#béla lugosi

[victusinveritas]

[classicfilmblr]

Béla Lugosi and Boris Karloff The Black Cat (1934) dir. Edgar G. Ulmer

[faustiandevil]

New 4-issue comic series featuring Universal Monsters’ Dracula in collaboration with Skybound Entertainment coming this Halloween.

[draculasnightshift]

Béla Lugosi as Benedict Hisston in The Silent Command (1923)

[scarletsmiles]

Bela Lugosi with some cobra lilies, circa 1930s.

[doubtfultaste]

Son of Frankenstein (1939)

[erikascleves]

SOME INFORMATION ABOUT DRACULAURA’S CULTURAL BACKGROUND. - made by someone who is part of her culture.

Before I get into this, I want to say that I have already posted this on twitter but I know there’s some who don’t use twitter and I just wanted to share my thoughts here, too. Hopefully with more organized details than on there.

Also, heads up, I am NOT a historian. I study history for fun and I want to be a historian, however I am not in any way a professional. However I am Eastern European - mainly Slavic and Hungarian, so this is my history that I am talking about. To make this thread easier to read, I will be calling Draculaura “Lala”, just so we don’t confuse her with her father.

Lala was born in Romania (Eastern Europe), in 412 AD. 

Some say she was born in the Roman Empire, but that province of Romania would be called "Roman Dacia" and it lasted until 271 AD. So, that isn’t fully correct. 

The Roman Dacia was also a part of Transylvania. Transylvania is a historical region of Romania. It is not a fictional place.

Draculaura was born to human parents, Camille and Gaius, the latter being a soldier. This makes Lala Romanian by birth, however do not confuse the terms "Roman", “Romani” and "Romanian" because they're three different things.  

Roman: an inhabitant of the Roman Empire. 

Romani:  a member of an ethnic group originating in South Asia, living widely dispersed across Europe and speaking a language that is related to Hindi.  

Romanian: a native or inhabitant of Romania, or a person of Romanian descent.

Gaius died in battle and this left Camille alone. Gaius was related to someone Dracula was close to. Dracula then took them to his home to help them out. It is said in Lala’s collector doll diary that Dracula took them to Dacia however, the Dacian kingdom only lasted from 106 to - 275 AD.

Q: Who even is Dracula? A:  Dracula is a story written by an Irish author called Bram Stoker. Dracula is a vampire living in Transylvania. In his novel, Dracula claims to be Székely.

Q: What does székely mean? A: Székely people are ethnic Hungarians living mostly in Romania. They were first mentioned in 1116 AD and according to Szádeczky-Kardoss Lajos "they believe themselves to be descendants of the Huns". image: Székely people in their cultural clothing

Q: Then who are the Csángó people? A: The Csángós are also an ethnic Hungarian group inhabiting the Moldavia region of Romania, but mostly of Catholic faith. They speak in the Csángó dialect. Some Csángós also live in Transylvania.

image: Csángó people in their cultural clothing

Q: Then who are the Huns? A:  The Huns were nomadic people who lived in Central Asia, the Caucasus, and Eastern Europe between the 4th and 6th century AD. Scholars generally agree that they originated in Central Asia but disagree on the specifics of their origins.

Often Dracula is confused with Vlad Tepes. This is quite easy to confuse because Vlad is often called Vlad Dracula. Vlad Tepes, better known as Vlad the Impaler or  Vlad III, Prince of Wallachia was born in Transylvania and his father was Vlad II Dracul (meaning dragon in LATIN), ruler of Wallachia. 

Q: If dracul means devil in Romanian, how is it possible that Vlad’s surname isn’t in Romanian? A: This is actually very easy to explain! Vlad was a Christian ruler. Christian monarchs in the medieval times used Latin because it was the language the Bible was accessible in. This caused a lot of problems for the poor people who didn’t speak Latin, and to explain this I’d have to talk about the English reformation, but that’s a topic for another day and very unrelated.

Q: So, how did Vlad get that surname? A:  Dracul was a surname granted by the Order of Dragon. Order Of The Dragon, aka "Societas Draconistarum" was a monarchical chivalric order only for selected higher aristocracy and monarchs. This name is in Latin, not Romanian, therefore Dracul here means dragon and not devil.

Q: But why is it the same word then? A: Because Romance languages adopted a lot of their vocabulary from Latin. In the past, dragons were associated with the devil. 

The dragon here is part of the symbol of the Order of Dragon. On the back of the dragon, from the base of the neck to the tail, is the Red Cross of Saint George.

