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.
Product Identifiers
Publisher
Counterpoint Press
ISBN-10
1593765436
ISBN-13
9781593765439
eBay Product ID (ePID)
177567542
Product Key Features
Book Title
Vampira : Dark Goddess of Horror
Author
W. Scott Poole
Format
Trade Paperback
Language
English
Topic
Film / Genres / Horror, Social History, Popular Culture, Entertainment & Performing Arts
Publication Year
2014
Genre
Biography & Autobiography, History, Social Science, Performing Arts
Number of Pages
320 Pages
Dimensions
Item Length
8.9in
Item Height
0.8in
Item Width
6in
Item Weight
11.9 Oz
Additional Product Features
Lc Classification Number
Pn2287.V315p66 2014
Reviews
"He provides extensive background, delivering along the way commendable histories of early jazz, folk music, and rock..there is much here of interest to serious lovers of innovative music in America." -- Booklist