Your Month Your Vampire Fact !!

Since spooky season is around the corner, here's a vamp bulletin game :D

Your Month = The Month You Were Born

The facts will mostly revolve around the history of 19th century vampire media <3

January

The Company that produced Nosferatu 1922 spent more money on the premiere for the movie than the movie itself. The premiere featured an interview of Max Schreck (actor of Count Orlock) in full costume and a live orchestra as well.

February

The character of Dracula was inspired by the author, Bram Stoker's good friend and boss, Henry Irving (funny enough Henry was also the first actor to be knighted). Bram Stoker wrote this with the intent that Henry would play the character on stage. When Bram showed Henry the play-write for Dracula, Henry called it "dreadful" and refused to play the role of Dracula.

March

The Dracula v Nosferatu lawsuit of 1925 that ended with the German court ruling all copies of Nosferatu be burned and destroyed. Its a miracle that Nosferatu did not get lost to history as many movies were lost to time due to fires or other casualties that were purely mistakes and were not related to lawsuits.

April

The first published + unfinished Vampire stories (created the 'modern vampire archetype we now relate to vampires today) was written within the same friend group that Frankenstein was. They were all written within 1816-1819

May

The author of Dracula was severely ill and bed-ridden  til the age of 7-8. During that time his mum would tell him stories of her time surviving an Irish cholera epidemic. When Bram began writing Dracula, he asked her to type out her recounts of the things she witnessed so he could use it as reference for some of the horror within the novel.

June

Florence Stoker, wife and later widow of Dracula author, Bram Stoker, was teased, often called "Dracula's wife" her reputation being haunted by that of her husbands vampiric novel and later with her influence in the Dracula v Nosferatu court case.

July

F.W Murnau, director of Nosferatu (1922)'s skull was stolen from its grave between the 4th - 12th of July 2015. It hasn't been found yet

August 

Dracula was a heavily researched book. The author, Bram Stoker, learned of the geography of some of the area's he depicted in his novel along with looking back on previous vampire books (such as The Vampyre and Carmilla) for inspiration. This is one of the reasons some copies of Carmilla label it "The story that inspired Dracula" as it was one of the heaviest inspirations for Bram.

September

The story "The Vampyre" was written by John Polidori and was based heavily (and I mean HEAVILY) off of Lord Byron's "Fragment of a Novel". John Polidori's "The Vampyre" was published without Polidori's permission and was wrongfully credited to Lord Byron. This affected John Polidori's mental health negatively as he already dealt with feeling alienated by his fellow writers.

October

The first ever modern Vampire featured in the first published Vampire story "The Vampyre"  was based off of Lord Byron. This was done bitterly as Lord Byron and John Polidori, author of The Vampyre, were ex friends (and John being his ex-physician) who had a toxic falling out. The fact that  the vampire in the story was based off of Lord Byron was obvious as the vampires name "Lord Ruthven" had been used previously to mock Lord Byron in Lady Caroline Lamb's "Glenarvon". Many of the traits we associate with modern vampires" "womanizer" "high-society" "handsome" "seductive" etc came from Polidori's depiction of Lord Byron and his personality.

November

Some people believed that Max Schreck, actor of Count Orlock in Noseratu 1922, wasn't a real person since his name translated from German to English as 'shock' 'scare' or 'fright'. This theory was disproved when the actors grave was found.

December

Not all vampires are deathly allergic to the sun, that was a thing popularized by Nosferatu (1922). Vamps such as Carmilla and Dracula only suffer minor setbacks such as fatigue or weakness in the sun while other vamps, like the much older Lord Ruthven, do not suffer from the sun at all.