Drac’s Back

Now here’s something you can sink your teeth into: Dracula-mania--from a lustful three-act ballet to a creepy postage stamp to a gothic four-day vampfest--is about to stake, er, strike Los Angeles, vampire capital of the world. But more on the latter, later.

Yep, we’ll be up to our necks (sorry) in Dracula exposure.

Bram Stoker’s classic 1897 novel about the toothy Transylvanian who just vants to suck your blood turns 100 this year. Happy Birthday, Dear Undead.

Of course in vampire years, 1897 was, well, just yesterday. But today, the villain--whom Stoker modeled after a 15th century Romanian prince, Vlad Tepes, a.k.a. Vlad the Impaler--just wants to get his day in the sun.

He is, after all, the Count of Cool, the champ of vamp--and we hate to break it to you Mr. Smith and Mr. Jones--but Mr. Drac is the original Man in Black. Yes, Vlad would be glad.

Dublin, Ireland-born Stoker--whose book was first published in London--and his birthday boy’s centenary milestone will be marked with several celebratory events. Among them:

* Tuesday night’s Los Angeles premiere of the Houston Ballet’s production of “Dracula” at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. Bela Lugosi’s son, Bela G. Lugosi, 59, will appear. The ballet, choreographed by Ben Stevenson, will play through Sunday. Call (213) 972-7211 for information.

* “Dracula ‘97: A Centennial Celebration” will take place Aug. 14-17 at the Westin Hotel LAX, 5400 W. Century Blvd. Organized by the American and Canadian chapters of the Transylvanian Society of Dracula, more than 2,000 Dracula lovers are expected to attend. Authors, scholars and actors from various Dracula movies will participate in more than 60 panel discussions. A masquerade party and costume contest are also slated. Call (805) 967-7721 for ticket information.

* Bela Lugosi’s Dracula and other Universal classic movie monsters will be honored by the U.S. Postal Service with a collector’s series to be launched Sept. 30 in Hollywood.

* Glendale’s Alex Theatre will present Lugosi’s 1931 classic film “Dracula” on Oct. 25. Lugosi’s son will speak at the event. He will also open a Glendale Galleria retail store in October that will feature Dracula items.

* DC Comics will publish the comic book “The Dark Gift: The Young Manhood of Dracula” this fall, says Leonard Wolf, the book’s creator and author of “Dracula: The Connoisseur’s Guide” (Broadway Books, 1997). “The comic book answers the question once and for all, why Dracula drinks blood,” Wolf says.

* Around the world, the count’s calendar is filling up fast. Other slated centennial events include “Vlad Dracula Tours” in Romania, conferences in Germany and Toronto, a Dracula Day in Boston and a Stoker library exhibit in Philadelphia.

* And so far this year: “CinemaDracula,” a monthlong film series, has been featured at New York’s Museum of Modern Art; Italy paid tribute to Stoker with a three-day “Please, Bite My Neck!” event; and the Bram Stoker International Summer School in Dublin concluded last week.

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Jeanne Youngson, president and founder of the Manhattan-based Count Dracula Fan Club, was there. Come August, she’ll be at L.A.’s “Dracula ’97.”

“There is something about the vampire figure that attracts a lot of people, and not necessarily the young ones. Older adults, literary and academic types, are attracted to ‘Dracula,’ the book,” says Youngson, who will be signing her own book, “The Private Files of a Vampirologist: Case Histories and Letters” at “Dracula ’97.”

Youngson, who has visited Vlad the Impaler’s castle in Bucharest, says her fan club has close to 3,000 members who are “people interested in the academic part of the subject or the movies and TV shows. We discourage weird people from joining.”

Wolf, who was born in Transylvania, has written three Dracula books, including his recent tome that essentially is a Dracula sourcebook. He says Stoker’s novel was regarded as not much more than a pulp fiction potboiler when it was first published.

