MAILA NURMI
ACTRESS - ACTRIZ
Maila Elizabeth Syrjäniemi was known professionally as Maila Nurmi. She was a Finnish American actress and a television personality who created the character “Vampira” in the 1950s.
Maila was born in 1922. Her father was a Finnish immigrant and her mother was American. Her place of birth is disputed; according to a biographer, Nurmi was born in Gloucester, Massachusetts. However, during her career, Nurmi claimed to have been born in Petsamo, Findland. Her father worked as a lecturer and editor, and her mother also worked as a part-time journalist and translator to support the family. She graduated from Astoria High School in 1940.
Nurmy moved to Los Angeles, California to pursue an acting career, and later in New York City. On Broadway, she gained much attention after appearing in the horror-themed midnight show Spook Scandals. She also worked as a showgirl for the Earl Carroll Theatre. In the 1950s she supported herself mainly by posing for pin-up photos in men's magazines such as Famous Models. Before landing her role as 'Vampira', she was working as a hat-check girl in a cloakroom on Hollywood's Sunset Strip.
The idea for the Vampira character was born in 1953 when Nurmi attended choreographer Lester Horton's annual Bal Caribe Masquerade in a costume inspired by Morticia Addams in The New Yorker cartoons of Charles Addams. Her appearance with pale white skin and tight black dress caught the attention of television producer Hunt Stromberg, Jr., who wanted to hire her to host horror movies on the Los Angeles television. The name Vampira was the invention of Nurmi's husband. Her characterization was influenced by the Dragon Lady from the comic strip Terry and the Piratesand, the evil queen from Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. When her series was cancelled in 1955, Nurmi retained rights to the character of Vampira and took the show to a competing Los Angeles television station.
In the early 1960s, Nurmi opened Vampira's Attic, an antiques boutique on Melrose Avenue. She also sold handmade jewelry and clothing. She made items for several celebrities, including Grace Slick of the music group Jefferson Airplane and the Zappa family.
In 1981, Nurmi was asked to revive her Vampira character for television. She worked closely with the producers of the new show and was to get an executive producer credit, but Nurmi eventually left the project over creative differences.
In 2001, she opened an official website and began selling autographed memorabilia and original pieces of art on eBay. Until her death, Nurmi lived in a small North Hollywood apartment.
On June 20, 1955, Nurmi was the target of an attempted murder when a man forced his way into her apartment and proceeded to terrorize her for close to four hours. Nurmi eventually escaped and managed to call the police, with assistance from a local shop owner.
Nurmi was contemporary with Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley, and had a breve relationship with Orson Wells. In the early 1950s she maintained a close friendship with James Dean, and was often cited in a Hollywood café. She claimed that she was a friend of James Dean because “we have the same neuroses”, and Dean commented, “I know a lot about satanic forces and I was interested in finding out if this girl was obsessed with this forces.” However, both ended up breaking their relationship and when Dean died in a traffic accident came the baseless rumor that “Vampira had cast a curse on the actor out of spite”.
She married her first husband in 1949, a former child actor in silent films and later the screenwriter of Dirty Harry, Charley Varrick, Play Misty for Me, and numerous other movies and TV episodes.
She married her second husband, younger actor John Brinkley, on March 10, 1958. She married actor Fabrizio Mioni on June 20, 1961 in Orange County, California. She had no children.
On January 10, 2008, Nurmi died of natural causes at her home in Hollywood, aged 85. She was buried in the Griffith Lawn section of the Hollywood Forever Cemetery.
Inma Guerrero
English for Fun 4B