Bela Lugosi At Home --- Part 1


Bela Lugosi in his prime knew something about gracious living. These photos, most likely done for a fan magazine feature, offer a pretty fair depiction of the off-screen persona Lugosi wanted to project during the thirties. He was, in fact, an avid reader, as the view in his corner library shows, and judging by the untidy appearance of his bookshelves (note the periodicals crammed in there), Bela wasn’t faking the image as lots of pseudo-literary movie star types were wont to do. Those are gorgeous hurricane lamps, by the way, and further evidence that he appreciated accessories of timeless quality. That photo of Lugosi at the table was, we think, taken on the opposite side of the same room, as the table is the same one he’s sitting on in the library shot (note the lamp). We like the little corner bureau, and that unusual wall rack above. Wonder if that door leads to the outside? Guess so, since there’s curtains, and apparently a window, behind Lugosi. The portrait above reflects Bela’s immense (and well-justified) satisfaction in being Bela, and we’d sure like to have that massive thing hanging in our living room. Anybody know where it is now? Did I hear about it selling at auction a few years back? And doesn’t his furniture look solid? Like it would have taken a team of movers with really strong backs to get all that stuff in there. The shot of pajama-clad Bela affords us a nice glimpse of a Clara Bow nude portrait Bela supposedly commissioned in the wake of his torrid assignation with the "It" Girl back in the late twenties. Seems Clara saw him on stage in Dracula and rushed backstage to meet the vampire king in person. Things got pretty hot from there. Bela would show her claw marks on his back to any friends who might be interested. Bad as things might have gotten later on in the Ed Wood/State Rehab days, he at least had sweet memories of that. We like the well-used leather upholstery in Bela’s chairs too, and I believe there's a framed portrait of Lugosi as Christ above his head and to the right (click and enlarge here). We’ve seen stills of him in that role, and this sure looks like some of them. Stay tuned. More photos from this group tomorrow.