1 00:00:01,960 --> 00:00:04,480 Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio, 2 00:00:06,760 --> 00:00:10,760 Speaker 1: Hey brain Stuff Lauren vog obam Here. Death was not 3 00:00:10,920 --> 00:00:14,320 Speaker 1: the end for poor Lucy was Stern Wrath, a character 4 00:00:14,360 --> 00:00:18,400 Speaker 1: in Bram Stoker's novel Dracula. She fell victim to the 5 00:00:18,400 --> 00:00:22,239 Speaker 1: book's aristocratic villain while stealing her blood. Night after night, 6 00:00:22,560 --> 00:00:26,960 Speaker 1: Count Dracula of Transylvania slowly drained the life out of Lucy, 7 00:00:27,320 --> 00:00:29,840 Speaker 1: but that was only the beginning for the young woman's 8 00:00:29,920 --> 00:00:34,080 Speaker 1: killer also transformed her into an undead vampire like himself. 9 00:00:34,600 --> 00:00:37,760 Speaker 1: A brief reign of terror ensued at the graveyard. Then 10 00:00:37,960 --> 00:00:42,199 Speaker 1: Lucy's living fiancee, Arthur, and his companions, including the vampire 11 00:00:42,240 --> 00:00:46,360 Speaker 1: savvy dr Abraham van Helsing, found her awake near her tomb. 12 00:00:47,120 --> 00:00:49,880 Speaker 1: She was finally destroyed for good after trying to lure 13 00:00:50,040 --> 00:00:54,440 Speaker 1: Arthur into a lover's embrace. Had Arthur accepted her kiss, 14 00:00:54,800 --> 00:00:57,920 Speaker 1: Dr Van Helsing explained in his broken English, the morning 15 00:00:58,000 --> 00:01:01,200 Speaker 1: suitor would have quote become no farratu as they call 16 00:01:01,280 --> 00:01:04,160 Speaker 1: it in Eastern Europe. The nosferatu do not die like 17 00:01:04,280 --> 00:01:07,360 Speaker 1: the bee when he stinged once. He's only stronger, and 18 00:01:07,480 --> 00:01:11,399 Speaker 1: being stronger have yet more power to work evil. In 19 00:01:11,480 --> 00:01:15,920 Speaker 1: the novel Dracula, Stoker treats nosferatu as a synonym for vampire. 20 00:01:16,640 --> 00:01:19,440 Speaker 1: Countless horror writers took his lead, using the two terms 21 00:01:19,440 --> 00:01:23,040 Speaker 1: interchangeably over the next hundred plus years, including Treehouse of 22 00:01:23,120 --> 00:01:28,680 Speaker 1: Terror four episode of The Simpsons. Like Van Helsing, Stoker 23 00:01:28,720 --> 00:01:31,880 Speaker 1: seems to have believed that nosferatu was an authentic word 24 00:01:31,920 --> 00:01:35,679 Speaker 1: of Eastern European origin, but the evidence tells another story. 25 00:01:36,400 --> 00:01:39,840 Speaker 1: No s farratu is probably a mistranslation of a Romanian 26 00:01:40,040 --> 00:01:44,240 Speaker 1: or Greek term that scholars have yet pinned down. Whatever 27 00:01:44,319 --> 00:01:48,400 Speaker 1: its origins were, horror media gave nos ferratu a new meaning, 28 00:01:48,880 --> 00:01:51,680 Speaker 1: and it became fodder for some of the scariest vampire 29 00:01:51,720 --> 00:01:56,240 Speaker 1: stories ever to rise from the shadows. Nineteenth century travel 30 00:01:56,240 --> 00:02:00,280 Speaker 1: writer Emily Girard was talking vampires well before d Kilo 31 00:02:00,360 --> 00:02:03,680 Speaker 1: went to print. Born in Scotland in eighteen forty nine, 32 00:02:03,880 --> 00:02:07,400 Speaker 1: she emerged as a novelist and literary