The April issue of Rue Morgue contains the last interview ever conducted with the grand dame of horror Vampira.
Just prior to her passing earlier this year, Rue Morgue was fortunate enough to have the final conversation with Maila "Vampira" Nurmi, the world’s first horror host and glamour ghoul. Plus: Her long-time friend Dana Gould paints an intimate portrait of Nurmi from her halcyon years to her golden years, a look at the new Vampira documentary, as well as her last feature film appearance in the Ed Wood-penned I Woke Up Early the Day I Died.
It’s so sad they didn’t record any of her shows for posterity’s sake. I have a chilling feeling that I would have been a huge Vampira fanatic if her TV appearances were available nowadays. Here’s the only bit of video we have. The intro to her show.
There are lots of wonderful pictures of her so that’s something…
What I like most about Vampira, besides her overt goth sexiness (hubba hubba), is that she changed the perception of women in horror. No longer did the members of the “fairer sex” need to be the victims, but they could be the monsters as well. She paved the way for all the other scary gals that came later. If modern horror has a ghoulish godmother Vampira is it. She wasn’t a big star but she should have been.
-Swinebread
