Bela Lugosi On TV
It is not known exactly how many appearances Bela Lugosi made on TV. Although he appeared on several high-profile programmes, he did not fare well in the new medium. His sole dramatic role in an episode of Suspense drew very bad reviews, while his inability to respond to ad-libbing, in part due to his fading hearing, did not create the best of impressions when he appeared on Milton Berle’s and Red Skelton’s hit shows. These poor performances, coupled with the unstoppable decline of his career and the inevitable complications of advancing age, could explain his failure to capitalise on the possibilities that television offered.
This page contains a chronological listing of Bela’s known TV appearances. Where available, transmission times and dates, programme details, and contemporary press notices and reviews are included.
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1947
Backstage at the Spa Theater
Broadcast 7:20 – 7:30p.m., Wednesday, August 6
Bela made his debut TV appearance on the opening episode of WRGB’s Backstage at the Spa Theater. Filmed at General Electric’s TV studio, the ten- minute programme featured Bela plugging his appearance in a production of Arsenic and Old Lace which was playing that week at the Spa Summer Theater in Saratoga Springs, New York. You can read a review of the production on the Bela Lugosi On The Stage page.
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Schenectady Gazette, August 6, 1947
Saratoga Summer Theater Stars Will Be Televised Here
Stars of each week’s Saratoga summer theater presentation will make personal appearances in ten-minute television programs over WRGB on Wednesday evenings at 7:20 p.m. The series will open tonight with Bela Lugosi, well known horror man of the movies who is playing the lead in “Arsenic and Old Lace”, before the cameras in General Electric’s television studios.
The schedule for the next three weeks will be:
Edward Everett Horton, playing in “Springtime for Henry” on Aug. 23.
Zasu Pitts, playing in “The Late Christopher Bean” on Aug. 20.
Faye Emerson, playing in “Profile” on Aug. 27
This series, known as “Backstage at the Spa Theater,” will be directed by Duff-Brown and arranged by Ted Beeb. John Huntington, manager of the Spa theater, is expected to accompany Bela Lugosi and take part in the inaugural program tonight.
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1948
An interview with Guy LeBow
In his biography, veteran radio and TV broadcaster Guy LeBow recalled interviewing Bela on TV around the time that he made Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein. In the unconfirmed interview, Bela stated that his favourite role was Santa Claus because even Bela Jr. had not seen through his father’s convincing performance. LeBow wrote, “One of our saddest visitors was Count Dracula. Note that I didn’t say Bela Lugosi. Dracula had literally sucked the blood out of Lugosi’s career. He’d made that movie in 1931 and almost twenty years later he was still identified with the evil vampire.”
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1949
Texaco Star Theatre
Broadcast 8-9 p.m. EST, Tuesday, September 27
Bela appeared before his largest live audience in two sketches on Milton Berle’s hit TV show. In one skit, Bela, in full Dracula costume, tried to hypnotize the popular comedian into buying a house. Berle’s constant ad-libbing and deviation from the script left Bela in a state of confusion. As Bela left the stage, Berle quipped, “You kill people on the screen, you also kill jokes.” Bela played a mad scientist in the second skit, again falling foul of Berle’s ad-libbing. The audience, which howled with laughter throughout, and the critics, who highlighted the routines for praise, thought it was all part of the routine.
Note: This show is often wrongly listed as being broadcast on October 27th, but no broadcast took place on that day as it was a Thursday and the show was broadcast on Tuesdays. The October 25th show did not feature Bela Lugosi.
Click on the link below to watch an extract
http://s109.photobucket.com/albums/n74/tomwolf38732/Misc%20Stuff/?action=view¤t=bela.mp4
Billboard, October 8, 1949
The Texaco Star Theater
Reviewed Thursday (27) 8-9 p.m. EDT. Sponsored by the Texas Company thru the Kudner Agency, via the National Broadcasting Company, New York. Producer-director, Ed Cashman. Cast: Milton Berle, Bill Robinson, Billie Burke, Jackie Robinson, Bela Lugosi, Al Roth orchestra, the Maxellos, Sid Stone.
In some respects, tele does a lot of things radio does but on a much larger scale. It makes stars faster – witness Milton Berle; it builds ratings faster – witness Milton Berle – and it may exhaust show formulas much faster. Berle may eventually be the star witness on this last, too.
The reason, obviously, is that the tenacious adherence to the formula quickly deprives it of the freshness so vital to continued success. Fred Aleen once observed that only a schnook tinkers with a successful formula, but Fred was speaking of radio, and years before television began reshaping the showbiz world.
So it will become a question of time before Berle runs out of trick costumes for his first entrance, and a question of time before his repeated use of certain stock gags becomes as familiar to the TV audience as it is to perpetual night clubbers. This in no wise detracts from Berle as kingpin of TV, but it makes his problem that much more acute. In what direction do you travel from the top?
Bojangles Overworked
Thus, skipping lightly over the first Texaco show of the series, and taking up with the second, it adds up to taking up just where the series wound up last spring, sans anything new – and noticeable short of outside acts to lend variety. The result was that not only did Berle work, as always, thruout virtually the entire show, but one of the acts, the ageless Bill Robinson – so great a showman – did his own number and participated in two others, one with Jackie Robinson, the Dodger ball player, and one in a Ziegfield nostalgia reprise session closing the show. If acts are short now, in the second week, what’s the outlook upcoming?
