
No Traveler Returns: The Lost Years of Bela Lugosi
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $19.95
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
J.T. McDaniel
About this listen
"Gary Rhodes and Bill Kaffenberger have added the final chapter to Bela Lugosi's career, combining fascinating unknown details of his film and stage activities with post-WWII film history. Superbly researched and written as an engrossing story of an actor's struggle against professional decline. A must-read!" (Robert Cremer, author of Lugosi: The Man Behind the Cape)
"Gary Rhodes represents that elusive Gold Standard in narrative research into the full depth and breadth of Bela Lugosi's complicated career. Rhodes' devotion to the banishment of myth, and to its replacement with frank and humanizing truth, has provided a wealth of historical storytelling that, in turn, renders the actor's known body of work all the more fascinating and comprehensible. Just when I catch myself believing I know all there is to be known about Lugosi, along come Gary Rhodes and Bill Kaffenberger with a fresh brace of revelations. The process advances immeasurably in No Traveler Returns: The Lost Years of Bela Lugosi." (Michael H. Price, coauthor of the Forgotten Horrors series)
"In No Traveler Returns, Bela Lugosi scholar extraordinaire Gary D. Rhodes and Bill Kaffenberger provide a fascinating time travel journey back to the late 1940s/early 1950s, when Lugosi - largely out of favor in Hollywood - embarked on a Gypsy-like existence of vaudeville, summer stock, and magic shows. While many historians have considered this era a limbo in Lugosi's career, with precious few facts unearthed, Rhodes and Kaffenberger take the listener along for a wide-eyed ride as Bela performs in a nightclub so notorious that armed guards keep watch on the roof, dresses as Dracula in a magic show where he and a gorilla (a man in a suit) play football with the guillotined head of a woman (a dummy), and races from one stock engagement to another without ever missing a cue. Never in his American career was Bela so busy, and never did his light shine so brightly, as he valiantly troupes to support his family, dominate age and illness, and please his audiences. It's a fastidiously researched education in the show business world of the time - and a stirring tribute to the charm, brilliance, and inexhaustible professionalism of the star who was Dracula." (Gregory William Mank, author of Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff: The Expanded Story of a Haunting Collaboration)
©2016 Gary Rhodes and Bill Kaffenberger (P)2016 BearManor MediaListeners also enjoyed...
-
Dark Carnival
- The Secret World of Tod Browning, Hollywood's Master of Macabre
- By: David J. Skal, Elias Savada
- Narrated by: David J. Skal
- Length: 9 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One of the most original and unsettling filmmakers of all time—the creator of the horror classics Dracula and Freaks, among others—Tod Browning is also one of the most enigmatic directors who ever worked in Hollywood. A complicated, troubled, and fiercely private man, he confounded would-be biographers hoping to penetrate his secret, obsessive world—both during his lifetime and afterward. Now, film historians David J. Skal and Elias Savada join forces for the first full-length biography of the man who earned a reputation as "the Edgar Allan Poe of the cinema."
-
-
One of us...
- By Born Cross-Eyed on 07-24-23
By: David J. Skal, and others
-
Off the Mangrove Coast
- By: Louis L'Amour
- Narrated by: Stephen Lang
- Length: 6 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A brand new collection from Louis L'Amour, the legendary New York Times best-selling master of the short story. Here in Off the Mangrove Coast are fast-moving, historically detailed stories of the travails of extraordinary men and women struggling to break free, to capture fortune and fame, or find love. Here are the characters and the great tales that have made Louis L'Amour one of the world's most popular authors. Here are the works of a master craftsman which will live forever in the listeners' imaginations.
-
-
Terrible audio quality
- By M. Solocinski on 04-09-07
By: Louis L'Amour
-
Dolores Claiborne
- By: Stephen King
- Narrated by: Frances Sternhagen
- Length: 9 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Dolores Claiborne is suspected of killing Vera Donovan, her wealthy employer, and when the police question her, she tells the story of her life, harkening back to her disintegrating marriage and the suspicious death of her violent husband 30 years earlier. Dolores also tells of Vera's physical and mental decline and how she became emotionally demanding in recent years.
-
-
Absolutely Fantastic!
