October 15, 2014 • 29 mins
While his name instantly conjures an image of the dashing, sophisticated vampire that helped spark an entire horror film genre, Lugosi really lost more than he gained from playing the role.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to stuff he missed in history class from how
Stuff Works dot Com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.
I'm Holly Frying and I'm Tracy Nee Wilson, and I
still have a cold. One day it will go away,
we hope. Uh. So we are onto part two of
(00:24):
our two parter on Bella Legosi. So in the first
part we talked about sort of his origins in Hungary,
some of the crazy adventures he went on as a kid,
how he kind of rose up into the ranks of
acting in the national theater, did a little bit of
military service, eventually came to the United States, and was
basically chosen to play the part of Dracula on stage
(00:48):
when the first choice actor wanted too much money. So
that's kind of where he kind of makes his name
for himself, uh, and becomes a bigger name associated with
this hit play that critics weren't too wild about, but
audience has just fell in love with. So when we
left off, Universal had kind of taken note of how
popular this play was and they were starting to sniff
(01:09):
around and be interested in possibly adapting it. Uh. And
that's where we're actually going to pick up now. And
this turned out to be a little bit tricky for
the movie studio because getting the movie rights squared away
for bram Stoker's novel UH took some wheeling and dealing
in a lot of sort of fancy footwork on the
part of the Universal legal team. So bram Stoker's widow,
(01:32):
Mrs Stoker, had made numerous rights deals on her husband's work,
and some of those had conflicting agreements. This meant that
some parties owned portions or right portions of rights to
the works UH, and they weren't all going to easily
be dealt with just with one deal directly with her.
So Universal's lawyers eventually had to make deals with four
(01:53):
different parties just to get the rights to make the film.
While all these legalities were still being worked out, Legosti
had continued to star in the play as it wrapped
up its run on Broadway and then it started to tour.
He desperately wanted to star in the film, but he
wasn't Universal's first choice. The film company even telegram Lugosi's
(02:17):
agent to make it perfectly clear that they were going
to hire someone else. Yeah, Universal was not interested in
hiring him. They really had their sight set on Lawn Cheney. Uh.
And this is Lawn Cheney Senior, in case there's any confusion. Uh.
Cheney had already made quite a name for himself in
films like The Phantom of the Opera and The Unknown,
and in an effort to attract Cheney to the role,
(02:39):
Universal hired Todd Browning to direct Dracula, and he had
directed Cheney in his his turn in The Unknown, and
they thought that that pairing might make it really appealing
to Cheney to come back and work with Browning again.
So when Loghostie got this telegram, he was really undeterred.
He continued to sell himself to Universal and suggested that
(03:01):
to have him continue in the role with drawn audience
since he was now really associated with the main character.
He also made it his personal mission to be helpful
in the negotiations with Florence Stoker as a way to
kind of ingratiate himself to the film studio. He even
offered to dub the Hungarian version of the film for free.
(03:24):
He yeah. Universal, for its part, was not super enthused
with all this behavior. They really perceived this more as
like wheedling and begging uh and a bit irritating, rather
than being helpful and uh. In the end, however, much
as with the stage version, Legosi won the role by
simply being willing to take it when no one else would.
(03:46):
After all of the other lead actor choices that Universal
had in mind turned the part down, and with the
filming start date looming, they had already scheduled out filming
and arranged cruise and sets were built. Universal finally offered
it to Legos for the paltry sum of five hundred
dollars a week. Uh. They eventually totaled out his payments
at thirty dollars and this sounds like maybe not such
(04:10):
a bad deal. I've seen it sort of uh adjusted
to today's dollars as being about somewhere in the range
of forty seven thousand dollars for this seven week run, which,
if you're just a person person, that sounds like a
pretty good sum of money for seven weeks of work.
But for an actor at the time even it really
(04:33):
wasn't that great a deal. Uh. This was about a
quarter of what lead actor with name recognition could get
for a role. And even though he wasn't that huge
in film at this point, he did have a film
career and he really was widely recognized as Dracula for
the stage production. Moreover, this was lower paid than several
of the supporting actors received for Dracula. During the filming
(04:56):
Bellow the Ghosts, he had some pretty serious back pain,
but the product should have had to stay on schedule,
so he was prescribed some pretty heavy hitting painkillers to
get through it. Unfortunately, this would contribute to a lifelong
struggle with addiction. Uh And there's a fun aside to
the Dracula filming story that doesn't have to do with
Bellaa Goosie, but I wanted to include it because it's
(05:18):
so sort of fascinating. There was actually a second version
of Dracula that was being made at the exact same
time as the Browning directed version. So at night, you know,
the principal photography and the primary crew would go home
for the day, and a second film crew and a
slate of actors that were led by Carlos Valarias would
use those exact same sets and lighting setups to film
(05:39):
the Spanish language version of Dracula. UH. Universal did this
to make the best use of their assets and reach
a broader international audience, and it was actually easier to
stage an entire second film that it would have been
to dub the original, And that gets into a whole
fun sort of movie criticism thing. There are people that
will say that they actually think the Spanish language version
is better and sort of more dramatic and dynamically staged
(06:03):
than uh, the the English version. But that's a discussion
for another day. But it's just a fun side note
to the whole Dracula story. The film version of Dracula
debut on screens on February, which was a Friday, of course,
in as with the stage version. Critical reception was mixed
(06:23):
or maybe lukewarm at best, but audiences loved it. The
Universal had a hit on its hands. And and as
another sort of side note e thing, some people will
attribute the brevity of the spoken language in the film
it's not a very talkie film, uh to the fact
that Legosi was still not fully fluent in English, and
(06:44):
while that that may have played a part, it's also
important to consider that this was the early days of
talking He's still a lot of theaters simply were not
equipped for sound, and Universal really wanted to hedge their
bets for optimal distribution. I mean they were at this point.
It was not so much about art, just as many
films today are not artistically great, but they make a
(07:05):
lot of money. They wanted to sort of be able
to distribute as widely as they could. So instead the
film really focuses a great deal on atmosphere and lighting
and framing to convey the tale rather than long discussions
and sections of dialogue. In spite of the fact that
he had really actively campaigned for the role, I mean,
he had pushed hard for it, he was already kind
of tired of it before the film even hit the screen.
