What does Cage say?

Remember the Nicolas Cage 'vampire' photo? A lot of you do. Much to my astonishment, the most popular entry on this blog discusses the source of the picture. And it's way, way ahead of the others (click to embiggen):

The fifth most popular entry—'Can't keep a good vamp down'—is another post discussing the picture. I've also covered it here and here. Guys, I just don't get it. What's the appeal? Yes, I know, I've covered it several times myself—but from the perspective of someone truly bewildered by the whole thing.

So what does Cage have to say about it? On February 10th, he was confronted with the pic on the Late show with David Letterman. Here's what he had to say:

The interview was discussed on The clicker, which noted his denials of vampirehood, but added: 'It's hard to argue with that, unless, of course, he's still around in another 140 years.'

Does Jack Mord, originator of the 'Nicolas Cage is a vampire' phenomena know about this? Quite likely.

Vampire Cage creator on imitators

Looks like I'm not the only one who's noticed attempts to cash-in on the Nicholas Cage vampire picture business. The guy who started it all, Jack Mord aka diabolus, has seem 'em too, adding 'Ha, that's funny. Most of those dudes don't even look like their celeb counterparts!'

The superficial

To him, the original's still the best ('But my Vampire Cage kicks butt!'). One of the better-known examples following in the footsteps of Mord's 'Vampire Cage', is another eBay seller's attempt to palm off a 19th century photograph for an exorbitant price, citing it as evidence of a famous American actor's supposed supernatural origins. In this case, John Travolta (left).

But it turns out that seller of that pic, might not be so random. According to Mord, 'I know the person who owns the Travolta one, they've been an online friend of mine for a few years.'

The 'success' of the Vampire Cage picture has greatly amused Jack: 'The amount of publicity it's gotten is hilarious. My photo was on several TV shows here - Good Morning America, The View, The Today Show, CNN (though I was unable to confirm that one personally), and a lot of celeb magazines.' And it's true. The amount of available news coverage on Vampire Cage is astounding. But without anything new to add, interest's starting to die off.

With all the publicity it's attracted, one wonders if Mord managed to sell Vampire Cage at his million dollar asking price. The attended news coverage should've landed him something, surely. Forum member, blythe, asked him: 'So are you making any money off of this?' Mord replied, 'Some, from the magazines and TV shows, but eBay went out of their way to make sure I couldn't make a penny from it on their site!'

That wasn't eBay's official reason for removing it, and it's not the reason Mord's given to news media: 'Mord says eBay initially asked him to take it down because he was "using a brand name" by mentioning Nicholas Cage.' Initially, because he reposted it 'without featuring the star's name, but eBay removed the photo again saying there were "reports" that the photo was not authentic.' Go figure.

A major British newspaper's gotten in on the act, and begun 'spotting' undead/time-travelling-reincarnated celebrities from the past. Must've been another slow news day.

Cage's coven

It's not too surprising that the Nicolas Cage, vampire meme has spawned a few cash-ins—oops, I mean imitators.

Another eBay seller's selling a pic, claiming John Travolta's either a time traveller or reincarnation. Admittedly, the pic's more 'convincing', this time around. If you're gullible and have a lotta money lying around, this one'll set you back $50,000. Or, you could PayPal it to me.

eBay

Then you've got sellers who're really scraping the bottom of the barrel. One seller's listed an 'Original 1860s Tintype Kurt Russell Reincarnation Not a Vampire' for US$1,000 (left). Looks more like Jeff Bridges to me. 

I've also noticed that the more these cash-ins follow, the less the bother with 'evidence'. The descriptions become more vague. 'Now that the world has discovered that there is a group (coven?) of celebrity time travelers, or vampires, or something similar, (not) consisting of at least Nicolas Cage and John Travolta, a young Kurt Russell can be added to the list,' wrote akersfam1. 'This tintype dates from the 1860s or 1870s and is approximately 2.5" by 3.5", which probably makes it a sixth plate. This photo is original and has not been altered in any way.'

Diminishing price is another characteristic. I don't know if the Nicolas Cage pic sold for its US$1,000,000—I really hope it didn't—but it seems these guys know they'll never top the success of Cage's 'vampire' pic. So why bother?

eBay

That's why you get sad entries like 'Vintage Photo Unusual Baby Light Eyes Vampire Twilight' (left). You can score this one—although, why would you want to?—for US$14.99. Its seller, theperfectgift, dispenses with 'evidence' all together: it has no accompanying description apart from photo size and payment details. Apparently, the baby's 'glowing' eyes are 'proof' enough.

Is this really what the tintype trade's come to? Are they that desperate to unladen old photos, that they're investing them with 'strange' or 'supernatural' backstories? 

Sure, you could say that it's all fun and games, but let's not forget: these photographs depict real people. Real people who had lives, who had history. What happens to their memory if it's 'erased' by childish stories, by meme cash-ins? Don't they deserve respect? A fair (and real) representation of who they were? Their history is already being 'overwritten' by these opportunists. Should it continue? How many more cash-ins will this one-trick joke inspire?

