Bela Lugosi’s Dracula cape to be displayed at museum

Bela Lugosi’s ‘Dracula’ cape is going on display at The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures.
The actor starred in Tod Browning’s 1931 horror classic and kept the cape until his death in 1956 and it has now been donated by Bela’s son, Bela G. Lugosi and will be seen at the new museum of cinema in Los Angeles, which is scheduled to open in 2020.
In a statement, Bela G. Lugosi said: "My father’s screen-worn cape has had a very special place in my life and in the lives of my children and grandchildren. In fact, it’s been a part of my mother’s household and then my household since I was born – for over 80 years.
"It became clear that there is no better home for the cape than the Academy Museum, allowing movie lovers to view a piece of classic horror film history and enjoy Bela Lugosi’s acclaimed performance for years to come."
Exhibitions curator Jessica Niebel added: "This outstanding acquisition simultaneously represents the character of Count Dracula as a cultural icon and the life and career of an extraordinary actor, Bela Lugosi.
"It is important to us as a museum to be able to restore and safeguard this artefact, especially knowing that much of the material history of the classic horror cycle has been lost forever."
Other artefacts from the horror genre acquired by the museum include the red carpet Jack Nicholson wore as Jack Torrance in Stanley Kubrick’s classic 1980 movie ‘The Shining’ and the outfit worn by Kathy Bates as her obsessive alter ego Annie Wilkes in ‘Misery’.
The museum will showcase costumes from a variety of films, such as ‘Singin’ In The Rain’, ‘An American in Paris’ and ‘The Big Lebowski’.
Bela Lugosi was one of the actors responsible for making Universal a success with their monster movies which began in the 1920s with ‘The Hunchback of Notre Dame’ and ‘The Phantom of the Opera’.
The creature features continued to be popular with audiences for the next three decades with ‘Dracula’, ‘Frankenstein’, ‘The Mummy’, ‘The Wolf Man’ and ‘Creature from the Black Lagoon’ all being major hits whilst making household names of Lugosi, Lon Chaney Jr. and Boris Karloff.