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To exaggerate her already waspish waistline she strapped a flesh-wasting poultice of meat tenderizer to her midsection with a tightly-bound rubber inner tube. Her measurements were advertised as 38-17-36.
- She Lied About Her Birthplace
- She Had Impressive relatives
- Her Talent Made Others Jealous
- She Made It on The Spooky Side of Broadway
- She Hand-Made Vampira’S Prototype
- She Had Ulterior Motives
- She Was The Missing Piece Horror TV Needed
- She Pulled A Vanishing Act
- She Had Many Influences
- She Brought Her Vision to Life
Nurmi was born in 1922 in the US to Finnish immigrant parents, but for some reason, she insisted that the US wasn’t her birthplace. Instead, she constructed a fantasy.Nurmi claimed she was born in Petsamo, Finland, but her birth certificate said otherwise. She was actually born in Gloucester, Massachusetts. She admitted in her own diary, found late...
Another contested fact in Nurmi’s backstory is her relationship to the Finnish long-distance runner, Paavo Nurmi. Nurmi claimed the Olympic medalist, who was also referred to as “Flying Finn” or “Phantom Finn,” was her uncle. Yet, there are no official documents to support her claims. It seems Nurmi never let the truth get in the way of a good stor...
Despite coming from nothing, Nurmi dreamed of becoming an actress. And so, on the path to establish herself, she had a brief career on Broadway. It is there that she met legendary American bombshell, Mae West. Nurmi acted alongside West in the play Catherine Was Great—but West ended up betraying her for an incredibly frustrating reason. West, who w...
Before she became Vampira, Nurmi garnered some attention on a Broadway horror show. She appeared in Spook Scandals, a horror-themed midnight show on the Great White Way. Nurmi played a seductress who lay in a coffin, screamed, fainted, and lurked around a cemetery. All of these would serve as inspiration later for Nurmi’s greatest creation. Getty I...
In 1953, Nurmi attended the costume ball that would change her life. Nurmi went to the Bal Caribe in a hand-made costume that made heads turn. She arrived in a ghostly, Morticia Addams-inspired costume that cost her no more than $3.67. Her look that included a recycled tight black dress she cut and sewed herself won her the first prize at the ball....
Nurmi and her husband at the time, screenwriter Dean Riesner, wanted to attract the attention of Charles Addams through Nurmi’s costume. The couple hoped the Morticia Addams-inspired getup would show the New Yorkercartoonist the television possibilities for his cartoons. This plan didn’t pan out, but something even better happened. Getty Images
Nurmi might have failed to catch the attention of Charles Addams, but she managed to mesmerize television producer Hunt Stromberg Jr. Stromberg was on the hunt for a host for his late-night horror television show. His program ran cheap, B-rated films, and he needed something, or someone, to make people stay up late to watch them. Well, guess who wa...
Just like Cinderella with her glass slippers, Nurmi was in and out of the ball in a flash, leaving Stromberg in awe but with no way to know who she was. Although he felt she was the one, he didn’t know her name or how to contact her. Just like that, Nurmi almost missed the opportunity of a lifetime—but one man saved the day. Fashion designer Rudi G...
Offered the opportunity to appear on TV, Nurmi immediately got to work on enhancing her Bal Caribe costume to create her TV host character. Alongside Morticia Addams, Vampira also took influence from the Evil Queen from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and the Dragon Lady from the comic Terry and the Pirates. Nurmi took these inspirations and produc...
Nurmi had two goals when modifying Vampira from her early prototype: make her “campier and sexier.” She appeared on TV wearing a pitch-black wig and a tattered black dress with a plunging neckline. She had a perfect hourglass figure, with an alleged 17-inch waist that she gained through strict fasting. She drew on arched eyebrows that reached for t...
Jan 19, 2021 · The evidence of Maila starving, exercising, and swathing her waist in meat tenderizer was still in evidence. A black patent-leather belt cinched Maila's waist down several inches smaller than...
Oct 11, 2023 · Slathering a homemade concoction of papaya powder (an ingredient used in meat tenderizers) and cold cream on her abdomen and binding it with a rubber innertube, Nurmi "melted" her waist to 17 inches. Dubbed "Vampira" by Nurmi's husband, the first TV horror hostess was born.
- William J. Wright
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...
Feb 14, 2019 · Her 3 inch nails painted her signature “haemorrhage red” and her indescribably tiny waist dressed all in black was in stark contrast to women on television at the time. (So small was her waist that she often told people she was in the Guinness World Book of Records for her 17” waist.)
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Jan 17, 2008 · The star of Plan 9 From Outerspace and similar “Z” grade motion pictures, Nurmi adapted the character Morticia from the Charles Addams cartoon to create TV horror-host Vampira, a glamorous ghoul with a plunging neckline and 13″ waist.
