Vampira

            On Friday morning I started looking for the chords for Boris Vian’s “J’suis Snob”. As I expected, several pages offer them. So far the ones that I looked at have basically he same ones.

            I memorized verses two and three of “Encore Lui” by Serge Gainsbourg. With only one verse left I should have it finished on Saturday morning and then I’ll start looking for the chords. I suspect that for this song I'll have to figure them out for myself.

            I washed another section of the living room floor near the couch, about the same length and half the width of what I’d done the day before because it was a particularly dark area.

            I washed two pairs of shorts and hung them on the deck.

            I had the other packet of Cajun chicken with pearl barley and kale for lunch.

            I did some exercises and took a bike ride to Ossington and Dundas and then home via Queen.

            I worked on synchronizing the video of my song practice from July 28, 2017 with the audio recording. I got it to the point where the two are slightly out of sync and producing an echo effect. I might keep it that way this time but I’ll have a listen in a couple of days to decide for sure.

            I worked on my journal.

            I had nine tiny potatoes, two drumsticks and some gravy and watched a 1954 episode of The Red Skelton Show that I’d downloaded because it guest starred Vampira, Bela Lugosi and Lon Chaney. Red started out with a silly skit as a weatherman. The skit with Vampira was sort of a sequel to his movie The Fuller Brush Man. He played his bumbling dumb character Clem Kadiddlehopper. We see a gothic mansion and Bela Lugosi plays a mad scientist with a werewolf assistant. Vampira is on a slab. Bela says that he needs a brain that’s never been used for his experiment and just then Clem arrives. When Clem sees Vampira on the slab she suddenly screams. Red says, “Don’t adlib kid, you’re among stars!” Clem is drugged by a giant hypodermic needle and the next scene is in the graveyard. There is a musical number with dancing see-through skeletons. Clem wakes up in the graveyard as Bela prepares to transfer his brain to a robot. Vampira arrives and coldly flirts with Clem. She has very few lines, but she asks, “Would you like to go out with me after you’re dead?” “We haven’t been introduced”. “I am Vampira the ghoul. I like you.” “You do?” "Yes, you're just my type. A red blooded American boy. Why don’t you invite me over sometime when you cut yourself shaving?” “Where do you live anyhow?" "Here." "Well, I like the way you keep your lawn!" "Do you think I'm attractive?" "Well, you have your points!" He asks how old she is and she says she’s 614 years old. He says, “That’s the awkward age!" She puts him in a trance and he collapses. They transfer his brain to a robot that’s supposed to know the secret of the universe but it's just as dumb as Clem is. Clem is a monster and he attacks Bela but the show announcer comes in and stops him, explaining that he’s strong because he’s been drinking Geritol all year. That's the show's sponsor.

            Vampira was born Maila Elizabeth Syrjäniemi in 1922. She claimed to have been born in Petsamo, Finland, but her mother was from the States and records show that her father arrived at Ellis Island in 1910. She was raised in Oregon and graduated from high school in 1940. She modelled for Vargas and Man Ray. She changed her name to Maila Nurmi, became a showgirl and a chorus line dancer and modelled for pin-ups. In 1953 she went to a costume party dressed as Morticia Addams from the New Yorker cartoons of Charles Addams. A TV producer saw her there and hired her to introduce horror films on his station. She drew her inspiration from The Dragon Lady of the Terry and the Pirates comic strip and the evil queen from Snow White. As a publicity stunt she ran for Night Mayor of Hollywood on a platform of dead issues. She was the model for Maleficent in Disney’s Sleeping Beauty. She was a friend of James Dean. In the early 60s she had an antiques boutique on Melrose called “Vampira’s Attic” where she also made and sold jewellery and clothing. She worked installing linoleum, making drapes and doing carpentry. She sued Cassandra Peterson for stealing her image for her Elvira character but she lost the suit. She recorded two singles with the punk band Satan’s Cheerleaders.

            Since Red Skelton was a short show I watched the “pilot” episode of “The Veil”. It wasn’t officially “The Veil” for the first story but rather a story within an ongoing series sponsored by Bell called Telephone Time. The story was about the voyage of the Vestris. The ship is halfway across the Atlantic on its way to England. Captain Norrich has brought his wife Mary along but she is troubled. An old man not of the crew appears in her cabin. He is wearing a hooded fur lined coat. As he approaches her she faints. When she comes to all that is left is a slate with the words “Steer north-west” written in no hand of anyone on the ship. She has dreams in which the figure again urges her to steer northwest. She becomes increasingly ill and keeps insisting that her husband change course, which would be dangerous because of ice flows. He finally agrees and finds an ice flow with survivors of a shipwreck. One of the survivors is Dr Pierre, the man that appeared in Mary’s cabin. He treats her and she recovers.

            Dr Pierre was played by Boris Karloff.

            The Vestris was based on a recounting of what was supposedly an actual historic event by Robert Dale Owen in his Spiritualist book “Footfalls on the Boundary of Another World”, published in 1860.

            Owen was born in Scotland but came to the US in his 20s. He became a congressman and helped found the Smithsonian. Although most Democrats were pro slavery in his era he was an abolitionist and a socialist.