Maila Nurmi made television history as the first horror movie hostess. She created the campy 1950s character Vampira.
She also appeared as Vampira in the Ed Wood cult film Plan 9 from Outer Space:
The idea for the Vampira character was born in 1953 when Nurmi attended choreographer Lester Horton's annual Halloween Masquerade in a costume she copied from a character in The New Yorker cartoons by Charles Addams. That cartoon character was Morticia Addams, later to become the TV show, The Addams Family:
The New Yorker Cartoon:
Her appearance at the ball with pale white skin and tight black dress caught the attention of television producer Hunt Stromberg, who wanted to hire her to host horror movies on the Los Angeles television station KABC-TV. The name Vampira was the invention of Nurmi's husband, Dean Riesner.
On April 30, 1954, The Vampira Show premiered. Each show opened with Vampira gliding down a dark corridor flooded with dry-ice fog. At the end of her trance-like walk, the camera zoomed in on her face as she let out a piercing scream. She would then introduce (and mock) that evening's film while reclining barefoot on a skull-encrusted Victorian couch. Her horror-related comedy antics included ghoulish puns such as encouraging viewers to write for epitaphs instead of autographs and talking to her pet spider Rollo.
In 1957, Screen Gems released a syndicated package of 52 horror movies, mostly from Universal Pictures, under the program title Shock Theater. Independent stations in major cities all over the U.S. began showing these films, adding their own ghoulish host or hostess (including Vampira II and other lookalikes) to attract more viewers.
Her TV Show Entrance:
In the early 1950s, Nurmi was close friends with James Dean, and they spent time together at Googie's coffee shop on the corner of Crescent Heights and Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. She explained their friendship by saying, "We have the same neuroses." Dean may not have been particularly smitten. As Hedda Hopper related in a 1962 memoir that included a chapter on Dean: "We discussed the thin-cheeked actress who calls herself Vampira on television (and cashed in, after Jimmy died, on the publicity she got from knowing him and claimed she could talk to him 'through the veil'). He said: 'I had studied The Golden Bough and the Marquis de Sade, and I was interested in finding out if this girl was obsessed by a satanic force. She knew absolutely nothing. I found her void of any true interest except her Vampira make-up. She has no absolute.'"
On June 20, 1955, Nurmi was the victim of an attempted murder when a man forced his way into her apartment and proceeded to terrorize her for close to four hours. Nurmi eventually escaped and managed to call the police, with assistance from a local shop owner.
By 1962, Nurmi was making a living installing linoleum flooring. "And if things are slow in linoleum, I can also do carpentry, make drapes or refinish furniture", she told the Los Angeles Times.
In the early 1960s, Nurmi opened Vampira's Attic, an antiques boutique on Melrose Avenue. She also sold handmade jewelry and clothing. She made items for several celebrities, including Grace Slick of the music group Jefferson Airplane and the Zappa family.
In 1981, Nurmi was asked by KHJ-TV to revive her Vampira character for television. She worked closely with the producers of the new show and was to get an executive producer credit, but Nurmi eventually left the project over creative differences. According to Nurmi this was because the station cast comedic actress Cassandra Peterson in the part without consulting her. "They eventually called me in to sign a contract and she was there", Nurmi told Bizarre magazine in 2005. "They had hired her without asking me."
And that woman became none other then Evira, Mistress Of The Dark:
Unable to continue using the name Vampira, the show was abruptly renamed Elvira's Movie Macabre with Peterson playing the titular host. Nurmi soon filed a lawsuit against Peterson. The court eventually ruled in favor of Peterson, holding that "likeness' means actual representation of another person's appearance, and not simply close resemblance." Peterson claimed that Elvira was nothing like Vampira aside from the basic design of the black dress and black hair; Nurmi claimed that the entire Elvira persona, which included comedic dialogue and intentionally bad graveyard puns, infringed on her creation's "distinctive dark dress, horror movie props, and...special personality."Nurmi herself claimed that Vampira's image was in part based on the Charles Addams The New Yorker cartoon character Morticia Addams, though she told Boxoffice magazine in 1994 that she had intentionally deviated from Addams' mute and flat-chested creation, making her own TV character "campier and sexier" to avoid plagiarizing Addams' idea.
In 2001, Nurmi opened her official website, and began selling autographed memorabilia and original pieces of art on eBay. Until her death, Nurmi lived in a small North Hollywood apartment.
Unlike Elvira, Nurmi authorized very few merchandising contracts for her Vampira character, though the name and likeness have been used unofficially by various companies since the 1950s. In 1994, Nurmi authorized a Vampira model kit for Artomic Creations, and a pre-painted figurine from Bowen Designs in 2001, both sculpted by Thomas Kuntz. In 2004, she authorized merchandising of the Vampira character by Coffin Case.
Vampira, without her makeup:
On January 10, 2008, Nurmi died of natural causes at her home in Hollywood, aged 85. She was buried in the Griffith Lawn section of the Hollywood Forever Cemetery.
But she will always be my first famous crush. "Unpleasant Dreams, Darlings"!
[This message has been edited by Boondawg (edited 08-27-2010).]
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03:29 AM
PFF
System Bot
Valkyrie Member
Posts: 1199 From: Vancouver, BC Registered: Jun 2006
Which I find as flattering as they did in the 1800's. (no matter how unrealistic or manipulated they were)
AH HA!! A bustle man, eh?? I've always believed that's why turn-of-the-century women suffered from fainting spells....THEY COULDN'T TAKE A DEEP BREATH!
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01:07 PM
Boondawg Member
Posts: 38235 From: Displaced Alaskan Registered: Jun 2003
AH HA!! A bustle man, eh?? I've always believed that's why turn-of-the-century women suffered from fainting spells....THEY COULDN'T TAKE A DEEP BREATH!
No doubt!
And garters........
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01:18 PM
Gokart Mozart Member
Posts: 12143 From: Metro Detroit Registered: Mar 2003
When I was like 11 or 12 and I saw Total Recall for the first time on HBO or whatever it was, I was blown away... hottest girl I think I had ever seen.
When I was like 11 or 12 and I saw Total Recall for the first time on HBO or whatever it was, I was blown away... hottest girl I think I had ever seen.
Okay...I gotta give you that one..."Basic Instinct" made sure she was on my "DAYYUM" list!
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02:10 PM
Blacktree Member
Posts: 20770 From: Central Florida Registered: Dec 2001
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