Cassandra Peterson
Encyclopedia
Cassandra Peterson is an American
actress best known for her on-screen horror host
ess character Elvira, Mistress of the Dark. She gained fame on Los Angeles
television station KHJ
wearing a black, gothic
, cleavage
-enhancing gown as host of Movie Macabre, a weekly horror movie
presentation. Her wickedly vampish appearance is offset by her comical character, quirky and quick-witted personality, and Valley girl
-type speech.
, Peterson grew up near Randolph
, until the area was flooded to create Tuttle Creek Reservoir; then her family moved to Colorado Springs, Colorado
. According to a 2011 interview, Peterson states that as a child, while other girls were occupied with Barbie dolls, she was more fascinated by horror-themed toys. During her teens Peterson worked as a go-go dancer in a local gay bar
. She graduated from General William J. Palmer High School
in 1969. Days after graduating, she drove to Las Vegas, Nevada
, where she became a showgirl
in "Viva Les Girls" at the The Dunes
. She had a small role as a showgirl in the 1971 James Bond
film Diamonds Are Forever
, briefly dated Elvis Presley
, played a topless dancer in The Working Girls (1974), and purportedly posed for the cover of Tom Waits
's 1976 album, Small Change
. This story is apparently unverified, however, as Peterson has since described it as "a giant mystery", claiming that while she has no memory of the event, the picture looks enough like her that she feels "pretty sure" that it is. She is a vegetarian and has appeared in a humorous Halloween-themed ad for PETA
promoting a vegetarian diet.
and became the lead singer of the Italian rock band, I Latins Ochanats. During this time she had a chance encounter with director, Federico Fellini
, which led to a small part in Roma
(1972). Back in the United States
she toured nightclubs and discos around the country with a musical/comedy act, Mammas Boys. In 1979 she joined the Los Angeles
-based improvisation
al troupe, The Groundlings
, where she created a Valley girl
-type character upon whom the Elvira persona largely is based.
Peterson auditioned for the role of Ginger Grant
for the third Gilligan's Island
television movie
in 1981, shortly before KHJ-TV
offered her the horror-host position.
Peterson also was a radio show personality on Los Angeles' 106.7 KROQ
radio station from 1982 to 1983.
weekend horror show called Fright Night
), show producers began the task of bringing the show back. Deciding to use a female host, producers asked 1950s horror host
, Maila Nurmi
, to revive The Vampira Show
. Nurmi worked on the project for a short time, but eventually quit when the producers would not hire Lola Falana
to play Vampira. The station continued with the project and sent out a casting call. Peterson auditioned against 200 other horror hostess hopefuls, and won the role. Producers left it up to her to create the role's image. She and best friend, Robert Redding, came up with the sexy punk/vampire look after producers rejected her original idea to look like Sharon Tate
in The Fearless Vampire Killers
.
Unable to continue with the Vampira character, the name Elvira was chosen. What followed was Elvira's Movie Macabre, featuring a quick-witted valley-girl type character named Elvira, Mistress of the Dark. With heavily-applied, pancake-horror make up and a towering black beehive wig to conceal her flame-red hair, the transformation from Cassandra Peterson to the sexy "Elvira" was so drastic that no one ever recognized her out of costume.
Shortly before the first taping, producers received a cease and desist
letter from Nurmi. Besides the similarities in the format and costumes, Elvira's closing line for each show, wishing her audience "Unpleasant dreams," was notably similar to Vampira's closer: "Bad dreams, darlings..." uttered as she walked off down a misty corridor. The court ruled in favor of Peterson, holding that "'likeness' means actual representation of another person's appearance, and not simply close resemblance." Peterson claimed that Elvira was nothing like Vampira aside from the basic design of the black dress and black hair. Nurmi herself claimed that Vampira's image was based on Morticia Addams
, a Charles Addams
cartoon character from The Addams Family
comic strip in The New Yorker
magazine.
The Elvira character rapidly gained notoriety with her tight-fitting, low-cut black gown which showed more cleavage than had ever appeared on local Los Angeles television before. The movies featured on Elvira's Movie Macabre were always B grade
(or lower
). Elvira reclined on a red Victorian couch, introducing and often interrupting the movie to lampoon the actors, the script, and the bad editing. Adopting the flippant tone of a California valley-girl, she brought a satirical, sarcastic edge to her commentary without ever being crass or mean-spirited. Like a macabre Mae West
, she reveled in dropping risqué double entendres, as well as making frequent jokes about her eye-popping display of cleavage. In an AOL Entertainment News interview Peterson revealed, "I figured out that Elvira is me when I was a teenager. She's a spastic girl. I just say what I feel and people seem to enjoy it." Her campy humor, obvious sex appeal, and good-natured self-mockery endeared her to late-night movie viewers as her popularity soared. At the same time Elvira was embraced as an icon of the waning 1980s punk movement, as well as the emerging Goth subculture
.
The demand for Elvira increased throughout the 1980s. A frequent guest on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
and many other talk shows, she also produced a long-running series of Halloween-themed TV ads for Coors
Light Beer and Mug Root Beer
(her trademark cleavage was covered up for the Coors campaign). She did guest roles on television dramas such as CHiPs
, The Fall Guy
, and Fantasy Island
, and appeared on numerous awards shows as a presenter. Despite the fact that her success is forever linked to her image as Elvira, Peterson has never been reluctant to make out-of-costume appearances as herself for television interviews and specials.
In 1982 with the surprising success of Movie Macabre, Knott's Theme Parks
hired Elvira to replace Seymour as the host of its annual Halloween Haunt during the month of October. Elvira would appear nightly at the park, live on stage with a Halloween-themed musical comedy revue similar to her Mamma's Boys act from the 1970s.
The Elvira character rapidly evolved from obscure cult figure to lucrative brand-name and "Mistress of all Media", spawning countless products throughout the 1980s and 1990s, including Halloween
costumes, comic books, action figures, trading cards, pinball machines, Halloween decor, model kits, calendars, perfume, and dolls. She has appeared on the cover of Femme Fatales
magazine five times. Her popularity reached its zenith with the release of the feature film, Elvira, Mistress of the Dark (co-written by Peterson) in 1988. She also did many non-Elvira character-roles in other films, most notably Pee-wee's Big Adventure
(1985) with friend and fellow Groundling
Paul Reubens
(as his Pee-wee Herman
character), and Allan Quatermain and the Lost City of Gold
(1985) starring Richard Chamberlain
and Sharon Stone
.
In September 2010 Elvira's Movie Macabre returned to television syndication in the United States, this time with public domain films.
for International Video Entertainment (I.V.E.)
. Many of these films were hand-selected by Peterson. Choosing to stay away from the more explicit zombie, cannibal
, and slasher film
s of the time, these were generally tamer films such as The Monster Club
and Dan Curtis
TV films, as well as many episodes of the Hammer House of Horror TV series. She refused to host Make Them Die Slowly
, Seven Doors of Death, and Buried Alive
, so the videos were released on the LIVE Home Video label without Elvira's appearance as hostess. After this, several extended episodes of the British namesake series Thriller
(i.e. The Devil's Web, A Killer in Every Corner, Murder Motel) were also released without Elvira hosting, sometimes various releases for example, Buried Alive, the cast replaces Elvira.
The success of the Thriller video series led to a second video set, Elvira's Midnight Madness through Rhino Home Video.
