The Crazy Real-Life Story Of The Woman Who Created Vampira United Archives/Getty Images
By William J. Wright/Jan. 25, 2021 1:25 pm EDT
In May 1954, insomniacs, TV junkies, and horror movie fans in Southern California would see something unlike anything else on the tube. At the stroke of midnight, viewers tuning into Los Angeles KABC-TV were greeted with the image of a ghostly figure slinking through a fog-shrouded hallway. Stepping into a tight closeup, a beautiful but vaguely sinister woman with impossibly arched eyebrows, coal-black hair, and deathly pale skin looked directly into the camera and emitted a blood-curdling scream, ushering in a new chapter in horror entertainment. This was Vampira, and television would never be the same.