(07:29):
During filming, he complained about typecasting, the stigma, the poor
pay that came with playing the count. He was offered
a contract to start in another stage production of Dracula
during the shoot, and he responded that he would not
redo the role on stage anymore for any price. And
a quote that becomes really sad when looking back on
(07:49):
it now, he said, quote, when I'm through with this picture,
I hope never to hear of Dracula again. I cannot
stand it. I do not intend that it shall possess me.
That's sort of sad and depressing. Before we get to
kind of his life after Dracula, do you want to
take a word from a sponsor. So to get back
(08:11):
to Bella. Uh. Todd Browning's adaptation of bram stoker story
was so successful that it really helped birth the universal
horror legacy, and the studio was so delighted with the
pictures triumph that uh it was happy to offer another
role to Lego see and that next one, and there's
a whole little story around this was the role of
(08:34):
Frankenstein's Monster. Initially, according to uh most accounts, he was
actually originally going to be considered for the role of
Dr Frankenstein. But then because this was so popular and
some studio executives thought like his name might really keep
that next picture going and making the same kind of
box office that they were making a Dracula, they were like, no, no,
(08:55):
make him the monster. Uh. He was worried that all
of the makeup and the prosthetics involved in a Frankenstein's Monster,
We're actually going to obscure his face to the point
that no one would recognize him. Of course, Boris Karloff
ended up starring in Frankenstein, and he went on to
great success. Lugosi, on the other hand, never quite got
over this fact and stayed bitter about how the things
(09:16):
played out between them for years. Yeah, that's one of
those stories people like to really play up the that
Lugosi really hated Karloff, and that's not entirely supported. We'll
talk about that a little bit later on. But Lugosi did,
despite having turned down Frankenstein, continue to get work, of course,
But despite his great fame as the stylish and iconic vampire,
(09:40):
he's still never really commanded huge salaries, and it's unclear
if his agent was just really bad or if he
was just willing to take anything. Uh. He started in
White Zombie the year after Dracula premiered, and this earned
him only a little more cash than he had earned
while playing Count Dracula, which we had already mentioned was
(10:00):
a quarter of what most you know, well known name
recognition actors would be making for a film of that nature.
He started in dozens of films in his career. If
you look at his Internet movie database profile, he has
a hundred and seventeen acting credits, but he never again
achieved the acclaim that he gained Discount Dracula, and he
never really was able to kind of convert that to
(10:21):
making serious money as the nineteen thirties due to a close,
horror was kind of having a downturn in popularity, and
the roles that Lugosi had access to really dried up
for a while, But in the nineteen forties it started
to pick up again, although there was often kind of
a campy vibe in the roles that that he was
(10:42):
being tapped to play. A lot of the films that
Lugosi worked on during this time were either sequels or spoofs,
and this was the arrow when Frankenstein Meets the wolf
Man happened, as well as Abbott and Costello crossovers with
famous horror monsters. Yeah, got a little cheekier and a
little less about like horror and drama. Uh. I also
(11:03):
feel like we should point out that Todd Browning, who
directed Dracula, his career did not go so well after
that movie either. He his next big film was Freaks,
which pretty much tanked his career. Uh I love Freaks,
not everybody does. But back to Bella. As his career
wore on, he just was taking work some worst parts,
sometimes in total bombs, just for the paycheck. Uh And
(11:27):
he also took stage roles playing Dracula. As he said,
he would never ever do. And at one point, uh,
in one of these productions, he found himself stranded in
the United Kingdom when a touring production of Dracula that
he was starring in just went bankrupt and bankrupt and
completely ended abruptly while they were mid tour, and so
(11:47):
he was just stuck there. He didn't have a way
to get home. He didn't really have the money, uh
to to book a ticket home, and so he ended
up having to take a part in a another really
crappy movie just to make enough money to get home.
That movie eventually was released as My Son the Vampire.
Lugosi married his fourth wife, Lillian Arch in nineteen thirty three,
(12:08):
and this is his longest lasting marriage and the only
one that resulted in a child. Lilian and Bella welcomed
Bella George Lugosi into their lives on January five, eight.
Bella and Lilian were married for twenty years before they
separated in nineteen fifty three. Yeah, and even after their separation,
(12:29):
she really remained part of his life because of their
child together. Um, and we'll talk about that a little
bit more in a moment, But so throughout his career
post Dracula. We mentioned the prescription painkillers, but Lugosi was
battling his his addiction to prescription narcotics and it was
finally at the age of seventy two that he went
(12:50):
to the Los Angeles County authorities for help. He told
them he was addicted in narcotics and that he needed assistance,
and he checked himself into the Metropolitan State Hospital for
Addiction Treatment and rehabilitation. When this program lasted three months. Uh.
And in an interview that was given the day before
he checked out, and this video is online, will link
(13:11):
to it in our show notes, Bella really appeared very upbeat, uh,
you know that same sort of wonderfully charming, very um composed.
Just he had like such a great air about him,
and he talked about how he was a new man,
he was ready to get back to work. He was
talking about the work he was going to do with
(13:32):
Eddie Wood and we'll talk about their relationship in just
a moment. But he really you sort of see like
that he was this amazing, charming, very erudite man. Uh.
And the interviewer even says like it's so good to
see him looking so well and being so much himself again,
and in spite of that, Hollywood didn't really welcome him
(13:54):
back with open arms. If he had gone into rehab today,
that would have been nothing more than a new support
and the industry in the public probably would have even
you know, rallied behind the newly healthy bellow once he
was out of rehab. But in the fifties, the stigma
of his addiction really meant that no one wanted to
work with him. Yeah, it was not the same as
(14:16):
it is now. And this brings us to marriage number five.
So while he was in the hospital that was in
so it was just a couple of years after he
had divorced Lilian that he went through rehab. He received
this steady stream of letters, like daily letters from a
fan by the name of Hope Lineager. And Leneger was
(14:38):
a clerk at r k oh and she had, according
to Legoski's wife Lilian, been writing to Bella Legosi for years.
She would always sign off with the phrase a dash
of hope. But once he was in rehab, she really
just sort of made it her mission to constantly write
him and keep this steady, steady stream of of missives
going to him. Shortly after he got out of rehab.
