European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - January 9, 1993, Darmstadt, Hesse New stage screen productions prove undying popularity of Bram Stoker s Vampire by Hugh a. Mulligan. A special correspondent i f brim Stoker could lift the. Lid on his crematory urn and flit about like count Dracula his classic creature of the night would be mystified to find that his sanguinary Saga of the restless undead has never been Uneader. Consider a Francis Ford Coppola a exotic and erotic resurrection of the old neck Nipper which gives the author posthumous credit on movie marquees around the world As Bram Stoker s Dracula already is Well on the Way to recouping its $45 million production costs u a Penguin has issued a new paperback edition of the novel which has never been out of print since its publication in 1897. A film clubs and Art houses Are reviving Nosferatu the 1922 silent film made in Berlin that Stoker s widow won a court order to destroy As a , but like the count keeps turning up. A and actor Frank Langella Ina Patent leather shoes with Matching smile and Hairdo is about to swoop across she states with yet another revival of the play which first crept irom she crypt 70 years ago. Stoker gave the last word to fiction s most famous frequent flier with Quot you think you have left me without a place to rest. My revenge has just begun t spread it Over centuries and time is on my while Dracula is still a few years Short of completing its first Century the Story has already spread around the Globe and throughout the world of entertainment. In the estimation of Ray Carney professor of film at Boston University there already have been nearly 3,000 movies and spinoffs on history a most famous Vampire. The gothic film genre Stoker inspired has a haunting history. Bela Lugosi s 1931 chiller saved Universal pictures from bankruptcy but doomed the actor to a career of. Climbing in and out of coffins on stage and screen in vaudeville and. Even Las vegas lounges culminating in his Wake and burial in Dracula s red Satin lined Cape. Christopher Lee who affixed blood red Contact lenses and jumbo Bram Stoker shown in a 1906 portrait did a lot a research before creating Quot Dracula. A lateral incisors in a dozen technicolor de screamers that won Hammer films Boss Michael Carreras a Knighthood for reviving the British film Industry still can t Bury the role. A few years Back his car blew a tire and spun into a Ravine North of Milan. The actor crawled bleeding from the wreckage Only to encounter a terrified Farmer who shrieked a cd luf a Quot it s him Quot a then fainted. The phantom in the opera Cape has haunted the italian landscape since the 1957 the Vampire of notre Dame spawned the first of Many Spaghetti shookers. He has been reincarnated in More than 100 foreign films including the mexican amp Vampire the swedish Vampy the turkish Drakula Istam Buda and the japanese Lake of death. There have been numerous spoofs like George Hamilton s hip love at first bite Gene Wilder a Young Frankenstein and tvs the munsters featuring a senile yiddish Dracula who nags his grandson to Quot drink your soup before it . Roman Polanski s the fearless Vampire killer or Pardon me but your Teeth Are in my neck was Sharon Tate s last film. Orson Welles Roger Vadim Andy Warhol Abbott and costello have also Quot worked Quot with the undead Dracula other variations have included the Hardy boys and Nancy Drew meet Dracula Lacula starring shakespearean actor William Marshall As a Caribbean count deaf la for the hearing impaired a a Western version called Billy the kid meets Dracula countless countess Dracula As Well As several brides and lesbian Sisters plus the inevitable porn versions. And a veritable Hollywood who s who of horror has sunk its Teeth into the role including Lon Chaney jr., Boris Karloff sir Donald Wolf it John Carradine Victor Jory Vincent Price Jack Latance Louis Jordan Terence stamp David Niven and now Gary Oldman in the Coppola film. Ironically the novelist who devoted his life to the theater never got near Transylvania. He was an irishman a Dubliner with the unlikely first name of Abraham who heard no mention of vampires or werewolves in the ghost stories his Mother told him during a sickly childhood. But m Raymond Mcnally has researched Quot Dracula and Ita origins extensively. She did conjure up banshees poo Khas and other spectres of the restless dead along with some real horrors from the cholera epidemic she had witnessed growing up in the / / / j \ my a % o is West of Ireland Quot Bram had the native Knack of telling a ghost Story of the kind you hear even now in Rural. Ireland where they still pile stones