Lugosi: Truth Meets Fiction? in Horror Film Stars Forum

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Lugosi: Truth Meets Fiction?

Author	Comment
Mora		#121	[-]
Jun 23 12 1:54 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Of course Craig, and you do bring up a very good point. Again I'm just quoting Dolores with whom I spoke in depth about Bela, and she simply would not badmouth the man, even about his drug use, which Bela was quick to explain to her and that she accepted, though not advocating, regardless of the reason. She spoke of how Bela would pull her son Darrel up onto his knees and tell him stories, which she recalled were hypnotic in Bela's deep, reasonant tellings - but most of all, although she found much to admire in the Burton film, it angered Dolores to see how Bela was portrayed as a foul-mouthed, brittle, broken man. She remembered him much differently, and particularly pointed out that The Count NEVER used foul language. But some people see things how they would like to remember them, and in her advanced years Dolores did seem to have rose-colored memories of Bela. Ed, too, though she could be more objective about the latter days of that relationship. BTW: Hurling a loogie out the window of a car??!! Now that's one I never heard before.
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Wich2		#122	[-]
Jun 23 12 4:49 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I THINK that was one of Richard Sheffield's, possibly from one of Gary Don Rhodes' books? I absolutely believe in the "Old World Bela" stories - he was a Victorian-Era Continental. But I find the others just as easy to credit - he was a Theatrical, and they tend to be... "earthy" (?) folks.
Mora		#123	[-]
Jun 23 12 5:31 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Well Craig, sadly there may be more to that possibility when one reads the updated "Lugosi/Karloff" book. Dolores had moved to New York after the "Bride of the Monster" fiasco and was not around to see the very tragic decline of Bela as Greg Mank describes. A far cry from the "Old World Bela" we'd like to remember. Sounds so much like the latter days of Bill Holden - only Bill still had money and the possibility of a continued career.
Shadow Chaser		#124	[-]
Jun 24 12 12:43 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	The Martin Landau portrayal of Bela Lugosi was anything but Bela if you ask Richard Sheffield. Here's an interesting video. Go to 8:12 to hear Sheffield confirm Fuller's claim. If you are interested in Bela's last years, the most detailed book out there is one Sheffield co-authored with Gary D. Rhodes called BELA LUGOSI: DREAMS AND NIGHTMARES. It covers the 1953-1956 period. Also, Rhodes will have another one out which covers 1945-1951. Lots of new information on Bela which was previously unknown. That one is NO TRAVELER RETURNS: THE LOST YEARS OF BELA LUGOSI. It should be out in July. Last Edited By: Shadow Chaser Jun 24 12 12:45 AM. Edited 1 times.
Ted Newsom		#125	[-]
Jun 24 12 10:30 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	A lot of the more rancid Lugosi anecdotes in the film and in general circulation are via a drunken street person named Robert Andrews, who was quoted extensively in NIGHTMARE OF ECSTASY, which the guys who wrote ED WOOD treated pretty much as gospel. Andrews never knew Lugosi; he was a fringie who knew Ed Wood in the later years (he's either the Mummy or the Wolfman in ORGY OF THE DEAD, for instance.) And since Andrews had a street-person's potty mouth, everyone in his anecdotes tended to sound like that. I'm pretty sure it's him who tells the alleged "loogie" story, and it's certainly him who relays the third-hand story about Lugosi swearing.
Gojira		#126	[-]
Jun 25 12 4:22 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I have to say: I could easily see Lugosi losing his cool and swearing on a hectic movie set, which is what he does in ED WOOD, yet be dignified and polite in front of the ladies. And isn't it John Andrews? Speaking of which, where did Grey get all the Ed Wood quotes from for his book? Had Wood written a career piece or been interviewed prior to his death?
Gojira		#127	[-]
Jun 25 12 4:59 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Wich2 wrote: I THINK that was one of Richard Sheffield's, possibly from one of Gary Don Rhodes' books? I absolutely believe in the "Old World Bela" stories - he was a Victorian-Era Continental. But I find the others just as easy to credit - he was a Theatrical, and they tend to be... "earthy" (?) folks. And he had a serious alcohol problem - there are lots of stories from The Black Sleep people that suggest he was often out of it, dangerously so at times.
Ted Newsom		#128	[-]
Jun 25 12 9:45 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	John Andrews it is. Or was. I don't know the story on the Wood quotes in Rudy Gray's book. I don't think he ever talked to him directly, but I could be blowing smoke.
Gojira		#129	[-]
Jun 25 12 10:13 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Interesting that one of the Ed Wood quotes claims Lugosi said "quiet as a kitchen", a non-existant goof often attributed to the Medveds.
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Mora		#130	[-]
Jun 25 12 10:32 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Been a long time since I read the Rudolph Gray book, but Ted is Robert Andrews the guy who also speaks rather unflatteringly about Dolores at one point? Think that section dealt with a day at the beach with Ed and Bela.
PhantomXCI		#131	[-]
Jun 25 12 10:39 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Gojira wrote: Interesting that one of the Ed Wood quotes claims Lugosi said "quiet as a kitchen", a non-existant goof often attributed to the Medveds. "Do not be afraid of Lobo. He is gentle as a kitchen."
Gojira		#132	[-]
Jun 25 12 12:41 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Gentle, quiet...commendable attributes either way!
todmichel		#133	[-]
Jun 25 12 3:32 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Maybe Wood was right, Lugosi really said "as a kitchen" and - exceptionally in Wood's oeuvre - it was later re-dubbed by Bela - who knows?
doctor kiss		#134	[-]
Jun 25 12 6:56 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Gojira wrote: Speaking of which, where did Grey get all the Ed Wood quotes from for his book? Had Wood written a career piece or been interviewed prior to his death? Grey had access to quite a number of unpublished pieces by Ed Wood, including the manuscript to his unfinished mid-1960s guide on 'how to make it in Hollywood', Hollywood Rat Race (eventually published, with some minor - and largely inconsequential - revisions in 1998), which contains endless autobiographical anecdotes (including another oft-told assertion, that Lugosi died clutching the script to FINAL CURTAIN: 'It was opened to page six,' Ed assures us). Grey also had access to lengthy correspondence with Wood family members back East in Poughkeepsie, and to notes on Lugosi which Wood had 'prepared' for Cremer (although these were in reality more likely sections taken from the supposedly lost biography Lugosi... Post Mortem, on which Wood worked for many years); the 'kitchen' assertion is certainly contained in the latter.
Ted Newsom		#135	[-]
Jun 25 12 9:28 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Dr. Kiss is Da Bomb. (Mora: beats me. Probably.)
skelton knaggs		#136	[-]
Jul 3 12 1:21 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Nice to see Bela in a good place here.... "You can't smell any reefer, can you"?
skelton knaggs		#137	[-]
Jul 28 12 3:41 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	For the last time already, here is the proof that dispels the rumor.... Lugosi DID cast a reflection in the mirror.... "You can't smell any reefer, can you"?
Crow T Robot		#138	[-]
Aug 19 12 12:09 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I have a memory of reading an article on Lugosi in an issue of Famous Monsters. Could have been about his work with Ed Wood or an interview with Wood himself. I kinda remember whoever was talking in the article said Lugosi Said "Gentle as a kitchen," and because it was a flubbed line he (the person telling the story) had Lugosi redo the line.
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Lugosi: Truth Meets Fiction?