I was watching a preview for the new vampire flick “Underworld,” and admiring the exquisite tailoring of Kate Beckinsale’s costume. And I got to thinking, where DOES a vampire get this kind of quality work? She’s unlikely to just run across such a costume while breaking into a department store; it’s got to be custom-made. Now, I suppose she could have obtained it from a human tailor – paid him, threatened to bite him, etc. – but I wondered if she might have gone to a vampire tailor instead. But are there any?
How are vampires portrayed in books, TV shows, movies, as far as having steady employment, punching a clock, etc.?
Given their vast ages, and the fact that vampires often take the “upper-crust” people for their next children of the night, I’d say they are independantly wealthy. These people could have a dozen ID’s with millions invested each, around the world. Thi really goes straight back to the idea of Dracula, who owned himself a castle and all the surrounding landscape.
In the modern world, Vampires (or so it seems in Underworld) have a sort of family, and share things within it. The head of the family really owns the wealth, but he rewards his children.
Forever Knight had a vampire working as a police detective in Toronto. He only worked at night “because of a rare skin condition that made him allergic to sunlight.”
I’d think that vampires would either have a whole subculture that would contract out to humans. Either that or over the years, vampires just get real good at the noble arts of needlepoint…
Of course, in the first few decades, you have to live off whatever you owned (or can steal from victims), but a small investment made, say, in 1865, at compound interest, and you’d be rich by now.
Dracula, per Bram Stoker, was pretty frugal out of necessity. Early in the novel, when Dracula is disguised as the coachman and is driving harker to the castle, he stops periodically to build little marker cairns over the tongues of blue fire that (supposedly) show that treasure lies buried there.
TV, movies, and more recent vampire novels just kind of gloss over the whole issue of finances. They portray vampires as some kind of ultra-chic Eurotrash playing at Goth dress-up. As such, they just automatically have wealth (or at lest the trappings of it) because it’s just so much cooler that way.
Folkloric vampires weren’t concerned about much beyond feeding their unwholesome appetites because they were horrifying, animated, blood-drinking corpses.
“In Terry Pratchett’s Discworld, the vampires all work at the kosher butchers.”
Not all of them - Otto is the photographer (or iconographer, as they’re called on the Discworld) at the Ankh-Morpork Times and bursts into flames whenever he uses the flash!
And of course Angel runs a detective agency, but he does have a soul. And presumably, on the same Buffy/Angel theme, someone must run those demon bars they hang out at?
Jack Fleming, of P.N. Elrod’s Vampire Files books, starts out as an unemployed reporter (which is what he was at the time of his transformation), then is a private investigator (excuse me, “private agent”) in partnership with a living human, and eventually becomes a nightclub owner (though he still seems to do PI work on the side). Most of his money seems to come from organized crime, though–he tends to grab large sums of various gangs’ cash whenever he butts heads with them.
Of course, he’s one of those lucky people who can wear clothes right off the rack and make them look tailored, so he often ghosts into a closed shop, leaves cash, and takes what he needs. His partner usually takes care of his other daylight-only business in exchange for a little vampiric muscle and spy-work on his cases.
I read a lot of vampire novels. Each author has a unique idea about what a vampire is and isn’t, what they can and can’t do, and what they will or won’t do.
Underworld is supposedly based on White Wolf’s World of Darkness. In WoD vampires work for each other. Many have invested money that continues to grow, and that is where they get their funds from.
As for who would do their tailoring? I would assume that if they don’t have a talented tailor whom they have turned in order to work for the Prince of a particular city, that they have a tailor under the influence of a blood bond, perhaps a ghoul.
In Chelsea Quinn Yarbro’s St Germain books, vampires have carried such jobs as teacher/tutor, alchemist, translator, ambassador, landlord.
In Laurell K Hamilton’s Anita Blake series, the vampires run thier own little part of the city, getting money from the nightclubs and bars and caranivals that they run. In this series, vampires hold many regular jobs too, and fight for equal rights as humans.
The two which have had identified owners were run by a human (Willie, who ran Willie’s) and a demon (Lorne who operated Caritas). Since vampires are looked down upon by other demons in the Buffyverse, I wonder whether other demons would patronize a bar owned and operated by a vampire.
This is an interesting question, and I think most writers have done a pretty shoddy job of answering it. Given that vampires really only need the lifeblood of mortals (which can be got for free) to keep going, they could get by with little to no income. However, once they decide they need a mansion and a cool car and a bunch of stylish clothes then money is going to be a problem. But plenty of authors, filmmakers, etc., have decided that their vampires can live an extravagant lifestyle with no visible means of income.
A modest initial sum, if wisely invested, could produce big returns over a few decades – but this could only work if the vampire can manage to leave the money invested for that long. There’s also the added bother of creating a paper trail to prove that you’re the “heir” to that old Count who made the initial investment lo these many years ago, a problem that often gets glossed over.
Some vampires collect fine furniture, jewellery, and objects d’art, and these tend to go up in value over time. Heck, even an ordinary Roman coin in good condition would be worth a fair amount today. However, most vampires seem attached to their collections and unlikely to auction them off to pay for the utilities. Storage and transportation of these goods could also be problematic. Still, I think a story about a vampire antiques dealer, rare coin/stamp merchant, or bookseller specializing in hard-to-find first editions would be a neat idea.
It’s been years since I’ve read an Anne Rice novel, but with the exception of vampires who inherited/earned money while still mortal (or who maintained lucrative careers as a rock stars while undead :rolleyes: ), I’m pretty sure it was mostly stolen money that was then invested. It seemed to be SOP to take anything of value off the blood-drained bodies of your victims.
As unelegant as it is, this is probably the simplest way for vampires to make money. I’d suspect it’s also a lot better for the vampire looking to keep a low profile if his or her victims looked like they died in a violent robbery rather than in an attack by some sort of crazy bloodsucking serial killer…
of course, vampires could get enthralled mortals also of the upper class. Renfield actually had been pretty well off, having been a member of the same gentleman’s club as Arthur Holmwood’s father Lord Godalming.
[rant]
It’s always been amazing to me the level of goth-euro-rich-kid-ism that seems to embue the current trend of vampires in pop-culture. I’ll admit to being anti-cool-vampire to begin with, but a few nights ago I had a long debate with a girl I know who thinks becomming a vampire would be ‘really cool’. Really? You could never see the sun. You’d have to prey on living things. You’d have to get a night job (who’s paying your rent and phone bill again?) But none of these things mattered to her. It would be ‘cool’ to be a vampire. Why? It would just be ‘cool!’
[/rant]
I think the Tales from the Crypt vampire that worked at a blood bank did so to screen the blood of his victims, not because he had an aversion to killing. I’m pretty sure Malcolm McDowell was the vampire.
I was just thinking about this last night, watching Fright Night and wondering if Jerry Dandridge’s survival strategy was all that great, and wondering about the survival strategy of vampires in general as to what route would work best. Jerry never struck me as that bright, what with ordering hookers to arrive in cabs to his house and killing them, and the idea of blowing into town and buying a big house seems rather dumb as well.
I read a book called “Desmond” in which the titular vampire was IIRC an antiques broker as a sideline business to an international investment firm. He also used the “die every 50 years or so and come back as my own heir” approach but had the added fillip of actually appearing to age (he was turned when he was 20-ish and appeared to age normally until about age 70, then would regenerate). Very conveeenient.