Only surviving "Vampira" episode finally screening at Attic J.

Last night I watched the only surviving episode of the original "Vampira" TV show from 1954!!! It was quite a treat finally getting to watch this show after having read about it for years and years, and after having watched Tim Burton's rendition of it in his (very good) film ED WOOD.

The very first time I saw Vampira (the character) was around 1991 when I went to the cinema and watched PLAN NINE FROM OUTER SPACE in Melbourne. And now, 15+ years later, I finally get to watch her old 1950s TV-show.

The "Vampira" episode was great, dark, cool, horrifying, and everything. In other words; as cool as Tim Burton made it out to be! I thought the DVD would only contain the show itself but actually it also contained the film which Vampira showed on that dark and chilly night: THE MYSTERY OF THE 13TH GUEST (a Monogram horror movie from 1943). I watched the whole thing and the film was all right, not the best horror movie ever, but as I'm saying it was an all right movie. But of course it was nothing compared to the joy of finally getting to watch the "Vampira" show! Even if the whole Vampira thing only lasted five minutes or so!!!

An interesting feature is they kept the original TV ads in the movie and altho I usually hate TV ads I thought this was pretty cool. By the way, I found an on-line listing of all the films Vampira presented on the show and guess what; She did actually show WHITE ZOMBIE as portrayed in ED WOOD! However, in ED WOOD we see WHITE ZOMBIE being shown on Halloween eve which is, eh, let's call it a stroke of artistic freedom on Tim Burton's part, haha. Actually it was shown in May.

The Halloween film (shown the night before Halloween '54) was actually KING OF THE ZOMBIES! Ahhh, Vampira.







The only DVD release of this sole surviving "Vampira" episode is only available from the official Vampira website. It comes in a plain black (of course!) slip case. They ship everywhere. $10 + postage. The picture quality is great.

[This is a slightly edited re-post from 2008]

The Misfits and Vampira

Check out this cool new The Misfits interview cd The Misfits X-posed! They've used the old (well known) photo of The Misfits with the original 1950s TV horror host Vampira! Pretty fucken cool!

I'm by no means an expert on The Misfits so I can't really tell when the photo is from but I'd say it's probably taken within the last 10 years or so. Vampira would probably have been between 65-75 years old at this stage (but if any of you know more about it please leave a comment. Cheers).
EDIT: The Vampira FB mod told me the photo is actually from 1982! Thanks.

I don't know if this is a boot or legit but in any case it's not licensed by the band. It's available from Amazon. I was made aware of the release thru the official Vampira FB page (partly run by Maila Nurmi/Vampira's nice).

I don't have the cd but according to the sole Amazon.com user who's reviwed it (and who thought "the chick" on the cover was some fan, hahaha) the interview is mostly of Glenn Danzig from around '85/86.

I've written about the only surviving episode of the Vampira show here.

Only surviving "Vampira" show finally screening at Attic J.

Last night I watched the only surviving episode of the original "Vampira" TV show from 1954!!! It was quite a treat finally getting to watch this show after having read about it for years and years, and after having watched Tim Burton's rendition of it in his (very good) film ED WOOD. The very first time I saw Vampira (the character) was around 1991 when I went to the cinema and watched PLAN NINE FROM OUTER SPACE in Melbourne. And now, 15+ years later I finally get to watch her old 1950s TV-show. It was great, dark, cool, horrifying, and everything. In other words; as cool as "Vampira" in ED WOOD makes it out to be! I thought the DVD would only contain the show itself but actually it also contained the film Vampira showed on that dark and chilly night: THE MYSTERY OF THE 13TH GUEST (a Monogram horror movie from 1943). I watched the whole thing and the film was alright, not the best horror movie ever, but alright. But of course, it was nothing compared to the joy of finally being able to watch the "Vampira" show, even if the whole thing only lasted five minutes or so. An interesting feature is they kept the original TV ads in the movie and altho I usually hate TV ads I thought this was pretty cool. By the way, I found an online listing of all the films Vampira showed and guess what; She did actually show WHITE ZOMBIE as portrayed in ED WOOD! However, in ED WOOD we see WHITE ZOMBIE being shown on Halloween eve which is, eh, let's call it an stroke of artistic freedom on Tim Burton's part, haha. Actually it was shown in May. The Halloween film (shown the night before Halloween '54) was actually KING OF THE ZOMBIES! Ahhh, Vampira.






PS: Yep, I was sick of this blog being all black so now we're all red! (press F11 to remove the bar on top).