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erincataldi's review against another edition
3.0
A fascinating look at the mysterious life of the cult classic scream goddess, Vampira. Although not much is known about her life, author W. Scott Poole did a great job fleshing out what he good and writing about the history of the decade, women's rights, and the culture of the time. Filled with fascinating photos and interesting tid bits, this retrospective is on more than Vampira, it's about the culture of the fifties in which she emerged and how she shattered all the stereotypes and housewife tropes. It reads as if it's a long scholarly essay, but it's worth plowing through to learn some interesting facts about her association with James Dean, Elvis, Marlon Brando, Ed Wood, Orson Welles, and Liberace. Intriguing, but it could have been wrapped up a little more concisely.
voya_k's review against another edition
2.0
Clear that the author cares deeply about Vampira and tried his best to place a rather elusive subject in cultural context, but the writing style is repetitive and could have used a stronger edit. 1 extra star for clarifying that designer Rudi Gernreich was the boyfriend of the guy who started the Mattachine Society.
jiujensu's review against another edition
4.0
There isn't a huge cache of info on Vampira it seems. Even so, Poole manages a good bio as well as description of where she fit in the cultural changes and how she may have influenced.
What stood out to me was that she was a strong figure who instead of doing the submissive pin up routine, looked at the audience and embodied a women's right to pleasure - and pain if she wants - just by a scream.
She seems to have had lots of bad luck where others got breaks, made a few no so great choices (the lawsuit, for one), and was a little too strong for her era. Like the James Dean stunts. I feel like that would have been fine for today, but it kind of soured people on her at the time.
She's kind of an underdog or forgotten legend. She was pretty revolutionary - or ahead of her time in some ways. There was a bit about how she wanted to choose the next Vampira. She wanted a black or Latina woman, but the network said no to avoid "controversy."
She was under contract four a role in a work by William Faulkner. She was in the Village in the 40s, though her words are forgotten rather than celebrated like her male cohorts, Kerouac, Ginsberg, Burroughs. Ackerman, it's said, borrowed from her without attribution. It's amazing that she had so much influence and so little reward.
Quote from the beginning: "Here, the marginalized learn the importance of performance for survival. They understand themselves as different from the dominant power structure and know a direct challenge rarely ends well. So they role-play and subvert, often through the medium of anarchic humor."
What stood out to me was that she was a strong figure who instead of doing the submissive pin up routine, looked at the audience and embodied a women's right to pleasure - and pain if she wants - just by a scream.
She seems to have had lots of bad luck where others got breaks, made a few no so great choices (the lawsuit, for one), and was a little too strong for her era. Like the James Dean stunts. I feel like that would have been fine for today, but it kind of soured people on her at the time.
She's kind of an underdog or forgotten legend. She was pretty revolutionary - or ahead of her time in some ways. There was a bit about how she wanted to choose the next Vampira. She wanted a black or Latina woman, but the network said no to avoid "controversy."
She was under contract four a role in a work by William Faulkner. She was in the Village in the 40s, though her words are forgotten rather than celebrated like her male cohorts, Kerouac, Ginsberg, Burroughs. Ackerman, it's said, borrowed from her without attribution. It's amazing that she had so much influence and so little reward.
Quote from the beginning: "Here, the marginalized learn the importance of performance for survival. They understand themselves as different from the dominant power structure and know a direct challenge rarely ends well. So they role-play and subvert, often through the medium of anarchic humor."
greyscarf's review against another edition
4.0
3.5 instead of 4. (Goodreads, bring back the half-star system!) Poole's bio on small-screen legend Vampira admits upfront that there is not a lot of material to work with and eventually evolves into a cultural survey of the movements and events that not only shaped the creation of Vampira, but tracks the effect the character had on subsequent pop culture. I personally loved this approach--the structure was very similar to [b:Savage Art: A Biography of Jim Thompson|246678|Savage Art A Biography of Jim Thompson|Robert Polito|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1403170840s/246678.jpg|239005], although not as dense. There are some weak spots where specific examples of Vampira's work or interviews could have lent strength to some of Poole's argument. For example, many of the ends of chapters are focus more on Poole's statements of Vampira's impact, than statements she herself or other people may have made. But Poole's insights inspired plenty of curiosity & research topics for this reader, so I'm willing to overlook that. Other reviews here on Goodreads note that some of the book may have some of its facts wrong & they are probably more familiar with the Vampira mythos than I. I was fascinated & eager to get my hands on my own copy of the book so I could make more notes. Recommended for those interested in the origins of contemporary American goth or those who love the freaks and subversives that hang at the margins of the horror genre.
