Bela Lugosi On The Radio
At one time, it was thought that Bela Lugosi had seldom been called upon to perform on the radio. He himself is said to have once expressed a dislike for the medium. According to one researcher, however, he may have actually made over 200 broadcasts, and it is likely that he made many undocumented appearances on local radio stations as he travelled around the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom in touring productions. Of his known radio appearances, precious few appear to have survived. On this page we will attempt to collect together all existing information on his radio appearances and all of his known surviving radio broadcasts. Click on the links to listen to the complete broadcasts.
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1928
WJZ Radio
Abbreviated version of Dracula
March 30, 1928
During Dracula’s Broadway run at the Fulton Theatre, Bela and fellow cast members, including Edward Van Sloan, performed an abbreviated version of the hit play on WJZ Radio in Newark.
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1931
KFI Radio
March 27, 1931
Bela appeared on Los Angeles’ KFI Radio to promote the film Dracula. Although no recording of his appearance is known to exist, Bela’s own typed copy of his speech was preserved in one of his scrapbooks:
I read the book “DRACULA,” written by Bram Stoker, 18 years ago, and I have always dreamed of creating and playing this part of “DRACULA.” Finally the opportunity came. Horace Liveright, stage producer of New York, acquired the stage rights of the novel and he chose me for the part. I have played the role of “DRACULA” about a thousand times on the stage, and people often ask me if I still retain my interest in the character. I do – intensely.
Because many people regard the story of “DRACULA” as a glorified superstition, the actor who plays the role is constantly engaged in a battle of wits with the audience, in a sense, since he is constantly striving to make the character so real that the audience will believe in it.
Now that I have appeared in the screen version of the story, which Universal has just completed, I am, of course, not under the daily strain in the depiction of the character. My work in this direction was finished with the completion of the picture, but while it was being made, I was working more intensely to this point than I ever did on stage.
Although “DRACULA” is a fanciful tale of a fictional character, it is actually a story which has many essential elements of truth. I was born and reared in almost the exact location of the story, and I came to know that what is looked upon as a superstition of ignorant people, is really based on facts which are literally hell-raising in their strangeness — but which are true.
Many people will leave the theater with a sniff at the fantastic character of the story, but many others who think just as deeply will gain an insight into one of the most remarkable facts of human existence.
“DRACULA” is a story which has always had a powerful effect on the emotions of an audience, and I think that the picture will be no less effective than the stage play.
In fact, the motion picture should prove even more remarkable in this direction, since many things which could only be talked about on the stage are shown on the screen in uncanny detail. I am sure you will enjoy “DRACULA”. I am sure you will be mightily affected by its strange story, and I hope that it will make you think — about the weirdest, most remarkable condition that ever affected mankind. I Thank You.
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1938
KDKA
Baker’s Broadcast
March 13, 1938
Broadcast 7:30 pm (EST)
The Pittsburgh Press, March 11, 1938
How would you like to haunt a ghost? Radio will try that trick Sunday night when Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi, two guys who make big dough trying to be cussed mean on the screen, shake hands as Ozzie Nelson’s guests Sunday night at 7:30 on KDKA. Once before they worked together, in a picture called “The Raven.” Sunday they will do an “in person” collision of movie spirits.
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Harriet Hilliard, Boris Karloff, Ozzie Nelson, Bela Lugosi
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Bela performed a short skit with husband and wife team Ozzie Nelson and Harriet Hilliard in which he confided, “If someone says ‘boo’ to me, I’m liable to faint…Once I saw myself in Dracula and I was home in bed for a week.” Later in the show he and Boris Karloff sang (off-key and out of sync with each other) a short song, We’re Horrible Horrible Men. Bela’s difficult to hear lyrics were deciphered by Gregory William Mank in his Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff: The Expanded Story of a Haunting Collaboration (McFarland):
We’re Horrible, Horrible Men
Bela:
We’re horrible!
Both:
We’re horrible, horrible men.
Boris:
Horrible, horrible men.
Both:
We’re villainous, killinous, lecherous, treacherous, toughiest, roughiest men.
Bela:
To the grave we come in
It would make strong men afraid
You can’t blame us for it
For the rent must be paid.
Both:
We’re horrible, horrible, horrible, horrible, horrible, horrible men.
We’re horrible, horrible, horrible, horrible, horrible, horrible men.
We’re villainous, killinous, treacherous, lecherous, toughiest, roughiest men.
Boris:
Though the movies would make me
A terrible brute
When my make-up is off
I’m really quite cute
Both:
We’re horrible, horrible, horrible, horrible, horrible, horrible men.