In 2004 she revisited this concept with a similar horror film collection on DVD, titled Elvira's Box of Horrors. After more than ten years Box of Horrors was the return of Elvira hosting horror movies as she did with Movie Macabre.
, Eclipse Comics
and Claypool Comics
. The Claypool series was co-branded with and distributed by Eclipse, and, after Eclipse ceased publication, was a sole product of Claypool. The series was edited and occasionally written by Richard Howell, featured photographic covers with interior stories and art by Kurt Busiek
, Dan Spiegle
, Jim Mooney
, Steve Leialoha
, and others. It ran for 166 issues, plus two trade paperback collections
, Elvira 2: The Jaws of Cerberus and Elvira: The Arcade Game
.
Two Elvira-themed pinball machine
s were produced by Bally/Midway: Elvira and the Party Monsters was released in 1989, and Scared Stiff
was published in 1996.
Elvira also performed guest vocals on a track called "Zombie Killer" for the band Leslie and the Ly's
, released in February 2008. The music video for the track features Leslie & The Ly's performing to a sold out audience of zombie
s in a fictional venue called "Elvira Stadium." A 7" single was released.
, when they played at Dodger Stadium
in Los Angeles on their ZOO TV tour. Just as she apparently did some 14 years later, she declared her candidacy for President, noting that "we already have two boobs in the White House, might as well be mine." Following a couple of corny jokes, she led the crowd to sing "Happy Birthday
" to drummer, Larry Mullen, Jr., whose birthday is on Halloween
.
She appeared on Cartoon Network
's talk show, Space Ghost Coast to Coast
, in its twenty-ninth episode "Switcheroo" with Susan Olsen
.
From 1995-1997 Peterson made appearances as Elvira at the Disney-MGM Studios Theme Park for "Elvira's Friday the 13th" events held whenever the 13th of a month fell on a Friday.
In 1997 Ray Productions of Orlando, Florida
, produced the first haunted house chain endorsed by Elvira titled "Elvira's Nightmare Haunted House". The attraction was fully themed (including an Elvira look-alike) and remained open for two Halloween seasons in Atlanta, Georgia
.
In 2001 she appeared throughout the nation, including Los Angeles, New York, Key West, Chicago
, and Atlanta, screening her second full-length feature film, Elvira's Haunted Hills
.
Lockheed's "Skunk Works
", which designed and built the F-117 airplane, built a bomb into a mobile trailer that targeted a computer system for guiding the airplane through the maze of enemy radar systems. The trailer and system was nicknamed "Elvira" for its ability to safely guide the airplane through the darkness of their night missions.
On October 30th, 2011, she was a guest DJ on 97.1 FM WDRV Chicago "The Drive" as their Sunday Night Star.
. The first official female Elvira impersonator, April Wahlin, the winner of The Search for the Next Elvira, was passed the crown on October 31, 2007, as the winner of the reality show, and made a few appearances during her one-year "reign" from October 31, 2007, to October 31, 2008. Despite Wahlin's win of the title and one-year contract as Elvira, both Greenia and Lundquist continue to appear as Elvira for various events across the country.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
actress best known for her on-screen horror host
Horror host
Horror hosts are a particular type of television presenter, often tasked with presenting low-grade films to television audiences. This tradition is primarily American, though there have been a few international hosts over the years.-Film Packages:...
ess character Elvira, Mistress of the Dark. She gained fame on Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
television station KHJ
KCAL-TV
KCAL-TV, channel 9, is an independent television station in Los Angeles, California, USA, owned by the CBS Corporation. KCAL-TV shares its studio facilities with KCBS-TV inside CBS Studio Center in the Studio City section of Los Angeles, and its transmitter is located atop Mount Wilson.-Digital...
wearing a black, gothic
Gothic fashion
Gothic fashion is a clothing style worn by members of the Goth subculture; a dark, sometimes morbid, eroticized fashion and style of dress. Typical Gothic fashion includes dyed black hair, black lips and black clothes. Both male and female goths wear dark eyeliner and dark fingernails. Styles are...
, cleavage
Cleavage (breasts)
Cleavage, anatomically known as the intramammary cleft, is the space between a woman's breasts lying over the sternum. Cleavage is exposed by a garment with a low neckline, such as ball gowns, evening gowns, swimwear, casual tops and other garments....
-enhancing gown as host of Movie Macabre, a weekly horror movie
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...
presentation. Her wickedly vampish appearance is offset by her comical character, quirky and quick-witted personality, and Valley girl
Valley girl
Valley Girl is a stereotype leveled at a socio-economic and ethnic class of American women who can be described as colloquial English-speaking and materialistic...
-type speech.
Biography
Born in Manhattan, KansasManhattan, Kansas
Manhattan is a city located in the northeastern part of the state of Kansas in the United States, at the junction of the Kansas River and Big Blue River. It is the county seat of Riley County and the city extends into Pottawatomie County. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 52,281...
, Peterson grew up near Randolph
Randolph, Kansas
Randolph is a city in Riley County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 163. It is part of the Manhattan, Kansas Metropolitan Statistical Area.-History:Randolph was originally located a mile east of its present location....
, until the area was flooded to create Tuttle Creek Reservoir; then her family moved to Colorado Springs, Colorado
Colorado Springs, Colorado
Colorado Springs is a Home Rule Municipality that is the county seat and most populous city of El Paso County, Colorado, United States. Colorado Springs is located in South-Central Colorado, in the southern portion of the state. It is situated on Fountain Creek and is located south of the Colorado...
. According to a 2011 interview, Peterson states that as a child, while other girls were occupied with Barbie dolls, she was more fascinated by horror-themed toys. During her teens Peterson worked as a go-go dancer in a local gay bar
Gay bar
A gay bar is a drinking establishment that caters to an exclusively or predominantly gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender clientele; the term gay is used as a broadly inclusive concept for LGBT and queer communities...
. She graduated from General William J. Palmer High School
General William J. Palmer High School
This article is on the high school located in Colorado Springs. For the high school located in Monument, Colorado, please see Lewis-Palmer High School....
in 1969. Days after graduating, she drove to Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...
, where she became a showgirl
Showgirl
A showgirl is a dancer or performer in a stage entertainment show. Showgirl is also often used as a term for a promotional model in trade fairs and car shows, etc...
in "Viva Les Girls" at the The Dunes
Dunes (hotel and casino)
The Dunes Hotel was a Paradise, Nevada, hotel and casino that operated from May 23, 1955 to January 26, 1993, and was the tenth resort to open on the Las Vegas Strip. The Bellagio now stands on the former grounds.-History:...
. She had a small role as a showgirl in the 1971 James Bond
James Bond (film series)
The James Bond film series is a British series of motion pictures based on the fictional character of MI6 agent James Bond , who originally appeared in a series of books by Ian Fleming. Earlier films were based on Fleming's novels and short stories, followed later by films with original storylines...
film Diamonds Are Forever
Diamonds Are Forever (film)
Diamonds Are Forever is the seventh spy film in the Eon Productions James Bond series, and the sixth and final Eon Productions film to star Sean Connery as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. The film is based on Ian Fleming's 1956 novel of the same name, and is the second of four James Bond films...
, briefly dated Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....
, played a topless dancer in The Working Girls (1974), and purportedly posed for the cover of Tom Waits
Tom Waits
Thomas Alan "Tom" Waits is an American singer-songwriter, composer, and actor. Waits has a distinctive voice, described by critic Daniel Durchholz as sounding "like it was soaked in a vat of bourbon, left hanging in the smokehouse for a few months, and then taken outside and run over with a car."...
