Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1514720
S A G A F T R A .O R G S AG - A F T R A S PEC I A L IS S U E 2 0 24 116 "I AM DRACULA … I BID YOU WELCOME." These were the first words horror film icon and Screen Actors Guild founding member No. 28, Béla Lugosi, spoke onscreen in Dracula, released on Valentine's Day in 1931 and shot on Stage 12 at Universal Studios. It was a fitting coincidence that 64 years later at that same soundstage, an actor would receive the first Screen Actors Guild Award for portraying Lugosi. The winner was Martin Landau, and the award was for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role, for his work in the feature film Ed Wood, directed by Tim Burton and starring Johnny Depp. In the fall of 1933, when the Guild was but a few months old and had only a few hundred members and no contract with producers, Madame Spy, starring non- members Fay Wray (of King Kong fame) and Swedish actor Nils Asther, was filming on Stage 12. Word reached the Guild's executive secretary, actor Kenneth Thomson, who sprang into membership recruiting action. His secretary, Midge Van Buren, typed up an urgent note from Thomson to membership committee member Arthur Vinton: Dear Arthur: I have just been informed that Fay Wray is on Stage 12 at Universal and that she wants to join the Guild. So do your stuff. Also, Nils Asther is reported as ready to sign. Vinton succeeded and they both joined. In early 1935, Bride of Frankenstein began filming on Stage 12 and Boris Karloff, the Guild's founding member No. 9 who had shot parts of Frankenstein there in the summer of 1931, recruited more members for the Guild. Thomson wrote to Karloff on Jan. 19, 1935, "I don't suppose with that makeup you get much chance for conversation while you are working, but according to The [Hollywood] Reporter, the following members of your cast are not Guild members: Colin Clive, Valerie Hobson, O.P. Heggie, E.E. Clive, Ernest Thesiger. We are making a determined effort to increase our membership, and if you can do anything, we would appreciate it. I am enclosing a few membership blanks just on the chance." Karloff convinced four out of the five to join, with only Ernest Thesiger (who played Dr. Pretorious) as the holdout. Built in 1928 specifically for filming "talkie" features as the silent era was coming to a close, Stage 12 is currently being renovated and should be back in use in 2024. Martin Landau receives The Actor for his portrayal of SAG founding member Bela Lugosi in Ed Wood. This picture appeared in the September/October 1995 issue of Screen Actors Guild National Call Sheet. S AG -AF TR A ARCHIVES / GARY LEONARD