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TV's Vampira
dead at 85
 LOS
ANGELES, California (AP)
-- Maila Nurmi, whose "Vampira"
TV persona pioneered the spooky-yet-sexy
Goth aesthetic, has died, coroner's
officials said. She was 85. Maila Nurmi's
Vampira character paved the way for
countless other horror-show hosts.
Nurmi died Thursday afternoon
at her Hollywood home, Los Angeles County
coroner's Lt. Fred Corral said. The cause of
death has not been determined, Corral said.
Nurmi created her Vampira character --
reminiscent of Charles Addams' spooky New
Yorker cartoons -- to host horror movie
broadcasts on KABC TV in Los Angeles in
1954.
With darkly mascaraed eyes
and blood-red lipstick, Nurmi appeared each
week in her revealing black dress and slinky
fishnets to introduce such films as "Revenge
of the Zombies" and "Devil Bat's Daughter."
"The Vampira Show" was
canceled after about a year, but Nurmi
remained a cult figure among B-movie buffs
and is thought to have inspired the vampish
Morticia Addams on "The Addams Family,"
which premiered about 10 years later.
But Nurmi's cultural
resonance did not translate into long-term
wealth. In 1989, she lost a $10 million
lawsuit that contended Cassandra Peterson's
late-night horror hostess Elvira pirated her
character. "There is no Elvira. There's only
a pirated Vampira," she was quoted as saying
in an Associated Press story at the time.
"Cassandra Peterson slavishly copied my
product and made a fortune. America has been
duped."
Among Nurmi's scattered film
appearances following her TV career was a
cameo in Ed Wood's 1959 cult classic, "Plan
9 From Outer Space." Nurmi was played by
Lisa Marie in "Ed Wood," Tim Burton's 1994
tribute to the B-movie director.
Nurmi was born Maila
Elizabeth Syrjaniemi in Finland on December
11, 1922, and emigrated with her family to
Ohio, said Heather Saenz, a friend.
In her late teens she went to
New York, where she fell in with a clique of
actors and artists and moved with them to
Hollywood to seek a film career. She worked
as a chorus girl and model before appearing
as Vampira. Nurmi
supported herself late in her life by
selling handmade jewelry. Saenz said.
Saenz and her husband, Bryan
Moore, met Nurmi in 2005 when they recruited
her to serve as grand marshal in a
procession of hearses sponsored by Los
Angeles' Petersen Automotive Museum.
Moore said he plans to
transport Nurmi's casket in the same hearse
she rode in at the parade -- a vintage 1951
vehicle that appeared in a scene of "Ed
Wood."
"So that's going to be
Vampira's last ride," he said.
Funeral arrangements are
pending. Nurmi has no known surviving
family, Moore said.
Copyright 2008 The
Associated Press. All rights
reserved.This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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Every
year, Halloween enthusiasts anxiously await the retail
industry to begin their Halloween season and see who's
first to stock products for the spooky season. Many
stores begin stocking Halloween products as early as
July! |
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