Showbiz History: Meg & Dennis, Clarice & Hannibal, Wayne & Garth

6 random things that happened on this day, February 14th, in showbiz history...

1931 Tod Browning's Dracula starring Bela Lugosi arrives in US theaters, two days after its NYC premiere. The studio wisely publicized that people had fainted at the premiere and the movie was a huge success. Sequels and spin-offs and endless remakes or, rather, adaptations of the Bram Stoker source material follow...

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Showbiz History: Gattaca, Trog, and the King and Queen of Pop

Five random things that happened on this day, October 24th, in showbiz history

50th anniversary today for TROG

1941 Spooks Run Wild, starring Bela Lugosi and part of the film franchise "East Side Kids" opens in theaters.

1970 50TH ANNIVERSARY. Trog, infamous Joan Crawford's last film, hits theaters...

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Horror Actressing: Elizabeth Allan in "Mark of the Vampire"

by Jason Adams

1935's Mark of the Vampire reunited director Tod Browning with Bela Lugosi four years after they had you know some success with a little film called Dracula. In those four in-between years Browning made the infamously disturbing Freaks (still disturbing to this day!), which was censored and banned everywhere, totally derailing his career. Nobody wanted to work with him after Freaks. But he did eventually manage to round up financing for a remake of one of his most successful silent films...

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White Zombie (1932)

 

Have you ever seen any of the early Bela Lugosi movies? Audiences must have been really freaked out by his eyes because the movies kept pushing that stare as the ultimate in horror (Dracula had arrived the year before). White Zombie was the first feature film about zombies, a genre now so common you forget that there had to be a first. The film, now celebrating its 87th birthday, is streaming on Amazon Prime and since it's only 66 minutes long we decided to zip right through yesterday... 

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King Aragorn... and Other Luminaries

It's a big day for your Lord of the Rings fans, even if you don't know it. Read on.

On this day in history as it relates to the movies
1882 Bela Lugosi is born in what was then Hungary (and now Romania). He vants to suck your blood as the original big screen Dracula. A century later Martin Landau will win a justly deserved Oscar for playing him in Tim Burton's wonderful Ed Wood (1994).
1895 Rex Ingram, one of the earliest successful black actors in Hollywood was born. Credits include: The Thief of Baghdad (as the genie), Huckleberry Finn (as Jim), and Cabin in the Sky (as Lucifer Jr)... 

1901 Frank Churchill is born in Maine. He wrote songs people still listen to today including "Baby Mine" from Dumbo and "Someday My Prince Will Come" from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Tragically he committed suicide at age 40 mere months after his winning his Oscar for Dumbo...

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