- By Matthew S. Hill on 06-06-16
By: Stephen King
-
The Green Mile
- By: Stephen King
- Narrated by: Frank Muller
- Length: 13 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At Cold Mountain Penitentiary, the convicted killers on E Block await their turn to walk the Green Mile and keep a date with the electric chair. Paul Edgecombe has seen his share of oddities in his years working as a guard on the Mile, but he's never met anyone like John Coffey.
-
-
An excellent narrator and an excellent story.
- By Bryan J. Peterson on 03-21-10
By: Stephen King
-
Wes Craven: The Man and his Nightmares
- By: John Wooley
- Narrated by: Pete Larkin
- Length: 7 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The life and film genius of A Nightmare on Elm Street and Scream director Wes Craven. Wes Craven is one of the most successful and iconic horror movie directors in Hollywood. His masterful examination of the nightmarish nexus of dreams and reality helped spark a career that has spanned close to forty years. Then, with their mix of horror, sex, and humor, Craven's Scream movies helped revitalize the slasher film genre.
-
-
Will bore you to sleep.
- By Kristopher's Korner on 12-24-16
By: John Wooley
-
Yours Cruelly, Elvira
- Memoirs of the Mistress of the Dark
- By: Cassandra Peterson
- Narrated by: Cassandra Peterson
- Length: 10 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The woman behind the icon known as Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, the undisputed Queen of Halloween, reveals her full story, filled with intimate bombshells - and told by the bombshell herself.
-
-
Chapter 14 cut off
- By Wildgreenthumb on 09-24-21
-
Dark Carnival
- The Secret World of Tod Browning, Hollywood's Master of Macabre
- By: David J. Skal, Elias Savada
- Narrated by: David J. Skal
- Length: 9 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One of the most original and unsettling filmmakers of all time—the creator of the horror classics Dracula and Freaks, among others—Tod Browning is also one of the most enigmatic directors who ever worked in Hollywood. A complicated, troubled, and fiercely private man, he confounded would-be biographers hoping to penetrate his secret, obsessive world—both during his lifetime and afterward. Now, film historians David J. Skal and Elias Savada join forces for the first full-length biography of the man who earned a reputation as "the Edgar Allan Poe of the cinema."
-
-
One of us...
- By Born Cross-Eyed on 07-24-23
By: David J. Skal, and others
-
Off the Mangrove Coast
- By: Louis L'Amour
- Narrated by: Stephen Lang
- Length: 6 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A brand new collection from Louis L'Amour, the legendary New York Times best-selling master of the short story. Here in Off the Mangrove Coast are fast-moving, historically detailed stories of the travails of extraordinary men and women struggling to break free, to capture fortune and fame, or find love. Here are the characters and the great tales that have made Louis L'Amour one of the world's most popular authors. Here are the works of a master craftsman which will live forever in the listeners' imaginations.
-
-
Terrible audio quality
- By M. Solocinski on 04-09-07
By: Louis L'Amour
-
Dolores Claiborne
- By: Stephen King
- Narrated by: Frances Sternhagen
- Length: 9 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Dolores Claiborne is suspected of killing Vera Donovan, her wealthy employer, and when the police question her, she tells the story of her life, harkening back to her disintegrating marriage and the suspicious death of her violent husband 30 years earlier. Dolores also tells of Vera's physical and mental decline and how she became emotionally demanding in recent years.
-
-
Absolutely Fantastic!
- By Matthew S. Hill on 06-06-16
By: Stephen King
-
The Green Mile
- By: Stephen King
- Narrated by: Frank Muller
- Length: 13 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At Cold Mountain Penitentiary, the convicted killers on E Block await their turn to walk the Green Mile and keep a date with the electric chair. Paul Edgecombe has seen his share of oddities in his years working as a guard on the Mile, but he's never met anyone like John Coffey.
-
-
An excellent narrator and an excellent story.
- By Bryan J. Peterson on 03-21-10
By: Stephen King
-
Wes Craven: The Man and his Nightmares
- By: John Wooley
- Narrated by: Pete Larkin
- Length: 7 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The life and film genius of A Nightmare on Elm Street and Scream director Wes Craven. Wes Craven is one of the most successful and iconic horror movie directors in Hollywood. His masterful examination of the nightmarish nexus of dreams and reality helped spark a career that has spanned close to forty years. Then, with their mix of horror, sex, and humor, Craven's Scream movies helped revitalize the slasher film genre.