's 1976 album, Small Change
Small Change
Small Change is an album by Tom Waits, released in 1976 on Asylum Records. It was recorded in July 1976.-Production:Small Change was recorded, direct to 2-track stereo tape, July 15,19,20,21, and 29, 1976 at the Wally Heider Recording Studio, in Hollywood, USA under the production of Bones...
. This story is apparently unverified, however, as Peterson has since described it as "a giant mystery", claiming that while she has no memory of the event, the picture looks enough like her that she feels "pretty sure" that it is. She is a vegetarian and has appeared in a humorous Halloween-themed ad for PETA
Peta
Peta can refer to:* peta-, an SI prefix denoting a factor of 1015* Peta, Greece, a town in Greece* Peta, the Pāli word for a Preta, or hungry ghost in Buddhism* Peta Wilson, an Australian actress and model* Peta Todd, English glamour model...
promoting a vegetarian diet.
Early career
In the early 1970s she moved to ItalyItaly
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
and became the lead singer of the Italian rock band, I Latins Ochanats. During this time she had a chance encounter with director, Federico Fellini
Federico Fellini
Federico Fellini, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI , was an Italian film director and scriptwriter. Known for a distinct style that blends fantasy and baroque images, he is considered one of the most influential and widely revered filmmakers of the 20th century...
, which led to a small part in Roma
Roma (1972 film)
Roma, also known as Fellini's Roma, is a 1972 semi-autobiographical, poetic film depicting director Federico Fellini's move from his native Rimini to Rome as a youth. It is formed by a series of loosely connected episodes. The plot is minimal, and the only character to develop significantly is...
(1972). Back in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
she toured nightclubs and discos around the country with a musical/comedy act, Mammas Boys. In 1979 she joined the Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
-based improvisation
Improvisation
Improvisation is the practice of acting, singing, talking and reacting, of making and creating, in the moment and in response to the stimulus of one's immediate environment and inner feelings. This can result in the invention of new thought patterns, new practices, new structures or symbols, and/or...
al troupe, The Groundlings
The Groundlings
The Groundlings are an improvisational comedy troupe based in Los Angeles, California. The troupe was formed by Gary Austin in 1974 and uses an improv format influenced by Viola Spolin to produce sketches and improvised scenes...
, where she created a Valley girl
Valley girl
Valley Girl is a stereotype leveled at a socio-economic and ethnic class of American women who can be described as colloquial English-speaking and materialistic...
-type character upon whom the Elvira persona largely is based.
Peterson auditioned for the role of Ginger Grant
Ginger Grant
Ginger Grant is a fictional character in the 1964 to 1967 television sitcom Gilligan's Island.-Career:...
for the third Gilligan's Island
Gilligan's Island
Gilligan's Island is an American television series created and produced by Sherwood Schwartz and originally produced by United Artists Television. The situation comedy series featured Bob Denver; Alan Hale, Jr.; Jim Backus; Natalie Schafer; Tina Louise; Russell Johnson; and Dawn Wells. It aired for...
television movie
Television movie
A television film is a feature film that is a television program produced for and originally distributed by a television network, in contrast to...
in 1981, shortly before KHJ-TV
KCAL-TV
KCAL-TV, channel 9, is an independent television station in Los Angeles, California, USA, owned by the CBS Corporation. KCAL-TV shares its studio facilities with KCBS-TV inside CBS Studio Center in the Studio City section of Los Angeles, and its transmitter is located atop Mount Wilson.-Digital...
offered her the horror-host position.
Peterson also was a radio show personality on Los Angeles' 106.7 KROQ
KROQ-FM
KROQ-FM — branded 106.7 KROQ — is a commercial modern rock radio station licensed to Pasadena, California serving the Greater Los Angeles. The call sign is pronounced "kay rock." It is the flagship station of Loveline hosted by Dr...
radio station from 1982 to 1983.
Elvira Begins: Movie Macabre
In the late spring of 1981, five years after the death of Larry Vincent (who starred as host Sinister Seymour of a local Los AngelesLos Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
weekend horror show called Fright Night
Fright Night (TV show)
Fright Night was the name of at least two science fiction and horror movie programs. One ran from 1970 to 1981, and the other ran from 1973 to 1987...
), show producers began the task of bringing the show back. Deciding to use a female host, producers asked 1950s horror host
Horror host
Horror hosts are a particular type of television presenter, often tasked with presenting low-grade films to television audiences. This tradition is primarily American, though there have been a few international hosts over the years.-Film Packages:...
, Maila Nurmi
Maila Nurmi
Maila Nurmi was a Finnish-American actress who created the campy 1950s characterVampira. She portrayed Vampira as TV's first horror host and in the Ed Wood cult film Plan 9 from Outer Space...
, to revive The Vampira Show
The Vampira Show
The Vampira Show was an American variety show hosted by Vampira. The series aired on the Los Angeles ABC television affiliate KABC-TV from April 30, 1954, through April 2, 1955...
. Nurmi worked on the project for a short time, but eventually quit when the producers would not hire Lola Falana
Lola Falana
Lola Falana is an American singer, dancer, and actress of Cuban and African American descent. Falana's father left Cuba to become a welder in the United States, where he met his wife...
to play Vampira. The station continued with the project and sent out a casting call. Peterson auditioned against 200 other horror hostess hopefuls, and won the role. Producers left it up to her to create the role's image. She and best friend, Robert Redding, came up with the sexy punk/vampire look after producers rejected her original idea to look like Sharon Tate
Sharon Tate
Sharon Marie Tate was an American actress. During the 1960s she played small television roles before appearing in several films. After receiving positive reviews for her comedic performances, she was hailed as one of Hollywood's promising newcomers and was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for...
in The Fearless Vampire Killers
The Fearless Vampire Killers
The Fearless Vampire Killers is a 1967 comedy horror film directed by Roman Polanski, written by Gérard Brach and Polanski, produced by Gene Gutowski and co-starring Polanski with future wife Sharon Tate...
.
Unable to continue with the Vampira character, the name Elvira was chosen. What followed was Elvira's Movie Macabre, featuring a quick-witted valley-girl type character named Elvira, Mistress of the Dark. With heavily-applied, pancake-horror make up and a towering black beehive wig to conceal her flame-red hair, the transformation from Cassandra Peterson to the sexy "Elvira" was so drastic that no one ever recognized her out of costume.
Shortly before the first taping, producers received a cease and desist
Cease and desist
A cease and desist is an order or request to halt an activity and not to take it up again later or else face legal action. The recipient of the cease-and-desist may be an individual or an organization....
letter from Nurmi. Besides the similarities in the format and costumes, Elvira's closing line for each show, wishing her audience "Unpleasant dreams," was notably similar to Vampira's closer: "Bad dreams, darlings..." uttered as she walked off down a misty corridor. The court ruled in favor of Peterson, holding that "'likeness' means actual representation of another person's appearance, and not simply close resemblance." Peterson claimed that Elvira was nothing like Vampira aside from the basic design of the black dress and black hair. Nurmi herself claimed that Vampira's image was based on Morticia Addams
Morticia Addams
Morticia A. Addams is the fictional matriarch of "The Addams Family", created by cartoonist Charles Addams and based on his first wife Barbara .Morticia is the wife of Gomez Addams and mother of Wednesday Addams and Pugsley Addams...