(15:00):
Lugosi actually met with her, and ever impetuous when it
came to love. It wasn't long before he proposed to her,
and she was at that point roughly forty years younger
than her now fiance. Yeah, he's like younger women. There
was also she apparently lied about her age on the
day of the wedding to make the gap seem not
(15:21):
quite so wide, but only by a few years. And
when you're talking about forty years, I don't know that
it makes that big of a difference. Um. But perhaps
realizing that he had been rash and entering into this
engagement by all accounts, Bella drank pretty heavily. On his
fifth wedding day. According to Lilian Arch, he called her
that's again, his fourth wife, and said that he would
(15:43):
rather be marrying her again. He even suggested that they
try to give marriage a second shot. She, recognizing that
he was not sober, was not really willing to entertain
this kind of talk, and she turned him down, and
then he invited her to the wedding. So it sounds
like a little bit of a wacky phone call. Lilian
refused to attend the wedding, and though his seventeen year
(16:04):
old son Bella. George served as his best man. Both
the Sun and Lilian. We're a little distrustful of this
match and more specifically of Hope. But you know, in
spite of all the family disapproval, which at this point
was a recurring theme in Bella's life, Bella and Hope
got married on August. This was just nineteen days after
(16:27):
he checked out of rehab. Yeah, there's part of me
that kind of loves a little um, you know, impetuous
love story. But he was kind of a serial impetuous
love story that they didn't seem to work out so well.
So before we go uh and talk about his relationship
with Edwood and Plan nine, let's have a word from
a sponsor, and now we will conclude our two part
(16:50):
around Bella Lego. See, we talked about how his career
really had had kind of gone downhill, and then rehab
really played a part in making him kind of an
untouchable and holl would no one was willing to work
with him. But really, if it weren't for his tanking
career in his leader pariah status, filmmaker Edward may never
have gotten to work with him. So the now famous
(17:10):
schlock director who Legosi called Eddie. Befriended Legosi when he
was really living in obscurity, and they worked on a
number of B grade projects or lower, depending on your
tastes together, and in the last several years of Legosi's
life the pair became very good friends. So if you've
seen Edwood the movie, you might think that Plan nine
(17:33):
from Outer Space was really a fun film, and it
is if you like truly terrible films, or maybe rift tracks.
It has kind of a charm about it, but you
really could never consider it a good movie. You may
also think, if you are familiar with the movie Edwood,
that Bella Legosi slept in a coffin and was really
(17:55):
quite a card and wow, that's him. Burton biopic is
to any people delightful. Pretty much everyone who knew Bella
is really adamant that while Martin Landau's performance of him
in the movie Edward was fantastic, he did win the
Best Supporting Actor Oscar for it, it was not anything
like Lugosi in real life. Bella Legosi and Boris Karloff
(18:18):
did not hate each other, although there was some rivalry
between the two of them when they were being considered
the same parts. So while like I can speak for
Holly here, he is a huge fan of the movie, Edward.
I love it. Yes, it took many, many, many liberties
with the story that we are about to tell you. Yeah,
(18:38):
I mean, I um. I just wanted to make sure
that's clear because for a lot of people when they
hear about Bella Lagosi in his addiction and his later life,
they're like, oh, yeah, I saw Edward and it's like
that that movie is so fun. But that's not what
you should be using is biographical reference. Again, I love
the film. But so there was one incident adding to
(19:00):
the karloff stuff late in Legosi's life. This is in
August of eighteen fifty six, so quite late in his life.
He apparently awoke in the middle of the night. He
had passed out after he consumed a good bit of alcohol.
I think some accounts say that it was a combo
of Scotch and beer, and he told his wife Hope
that Boris Karlov had come to the house and was
waiting in the living room. And in some versions of
(19:21):
this story it makes it sound like he almost thinks
karloff Is is almost supernatural or menacing in some way.
But this is one of those odd tales, uh, And
there are a few others along the way that sort
of foster this the story of Legosi being hateful of
and fearful of and obsessed with Boris Karlov. But really
(19:41):
that's just kind of one of those urban folk tales
that gets fed by much more benign stories along the way,
so not really accurate at all. Not long after this
dream about Boris Karloff, on August fifty six, Bella Legosi
died of heart failure in his sleep. Uh yeah, he
was discovered by his wife Hope. Uh he you know.
(20:04):
By all accounts, it seems like he went quite peacefully.
And what's interesting is that, even though he spent many
years of his life trying to get out from under
the shadow of Dracula, he was buried in full Dracula costume,
including freshly dyed black hair and eyebrows. If you are
especially uh morbid in your fascinations, you can google that.
(20:25):
There are images of him in the coffin online. But
by the time he died, Lugosi had played Dracula more
than hundred times when you count all of his stage
and film appearances. A cape similar to the one he
was buried in was found hanging in the deceased actor's closet,
and this sparked some rumors that he had actually somehow
(20:45):
cheated death and risen from the grave. But of course
there were multiple copies of this cape, and having one
in the closet was not indicative of a supernatural event. Yeah,
I think that was so wishful thinking on someone's part.
But that is another story that you'll sometimes here, like, oh,
he the cape he was buried in was later found
in the closet of his home. It's like, no, it
(21:07):
was one of many that he had. Uh. And there's
actually some debate about the full costume burial being Bella
Legoci's wish or someone else's. You'll often see it referenced
as accorded on ironically, according to his own wishes, he
was buried in the full Dracula costume. But I want
to touch on this a little bit because while his
(21:28):
son Bella George has said publicly that he and his
mother Lilian made the final decision to do so, to
put him in the costume, they also do believe it
was Bella's wish. No one ever I don't think actually
has said that. You know this, This was certainly not
written down anywhere. It was not anything that he had
made arrangements for prior to his death. Allegedly, his wife
(21:50):
Hope also told the coroner that he should be buried
in his Dracula costumes. So it's a little unclear whose
wish it actually was. Uh, But when you see that
it was bella Legosis final wish, you may want to
take that with a grain of salt and consider that
there were many hands in that particular decision. He was
and still is buried at Holy Cross Cemetery, Culver City, California.
(22:14):
And while his career was really struggling at the end,
his funeral was actually big news. Newspapers came to cover it.
