#edward corey

[kafkasapartment]

"Never Get on an Elevator Alone with a Foreign Woman," T.V. Guide cartoon, February 6, 1988. Edward St. John Gorey. Ink and watercolor on paper.

[collinsportmaine]

While researching Edward Gorey’s “Dracula” I discovered that Martin Landau starring in a production in 1984. There are not many photos on the internet but I did discover that Humbert Allen Astredo played Van Helsing opposite Landau. This review from the Washington Post dated December 10, 1984 isn’t very kind to Landau but Astredo get cudos.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1984/12/10/wheres-the-bitekennedy-centers-dracula-no-fangs-for-the-memory/

Regarding Martin Landau… “Martin Landau has the role this time, and you don’t have to have seen Frank Langella’s seductive performance on Broadway to realize what’s wrong. Equipped with a bouffant hairdo Aunt Tillie would spurn and radiating the magnetism of a turnip, Landau doesn’t exactly set the blood rushing to your head.”

Regarding Humbert Allen Astredo… “Celebrated Dutch scientist, Abraham Van Helsing (Humbert Allen Astredo), pounding a chubby fist into his palm and swearing to get to the bottom of her mysterious illness… The heightened vigor that Astredo brings to the role of the Dutch scientist, for example, is right on target. (You’d swear he was on the verge of discovering the key to the universe, not just Dracula’s coffin.) The silver-haired actor is all urgency, and since he is also all bulk, the urgency is doubly effective.”

There’s a photo of Astredo backstage with a fan here:

http://shadeopale.deviantart.com/art/Humbert-Allen-Astredo-backstage-with-ShadeOPale-359688372

[collinsportmaine]

Vampire Identification Guide

Martin Landau, star of Mission Impossible and Space: 1999, performed in a touring production of Dracula in 1994. It used the sets from the 1970s Broadway show designed by Edward Gorey. Unfortunately the reviews were not kind to Landau.

Texas A&M 11/1984

“Dracula' is different, but no major suprises…Martin Landau (is) a little too old to be sexy”

Washington Post 12/1984

“Martin Landau looks more like a Vegas vampire… the ghoulish specter of Wayne Newton. Equipped with a bouffant hairdo Aunt Tillie would spurn and radiating the magnetism of a turnip, Landau doesn't exactly set the blood rushing to your head.”

LA Times 01/1985

“Martin Landau at UCLA suggested a friend of your father’s who drops by on the way to a fancy dress ball with some papers for him to sign--something about title insurance.“

Landau’s costar Humbert Allen Astredo, as Van Helsing, faired better in the reviews:

“The heightened vigor that Astredo brings to the role of the Dutch scientist is right on target. The silver-haired actor is all urgency.”

[slobbering]

[peachesandghosts]

[pencilspoonmouse]

"This is the theory… that anything that is art… is presumably about some certain thing, but is really always about something else, and it’s no good having one without the other, because if you just have the something it is boring and if you just have the something else it’s irritating.”

So true! The important connection that can take something potentially ordinary to lead you on a journey you weren't expecting. Thank you Edward Corey for putting some rambley words to this idea.

I found this quote in a review of a new book, Floating Worlds about the letters from  this illustrator to one of his friends and collaborators, Peter F Neumeyer. A beautiful example of the joys of snail mail.