, a Charles Addams
Charles Addams
Charles "Chas" Samuel Addams was an American cartoonist known for his particularly black humor and macabre characters...
cartoon character from The Addams Family
The Addams Family
The Addams Family is a group of fictional characters created by American cartoonist Charles Addams. As named by Charles Addams, the Addams Family characters include Gomez, Morticia, Uncle Fester, Lurch, Grandmama, Wednesday, Pugsley, and Thing....
comic strip in The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
magazine.
The Elvira character rapidly gained notoriety with her tight-fitting, low-cut black gown which showed more cleavage than had ever appeared on local Los Angeles television before. The movies featured on Elvira's Movie Macabre were always B grade
B movie
A B movie is a low-budget commercial motion picture that is not definitively an arthouse or pornographic film. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified a film intended for distribution as the less-publicized, bottom half of a double feature....
(or lower
Z movie
The term Z movie arose in the mid-1960s as an informal description of certain unequivocally non-A films. It was soon adopted to characterize low-budget pictures with quality standards well below those of most B movies and even so-called C movies...
). Elvira reclined on a red Victorian couch, introducing and often interrupting the movie to lampoon the actors, the script, and the bad editing. Adopting the flippant tone of a California valley-girl, she brought a satirical, sarcastic edge to her commentary without ever being crass or mean-spirited. Like a macabre Mae West
Mae West
Mae West was an American actress, playwright, screenwriter and sex symbol whose entertainment career spanned seven decades....
, she reveled in dropping risqué double entendres, as well as making frequent jokes about her eye-popping display of cleavage. In an AOL Entertainment News interview Peterson revealed, "I figured out that Elvira is me when I was a teenager. She's a spastic girl. I just say what I feel and people seem to enjoy it." Her campy humor, obvious sex appeal, and good-natured self-mockery endeared her to late-night movie viewers as her popularity soared. At the same time Elvira was embraced as an icon of the waning 1980s punk movement, as well as the emerging Goth subculture
Goth subculture
The goth subculture is a contemporary subculture found in many countries. It began in England during the early 1980s in the gothic rock scene, an offshoot of the post-punk genre. The goth subculture has survived much longer than others of the same era, and has continued to diversify...
.
The demand for Elvira increased throughout the 1980s. A frequent guest on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson is a talk show hosted by Johnny Carson under the Tonight Show franchise from 1962 to 1992. It originally aired during late-night....
and many other talk shows, she also produced a long-running series of Halloween-themed TV ads for Coors
Coors Brewing Company
The Coors Brewing Company is a regional division of the world's fifth-largest brewing company, the Canadian Molson Coors Brewing Company and is the third-largest brewer in the United States...
Light Beer and Mug Root Beer
Mug Root Beer
Mug Root Beer is a brand name of root beer made by the Pepsi company.Mug was first produced by the Belfast Beverage Company in San Francisco, California during the early 1950s. Its name was changed to Mug Old Fashioned Root Beer. In the late 1960s, Sugar Free Mug was introduced...
(her trademark cleavage was covered up for the Coors campaign). She did guest roles on television dramas such as CHiPs
CHiPs
CHiPs is an American television drama series produced by MGM Studios that originally aired on NBC from September 15, 1977, to July 17, 1983. CHiPs followed the lives of two motorcycle police officers of the California Highway Patrol...
, The Fall Guy
The Fall Guy
The Fall Guy is an American action/adventure television program produced for ABC and originally broadcast from November 4, 1981 to May 2, 1986. It starred Lee Majors, Douglas Barr, and Heather Thomas. Majors and Barr are the only two actors to appear in all 112 episodes of the series...
, and Fantasy Island
Fantasy Island
Fantasy Island is the title of two separate but related American fantasy television series, both originally airing on the ABC television network.-Original series:...
, and appeared on numerous awards shows as a presenter. Despite the fact that her success is forever linked to her image as Elvira, Peterson has never been reluctant to make out-of-costume appearances as herself for television interviews and specials.
In 1982 with the surprising success of Movie Macabre, Knott's Theme Parks
Knott's Berry Farm
Knott's Berry Farm is a theme park in Buena Park, California, now owned by Cedar Fair Entertainment Company, and a line of jams, jellies, preserves, and other specialty food, now part of The J. M. Smucker Company based in Placentia, California....
hired Elvira to replace Seymour as the host of its annual Halloween Haunt during the month of October. Elvira would appear nightly at the park, live on stage with a Halloween-themed musical comedy revue similar to her Mamma's Boys act from the 1970s.
The Elvira character rapidly evolved from obscure cult figure to lucrative brand-name and "Mistress of all Media", spawning countless products throughout the 1980s and 1990s, including Halloween
Halloween
Hallowe'en , also known as Halloween or All Hallows' Eve, is a yearly holiday observed around the world on October 31, the night before All Saints' Day...
costumes, comic books, action figures, trading cards, pinball machines, Halloween decor, model kits, calendars, perfume, and dolls. She has appeared on the cover of Femme Fatales
Femme Fatales (magazine)
Femme Fatales is an American men's magazine focusing on film and television actresses.Femme Fatales was founded by Frederick S. Clarke in the summer of 1992, as the sister publication of his science fiction film magazine Cinefantastique. Published by Clarke, it was originally edited by pin-up...
magazine five times. Her popularity reached its zenith with the release of the feature film, Elvira, Mistress of the Dark (co-written by Peterson) in 1988. She also did many non-Elvira character-roles in other films, most notably Pee-wee's Big Adventure
Pee-wee's Big Adventure
Pee-wee's Big Adventure is a 1985 American adventure comedy film directed by Tim Burton in his full-length debut and starring Paul Reubens as Pee-wee Herman. Reubens also co-wrote the script with Phil Hartman and Michael Varhol. Supporting roles are played by Elizabeth Daily, Mark Holton, Diane...
(1985) with friend and fellow Groundling
The Groundlings
The Groundlings are an improvisational comedy troupe based in Los Angeles, California. The troupe was formed by Gary Austin in 1974 and uses an improv format influenced by Viola Spolin to produce sketches and improvised scenes...
Paul Reubens
Paul Reubens
Paul Reubens is an American actor, writer, film producer, and comedian, best known for his character Pee-wee Herman. Reubens joined the Los Angeles troupe The Groundlings in the 1970s and started his career as an improvisational comedian and stage actor...
(as his Pee-wee Herman
Pee-wee Herman
Pee-wee Herman is a comic fictional character created and portrayed by American comedian Paul Reubens. He is best known for his two television series and film series during the 1980s. The childlike Pee-wee Herman character developed as a stage act that quickly led to an HBO special in 1981...
character), and Allan Quatermain and the Lost City of Gold
Allan Quatermain and the Lost City of Gold
Allan Quatermain and the Lost City of Gold is an adventure movie directed by Gary Nelson and released on January 30, 1987 in the United States. It is loosely based on the novel Allan Quatermain by H. Rider Haggard...
(1985) starring Richard Chamberlain
Richard Chamberlain
George Richard Chamberlain is an American actor of stage and screen who became a teen idol in the title role of the television show Dr. Kildare .-Early life:...
and Sharon Stone
Sharon Stone
Sharon Vonne Stone is an American actress, film producer, and former fashion model. She achieved international recognition for her role in the erotic thriller Basic Instinct...
.
In September 2010 Elvira's Movie Macabre returned to television syndication in the United States, this time with public domain films.