“Stoker was a hack writer who wrote a major literary work,” says Wolf, a former San Francisco State creative writing professor and consultant to Francis Ford Coppola’s 1992 “Bram Stoker’s Dracula.”

“Stoker was not a writer of profound character analysis, not a writer of profound style. But his capabilities allowed him to discover a single mythological image that we all recognize--Dracula and his blood-taking, the single metaphor that carries more meaning than anything else ever written.

“In Dracula’s case, blood, by itself, represents eternal life, identity and sexual power. Who wouldn’t want that? That’s Dracula’s appeal,” he says.

Lugosi gives his father credit for the novel’s popularity today.

“I don’t know that the Bram Stoker book would have been remembered today without the definitive portrayal that my dad gave,” says Lugosi, who is on the go these days making appearances on behalf of the U.S. Postal Service and Dracula fans everywhere.

The icon’s Dracula portrayal continues to fascinate and revolt moviegoers: the deep, accent-punctuated voice, those hypnotic come-to-me-and-stick-out-your-neck eyes, those pointed pearly whites and Lugosi’s erotic mannerisms--all that translated into control and power.

“My dad immortalized the character,” says Lugosi, a trial lawyer and partner in Comedy III Productions Inc. “When you say ‘Dracula,’ you bring to mind the image of my father, a worldly and mature man who, outside of his Dracula costume, had a powerful presence too. He played to the back row when he walked into a room.”

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Contemporary vampires prefer a lower profile, says Joel Martin, media director for the Vampire Research Center and the Parapsychology Institute of America, both in New York.

The center was founded in 1972 by the late Steve Kaplan, who was interested in studying the legendary and contemporary aspects of vampirism. Kaplan developed a vampire census form he sent out to people who claimed to be vampires.

Martin says--in all seriousness--that there are about 1,000 vampires worldwide--with about 400 in North America, and about 50 in Los Angeles, making the City of Angels the favorite haunt for these creatures of the night.

“They move back and forth a lot, but there is no question that they like large cities like L.A. because they can blend into the woodwork,” Martin says.

The profile for today’s vampire?

Martin says he or she is likely to be a twentysomething single person, underweight with a pale complexion, a loner shut in during the day and secretive about what he or she does for a living.

They have large teeth and like to hang out at places where one would go to donate blood.

If Kaplan were alive today, Martin says, his friend would be excited about the centennial celebration. “It bears out Steve’s thesis that if the vampire is someone who doesn’t live forever, metaphorically he is alive.”

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Are You a Vampire?

Want to know if you’re a vampire? The New York-based Vampire Research Center does and offers a questionnaire to anyone willing to take a stab at it. Call (516) 321-9362 for a survey form. Here are a few sample questions that may help you count the ways.

1. Did you grow baby and adult sets of fangs?

2. Do mosquitoes bite you?

3. Do you prefer electrical lights or candles?

4. Do you consider yourself a danger to the public?

5. Do you think you are evil?

6. Can you stay out in the daytime?

7. Can you see yourself in the mirror? If not, how do you check your appearance?

8. Did you ever fight over a victim with another vampire?

9. Do you sleep in a coffin?

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Vant More?

* Guests at Tuesday night’s premiere of the Houston Ballet’s “Dracula”--as well as during its five-night run at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion--are encouraged to don capes and wear fangs.

* “Dracula ‘97” in August will feature Drac’s Market Place, where must-haves will include coffin-shaped wine racks, gothic clothing and beaucoup bat jewelry, fangs and yellow contacts.

* If you’re having a Drac attack, call up the Transylvanian Society of Dracula’s home page at https://www.ucs.mun.ca/~emiller/.

* Dark Delicacies book and gift shop, 3725 W. Magnolia Blvd. in Burbank, known in these parts as having the best in the horror and macabre, carries more than 300 vampire and Dracula book titles.

* Los Angeles is home to as many as 50 vampires, claims the Vampire Research Center in New York. “Vampires love big cities,” says spokesman Joel Martin, “because they can come and go as they please. It’s a very fluid population.”