VAMPIRA | THE BEAT GENERATION (1959) Photo

[Los Angeles]: MGM, [1959]. Vintage original 10 x 8″ (25 x 20 cm.) black-and-white double weight print still photo, with mimeographed text on verso, just about fine.

Vampira (Maila Nurmi) here recites poetry, with her pet mouse on her shoulder. Vampira was a 1950s horror hostess on local Los Angeles television. She appeared in a few films, most memorably Ed Wood’s Plan 9 from Outer Space.

This movie is a film noir, although compromised by its pseudo “beatnik” milieu. Grant, pp. 54-55.