Page 10 - Maila Nurmi News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

By Sandra Niemi Feral House: 350 pages, $22. If you buy books linked on our site, The Times may earn a commission from Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookstores. You didn’t need to be a pubescent boy (or his father) to fully appreciate the charms of Maila Nurmi a.k.a. Vampira when she first appeared on late-night KABC-TV in the spring of 1954. But it didn’t hurt. She was tall, beautiful and frightening and she screamed like a banshee, climaxing each howl with a lewd lick of her full lips, which even in black-and-white glistened bloodily. Her pale body was almost a caricature of an hourglass figure, like one of those inexplicably bountiful women featured in the pinups of Joaquin Alberto Vargas, for whom Nurmi had modeled only a few years earlier. But what made Vampira most memorable was the jokes she slyly delivered at machine-gun speed: pop, pop, pop. She came heavily armed with oodles of sexy, macabre puns and she wasn’t afraid to use them.

United statesGriffith parkLos angelesRita hayworthMae westElvis presleyEdwardd wood jrAnthony perkinsCharles addamsLauren bacallSandra niemiDahling dietrichMarlon brandoLisa marie presleyGreg hergerMaila nurmi