Elvira on home video
In 1985 Elvira began hosting a home video series called ThrillerVideoThrillerVideo
ThrillerVideo is a horror home video series that began being released in 1985 by International Video Entertainment .-Background:Released on VHS and Betamax, many of the "films" released by ThrillerVideo were actually episodes of the British TV shows Thriller and Hammer House of Horror...
for International Video Entertainment (I.V.E.)
Artisan Entertainment
Artisan Entertainment Inc. was a privately held independent American movie studio until it was purchased by a Canadian studio, Lionsgate, in 2003. At the time of its acquisition, Artisan had a library of thousands of films developed through acquisition, original production, and production and...
. Many of these films were hand-selected by Peterson. Choosing to stay away from the more explicit zombie, cannibal
Cannibal film
Cannibal films are a sub genre of exploitation film made mostly by Italian filmmakers through the 1970s and 1980s. This sub genre is a collection of graphically gory movies that usually depict cannibalism by primitive, Stone-age natives deep inside the Asian or South American rain forests...
, and slasher film
Slasher film
A slasher film is a type of horror film typically involving a psychopathic killer stalking and killing a sequence of victims in a graphically violent manner, often with a cutting tool such as a knife or axe...
s of the time, these were generally tamer films such as The Monster Club
The Monster Club
The Monster Club is a 1980 British horror film directed by Roy Ward Baker and starring Vincent Price and John Carradine. An anthology film, it is based on the works of the British horror author R. Chetwynd-Hayes...
and Dan Curtis
Dan Curtis
Dan Curtis was an American director and producer of television and film, probably best known for his miniseries The Winds of War and War and Remembrance, his afternoon TV series Dark Shadows, and the made for TV movie, . Dark Shadows originally aired from 1966 to 1971 and has aired in syndication...
TV films, as well as many episodes of the Hammer House of Horror TV series. She refused to host Make Them Die Slowly
Cannibal Ferox
Cannibal Ferox, also known as Make Them Die Slowly, is a 1981 Italian exploitation film written and directed by Umberto Lenzi. Upon its release, the film made claims to being "The most violent film ever made"...
, Seven Doors of Death, and Buried Alive
Buio Omega
Buio Omega is an Italian horror/exploitation film directed by Joe D'Amato, and released in 1979.- Plot :...
, so the videos were released on the LIVE Home Video label without Elvira's appearance as hostess. After this, several extended episodes of the British namesake series Thriller
Thriller (UK TV series)
Thriller is a British television series, originally broadcast in the UK from 1973 to 1976. It is an anthology series: each episode has a self-contained story and its own cast...
(i.e. The Devil's Web, A Killer in Every Corner, Murder Motel) were also released without Elvira hosting, sometimes various releases for example, Buried Alive, the cast replaces Elvira.
The success of the Thriller video series led to a second video set, Elvira's Midnight Madness through Rhino Home Video.
In 2004 she revisited this concept with a similar horror film collection on DVD, titled Elvira's Box of Horrors. After more than ten years Box of Horrors was the return of Elvira hosting horror movies as she did with Movie Macabre.
Elvira Comic Books
Elvira appeared in comic books from three publishers, DC ComicsDC Comics
DC Comics, Inc. is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the market for American comic books and related media. It is the publishing unit of DC Entertainment a company of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which itself is owned by Time Warner...
, Eclipse Comics
Eclipse Comics
Eclipse Comics was an American comic book publisher, one of several independent publishers during the 1980s and early 1990s. In 1978, it published the first graphic novel intended for the newly created comic book specialty store market...
and Claypool Comics
Claypool Comics
Claypool Comics is an American comic book publishing company created in 1993, known for publishing such titles as Peter David's Soulsearchers and Company and Elvira, Mistress of the Dark comics, as well as Richard Howell's Deadbeats and, , Phantom of Fear City...
. The Claypool series was co-branded with and distributed by Eclipse, and, after Eclipse ceased publication, was a sole product of Claypool. The series was edited and occasionally written by Richard Howell, featured photographic covers with interior stories and art by Kurt Busiek
Kurt Busiek
Kurt Busiek is an American comic book writer notable for his work on the Marvels limited series, his own title Astro City, and his four-year run on Avengers.-Early life:...
, Dan Spiegle
Dan Spiegle
Dan Spiegle is an American comic book and cartoon artist and illustrator . He has had a long career in drawing comics based on movie and television characters, and has worked for companies including Dell Comics, DC Comics and Marvel Comics.-Life and career:In his second year of high school,...
, Jim Mooney
Jim Mooney
James Noel "Jim" Mooney was an American comic book artist best known as a Marvel Comics inker and Spider-Man artist, and as the signature artist of DC Comics' Supergirl, both during what comics historians and fans call the Silver Age of comic books...
, Steve Leialoha
Steve Leialoha
Steve Leialoha is an American comic book artist whose work first came to prominence in the 1970s. He has worked primarily as an inker, though occasionally as a penciller, for several publishers, including Marvel Comics and later DC Comics.-Biography:Leialoha's professional career began in 1975...
, and others. It ran for 166 issues, plus two trade paperback collections
Elvira games
In the late 1980s and early 1990s a number of Elvira-themed computer games were produced. Some of these were Elvira: Mistress of the DarkElvira: Mistress of the Dark
Elvira: Mistress of the Dark is a horror RPG starring the actress Cassandra Peterson . The game was created by Horrorsoft and released by Accolade in 1990.Elvira was Horrorsoft's second published game after 1989's Personal Nightmare...
, Elvira 2: The Jaws of Cerberus and Elvira: The Arcade Game
Elvira: The Arcade Game
Elvira: The Arcade Game is a platform side-scrolling video game released in 1991 for the Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64 and PC by Flair Software. The game is based upon the film Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, released in 1988, and she features as the playable character...
.
Two Elvira-themed pinball machine
Pinball
Pinball is a type of arcade game, usually coin-operated, where a player attempts to score points by manipulating one or more metal balls on a playfield inside a glass-covered case called a pinball machine. The primary objective of the game is to score as many points as possible...
s were produced by Bally/Midway: Elvira and the Party Monsters was released in 1989, and Scared Stiff
Scared Stiff (pinball)
Scared Stiff is a 1996 pinball game designed by Dennis Nordman and released by Midway , featuring horrorshow-hostess Elvira. It is the follow-up to 1989's Elvira and the Party Monsters, also designed by Nordman.-External links:*...
was published in 1996.
Calendar series
In the early 1990s Peterson began a series of successful Elvira calendars with her striking, provocative, and campy poses in various macabre settings. One of the months can be seen in the video game, Blood, hanging on various walls.Movies, TV, and video
- Diamonds Are ForeverDiamonds Are Forever (film)Diamonds Are Forever is the seventh spy film in the Eon Productions James Bond series, and the sixth and final Eon Productions film to star Sean Connery as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. The film is based on Ian Fleming's 1956 novel of the same name, and is the second of four James Bond films...
(1971), small role as a dancer - Fellini's RomaRoma (1972 film)Roma, also known as Fellini's Roma, is a 1972 semi-autobiographical, poetic film depicting director Federico Fellini's move from his native Rimini to Rome as a youth. It is formed by a series of loosely connected episodes. The plot is minimal, and the only character to develop significantly is...
(1972), small role as a dancer - The Working GirlsThe Working GirlsThe Working Girls is a 1974 American drama film directed by Stephanie Rothman and starring Sarah Kennedy, Laurie Rose and Cassandra Peterson...
