The Universal film cast Bela Lugosi, then a young Hungarian actor, in the title role for this first Hollywood interpretation of Bram Stoker’s famous novel.
Lugosi made the role his own.
One 11 x 14in (29 x 33.5cm) lobby card shows him with arms raised and fingers curled over set behind a spider’s web. This image, which had just a few unobtrusive pinholes but was in good overall condition, had an estimate of $40,000-80,000.
It made a final hammer price of $95,000 (£77,870) after no fewer than 17 collectors contested it in the Dallas, Texas, sale which was held on July 27-28.
A lobby card for the film ‘Dracula’, sold for $85,000 (£69,670) at Heritage Auctions’ July 27-28 movie posters sale. Image: Heritage Auctions, HA.com
The other card shows Lugosi in classic vampire horror-film pose – creeping in to bite into the neck of Frances Dade, who played the role of Lucy in the film. This realised a hammer price of $85,000 (£69,670).
Both sums are well in excess of the previous highest auction price for a lobby card which was also set at Heritage over a decade ago when a card from the same film sold for a premium-inclusive price of $65,725 in 2007.