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1939
CBS
The Tuesday Program
October 17, 1939
Broadcast 8:30pm
The Lewiston Daily Sun, October 17, 1939
RADIO NOTES
Charles Atlas, “World’s Strongest Man,” and Bela Lugosi will be heard with Walter O’Keefe over the WABC-Columbia network tonight.
Ellensburgh Daily Record, November 9, 1939
Man About Manhattan
By George Teacher
The other afternoon during a Walter O’keefe rehearsal, one of the actors let loose with a scream that almost shattered the microphones. The entire cast just glanced up and went on with their business, that is, ethe entire cast with one exception. The exception took almost ten minutes to recover from the scare and shock. His name is Bela Lugosi, the horror man of the screen.
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Bela guested with singer Mary Martin and strongman Charles Atlas on Walter O’Keefe’s CBS show. In a comedy scene, Bela played a werewolf with a “terrible case of rabies.”
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1944
Quarter Hour with William S. Gallmor
April 23, 1944
Bela passionately discussed the political situation in Hungary with William S. Gallmor.
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Mystery House – The Thirsty Death
July 3, 1944
The Thirsty Death was the pilot episode of Mystery House, a proposed series for Bela Lugosi. Although at the end of the show, Bela announces that in the following week’s episode he will be joined by Simone Simon in a story about a woman who was buried alive, no other episodes featuring Bela appear to have been made. Compare Ken Carpenter also tells the audience that Bela “is currently being stared in a series of Mystery House pictures at Universal Studios”, no such series was ever made.
A Mystery House series was broadcast in the 1950s, but Bela was not involved.
Mystery House: The Thirsty Death (03.07.44)
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Command Performance
October 31, 1944
Bela, Sterling Holloway and Paulette Goddard
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1945
County Fair
July 31, 1945
Bela performed the magical feat of sawing a lady in half on the Jack Baily-hosted show.
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1947
The Adventures of Ellery Queen
The Specialist in Cops
March 19, 1947
Ellery Queen is kidnapped by Nutsy Yapp who specializes in killing police officers for hire. When Yapp lets Ellery write a note to his father, the detective includes a clue to his whereabouts. As this episode’s guest armchair detective, Bela attempted to find the solution to the mystery.
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Helbros Mutual
Quick As A Flash
Broadcast 5:30 – 6pm, Sunday, May 18, 1947
Each episode of the popular quiz show featured the Helbros Derby, a mystery sketch featuring a guest dectective. The show’s contestants could win a cash prize by solving the mystery. Bela played Dr. Heggi, a Hungarian detective, opposite host Ken Roberts in “a tabloid mystery play” entitled “A severe Case of Murder.” Although no recording of the program is known to exist, the script has survived. It can be viewed as part of a fascinating article on the history of the show at: http://martingrams.blogspot.com/2011/07/bela-lugosi-on-quick-as-flash.html
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1949
CBS
Tales of Fatima – The Man in the Shadow
September 10, 1949
Bela guested on Basil Rathbone’s mystery series, of which only one episode is known to have survived.
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WMGM
Crime Does Not Pay – Gasoline Cocktail
December 12, 1949
Based on a series of short films of the same name, Crime Does Not Pay was an MGM-produced series. The show was aired in New York on WMGM from October 10th, 1949 to October 10th, 1951.
Crime Does Not Pay: Gasoline Cocktail (12.12.49)
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1950
Guest appearance on WWSW, Pitsburg
The Billboard, March 25, 1950
Jan Andre, WWSW, Pittsburgh, started a new gimmick with the listeners interviewing the guests. Success of interviews with Mindy Carson and Bela Lugosi made the gimmick a permanent part of the show.
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1951
Betty Crocker Magazine of the Air
Bela shared Hungarian recipes and recounted how he and his wife Lillian, then celebrating their 18th wedding anniversary, first met.
January 29, 1951
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BBC Radio
In Town Tonight
April 14, 1951
Bela was interviewed by John Ellisonon on the Saturday evening programme four days after arriving in England for a revival tour of Dracula.
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BBC Radio
In Town Tonight
June 16, 1951
Bela was interviewed by Brian Johnston at the Sunday Pictorial Film Garden Party at Morden Park in Surrey on the final day of Dracula’s run at the Empire Theatre in Shepherd’s Bush, London. The event, which also featured Burt Lancaster and Bette Davis, was captured on film in a British Pathe newsreel entitled “Seeing Stars.” The footage showed a relaxed Bela smoking one of his trademark cigars.
