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Vampira Expira
The famed Vampira, television’s first horror host, died today. With her goes a long tradition of late-night oddities and hosts that once made television something more than simply a money making machine.
Here is a little about the woman who created the memorable character with the scary waist:
While I was too young to ever see Vampira in action on television, she initiated a great line of hosts and other local oddballs. I can remember the horror anthologies playing on local St. Louis station channel 11 on the weekends featuring the great Godzilla more often than not. My friends and I would eagerly gather together during certain nights during Halloween and watch 3D festivals hosted by local personalities while surrounded by tacky sets.
Every local television station longed to create a national sensation like Vampira during her one glorious year. Occasionally a show would break through - like The Letter People, produced by St. Louis-based KETC - but more often than not the shows and the people behind them reside only in the dimming memories of the kids who once watched them.
As for Vampira, her time as a television hostess only led to immortality of an infamous kind; she ended up being cast by Edward D. Wood, Jr. in his magnum opus, Plan Nine From Outer Space.
Vampira was brought back to life by Tim Burton in his best film, Ed Wood. In that loving recreation of Ed Wood’s creative life, Lisa Marie accurately approximates Vampira’s sexy appeal and sassy attitude. If you’ve never seen the film, DO SO IMMEDIATELY.
As for Vampira, rest in peace. PLEASE.
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2 Responses to “Vampira Expira”
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That’s actually kind of sad. I loved her in Plan 9.
It’s really sad that a woman who created a sub genre for horror, like she did, had to struggle to pay her bills. The stars of the past really got screwed out of the money and fame that they should have gotten.