1952

1952

Trenton Evening Times, May 26, 1952

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Ogdensburg Journal, May 31, 1952

In Hollywood

By Erskine Johnson

Horror fans eager for a reteaming of Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi can stop having those nightmares. Neither Boris or Bela are eager for it.

As Karloff sees it, “Our pictures made a lot of money. But Bela and I both lost something as individual actors.”

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The Milwaukee Journal June 2, 1952

Kindly Lugosi Is Star Bogey Man, Finds It’s Fine for the Bank Roll

By BOB THOMAS

Hollywood, Calif. – (AP) – Like his fellow horror expert, Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi is a courteous, soft spoken fellow who takes his craft seriously. He fell into the horror line quite by accident.

He was a romantic star of the Royal theater in Hungary, playing the original roles in such Ferenc Molnar plays as “Liliom” and “The Guardsman.” But he came to New York in the chiller “Dracula.” When he re-created the role in films, he was destined to a career of scaring people. Since he had played everything from Shakespeare to Byron, I asked if he objected to being typed.

“No, not at all,” he replied. “The main thing for an actor is to keep working. And I have managed to do so for a good many years. It is a kind of security, this being a horror man. I have just returned from playing ‘Dracula’ in England for eight months. I also made a picture over there.

“I have appeared on television with Milton Berle and a dozen other shows. Now I am filming ‘Bela Lugosi Meets the Gorilla Man,’ which is not bad publicity. I am to return to England for another picture and I am talking about a television series. So you can see I have been busy.

Far from regretting his horror tag, Lugosi is even sorry he didn’t sew up the field. He had the chance after he made his hit in “Dracula.”

“They wanted me to play the part of Frankenstein’s monster,” he recalled. “I even did a test for it. The make-up was terrible, with the rubber mask and putty and the padding choking my body. Then I saw the script. I didn’t have a line in the whole picture!.

“I didn’t want to do it. I figured they could get any truck driver to put on all that stuff and grunt through the part. So I told them I wouldn’t do it. At first they were angry, and then I told them my doctor advised against such a strenuous part.

“They said they would let me out of the part if I could dig up someone to do it. So I looked around and found Boris Karloff. He did the role, and of course it was a hit. I created my own Frankenstein monster by turning down the part.”

Lugosi stayed at Universal for several years, playing in other horror films and co-starring with Karloff in many of them. He said that several years ago the studios weren’t making horror films, so he went to the east to live. He performed in plays and in vaudeville. Now horror seems to be blossoming forth in Hollywood again, and Lugosi is again a California resident. He may build a home for himself, his wife and their 14 year old son.

I asked him if people expect him to scare them in private life.

“Sometimes,” he answered, “But they are generally good natured about it. For instance, children will come up and say, ‘Hello, bogey man.’ But they aren’t really frightened. Children know when someone is gentle, no matter what he is made out to be.

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The Palm Beach Times, September 25, 1952