Q: So, Dracula isn’t the same as Vlad then? A: Nope! Even if Bram Stoker was inspired, it doesn't make Vlad Tepes the same as Dracula, the fictional figure.

It seems Dracula and Camille were very much in love. When Lala was born, she was named in honor of Dracula. Laura was the name given to her by her mother and Dracula because of her step-father. This actually makes sense in the way Hungarian people have their names!

The surnames always come first in Hungarian. So, Lala getting her surname from her step-father makes a lot of sense. But of course, this is also a fictional character so her name is a pun. 

Camille died in a plague while Dracula was away doing business in Rome. When he came home, he realized Draculaura was sick too so he converted her into a vampire.

She was then raised in the Vampire Court, with Elissabat and Valentine.  Q: But isn’t Valentine Irish? A: Yes, he is! Confirmed by one of the old Monster High writers, Valentine was born in 410 AD. Apparently, at the age of 17 he and his mother were forcibly turned into vampires to fight a war against werevolves. Stoker saw potential in Kieran and helped him get introduced to the Vampire Court where he met Lala. (my source is from Twitter, so do take this with a pinch of salt, but it does sound likely)

Elissabat on the other hand, as far as we know, is Transylvanian. Her name would be Erzsébet in Hungarian. The name could’ve been inspired by Erzsébet Báthory. 

Q: So, when did Draculaura and Dracula settle in the USA? A: This is quite unclear. I would say it was either in the late 19th or 20th century. What we know is that it happened because they mistook her eating a tomato for blood and the normies wanted to attack vampires. This instance is actually quite similar to how some Hungarians living in Romania were treated. 

It happened especially during the Hungarian revolution of 1848 that thousands of Transylvanian villages with a Hungarian population were attacked. This is, of course, just me giving historical context and not saying this is what happened to Lala. It obviously didn’t. 

Let’s dicuss Lala’s accent now. I’ve seen people call it Romanian, Hungarian, Transylvanian, Romani, Russian... Anything you can imagine. 

Russian is incorrect. Draculaura is not from Russia nor is she Slavic. Being Slavic also doesn’t immediately give you a Russian accent. These are the Slavic countries:

Romanian is a romance language while Russian is a Slavic language. Lala wasn’t in Romania during the Soviet occupation. 

To further understand Lala’s accent we have to go back to the first portrayer of Dracula - Béla Lugosi. He portrayed Dracula in the 1931 movie with the same title. 

Béla Lugosi, born as Béla Ferenc Dezső Blaskó was a Székely man born in Lugos (in Romanian Lugoj) which was then part of the Hungarian Kingdom. He had a very obvious Hungarian accent which inspired a lot of other Dracula and vampire portrayals.

I have seen many discuss that Lala indeed does not speak with a Romanian accent. And that is true, she does not because Dracula's first language is Hungarian.

As her parents died at a young age, it's obvious to me that she grew up speaking Hungarian with Latin and Romanian as her second / third languages.

Q: Why Latin? A: Many European nobility spoke Latin for multiple reasons, including religious.

Q: So, what is Draculaura’s ethnicity then? A: Ethnically she would be Romanian and culturally Székely, belonging to a Hungarian ethnic minority.  Draculaura would either way be very much fluent in Hungarian as she lived under the Hungarian Kingdom. She lived through a lot of things - including the battle of Mohács, the ottoman occupation of Hungary, Austria-Hungary, the treaty of trianon that made Transylvania part of Romania and so on.

As a person who also belongs to a Hungarian minority and lives in a country that doesn’t have the same national language as my native language, I can very much relate to Draculaura. I feel represented by her. Her accent is quite realistic, many Hungarians have thick accents. Her voice actress did an amazing job portraying her. 

Let’s normalize characters with obvious accents. Draculaura wasn’t just comedic relief. Not at all - in fact, she was representation to many Romanian and Hungarian kids. Even immigrant kids. Portraying immigrant characters in a good light is very important. Calling her accent exaggerated, unserious and over the top is not only offensive to non-native English speakers but is also fully ignorant. Having an accent is a cultural thing and should not be made fun of. 

Thank you for reading my thread! If you have any questions, please leave them below in the comments. 

[cuartoretorno]

Gustan del Terror Clásico? tu que Opinas Love? Procede o no? Como es? su Pizza con sus Cervezas! y después a la camita? 

