AUDIENCE: How badly would the scene have to fall apart before you stopped the tape?
JONATHAN: Well, it had to be pretty bad.
Obviously youve seen some pretty messy things that never got retaken. I think maybe once or twice I just quit.
I said, "I give up. Im totally confused at this point. I dont know what the hell I'm saying." Or you might use some profanity and they've have to stop. But
normally they didnt do it. Nowadays they do it . They make soaps now like movies. It's a whole different process. Most soaps even back then
edited and re-took shots. We didn't, obviously. Now, I mean, retake and retake, and they do them out of sequence. Just like a movie. But in those days, it cost
several hundreds if not thousands of dollars to make an edit. I might just say at this point one of my very favorite scenes was during the 1795 period. It was when I came in and Josette has married Jeremiah. That comes off rather well now as you see it. I wanted to do it beautifully and perfectly, and I went up. It was awful. It was so awful.
JOAN: They probably dont know what "going up" means.
JONATHAN: Going up means forgetting my lines. So anyway, I said to Robert Costello - Robert wanted me to meet some people that day from ABC - and I
said to him, if you would, I would love to get this scene edited tonight. Can I go over with Jack Sullivan (who had to do this every night) to the editing
room at ABC. They put in other things besides just editing bloopers. I said, I'll meet these people, but please do this one thing for me, and he said OK.
There must have been three or four men over there, after hours, working for about two hours. I dont know what it cost him, but anyway, I had a lot of fun with suggesting editing. I dont know how to do it, but I know that you take the sound out of the soundtrack and you separate the soundtrack from the
video track and you play around. We eliminated that awful hole and the scene finally worked. But that's the only time that I can remember where I really interfered. I begged them. They werent happy, but they let it go.
It was very, very costly to do that, and they preferred not to.
AUDIENCE: Miss Bennett, what was your favorite character?
JOAN: My favorite character was Elizabeth.
AUDIENCE: I have a question for Marie and Donna and Terry. Do you remember a favorite scene that you played with Miss Bennett?
MARIE: Yes! When I tried to kill you. [audience laughter]
![[vylnt]](http://www.dsboards.com/SMF/Smileys/classic/vylnt.gif "Violent")
DONNA: I can remember the first time I got bitten. Miss Bennett said for three days running, "Don't worry, you'll be fine", and here the blood is coming out...
TERRAYNE: I cant compete with that.
AUDIENCE: Mr. Frid, who came up with the idea for that haircut?
JONATHAN: Since Bob Costello himself admitted to this last year when he was here, I guess Im not saying anything behind his back. He had to pose for
that portrait in the hall because they had to have it ready before they even got an actor for Barnabas. They had to have everything done but the face, so
as soon as they got the actor they could put in the face. So Bob posed for it, and he sort of doesnt have too much hair, and what hair he had he pulled
across his forehead into bangs. We often kidded about it. That's how I ended up with having the bangs. It became, of course, one of the trademarks
of the character.
AUDIENCE: I think the character of Barnabas ranks right up there with the best horror actors, Boris Earloff and Bela Lugosi.
JONATHAN: That's in pretty good company. The two actors that I grew up with that were in the horror genre were Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi. I did see
Lugosi as a vampire when I was young, but I think Boris Karloff' roles probably influenced anything I did with my vampire roles rather than Bela Lugosi. Bela Lugosi -- to watch him now is fascinating. Dracula - its like a ballet,
and it makes me think the story of Dracula would make a beautiful ballet, if not an opera. Lugosi - the way he slides up and down those staircases. It was
beautiful, so slow motion.
[Frid was offered the role of Dracula in a New York Broadway revival that eventually wound up starring Frank Langella. Frid wasn't interested in the part.)
AUDIENCE: How many days prior to air time did you tape an episode?
MARIE: Approximately one week.
JONATHAN: Each one was done by itself every day. Live tape. It's kind of a contradiction of terms.
AUDIENCE: Because of the characters that you played were particularly the evil ones - did any of you aver have any problems with salespeople or the general public?
JONATHAN: Come on, evil ladies, speak up!
MARIE: Its funny. I enjoyed playing evil people, and would meet people outside who would say "Youre terrific! You're so bad!" So it didnt seem
to hurt me. Only then, when I played Crazy Jenny.. .Once when I was walking on the street. I thought my crazy Jenny characterization with the hair and everything was so different than I am. I mean, I put little rollers in my hair over here, I teased my hair out to here, I wore false lashes on top and bottom. I put dark shadows in here and everything. I looked absolutely crazy. And one day Im walking on 42nd Street near Lexington Avenue, and someone said to me, "Hey! Youre Crazy Jenny!" And I said, "How did you know?" And she said, "You look just like you do on television!"
[audience laughter]
DONNA: One wonderful woman on a bus once picked up her cane and slugged me with it. I had started going out with Trask. She screamed at the top of her
lungs "YOU SLUT!"
I have played such nice women for my entire career.. She was furious. I got off the bus, I walked. That was it. If shes here today, I
turned out OK. Dont believe these parts we play.
TERRAYNE: I only had one day as a vampire, and my character, Beth, I cant see her really being an evil lady. The only "evil" character I played was Edith Collins for a short while. For me it was a very one dimensional character. I thought I was just yelling all the time. The fans outside said, "Please, Beth, will you come back as Beth? Please, we like Beth, we dont like her. Please come back as Beth."
AUDIENCE: Mr. Frid, will you tell us your first impressions of meeting Joan Bennett when you first started on the show?
JONATHAN: Oh, I was terrified. I was in awe. Of course they were all quite a little group, you know, by that time. I was in very formidable company. But
all my fears and awe of all these marvelous people that I was working with played into Barnabas beautifully, because he was scared out of his wits. In a
few days I found they were all very nice people. Joan was a dear to work with. After a few days of getting over all the awe of Hollywood and everything, I had a lovely time during the four years we worked together.
AUDIENCE: How does the panel feel about the current resurgence of popularity of the show?
JONATHAN: I have a marvellous answer for that. Last year I said we were a sort of cult following. Now weve become a part of American folklore.
MOC: Thank you very much to our guests!