(1974) - Cheech & Chong's Next MovieCheech & Chong's Next MovieCheech & Chong's Next Movie is the second feature-length film by Cheech and Chong, released in 1980. It was directed by Tommy Chong.-Plot:...
(1980), small role - Movie Macabre (1981), TV horror hostess
- Jekyll and Hyde... Together AgainJekyll and Hyde... Together AgainJekyll and Hyde...Together Again is a 1982 comedy based on the novella Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. The film is more like a cross between the original story and some aspects of The Nutty Professor...
(1982), small role as Busty Nurse - Stroker AceStroker AceStroker Ace is a 1983 action comedy film, filmed in North Carolina and Georgia, about a NASCAR driver, the eponymous Stroker Ace, played by Burt Reynolds....
(1983), a bit part in this Burt ReynoldsBurt ReynoldsBurton Leon "Burt" Reynolds, Jr. is an American actor. Some of his memorable roles include Bo 'Bandit' Darville in Smokey and the Bandit, Lewis Medlock in Deliverance, Bobby "Gator" McCluskey in White Lightning and sequel Gator, Paul Crewe and Coach Nate Scarborough in The Longest Yard and its...
film. - The Fall GuyThe Fall GuyThe Fall Guy is an American action/adventure television program produced for ABC and originally broadcast from November 4, 1981 to May 2, 1986. It starred Lee Majors, Douglas Barr, and Heather Thomas. Majors and Barr are the only two actors to appear in all 112 episodes of the series...
, episode "October the 31stOctober the 31st (The Fall Guy episode)October the 31st is an episode of the American television series The Fall Guy, which starred Lee Majors. This episode first appeared on October 31, 1984. There were two guest stars in this episode, veteran horror movie actor, John Carradine and Elvira, Mistress of the Dark...
" - Pee-wee's Big AdventurePee-wee's Big AdventurePee-wee's Big Adventure is a 1985 American adventure comedy film directed by Tim Burton in his full-length debut and starring Paul Reubens as Pee-wee Herman. Reubens also co-wrote the script with Phil Hartman and Michael Varhol. Supporting roles are played by Elizabeth Daily, Mark Holton, Diane...
(1985), small role as a biker mama. - ThrillerVideoThrillerVideoThrillerVideo is a horror home video series that began being released in 1985 by International Video Entertainment .-Background:Released on VHS and Betamax, many of the "films" released by ThrillerVideo were actually episodes of the British TV shows Thriller and Hammer House of Horror...
(1985), home video series for I.V.E.Artisan EntertainmentArtisan Entertainment Inc. was a privately held independent American movie studio until it was purchased by a Canadian studio, Lionsgate, in 2003. At the time of its acquisition, Artisan had a library of thousands of films developed through acquisition, original production, and production and... - The music video for My MistakeMy Mistake"My Mistake" is a 1977 song by New Zealand art rock group Split Enz from their studio album Dizrythmia. "My Mistake" was the first Split Enz song to achieve a top 20 chart position, peaking at #15 in Australia and #21 in the band's native New Zealand....
by Phantom, Rocker & SlickPhantom, Rocker & SlickPhantom, Rocker & Slick was an American rock band active in the mid-1980s. The bandmembers were drummer Slim Jim Phantom, bassist Lee Rocker, and guitarist Earl Slick. Phantom and Rocker had previously played together as members of the Stray Cats...
- (1986) - WrestleMania 2WrestleMania 2WrestleMania 2 was the second annual WrestleMania professional wrestling pay-per-view event produced by the World Wrestling Federation...
(1986), guest commentator - Echo Park (1986), supporting role in Susan DeySusan DeySusan Dey is an American actress, known primarily for her roles in film and television. Her more prominent parts came as elder daughter, Laurie Partridge, on the 1970s sitcom The Partridge Family, and as Grace Van Owen, a California assistant district attorney and judge on the dramatic series, L.A...
drama. - Elvira's Halloween SpecialElvira's Halloween SpecialElvira's Halloween Special is a 1986 TV special for MTV hosted by Elvira, Mistress of the Dark. The special included skits with Elvira as well as music videos....
(1986) - Allan Quatermain and the Lost City of GoldAllan Quatermain and the Lost City of GoldAllan Quatermain and the Lost City of Gold is an adventure movie directed by Gary Nelson and released on January 30, 1987 in the United States. It is loosely based on the novel Allan Quatermain by H. Rider Haggard...
(1987), secondary role as the evil Queen Sorais. - Elvira, Mistress of the Dark (1988), title character and co-writer. Peterson's first feature film.
- CoorsCoors Brewing CompanyThe Coors Brewing Company is a regional division of the world's fifth-largest brewing company, the Canadian Molson Coors Brewing Company and is the third-largest brewer in the United States...
TV commercials (1988), spokesman. - The Super Mario Bros. Super Show (1989), as herself, she appeared in the last sitcom segment of the program, called The Ghoul of my Dreams.
- Parker Lewis Can't LoseParker Lewis Can't LoseParker Lewis Can't Lose is an American teen sitcom that originally aired on FOX from September 1990 to June 1993. During the last season, the series sported the simpler title Parker Lewis. The series was produced by Columbia Pictures Television and was strongly influenced by the feature film Ferris...
- Season 2, Episode 19, "Boy Meets Girl II", appeared as Elvira (1992) - The Elvira Show (1993), CBS pilot revolving around two witches, played by Elvira and Katherine HelmondKatherine HelmondKatherine Marie Helmond is an American film, theater and television actress, who played Emily Dickinson on Meeting of Minds, as well as such fictional characters as Jessica Tate on Soap, Mona Robinson on Who's the Boss?, Doris Sherman on Coach, and Lois Whelan on Everybody Loves...
, moving to Manhattan, Kansas, with their talking cat. - Helicopters with Elvira (1993–1995)
- "The Ketchup Vampires"-1995
- Space Ghost Coast to CoastSpace Ghost Coast to CoastSpace Ghost Coast to Coast is an American animated parody talk show hosted by the 60s Hanna-Barbera cartoon character Space Ghost. The show premiered on April 15, 1994 on Cartoon Network...
- Episode 27, "Switcheroo", appeared as Elvira (1996) - Draw Your Own ToonsDraw Your Own ToonsDraw Your Own Toons is a British television program that was produced by Buena Vista and Meridian Television for CITV. Four series were aired between 1998 and 2001. Each series was broadcast over the space of a week in either October or December...
(1998, series 1 only) - Elvira's Ghost Stories Spooktacular show (1999)
- The Martin Short ShowThe Martin Short ShowThe Martin Short Show was a syndicated talk show, based on the late night model, hosted by actor Martin Short with announcer/sidekick Michael McGrath. The talk show aired for one season in . It was produced by King World Productions...
- TV Episode #1.35 (as Elvira) (1999) - The Howard Stern Radio Show - TV Episode 19, June 1999
- Bride of Monster Mania (2000) (TV)
- Scares & Dares (2001) (TV)
- Elvira's Haunted HillsElvira's Haunted HillsElvira's Haunted Hills is a sequel to Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, directed by Sam Irvin. The film premiered at the International Rocky Horror Fan Convention on June 23, 2001.-Synopsis:...
(2001), After several years of unsuccessful attempts to make a sequel to Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, Cassandra and husband/manager Mark Pierson decided to take matters into their own hands and finance a second movie themselves. In November 2000, Cassandra wrote and co-produced Elvira's Haunted HillsElvira's Haunted HillsElvira's Haunted Hills is a sequel to Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, directed by Sam Irvin. The film premiered at the International Rocky Horror Fan Convention on June 23, 2001.-Synopsis:...