There was a dirge Hungarian dirge played on the violin,
more than a hundred industry mourners showed up. And while
urban legends have sprung up saying that Frank Sinatra paid
(22:34):
for the funeral, that's actually not true. Lillian paid for
the plot in the gravestone, and Hope received the seven
hundred thirty eight dollar and twelve cent bill from the
funeral home. She paid five hundred one dollars and fifty
cents of it, which was all that she could afford,
and she thought that Lilian was going to cover the rest.
I hope found up being sued for the remainder and
(22:57):
was forced to pay it. Yeah, the two women kind
of did not agree on who was going to cover
those expenses. Uh. Like I said, even after their divorce,
Lilian was very much a part of his life, and
even right up through his death she was responsible for
some aspects of taking care of business. Um. And after
Legosi's death, of course, Edward famously pieced together footage that
(23:18):
he had shot of the actor into what was sort
of a brief appearance in Plan nine from Outer Space.
And if you've seen that movie, you could see where
those are just completely weird pieces of film that are
edited in. But to flesh out this story and fill
in the gaps would famously This is another thing that
is famously known, and it is indeed true. He hired
a chiropractor named Tom Mason as a Lugosi double. Again,
(23:42):
that movie is deliciously terrible. I love it, but it's
it often makes like the worst movies ever made list uh,
and a lot of fans were very upset when it
came out that it it was kind of build as
Bella Legosi's last film, and it really wasn't a great
representation of him, and he really wasn't in it that much.
While his life ends on kind of a tragic note,
(24:05):
we can wrap up by pointing out that even though
he was worn very frail by years of addiction and
a really struggling career, Bella stayed a showman at heart
for pretty much his whole life. In an interview with
entertainment journalist Eric Nzoom, the famed sci fi figure Fory
Ackerman described helping the Goosie meet the press in the
(24:26):
days leading up to his death, and he said, I
was with him two weeks before he died at the
premiere of his final film, The Black Sheep. We sat
together up in the balcony, and afterward we were coming downstairs.
I could see that they were set up with a
big TV camera to interview him. He was very vain
and wouldn't be seen in public wearing glasses, so everything
(24:49):
down there in the lobby was just a big blur
to him. So we got to the bottom of the
stairs and I said, Bella, they want to interview you,
and he said, just point me in the right direction.
I said, take a about six steps forward and you'll
be there. He straightened up and filled out, and all
of a sudden became the tall, proud figure of Count Dracula.
(25:09):
I love that story. I love it so much. Uh yeah,
Forest acrament behnd refer to his four kind of a
really famous figure if you're into sci fi and horror,
A renowned collector and sort of historian of those films
of that era. And he befriended Legosi late in his life,
and it's just such a beautiful memory for him to
(25:30):
share that. You know, here was this man who kind
of fought the Dracula image, but man, when people wanted it,
he could just turn it on and delight crowds. So
I love it. That's our Bella Legosti episodes. I get
all wistful because I really love him. Uh Okay, so
now I have much less HALLOWEENI and non Bella Legostie
(25:51):
related stuff. Listener mail about our episode about spam. We've
gotten so many great listener mails, and Tracy picked that episode,
so she gets all of the kudos for that one. Uh.
This particular one comes from our listener Angelo, who says
thanks for the great, lighthearted episode on spam and how
it influenced cuisine all over the world. I was born
and spent my early childhood in the Philippines, and your
take on spam's popularity over there is spot on. I
(26:14):
had to laugh when you mentioned that spam can be
sold in airport duty free shops to people traveling to
the Philippines. I remember having my share of heavy luggage
on my last visit to the Philippines because my parents
in Canada have wanted me to bring back at least
a can of spam to each one of my family
members back in the Philippines. I would always joke that
whenever a Filipino in another country would go back to
visit the Philippines, he inadvertently becomes a spam smuggler. I
(26:38):
would also like to add that another version of spam
is just as popular in the Philippines, which is canned
corn beef. When I was growing up, it was seen
as a bit of a luxury item that seems to
have become more and more of a staple. It's now
so popular that Filipino movie stars, pop singers, and even
professional athletes are hired to endorse corned beef in TV
ads and on billboards. Uh, keep up the great work,
(26:59):
and I hope that you have many more history of
different food episodes on in the future. Me to you,
I love talking about food. Thank you, Angelo. We got
a lot of really good spam email, and I'm sure
we will share more of those with you. We will
definitely read more later. And I will go ahead and
say that we've had a couple of people right and
point out that Waikiki is not an island. It is
a neighborhood of Honolulu, and that is entirely my fault.
(27:21):
And not only is it my fault, it is something
where when I was doing the final read through of
the outline, I said, I need to look up if
Waikiki is actually an island, and then I did not
do it. Well, you know, here's the good news. I
know that, but I didn't catch it in our review
or during record. So it's everybody's fault and it's not
that big a deal. We hope we didn't offend anyone
(27:42):
in Hawaii. We're more than happy to come and do
research as I suggest, if you would like to write
to us to tell us what sort of spamulave or
if you love double we go see or anything else,
you can do so at history podcast at how stuff
works dot com. You can connect with this at Facebook
dot com slash missed in History, on Twitter at misst
(28:03):
in history and miss in history dot CoML dot com,
and on pinterest dot com slash miss in History. I
cannot wait to pen a bunch of Bella Legoste images.
You can also visit our spreadshirt store at missed in
History dot spreadshirt dot com, where you can purchase missed
in History merchandise like shirts and bangs and mugs and
all kinds of cool things phone cases. I love those. Uh.
(28:27):
And if you would like to do a little bit
of research on what we talked about today, you can
go to our parents site, how stuff Works. Type in
Bella Legosi's name in the search bar and you will
churn up an episode called pen stars who died during
the filming of a movie. Uh. He is one of
them because of the planline thing. Even though they were
working on many projects planline. Uh where that was in
(28:47):
production is a little hazy, but uh, Bella shows up
in that article. You would like to visit us at
our website, which is missed in history dot com. We
encourage you to do so. You'll find show notes, all
of our episodes are there. The occasional delightful blog post
pretty much from Tracy because she rocks on that stuff.
