Today, vampires are ubiquitous in our popular culture. From movies to television, in fiction and in art, and even within the hallowed halls of academia, these preternatural creatures of the night are turning up everywhere. But in the not-so-distant past, vampires evoked more fear than fascination; they lived in the shadows and were the stuff of nightmares. Our concept of them was forever changed with the publication of Bram Stoker's Dracula in 1897.
Bela Lugosi, whose iconic portrayal of Stoker's vampire was a hit on both the stage and screen, appeared in 1949 on one of the...