You Must Remember This, which focuses on the “secret and forgotten histories of Hollywood’s first century,” is the podcast that keeps on giving. Karina Longworth’s new season focuses on horror icons Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff — two titans of terror who dominated the screen during Universal Studios’ golden era.
Lugosi was a Hungarian immigrant who rose to fame after playing Dracula in Universal’s 1931 adaptation. English actor Karloff frightened audiences as the Monster in Frankenstein. The two actors were frequently paired together in films, but Karloff always seemed to take top billing. A sort of unofficial rivalry ensued. From You Must Remember This:
Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff were two middle-aged, foreign, struggling actors who became huge stars thanks to Dracula and Frankenstein, the first two of a trend of monster movie hits released by Universal Studios during the 1930s. This season, we’ll discuss their parallel but very different lives and careers. Today, we’ll start by exploring where each man came from, what they were doing before they got to Universal, and why Universal began making monster movies in the first place.
Episode one, “Where the Monsters Came From,” is available now.