugosi
More Dracula Tidbits
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I have spent quite a few years writing short stories that never quite fit into the 'normal' genre. When I came across the different erotica genres I was overjoyed. I had found my writing family. I hope that everyone enjoys what I've written. Please feel free to send me a comment/suggestion good/bad/indifferent. I appreciate all feedback! Bright Blessings!
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