Kickstarting ‘Béla Lugosi The Man Behind The Cape’ By Robert Cremer
by Benjamin Hall
Actor Béla Lugosi‘s various life experiences include more than his time as Dracula in the 1931 film by the same name and working with director Edward D. Wood Jr. Now fans old and new will be able to learn more about Lugosi by reading an up-to-date edition of the biography Béla Lugosi: The Man Behind the Cape. The Kickstarter campaign for the book just started on October 25, 2023 with publisher Clover Press running it. It will include a new forward and an afterword from Béla Lugosi Jr. and Dr. Gary Rhodes, respectively. Lynne Lugosi Sparks provides a curation of 700 hundred pictures and other documents that helps to flesh out the biography. The release of the book upon a successful crowdfunding campaign is currently expected in May 2024.
According to Superfans Promotions and Clover Press: Béla Lugosi: The Man Behind the Cape includes exclusive interviews conducted with Lillian Lugosi Donlevy, Lugosi’s wife of 20 years, as well as his closest Hungarian relatives and friends. The biography explores the actor’s humble beginnings in Hungary; his political activism, which cost him his wife, family and almost his life; his harrowing transatlantic crossing to America; and his struggles to realize his dream of becoming a success on stage and on the silver screen. The book also provides compelling insight into the reasons for Béla’s decline into B-movie productions in Gower Gulch in the 1950s, with extensive interviews with Edward D. Wood, Jr. which unlock heretofore unknown background on Béla’s involvement in the filming of the cult classics Glen or Glenda (1953), Bride of the Monster (1955) and Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959).
This new edition of the biography gives a look into various parts of Lugosi’s existence which include, but are not limited to:
- How Béla became a major union organizer in 1918 that catapulted him to fame and then to exile from his beloved Hungary.
- Why Béla was not the first choice for the role of Count Dracula.
- Why Béla risked involvement in the founding of the Screen Actors Guild in Hollywood, given his near-fatal experience with union activism in Hungary.
- Why Béla’s film The Raven was a personal nightmare for the actor, despite being a box office hit.
- Why Béla risked his health repeatedly on cross-country barnstorming tours.
- What role fishhead stew played in Béla’s embarking on a second career with filmmaker Ed Wood.
Check out the campaign at this link.
