# 1931 Dracula- Is He wearing a Star of David around his neck or WHAT?? Eve, c'mere ! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 21, 2002, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1931-dracula-is-he-wearing-a-star-of-david-around-his-neck-or-what-eve-cmere/104851 "2002-04-21T20:30:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2025, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1931-dracula-is-he-wearing-a-star-of-david-around-his-neck-or-what-eve-cmere/104851/41 "2025-05-09T14:17:17Z")
Same way they can get rid of bloodstains so easily. Vampires are non-stick. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2025, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1931-dracula-is-he-wearing-a-star-of-david-around-his-neck-or-what-eve-cmere/104851/42 "2025-05-09T14:18:24Z")
Oooh, great band name: Teflon Vampires ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2025, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1931-dracula-is-he-wearing-a-star-of-david-around-his-neck-or-what-eve-cmere/104851/43 "2025-05-09T14:23:02Z")
I think we can rule out Star Of David, if that is an accurate reproduction. From your website: “The original prop is a star shaped sunburst and has six crescent & star finials. This motif is very common in the late 19th and early 20th century Islamic world and is seen on many antique medals and decorations of that period from the Ottoman Empire and Kingdom of Afghanistan which bear striking similarities to the original prop. Both of those political entities were recently dissolved or in the process of dissolution at the time that Dracula was produced and it can be presumed that quantities of their military surplus material were available on the open market and would not have been considered particularly valuable.” ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2025, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1931-dracula-is-he-wearing-a-star-of-david-around-his-neck-or-what-eve-cmere/104851/44 "2025-05-09T14:29:47Z")
> [@eburacum45](#): > > This just looks like a medallion to me. Perhaps Dracula is a Marshall. > [https://cdn.theasc.com/Dracula-–-1931-Harker.jpg](https://cdn.theasc.com/Dracula-%E2%80%93-1931-Harker.jpg) And it’s the same medallion as in @sneakylemur’s link in post 33. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2025, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1931-dracula-is-he-wearing-a-star-of-david-around-his-neck-or-what-eve-cmere/104851/45 "2025-05-09T14:57:16Z")
> [@Jasmine](#): > > Orthodox Judaism doesn’t accept the concept of Christ as savior. **No** branch of Judaism accepts the concept of Christ as savior. (Unless you count Messianic Judaism, but that probably belongs in another thread.) ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2025, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1931-dracula-is-he-wearing-a-star-of-david-around-his-neck-or-what-eve-cmere/104851/46 "2025-05-09T18:36:56Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > I’m also reminded of _Love at First Bite,_ where Van Helsing tried waving a Star of David at Dracula. There’s also the scene in _The Mummy_ (1999) where a character being menaced by the titular monster pulls out a crucifix pendent. And when that doesn’t work, he pulls out an Islamic crescent pendent. And when that doesn’t work, he pulls out fistful of religious pendants, and starts going through them one by one, trying to find one that will hold the monster off. ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2025, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1931-dracula-is-he-wearing-a-star-of-david-around-his-neck-or-what-eve-cmere/104851/47 "2025-05-09T18:56:22Z")
> [@eburacum45](#): > > This just looks like a medallion to me. Perhaps Dracula is a Marshall. Deputy Dracula? > [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#): > > Oooh, great band name: Teflon Vampires Concur. ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2025, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1931-dracula-is-he-wearing-a-star-of-david-around-his-neck-or-what-eve-cmere/104851/48 "2025-05-09T19:04:46Z")
[This site](https://forums.collectors.com/discussion/1065686/draculas-medal-worn-by-bela-lugosi-in-the-1931-film) says it’s probably the Ottoman Medal Order of Medjidie. [![](https://www.brianrxm.com/posts/post_ottoman_medal_ordermedjidie.jpg) ](https://www.brianrxm.com/posts/post_ottoman_medal_ordermedjidie.jpg) > 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. ---
**Author:** ![saucywench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/85e7bf/32.png) [@saucywench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saucywench)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2025, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1931-dracula-is-he-wearing-a-star-of-david-around-his-neck-or-what-eve-cmere/104851/49 "2025-05-09T19:17:55Z")
Nice medal. Here is another similar thread… > [@Dracula's Medallion](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/draculas-medallion/90301): > > This being the Halloween season I am seeing a number of vampire costumes/movies of late and have noticed a standard part of the typical vampire costume seems to be a medallion of some kind. It’s a gold colored, eight pointed star with a red gem set in the middle. Is this an actual medallion of some type or is it just something that Bela Lugosi wore in the first Dracula movie that got stuck in the standard image of what a vampire should look like? If it is something real, what is it supposed to b… CalMeacham’s two posts mention not seeing the medallion in the movie. Does everyone else remember the medallion in the movie? This link has the reason for him not wearing the medallion all the time… “Dracula at home vs. in society. His home look is only slightly less formal, with subtle stripes on his tie and waistcoat, the added medallion around his neck, and his collar wings worn over the tie.” Scroll until you see the two side-by-side pictures of Dracula. > **[Bela Lugosi as Dracula » BAMF Style](https://bamfstyle.com/2023/10/20/dracula-lugosi/)** > > Bela Lugosi's 1931 screen portrayal solidified the definitive Count Dracula wardrobe of white tie and tails, silk-lined black cape, and ornate medallion. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2025, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1931-dracula-is-he-wearing-a-star-of-david-around-his-neck-or-what-eve-cmere/104851/50 "2025-05-09T19:39:32Z")
And being Transylvanian, Dracula would have been an Ottoman subject for about a century and a half, though not while the Order of Medjidie was in existence. ---
