Fringe: Hollywood Horror Story

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Ingrid Garner from Hollywood California presented A Hollywood Horror Story at the Orlando International Film Festival. This show was about Vampira, the first host of horror movies on TV. Vampira was a legend before her time. She created the character on her own with costuming she had on hand. She built her persona before punk or goth was a fashion trend. She based her look on the evil queen in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

Ingrid’s performance as the Horror goddess was sultry and enticing. She managed to bring the mistress of the dark back to life. The show was both funny and very sad. Vampira’s popularity was brief yet her legacy lives on to this day.

The actress, Maila Nurmi who created Vampira, moved to Hollywood with the hope of becoming an actress. She got several small roles she then went on to create the Vampira character. She hosted a TV series called simply, The Vampira Show, from 1955 to 1955 on KABC-TV. When the show was canceled, she retained the rights to the character.

She later appeared in Plan 9 from Outer Space directed by Ed Wood. That low budget film is now considered a classic because of how campy it is. Tim Burton made a film to celebrate Ed Woods Campy universe.

Maila’s intimate relationship with young actor James Dean was something I wasn’t aware of. She understood him in a way few others did but in the end she was unable to protect him from himself. She claimed to have had an affair with Orson Wells and she had his child, which she gave up after birth.

She appeared in a few other films after Vampira was canceled but she had to fall back on laying linoleum to bring in cash. She then opened a boutique shop where she sold handmade jewelry and clothing.

In 1981 KHJ-TV wanted to revive the Vampira character for Television. She worked with the producers as an executive producer. Then she left the project after the station cast a comedic actress, Cassandre Peterson, that she felt was just not right for the part. The TV station could no longer use the Vampira name so Cassandra became Elvira. Elvira used the same sultry black dress and used all the same graveyard puns. Vampira sued for copyright infringement but lost. The court felt the likeness was simply a close resemblance. Elvira went on to become a massive cult hit in the 1980’s. The show reached millions of viewers every weekend in dozens of markets nationwide. A film was made built around the character called Elvira Mistress of the Dark. Elvira’s legacy has proven timeless and she remains popular at horror conventions, and she retains rabid fans to this day.

My mother’s name was Elvira but she died a decade before the name gained its goth horror cult notoriety.

I love any show that introduced me to someone who deserves to be recognized for her creativity. I left feeling that Vampira should have received royalties or a lump sum buy out for having created the character that Cassandra imitated.

Disney Feature Animation Internship: Illuminations Crowd

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After a long day of sketching in Epcot on the weekend, I settled down to sketch a crowd as they gathered to watch Illuminations. Illuminations was a light display that happened in the Epcot World Lagoon. A series of floating barges and mist were the backdrop for a flickering display set to patriotic music.
I had more fun sketching the crowd than watching the display. I found my way out out early through a cast exit to avoid the crush of the crowds when Illuminations ended.
The interns were invited over Frank Gladstone‘s house. Frank was our training manager. We had pizza and watched the worst movie ever made called Plan 9 from Outer Space by Ed Wood. The film is so bad that it has a major following. Disney has not yet made an animated film so terrifying and incomprehensible.
Back at the studio we had an improve session. The interns were coached by an improve comedy coach to act out scenes on the fly. I found this terrifying since I like to be behind the scenes rather than making a fool of myself for the sake of a laugh. Once we got onto the process however I relaxed a bit and had a great time. I knew a comedy improve actress in NYC and wished I could fly her in to pinch hit for me.

The Brain That Wouldn’t Die

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On January 19th, I went to the second installment of Trash Cinema 101 at The Venue (511 Virginia Drive, Orlando, Florida). Trash Cinema 101 is a live, interactive experience, with bad films, good friends and ZERO class! Each month, Logan Donahoo guides you through his own cinematic wasteland, and brings you out the other side with drinking games and trivia – all wrapped in a campy, lewd, irreverent shell! The January film was “The Brain That Wouldn’t Die!” In the lobby of the Venue, one woman came in with a basting pan around her neck.

The film was laugh out loud funny. That wasn’t the directors intent but with Logan pointing out all the intricate flaws, the evening became hilarious. A Doctor and his wife go for a car ride. There is a crash and the one thing the doctor recovers from the wreck is his wife’s head.  In his basement lab, he keeps his wife’s head alive in a basting pan with tubes of goo snaking all over the place. He spends the rest of his time searching for the perfect new body for his wife. Where does he go? To a burlesque show of course. There is a classic cat fight between two dancers where the camera literally zooms in on a picture of a cat and a cats meows on the sound track. The fact that there were Skill focus Burlesque dancers in the audience made the scene even more hilarious. At one point when a doctor gave up on a patient on the operating table, Ruby Darling shouted out, “That’s not how it works on House!”

The wife’s head in the basting pan kept muttering “Let me die.” Everyone had to sip their drink every time she muttered that phrase. Trust me, everyone had a good buzz thanks to that undead brain. Besides keeping his wife’s head alive, the good doctor also had a deformed Frankenstein monster in the closet. The monster was never seen, but the wife’s head insisted that together they had to stop the doctor from killing in the name of science and sex. You will have to see for yourself how it ends, but even without a body, the wife was a cunning schemer. Most women would die to get a better physique.

February’s screening was “Plan 9 From Outer Space“, the next screening is March 16th at the Venue. Tickets are $10 and there is plenty of free parking and an open bar.