Saturday, January 12, 2008

Requiescat in pace, Maila Nurmi ("Vampira")

The original horror host and famous friend of James Dean has passed away at age 86. An original, charming, eccentric, and imaginative woman, her death is noted with sadness by many people.

Her Vampira, the inspiration for Cassandra Petersen's "Elvira", was itself inspired by Charles Addams' Morticia. But Nurmi took the image and made it her own, making Vampira the coolest, and sexiest, ghoulette ever seen.

Here's a link to an ABC news video about Maila Nurmi and Vampira from several years ago, celebrating her 78th birthday:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=me9pT2Z8BqQ

An interview with Maila Nurmi:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Juk2VKQ2rY&feature=related

Click on the photo below to read more about Maila Nurmi's life and career:

A wonderful entry on her life can be found here at the Wonderful Wonderblog site.

3 comments:

Dave said...

RIP.

I saw one video today where she says she used some kind of chemical that basically ate away here flesh so that she was able to cinch it down to 16 inches. I can't imagine.

Dave

Max the drunken severed head said...

I think that she was mistaken. She corset-trained herself with that piece of rubber inner-tube she mentioned. Other women have achieved similar results in the same way.

Mr. Karswell said...

She told me this story before too, it was a combo of the two, the chemical AND the corset. Sounds like a good name for a Vampira blog:

The Chemical & the Corset.

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