Vampires, Vampires, Vampires~~~

Vampires, vampires.




Yes Darklings I’m back on vampires again.



Why?



Well I read a very interesting news story from a few Sundays ago in my newspaper. It seems that the drummer for Metalica is a Horror film buff. He collects many interesting things from the horror films.



In one of the pictures taken of him with a portion of his collection, I was ‘startled’ to see that he had an oil portrait of Bela Lugosi painted around 1932 or 1933 after he filmed “Dracula”. I know that portrait to be genuine, because in an edition of Architural Digest some years ago, they showed the interiors of a number of film stars including Lugosi and it was in a room that had that portrait.



I discovered that in 2004 or 05 that it sold at auction for $80,000 dollars, I knew then it had to be the Metalica dummer that purchased it.



But why was it sold at auction unless many years before to settle the Lugosi estate it had to be sold and eventually that owner re-sold it.



Even Lugosi had several capes, of which one of them sold at auction, but it was many fans understanding that he was buried in his Dracula cape, unless it was the one from on of his revivals that he did.



Because the original Dracula cape was given to his son Bela G. Lugosi (aka Bela junior), and it was that one which sold at auction, however Lugosi was buried in the tux that he wore in the film.



At Lugosi’s funeral Vincent Price said that Peter Lorre suggested that they put a steak in Lugosi chest to make sure he was dead, so pervasive was the vampire character associated with the man.



In 2011 in April or May Lugosi’s mansion that he lived in, in the 1940’s, called “La Paloma” went up for sale, in decent shape although it needed some fixing up but from the photos in decent shape with fantastic views. It sold for $2. 25 million.



If Lugosi had lived just a few more years he would have hit a revival but fate was not quiet so kind. But his son as a lawyer found his niche in dealing with image copyright.



For some reason I find that very interesting and so appropriate.



And briefly touching on gardening again I also discovered a Day Lily to add to my garden called “Bela Lugosi” a deep purple with a yellow center, just perfect for the Goth decorations I’ve found ---more on that later.



Later Darklings