-
-
Will bore you to sleep.
- By Kristopher's Korner on 12-24-16
By: John Wooley
-
Yours Cruelly, Elvira
- Memoirs of the Mistress of the Dark
- By: Cassandra Peterson
- Narrated by: Cassandra Peterson
- Length: 10 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The woman behind the icon known as Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, the undisputed Queen of Halloween, reveals her full story, filled with intimate bombshells - and told by the bombshell herself.
-
-
Chapter 14 cut off
- By Wildgreenthumb on 09-24-21
-
Gerald's Game
- By: Stephen King
- Narrated by: Lindsay Crouse
- Length: 13 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Gerald and Jessie Burlingame have gone to their summer home on a warm weekday in October for a romantic getaway. After being handcuffed to her bedposts, Jessie tires of her husband's games, but when Gerald refuses to stop, the evening ends with deadly consequences. Still handcuffed, Jessie is trapped and alone. Over the next 28 hours, in the lakeside house that has become a prison, Jessie will come face to face with all the things she has ever feared.
-
-
Please get rid of the sound effects
- By Peeps on 12-29-16
By: Stephen King
-
Glamour Ghoul
- The Passions and Pain of the Real Vampira, Maila Nurmi
- By: Sandra Niemi
- Narrated by: Beth Stewart
- Length: 11 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Maila Nurmi, the beautiful and sheltered daughter of Finnish immigrants, stepped off the bus in 1941 Los Angeles intent on finding fame and fortune. She found men eager to take advantage of her innocence and beauty but was determined to find success and love. Her inspired design and portrayal of a vampire won a costume contest that led to a small role on the Red Skelton show, which grew into a persona that brought her the notoriety she desired yet trapped her in a character she could never truly escape.
-
-
Terroriffic!!!
- By christopher j rago on 08-15-21
By: Sandra Niemi
-
Dark City (Revised and Expanded Edition)
- The Lost World of Film Noir
- By: Eddie Muller
- Narrated by: Eddie Muller, Erin Bennett
- Length: 12 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Dark City expands with new chapters and a fresh collection of restored photos that illustrate the mythic landscape of the imagination. It's a place where the men and women who created film noir often find themselves dangling from the same sinister heights as the silver-screen avatars to whom they gave life.
-
-
Good overview, summary of the genre
- By Buretto on 03-31-22
By: Eddie Muller
-
Opposable Thumbs
- How Siskel & Ebert Changed Movies Forever
- By: Matt Singer
- Narrated by: Matt Singer
- Length: 9 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On a cold Saturday afternoon in 1975, two men (who had known each other for eight years before they’d ever exchanged a word) met for lunch in a Chicago pub. Gene Siskel was the film critic for the Chicago Tribune. Roger Ebert had recently won the Pulitzer Prize—the first ever awarded to a film critic—for his work at the Chicago Sun-Times. To say they despised each other was an understatement.
-
-
Good book. But unless you are a standup comedian, or an actor, you shouldn’t read a book you wrote
- By Jerry Thompson on 03-14-24
By: Matt Singer
-
Dying of Politeness
- A Memoir
- By: Geena Davis
- Narrated by: Geena Davis
- Length: 7 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From two-time Academy Award winner and screen icon Geena Davis, the surprising tale of her “journey to badassery”—from her epically polite childhood to roles that loaned her the strength to become a powerhouse in Hollywood.
-
-
so perfect
- By Kimber on 10-16-22
By: Geena Davis
-
Hollywood Gothic
- The Tangled Web of Dracula from Novel to Stage to Screen
- By: David J. Skal
- Narrated by: David J. Skal
- Length: 10 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The primal image of the black-caped vampire Dracula has become an indelible fixture of the modern imagination. It's recognition factor rivals, in its own perverse way, the familiarity of Santa Claus. In this critically acclaimed excursion through the life of a cultural icon, David Skal maps out the archetypal vampire's relentless trajectory from Victorian literary oddity to movie idol to cultural commodity, digging through the populist veneer to reveal what the prince of darkness says about us all.