critic, but history 33 00:02:07,560 --> 00:02:12,440 Speaker 1: mostly remembers her nonfiction works on European folklore. Gerard's eighteen 34 00:02:12,480 --> 00:02:17,839 Speaker 1: eighty five essay Transylvanian Superstitions contains the following passage. More 35 00:02:17,919 --> 00:02:22,200 Speaker 1: decidedly evil, however, is the vampire or no sfaratu, in 36 00:02:22,240 --> 00:02:25,560 Speaker 1: whom every Romanian peasant believes as firmly as he does 37 00:02:25,560 --> 00:02:29,880 Speaker 1: in heaven or hell. The problem is no Sfaratu wasn't 38 00:02:29,919 --> 00:02:33,200 Speaker 1: a real word, not in Romanian and not in any 39 00:02:33,240 --> 00:02:37,680 Speaker 1: known Eastern European language or dialect. Gerard might have bungled 40 00:02:37,680 --> 00:02:42,160 Speaker 1: the Romanian word nasu ferrite, which means unbearable. It's also 41 00:02:42,240 --> 00:02:46,760 Speaker 1: possible that she misinterpreted and misspelled neckara tool, a Romanian 42 00:02:46,880 --> 00:02:50,480 Speaker 1: term for devil, Or maybe Girard was thinking of the 43 00:02:50,520 --> 00:02:55,560 Speaker 1: Greek word nasophos, defined as a plague carrier. A nineteenth 44 00:02:55,560 --> 00:02:59,880 Speaker 1: century travel piece Torturing Spirits in Romanian popular belief makes 45 00:03:00,000 --> 00:03:04,400 Speaker 1: a similar mistake. The text mentions the nosferat, whom the 46 00:03:04,440 --> 00:03:08,200 Speaker 1: author calls the most dangerous torturing spirit of Romanian folklore, 47 00:03:08,840 --> 00:03:11,240 Speaker 1: but there's no proof that he was ever exposed to 48 00:03:11,280 --> 00:03:13,840 Speaker 1: this concept out in the field. The author may have 49 00:03:13,880 --> 00:03:18,600 Speaker 1: borrowed the word nos farat from Gerard's writings. Bram Stoker 50 00:03:18,639 --> 00:03:22,560 Speaker 1: seemingly did. Most horror historians credit Gerard's essay and her 51 00:03:22,560 --> 00:03:26,640 Speaker 1: eight book The Land Beyond the Forest, Facts, Figures and 52 00:03:26,639 --> 00:03:30,200 Speaker 1: Fancies from Transylvania with introducing Stoker to the term nos 53 00:03:30,240 --> 00:03:33,640 Speaker 1: farrat to, but the word only makes two appearances in 54 00:03:33,639 --> 00:03:36,800 Speaker 1: the Dracula novel, and it didn't really go mainstream until 55 00:03:36,840 --> 00:03:42,520 Speaker 1: one of Germany's strangest motion picture companies came along, Prana Film. 56 00:03:42,520 --> 00:03:45,720 Speaker 1: This young German based studio was drawn to all things 57 00:03:45,760 --> 00:03:50,080 Speaker 1: occult and supernatural. Early in the nineteen twenties, Prana resolved 58 00:03:50,120 --> 00:03:53,480 Speaker 1: to put Dracula on the silver screen. What followed was 59 00:03:53,480 --> 00:03:57,480 Speaker 1: a true classic of the horror genre and a legal disaster. 60 00:03:58,280 --> 00:04:01,360 Speaker 1: Always spoke by email with Jonathan Bailey, a horror fan 61 00:04:01,480 --> 00:04:04,480 Speaker 1: who has written about this surprisingly long history of copyright 62 00:04:04,520 --> 00:04:08,320 Speaker 1: issues in monster cinema on his website Plagiarism Today. He 63 00:04:08,440 --> 00:04:12,200 Speaker 1: said Prana Film wanted to do an expressionistic retelling of 64 00:04:12,240 --> 00:04:14,880 Speaker 1: the story of Dracula. That was very much the intent 65 00:04:14,920 --> 00:04:18,919 Speaker 1: from day one. However, the estate of Bram Stoker meaning 66 00:04:18,920 --> 00:04:22,200 Speaker 1: his widow Florence Stoker, didn't want to sell them the rights. 