Elvira Mistress of the Dark
You may be known as the Mistress of the Dark but you have brought a little sunshine into our lives. Whether it be the years spent bringing us horror flicks so bad they’re good, your spooky records or the unique and special variety of dolls, calendars, Halloween costumes and other merchandise you have sold us, you have always given us glorious kitsch.
Dear Elvira,
You may be known as the Mistress of the Dark but you have brought a little sunshine into our lives. Whether it be the years spent bringing us horror flicks so bad they’re good, your spooky records or the unique and special variety of dolls, calendars, Halloween costumes and other merchandise you have sold us, you have always given us glorious kitsch.
Your look may have owed a little to Vampira but the risque humour and gentle self-mockery were all your own, rightly elevating you to your cult throne. There have been other pretenders but after 27 years you still remain the Queen of Halloween and what better time for us to celebrate your work.
Love Mookychick xxx
Elvira Quotes:
“There’s nothing wrong with G-rated movies, as long as there’s lots of sex and violence.”
“Revenge is better than Christmas.”
“We already have two bubbies in the White House, might as well be mine.”
Best known for:
Wearing long, black dresses with improbably plunging necklines.
Least known for:
Being the first person to be broadcast in 3-D in the USA.
Mooky factor:
Doesn’t every girl secretly long to wear gothic gowns and watch horror films until their brains melt?
A short history of Elvira:
Elvira first appeared on TV screens in the spring of 1981, hosting the horror show ‘Movie Macabre’. With her valley girl delivery she would often lampoon the movies being played and after the show was nationally syndicated public demand for her grew rapidly. She appeared on chat shows, in adverts and in a number of cameo appearances in a variety of TV dramas. In 1988 she starred in her own movie, ‘Elvira, mistress of the dark’, although a proposed sitcom was canned in 1992 before the pilot was aired (CBS were concerned it was too risque for television). On Halloween that same year she appeared on stage with U2 on the Los Angeles leg of their Zoo TV tour and declared her candidacy for the U.S presidency.
Since then she has continued to work in both TV and movies, including her second starring role in ‘Elvira’s Haunted Hills’, and made many personal appearances. In 2007 she produced and starred in the reality TV show ‘The search for the next Elvira’, although she was quick to declare that she had no intention of retiring.
Elvira’s alter ego is the actress Cassandra Peterson, who was born in Manhattan, Kansas on September 17th 1949. On her graduation from high school in 1969, inspired by Ann-Magret’s performance in ‘Viva Las Vegas’, she drove to Sin City and became, at 17 years old, the youngest showgirl in that city’s history, appearing at The Dunes. After meeting Elvis Presley she began a singing career and moved to Italy where she toured extensively as the lead singer of the Italian rock band ‘I Latins Ochanats’. While there she met with Federico Fellini and landed a small role in his cinema classic, ‘Roma’.
She returned to the U.S and formed her own nightclub review called ‘Mama’s Boys’ which worked the national club circuit. Later in the 70s she joined the improvisational comedy troupe ‘The Groundhogs’ which also featured Pee Wee Herman and Phil Hartman. Small film and TV appearances followed before she successfully auditioned against 200 other hopefuls for the part that would become Elvira. She was responsible for the character and the look of the role that has since then formed the vast majority of her career.
