THE FIRST GOTHIC PRINCESSES
ELVIRA (PRE-GOTHIC PERIOD)
Elvira was the stage name for Cassandra Peterson, born September 17, 1951 in the United States.
At the age of 17, She convinced her parents to go to Hollywood where she got small roles in big-budget movies like: Diamonds Are Forever, from the James Bond franchise.
She also traveled abroad where she worked for the director Federico Fellini, and upon her return to America, she worked as a model.
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In 1981 Hollywood producers made a cast to find a hostess for a horror movie show, in which Cassandra Peterson won the role.
The actress and model were given permission to create her own image. At first she suggested the image of Sharon Tate (I imagine herself bathing in the bathtub) from Roman Polanski's vampire film, an idea that was rejected outright, creating the image of a sexy, punk vampire with which she is now known.
The show would be called: Elvira´s Movie Macabre and would premiere in 1981.
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The show was a resounding success like never before seen for such pre-Gothic characters, comparable only two decades ago to the Addams or Munster family series. A lot of diverse material related to the show was economically very profitable.
Among that extra stuff were Elvira's Halloween costumes, which were very popular. Despite this success, Elvira's clothing cannot be considered official clothing for what would later become the Gothic sub-culture, since the future Gothic people who wore these costumes did so as a parody, the same as Bela Lugosi's Dracula costume.
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Elvira's costume is black and tight, but unlike the actresses who preceded her, she has a more than generous cleavage. An aspect with which Elvira's own character jokes: "the girl with the big... nails".
And speaking of nails, these are false and long, but they do not reach the length that Vampira looked like at the time. Her eyelashes are false and huge and accompany a voluminous cut hairstyle, very much in the style of the eighties, totally different from the long and loose hairstyle of the previous pre-Gothic actresses.
The difference that stands out the most, however, is her personality. Like the other pre-Gothic actresses before her, her show, although comedy, has dark and macabre twists, but her personality in general is not grim (Vampira), elegant (Morticia) or maternal (Lily), but rather adopts the style of "teenage girl from the valley", imitating not only that kind of reaction, but also her way of speaking and tone. Besides, jokes are more irreverent and sexual with a double meaning.
Elvira would star in a film in the Gothic period, called Elvira: The Mistress of Darkness', but I will deal with this in a later section.
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Curiosity:
It is clearly the appearance of Elvira, a copy of the one that Vampira had, in fact Maila Nurmi herself, sued the show in court for appropriating her Vampira character, of which she still had all the rights.
Justice ruled in Elvira's favor because Elvira's character did not appropriate the image of Vampira, but represented a similar fictional character. The debate among fans is still going on.
CONTINUARÁ…
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