. The film was shot on location in RomaniaRomaniaRomania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
for just under one million dollars. With little budget left for promotion, Cassandra and Mark screened the film at AIDSAIDSAcquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
charity fund raisers across America. For the many people in attendance, this was the first opportunity to see the woman behind the Elvira character. On July 5, 2002, Elvira's Haunted Hills had its official premiere in HollywoodHollywood, Los Angeles, CaliforniaHollywood is a famous district in Los Angeles, California, United States situated west-northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Due to its fame and cultural identity as the historical center of movie studios and movie stars, the word Hollywood is often used as a metonym of American cinema...
. Elvira arrived at the premiere in her Macabre Mobile. The film would later be screened at the 2003 Cannes Film FestivalCannes Film FestivalThe Cannes International Film Festival , is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres including documentaries from around the world. Founded in 1946, it is among the world's most prestigious and publicized film festivals...
. - The E! True Hollywood Story - Scream Queens (2004) Hostess
- The Tony Danza ShowThe Tony Danza ShowThe Tony Danza Show was a daytime talk show hosted by Tony Danza, but was also a sitcom featuring the same actor ....
- TV Episode #1.34 (2004) - Monsterama: A Tribute to Horror Hosts (2004) (TV)
- Elvira's Box of Horrors (2004), horror film collection on DVD
- Red Riding Hood (2004)
- I Love the '80sI Love the '80sI Love the '80s is a decade nostalgia television program that was produced by VH1, based on the BBC series of the same name. The first episode, "I Love 1980", premiered on December 16, 2002.-Recurring segments:...
VH1VH1VH1 or Vh1 is an American cable television network based in New York City. Launched on January 1, 1985 in the old space of Turner Broadcasting's short-lived Cable Music Channel, the original purpose of the channel was to build on the success of MTV by playing music videos, but targeting a slightly...
- Peterson made appearances (both as herself and as Elvira) on several editions - I Love the HolidaysI Love the HolidaysI Love the Holidays is a 90-minute television special, based on the I Love the '80s series, that premiered on VH1 on November 20, 2005. It follows the same format as VH1's other I Love the... series, and many commentators from previous series are featured here...
(2005) (TV) - I Love the '80s 3-DI Love the '80s 3-DI Love the '80s 3-D is the follow-up to VH1's 1980s nostalgia show I Love the '80s and its sequel I Love the '80s Strikes Back. It premiered October 24, 2005...
(2005), VH1 TV miniseries - PlayboyPlayboyPlayboy is an American men's magazine that features photographs of nude women as well as journalism and fiction. It was founded in Chicago in 1953 by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother. The magazine has grown into Playboy Enterprises, Inc., with...
Presents: HefHugh HefnerHugh Marston "Hef" Hefner is an American magazine publisher, founder and Chief Creative Officer of Playboy Enterprises.-Early life:...
's Halloween Spooktacular (2005)(Hostess) - TV1TV1 (Australia)TV1 is an Australian cable and satellite channel available on Foxtel, Austar and Optus Television's subscription platforms.-History:TV1 launched as part of the original Galaxy lineup. The channel is jointly owned by Sony International Television, Universal Studios and Paramount. The channel shows...
(2005), Peterson (as Elvira) hosted a show on AustraliaAustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n-based cable TV channel TV1; the format was similar to her old show. - The Secret Life of Superfans (2006)
- Vampira: The Movie (2006), Peterson discusses the Vampira lawsuit.
- I Love the '70s: Volume 2I Love the '70s: Volume 2I Love the '70s: Volume 2 is a television mini-series in the I Love the... series presented by VH1. The sequel to I Love the '70s, it premiered on VH1 July 10, 2006 until July 14, 2006, airing at 8pm and 9pm ET each night.- Recurring segments :...
(2006), VH1 TV miniseries - Living in TV Land - Sherman HemsleySherman HemsleySherman Alexander Hemsley is an American actor, most famous for his role as George Jefferson on the CBS television series All in the Family and The Jeffersons, and as Deacon Ernest Frye on the NBC series Amen. He also played Earl Sinclair's horrifying boss, a Triceratops named B.P...
(2006), TV Episode - Elvira's Movie Macabre DVD series - (September 2006)
- The Girls Next DoorThe Girls Next DoorThe Girls Next Door, also known as The Girls of the Playboy Mansion, is an American reality television series broadcast on the E! cable television network...
- Girls Will Be Ghouls (October 2006) Elvira visits The Playboy MansionThe Playboy MansionThe Playboy Mansion is the home of Playboy magazine founder Hugh Hefner. Located in the Holmby Hills area of Los Angeles, California, the mansion became famous during the 1970s through media reports of Hefner's lavish parties.-History:The house is described as being in the "Gothic-Tudor" style...
to promote her Playboy inspired DVD. - The Search for the Next ElviraThe Search for the Next ElviraThe Search for the Next Elvira is a television series created by Eric Gardner and Cassandra Peterson and the show is a search to be the next late-night horror cult movie host Elvira, Mistress of the Dark.-The Judges:*Cassandra Peterson as Elvira...
(October 13, 2007), TV reality show by Fox Reality - On April 19, 2006, Peterson announced she would be seeking a few good "Elviras" via a reality television program. Some have mistaken this as an announcement of her retiring. As of October 2006, she cleared up the rumor by stating that she wanted to find other people to play the role, so that the character could appear at the multitude of personal appearance requests. As Peterson stated in an interview, there are many BozoBozo the ClownBozo the Clown is a clown character very popular in the United States, peaking in the 1960s as a result of widespread franchising in early television.Originally created by Alan W...
s (the clown) out there, so why not more Elviras? - MediumMedium (TV series)Medium is an American television drama series that premiered on NBC on January 3, 2005, and ended on CBS on January 21, 2011. Themed on supernatural gifts, its lead character, Allison DuBois , is a medium employed as a consultant for the Phoenix, Arizona district attorney's office...
(2009), Special cameo appearance as Elvira in the beginning of the "Bite Me" episode. - The Haunted World of El SuperbeastoThe Haunted World of El SuperbeastoThe Haunted World of El Superbeasto is a 2009 animated comedy exploitation film that also combines elements of horror and thriller films. It is based upon the comic book series created by Rob Zombie that follows the character of El Superbeasto and his sidekick sister, Suzi-X, voiced by Sheri...
(2009), Amber - Appeared in the Ghoultown music video for their song "Mistress of the Dark". (2009)
- Appeared as a downloadable character in the Sony PlayStation 3 game PainPain (video game)Pain is a 2007 video game for the PlayStation 3, developed by games studio Idol Minds. It was originally released as a downloadable title available from the PlayStation Store and was first released in North America on November 29, 2007 and in Europe on March 20, 2008 and became the most popular...
(October 2009) - A professional dominatrixDominatrixDominatrix or mistress is a woman or women who takes the dominant role in bondage, discipline and sadomasochism, or BDSM. A common form of address for a submissive to a dominatrix is "mistress", "ma'am", "domina" or "maîtresse"...
in an episode of Nash BridgesNash BridgesNash Bridges is an American television police drama created by Carlton Cuse. The show starred Don Johnson and Cheech Marin as two Inspectors with the San Francisco Police Department's Special Investigations Unit. The show ran for six seasons on CBS from March 29, 1996 to May 4, 2001 with a total of... - All About EvilAll About EvilAll About Evil is a 2010 American black comedy horror film written and directed by Joshua Grannell.-Plot:The adventure tells of a shy librarian who inherits the old and not very tolerable cinema of her father, to protect the family from the shame of bankruptcy...
