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Vampira
built 285 days ago
The woman who would become Vampira was born Maila Elizabeth Syrjäniemi on December 11, 1921, in Petsamo, Finland. The young Maila and her family moved to the United States two years later, settling in a Finnish-American community in Ohio. Claiming that world-class Finnish runner Paavo Nurmi ("The Flying Finn") was her uncle, Maila took his surname as her own when she moved to New York at the age of 17 with dreams of breaking into show business.
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The character Vampira was the creation of Finnish-born model/actress Maila Nurmi, who began hosting The Vampira Show in 1954. In a formfitting, long black dress (that clung to her 38-17-36 measurements) with a plunging neckline, fishnets, high heels, claw-like nails, long black hair, and a belt around her cinched waist, Vampira would introduce horror films through clouds of mist while making double entendre necrophilia jokes, drinking "poison," and talking to her pet sider Rollo. Despite the fact that she was Emmy-nominated Most Outstanding Television Personality for her hosting duties, she eventually fell on hard times after her show was canceled. A beauty shop accident forced her to shave her head, her hands were badly burned in a fire while trying to rescue her kitten, and her close friend, James Dean -- to whom the tabloids linked her romantically, but their relationship was more likely of the hag and fag variety -- died in car wreck.
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Fango is saddened to report that actress, horror host and Goth icon Maila “Vampira” Nurmi has died. According to Nurmi friend and Arkham Studios FX artist Bryan Moore, the actress passed peacefully in her sleep Thursday, January 10 at her home in Hollywood, CA. She was 86.
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The original Vampira Show has never aired in syndication due to it being originally broadcast live and never filmed or videotaped for future airings. No footage of the show is known to exist... in the 1990s a kinescope advertising the station's ability to draw clients to advertisers featuring Nurmi in character was found in a private collection. Several scripts from various episodes still exist in private collections as well. Pirated copies of the kinescope film were widely distributed with a bootlegged DVD of the 1995 Finnish documentary about Maila Nurmi, About Sex, Death and Taxes, and in a fan made compilation featuring footage from Nurmi's other films. The kinescope was also used in the 2006 film Vampira: The Movie.
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Vampira - Late night horror show hostess seen on ABC's affiliate Channel 7 in Hollywood in the 1950s. Former model Maila Nurmi played the glamour "ghoul" Vampira who weekly wandered through a hallway of mist and cobwebs to greet her weekly viewers of "B" horror movies broadcast at 11:00 PM. Vampira had a full bust, slim waist (17-inches), tight black dress, long black hair and plenty of bug-eyed viewers. Some of her on-air antics included talking to Rollo her pet spider; and encouraging her fans to write for epitaphs instead of autographs. In 1954, she was nominated for an Emmy as "Most Outstanding Female Personality."
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Attempting to cash in on the name recognition of Young Frankenstein (1974), Vampira was renamed "Old Dracula" for North American release. The two films were shown back-to-back as a double bill in many locations. more
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Vampira