Maila Nurmi as Vampira

Maila Nurmi (1922 – 2008) was a Finnish-American actress who created the campy 1950s character Vampira. She portrayed Vampira as TV's first horror host and in the Ed Wood cult film Plan 9 from Outer Space. She is also billed as Vampira in the 1959 movie The Beat Generation where she plays a beatnik poet. The Vampira Show was an American variety show hosted by Vampira. The series aired on the Los Angeles ABC television from April 30, 1954, through April 2, 1955. The series was produced and created by Hunt Stromberg, Jr., and featured the Vampira character created by Maila Nurmi. Though the show was unseen outside of the Los Angeles area, The Vampira Show has become a cult classic, spawning fan clubs the world over.

Vampira's personality was based on elements of several silent film actresses including Theda Bara and Gloria Swanson as well as the Evil Queen from Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. In Vampira: The Movie, Nurmi reveals she appropriated the long cigarette holder and extra-long fingernails from the Dragon Lady character in the Terry and the Pirates comic strip. The new costume was inspired by the artwork of John Willie featured in the fetish magazine Bizarre. Each show began with the spectral image of the wasp-waisted Vampira gliding through knee-deep fog down a dark corridor toward the viewer. At the end of her trance-like walk she would suddenly let out a long, piercing scream as the camera zoomed in on her face. She would then smile and coyly remark, "Screaming relaxes me so." After that Nurmi would sit on a Victorian double-ended sofa decorated with skulls and introduce the movie of the night, sometimes pausing to play with her pet spider Rolo, talk with off-camera ghosts, torment her advertiser, Fletcher Jones, in amusing commercials, or drink a Vampira Cocktail at her poison bar.

Despite its popularity, the series was canceled in 1955 when Nurmi refused to sell her rights to the character to ABC.Nurmi revived the series for a short time in 1956 on KHJ-TV. After the series demise, Nurmi appeared in the cult Ed Wood's film Plan 9 From Outer Space (1959), dressed as Vampira but out of character. The original Vampira Show has never aired outside the Los Angeles area due to it being originally broadcast live and not being preserved as kinescopes for future airings. No footage of the show is known to exist, however, in the 1990s a kinescope advertising the station's ability to draw clients to advertisers featuring Nurmi in character was discovered. The clips used in the kinescope were re-shot segments using a previous episode's script.

Les Diableries

Les Diableries is the title of a series of stereoscopic photographs published in Paris during the 1860s. The photographs, commonly known as stereoviews, portray sculpted clay vignettes which depict scenes of daily life in Hell. Much of the subject matter was satirical and mirrored the corruption and excess of Paris during the Second Empire. Napoleon III’s authoritarian rule was repeatedly the subject of criticism, as was the decadent lifestyle of the bourgeoisie. A total of 72 scenes were published. The photographs were reverse colored by hand, then backed with a layer of tissue paper and sandwiched between two double window cardboard mattes. This format of stereoview is similar to modern day slides or transparencies. For added effect, the eyes of the skeletons and various other creatures were pierced and dabbed with colored gelatin, causing their eyes to glow red. The final product was then viewed through a stereoscope which produced a realistic 3D effect.

For the full collection and other effects visit London Stereoscopic Company - Official Web Site

Charles Verschuuren's macabre theater posters

Charles Verschuuren (1891 - 1955) was a Dutch painter and illustrator mainly for posters , both advertisements for various products like theater and movie posters. Best known is perhaps his poster for the film The Jantjes.

Étienne-Gaspard Robert's Phantasmagoria

Phantasmagoria was a form of theatre which used a modified magic lantern to project frightening images such as skeletons, demons, and ghosts onto walls, smoke, or semi-transparent screens, frequently using rear projection. The projector was mobile, allowing the projected image to move and change size on the screen, and multiple projecting devices allowed for quick switching of different images. Invented in France in the late 18th century, it gained popularity through most of Europe (especially England) throughout the 19th century.

Étienne-Gaspard Robert (1763–1837), was a prominent Belgian stage magician and influential developer of phantasmagoria. Alongside his pioneering work on projection techniques for his shows Robert was also a physics lecturer and a keen balloonist at a time of great development in aviation.

Robert developed a phantasmagoria show based around his projection system and the use of other effects and techniques. Robert scripted scenes that involved actors and ventriloquism alongside his projections, creating a convincing impression of the appearance of ghosts. Robert used several projection devices in a variety of ways, including rear projection and projection onto large pieces of wax-coated gauze (giving the image a more translucent appearance). He also used smoke and mirrors to further disguise the mechanisms behind his show.

In 1797, Robert presented his first "fantasmagorie" at the Pavillon de l'Echiquier in Paris. The macabre atmosphere in the post-revolutionary city was perfect for Robertson's Gothic extravaganza complete with elaborate creations and Radcliffean décor.

After discovering that he could put the magic lantern on wheels to create either a moving image or one that increased and decreased in size, Robertson moved his show. In an abandoned crypt of a Capuchin convent near the Place Vendôme, he staged hauntings, using several lanterns, special sound effects and the eerie atmosphere of the tomb. This show lasted for six years, mainly because of the appeal of the supernatural to Parisians.

Robert mainly used images surrounded by black in order to create the illusion of free-floating ghosts. However, he also would use multiple projectors, set up in different locations throughout the venue, in order to place the ghosts in environments. For instance, one of his first phantasmagoria shows displayed a lightning-filled sky with both ghosts and skeletons receding and approaching the audience. In order to add to the horror, Robert and his assistants would sometimes create voices for the phantoms. Often, the audience forgot that these were tricks and were completely terrified:

“I am only satisfied if my spectators, shivering and shuddering, raise their hands or cover their eyes out of fear of ghosts and devils dashing towards them.” Robert wrote.

