His performance as the toothsome Count Dracula in the 1931 classic movie came after several years in the 1927 Broadway stage adaptation of Bram Stoker’s novel.
Dracula proved to be a poisoned chalice for Lugosi. According to film database imdb.com, this distinguished stage actor in his native Hungary (or Austria-Hungary up to the end of the First World War), “ended up a drug-addicted pauper in Hollywood, thanks largely to typecasting brought about by his most famous role”.
He became a US citizen in the same year as the Dracula film, but “sadly, his reputation rapidly declined, mainly because he was only too happy to accept any part (and script) handed to him, and ended up playing pathetic parodies of his greatest role, in low-grade poverty row shockers. He ended his career working for the legendary Worst Director of All Time, Edward D. Wood Jr.”
In the entertainment memorabilia collecting field, the design promoting his best-known film has become extremely popular, however, and is one of the most sought-after posters at auction.
Highly popular
In the Heritage Auctions November 18-19 sale in Dallas, the Style A one sheet to the Dracula film is estimated at $150,000. Heritage says: “This is only the second known copy of this beautiful poster.”
Large collections of movie posters have emerged particularly in the US and UK in recent years, with strong demand and results tempting consignments to auction.
The Dracula poster is among more than 1000 lots covering this collecting field in the Heritage sale.
In August, the saleroom set a record for a Casablanca movie poster when an Italian example sold for a premium-inclusive $478,000 (£361,800) to an anonymous buyer. It is the only known example of the design known to survive and was consigned by a London collector. The record for a US version of the poster is $191,000.
Offered for the first time in the November 18-19 auction is a “glorious large French poster for the first release of Casablanca”. With artwork by Pierre Pigeot, this poster is estimated at $100,000.
Talking of classic horrors, a Style L one sheet to the 1925 Lon Chaney silent film The Phantom of the Opera is estimated at $50,000-100,000.
Again at Heritage, in November 2014, a poster for the Chaney film After Midnight, a tale of murder, detectives, vampires and hypnotists, became the most expensive sold at auction at that time.
The only known copy of the US release one-sheet from the film was sold for $478,000 (then about £318,665 given the exchange rate), against hopes of over $40,000, with the buyer described as a “long-time horror movie poster collector who does not wish to be identified”.
As another example of the sums that in-demand early film posters can bring at auction, a design for the 1933 film adaptation of HG Wells’ The Invisible Man sold for four times its lower estimate at $274,850 (£219,715) at Heritage in April.
The Day the Earth Stood Still film poster from 1951 which is estimated at $45,000 in the Heritage Auctions November 18-19 sale in Dallas. Heritage says that Larger format posters like this one, which is being offered by the saleroomfor the first time, more often than not were pasted to walls or glued together and thrown away after use.
