Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    Vampira: Dark Goddess of Horror
    Unavailable
    Vampira: Dark Goddess of Horror
    Unavailable
    Vampira: Dark Goddess of Horror
    Ebook301 pages5 hours

    Vampira: Dark Goddess of Horror

    By W. Scott Poole

    3/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    This whip-smart piece of pop culture details the life of the cult horror figure, as well as the much wider story of 1950s America, its treatment of women and sex, and a fascinating swath of Hollywood history.

    In Vampira, Poole gives us the eclectic life of the dancer, stripper, actress, and artist Maila Nurmi, who would reinvent herself as Vampira during the backdrop of 1950s America, an era of both chilling conformity and the nascent rumblings of the countercultural response that led from the Beats and free jazz to the stirring of the LGBT movement and the hardcore punk scene in the bohemian enclave along Melrose Avenue.

    A veteran of the New York stage and late nights at Hollywood's hipster hangouts, Nurmi would eventually be linked to Elvis, Orson Welles, and James Dean, as well as stylist and photographer Rudi Gernreich, founder of the Mattachine Society and designer of the thong. Thanks to rumors of a romance between Vampira and James Dean, his tragic death inspired the circulation of stories that she had cursed him and, better yet, had access to his dead body for use in her dark arts.

    In Poole's expert hands, Vampira is more than the story of a highly creative artist continually reinventing herself, but a parable of the runaway housewife bursting the bounds of our straight-laced conventions with an exuberant display of camp, sex, and creative individuality that owed something to the morbid New Yorker cartoons of Charles Addams, the evil queen from Disney's Snow White, and the popular, underground bondage magazine Bizarre, and forward to the staged excesses of Madonna and Lady Gaga. Vampira is a wildly compelling tour through a forgotten piece of pop cultural history, one with both cultish and literary merit, sure to capture the imagination of Vampira fans new and old.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSoft Skull Press
    Release dateAug 18, 2014
    ISBN9781619024205
    Unavailable
    Vampira: Dark Goddess of Horror

    Related to Vampira

    Related ebooks

    Entertainers and the Rich & Famous For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Tuesday New Release Day: Starring Brandon-Croft, Tate, Millner, and More

      Feb 7, 2023

      Here’s a quick look at some notable books—new release titles from Barbara Brandon-Croft, Dizz Tate, Maggie Millner, and more—that are publishing this week. Want to learn more about upcoming titles? Then go read our most recent book preview. Want to h

      5 min read

    • Article

      February Preview: The Millions Most Anticipated (This Month)

      Jan 30, 2023

      We wouldn’t dream of abandoning our vast biannual Most Anticipated Book Previews, but we thought a monthly reminder would be helpful (and give us a chance to note titles we missed the first time around). Here’s what we’re looking out for in February:

      5 min read

    • Article

      Most Anticipated: The Great Second-Half 2020 Book Preview

      Jul 15, 2020

      Wash your hands, wear your mask, keep a safe distance from others, and pick out a book. The post Most Anticipated: The Great Second-Half 2020 Book Preview appeared first on The Millions.

      47 min read

    • Article

      March Preview: The Millions Most Anticipated (This Month)

      Feb 28, 2023

      We wouldn’t dream of abandoning our vast biannual Most Anticipated Book Previews, but we thought a monthly reminder would be helpful (and give us a chance to note titles we missed the first time around). Here’s what we’re looking out for in March: Ma

      8 min read

    • Article

      May Preview: The Millions Most Anticipated (This Month)

      May 2, 2023

      New books Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, Emma Cline, Samantha Irby, Brandon Taylor, and more. The post May Preview: The Millions Most Anticipated (This Month) appeared first on The Millions.

      8 min read

    • Article

      The 20 Best Books of 2021

      Dec 22, 2021

      Editor’s Note: Find all of The Atlantic’s “Best of 2021” coverage here. Much of 2021 has been filled with a dull sense of déjà vu as the coronavirus pandemic has continued to shrink social worlds and batter morale. Many of the books our writers and

      14 min read

    • Article

      April Preview: The Millions Most Anticipated (This Month)

      Apr 6, 2023

      We wouldn’t dream of abandoning our vast biannual Most Anticipated Book Previews, but we thought a monthly reminder would be helpful (and give us a chance to note titles we missed the first time around). Here’s what we’re looking out for in April: Th

      6 min read

    • Article

      Southern Gothic: Ten Essentials Books

      Sep 15, 2021

      When it comes to Southern gothic, it’s not the heat that gets you, it’s the humidity. It’s a genre designed to make you uncomfortable. The post Southern Gothic: Ten Essentials Books appeared first on The Millions.