And if you want to research almost anything you can
think of, you can do that at our parents site,
which is how Civils dot com. For more on this
(29:13):
and thousands of other topics, is that how Stuff Works
dot com
Welcome to stuff he missed in history class from how
Stuff Works dot Com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.
I'm Holly Frying and I'm Tracy Nee Wilson, and I
still have a cold. One day it will go away,
we hope. Uh. So we are onto part two of
(00:24):
our two parter on Bella Legosi. So in the first
part we talked about sort of his origins in Hungary,
some of the crazy adventures he went on as a kid,
how he kind of rose up into the ranks of
acting in the national theater, did a little bit of
military service, eventually came to the United States, and was
basically chosen to play the part of Dracula on stage
(00:48):
when the first choice actor wanted too much money. So
that's kind of where he kind of makes his name
for himself, uh, and becomes a bigger name associated with
this hit play that critics weren't too wild about, but
audience has just fell in love with. So when we
left off, Universal had kind of taken note of how
popular this play was and they were starting to sniff
(01:09):
around and be interested in possibly adapting it. Uh. And
that's where we're actually going to pick up now. And
this turned out to be a little bit tricky for
the movie studio because getting the movie rights squared away
for bram Stoker's novel UH took some wheeling and dealing
in a lot of sort of fancy footwork on the
part of the Universal legal team. So bram Stoker's widow,
(01:32):
Mrs Stoker, had made numerous rights deals on her husband's work,
and some of those had conflicting agreements. This meant that
some parties owned portions or right portions of rights to
the works UH, and they weren't all going to easily
be dealt with just with one deal directly with her.
So Universal's lawyers eventually had to make deals with four
(01:53):
different parties just to get the rights to make the film.
While all these legalities were still being worked out, Legosti
had continued to star in the play as it wrapped
up its run on Broadway and then it started to tour.
He desperately wanted to star in the film, but he
wasn't Universal's first choice. The film company even telegram Lugosi's
(02:17):
agent to make it perfectly clear that they were going
to hire someone else. Yeah, Universal was not interested in
hiring him. They really had their sight set on Lawn Cheney. Uh.
And this is Lawn Cheney Senior, in case there's any confusion. Uh.
Cheney had already made quite a name for himself in
films like The Phantom of the Opera and The Unknown,
and in an effort to attract Cheney to the role,
(02:39):
Universal hired Todd Browning to direct Dracula, and he had
directed Cheney in his his turn in The Unknown, and
they thought that that pairing might make it really appealing
to Cheney to come back and work with Browning again.
So when Loghostie got this telegram, he was really undeterred.
He continued to sell himself to Universal and suggested that
(03:01):
to have him continue in the role with drawn audience
since he was now really associated with the main character.
He also made it his personal mission to be helpful
in the negotiations with Florence Stoker as a way to
kind of ingratiate himself to the film studio. He even
offered to dub the Hungarian version of the film for free.
(03:24):
He yeah. Universal, for its part, was not super enthused
with all this behavior. They really perceived this more as
like wheedling and begging uh and a bit irritating, rather
than being helpful and uh. In the end, however, much
as with the stage version, Legosi won the role by
simply being willing to take it when no one else would.
(03:46):
After all of the other lead actor choices that Universal
had in mind turned the part down, and with the
filming start date looming, they had already scheduled out filming
and arranged cruise and sets were built. Universal finally offered
it to Legos for the paltry sum of five hundred
dollars a week. Uh. They eventually totaled out his payments
at thirty dollars and this sounds like maybe not such
(04:10):
a bad deal. I've seen it sort of uh adjusted
to today's dollars as being about somewhere in the range
of forty seven thousand dollars for this seven week run, which,
if you're just a person person, that sounds like a
pretty good sum of money for seven weeks of work.
But for an actor at the time even it really
(04:33):
wasn't that great a deal. Uh. This was about a
quarter of what lead actor with name recognition could get
for a role. And even though he wasn't that huge
in film at this point, he did have a film
career and he really was widely recognized as Dracula for
the stage production. Moreover, this was lower paid than several
of the supporting actors received for Dracula. During the filming
(04:56):
Bellow the Ghosts, he had some pretty serious back pain,
but the product should have had to stay on schedule,
so he was prescribed some pretty heavy hitting painkillers to
get through it. Unfortunately, this would contribute to a lifelong
struggle with addiction. Uh And there's a fun aside to
the Dracula filming story that doesn't have to do with
Bellaa Goosie, but I wanted to include it because it's
(05:18):
so sort of fascinating. There was actually a second version
of Dracula that was being made at the exact same
time as the Browning directed version. So at night, you know,
the principal photography and the primary crew would go home
for the day, and a second film crew and a
slate of actors that were led by Carlos Valarias would
use those exact same sets and lighting setups to film
(05:39):
the Spanish language version of Dracula. UH. Universal did this
to make the best use of their assets and reach
a broader international audience, and it was actually easier to
stage an entire second film that it would have been
to dub the original, And that gets into a whole
fun sort of movie criticism thing. There are people that
will say that they actually think the Spanish language version
is better and sort of more dramatic and dynamically staged
(06:03):
than uh, the the English version. But that's a discussion
for another day. But it's just a fun side note
to the whole Dracula story. The film version of Dracula
debut on screens on February, which was a Friday, of course,
in as with the stage version. Critical reception was mixed
(06:23):
or maybe lukewarm at best, but audiences loved it. The
Universal had a hit on its hands. And and as
another sort of side note e thing, some people will
attribute the brevity of the spoken language in the film
it's not a very talkie film, uh to the fact
that Legosi was still not fully fluent in English, and
(06:44):
while that that may have played a part, it's also
important to consider that this was the early days of
talking He's still a lot of theaters simply were not
equipped for sound, and Universal really wanted to hedge their
bets for optimal distribution. I mean they were at this point.
It was not so much about art, just as many
films today are not artistically great, but they make a
(07:05):
lot of money. They wanted to sort of be able
to distribute as widely as they could. So instead the
film really focuses a great deal on atmosphere and lighting
and framing to convey the tale rather than long discussions
and sections of dialogue. In spite of the fact that
he had really actively campaigned for the role, I mean,
he had pushed hard for it, he was already kind
of tired of it before the film even hit the screen.