The Ziegfeld number, cued in via Berle’s interview with Billie Burke, was high in nostalgia value, with a number of mimics doing Helen Morgan, W.C. Fields, Nora Bayes et al., winding up with Berle’s imitation of Eddie Cantor. The preceding palaver, tho, with Miss Burke, was entirely artificial and overly saccharine.
Slapstick Vital
Berle should make it a must to get one wild sketch into each show, the sort of slapstick, cornball idiocy built around Bela Lugosi on this show. It’s almost Keystone cop-like in its flavor; provides a wonderful pace for the show and provides ample opportunity for Berle’s own antics. Which the people want.
Opener was the crack Risley foursome, the Maxellos, with Berle in, of course, for the bounce-around payoff. A later spot, with Jackie Robinson, was poorly handled, with the ace ball player standing awkwardly and abruptly cut off in the middle of an interview to bring on a baseball sketch.
Sid Stone’s pitchman commercial, this time using a youngster caparisoned in like garb, was more than usually inventive.
Jerry Franken.
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Suspense
Broadcast 9:30 -10 p.m., Tuesday, October 11
A Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allen Poe
Produced and Directed by Robert Stevens
Adapted by Halsted Welles
Bela’s performance in his first dramatic TV role drew poor reviews. Jerry Franken of The Billboard was particularly scathing, claiming that Bela was “the show’s greatest weakness for he failed to bestow an iota of reality on what appears to have been a fine and meaty part.” The poor critical reception could explain why Suspense remained Bela’s only appearance in a dramatic role on TV.
The Billboard, October 22, 1949
Suspense
Reviewed Tuesday (11), 9:30 – 10 p.m. Sponsored by Electric Auto-Lite thru Newell-Emmett via the Columbia Broadcasting System, New York. Producer-Director, Robert Stevens. Announcer, Rex Marshall. Music, Hank Sylvem. Cast: Bela Lugosi, Romney Brent.
Back at the stand and doing business in its customarily effective way is Suspense, which last season, and now again this season, gives every indication of being the tops in its throat clutching field. It is still characterized by good story material expertly adapted for tele, facile production and expect in one instance on the show caught good performances.
The story Tuesday (11) was the Poe classic, A Cask of Amontillado, modernized in that the locale was occupied Italy and the victim who winds up sealed in the subterranean wall was an Italian Fascist general. This was the role played by Bela Lugosi and the show’s greatest weakness for he failed to bestow an iota of reality on what appears to have been a fine and meaty part. The entire story points to that moment when the general is forced to place his wrists in chains suspended from a wall while the count prepares to turn mason. Lugosi almost seemed to walk into the spot with alacrity, and the tension which had been established in the chase down to the cellar was vitiated.
Brent’s a Master
What may have added to the ineffectual quality of Lugosi’s job was the commanding and immaculate performance turned in by Romney Brent, the sort of work which delivers much satisfaction in observing the work of a master craftsman.
Only two directional shortcomings marked the program – one the overuse of a circular stairway set to denote the climb into the wine cellars, the other an unscheduled shot of Brent’s head as he prepared to go down stairs “after” Lugosi. Otherwise, the show was grade “A,” all the way.
Rex Marshall does the Auto-lite commercials in a straightforward manner, providing the vocals for the animated parade of automotive products.
Jerry Franken.
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1950
Celebrity Time
Broadcast Sunday, January 22
Bela and actress Lisa Kirk guested on celebrity variety show with Arlene Francis substituting for regular host Iike Chase.
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Versatile Varieties
Broadcast 9pm EST, Friday, January 27
Bela guested with singer Anne Russell on the live variety show hosted by Harold Barry. The show was set in a nightclub with guest performers. Non-performing guests and famous people made up the audience.
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Starlit Time
Broadcast 7pm EST, Sunday, May 21
Bela made a guest star appearance on this musical variety programme three weeks after its first broadcast. The show, hosted by Bill Williams and Phil Hanna, ran from May 9th to November 26th, 1950. No copy of the show appears to exist.
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The Spiedel Show
Broadcast 8pm EST, Monday, October 2
Bela appeared in full Dracula costume on the popular show starring ventriloquist Paul Winchell and his dummy Jerry Mahoney. Patricia Bright and Jimmy Blaine also guested.
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Okay Mother
Broadcast 1pm EST, Thursday, December 28
Bela’s fourth wife Lillian made her TV debut on the daytime audience-participation and variety show hosted by Dennis James
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1951
The Charlie Chester Show
Broadcast Saturday, April 14
Four days after arriving in England for the British revival tour of Dracula, Bela was a guest of the popular comedian. Also appearing on the BBC show were Tessie O’Shea and Joan Gilbert. He was interviewed on the BBC Radio show In Town Tonight on the same day.
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Ship’s Reporter
Broadcast Thursday, December ?
