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Vampira: Dark Goddess of Horror
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.
267 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 18, 2014
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews
October 8, 2020
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLXOL...
This was about as much as I knew about Vampira for a very long time. And what little there is about her in the Tim Burton movie “Ed Wood”. To be fair, there isn’t much information out there about the iconic miss Maila Nurmi: the footage of her legendary show is extremely rare, she was a rather private and reclusive person, and you can see for the music video, the most well-known and used image of her is her silent but menacing walk from “Plan 9 from Outer Space”. And yet, what survives of her iconic character has clearly captured and haunted our imagination for about half a century.
Not unlike the other W. Scott Poole book I’ve read (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...), this isn’t a simple biography. There wouldn’t be enough material out there for that anyway: this is more a book about the kind of culture that creates a character like Vampira, that fetishizes and sexualizes horror and how that makes its way into popular culture.
As I had noticed reading “In the Mountains of Madness”, Poole is an amazing, witty and extremely insightful writer, which makes him a pleasure to read – not something every non-fiction writer can boast. I will also admit readily that we clearly think along similar lines: when you have no patience for sexism and religious conservatism, it’s nice to read the words of someone who clearly is also sick to death of those things and believes that they have caused considerable damage to our social fabric.
Now I don’t imagine it will come a surprise to anyone when Poole discusses the appalling sexual repression and the ludicrous sexism of the 1950s and segways into the evolution of the stock character of the “bad girl” from almost supernatural predator to her downfall as a degenerate and out of control criminal. But he also digs at all the other anxieties that plagued that era of American history, from the situation of WWII vets to the birth of rock and roll, the serious blow television inflicted on the movie-making industry and civil rights. Through these cultural upheaval, he weaves the biography of Nurmi: her unusual childhood, her frustrated attempt at marriage, her strange sense of humor and shows how those things created her alter ego and seduced audiences while repulsing the established entertainment industry.
While this is by no means a conventional biography, it is a fascinating study of one woman’s influence on pop culture (and the sadness that she was never truly given credit for her creation while she was alive), the strange way the entertainment industry digests its own icons and how all these things are inextricably linked to more facets of our history than we see at first glance. Very recommended for fans of cultural history and for people who love all things creepy.
“Her life, the broken and sad and lonely part of her life, shows that oppressive systems are never funny. But the art she birthed out of her own darkness reminds us that oppressors don’t get the last laugh.”
This was about as much as I knew about Vampira for a very long time. And what little there is about her in the Tim Burton movie “Ed Wood”. To be fair, there isn’t much information out there about the iconic miss Maila Nurmi: the footage of her legendary show is extremely rare, she was a rather private and reclusive person, and you can see for the music video, the most well-known and used image of her is her silent but menacing walk from “Plan 9 from Outer Space”. And yet, what survives of her iconic character has clearly captured and haunted our imagination for about half a century.
Not unlike the other W. Scott Poole book I’ve read (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...), this isn’t a simple biography. There wouldn’t be enough material out there for that anyway: this is more a book about the kind of culture that creates a character like Vampira, that fetishizes and sexualizes horror and how that makes its way into popular culture.
As I had noticed reading “In the Mountains of Madness”, Poole is an amazing, witty and extremely insightful writer, which makes him a pleasure to read – not something every non-fiction writer can boast. I will also admit readily that we clearly think along similar lines: when you have no patience for sexism and religious conservatism, it’s nice to read the words of someone who clearly is also sick to death of those things and believes that they have caused considerable damage to our social fabric.
Now I don’t imagine it will come a surprise to anyone when Poole discusses the appalling sexual repression and the ludicrous sexism of the 1950s and segways into the evolution of the stock character of the “bad girl” from almost supernatural predator to her downfall as a degenerate and out of control criminal. But he also digs at all the other anxieties that plagued that era of American history, from the situation of WWII vets to the birth of rock and roll, the serious blow television inflicted on the movie-making industry and civil rights. Through these cultural upheaval, he weaves the biography of Nurmi: her unusual childhood, her frustrated attempt at marriage, her strange sense of humor and shows how those things created her alter ego and seduced audiences while repulsing the established entertainment industry.