- Linda (2010) - Elvira's Movie Macabre Horror Hostess - (2010)
- Elvira's Not a Witch - a 45 second viral videoViral videoA viral video is one that becomes popular through the process of Internet sharing, typically through video sharing websites, social media and email...
that spoofed a campaign ad by US SenateUnited States SenateThe United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
candidate Christine O'DonnellChristine O'DonnellChristine Therese O'Donnell is an American Republican Party politician who founded two advocacy organizations. She has been an advocate for nonprofit clients and nonprofit causes for nearly 20 years. A Tea Party favorite, and with strong financial support from the Tea Party movement, she defeated...
(October 2010)
Recording career
Elvira recorded several songs for her Halloween albums in the 1980s and 1990s. Here is her discography:- Elvira and the Vitones 3-D TV (Rhino Records, 1982)
- Vinyl Macabre (Rhino Records, 1983)
- Elvira Presents, Haunted Hits (Rhino Records, 1987)
- Elvira Presents, Monster Hits (Rhino Records, 1994)
- Elvira Presents Revenge of the Monster Hits (Rhino Records, 1995)
- Elvira's Gravest Hits (Shout! Factory, 2010)
Elvira also performed guest vocals on a track called "Zombie Killer" for the band Leslie and the Ly's
Leslie and the Ly's
Leslie & the LY's is a pop music band from Ames, Iowa that began as an open mike trio in 2004.Leslie & the LY's is made up of front-woman Leslie Hall, also known as Mother Gem, who composes all of the music herself generally using the Apple Computer program GarageBand. Other past and present...
, released in February 2008. The music video for the track features Leslie & The Ly's performing to a sold out audience of zombie
Zombie
Zombie is a term used to denote an animated corpse brought back to life by mystical means such as witchcraft. The term is often figuratively applied to describe a hypnotized person bereft of consciousness and self-awareness, yet ambulant and able to respond to surrounding stimuli...
s in a fictional venue called "Elvira Stadium." A 7" single was released.
Other appearances
On Halloween night of 1992 Elvira appeared with rock band, U2U2
U2 are an Irish rock band from Dublin. Formed in 1976, the group consists of Bono , The Edge , Adam Clayton , and Larry Mullen, Jr. . U2's early sound was rooted in post-punk but eventually grew to incorporate influences from many genres of popular music...
, when they played at Dodger Stadium
Dodger Stadium
Dodger Stadium, also sometimes called Chavez Ravine, is a stadium in Los Angeles. Located adjacent to Downtown Los Angeles, Dodger Stadium has been the home ballpark of Major League Baseball's Los Angeles Dodgers team since 1962...
in Los Angeles on their ZOO TV tour. Just as she apparently did some 14 years later, she declared her candidacy for President, noting that "we already have two boobs in the White House, might as well be mine." Following a couple of corny jokes, she led the crowd to sing "Happy Birthday
Happy Birthday to You
"Happy Birthday to You", also known more simply as "Happy Birthday", is a song that is traditionally sung to celebrate the anniversary of a person's birth...
" to drummer, Larry Mullen, Jr., whose birthday is on Halloween
Halloween
Hallowe'en , also known as Halloween or All Hallows' Eve, is a yearly holiday observed around the world on October 31, the night before All Saints' Day...
.
She appeared on Cartoon Network
Cartoon Network (United States)
Cartoon Network is an American cable television network owned by Turner Broadcasting which primarily airs animated programming. The channel was launched on October 1, 1992 after Turner purchased the animation studio Hanna-Barbera Productions in 1991...
's talk show, Space Ghost Coast to Coast
Space Ghost Coast to Coast
Space Ghost Coast to Coast is an American animated parody talk show hosted by the 60s Hanna-Barbera cartoon character Space Ghost. The show premiered on April 15, 1994 on Cartoon Network...
, in its twenty-ninth episode "Switcheroo" with Susan Olsen
Susan Olsen
Susan Marie Olsen is a former American child television actress and current animal welfare advocate. Olsen is best known for her role as Mike and Carol Brady's youngest daughter, Cindy Brady, on the 1970s television sitcom The Brady Bunch for the full run of the show, from 1969-1974.-Early...
.
From 1995-1997 Peterson made appearances as Elvira at the Disney-MGM Studios Theme Park for "Elvira's Friday the 13th" events held whenever the 13th of a month fell on a Friday.
In 1997 Ray Productions of Orlando, Florida
Orlando, Florida
Orlando is a city in the central region of the U.S. state of Florida. It is the county seat of Orange County, and the center of the Greater Orlando metropolitan area. According to the 2010 US Census, the city had a population of 238,300, making Orlando the 79th largest city in the United States...
, produced the first haunted house chain endorsed by Elvira titled "Elvira's Nightmare Haunted House". The attraction was fully themed (including an Elvira look-alike) and remained open for two Halloween seasons in Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in...
.
In 2001 she appeared throughout the nation, including Los Angeles, New York, Key West, Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, and Atlanta, screening her second full-length feature film, Elvira's Haunted Hills
Elvira's Haunted Hills
Elvira's Haunted Hills is a sequel to Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, directed by Sam Irvin. The film premiered at the International Rocky Horror Fan Convention on June 23, 2001.-Synopsis:...
.
Lockheed's "Skunk Works
Skunk works
Skunk Works is an official alias for Lockheed Martin’s Advanced Development Programs , formerly called Lockheed Advanced Development Projects. Skunk Works is responsible for a number of famous aircraft designs, including the U-2, the SR-71 Blackbird, the F-117 Nighthawk, and the F-22 Raptor...
", which designed and built the F-117 airplane, built a bomb into a mobile trailer that targeted a computer system for guiding the airplane through the maze of enemy radar systems. The trailer and system was nicknamed "Elvira" for its ability to safely guide the airplane through the darkness of their night missions.
On October 30th, 2011, she was a guest DJ on 97.1 FM WDRV Chicago "The Drive" as their Sunday Night Star.
Elvira impersonators
In the mid-1990s Cassandra Peterson enlisted male impersonators, Christian Greenia (Cassandra Fever), from Los Angeles, California, and Patterson Lundquist ("Elvira's Twin"), from Atlanta, Georgia, as her "official Elvira impersonators", calling them "the best she'd ever seen." The two later appeared with her as co-judges on The Search for the Next ElviraThe Search for the Next Elvira
The Search for the Next Elvira is a television series created by Eric Gardner and Cassandra Peterson and the show is a search to be the next late-night horror cult movie host Elvira, Mistress of the Dark.-The Judges:*Cassandra Peterson as Elvira...
. The first official female Elvira impersonator, April Wahlin, the winner of The Search for the Next Elvira, was passed the crown on October 31, 2007, as the winner of the reality show, and made a few appearances during her one-year "reign" from October 31, 2007, to October 31, 2008. Despite Wahlin's win of the title and one-year contract as Elvira, both Greenia and Lundquist continue to appear as Elvira for various events across the country.
External links
- HorrorHosts.com
- SWINDLE Magazine interview with Cassandra Peterson
- Cassandra Peterson's Guest DJ Project on KCRW KCRW Guest DJ set
- Elvira Movie Macabre App