Vampira – Maila Nurmi

1st Queen of Ghoul

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Maila Nurmi the gorgeous Finnish Pinup model,  Actress, Beatnick turned the original queen of Ghoul Vampira  and did I mention an incredible  tiny 17 -inch waist.

Maila was the original queen of goth, vampires and ghouly tv hosts. After moving to New York, she started off as a pinup model, for Alberto Vargas, Bernard of Hollywood, and Man Ray, gaining a foothold in the film industry with an uncredited role in Victor Saville’s 1947 film, If Winter Comes.

Vampira first hit the tv screen April 30, 1954 and initially entitled, Dig Me Later, Vampira, her entrance was grand, she would glide thru a gothic hall and when she reached  the end she let out a terrifying scream to open the show.

Vampira was Sexy, purr like a kitten, she always wore along dark fitted black dress, had perfect arched eyebrows, dark lipstick. Smoke machine filmed room, all shot in black and white of course.

The show only lasted one year, due to the studios basically thinking her character was simply too much. During this reign though she was very much noticed, friends with icons such as Liberace, and many other celebrity friends, she cruised the streets of Hollywood in a chauffeur-driven 1932 black Packard,  and of course featured in a great number of magazines  and tv appearance’s.

Maila also dated Orson Welles, hung out with James Dean and even married 3 times. Life was tough though, she never really made any money,  she stuck to her personal morales and principles in life and protected her rights of the Vampira brand all the way to the grave.

Malia had her turn of bad luck for sure, refused to sell the rights to Vampira to the producers of The Addams Family, and was blacklisted, and of top of that later lost a plagiarism suit, in 1989, against Cassandra Peters – Elvira.

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Immortalized by actress Lisa Marie in Tim Burton’s 1994 homage, Ed Wood, for which Maila claimed she refused $100,000, and another $8,000 for a cameo, in order to retain the rights to her own creation).

In the mid-’60s she opened a clothing boutique called Vampira’s Attic, where rockers like Iron Butterfly and Grace Slick shopped. Maila did do many appearances celebrity and film spots but alas was not rich, she lived in an apartment in Hollywood, and also was mixed media artist, also doing other various jobs to get by.

She died in her Hollywood apartment at the age of 85 in 2008.

Mahlia who has become a mystical  legend, will hopefully never be forgotten after all she is the 1st sexy queen of Ghoul and has still lots of new fans emerging to this day.

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If you check out her film appearances

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Info from

Pleasekillme

Wikipedia

Dangerous minds

EW