Drácula (Béla Lugosi) 1931

Frankenstein (Boris Karloff) 1931

The Curse of the Werewolf (Lon Chaney Jr.) 1941

[cultfaction]

Preview: Creeping Horror (Eureka Classics 2-Disc Bluray)

Four more tales of terror from the vaults of Universal Pictures, starring Lionel Atwill, Bela Lugosi, and Rondo Hatton. A maniacal hunter and collector of wild animals uses them to dispose of rivals and enemies in the shockingly violent Murders in the Zoo (dir. A. Edward Sutherland, 1933). Bela Lugosi stars in a creepy tale of strange characters, secret passages and a murderer who masters the art…

[blogdorogerinho]

Críticas — O Vampiro da Noite (1958), Drácula de Bram Stoker (1992), Renfield: Dando o Sangue Pelo Chefe (2023), Drácula: A Última Viagem do Demeter (2023)

Drácula de Bram Stoker: Ficção e Realidade Desde Lilith — a primeira esposa de Adão na Bíblia — o vampiro se faz presente na humanidade, tal qual em outras mitologias. Porém, foi a partir da Peste Negra na Idade Média que o morto-vivo ganhou corpo e o status de pária da sociedade como “portador de doenças e pragas”: Nosferatu em húngaro-românico. Ao lado de Frankenstein e O Médico e o Monstro,…

[ecdqemsdpodcast]

#ECDQEMSD #Podcast Show 5269 - El Bakeneko

La mística historia del Bakeneko. Un ser que deriva del espíritu felino. Un gato que se transforma en monstruo. Seres mitológicos del folklore de Japón.

Noticias Del Mundo: La confianza colombiana - La agotadora vida de Tom Cruise - Hacia un Internet Cuántico - Un disco y van cuatro videos de Rammstein - Drácula de Bram Stoker - Christopher Lee, Jack Palance, Gary Oldman y el gran Béla Lugosi - Miles Davis y todo el jazz - Lauryn Hill y su voz.

Historias Desintegradas: Los gatos japoneses - Poderes felinos - Testimonios en la Internet - El gato anciano - Espíritu protector - Cuestión de percepción - Cola bifurcada - En Potosí no hay pollo relleno - La abeja en la lengua - Descuento ganado - La sucursal de la maldad - Inauguración y desinfección - La Gaviota Steven...

[thinkingimages]

Lugosi Dracula image from 1931. (From an album author David J. Skal had access to)

[trans-corvo]

last exam of my bachelors degree is done, all I have left is my thesis defense, which I'm actually really excited for because I've been waiting a year to have a good in depth conversation about early 20th century Hungarian history, but have the good sense to know that no one else in my life wants to talk about that for an hour straight. Sure it'll be with people trying to pick my argument apart, but a. none of them actually specialize in Hungarian history, and b. I feel like I handled the colloquium presentation and questions pretty well.

Anyway, I'm going to be proud of myself for this because I spent most of my childhood thinking I was stupid, was a C average student in in K-12, and believed that post secondary was utterly beyond my capabilities. I've always loved history but I never really thought I'd be able to study it, so the fact I'm about to graduate (with honours!) and will be going on to do my masters this fall is literally more than I ever dreamed.

[faustiandevil]

Wanted to post about this for a while now, but I came across the trailer for this short animation (the full animation is not available online sadly) about Béla Lugosi. It’s apparently only 15 minutes long, but shows him from early childhood, hitting important landmarks in his early career right up to filming Dracula.

As a fan of Béla bá I love it, but as an artist I do gotta say… it do be not looking like him…

Anyway here he is in the animation as Dracula:

[draculasnightshift]

On this day in Lugoj, Hungary, the wonderful actor Béla Lugosi was born. This will be his 141st!

Béla, I hope you’re happy wherever you are.

1882 ~ 1956 ∞

[scarletsmiles]

Hey lovely Lugosi freaks, I uncovered something cool on our guy.

He wore this smoking jacket with a moon and star motif in The Raven (1935). I thought it was quite pretty, so I remembered it.

Lugosi must have thought it looked good too, because this jacket appears his films all the way back to Hungary. It’s no movie prop; it must’ve his own piece that he kept almost 20 years and brought across the ocean.

It’s a little surprising, as he is said to have owned almost nothing else other than his WW1 Hungarian lieutenant’s uniform when he emigrated to America in 1922.

Lugosi in Küzdelem a Létért (The Leopard), a 1918 Hungarian silent film.

In Daughter of the Night, or Der Tanz auf dem Vulkan ‘The Dance on the Volcano’ (1920), a German silent film.

Finally, The Raven (1935), an American film:

Aside from me wanting to do the girl-steals-a-guy’s-hoodie-thing to a man in the 1930’s, I thought it was a neat little fact about Béla.