While this is by no means a conventional biography, it is a fascinating study of one woman’s influence on pop culture (and the sadness that she was never truly given credit for her creation while she was alive), the strange way the entertainment industry digests its own icons and how all these things are inextricably linked to more facets of our history than we see at first glance. Very recommended for fans of cultural history and for people who love all things creepy.
“Her life, the broken and sad and lonely part of her life, shows that oppressive systems are never funny. But the art she birthed out of her own darkness reminds us that oppressors don’t get the last laugh.”
April 19, 2017
Instead of, you know, a biography of Vampira, it was a serious of long meditations on sexuality and gender in the 1950s, subjects discussed at length by far better writers. This was kind of like several mediocre term papers cut and pasted together. When the author deigned to actually discuss Vampira, it was decent, but that was not very often. It felt like the author got a book deal, discovered he didn't have enough material for a book and then padded the hell out of it. Oh well.
September 3, 2016
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.
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.
December 3, 2014
I'm always so sad when a great premise has terrible execution. This book is rife with factual and grammatical errors, to the point of distraction. I read about half of it before giving up. I understand the author's stance is that Vampira is this ground-breaking feminist icon in the entertainment industry, but that he can't seem to bring himself to mention Betty White (who was a TV executive before Lucille Ball), gives only a passing nod to the Addams Family, and doesn't even acknowledge that LA was a hotbed of political turmoil (the friggin LA Times newspaper's offices were BOMBED, fergoodnessakes!), means that Poole's tunnel vision is not giving a clear perspective toward this brief and blinding light in the Hollywood universe.
April 3, 2020
I was expecting more of a biography than a book about 1950s sexual repression. While there's plenty of information about Maila, the first third of the book is mostly setup for her appearance in Hollywood and getting her show.
March 4, 2025
I dove into the Vampira’s grave headfirst - knowing full well that this biography left many cobwebbed mysteries of Maila remain concealed and many headstones unturned - and came out smiling. I enjoyed the historical contextualizations, the musings, the reflections, the portraits, the article-like nature of this book. I feel like any fan of the Vampira character will be able to glean what they’re hoping for here and may even leave with a more spirited appreciation than before.
If this book were a painted portrait of Maila Nurmi, there’d by lots of loose brushwork and several implied/vague features... but ultimately enough would be present that you’d behold her famous visage, and a chill would rush down your spine and back up into your balls.
If this book were a painted portrait of Maila Nurmi, there’d by lots of loose brushwork and several implied/vague features... but ultimately enough would be present that you’d behold her famous visage, and a chill would rush down your spine and back up into your balls.
Read
May 14, 2024“Not a few of the magazine articles and interviews I used for this account descended into the attempt to create a freak show, to draw out her possible mental instability, or to mock her beliefs about psychic powers, reincarnation, or her idea that she could communicate with James Dean and Marlon Brando beyond the veil of death. We seem to like our female icons to be weird, and we seem to like to punish them for it as well.”
Though I wish that the author had been able to rely less on hearsay and rumors to tell Nurmi's story, I understand how difficult it is to paint a picture of someone typically so reclusive and mysterious. This was a pleasure to read.
Though I wish that the author had been able to rely less on hearsay and rumors to tell Nurmi's story, I understand how difficult it is to paint a picture of someone typically so reclusive and mysterious. This was a pleasure to read.
September 9, 2021
I really enjoyed this....got interested in her via a piece about Elvira (Cassandra Peterson).
It's amazing how little of Nurmi's work remains, and how little was really known about her considering her long life. I really liked the context that Poole provides here, and how much he respects Nurmi's creation of Vampira as a cultural icon and groundbreaker who really troubled at 1950s perspectives on sex, gender roles, camp and how that society related to horror (and how Vampira mediated that relationship for late night viewers!). She really was before her time.
