What is the origin of "blah, blah blah"?
Dracula insists, "I never said that once in my life." But it is a pretty essential part to doing a Dracula impression. When did this convention come about?
shareI'm speculating here; perhaps this is where it came from, or maybe someone else will read this post and will know for sure:
It seems as if the "blah blah blah" has evolved as a parody or joke about the way Bela Lugosi spoke in the (some say definitive) version of "Dracula" from 1931. He was born in Hungary, so he spoke his English dialogue with an accent, which, it seems, most people have come to associate with the way a Dracula character speaks.
A bit of trivia about that...Someone told me this years ago; I don't see anything about it in IMDb's Trivia section for the movie, and it might not be entirely true, but if it is, I think it's interesting. Anyway, originally a British actor (no idea who) was supposed to portray Dracula, but Lugosi was cast. If the Brit had gotten the part, then all these years people would have spoken like Dracula with a British accent!
Yes. There's no doubt it stems from people imitating Lugosi's famous portrayal. But I wonder how "blah, blah, blah-blah" caught on. I mean THAT IS the joke in Hotel Transylvania. Everyone associates that line with Dracula, yet he never said it.
So who started it? I'm betting some famous comedian. Didn't Lenny Bruce do some Lugosi/Dracula stuff?
They also associate, "Judy, Judy, Judy" with Cary Grant though he never said that either
Apparently Sarah Palin also never said she could see Russia from her house. That was a Tina Fey imitation that stuck.
I assume that if the imitation is close enough to be mistaken for real or that it picks up the person's 'essence' it will stick
Lon Chaney was set to take role originally but he got sick with the cancer that killed him before filming started.
Lugosi portrayed the part on stage in his native Hungary. That's what drew him to the part. The way I understood it Lugosi's English at the time was almost non-existent. He had to learn the part phonetically.
Lugosi's English was as perfect as it ever would be by the time he made the movie.
By the time he was cast in the motion picture he English was fine he'd been working in English speaking roles for almost a decade.
He never played Dracula in Hungary he played it in the Broadway production. It was first produced in England then Broadway.