In fact, many people were so convinced of the reality of his shows that police temporarily halted the proceedings, believing that Robert had the power to bring Louis XVI back to life. Once the show was back, Robert was exposed to the law again, this time in the form of a lawsuit against his former assistants who had started their own phantasmagoria shows using his techniques. It was this lawsuit in 1799 in which Robert was required to reveal his secrets to the public and magic lantern shows popped up across Europe and in the United States shortly after, though many were not as elaborate as Robert's. (wikipedia1 and wikipedia2) His tomb in Père Lachaise Cemetery, Paris is a piece of sculpture art and was inspired by his spactacles:

Grand Guignol (Γκραν Γκινιόλ)

The Grand Guignol was a theatre of legendary cult status, operating in Paris for 65 years, between 1897 and 1962. From its opening in 1897 until its closing in 1962 it specialized in naturalistic horror shows. It produced, almost exclusively, one-act plays from 10 to 40 minutes in length, and was infamous for the production of violent and erotic works of horror.

The theatre was opened by Oscar Metenier, a writer and police secretary, who created slice-of-life plays about the Parisian underlife and stories of true crime. Metenier was a follower of Naturalism: a movement in late 19th Century theatre that attempted to create a perfect illusion of reality. Naturalistic works often exposed the dark harshness of life, with themes of poverty, racism, sex, prejudice, disease, prostitution, and filth.

Max Maurey incorporated melodrama into the Grand-Guignol’s acting style to heighten the emotion of the more sensational elements while keeping Naturalism as the guiding principle for characters and situations. It was under Maurey that the style of the Grand Guignol became renowned throughout Europe and, eventually, the world. The term ‘Grand Guignol’ has even passed into the English language, as a phrase referring to any bloody spectacle or violent entertainment.

Paula Maxa was one of the Grand Guignol’s best-known performers. From 1917 to the 1930s, she performed most frequently as a victim and was known as “the most assassinated woman in the world”. During her career at the Grand Guignol, Maxa’s characters were murdered more than 10,000 times in at least 60 different ways and raped at least 3,000 times.

Spectators would regularly faint in the early days of the theatre: indeed, a doctor was reputedly kept on hand at all times – although on one occasion when the doctor’s assistance was required, he was unable to help, having already fainted himself!

Audiences waned in the years following World War II, and the Grand Guignol closed its doors in 1962. Management attributed the closure in part to the fact that the theater’s faux horrors had been eclipsed by the actual events of the Holocaust two decades earlier. “We could never equal Buchenwald,” said its final director, Charles Nonon. “Before the war, everyone felt that what was happening onstage was impossible. Now we know that these things, and worse, are possible in reality."(Theatre of Blood)

Το Grand Guignol ήταν ένα θρυλικό θέατρο που λειτούργησε στο Παρίσι για 65 χρόνια, από το 1897 μέχρι το 1962 που ειδικευόταν σε θέματα φυσικών (νατουραλιστικών, όχι υπερφυσικών) σόου τρόμου, εξ ου και το όνομα Γκραν Γκινιόλ που το χρησιμοποιούμε για να περιγράφουμε παραστάσεις τρόμου και φρίκης. Οι παραστάσεις διαρκούσαν από 10 έως 40 λεπτά και αφορούσαν σαδιστικά εγκλήματα, πάθους, ερωτικής διαστροφής, περιπτώσεις παρανοϊκών δολοφόνων, ή καταστάσεις τρέλας και ψυχιατρείων με σκηνοθεσία αυτών των τελετουργικών ή εξαιρετικά βίαιων φόνων με τον πιο ωμό τρόπο που μπορούσε να παιχτεί σε θέατρο.

Η πιο γνωστή ηθοποιός που συμμετείχε σε αυτές τις παραστάσεις ήταν η Paula Maxa, η οποία από το 1917 μέχρι το 1930 συμμετείχε ως θύμα σχεδόν σε όλες τις παραστάσεις και χαρακτηρίστηκε ως «η πιο δολοφονημένη γυναίκα του κόσμου». Οι χαρακτήρες, τους οποίους υποκρινόταν, δολοφονήθηκαν πάνω από 10.000 φορές, με 60 διαφορετικούς τρόπους και βιάστηκαν τουλάχιστον 3.000 φορές.

Το να λιποθυμούν από το σοκ και τη φρίκη θεατές ήταν πολύ σύνηθες φαινόμενο, γι’αυτό υπήρχαν και γιατροί στις παραστάσεις για να επεμβαίνουν σε τέτοιες περιπτώσεις. Αλλά σε μια τέτοια περίπτωση που χρειαζόταν γιατρό, είχε λιποθυμήσει και ο ίδιος ο γιατρός!

Το θέατρο άρχισε να παρακμάζει μετά τον Β’ Παγκόσμιο πόλεμο και το θέατρο έκλεισε για πάντα το 1962. Η διοίκηση του θεάτρου απέδωσε την παρακμή στο γεγονός ότι η σκηνοθετημένη φρίκη των παραστάσεων ωχριούσε μπροστά στην πραγματική φρίκη των πραγματικών γεγονότων του Β’ Παγκοσμίου Πολέμου με το Ολοκαύτωμα, το Αουσβιτς, το Μπούχενβαλντ, τη φρίκη της μονάδας Unit 731, κλπ. Όπως δήλωσε και ο τελευταίος σκηνοθέτης του Γκραν Γκινιόλ: «Πριν τον πόλεμο, ο καθένας αισθανόταν πως αυτά που έβλεπε στη σκηνή ήταν αδύνατο να συμβούν. Σήμερα γνωρίζει πως αυτά που έβλεπε στη σκηνή μπορούν να συμβούν και μάλιστα ακόμα χειρότερα».