It's amazing how little of Nurmi's work remains, and how little was really known about her considering her long life. I really liked the context that Poole provides here, and how much he respects Nurmi's creation of Vampira as a cultural icon and groundbreaker who really troubled at 1950s perspectives on sex, gender roles, camp and how that society related to horror (and how Vampira mediated that relationship for late night viewers!). She really was before her time.
April 1, 2024
This book was a truly wild ride. Though titled "Vampira", this book is more about American society in general in the 1950's and how she satirized it.
Vampira was an incredibly influential character that came out about seemingly out of nowhere. Her impact, at the height of her popularity, was massive. However, she only was in the spotlight for about a year. This book goes on to explain her time in Hollywood, and how society went on to ostracize her for doing the very thing they loved. She was a completely subversion of modern society and though was widely popular, she went on to die alone and had a hard life after she was blacklisted from Hollywood. This is a very touching story and shows how fickle society can be. I would highly suggest reading it.
Vampira was an incredibly influential character that came out about seemingly out of nowhere. Her impact, at the height of her popularity, was massive. However, she only was in the spotlight for about a year. This book goes on to explain her time in Hollywood, and how society went on to ostracize her for doing the very thing they loved. She was a completely subversion of modern society and though was widely popular, she went on to die alone and had a hard life after she was blacklisted from Hollywood. This is a very touching story and shows how fickle society can be. I would highly suggest reading it.
February 4, 2017
Vampires! 50s! Camp! Goth! James Dean's reanimated corpse! Shocking!
Not only does this paint a great picture of a lost and then found cult icon but it also covers the influence she would come to have, while sadly being lost in obscurity. Would read again.
Not only does this paint a great picture of a lost and then found cult icon but it also covers the influence she would come to have, while sadly being lost in obscurity. Would read again.
May 10, 2016
This book gave such insight into the life of one of my idols! What a strong and fascinating woman! If only I did not give this book away to a friend, I would read it again.
October 3, 2019
There isn't a huge cache of info on Vampira it seems. Even so, Poole manages a good bio as well as description of where she fit in the cultural changes and how she may have influenced.
What stood out to me was that she was a strong figure who instead of doing the submissive pin up routine, looked at the audience and embodied a women's right to pleasure - and pain if she wants - just by a scream.
She seems to have had lots of bad luck where others got breaks, made a few no so great choices (the lawsuit, for one), and was a little too strong for her era. Like the James Dean stunts. I feel like that would have been fine for today, but it kind of soured people on her at the time.
She's kind of an underdog or forgotten legend. She was pretty revolutionary - or ahead of her time in some ways. There was a bit about how she wanted to choose the next Vampira. She wanted a black or Latina woman, but the network said no to avoid "controversy."
She was under contract four a role in a work by William Faulkner. She was in the Village in the 40s, though her words are forgotten rather than celebrated like her male cohorts, Kerouac, Ginsberg, Burroughs. Ackerman, it's said, borrowed from her without attribution. It's amazing that she had so much influence and so little reward.
Quote from the beginning: "Here, the marginalized learn the importance of performance for survival. They understand themselves as different from the dominant power structure and know a direct challenge rarely ends well. So they role-play and subvert, often through the medium of anarchic humor."
What stood out to me was that she was a strong figure who instead of doing the submissive pin up routine, looked at the audience and embodied a women's right to pleasure - and pain if she wants - just by a scream.
She seems to have had lots of bad luck where others got breaks, made a few no so great choices (the lawsuit, for one), and was a little too strong for her era. Like the James Dean stunts. I feel like that would have been fine for today, but it kind of soured people on her at the time.
She's kind of an underdog or forgotten legend. She was pretty revolutionary - or ahead of her time in some ways. There was a bit about how she wanted to choose the next Vampira. She wanted a black or Latina woman, but the network said no to avoid "controversy."
