Being a life long horror movie fanatic, I can safely say VAMPIRA is an icon. She is in fact one of our most prized jewels. No one reading this can dispute that fact. The actress (MAILA NURMI) that created and played Vampira is one of the few living legends from the classic years of horror. Before Morticia on The Addams Family TV series and Lilly on The Munsters, there was Vampira. Vampira was in fact so popular that none other than actor JAMES DEAN, best friend of Maila, actually did a cameo on her show, and she was profiled in LIFE magazine as well as many other publications of the day. These magazines, when they surface, go for top dollar to collectors.
THE BAD NEWS STARTS HERE. As you probably know, no footage from her hit television show survives. Her show was in the days before video tape and it was broadcast live. There were at one time kinescopes of many of the Vampira Show episodes. Kinescopes, for those of you who don’t know, were 16mm films that were shot directly off of the Television monitor in the studio as the show was being filmed. The kinescopes that surfaced however, were snapped up by someone and have since disappeared.
Sadly, the only footage that does still exist of Vampira is in the Ed Wood film PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE… However, she has said that she chose to play the part in that film mute rather than recite the horrendous dialog Wood had written for her… Other than that, there is only short clip of her dancing with Liberace that was filmed during his 1950’s Las Vegas stage show in which she also had no dialog. But good news Monster Kids! This film clip is available, only for sale directly from The Liberace Museum in Las Vegas as part of a documentary they have made about Liberace.
Years later Maila actually went to court and sued Elvira for stealing her act. Unfortunately, at the time Maila was an old lady and living in poverty so she could only afford a public lawyer. Also, since no footage of her show was available as proof she lost her case....
Currently there is a new documentary in the works on Vampira...
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