      5 min read

    • Article

      The 15 Best Books of 2020

      Dec 24, 2020

      The 15 Best Books of 2020
      10 min read

    • Article

      June Preview: The Millions Most Anticipated (This Month)

      Jun 2, 2021

      This June, we're tentatively removing our masks in public parks and curling up with new books from Kate Zambreno, Zakiya Dalila Harris, Lisa Taddeo, Kristen Arnett, Rivka Galchen, and Italo Calvino. The post June Preview: The Millions Most Anticipate

      8 min read

    • Article

      The Best Books of 2017

      Dec 18, 2017

      The Best Books of 2017
      5 min read

    • Article

      Dear Mr. Fantasy

      Feb 24, 2022

      Dear Mr. Fantasy
      2 min read

    • Article

      What We’re Reading This Summer

      Jun 28, 2019

      Atlantic staffers pick 14 books to spend time with this season, including Freshwater, Republic of Spin, Killing and Dying, and more.

      10 min read

    • Article

      August Preview: The Millions Most Anticipated (This Month)

      Aug 5, 2021

      We wouldn’t dream of abandoning our vast semi–annual Most Anticipated Book Previews, but we thought a monthly reminder would be helpful (and give us a chance to note titles we missed the first time around). Here’s what we’re looking out for this mont

      9 min read

    • Article

      September Preview: The Millions Most Anticipated (This Month)

      Sep 2, 2021

      As we head into fall, we're previewing a whopping 31 new titles, which means if you want to read a book a day for the entire month, we've got you covered. The post September Preview: The Millions Most Anticipated (This Month) appeared first on The Mi

      11 min read

    • Article

      Books

      Mar 6, 2023

      Books
      6 min read

    • Article

      May Preview: The Millions Most Anticipated (This Month)

      May 1, 2019

      This month's releases include unforgettable memoirs, new Karen Russell, and an unusual homage to Harper Lee. The post May Preview: The Millions Most Anticipated (This Month) appeared first on The Millions.

      5 min read

    • Article

      Vampira

      Jan 27, 2021

      Vampira
      9 min read

    Reviews for Vampira

    3/5

    1 rating2 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 3/5
      A fascinating look at the mysterious life of the cult classic scream goddess, Vampira. Although not much is known about her life, author W. Scott Poole did a great job fleshing out what he good and writing about the history of the decade, women's rights, and the culture of the time. Filled with fascinating photos and interesting tid bits, this retrospective is on more than Vampira, it's about the culture of the fifties in which she emerged and how she shattered all the stereotypes and housewife tropes. It reads as if it's a long scholarly essay, but it's worth plowing through to learn some interesting facts about her association with James Dean, Elvis, Marlon Brando, Ed Wood, Orson Welles, and Liberace. Intriguing, but it could have been wrapped up a little more concisely.
    • 3/5
      The book is enjoyable, although I had a few problems with it. The author admits at the beginning that the biographical details of Maila Nurmi's life are so scant that the book deals as much with the context with which the Vampira character emerged, and the influence it exerted, as much as it did with the performer herself. I have no problem with this approach, and I actually appreciate that it isn't trying to tease out scant biographical information, and is trying to source what it has. But there are some avenues that remain tantalizingly unexplored by the book. Because so little of her act has survived, the author concentrates (understandably) on the importance of Vampira's image, which ultimately ends up seeing a little shallow: it occasionally seems like her importance rests on how striking she is visually, where I think the author is trying to contend that there was more to it. And, after the fall of Vampira, why were all the other horror hosts that came in her wake -- Ghoulardi, the Bowman Body, etc. -- men, up to the ascendance of Elvira? With the author insisting on Vampira's mixing of sex and death and humor, what sort of influence did she have on something like the rise of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, a movie that mixed horror b-movie tropes with alternative sexuality quite openly, and something that was engaged with as camp by its audience? For that matter, can her influence perhaps extend to other performative artists who constructed alter egos, such as David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust? Why does Maila Nurmi continue to be such an active interest of certain groups, including drag queens, where other "female female impressionists" (like Mae West) have not? For that matter, what about the character did the author connect with? (Also, am I the only one who sees "Rocky and Bullwinkle"'s Natasha Fatale as essentially a Communist Vampira?) I think a more interesting text would have traced the influence of the sort of gothic and camp strands that Vampira worked through 20th century culture, from Theda Bara on, with a heavy emphasis on what Vampira introduced. As it stands, it sometimes feels that she is important just because the author keeps saying she is, and I say this as somebody who actively sought out a book on Vampira to read.I would also mention that there were a couple cases in the book that the information that is presented in the book is simply incorrect. For instance, the comic character Vampirella is indicated as being designed by Trina Roberts. I had a hunch that this wasn't correct, and checking Wikipedia I found that it was Trina Robbins, a well-known comix artist. She is referred to as Roberts three time in the course of the paragraph. These sorts of errors (and I noticed a couple others) end up undermining the story the author is trying to tell: given that so much of the information about Maila Nurmi is obscured by time or speculative, you would hope that something this easy to corroborate would be correct.As a meditation on Vampira, I think the book works, and at times gets across the excitement of seeing her on-screen in 1954. I think it's less effective in contextualizing it, and seems to ignore certain things (like the rise of the femme fatale in Film Noir) that would seem to feed into what Nurmi eventually did.