She was under contract four a role in a work by William Faulkner. She was in the Village in the 40s, though her words are forgotten rather than celebrated like her male cohorts, Kerouac, Ginsberg, Burroughs. Ackerman, it's said, borrowed from her without attribution. It's amazing that she had so much influence and so little reward.
Quote from the beginning: "Here, the marginalized learn the importance of performance for survival. They understand themselves as different from the dominant power structure and know a direct challenge rarely ends well. So they role-play and subvert, often through the medium of anarchic humor."
September 26, 2023
This book, to me, was amazing to how it was written. It seemed like Scott wished to piece together the time Maila lived in, and how rebellious she was for the specific era in life. For her to be so in arms with feminism, by spreading her message through horror, and her multiple personas, most definitely "Vampira". She was a genius. What's a shame is she was so mysterious, and never gave people any insight on how she lived, or what happened to her. Writing a biography on Vampira is more along the lines of using your imagination to piece together what might have happened. That's what's unfortunate about this book- her story is indefinite, and there's no guarantee that everything she shared was ultimately the truth.
September 5, 2021
I ended up finding Liisa Penner's original essay through this book, so that's a win. There's about 100 pages on Vampira (Maila Nurmi) and 200 of filler on women's history and the Beatniks. I was left fascinated by what Ms. Nurmi reinvented and buried, and why? Why evangelism and vampirism? I think the answer to that question leads back to the Finnish diaspora, when being good and following blindly left a generation's youth homeless and starving. Maila was a fascinating fabulist with an uncompromising core of dignity and rebellion. She always felt like a freak, and created personas to inhabit. I wish she'd finished her autobiography.
April 17, 2022
The biographical aspect of Vampira is a bit thin, but considering the limited knowledge we have of her life this is not unusual. I did appreciate the historical overview and the detailed social constructs during this time period where Vampira was essentially brought into being. Nurmi is recorded to have stated that she was from a different planet, which is an apt description for a horror icon who was so far ahead of her time that it wasn't hard to understand how she was so at odds with the period of conformity and conservatism that dominated the 50s
August 14, 2019
A glimpse into the early world of TV and the beginning of Goth. The obscure peoples,Maila, and her camp version of a seductive mistress of death. Maila never gave revealing interviews so much of it is speculation. Filling in the authors' thoughts on what Maila must of been put through because of the character created by her. She created a iconic, and often copied, character. Great book. Later. Keep Reading.
May 5, 2024
I always wanted to know more about this iconic cult figure. The author did a very good job here. He tries to show the woman behind the concept and her transformation into the glamour ghoul. Who was Maila Nurmi? Here you'll read about her cracking up the 50s, her roles in B-movies, her and Elvis, the burlesque. Well, the author states that there would have been no Lady Gaga without Vampire. To me she was always a bit in the shadows of Betty Page or Elvira. Intriguing book. Really recommended!
May 10, 2018
I thought this book would be interesting and talk about TV horror hosts and the female vampire image in American pop culture.
Instead, the book drowns in self-importance and half-baked ideas.
Did you know that Vampira was in revolt against Dr. Spock's ideas about raising children, Arthur Schlesinger's "The Vital Center," and the containment doctrine?
I didn't believe it either.
Instead, the book drowns in self-importance and half-baked ideas.
Did you know that Vampira was in revolt against Dr. Spock's ideas about raising children, Arthur Schlesinger's "The Vital Center," and the containment doctrine?
I didn't believe it either.
December 8, 2024
Poole does a great job offering cultural context for the different phases of Maila Nurmi’s life and the evolution of Vampira (horror host, LA area celeb, b-movie star, punk/goth symbol etc). There’s a few passages that feel a bit like spinning wheels and disconnected to Vampira directly, but it ends up being such a great overview of pop culture from the 40s up to nearly 2010 that I didn’t mind.
March 26, 2018
I am a worshipping member of Vampira’s glamour ghoul gang...this biography of the actual character that Maila Nurmi created is a book of canon for me from now on...especially when people may ask me HEY you know it’s not Halloween yet, right? Every day is Halloween 🖤🖤🖤
April 11, 2025
Given how brief Nurmi’s time as Vampira was and how little info is available about her life, I liked how Poole contextualized the character, how it fit into the changing mores of the 50s and continued to be influential.
