Going out as the Count . . .

QUESTION Was the actor Bela Lugosi buried in a Dracula cape?

AFTER Bela Lugosi died on August 16, 1956, aged 73, his body lay in state in full Dracula garb.

His fifth wife, Hope, said ‘it was his wish’ to be buried in the costume, though truth be told he had resented being typecast in the role. The decision to bury him in a cape was made by his fourth wife, Lillian, mother of his son Bela Jr.

Lugosi’s will instructed his executor to pay all costs, putting to bed a rumour that Frank Sinatra paid for the funeral.

In 1931, having already played Dracula to acclaim on stage, Lugosi was cast as the vampire in Tod Browning’s film. It propelled him into screen immortality.

Lugosi considered himself a versatile actor who was ‘definitely typed; doomed to be an exponent of evil’.

He wasn’t buried in the cape he wore in the film, but a lightweight version he used for personal appearances, along with his signature white tie and tails.

Lillian left the original costume to Bela Jr on her death in 1981. He tried to sell it at auction in 2011, but it did not reach its $1.25 million reserve.

He donated it to the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles, where it is on display with the ruby slippers from The Wizard Of Oz and Elizabeth Taylor’s Cleopatra wig.

Joseph Potter, Telford, Shropshire.

IT WAS not just Bela Lugosi who was buried in an unusual way.

Sandra Ilene West, the widow of a Texas oil millionaire, who died of a drugs overdose, aged 38, in 1977, had stipulated that she be interred in her favourite lace nightgown and be placed in the driving seat of her powder-blue Ferrari, ‘with the seat slanted comfortably’.

Former Playboy bunny Anna Nicole Smith, who married 89-year-old billionaire J. Howard Marshall, died aged 39 in 2007. She was buried in a pink gown and tiara, her coffin adorned with a pink rhinestone-studded blanket and roses.

Her heroine, Marilyn Monroe, was more demurely dressed for burial, in her favourite green Pucci dress.

Michael Jackson’s burial outfit cost $35,000. He was dressed in a copy of the pearl jacket he wore when his sister Janet handed him a Grammy in 1994 and black

Cape fear: Bela Lugosi and one of his victims in the iconic 1931 film Dracula Levis with Lucite shin guards that he had been due to wear for the opening number of This Is It, the tour he was rehearsing when he died. He also wore sunglasses and an 18-carat gold-plated belt adorned with semi-precious stones.

Sandra Caines, Brundall, Norfolk.

QUESTION Why is caffeine used in shampoos and medicines?

CAFFEINE is a stimulant, which means it increases activity in your brain and nervous system. It is the world’s most widely consumed psychoactive drug.

A growing body of evidence has linked the ingestion of caffeine with beneficial effects. It is absorbed easily by the skin making it an ideal compound for topical application.

Caffeine is used as an additive in antihair loss shampoos because it inhibits the enzyme 5 alpha-reductase, which converts testosterone into the more active dihydrotestosterone that is responsible for hair loss.

Other studies have shown caffeine stimulates hair cells to produce more adenosine triphosphate (ATP), the energy source for biological cells. ATP helps stimulate the hair follicle in its active growing phase. In addition, caffeine aids the delivery of nutrients to the hair follicle.

Some studies have found caffeine has a sunscreen-like effect and can reduce UVB damage if applied before sunbathing.

Caffeine has been linked to increased metabolism and is an ergogenic aid, which means it increases the capacity for bodily or mental labour by eliminating fatigue.

The beneficial effects of caffeine in endurance sport saw it banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency in 1984. It was removed from the banned list in 2004 because tests were not able to distinguish between social use and abuse.

Over the past decade, research has associated drinking coffee with beneficial effects in dementia, liver diseases, diabetes and some cancers.

However, high doses of caffeine can cause fatigue, nervousness and feelings of anger or depression.

S. Singh, Leicester.

QUESTION What is the worst anachronism in film or TV?

FURTHER to the earlier example of kilts being featured in Braveheart 400 years before they were invented, I’d like to add the Land Rover parked in a side street in the film Ice Cold In Alex as the actors arrive for that refreshing lager at the end of the film. Land Rovers did not appear until 1948, six years after the battle of Tobruk when the action was set.

Ian Green, Malvern, Worcs.

IN THOROUGHLY Modern Millie, Julie Andrews sings about smoking filter cigarettes. However, the film was set in 1922 and filter cigarettes were not invented until 1925 and not in common use until decades later.

In the 1954 film Men Of Sherwood Forest, Robin Hood is said to have been held hostage in Germany, a country that wouldn’t exist for at least another six centuries.

T. Bailey, Nottingham.

QUESTION Have any a cappella songs been big chart hits?

FURTHER to the earlier answer about the 1980s, there were three a cappella songs in the charts in the 1970s.

Judy Collins had a No 5 with Amazing Grace in 1970; folk-rock pioneers Steeleye Span had a Christmas success with the 16th-century carol Gaudete in 1973, which reached No 14; and vocal group Prelude reached No21 with their cover of Neil young’s After The Gold Rush in 1974.

Jill Harkin, Droitwich, Worcs.

IS THERE a question to which you want to know the answer? Or do you know the answer to a question here? Write to: Charles Legge, Answers To Correspondents, Scottish Daily Mail, 20 Waterloo Street, Glasgow G2 6DB; or email charles.legge@dailymail.co.uk. A selection is published, but

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