johnnyideaseed's review against another edition
3.0
The book is enjoyable, although I had a few problems with it. The author admits at the beginning that the biographical details of Maila Nurmi's life are so scant that the book deals as much with the context with which the Vampira character emerged, and the influence it exerted, as much as it did with the performer herself. I have no problem with this approach, and I actually appreciate that it isn't trying to tease out scant biographical information, and is trying to source what it has. But there are some avenues that remain tantalizingly unexplored by the book. Because so little of her act has survived, the author concentrates (understandably) on the importance of Vampira's image, which ultimately ends up seeing a little shallow: it occasionally seems like her importance rests on how striking she is visually, where I think the author is trying to contend that there was more to it. And, after the fall of Vampira, why were all the other horror hosts that came in her wake -- Ghoulardi, the Bowman Body, etc. -- men, up to the ascendance of Elvira? With the author insisting on Vampira's mixing of sex and death and humor, what sort of influence did she have on something like the rise of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, a movie that mixed horror b-movie tropes with alternative sexuality quite openly, and something that was engaged with as camp by its audience? For that matter, can her influence perhaps extend to other performative artists who constructed alter egos, such as David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust? Why does Maila Nurmi continue to be such an active interest of certain groups, including drag queens, where other "female female impressionists" (like Mae West) have not? For that matter, what about the character did the author connect with? (Also, am I the only one who sees "Rocky and Bullwinkle"'s Natasha Fatale as essentially a Communist Vampira?) I think a more interesting text would have traced the influence of the sort of gothic and camp strands that Vampira worked through 20th century culture, from Theda Bara on, with a heavy emphasis on what Vampira introduced. As it stands, it sometimes feels that she is important just because the author keeps saying she is, and I say this as somebody who actively sought out a book on Vampira to read.
I would also mention that there were a couple cases in the book that the information that is presented in the book is simply incorrect. For instance, the comic character Vampirella is indicated as being designed by Trina Roberts. I had a hunch that this wasn't correct, and checking Wikipedia I found that it was Trina Robbins, a well-known comix artist. She is referred to as Roberts three time in the course of the paragraph. These sorts of errors (and I noticed a couple others) end up undermining the story the author is trying to tell: given that so much of the information about Maila Nurmi is obscured by time or speculative, you would hope that something this easy to corroborate would be correct.
As a meditation on Vampira, I think the book works, and at times gets across the excitement of seeing her on-screen in 1954. I think it's less effective in contextualizing it, and seems to ignore certain things (like the rise of the femme fatale in Film Noir) that would seem to feed into what Nurmi eventually did.
I would also mention that there were a couple cases in the book that the information that is presented in the book is simply incorrect. For instance, the comic character Vampirella is indicated as being designed by Trina Roberts. I had a hunch that this wasn't correct, and checking Wikipedia I found that it was Trina Robbins, a well-known comix artist. She is referred to as Roberts three time in the course of the paragraph. These sorts of errors (and I noticed a couple others) end up undermining the story the author is trying to tell: given that so much of the information about Maila Nurmi is obscured by time or speculative, you would hope that something this easy to corroborate would be correct.
As a meditation on Vampira, I think the book works, and at times gets across the excitement of seeing her on-screen in 1954. I think it's less effective in contextualizing it, and seems to ignore certain things (like the rise of the femme fatale in Film Noir) that would seem to feed into what Nurmi eventually did.
clothingweapon's review against another edition
i was so often annoyed by the lens of this author, and wish it was written by a woman. but i love vampira, and it's so hard to find any traces of her, so this was a treasure trove. something about elvira always struck me as off, even though goth mommies are so totally my type, and after reading this i learned why: because she blatantly stole vampira's entire persona. vampira partied with james dean and died a tragic death, which are my two biggest goals in life
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