December 22, 2025
A decent book to go over what we know about Vampira's life but due to so much lack of information, there's a lot of filler making the first half a bit of a difficult to read. Past that point, it's well worth the read.
September 15, 2018
Even though much of the book is about the history of which she lived in and not her per se, I still enjoyed the insight into her life.
November 28, 2019
Really disappointing, I don't like the author's style at all.
November 9, 2020
Great book about a cult icon
September 26, 2022
Para ser precisos no es exactamente una biografía sobre Maila Nurmi (aunque corrige varios datos, que siguen incluso mal colocados en su wikipedia, como su lugar de nacimiento, que no fue Finlandia, sino Estados Unidos) sino un análisis del génesis e influjo de Vampira, el personaje creado y encarnado por Nurmi, subvirtiendo la figura de la pin up de los '50, añadiendo las villanas de Milton Caniff y que pese a su corta existencia, perdura en el tiempo, por una extraña mezcla de fascinación, asombro, humor y terror que el autor analiza mediante los presentadores de películas de terror, el bondage, la relación con James Dean, Ed Wood y por supuesto, lo fuera de su época que fue la misma Nurmi.
July 30, 2023
More than a biography, Vampira: Dark Goddess of Horror is a very interesting exploration of counterculture and feminism in an age of conformism and repression in Eisenhower's America. In an era that sought to contain women safe at home as reproduction machinery, the character created by Maila Nurmi (Vampira) represented sexual power and aggression, subverting the image of 50s housewife turning her into a rebellious monster. Vampira obtained her cult status through tragedy and failure, attempting to challenge the status quo of a monolithic and anesthetized society. Interesting exploration on 50s counterculture and a sad story of a woman who remained in shadows and oblivion despite her legend and the cultural icon she created.
May 5, 2024
Dr. Poole does some of the absolute best work in horror and popular culture scholarship. This biography of a 50s camp queen was rich and intriguing, but occasionally meandered away into areas I wasn't as interested in (Finnish communities in early 20th century New England, for example).
February 28, 2017
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.
April 12, 2024
I’ve been looking forward to reading this book for some time. What I knew about Vampira was mostly from Plan 9, Ed Wood, and the Misfits song, yet growing up in the Philadelphia region, I used to stay up late on Saturday nights to watch Stella the Mistress from Manayunk who hosted a similar kind of show to Vampira’s. I also think there is a book about Vampira’s daughters—the late night hosts who were inspired by Vampira. However, I was so impressed with Poole’s research and analysis with this book. At times, I think he stretched the analysis a little far, and there were some points that were a little questionable. Nevertheless, I applaud his efforts to take a subject like Vampira where there is not a great amount of existent literature and background information about her, and be able to make meaningful historical and social analysis of how Vampira came about and what her influence has meant to popular culture, horror films, and others. Poole examines Vampira’s (real name Mailia Nurmi) early life, and how she eventually got into Hollywood. I was surprised to learn that he show was incredibly popular, but also somewhat transgressive. It was also surprising to learn how short the original show lasted, yet we can see how her influence has been felt from a kind of goth style and the resurgence of The Adam’s Family as well as shows like The Last Drive In and Mystery Science Theater 3000 that show B and Z movies. Poole examines these influences as well as looking at how Vampira’s dress, persona, and attitude all challenged the traditional expectations for women at the time (late 1950s). I’m not sure if Vampira brought about significant change, but I’m willing to guess that this role was innovative and different from what most people were watching on television. I can see how some people might not get into this book since Poole does engage in some historical context analysis and he seeks to examine the impact Vampira had beyond horror; however, I found this to be one of the strengths of the book in that it moved beyond mere biography and explored how the character of Vampira (and the life of Mailia Nurmi) helped to challenge expectations for women and open up new opportunities for them in film, television, and the household.
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