**Author:** ![eburacum45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eburacum45/32/8690_2.png) [@eburacum45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eburacum45)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2025, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1931-dracula-is-he-wearing-a-star-of-david-around-his-neck-or-what-eve-cmere/104851/51 "2025-05-09T20:12:30Z")
> [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](#): > > [This site](https://forums.collectors.com/discussion/1065686/draculas-medal-worn-by-bela-lugosi-in-the-1931-film) says it’s probably the Ottoman Medal Order of Medjidie. Except the Order of Medjidie appears to have seven-fold symmetry. If Lugosi’s medal was based on the Medjidie pendant, it was drastically changed. ---
**Author:** ![fedman1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e495f1/32.png) [@fedman1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fedman1)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2025, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1931-dracula-is-he-wearing-a-star-of-david-around-his-neck-or-what-eve-cmere/104851/52 "2025-05-16T03:59:37Z")
but wouldn’t that be some sort of antisemitic meme? ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2025, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1931-dracula-is-he-wearing-a-star-of-david-around-his-neck-or-what-eve-cmere/104851/53 "2025-05-16T05:02:32Z")
Hadnagy (lieutenant) Blaskó Béla Ferenc Dezső (Bela Lugosi) was wounded twice while serving in the Hungarian Honvéd on the Eastern Front in WWI. Two acquisitions he’d share with many other survivors was an addiction to drugs and a wound medal. But that’s not what he wore as Dracula. Obvious by its appearance as well as his disdain on the rare occasions when he mentioned the war. [![](https://www.omsa.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Wound-Medal-Hungarian-attchment.jpg) ](https://www.omsa.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Wound-Medal-Hungarian-attchment.jpg) It’s not any Romanian medal I could find online (and Lord, are there so many of those!). Nor does it look like a too-easily recognizable US military medal. So my WAG is that, from the multitude of medals to be found in Los Angeles pawn shops during the Great Depression, it might be from the many mens’ fraternal orders that littered the cultural landscape of the era. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2025, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1931-dracula-is-he-wearing-a-star-of-david-around-his-neck-or-what-eve-cmere/104851/54 "2025-05-16T13:07:20Z")
In the “Night Gallery” vignette “The Devil Is not Mocked,” a kid has asked his grandfather what he did in “The Great War” [sic]. He then proceeds to recount in a flashback what happened when some German soldiers came to occupy his castle. . . in Transylvania! He tells his grandson, “For, while many are the charges made against our ancestors, let no man deny our patriotism!” Needless to say, the Germans picked the wrong castle to occupy. It then cuts back to the present with the grandfather saying, “And that, dear child, is how your grandfather served his country in the \*Great War.” The camera then pans to a medallion on a mantle. The first time I saw it in reruns, I thought it was a six-pointed star, but no, it has eight. Just my 2¢ to add to vampires and medal(lion)s. \*(OK, in general WWI, not the sequel, is referred to as “The Great War,” but it’s just a TV program, not a doc.) ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2025, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1931-dracula-is-he-wearing-a-star-of-david-around-his-neck-or-what-eve-cmere/104851/55 "2025-05-16T13:35:54Z")
Tidbit: The grandfather is played by Francis Lederer who played Dracula in a 1958 movie. The Night Gallery episode was his last acting role. He lived to the age of 100. ETA: Read F. Paul Wilson’s **The Keep** sometime and see if it rings a bell viz a certain Night Gallery episode. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2025, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1931-dracula-is-he-wearing-a-star-of-david-around-his-neck-or-what-eve-cmere/104851/56 "2025-05-16T13:44:11Z")
> [@eburacum45](#): > > This just looks like a medallion to me. Perhaps Dracula is a Marshall. There was a big outcry back in 1987 when people noticed that Count Chocula appeared to be wearing a Star of David medal on the cereal box. I guess they copied it from the movie: > [@](#): > > A newly designed box featuring a picture taken from Bela Lugosi’s classic role as Dracula has drawn protests from some consumers and Jewish newspapers, which complained that a Star of David is prominently displayed on the character’s chest. > … > General Mills officials said they had been excited about the design because it involved a new technique in which a computer lifted and enhanced the likeness of Lugosi from the 1931 film “House of Dracula.” > **[Necklace Chokes Count Chocula : General Mills Pulls Box Design With 6-Pointed...](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1987-10-19-fi-10380-story.html)** > > Just as Count Dracula could come out only at night, General Mills now wishes its latest Count Chocula cereal box had never seen the light of day. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2025, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1931-dracula-is-he-wearing-a-star-of-david-around-his-neck-or-what-eve-cmere/104851/57 "2025-05-16T13:48:18Z")
Ha! I have read “The Keep,” and saw the similarities at the time, even though I had seen the NG episode years earlier. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2025, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1931-dracula-is-he-wearing-a-star-of-david-around-his-neck-or-what-eve-cmere/104851/58 "2025-05-16T13:51:14Z")
I was really looking forward to the movie; What a bummer! I still can’t decide who gets the blame for that misstep. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2025, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1931-dracula-is-he-wearing-a-star-of-david-around-his-neck-or-what-eve-cmere/104851/59 "2025-05-16T14:42:43Z")
In the year-end Esquire magazine where they gave out their “Dubious Achievement Awards,” one of the things they had was “Now Playing in the Hell Octoplex.” One year they had “The Keep” and maybe the same year “Red Dawn.” The movie let me down, too, but for what it was, I didn’t think it was _that_ bad. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2025, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1931-dracula-is-he-wearing-a-star-of-david-around-his-neck-or-what-eve-cmere/104851/60 "2025-05-16T22:49:07Z")
No one ever points out that the only thing Chocula could bite (with those chompers of his) is a pre-pull tab can of Pabst Blue Ribbon. 🤪 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1931-dracula-is-he-wearing-a-star-of-david-around-his-neck-or-what-eve-cmere/104851.md?page=2)