In the meantime, the guys from The Thanatos archive—which you'll recall as the 'source' of the 'Nic Cage vampire' pic—are still yucking it up, with one remarking that 'The news about John and Nicolas images were featured in one of the most important tv news in my country, Chile'. Wow.

Casting the Collinses

EW.com

Entertainment Weekly featured an exclusive peek at the cast of the upcoming Dark shadows flick. It's based on the 1966-71 soap opera of the same name.  

Tim Burton's directing, which isn't surprising considering his admiration of the series, the Gothic themes prevalent throughout his work, and the inclusion of stand-bys, Johnny Depp and Burton's wife, Helena Bonham Carter, in the cast.

To be honest, I'm ambivalent about the whole thing. I haven't seen the original series—nor the 1991 remake—but I have seen the first movie the original series spawned: House of dark shadows (1970). I'm also aware that the cult series has a strong fanbase and there've been many attempts to gauge its appeal. Pop culture writer, Eric Nuzum, recorded an interesting conversation he had with an attendee of a Dark shadows convention:

"You know, for a lot of people, vampires are all about sex, but I think it's deeper than that. I think all this stuff is really about power."

"How so?" I asked.

"You notice all the sick people at the convo?" he said. "During the whole Dark Shadows series Barnabas is a vampire in search of a cure for his curse," he continued. "A cure for his curse," he added for emphasis. "It seems pretty obvious that we're talking about a bunch of people happy to fantasize about finding a cure for the curse, eh?

"These are people who don't identify with the human characters—they identify with the freaks. In Dark Shadows, the monsters are always conflicted, always looking for a way out. They struggle. These con folks, they know what it's like to live like that."¹

Whether this angle will be explored in Burton's adaptation, remains to be seen. But I'll say the 'conflicted vampire' trope is nothing new. We see elements of it as far back as Varney the vampire (1847), J. Sheridan LeFanu's 'Carmilla' (1871–2), and yes, even in Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897), which would eventually evolve to the popular 'sympathetic vampire' of today. It must've been a theme that resonated with Dark shadows' creator, Dan Curtis, as his 1973 Dracula adaptation, played out the 'cursed' vampire angle, too.

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1 E Nuzum, The dead travel fast: stalking vampires from Nosferatu to Count Chocula, Thomas Dunne Books, New York, 2007, pp. 199–200.^↩

Can't keep a good vamp down

News.com.au

 The Nicolas Cage vampire madness continues, as the pic—which was removed from eBay for undisclosed reasons—is back, but still sporting a US$1,000,000 price tag. Thankfully, the seller's willing to waive the US$3.95 shipping fee.

eBay

I wonder if the seller removed the item due to the lack of credit he was given for his 'work': the photo on the eBay listing is now embossed with 'Jack Mord / Thanatos.net' (right). As Jack Mord—aka diabolus—mentioned on his forum, 'A lot of people aren't crediting me though, I've noticed. It was on PerezHilton and he cropped out my watermark and put his on the image.'

It's good to see news sources are starting to chase the source (like The Stir and AllMediaNY), although, one may have jumped the gun in identifying him: 'Lieutenant G.B. Smith, a Confederate prisoner that was taken in 1864 at Johnson's Island prison camp in Ohio.'

I'm not sure where the author derived that information from, as the man's identity is not revealed in the eBay listing. After all, the seller claims (with tongue firmly in cheek) that it's Nicolas Cage. 

He appears to be confusing the a name which appears, upside down, on the back of the photo: Prof. G.B. Smith, Gallery of Fine Arts, Bristol, Tenn. (below), who the seller cites as the photographer, not the man in the portrait. The confusion's not helped by the dates in Mord's listing. Despite saying it's an 'Original c.1870 carte de visite', he also says 'It's an original photo taken in Bristol, TN sometime around the Civil War.' The American Civil War ended in 1865.

eBay

The question is, where's the evidence that Cage is a vampire? Why's that the first conclusion derived from the photograph? It's not mentioned in conjunction with him drinking blood. Where's the fangs? The widow's peak? What if he's another kind of revenant? Did anyone think of that?

Maybe he's not undead, at all: he could simply be Immortal. But there might be a simpler explanation for why an 1870s photograph kinda looks like him: time travel. 

Mord believes Cage 'reinvents himself once every 75 years or so.  150 years from now, he might be a politician, the leader of a cult, or a  talk show host.' You know what other being's capable of regeneration, 'immortality' and time travel? These guys. 

All you'd need to determine is whether Cage has two hearts and an internal temperature of 59 degrees Fahrenheit. An x-ray and thermometer should do the trick.

However, if that's not feasible, there's always considering the possibility that it's a photograph of a guy—long dead—who bears passing resemblance to a famous American actor. Such phenomenon is not unheard of.

