Damnit: Maila Nurmi aka Vampira

The original queen of the dead way before Elvira was Vampira. Maila Nurmi was Vampira movie hostess and actress. She was born in Finland in 1922 and moved to the US when she was two. Vampira was raised in Ohio before moving to Oregon and then finally finding herself in Los Angeles in late 1940's. She worked as a model for some major photographers but never hit the big time. It was when at a costume party dressed in an outfit inspired by Mortcia Addams in 1953 she was discovered. Television producer Hunt Stromberg was at the party and looking for a woman to host a night time horror movie show for local Los Angeles television. He had one problem he didn't know her name. Stromberg eventually hunted her down by asking fashion design Rudi Gernreich. Gernreich had her number. The character's name was thought of by her then husband screen writer Heny Reisner. Vampira based her character partly on the Evil Queen from "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs"
"Dig Me Later" was the name of the first show Vampira hosted. It aired on April 30, 1953. The next night her regular weekly show started airing. On the show she would introduce and mock the horror movies that ran. The show would open with her walking down a long corridor in clouds of dry ice. She would lounge on a sofa and make bad jokes and ghoulish puns. The show was a hit! Vampira would drive around Hollywood in the back of an old chauffeur-driven 1932 Packard touring car with the top down, where she sat holding a black parasol. She also ran for Night Mayor of Hollywood on a platform of dead issues.
The series was eventually cancelled but she retained rights to the name. She was Vampira. Later there was yet another TV show that was nationally known. She hosted nights of Universal's horror films. She was nominated for an Emmy.
Later she made a handful of terrible but ever so good movies. Most of them are classics now. Her most famous being Ed Wood's "Plan 9 From Outer Space".
Around the time she was becoming famous she would hang out in Googie's Coffee Shop and became friendly with actor James Dean. They claimed to share the same neuroses. It was during this time a crazed fan broke into her apartment and terrorized her.
In the 1960's Maila was making her living installing linoleum flooring. Later she opened a shop on Melrose called Vampira's Closet. She also designed and made clothes. Grace Slick was one of her customers.
In 1981 was signed to be a producer of a new show reviving the Vampira character but the other producers suddenly hired Cassandra Peterson with out consulting Nurmi. She abruptly walked away taking the name with her. Elvira was born. Vampira sued Elvira but lost.