Rock Hudson hangs out with his pal birthday boy George Nader
Despite the fact Nader's career was more or less sabotaged by Universal and sacrificed to the tabloids in order to save Rock's much more lucrative reputation, Hudson and Nader remained life-long friends. Nader was named one of the beneficiaries of Hudson's $27M estate when the star died of AIDS in 1985.
Birthday boy Bela Lugosi receiving treatment for his morphine addiction.
Bela Lugosi (center) is welcomed back to Hollywood by co-actors Basil Rathbone (left) and Lon Chaney Jr. (right) to appear in "The Black Sleep". Lugosi, who just prior to returning to Hollywood had recovered from an addiction to narcotics, was given a black, leather-bound script book bearing his long list of screen credits by the producers, cast and crew of the horror film.
While the affection is obvious in that photo of Elvis and Dolores Hart (and my Dolores - Miss Fuller - had some certainties regarding that relationship) the chumminess in the photo from THE BLACK SLEEP does not seem as genuine. Bela was very unhappy with having to portray a mute in the film and was resentful of Basil Rathbone (actually a resentment that began back when the two appeared in SON OF FRANKENSTEIN) and had a particular dislike of Chaney Jr. Dolores Fuller told me that the only time she could recall Bela speaking of Lon it was when he once referred to him as a "brute." Apparently Lon (through drinking or just plain temperament) took pleasure in antagonizing the aging actor. According to Greg Mank, it especially irked Lugosi to be called "Pop" by Chaney.
Thanks for the info regarding Bela Lugosi, Stone. it was most interesting. It appears that Lon was a bully most likely due to the hooch. I wonder what Rathbone did to Lugosi? Although I believe Lugosi also resented Karloff?
Last edited by mongoII on October 20th, 2014, 8:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.