(07:29):
During filming, he complained about typecasting, the stigma, the poor
pay that came with playing the count. He was offered
a contract to start in another stage production of Dracula
during the shoot, and he responded that he would not
redo the role on stage anymore for any price. And
a quote that becomes really sad when looking back on
(07:49):
it now, he said, quote, when I'm through with this picture,
I hope never to hear of Dracula again. I cannot
stand it. I do not intend that it shall possess me.
That's sort of sad and depressing. Before we get to
kind of his life after Dracula, do you want to
take a word from a sponsor. So to get back
(08:11):
to Bella. Uh. Todd Browning's adaptation of bram stoker story
was so successful that it really helped birth the universal
horror legacy, and the studio was so delighted with the
pictures triumph that uh it was happy to offer another
role to Lego see and that next one, and there's
a whole little story around this was the role of
(08:34):
Frankenstein's Monster. Initially, according to uh most accounts, he was
actually originally going to be considered for the role of
Dr Frankenstein. But then because this was so popular and
some studio executives thought like his name might really keep
that next picture going and making the same kind of
box office that they were making a Dracula, they were like, no, no,
(08:55):
make him the monster. Uh. He was worried that all
of the makeup and the prosthetics involved in a Frankenstein's Monster,
We're actually going to obscure his face to the point
that no one would recognize him. Of course, Boris Karloff
ended up starring in Frankenstein, and he went on to
great success. Lugosi, on the other hand, never quite got
over this fact and stayed bitter about how the things
(09:16):
played out between them for years. Yeah, that's one of
those stories people like to really play up the that
Lugosi really hated Karloff, and that's not entirely supported. We'll
talk about that a little bit later on. But Lugosi did,
despite having turned down Frankenstein, continue to get work, of course,
But despite his great fame as the stylish and iconic vampire,
(09:40):
he's still never really commanded huge salaries, and it's unclear
if his agent was just really bad or if he
was just willing to take anything. Uh. He started in
White Zombie the year after Dracula premiered, and this earned
him only a little more cash than he had earned
while playing Count Dracula, which we had already mentioned was
(10:00):
a quarter of what most you know, well known name
recognition actors would be making for a film of that nature.
He started in dozens of films in his career. If
you look at his Internet movie database profile, he has
a hundred and seventeen acting credits, but he never again
achieved the acclaim that he gained Discount Dracula, and he
never really was able to kind of convert that to
(10:21):
making serious money as the nineteen thirties due to a close,
horror was kind of having a downturn in popularity, and
the roles that Lugosi had access to really dried up
for a while, But in the nineteen forties it started
to pick up again, although there was often kind of
a campy vibe in the roles that that he was
(10:42):
being tapped to play. A lot of the films that
Lugosi worked on during this time were either sequels or spoofs,
and this was the arrow when Frankenstein Meets the wolf
Man happened, as well as Abbott and Costello crossovers with
famous horror monsters. Yeah, got a little cheekier and a
little less about like horror and drama. Uh. I also
(11:03):
feel like we should point out that Todd Browning, who
directed Dracula, his career did not go so well after
that movie either. He his next big film was Freaks,
which pretty much tanked his career. Uh I love Freaks,
not everybody does. But back to Bella. As his career
wore on, he just was taking work some worst parts,
sometimes in total bombs, just for the paycheck. Uh And
(11:27):
he also took stage roles playing Dracula. As he said,
he would never ever do. And at one point, uh,
in one of these productions, he found himself stranded in
the United Kingdom when a touring production of Dracula that
he was starring in just went bankrupt and bankrupt and
completely ended abruptly while they were mid tour, and so
(11:47):
he was just stuck there. He didn't have a way
to get home. He didn't really have the money, uh
to to book a ticket home, and so he ended
up having to take a part in a another really
crappy movie just to make enough money to get home.
That movie eventually was released as My Son the Vampire.
Lugosi married his fourth wife, Lillian Arch in nineteen thirty three,
(12:08):
and this is his longest lasting marriage and the only
one that resulted in a child. Lilian and Bella welcomed
Bella George Lugosi into their lives on January five, eight.
Bella and Lilian were married for twenty years before they
separated in nineteen fifty three. Yeah, and even after their separation,
(12:29):
she really remained part of his life because of their
child together. Um, and we'll talk about that a little
bit more in a moment, But so throughout his career
post Dracula. We mentioned the prescription painkillers, but Lugosi was
battling his his addiction to prescription narcotics and it was
finally at the age of seventy two that he went
(12:50):
to the Los Angeles County authorities for help. He told
them he was addicted in narcotics and that he needed assistance,
and he checked himself into the Metropolitan State Hospital for
Addiction Treatment and rehabilitation. When this program lasted three months. Uh.
And in an interview that was given the day before
he checked out, and this video is online, will link
(13:11):
to it in our show notes, Bella really appeared very upbeat, uh,
you know that same sort of wonderfully charming, very um composed.
Just he had like such a great air about him,
and he talked about how he was a new man,
he was ready to get back to work. He was
talking about the work he was going to do with
(13:32):
Eddie Wood and we'll talk about their relationship in just
a moment. But he really you sort of see like
that he was this amazing, charming, very erudite man. Uh.
And the interviewer even says like it's so good to
see him looking so well and being so much himself again,
and in spite of that, Hollywood didn't really welcome him
(13:54):
back with open arms. If he had gone into rehab today,
that would have been nothing more than a new support
and the industry in the public probably would have even
you know, rallied behind the newly healthy bellow once he
was out of rehab. But in the fifties, the stigma
of his addiction really meant that no one wanted to
work with him. Yeah, it was not the same as
(14:16):
it is now. And this brings us to marriage number five.
So while he was in the hospital that was in
so it was just a couple of years after he
had divorced Lilian that he went through rehab. He received
this steady stream of letters, like daily letters from a
fan by the name of Hope Lineager. And Leneger was
(14:38):
a clerk at r k oh and she had, according
to Legoski's wife Lilian, been writing to Bella Legosi for years.
She would always sign off with the phrase a dash
of hope. But once he was in rehab, she really
just sort of made it her mission to constantly write
him and keep this steady, steady stream of of missives
going to him. Shortly after he got out of rehab.