67 00:04:22,800 --> 00:04:25,400 Speaker 1: Rather than abandoned the idea, they changed the name and 68 00:04:25,440 --> 00:04:28,360 Speaker 1: a few other elements to make it an original work. 69 00:04:29,320 --> 00:04:33,080 Speaker 1: Calling most of the revisions that Prana Film made superficial 70 00:04:33,360 --> 00:04:37,279 Speaker 1: would be generous. The vampire in Prana's script is still 71 00:04:37,320 --> 00:04:40,680 Speaker 1: an aristocrat with a spooky castle who travels across the 72 00:04:40,720 --> 00:04:43,920 Speaker 1: sea and raises hell in a new city. But here 73 00:04:44,000 --> 00:04:47,920 Speaker 1: he goes by Count Orlock rather than Count Dracula. To 74 00:04:48,120 --> 00:04:51,240 Speaker 1: cover its tracks further, Prana Film discarded the book's title. 75 00:04:51,720 --> 00:04:55,400 Speaker 1: They've chosen replacement No s Ferrat, a symphony of horror 76 00:04:55,839 --> 00:05:00,440 Speaker 1: known frequently today. Just as Nos Ferrato Germany had already 77 00:05:00,440 --> 00:05:04,120 Speaker 1: signed into an international agreement protecting the copyright of literary 78 00:05:04,200 --> 00:05:08,200 Speaker 1: and artistic works. By keeping bram Stoker's basic plot more 79 00:05:08,279 --> 00:05:10,960 Speaker 1: or less intact, the team at Prana was running a 80 00:05:11,000 --> 00:05:13,480 Speaker 1: foul of the law, whether they realized it or not. 81 00:05:14,360 --> 00:05:17,400 Speaker 1: Bailey explained the film was a very new medium at 82 00:05:17,400 --> 00:05:21,200 Speaker 1: the time, especially commercially. Whenever a new technology comes along 83 00:05:21,240 --> 00:05:24,480 Speaker 1: for creativity, copyright is usually one of the last things 84 00:05:24,520 --> 00:05:28,400 Speaker 1: to get serious thought. Even if filmmakers understood the basics 85 00:05:28,400 --> 00:05:31,919 Speaker 1: of copyright law, they likely didn't grasp the nuances of it. 86 00:05:32,279 --> 00:05:35,800 Speaker 1: After all, their filmmakers not lawyers. This is something that 87 00:05:35,839 --> 00:05:40,320 Speaker 1: remains very true today. On March four, of n two 88 00:05:40,520 --> 00:05:44,239 Speaker 1: Prana films, nos Feratu, premiered at the Berlin's Logical Gardens 89 00:05:44,279 --> 00:05:48,159 Speaker 1: of All Places, starring Max Trak as the seriously creepy 90 00:05:48,200 --> 00:05:53,160 Speaker 1: count orlock was acclaimed by audiences and most critics. Most critics, 91 00:05:53,200 --> 00:05:57,279 Speaker 1: that is, except for Florence Stoker, working on her behalf. 