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I'm in an Ed Wood mood. When Lugosi died, Ed Wood was left high and dry. He was certainly depressed that a friend had died, but from a business perspective, Lugosi was his go-to star and all his future projects relied on Lugosi. Such potential projects included Dr. Acula, Tomb of the Vampire, and The Ghoul Goes West. The latter was mentioned by Lugosi in his rehab interview. For the middle one, Ed Wood shot several minutes of silent footage shortly before Lugosi died.

With Lugosi gone, that footage became the seed of Plan 9 From Outer Space, and the rest is history. And you have the post-Lugosi Ed Wood, who had to go into directing pornography and writing erotic novels, who fell into alcoholism and debt, and who felt his career was a failure. And that is a bit sad but it may have come to that regardless of Lugosi's longevity. I could go into other details outside of Ed Wood, but that relationship is really all that matters by that point in Lugosi's life. Although his rehab stint brought him renewed attention, which he may have been able to buoy into some things. Lugosi died in 1956; only one year after his time in rehab. He never got to get too far with whatever that renewed attention may have brought, although from the examples of the OTL, it may not have been much. His last role in The Black Sleep was a mute.

What if Bela Lugosi had lived, if only a few years longer?
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