Good Bye Maila; My Love, My Obsession, My Friend

I wanted this to be my first actual post, because, well it means something to me, this woman was my friend, a good friend, and here we are, over a year sense her death, and I still miss her greatly... so my first post here is gonna be in tribute to my dear friend...


Originally Written on 10 January 2008



When I found this out today, that the great Maila Nurmi had passed away, I sat down here at my PC and I cried, not only as a long time fan, or as someone that saw her as one of the most beautiful women ever in all of creation, but also, I cried because there will never be another Maila, just reworks and rip offs... on of the greatest forgotten stars of Hollywood has passed, and if you don't know who she was, you should.

As a child, I grew up sneaking my way into staying up late at night to watch the local UHF channels (thats this thing from before cable kiddies) showing various "midnight movie" shows, there were so many and I've written of them any times, most know of Count Floyd or Elvira, ok well most know of Elvira, I grew up wanting to be one of those types of tv show hosts, the sarcastic adult humor, the making fun of the most gawd awful movies as they aired on the show, it seemed like such a great job. I did something kind of like it in high school, though to be honest it was really me and some friends ripping off the MST3K take on the concept. but still, it fits, I've been asked afew times by two different local channels to do a show, but each time either they want more then they should for the money they're offering me, or they just can't work out a good sharing me with my current work, who would buy alot of add time, time table. But I still hold out some hope.

In my research toward my dream back in the mid 1990s, I discovered Maila, I had recognized her from my many times of watching Plan Nine From Outerspace in which her beloved character of Vampira has a starring role, and I remember her being played by Lisa Marie in the movie Ed Wood which was about the director and making of Plan Nine, but I had honestly thought she was just someone that Wood had randomly picked up and talked into starring in his movie, Ed Wood wasn't known for his sanity as anyone thats studied him will tell you. As I looked into her, and into her work, I began to see just how amazing this woman really was, and somewhere along the way, I realized just how amazing and how truly great Maila was. From my early teen years I worshipped this woman, I was even able to get ahold of copies of the very few bits of her show that at the time were floating around. Word is that the same people that restored The Ed Sullivan Show and my favorite Dark Shadows, has done what they could to recover and restore maila's series The Vampira Show to its former glory, with rumors of everything from TVLand, to Sci Fi Channel, to that horror network i can't remember the name of, all wanting to get the show and air it to some degree, if they've been able to restore all of the shows and prep for dvd release though, i'm not 100% sure on, I just know if they do, I'll be all over that box set.

See, Maila wasn't just another host, she was THE host, so much of her is left on everyone from Elvira to even The Crypt Keeper that its almost insultingly sad, how little people know of her work, and the field she blazed, as well as being the visual inspiration for ABC's The Addams Family's Mortica, ironically, comic strip Mortica was the inspiration for the dress that Maila wore as Vampira, kind of a neat full circle there. I could go on and on for hours about Maila and why I find her so awesome and so beautiful and such, just ask my soon to be wife, she has to hear it most of the time, so to save you all from that, I'll just end this here and now...

From who could be your biggest fan in the entire world, Maila, good bye, I will miss you, and thank you for all that you have done for not just me personally, but for the world around us.




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BC