[Book Review] Glamour Ghoul: The Passions and Pain of the Real Vampira, Maila Nurmi

Be careful with what you create. Take on a character or role and society is grasped by that staple no matter how many times you try to yank it out. Take on a different shape that shows the real you, the vulnerability and the creator rather than the finished product and you’re the shadow. Hollywood especially is aware of the persona, but not of the person. Glamour Ghoul: The Passions and Pain of the Real Vampira, Maila Nurmi holds the secrets and diary entries of the person behind the seductress. It’s like a history book of the horror culture embarked with the working miracles and the evil of an industry that thrives to destroy and starve someone, both as the struggling actress and the accomplished star. The book is written by Sandra Niemi, the niece of the actress and TV hostess Maila Nurmi, who created the iconic Vampira shrieking with sex and death. Unlike her immortal character, the spotlight and the media had cruel intentions. An outsider and creative person, Nurmi struggled to prove to her parents and to Hollywood that she could model, dance, and act. Her initial journey was one filled with exploitation, failed romances, doubting parents, broken mirrors, broken contracts, and depression. Behind the persona of someone who seduced audiences with her erotic physique and macabre image was a devoted friend, animal activist, and evangelical.

Each chapter is like a time capsule told through prose and sentimental lines from Nurmi’s diary. It reads as if a friend confides in you her experiences, feelings, dreams and struggles. She tells you her strengths and weaknesses, her problems and doesn’t ask for much but a faithful listener. As the book progresses you discover the human being behind the bold makeup, crypt-dark hair and dress, and pale moon skin that rose to fame in 1954. The woman who worked until she became someone with her artistic talents, her love for Charles Addams cartoons and the goal to be accepted in a world that labeled her a witch, a weirdo, and a character. Niemi is respectful of her aunt and her stories, and she brings to light truth buried throughout the decades with dirty rumors. Tabloids in the late 1950s blamed Nurmi for the death of Rebel Without a Cause actor James Dean. Lies spiraled and caught like spider webs that falsely accused the actress of witchcraft. The relationship between them was more of a mother and son - two outsiders held within the discomfort of normalcy. “We were psychic twins, Jimmy and I,” Nurmi wrote about her relationship with Dean. “Both of us were misunderstood in a world of strange beings.” The person behind the Vampira character dealt with pregnancy and abandonment by Orson Welles, and later unrequited love from her boyfriend Dean Riesner. “I found myself set alone on a pedestal, rather like a prized porcelain... so the poor fellow was forced to fornicate with ‘other women’ as I sat alone, undisturbed, on my familiar pedestal.”

The biography of Maila Nurmi vows justice to her perseverance, hard work as the writer, costume designer, and actress behind the horror queen Vampira. Her love for creation, the arts, and animals, and her experiences bring Maila Nurmi to the forefront of the story. She is no longer a mystery or a torn image without a background. She is a human being, an inspiration who stabbed the stake at the top of the hill for all outcasts, strong and independent women, eager to set the cruel world straight. Glamour Ghoul is the best-kept secret to finally be revealed.

RELATED ARTICLES

---

---

GHOULS GANG CONTENT

EXPLORE

---

MORE ARTICLES

---

---