(15:00):
Lugosi actually met with her, and ever impetuous when it
came to love. It wasn't long before he proposed to her,
and she was at that point roughly forty years younger
than her now fiance. Yeah, he's like younger women. There
was also she apparently lied about her age on the
day of the wedding to make the gap seem not
(15:21):
quite so wide, but only by a few years. And
when you're talking about forty years, I don't know that
it makes that big of a difference. Um. But perhaps
realizing that he had been rash and entering into this
engagement by all accounts, Bella drank pretty heavily. On his
fifth wedding day. According to Lilian Arch, he called her
that's again, his fourth wife, and said that he would
(15:43):
rather be marrying her again. He even suggested that they
try to give marriage a second shot. She, recognizing that
he was not sober, was not really willing to entertain
this kind of talk, and she turned him down, and
then he invited her to the wedding. So it sounds
like a little bit of a wacky phone call. Lilian
refused to attend the wedding, and though his seventeen year
(16:04):
old son Bella. George served as his best man. Both
the Sun and Lilian. We're a little distrustful of this
match and more specifically of Hope. But you know, in
spite of all the family disapproval, which at this point
was a recurring theme in Bella's life, Bella and Hope
got married on August. This was just nineteen days after
(16:27):
he checked out of rehab. Yeah, there's part of me
that kind of loves a little um, you know, impetuous
love story. But he was kind of a serial impetuous
love story that they didn't seem to work out so well.
So before we go uh and talk about his relationship
with Edwood and Plan nine, let's have a word from
a sponsor, and now we will conclude our two part
(16:50):
around Bella Lego. See, we talked about how his career
really had had kind of gone downhill, and then rehab
really played a part in making him kind of an
untouchable and holl would no one was willing to work
with him. But really, if it weren't for his tanking
career in his leader pariah status, filmmaker Edward may never
have gotten to work with him. So the now famous
(17:10):
schlock director who Legosi called Eddie. Befriended Legosi when he
was really living in obscurity, and they worked on a
number of B grade projects or lower, depending on your
tastes together, and in the last several years of Legosi's
life the pair became very good friends. So if you've
seen Edwood the movie, you might think that Plan nine
(17:33):
from Outer Space was really a fun film, and it
is if you like truly terrible films, or maybe rift tracks.
It has kind of a charm about it, but you
really could never consider it a good movie. You may
also think, if you are familiar with the movie Edwood,
that Bella Legosi slept in a coffin and was really
(17:55):
quite a card and wow, that's him. Burton biopic is
to any people delightful. Pretty much everyone who knew Bella
is really adamant that while Martin Landau's performance of him
in the movie Edward was fantastic, he did win the
Best Supporting Actor Oscar for it, it was not anything
like Lugosi in real life. Bella Legosi and Boris Karloff
(18:18):
did not hate each other, although there was some rivalry
between the two of them when they were being considered
the same parts. So while like I can speak for
Holly here, he is a huge fan of the movie, Edward.
I love it. Yes, it took many, many, many liberties
with the story that we are about to tell you. Yeah,
(18:38):
I mean, I um. I just wanted to make sure
that's clear because for a lot of people when they
hear about Bella Lagosi in his addiction and his later life,
they're like, oh, yeah, I saw Edward and it's like
that that movie is so fun. But that's not what
you should be using is biographical reference. Again, I love
the film. But so there was one incident adding to
(19:00):
the karloff stuff late in Legosi's life. This is in
August of eighteen fifty six, so quite late in his life.
He apparently awoke in the middle of the night. He
had passed out after he consumed a good bit of alcohol.
I think some accounts say that it was a combo
of Scotch and beer, and he told his wife Hope
that Boris Karlov had come to the house and was
waiting in the living room. And in some versions of
(19:21):
this story it makes it sound like he almost thinks
karloff Is is almost supernatural or menacing in some way.
But this is one of those odd tales, uh, And
there are a few others along the way that sort
of foster this the story of Legosi being hateful of
and fearful of and obsessed with Boris Karlov. But really
(19:41):
that's just kind of one of those urban folk tales
that gets fed by much more benign stories along the way,
so not really accurate at all. Not long after this
dream about Boris Karloff, on August fifty six, Bella Legosi
died of heart failure in his sleep. Uh yeah, he
was discovered by his wife Hope. Uh he you know.
(20:04):
By all accounts, it seems like he went quite peacefully.
And what's interesting is that, even though he spent many
years of his life trying to get out from under
the shadow of Dracula, he was buried in full Dracula costume,
including freshly dyed black hair and eyebrows. If you are
especially uh morbid in your fascinations, you can google that.
(20:25):
There are images of him in the coffin online. But
by the time he died, Lugosi had played Dracula more
than hundred times when you count all of his stage
and film appearances. A cape similar to the one he
was buried in was found hanging in the deceased actor's closet,
and this sparked some rumors that he had actually somehow
(20:45):
cheated death and risen from the grave. But of course
there were multiple copies of this cape, and having one
in the closet was not indicative of a supernatural event. Yeah,
I think that was so wishful thinking on someone's part.
But that is another story that you'll sometimes here, like, oh,
he the cape he was buried in was later found
in the closet of his home. It's like, no, it
(21:07):
was one of many that he had. Uh. And there's
actually some debate about the full costume burial being Bella
Legoci's wish or someone else's. You'll often see it referenced
as accorded on ironically, according to his own wishes, he
was buried in the full Dracula costume. But I want
to touch on this a little bit because while his
(21:28):
son Bella George has said publicly that he and his
mother Lilian made the final decision to do so, to
put him in the costume, they also do believe it
was Bella's wish. No one ever I don't think actually
has said that. You know this, This was certainly not
written down anywhere. It was not anything that he had
made arrangements for prior to his death. Allegedly, his wife
(21:50):
Hope also told the coroner that he should be buried
in his Dracula costumes. So it's a little unclear whose
wish it actually was. Uh, But when you see that
it was bella Legosis final wish, you may want to
take that with a grain of salt and consider that
there were many hands in that particular decision. He was
and still is buried at Holy Cross Cemetery, Culver City, California.
(22:14):
And while his career was really struggling at the end,
his funeral was actually big news. Newspapers came to cover it.
