A fish factory girl with Finnish background created the cult character Vampira and hit it big in America – now it’s on stage

Maila Nurmi created the cult character Vampira and basked in the Hollywood glow for a while. Now her story is in the spotlight in a new play at KOM Theatre in Helsinki.

The vampire’s trademark was a blood-curdling, funereal scream and unusual drink recipes.

– Maila was a storyteller herself and we have also taken liberties. We are not only telling the facts of her life, but also reflecting this time.

Vampira character dressed in dark TV camera. — The vampire dressed in body-licking black silk, slipped through the thick fog, screamed and said “Ahh, screaming is so relaxing”.

A woman in a Gothic dress sits at a coffin decorated with a candlestick, engraved at the table in English, \ — Maila Nurmi combined sex and death in Vampira.

It all started with the Addams Family

The dark, talking Vampira character was Nurmi’s own creation, which helped her get a job as a presenter of a horror film programme on a US TV channel. The programme was called *The Vampira Show* and the year was 1954.

\”The TV company did not want to pay Addams compensation for the rights, and the club created his own character, which he used a lot of imagination,\” says Airaksinen.

Barra was the star of the silent films, femme fatale and a sex symbol of his time, nicknamed by Vamp.

Two actresses performing two Vampira hugs each other in purple lights. — Vilma Melasniemi (left) plays Maila Nurme as an old woman and Alina Tomnikov as a young and famous one.

Vampira laughed at the housewife culture

The post-war 1950s was a conservative time in the United States: the woman’s place was at home. Airaksinen thinks that Nurmi satirized the housewife culture and turned its features to horror.

– At that time, everything weird and different were feared. The club wanted to make room for a cramped culture and made it satire.

In the 1950s ad catalog, women were able to present recipes in a delicious lemon pie. So did Vampirak, but his instructions were from another country. Watch the video of what Vampira’s coctkail recipes were:

Airaksinen thinks there was a huge order for the character.

– Vampira became a phenomenon. It is also confusing, because then there was no social media. Vampira was the character of the local TV channel and still became a viral around the world. There were fans up to Japan.

Vampira was also introduced in the prestigious *Time *magazine.

Black-and-white image of a person who holds glass in his hand as the smoke rises into the air. In the background is a pattern resembling a spider cushion. — The vampire’s drink recipes were spiked with poison.

The circle of friends included Dean, Brando and Presley

Whisper on the cover of the magazine, among others. Vampira and James Dean. — Maila Nurme was called a black worm in an American newspaper and it was claimed that she had caused the death of James Dean.

My TV show stopped at the top

Nurmi’s star began to fall only a year after starting his own show. Nurmi was fired from the TV channel and started a bitter dispute over the rights of his character.

The downhill was accelerated by James Dean’s early death in a car accident in 1956. Gossip magazine * Whisper Magazine * claimed to have caused the death of the grass by defeating a curse over this.

For the rest of his life, the club Nurmi lived in poverty.

– The apartment was roughly a garage with a paint floor. He moved frequently and was borne. He had fans to the end, who went to the door to knock, says Airaksinen.

A dark -spoken woman dressed in a black outfit standing next to the candlestick. — Maila Nurmi created Vampira by combining elements from fetish magazine, Greta Garbo and the Addams Family of cartoons.

The vampire king became a household god to outsiders

Nurmi had made a nasty girl who worked at the US fish factory who made her way to her admired show business. Success was the sum of millions of small authors, says Susanna Airaksinen, director of theater performance.

– The club combines success and also a huge failure. It’s not a success story, but it’s not a story of failure because he created Vampira. It was helped by self -reliance and Finnish stubbornness. He didn’t listen to what others thought about the character.

The world where Nurmi lived was competitive and harsh. Airaksinen sees that Nurmi eventually did not only seek to succeed, but to follow his own path.

Perhaps that is why Vampira became an iconic cult character that many imitate.

– He is a home god for outsiders, those who enjoy the edge. He is a pre -fight for anyone who feels a little different or strange, says Airaksinen.

*Susanna Airaksinen-Rosa-Maria Perä: Vampira-How to dig your own tomb with her mouth 12.2. at the Kom Theater in Helsinki.*