How Dracula first took life in Conn., where Frankenstein got too much sun
It’s Halloween, so gather ’round for three tales of Frankenstein and Dracula terrorizing Connecticut.
One is fiction and one is more of a stretch than a politician’s campaign promise on Oct. 31.
The third is true
The legend
My wife and I were car shopping in Stamford about 15 years ago. On that that day we discovered that real life vampires (aka, car salesmen) routinely take victims (sorry, potential buyers) to Shippan for test drives.
Why not? The inviting waterfront views distract shoppers from looking too closely at the interiors, and there are fewer obstacles to hit while sampling the gas and brake pedals.
The third salesman crouched in the back seat of a Volvo and tossed in a bonus local history lesson about Stamford as we cruised Shippan. I know a little history myself, but kept quiet and enjoyed the ride until we approached the most striking address in the neighborhood: Marion Castle on Rogers Road, which resembles a French chateau from the street and offers a view of the New York City skyline from its backyard.
“And this is where they filmed ‘Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein,’ ” he said.
I hit the brakes, the proverbial ones.
“No, it’s not.”
“But ...”
“No, that’s just not true. It was filmed in California,” I insisted gently.
“But I’ve been telling customers that for years,” he said with absolutely no conviction that he would stop.
A few months ago, I told the story to the current occupant of Marion Castle, Stamford developer Tom Rich. He surprised me more than I surprised the salesman. Tom said he heard the rumor himself while growing up a block away from the Castle in the 1960s, and it has remained part of local lore.
“I have always had Saddle Rock and Rogers roads as my primary residences where over the last 63 years I have lived at only four addresses on those two streets,” Tom clarified in recent days.
For 23 years he has lived in the Castle (he refers to it as “the pile”), where he has hosted many fundraisers and events, including one attended by thenVice President Joe Biden. The first owner of the 1914 structure (it has only had four) was film pioneer Frank J. Marion, so it does have a celluloid connection.
So, to be clear, one future president, no Abbott, no Costello, no monsters. And the setting of the 1948 movie was played by Benedict Castle in Riverside, Calif.
The stretch
Lugosi’s “Dracula” first took life, however, at the Shubert Theatre in New Haven on Sept. 19, 1927, then traveled to Parsons in Hartford, the Lyceum in New London, and, finally, the Stamford Theatre on Sept. 28-29.
Frankenstein once got too tan while summering in Darien.
Yes, that’s fake news. But Boris Karloff, who delivered the definitive portrayal of Frankenstein in the eponymous 1931 film, resided during summers from 1941-44 at Cross Road and Tokeneke Trail in the Tokeneke section of Darien. He reportedly appreciated the home (which also had a name, “Blue Spuce”) for its resemblance to his childhood haunt in England and its closeness to the neighborhood beach club. It was there that he got a dark enough tan to require extra makeup for his meta Broadway role in “Arsenic and Old Lace.” The play was such a hit that the stage producers wouldn’t cut Karloff loose to repeat the part on screen, even though his character is told “he looks like Boris Karloff.”
An ad for the haberdashery Hendrie & Lovatt on Atlantic Street in Stamford at the time pledged, “No, we won’t send you away from our store looking like something from a Boris Karloff picture.”
That must have scared off at least one customer from Darien.
Real, not reel, story
Bela Lugosi first played Dracula in Connecticut.
Yes, the actor and character immortalized one another in the 1931 film, four years after “Dracula: The Vampire Play” debuted on Broadway on Oct. 5, 1927.
Lugosi’s “Dracula” first took life, however, at the Shubert Theatre in New Haven on Sept. 19, 1927, then traveled to Parsons in Hartford, the Lyceum in New London, and, finally, the Stamford Theatre on Sept. 2829.
Lugosi and Co. clearly made their mark on the unnamed Stamford Advocate theater critic.
“As if the demon of Dracula had cast his vampire’s spell over the local public utility corporation, most of the city streets were shadowy and pitch dark, heightening the timidity of the shaky first-nighters who had been thrilled by one of the most blood-curdling and weirdest of plays that has been viewed in Stamford in some time.”
Stamford didn’t stay weird for long. After the two-show run, the Stamford Theatre hosted a musical production of Mark Twain’s “A Connecticut Yankee at the Court of King Arthur.”
Lugosi, meanwhile, became synonymous with the role. Nevertheless, he would only play it on screen twice. Yes, the second and final time was when Dracula and Frankenstein met Abbott and Costello in that movie that wasn’t filmed in Stamford.
Karloff, however, declined to return to meet Bud and Lou. Maybe he would have changed his mind if they had filmed it in Connecticut.
I have another story about the Invisible Man at the polls on Election Day, but you’ll have to take my word for it.