The 1931 Universal Studios film "Dracula" is 80 years old now but is still a well known motion picture. Actor Bela Lugosi portrayed Bram Stoker's famous nobleman vampire in a stage play and then in the film. In the early scenes in the film the Transylvanian Count Dracula is visited by a British real estate agent. Count Dracula appears wearing his traditional black cape and a medal. Dracula's Medal No. 1 Dracula's Medal No. 2 Speculation among fans of the film soon began over the identity of the medal. Bela Lugosi supplied the original medal and the film studio created a backup copy. Lugosi kept the original medal and was supposedly buried with it. The studio copy disappeared, either it was lost or was stolen. Possibly it still exists. The film medal has a faint resemblance to an Ottoman Turkish Order of Medjidie medal. Ottoman Medal Order of Medjidie The Order of Medjidie was a medal given to many men, both Turkish and foreign. A number of British officers were awarded the medal. One was given to British author Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of the Sherlock Holmes stories, because the Ottoman Sultan like his stories. There are many places which sell replicas of the Dracula medal with various designs. Some replicas have an Ottoman Toughra in the center. The Toughra was the Sultan's ornate signature used on coins. Other replicas have a sun-moon design.
Indeed interesting. The Turkish "order" medal pictured in color, while faintly (very faintly) similar, is definitely not any of the medals Lugosi is wearing in the four photos (as many as three different ones, possibly, I believe). I think the medals in the two Medal No. 2 photos are different. Anyway, if he was interred with the original, all you'd have to do is wait for him to rise up/out some night...or open his coffin during the day (out of any sunlight)...and take a look...! PS...the 1931 movie is considered the first "talkie" movie of its horror/scary genre.
I believe that the medal in the four Bela Lugosi pictures is the same medal but with different lighting.
