But this is not simply an interview with a vampire. Conversing with Maila Nurmi means taking a voyeuristic journey through the lives of mythological cult icons of 1950s Hollywood. Vampira's finger was always firmly on the jugular pulse of the Tinseltown scene. Captivating tales of James Dean, Marlon Brando, and Elvis Presley pour from her octogenarian lips, memories recalled with intensity and insight.
Since Maila claims psychic capabilities, one can also add a touch of the paranormal to this Hollyweird concoction. She speaks of clairaudience (the ability to hear sounds beyond the range of normal hearing including spirit voices), strange premonitions and visions. Most sensationally, it was such psychic sensitivity that found her haunted by the spirit of James Dean, whose death profoundly affected her.
Even before her international fame, when she was modelling for the likes of Bernard of Hollywood, Vargas and a young Man Ray, Maila wasn't taking any crap from studio bigshots. Movie mogul Howard Hawks - who discovered Maila performing a skeleton striptease in a New York show - suffered the wrath of her razor-wit, despite having just turned Lauren Bacall into a household name ("I thought he was stupid, so I tore up my contract," she giggles, tucking into her rice. "I told him to kindly find a place for it in one of his numerous wastebaskets").
But in 1956, her outspoken manner caused her to be blacklisted from the system. Broke, she accepted a measly 0 to play the reanimated corpse-bride of Bela Lugosi in the trash sci-fi epic Plan 9 From Outer Space. Ironic, for this movie cemented her position in popular culture and led to Tim Burton's marvellous biopic of director Ed Wood, with model Lisa Marie playing Maila.
Now, at 83, she is still as hip and sharp as Vampira's fingernails.
So how did your famous horror-host role come about?
I decided I wanted to become an evangelist and had to sponsor myself. How could I do it? Well, television was just warping people's minds - and they paid big. I thought I'd satirise soap operas, take improbable people and make them do all these bourgeois things. Since Charles Addams had already done it in comic form, I wanted to bring it to television. So that is why I made the dress, went to a masquerade ball and won first prize. They discovered me and that was the end of it. But Vampira wasn't really acting. It was television, just a lot of hogwash.
What was your first introduction to the Ed Wood clan?
I was a young girl window-shopping on Hollywood Boulevard. I was bending low to see the detail of some shoes and someone whizzed around the corner on rollerskates, almost bumped my fanny and crashed into me. "Pardon me," said he, and "Pardon me," said I. He was wearing an Ascot cravat and a beret. It was Bela Lugosi on rollerskates. He was on his way to a cigar store.
Did you find Ed Wood intelligent?
No. But anyone who has become a phenomenon has a karmic current carrying them. Nobody who is normal has such drive. That's got to be driven by something larger than life. There was something there that I didn't understand or respect because I was an intellectual snob, but it was there alright.
How did Ed Wood react when he heard you didn't want to speak the words he written for your character in Plan 9 From Outer Space?
Paul Marco told him, so I don't know. I didn't want to hurt his feelings, but my God, I could not say those words. I wish I had them today but I threw them away. Do you know what jewels those lines must have been? I tried to say them, but I curdled my blood. They were awful!
What state of mind do you think Ed Wood was in when he later made porn films?
He loved the porn. He was in his element. He would have been very unhappy if he had known he couldn't have done porn again. He just kept writing them so fast. He'd write a whole pornographic book in just two days.
Did you have psychic tendencies early on?
Yeah, I was very psychic in those days. My first husband Dean Eisner [writer of Dirty Harry and Play Misty For Me] and I lived in Laurel Canyon. He came home from work one day and said a story editor was writing a TV series about us. He said they called it Laurel Canyon, but apparently sold it under the working title Bewitched. That was written about Dean Eisner and I. You see, my mother was a witch. She wasn't practising, but she couldn't help but be a witch. It was natural. It exuded from her, the very essence of her. And I was very psychic too.
I heard the spirit of James Dean visited you.
He visited a lot of people. He was very active. Now, a lot of people made it up too, I'm sure, but even people who weren't psychic had experiences. He was that strong. Jimmy was following me around and was with me a lot of the time for the first six months. There would be an ashtray, I'd look and say, "Don't anybody touch the ashtray, it's gonna go up. That's Jimmy's sign that he's here." And it would go up!
Didn't you share some paranormal experiences with Marlon Brando?
We were sitting around and chatting in the dining room and Einstein had died just three weeks before. Suddenly Marlon says, "There's someone here. It's Einstein. He has a message for us." I was included in the message. "You young ones have to hurry up." That's what Einstein told Marlon, who wasn't inventing it - he believed it. Marlon really wanted to believe he was a humanitarian, and Einstein was urging him to hurry up with his duties. Marlon was a very humane human being, though he didn't know how to be humane with his own children. Some of his best friends despised him and said he was a brute and a beast and nothing in between. How do you like them apples?
Finally, is it right you had an encounter with Elvis before he became famous?
I went to Las Vegas to perform with Liberace and went with him to see Elvis' show. I had never seen someone boldly standing on a stage - supposedly a heterosexual male - wearing turquoise eyeshadow and grinding his hips like that. The orchestra, one by one put down their instruments. They crossed their arms and refused to play. The audience started booing, and they booed him off the stage. Then a voice said to me - and I wasn't on any drugs - "Go around the side of the hotel. There's a swimming pool and you'll find someone in a canary yellow jacket." I went around and in the dark moonless night, far away, I could see the double doors of the casino, golden with light. They opened and a figure came into the doorway.
It was Elvis, wearing a canary yellow jacket. He looked confusedly into the darkness, so I said, "I'm over here." We walked towards each other, sat down and talked. I told him that I was a performer and that what happened was absolutely awful. He said, "Every night before I go on, I talk to God and he always answers me. But tonight he didn't answer. When them curtains opened and I saw all those white heads and them glasses, I knew why."
I told him I admired his courage and they only did that because they're sheep; one person booed so then they all did. I said, "They've never, ever seen anything like you and it frightened them. But, Life magazine are going to discover you and they will kiss your shoes." He said, "It's coming out Thursday." And it did. I was 33 and he said to me, "I know you're getting old and all, but if you'd like to come back after the show, I'd be proud to take you back to my bungalow." His hallowed words! And so Elvis went back to do a second show...
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