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Run by John Raven, 'The Count Dracula Fan Club' was one of many horror themed fan clubs that came out during the 70's and 80's. The great thing about fan clubs is that they of course cater for the fan who wants to read and learn about a particular subject, actor, film, book, charactor, etc. Once becoming a member they receive such things as a membership card, newsletters or magazine in which they can read about their favorite subject, contribute artwork, stories, articles etc. The fan club is a great way of bringing like-minded people together, forming freindships, and bringing out your creative side.
I have been a member of a few fanclubs/societies and have always found them to be freindly, fun, and informative about the subject. When I sent my money off to join 'The Count Dracula fan club' back in the early 1980's, I received a letter from John Raven saying that the club had finished, which was a little disapointing;but he said that he still had the 4 issues of the official fan club magazine 'The Vampire' which I could buy also a number of books etc that were available to members to purchase via Halloween enterprises, the clubs mailorder service. So I bought what I could afford at the time [I was still at school] which included 3 masks, a few books, a Dracula cloak and some photos. He was selling them off cheap because of the fan club closing down.
The official magazine of The Count Dracula Fan Club' The Vampire was a large format magazine that had photocopied pages[ but on good paper] apart from the covers. The magazine was also only printed on one side, but you expect this with fan produced magazines. Most of the articles, stories, reviews, and art work were by John Raven and Sharon Raven. What was great about the magazine was that it covered a lot of the latest horror books, theatre productions, audio tapes, etc that came out at the time here in England. The reviews covered such items as 'I am the doorway and 'One for the road' audio tape read by Ed Bishop, 'Dracula' audio tape read by Anthony Valentine, More Death and horror sound effects, 'The Reluctant Vampire' by Eric Morcambe, Theatre production of 'Sweeny Todd' starring Brian Murphy and Liz Frazer, 'Bats out of hell' by Guy N. Smith, Waddington's Game of Dracula, The Vampire bedside companion, The Beaver book of horror, and other books, tapes etc. The magazine featured articles on actors that have played Dracula, Bram Stoker, Highgate cemetary, Borley rectory, stories, jokes, Dracula in the media, fanclub/society reviews, amoung many other items.
All in all 'The Count Dracula Fan Club' seemed to be a freindly and fun fanclub to become a member of. The pictures show the 4 'The Vampire' magazines and a flyer explaining what the fanclub is all about.
6 comments:
Sounds really interesting. I am a fan of Count Dracula. I read Bram Stoker's Dracula and the book kicks ass. Also I made a study based upon Vlad Tepes, the evil medieval ruler of Transylvania. I have'nt watched many horror films though, but I like all that stuff. Vampires fascinate me my whole life. Also I adore Anne Rice's books. Is there someone who would like to talk about these themes??
You might know...I´m looking for an old dracula movie for years, i used to watch it on tv like 20 or more...years ago, i think mina had sisters and they got attacked by dracula first than her, in this movie dracula cuts his chest and mina drinks his blood, on another scene profesor Van Helsing protects Mina from vampires making I think it was a flower or salt circle, and on another scene there is a child that appears walking and has the 2 marks in his neck, this movie was ambiented in an old time, oike professor uses a white wig, like the ones Luis XV used in France, I am looking for this movie on the internetr but i havent found it, if you know it please tell me the name please please please, thanks
Hi Claudia
From what you described the film sounds like a TV made version by the BBC in 1977 called 'Count Dracula' which was shown in 2 parts. It starred Louie Jourdan as Count Dracula and Frank Finley played Van Helsing. It is about 3 hours long and is certainly one of the best adaptations.
I hope this is the one you are looking for. It has been released on dvd but not sure how easy it is to get still.
All the best
Paul
Was the audio tape read by Anthony Valentine the 70s version or the second one he did from the late 80s/90s?
Do you know if the 1at version is available anywhere?
Hi
Sorry for the late reply.
I think the audio tape is from the early 1980s, it's a single cassette. The bother one he did was 2 cassettes which came out in the 90s, it has Louis Jourdan on the cover from the 1977 BBC 'Count Dracula'
There is an Ebay listing at the moment of the single cassette:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/275046800249?hash=item400a111b79:g:AsQAAOSwNqZhpf-R
I remember it well. I was born 1969 and joined the fan club . My mum must have thrown out my magazines when I moved out but when clearing her house recently , I found an old box file with my young (11/12/13ish) writing on it - “Dracula fan club” and the memories came flooding back . I loved it at the time . Thanks for the flashback . I just decided to search online and this popped up .
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