In all seriousness, it's clear Mord's having a laugh with the thing, though I doubt 'some rich asshole' will actually buy Mord's refuge in audacity. But wouldn't it be awesome if Cage, himself, bought it? Unlikely, as he's kinda broke at the moment.

Vampire headlines

DVDBeaver

Apart from that Nic Cage nonsense, I've noticed vampires have been hitting the news pretty hard lately. Here's three articles which caught my interest.

1. Two teenage girls were killed after visiting a famous 'vampire' grave in Rhode Island. They crashed their car along a dark road, which they thought 'looked "haunted"'.

2. While not about vampires, per se, after bats invaded a Transylvanian classroom, reporters couldn't resist invoking Dracula.

3. Lastly, a popular contestant on the UK's X Factor, is apparently a vampire in disguise. 'I could be the first vampire X Factor winner — how great would that be?'

Nic Cage, vampire?

AMC

An eBay seller recently offered photographic proof that American actor, Nicolas Cage, is actually a vampire: 'Original c.1870 carte de visite showing a man who looks exactly like Nick Cage. Personally, I believe it's him and that he is some sort of walking undead / vampire, et cetera, who quickens / reinvents himself once every 75 years or so.'

The 'proof' went on sale for US$1,000,000. 

It's been a popular news item, and even featured on Perez Hilton's blog. Where do I start?

Firstly, Cage—birth name, Nicolas Kim Coppola—was born on 7 January 1964 to August Coppola, a professor of literature, and Joy Vogelsang, a dancer and choreographer. Cage's first film role was 'Nicolas' in 1981 TV movie, Best of times. As is common in the entertainment industry, Cage adopted a stage name. Not as a sinister ruse, but to avoid nepotist associations with his famous uncle: Francis Ford Coppola.

Cage's family tree should be convincing evidence of his (human) age and genealogical descent, though, admittedly, the Coppola family does have some 'bats in the belfry'. Christopher Coppola, Cage's older brother, directed Dracula's widow (1988), while Francis Ford Coppola—best known for The Godfather trilogy and Apocalypse now—directed Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992). Cage, himself, starred in Robert Bierman's Vampire's kiss (1989) as Peter Loew, a man who thinks he's a vampire.

Interestingly, the eBay pic has been 'debunked' as being out of step with vampire lore: 'Unfortunately, there’s one small problem with this bold claim. Vampire experts have been buzzing since the news about Mr. Vampire Cage broke — because a vampire cannot be photographed!' This 'lore', however, is quite modern; being a riff on the vampire's lack of reflection in mirrors. 

Both these traits originated with Bram Stoker, the first person to 'note' [devise] the vampire's lack of reflection, as well as the inability to capture its likeness on film: 'Could not codak [photograph] him – come out black or like skeleton corpse'.¹ However, this latter trait did not feature in the finished novel, Dracula (1897).

The online photographer

It's strange that a lot of the news coverage relating to the picture overlooks the wording embossed on the picture. 'THE THANATOS ARCHIVE' is pretty hard to miss.

It took a couple of seconds to source The Thanatos archive through Google. It's based in Seattle, Washington, and 'houses an extensive collection of early post-mortem and memorial / mourning photography dating back to the 1840s.'

From there, I found its discussion forum and checked to see if the picture had been discussed there. Sure enough, I came across a thread called 'Nicolas Cage is a vampire'.

The first post, by the forum's site admin—diabolus—is quite telling: 'I think I've posted this before, but my Nic Cage is a Vampire" eBay listing has really taken off. It's been on several major sites that I'm aware of including AOL, The Hollywood Reporter, The Washington Post and The Huffington Post. Pretty hilarious.'

The thread's contributors praised diabolus for cracking the 'big time' due to the item's extensive news coverage. He later added, 'It's supposed to be on "The View" today. And this morning I saw it on the Today show. Why isn't some rich asshole contacting me to buy it for a million? I'm sure they've spent a million on much more ridiculous things than this!'

Another member suggested he reveal himself as the source after its appearance on a popular blog. He replied, 'Hey, that's one I hadn't seen yet! A lot of people aren't crediting me though, I've noticed. It was on PerezHilton and he cropped out my watermark and put his on the image. Ah well. All that really matters is that I made it to the front page of Epic WIN!'

While the news coverage has been tongue-in-cheek—and the listing, itself, inherently ridiculous—I can't help wondering whether it'll kick off its own Birther movement,² especially as so few news agencies have bothered acknowledging the pic's source. After all, there are people who think the FVZA is an actual thing, even though its 'founder' admits it's a sham. Time will tell.

As it stands, it's a classic demonstration of the importance of paper trails.

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^{1. B Stoker, Bram Stoker's notes for Dracula: a facsimile edition, annotated and transcribed by R Eighteen-Bisang & E Miller, McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, Jefferson, N.C., 2008, p. 20–1.↩}

^{2. A movement brilliantly parodied by The Onion, 'Afterbirthers demand to see Obama's placenta'.↩}