Monsters Unite! Count Dracula and Dr. Frankenstein’s creation joined forces to help create the Screen Actors Guild.

By Valerie Yaros, SAG-AFTRA historian

Boris Karloff and Béla Lugosi are horror film legends, but few know them as union activists and founding members of the Screen Actors Guild. Between 1933 and 1937, both actively recruited actors and actresses to join the as-yet-unrecognized union – a delicate and risky business.

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Karloff (born William Henry Pratt in London, England in 1887) joined the Guild July 19, 1933 as member #9. He was appointed to the original Membership Committee and served as Board member and officer between 1933 and 1949, wrapping up his service as a temporary board replacement for Robert Preston in 1951. Karloff arrived in Los Angeles in 1919, after almost ten years’ work in Canadian and American theatrical companies, and it would be ten additional years before fate smiled and launched him into movie success.

**Karloff in July 1931 casting directory, four months before the release of Frankenstein. Credit: SAG-AFTRA Special Collections.**

Béla Lugosi joined the Guild soon after Karloff, on July 31, 1933, as member #28, and served on its Advisory Board from 1934 to 1936. During this formative period of the Guild, he attended 14 Board meetings, and offered recommendations to improve conditions for actors. Born Béla Ferenc Dezsö Blaskó in 1882, in Lugos, Hungary (now Lugoj, Romania), he had an impressive stage career with the National Theatre of Hungary. In 1918, after the end of World War I, he spearheaded the creation of Hungarian actors unions but was forced to flee his native land in 1919, due to overthrow of the Béla Kun political regime. Hungary’s loss was America’s gain and he eventually arrived in the United States in December of 1920.

***Lugosi as Dracula (1931). Credit: Bison Archives.***

After years of struggle in America, Lugosi achieved stage and screen stardom shortly before Karloff – in the Broadway version of Dracula in 1927, then the 1931 Universal film version after its intended lead, Lon Chaney, died.

1931 was the breakthrough year for both Lugosi and Karloff’s film careers. Karloff garnered his first rave reviews for The Criminal Code (released in January 1931), and Lugosi’s Dracula premiered to terrify audiences the following month. Frankenstein was released in late November, catapulting Karloff to stardom, as Dr. Frankenstein’s “Monster.” One unforgettably grueling Frankenstein shoot day over September 28 - 29, 1931, had him working over 25 hours straight, a miserable experience he never forgot when he cast his lot with the Guild in 1933.

***Karloff as Dr. Frankenstein’s creation in Frankenstein (1931). Credit: Bison Archives.***

In May of 1933, at the annual dance of the Hollywood Cricket Club, Karloff encountered actor Kenneth Thomson who, like Karloff, was a member of The Masquers – a social club for male film industry members. Thomson invited Karloff to the next meeting of actors at his home – most of them Actors’ Equity members – to discuss problems and possible solutions for actors during this difficult period. The next month, Screen Actors Guild was born.

Karloff was welcomed into the Guild’s membership committee by its chair, Arthur Vinton, who wrote Karloff, Enclosed you will find a copy of the members and their telephone numbers, and the names of the persons whom they are soliciting as members in our organization. I believe that if we call these various members every second day to ascertain what they have accomplished, it will work out to the best interests of all concerned…should any of your people contact actors or actresses who are important or semi-important, I will be very glad to arrange a get-together at [President] Ralph Morgan’s home.

***Lugosi and Karloff, early 1930s. Credit: Bison Archives.***

Excerpts from Lugosi and Karloff’s still-extant files reveal their activities to “Build the Guild”:

To Karloff from Kenneth Thomson Jan. 19, 1935, while Karloff was filming Bride of Frankenstein: Dear Boris: Thanks for your wire. We missed you at the [board] meeting, but realize the difficulties under which you are working. I don’t suppose with that make-up 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, Elsa Lanchester, 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. Hope to see you soon. Sincerely, Ken.

**Lugosi and his then-wife, Lillian (mother of Béla, Jr. in 1938) pictured in the May 1935 Screen Guilds' Magazine. Credit: SAG-AFTRA Archives.**

Boris succeeded in persuading most of the cast to join the Guild.

Lugosi, March 25, 1935: My dear Kenneth [Thomson]:- Enclosed you will find the addresses of four film performers who I as a star in the “Raven”, as such was able to persuade for our cause. Please send them literature and [membership] blanks. Cordially, Béla.

Lugosi, March 29, 1935: My dear Kenneth:-Enclosed you will find two signed applications – and the third one which was acquired by me was picked up by [Richard W.] Tucker. Sincerely Béla.

Karloff, Oct. 22, 1935: Dear Ken, Enclosed is the signed application of Frances

Drake. I am happy to report that with the addition two weeks ago of Frank Lawton

this makes “The Invisible Ray” company 100%. I have found no resistance at all from the people I have worked with & I believe that by studying the casts as published in the [Hollywood] Reporter, selecting some real member of the cast who is also in the Guild, firing them up & arming them with applications for immediate action, we can make each working unit 100% by working from within. Sincerely, Boris.

Years of recruiting paid off and on May 15, 1937, the Screen Actors Guild signed its first contract with the major film producers.

On November 20, 1951, as Karloff “retired” from active Screen Actors Guild service, the board presented him with a “Gold Card” honorary life membership, in New York. That day, he wrote the Board this heartfelt “thank-you” -- “Ladies and Gentlemen, You have just done me the greatest honour that any actor could receive from his fellows, and I am humbled and deeply grateful. I was only luckier than most in that I happened to be around when things got started. My best love to those who are serving now, but most of all to those who have gone ahead and those who will follow on...for actors. God bless you all.”

The two actors’ only children -- Lugosi’s son, Bela Jr. and Karloff’s daughter, Sara, both born in 1938 -- keep the legacies of their beloved fathers alive. You can learn more at their official websites: http://belalugosi.com/facts and http://www.karloff.com

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Bio: Valerie Yaros has been historian for SAG-AFTRA (Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists) since 1996, predating the Guild’s 2012 merger with AFTRA. She has been a representative for the Guild, and then SAG-AFTRA, since 2005 on the National Film Preservation Board, an advisory group to the Librarian of Congress. You may reach her at Valerie.Yaros@sagaftra.org. For more information about the National Film Preservation Board and the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress, see these links: https://www.loc.gov/programs/national-film-preservation-board/about-this-program/board-members and https://www.loc.gov/programs/national-film-preservation-board/film-registry.