92 00:05:57,320 --> 00:06:00,320 Speaker 1: A German lawyer hired by the British Incorporated Iet of 93 00:06:00,400 --> 00:06:05,000 Speaker 1: Authors sought compensation from Prana that they had plagiarized Dracula 94 00:06:05,240 --> 00:06:08,520 Speaker 1: was not in doubt. However, the studio had blown a 95 00:06:08,600 --> 00:06:11,960 Speaker 1: large sum of money promoting nos Faratu and went bankrupt 96 00:06:12,000 --> 00:06:16,200 Speaker 1: before the attorney came knocking. So, in accordance with Stoker's wishes, 97 00:06:16,480 --> 00:06:19,080 Speaker 1: a German court ordered that every copy of the movie 98 00:06:19,279 --> 00:06:23,400 Speaker 1: be destroyed. Try as she might, and she did try, 99 00:06:23,920 --> 00:06:28,039 Speaker 1: Florence Stoker could not slay nos Feratu. An American print 100 00:06:28,160 --> 00:06:32,600 Speaker 1: survived the destruction campaign. Prana Film's masterpiece now resides in 101 00:06:32,640 --> 00:06:36,120 Speaker 1: the public domain. It's gotten countless DVD releases and is 102 00:06:36,160 --> 00:06:40,120 Speaker 1: free to watch on platforms like YouTube. But nos Ferato 103 00:06:40,440 --> 00:06:43,120 Speaker 1: may have actually helped the franchise that it ripped off. 104 00:06:43,800 --> 00:06:48,440 Speaker 1: In Stoker's widow authorized a new stage play adaptation of Dracula. 105 00:06:49,000 --> 00:06:51,240 Speaker 1: The leading man in the Broadway production was a young 106 00:06:51,360 --> 00:06:55,080 Speaker 1: Hungarian named Bella Legosi. He had reprised the role for 107 00:06:55,160 --> 00:07:00,919 Speaker 1: Universal Pictures classic and legal Dracula movie, though Count Dracula 108 00:07:01,040 --> 00:07:04,440 Speaker 1: defined Bella Legosi's career would only play the character once 109 00:07:04,480 --> 00:07:08,320 Speaker 1: more on film, in the Night horror comedy Abbott and 110 00:07:08,320 --> 00:07:12,960 Speaker 1: Costello Meet Frankenstein. As for that haunting Prana flick, it 111 00:07:13,120 --> 00:07:15,560 Speaker 1: got a high profile remake in the form of Werner 112 00:07:15,600 --> 00:07:19,680 Speaker 1: Hertzog's No Sparatto The Vampire from nineteen seventy nine. Then 113 00:07:19,840 --> 00:07:24,240 Speaker 1: came the novel nos ferratt To spelled n O s 114 00:07:24,520 --> 00:07:27,720 Speaker 1: or a two by Joe Hill, which is the pen 115 00:07:27,840 --> 00:07:31,920 Speaker 1: name of Stephen King's son Joseph. A serialized TV adaptation 116 00:07:32,040 --> 00:07:34,880 Speaker 1: ran on AMC for two seasons in twenty nine, and 117 00:07:36,680 --> 00:07:39,520 Speaker 1: so there you have it. No Sparato is a word 118 00:07:39,520 --> 00:07:42,800 Speaker 1: of unknown origin that appeared in a groundbreaking horror novel, 119 00:07:43,080 --> 00:07:46,560 Speaker 1: got implicated in some legal drama, changed movie history and 120 00:07:46,680 --> 00:07:48,960 Speaker 1: inspired a pun from a member of the King family. 121 00:07:49,640 --> 00:07:58,240 Speaker 1: Emily Gerard had no idea what she had started. Today's 122 00:07:58,240 --> 00:08:00,960 Speaker 1: episode was written by Mark Mancini and uced by Tyler Clang. 123 00:08:01,280 --> 00:08:03,160 Speaker 1: For more than this and lots of other topics, visit 124 00:08:03,200 --> 00:08:05,800 Speaker 1: has toufworks dot com. Brain Stuff is production of I 125 00:08:05,880 --> 00:08:08,400 Speaker 1: Heart Radio or more podcasts to my Heart Radio visit 126 00:08:08,400 --> 00:08:11,040 Speaker 1: the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen 127 00:08:11,080 --> 00:08:12,000 Speaker 1: to your favorite shows.