The Vampira Show

As Nurmi told Boxoffice in a 1994 interview, she had dressed as Addams' at-the-time nameless ghoul-woman to attend Lester Horton's annual Hollywood costume ball the Bal Caribe in 1953.

Nurmi's ghoul woman beat out over 2,000 attendees to win the evening's prize for best costume where she drew the attention of Hunt Stromberg, Jr., a Hollywood producer.

[5] Vampira's personality was based on elements of several silent film actresses, including Theda Bara and Gloria Swanson.

[citation needed] 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.

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.

The Vampira Show was seen in the Los Angeles area only but was featured in articles and photo spreads in Newsweek, TV Guide and Life within weeks of its first broadcast.

[13] After the series' demise, Nurmi appeared in the cult film Plan 9 from Outer Space (1957), dressed as Vampira and credited under that name but out of character.

Nurmi told Boxoffice that Wood's dialogue was so awful she sought and received permission to perform her entire role in a mute and spellbound manner she referred to as "Maila in an Alpha state."

The release imitated a complete episode by using existing footage of the show combined with vintage commercials and a full-length feature film.