-
-
Excellent and Informative History of Dracula's Pop Culture Immortality
- By Atlanta Book Collector on 12-02-23
By: David J. Skal
-
Shooting Columbo
- The Lives and Deaths of TV's Rumpled Detective
- By: David Koenig
- Narrated by: Randy Skretvedt
- Length: 8 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Columbo was arguably the most popular and most unique television mystery series ever - even though, within two minutes of the titles, the audience already knew the murderer’s identity. The show captivated tens of millions of viewers for 69 adventures produced over 35 years. Yet if star Peter Falk had gotten his way, it would have run far longer. The “shooting” of Columbo was filled with backstage intrigue and larger-than-life personalities who, through it all, created unforgettable classic television.
-
-
As comfortable as an old pair of $16 shoes
- By Buretto on 10-03-21
By: David Koenig
-
Andy and Don
- The Making of a Friendship and a Classic American TV Show
- By: Daniel de Visé
- Narrated by: George Newbern
- Length: 9 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Andy Griffith and Don Knotts met on Broadway in the 1950s. When Andy went to Hollywood to film a TV pilot about a small-town sheriff, Don called to ask if the sheriff could use a deputy. The comedic synergy between Sheriff Andy Taylor and Deputy Barney Fife ignited The Andy Griffith Show, elevating a folksy sitcom into a timeless study of human friendship, as potent off the screen as on.
-
-
A Moving Tribute
- By Brian Harms on 12-28-15
By: Daniel de Visé
-
Walt Disney
- The Triumph of the American Imagination
- By: Neal Gabler
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 33 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Walt Disney was a true visionary whose desire for escape, iron determination, and obsessive perfectionism transformed animation from a novelty to an art form, first with Mickey Mouse and then with his feature films–most notably Snow White, Fantasia, and Bambi.
-
-
Diane Disney
- By Amanda on 02-15-13
By: Neal Gabler
-
Poirot and Me
- By: David Suchet
- Narrated by: David Suchet
- Length: 9 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Actor David Suchet recalls his experience of playing Agatha Christie's world-famous detective, Hercule Poirot, for almost a quarter of a century. In the summer of 2013 David Suchet filmed his final scenes as Hercule Poirot. After 24 years in the role, he will have played the character in every story that Agatha Christie wrote about him (bar one, deemed unfilmable) and he will bid adieu to a role and a character that have changed his life.
-
-
If you like Poirot then you will love this book
- By Gudrun on 01-20-17
By: David Suchet
-
Jim Henson
- The Biography
- By: Brian Jay Jones
- Narrated by: Kirby Heyborne
- Length: 21 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
He was a gentle dreamer whose genial bearded visage was recognized around the world, but most people got to know him only through the iconic characters born of his fertile imagination: Kermit the Frog, Bert and Ernie, Miss Piggy, Big Bird. The Muppets made Jim Henson a household name, but they were just part of his remarkable story.
-
-
Dramatically complete
- By T on 10-01-13
By: Brian Jay Jones
-
American Rebel
- The Life of Clint Eastwood
- By: Marc Eliot
- Narrated by: Marc Eliot
- Length: 12 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the New York Times best-selling author Marc Eliot comes the definitive biography of one of the most critically acclaimed and commercially successful actors, producers, and directors in the history of American motion pictures. Marc Eliot examines the ever-exciting, often tumultuous arc of Eastwood's life and career, from his days as a disaffected college dropout, to his rise to fame as the archetypal loner, to his acceptance into the pantheon of the Academy as a multiple Oscar Award winner.
-
-
I learned the hard way.
- By Ty Pritchard on 07-23-10
By: Marc Eliot
What listeners say about No Traveler Returns: The Lost Years of Bela Lugosi
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Kindle Customer Foss
- 07-28-21
Very Informative
These are the films/shows nobody talks about. I love both books in this "series". They really touch on the parts of Lugosi's career that no one talks about. This book covers his late career where he mostly performed in forgettable low budget Productions, but I've never seen a forgettable Lugosi performance myself to date. The book is highly detailed, well written, and the narrator is top tier. He actually sounds like a character that would be in a Lugosi film. Fantastic work.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!