There was a dirge Hungarian dirge played on the violin,
more than a hundred industry mourners showed up. And while
urban legends have sprung up saying that Frank Sinatra paid
(22:34):
for the funeral, that's actually not true. Lillian paid for
the plot in the gravestone, and Hope received the seven
hundred thirty eight dollar and twelve cent bill from the
funeral home. She paid five hundred one dollars and fifty
cents of it, which was all that she could afford,
and she thought that Lilian was going to cover the rest.
I hope found up being sued for the remainder and
(22:57):
was forced to pay it. Yeah, the two women kind
of did not agree on who was going to cover
those expenses. Uh. Like I said, even after their divorce,
Lilian was very much a part of his life, and
even right up through his death she was responsible for
some aspects of taking care of business. Um. And after
Legosi's death, of course, Edward famously pieced together footage that
(23:18):
he had shot of the actor into what was sort
of a brief appearance in Plan nine from Outer Space.
And if you've seen that movie, you could see where
those are just completely weird pieces of film that are
edited in. But to flesh out this story and fill
in the gaps would famously This is another thing that
is famously known, and it is indeed true. He hired
a chiropractor named Tom Mason as a Lugosi double. Again,
(23:42):
that movie is deliciously terrible. I love it, but it's
it often makes like the worst movies ever made list uh,
and a lot of fans were very upset when it
came out that it it was kind of build as
Bella Legosi's last film, and it really wasn't a great
representation of him, and he really wasn't in it that much.
While his life ends on kind of a tragic note,
(24:05):
we can wrap up by pointing out that even though
he was worn very frail by years of addiction and
a really struggling career, Bella stayed a showman at heart
for pretty much his whole life. In an interview with
entertainment journalist Eric Nzoom, the famed sci fi figure Fory
Ackerman described helping the Goosie meet the press in the
(24:26):
days leading up to his death, and he said, I
was with him two weeks before he died at the
premiere of his final film, The Black Sheep. We sat
together up in the balcony, and afterward we were coming downstairs.
I could see that they were set up with a
big TV camera to interview him. He was very vain
and wouldn't be seen in public wearing glasses, so everything
(24:49):
down there in the lobby was just a big blur
to him. So we got to the bottom of the
stairs and I said, Bella, they want to interview you,
and he said, just point me in the right direction.
I said, take a about six steps forward and you'll
be there. He straightened up and filled out, and all
of a sudden became the tall, proud figure of Count Dracula.
(25:09):
I love that story. I love it so much. Uh yeah,
Forest acrament behnd refer to his four kind of a
really famous figure if you're into sci fi and horror,
A renowned collector and sort of historian of those films
of that era. And he befriended Legosi late in his life,
and it's just such a beautiful memory for him to
(25:30):
share that. You know, here was this man who kind
of fought the Dracula image, but man, when people wanted it,
he could just turn it on and delight crowds. So
I love it. That's our Bella Legosti episodes. I get
all wistful because I really love him. Uh Okay, so
now I have much less HALLOWEENI and non Bella Legostie
(25:51):
related stuff. Listener mail about our episode about spam. We've
gotten so many great listener mails, and Tracy picked that episode,
so she gets all of the kudos for that one. Uh.
This particular one comes from our listener Angelo, who says
thanks for the great, lighthearted episode on spam and how
it influenced cuisine all over the world. I was born
and spent my early childhood in the Philippines, and your
take on spam's popularity over there is spot on. I
(26:14):
had to laugh when you mentioned that spam can be
sold in airport duty free shops to people traveling to
the Philippines. I remember having my share of heavy luggage
on my last visit to the Philippines because my parents
in Canada have wanted me to bring back at least
a can of spam to each one of my family
members back in the Philippines. I would always joke that
whenever a Filipino in another country would go back to
visit the Philippines, he inadvertently becomes a spam smuggler. I
(26:38):
would also like to add that another version of spam
is just as popular in the Philippines, which is canned
corn beef. When I was growing up, it was seen
as a bit of a luxury item that seems to
have become more and more of a staple. It's now
so popular that Filipino movie stars, pop singers, and even
professional athletes are hired to endorse corned beef in TV
ads and on billboards. Uh, keep up the great work,
(26:59):
and I hope that you have many more history of
different food episodes on in the future. Me to you,
I love talking about food. Thank you, Angelo. We got
a lot of really good spam email, and I'm sure
we will share more of those with you. We will
definitely read more later. And I will go ahead and
say that we've had a couple of people right and
point out that Waikiki is not an island. It is
a neighborhood of Honolulu, and that is entirely my fault.
(27:21):
And not only is it my fault, it is something
where when I was doing the final read through of
the outline, I said, I need to look up if
Waikiki is actually an island, and then I did not
do it. Well, you know, here's the good news. I
know that, but I didn't catch it in our review
or during record. So it's everybody's fault and it's not
that big a deal. We hope we didn't offend anyone
(27:42):
in Hawaii. We're more than happy to come and do
research as I suggest, if you would like to write
to us to tell us what sort of spamulave or
if you love double we go see or anything else,
you can do so at history podcast at how stuff
works dot com. You can connect with this at Facebook
dot com slash missed in History, on Twitter at misst
(28:03):
in history and miss in history dot CoML dot com,
and on pinterest dot com slash miss in History. I
cannot wait to pen a bunch of Bella Legoste images.
You can also visit our spreadshirt store at missed in
History dot spreadshirt dot com, where you can purchase missed
in History merchandise like shirts and bangs and mugs and
all kinds of cool things phone cases. I love those. Uh.
(28:27):
And if you would like to do a little bit
of research on what we talked about today, you can
go to our parents site, how stuff Works. Type in
Bella Legosi's name in the search bar and you will
churn up an episode called pen stars who died during
the filming of a movie. Uh. He is one of
them because of the planline thing. Even though they were
working on many projects planline. Uh where that was in
(28:47):
production is a little hazy, but uh, Bella shows up
in that article. You would like to visit us at
our website, which is missed in history dot com. We
encourage you to do so. You'll find show notes, all
of our episodes are there. The occasional delightful blog post
pretty much from Tracy because she rocks on that stuff.
And if you want to research almost anything you can
think of, you can do that at our parents site,
which is how Civils dot com. For more on this
(29:13):
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If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!