Bela was interviewed aboard the Queen Elizabeth on his arrival in New York from England on December 11th, 1951, by Jack Mangan for the WJZ TV show Ship’s Reporter. Bela talked about the recent British tour of Dracula and Mother Riley Meets The Vampire (referred to as Vampire Over London, the original American title) and his career in general.
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1953
The House of Wax Premiere
Interview with Shirley Thomas, broadcast Thursday, April 16 (?)
Sporting a pair of Ray-bans and leading gorilla-suited actor Steve Calvert on a chain, Bela made a personal appearance at the premiere of The House of Wax at the Paramount Theater on April 16. Inevitably dressed in his Dracula costume, Bela’s appearance was intended to create publicity for The Atomic Monster, a proposed vehicle for Bela, which scriptwriter Alex Gordon was trying to persuade Allied Artist to greenlight. The script was eventually filmed by Ed Wood under the title of Bride of the Atom/Monster. Bela was interviewed for TV by Shirley Thomas. Due to his deteriorating hearing he memorized the questions and his answers in advance. On the night, however, Thomas, who is said to have misplaced her list of questions, asked them in a different order. As a result of the hustle and bustle of the crowd, Bela didn’t realise and answered them in the original order.
Although no footage of Bela’s interview with Shirley Thomas appears to have survived, Bela’s arrival at the premiere was captured on film by Warner’s Pathe Newsreel.
You can read more about Bela’s appearance at the Paramount Theater in our Bela Lugosi At The House Of Wax Premiere article.
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You Asked For It
Broadcast Monday, July 27 on the West Coast and Sunday, August 9 on the East Coast
The premise of this 30-minute ABC show was that the guests were chosen in response to viewer requests. Bela was requested by Mrs. Harriet Frazier from Springfield in Massachusetts. Once again appearing in full Dracula costume, Bela performed “the vampire bat illusion,” in which he hypnotised actress Shirley Patterson before transforming her into a vampire bat. In a short interview, Bela told host Art Baker that he would shortly be filming The Phantom Ghoul in 3D and a television series called Dr. Acula. Neither project came to fruition. Shirley Patterson appeared in forty films, including such cult favourites as the 1943 Batman serial and, as Shawn Smith, World Without End, The Land Unknown and It! The Terror From Beyond Space.
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The Spade Cooley Show
Broadcast 8pm, Saturday, October 31
Bela guest-starred with comic musician Leo (Ukie) Sherin, who had worked as the dialogue director on Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla, on the double Emmy award-winning show. Sherin was making the first of thirteen contracted appearances on the show, which featured him performing in the men’s room. Broadcast from the Santa Monica Pier Ballroom on KTLA, the show was estimated to have drawn 75% of all TV viewers in the Los Angeles area during its peak. Spade Cooley’s successful career came to a spectacular end in 1961 when he was sentenced to life in prison for beating his wife to death.
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1954
The Red Skelton Show
Broadcast 8:30 – 9 p.m., June 15, 1954
Although some sources claim this show was broadcast on October 27, 1953, contemporary listings do not cite Bela, alongside co-stars Peter Lorre, Lon Chaney, Jr. and Maila Nurmi in the guise of horror hostess Vampira, as appearing on the Halloween show. Maila Nurmi later recalled the show as taking place in “about June of ’54,” which is borne out by an article in The Los Angeles Times from June 15, 1954
As had happened with Milton Berle on Texaco Star Theater in 1949, Bela fell foul of comedic ad-libbing when Red Skelton deviated from the script during a skit. Surviving stills show Bela and Vampira acting out a vampire scene on a laboratory set.
Los Angeles Times, June 15, 1954
Vampira (Maila Nurmi) and Bela
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1955
Metropolitan State Hospital Interview
Broadcast date unknown
On August 1, 1955, Bela was interviewed as he prepared for his release from the Metropolitan State Hospital at the end of his ninety-day treatment for his addiction to prescription drugs. In the interview, a very healthy-looking and upbeat Bela talked frankly about his addiction, alcohol problems and divorce and a future, unrealised, film project, The Ghoul Goes West with Ed Wood. Both edited and unedited prints of the interview survive.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvZFa8iu4-w
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1956
The Tom Duggan Show
Broadcast date unknown
Controversial talk show host Tom Duggan had shows on both KCOP and KTLA in Los Angeles from 1956, and it is not clear on which Bela appeared following his release from the Metropolitan State Hospital. Whereas his pre-release interview had been conducted by a kindly interviewer, Duggan was renowned for his abrasive style, and is said to have shown Bela little respected.
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The Black Sleep Premiere
Broadcast Wednesday, June 27 (?)
Bela was interviewed along with Tor Johnson and Vampira by local TV at the June 27 premiere of his final film. He was escorted to the premiere by, among others, Forrest J. Ackerman and Richard Sheffield, whose recollections of the event differed. According to Sheffield, Bela was not interested in attending, preferring to drink at home. Somewhat inebriated, he was eventually persuaded to go. Ackerman’s account omits any mention of Bela being intoxicated. Instead he recounted how Bela’s fading eyesight and his reluctance to wear glasses in public necessitated him being pointed in the right direction to face the cameras. Both agreed, however, that once in front of the camera, Bela gave a fine and dignified account of himself.
