 The character is closely associated with the western cultural archetype of the vampire, and remains a popular Halloween costume.Already in 1958, Cecil Kirtly proposed that Count Dracula shared his personal past with the historical Transylvanian-born Voivode Vlad III Dracula of Wallachia, also known as Vlad the Impaler or Vlad Țepeș.Following the publication of "In Search of Dracula" by Radu Florescu and Raymond McNally in 1972, this supposed connection attracted much popular attention.