a on the Graves to keep the dead from roaming Quot says Dracula expert Raymond Mcnally a professor of a russian literature at Boston College who teaches a course title terrorism from Dracula to Stalin. Mcnally has written a half dozen Dracula books with his colleague Radu Florescu a descendant of Vlad Tepes the 15th-Century Transylvania warlord who was called Dracula son of the Devil for his penchant for impaling his enemies by the thousands. Stoker once claimed his Dracula plot came to him in a Nightmare after dining late on some devised crab washed Down with Demon rum. But Mcnally and others who have researched his sources Are convinced digesting the ingredients of his Best seller before started writing. After graduating from Trinity _ College Stoker Laboured As a minor Irish civil servant until actor Henry Irving arrived in Dublin As Captain absolute in Sheridan s the rivals. Already stage struck Stoker Sang the actors praises As unpaid drama. Critic for the Dublin express then went to London to manage the lyceum theater which Irving had just taken Over. Night after night in the dressing Bela Lugosi the most famous Dracula in the 1931 film that saved Universal pictures. A room a they swapped g Ris by Fales Anco athe Young irishman was soon a \ a. Attending seances held by the. Hermetic order of the Golden Dawn. Settling in London a Chelsea. A Section Stoker and his Young Bride a shared their zest for matters. Macabre with arty neighbors Oscar Wilde James. Mcneill Whistler and Dante Gabriel Rossetti Quot Bram did t go along when Rossetti dug up his wife a coffin in Highgate cemetery to retrieve some unpublished poems Quot Mcnally. Relates Quot but his Best Friend Hall Caine to whom dedicated Dracula filled him in on the details of building a Bonfire to keep away bacteria and unearthing a classic pre Raphaelite Beauty whose body had not corrupted even her hair seemed to have grown longer Quot Mcnally is certain that Quot Rossetti a wife is Lucy Westenra Quot the count s thirst quenching Quot Little wine press Quot in the novel Stoker had occasion to meet the famous orientalist sir Richard Burton and was impressed not Only by the Vampire tales translated from the arabian nights and hindu sources but also by Quot his prominent canine ,. in the Beefsteak room adjoining the lyceum theater Stoker dined several times with Arminius a Vambery a hungarian expert on slavic Folk legends who rates a mention in the novel As Quot my Friend continued on Page 16 a v f Quot in in a a it re fit Gary Oldman As Dracula s latest reincarnation right confronts Keanu Reeves As Jonathan Marker in Francis Ford Coppola s film a Abram stokers Dracula.�?�. Apap one of several drawings by Edward Gorey for a Broadway version of the Price of Fame t want to own a first edition of Bram stokers Dracula published in 1897? it will Cost you. Bert Babcock a rare Book dealer in Derry n h., estimates a first edition of the novel Quot with the yellow cover and ads in the Back would go Tor $4,000, perhaps a bit More with the release of the new . In addition a film poster of Bela Lugosi of the movie Dracula lists at $9,000 in collectors Cata logs while a life sized lobby cutout of the actor in bal a gang cloak can lying twice As much. A the associated press was there a real Dracula researchers say yes and that it was this Man Vlad Tepes. Real dirt on Vlad the impaler by Bob Mims the associated press f or centuries people wore a Crucifix or string of garlic around their Nocks to Ward Olf vampires now there a a Pendant who might want to attract one the pendants Bear the Dracula family Crest a a stylized dragon a and a Pinch of dirt irom Transylvania where Vlad Tepes of Wallachia was born. The 15th-Century Prince inspired the Bloodthirsty Monsler of Bram Stoker s horror novel. And As any Dracula devotee knows j the count can Trost in his coffin without a bed of soil from his Homeland. The necklace is the brainchild of Joseph Klamt a Salt Lako City a businessman and Dan. Filipov a electrician who immigrated from Romania seven years ago. Quot Back in Romania we really liked this Guy Vlad the irn Pater Quot Filipov said. Quot whatever we heard about him was despite a penchant Lor impaling a his enemies on stakes Dracula is revered at Home for his courage in battling turks Bent on conquering Europe. Filipov says wanted to do something to improve the count s image in the United Stales. He returned to Romania in 1990 and persuaded tie mayor of Dracula s Village a sight Sara a to permit removal of 90 pounds of soil from the Prince s Birthplace a confront d on Pogo a it a Page 14 a the stars and stripes saturday january 9, 1993 the stars and stripes a Page 15
