Thanks to Mr. Eye Candy Art for this wonderful piece of art of my favorite hostess with the mostess Elvira, Mistress of the Dark
I grew up in the 80's and I didn't have cable so although I wasn't able to stay up late and catch Elvira in Movie Macabre on Friday and Saturday nights however In 1985, Elvira began hosting a home video series called ThrillerVideo for U.S.A. Home Video and the NBC channel at the time began showing reruns on Sunday afternoons when nothing else was on and even the infomercials needed a break. So I would spend what watching time I had on the weekends sitting down with a bowl of popcorn and watching Cassandra Peterson as Elvira mistress of the dark introduce B movies. youtu.be/I4UGgr5YcMg
In the late spring of 1981, six years after the death of Larry Vincent, who starred as host Sinister Seymour of a local Los Angeles weekend horror show called Fright Night, show producers began the task of bringing the show back.
The producers decided to use a female host. They asked 1950s horror hostess Maila Nurmi to revive The Vampira Show. Nurmi worked on the project for a short time, but eventually quit when the producers would not hire Lola Falana to play Vampira. The station sent out a casting call, and Peterson auditioned and won the role. Producers left it up to her to create the role's image. She and her best friend, Robert Redding, came up with the sexy punk/vampire look after producers rejected her original idea to look like Sharon Tate in The Fearless Vampire Killers.
Elvira was more than just sexy though, she was sarcastic, punny, risque, indecent, and more than willing to laugh at herself and at everyone else too. Needless tosay I loved her INSTANTLY! In an AOL Entertainment News interview, Peterson said, "I figured out that Elvira is me when I was a teenager. She's a spastic girl. I just say what I feel and people seem to enjoy it." Her campy humor, sex appeal, and good-natured self-mockery made her popular with late-night movie viewers and her popularity soared.youtu.be/aSGvIOoNbyc
So while other kids where sitting down on saturday morning to watch cartoons, I was watching Elvira, and then the crypt keeper, and then recordings of the cool ghoul, Svenghoulie, Graves Ghastly, Vampira, and Mystery Science Theater 3000. (Explains a lot about me doesn't it?) I have to say if it wasn't for a neighbors HUGE horror movie collection I probably wouldn't have had such a intensive introduction to horror. Their home was covered wall to wall in shelves jam-packed with illegally copies or dimestore finds of every horror movie this one guy could get his hands on, VHS tape format. My Dad would go and chat with the neighbors and borrow a few movies, but I got to pick as many as I could watch, and as my parents didn't really limit my viewing to much (unless it was sci-fy or had puppets in it, don't ask) I could watch Elvira until my eyes bled. youtu.be/bZXoPGHWvEA
Before the internet you couldn't get to watch just any old thing you wanted to, and for a long long time there was no such thing as vcr's, movies where still things you had to go see in the theater, but with tv's coming into the average American home needless to say their viewing material was extremely lacking. The local studios had to come up with stuff to fill the time slots, and this was the birth of the horror host. Local tv stations could basically rent these old b movies and horror films for a very small or nominal fee and then show them to fill the time, horror hosts like Vampira and the cool ghoul could come on, tell a few jokes, be over the top creepy and cut the tension for any of the youngsters that where legitimately scared. They offered a new way of looking at horror movies, as a laugh. youtu.be/D7ySAPhslJM
Of all the Horror Hosts Elvira is by far the most popular and I think the epitome of what the horror host should be. Sexy, funny, creepy, a bit sadistic and cruel, with a great costume, a little inappropriate and a damned sexy car.The Elvira character soon evolved from an obscure cult figure to a lucrative brand. She was associated with many products through the 1980s and 1990s including Halloween costumes, comic books, action figures, trading cards, pinball machines, Halloween decor, model kits, calendars, perfume and dolls. She has appeared on the cover of Femme Fatales magazine five times. Her popularity reached its zenith with the release of the feature film Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, co-written by Peterson and released in 1988. youtu.be/HyrtUmfcXAI
I am a collector of all the Elvira merchandise, I wish I could find more, but currently I have most of her IVE released work, and bother her movies, mistress of the dark and haunted hills. I would love to get my hands on her comic book series and a complete set of ThriillerVideo and perhaps a calendar or two!
The thing is, while other people, girls especially where afraid of yucky and scary things I can laugh at it, or enjoy being scared, jumping out of my skin, the thrill of the tension. You don't have to enjoy pain and blood and horror to enjoy horror movies they are the viewing equivalent of going on a ride at the fair or going through a haunted house. You are in no real danger but you can flirt with fear a little bit and thats ok. Elvira made the experience of watching horror movies as a little girl ok, she gave me another fashion role model and a way to laugh at the darkness. So thank you Cassandra Peterson for all your eeks and all your oomph. youtu.be/dn0y_fhv2Ik
The song for the day is not Elvira from the Oakridge Boys, but rather Spooky by Dusty Springfield youtu.be/f7QzxYAjgNc
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