She's the "Queen of Halloween."
She's the "Mistress of the Dark."
She's a little bit vampire with a whole lot of vamp.
She's Elvira, portrayed for more than thirty years by the incomparable Cassandra Peterson.
How does today's Elvira compare to her spooky roots?
Let's find out.
"You lookin' for me?"
Cassandra Peterson always wanted to be the center of attention, but it wasn't until she
saw the movie Viva Las Vegas that she decided to explore the idea of being an entertainer.
When she was 17, she got a chance to give being a showgirl a shot during a family vacation
through Sin City.
She told Vulture that she begged her parents to let her go and see a full-fledged Vegas
stage production, saying,
"I dressed up to look super old and sophisticated, you know, like I was actually old enough to
get in to see the show."
Her appearance caught the eye of the show's dance captain, who asked her to audition for
a role.
Amazingly, Peterson got the job - but since she was still a minor at the time, she also
had to convince her parents to sign off on it.
"I've always dreamed of doing this, and now I've got my chance."
Peterson didn't stay in Vegas for long.
In the early '70s, she travelled the world, embarking on a number of different vocations,
including music, modelling, and improv comedy.
She also briefly dated a singer by the name of Elvis Presley.
During her travels, Peterson took a dancing job in France, followed by an acting gig in
Rome, being featured as a background extra in Federico Fellini's Roma.
While in Italy, Peterson began singing with a couple of local rock bands, and when she
returned to the United States, she joined the improv group the Groundlings.
Peterson also modeled for second-tier Playboy-style magazines, as well as an infamous album cover
- well, maybe.
There's a red-headed woman on the cover of Tom Waits' album Small Change who bears a
striking resemblance to Peterson, but she's never been 100% sure that the person is her.
As she later told Screen Anarchy,
"It looks like me, but I don't have any recollection of ever doing that.
But it was the '70s, so I don't have a recollection of a whole lot that I did then."
Peterson got the opportunity to create Elvira in 1981, when Los Angeles TV station KHJ-TV
decided to revive its old-fashioned horror movie show Fright Night with a new host.
The series had been dormant since 1975, following the death of host Larry Vincent, who previously
ran the show as a character named "Sinister Seymour."
Peterson got the hosting gig, launching a show which became Elvira's Movie Macabre . Her
salary?
$350 a week.
With her friend, makeup artist Robert Redding, Peterson devised Elvira's signature look - a
cross between a scary movie monster, with a beehive hairdo right out of Bride of Frankenstein,
and a hyper-sexualized Morticia Addams.
Peterson gently made fun of the horror movies she was tasked with hosting in a sunny, Valley
Girl-style accent, making for an amusing disconnect between her gothic image, endearing voice,
and killer wit.
"No hard liquor served past 8 o’clock.
Do you want a virgin?"
"Maybe, but I'll have a couple of drinks first."
The mixture of campy comedy, old movies, and an over-the-top revealing costume proved a
winning combination - but how did the star of a local TV show become famous around the
world?
It helped that her show didn't stay local for long.
A television syndicator picked up the no-frills series and sold it to more than 70 other TV
stations within about five years of its debut, helping Elvira carve out a place in pop culture
nationwide.
When Peterson landed an endorsement deal with Coors, she became the first woman to become
the focus of a national beer campaign, further raising her profile.
And then there was the merchandise.
Fans of the mistress of the dark could buy Elvira calendars, Halloween costume kits,
toys, comic books, collector's plates, and even two different pinball machines.
"Wow dude, this is awesome!"
The woman who made a name for herself poking fun at movies got a movie of her own in 1988:
Elvira: Mistress of the Dark.
The tongue-in-cheek horror-comedy finds Elvira inheriting a creepy old mansion and clashing
with uptight locals.The film earned a little more than $5 million at the box office, but
became a cult classic when it reached VHS and cable.
Peterson made a sequel in 2001 called Elvira's Haunted Hills.
While the first was set in the modern era, the follow-up took Elvira to the 1850s, moving
the action to a spooky castle in the mountains.
While Haunted Hills never received wide theatrical release, it's also gained a reputation as
a campy midnight movie.
Even in her sixties, Peterson has never stopped being the Queen of Halloween.
She brought Elvira back to the small screen in 2010 with a revived Elvira's Movie Macabre
series; another similar show, 13 Nights of Elvira, was produced for Hulu in 2014.
In 2016, Peterson released a career retrospective "coffin table book", and she also spent years
headlining an October full of Halloween-themed stage shows at California's Knott's Berry
Farm.
Beloved to this day, Elvira is basically the Santa Claus of Halloween - and the season
is still a busy time for Peterson, all these decades on.
As she said in a Time interview,
"My phone doesn't stop ringing, and I don't sleep, and I'm working during the day, and
I'm working at night.
It's pretty hectic!
I love it, I'm happy.
But I sometimes wish all my work didn't come in a one-month period."
So eat your heart out, Santa Claus.
Kris Kringle's got nothing on the Mistress of the Dark.