Elvira, Mistress of the Dark: "She's like Bob Hope with fake breasts and a wig. Now, that's scary"

I can't remember where or how, but recently I came across some information on Elvira. Probably an old news story or a blog posting. Anyway, as is so often the case at 2am, that prompted me to start digging around a bit. And here's what I found.

1. There actually was a sequel to the 1988 film Elvira, Mistress of the Dark. It came out in 2001, was titled Elvira's Haunted Hills, was shot on location in Romania, and was financed by Cassandra Peterson, the actress who plays Elvira, to the tune of a million bucks...a budget that in 1962 would have been fabulous. But in 2001 probably wasn't cutting it. BTW, here's some fairly interesting trivia off the top of my head: The first Star Wars film, which came out in 1977 (I was twelve and I saw it 13 times. What a sci-fi freak I was, eh?) only cost 9.5 million to make. By contrast, Terminator 2: Judgement Day, which came out in 1991, and still kicks ass to this day, had a budget of 200 million (the movie was made by the studio Carolco, which, at least, at that time, was based in my home state of North Carolina).

2. A character once appeared on a episode of the The Simpsons that was a blend of Jane Fonda's Barbarella and Elvira. Her name was Booberella. BTW, about a dozen years ago, I actually rented Barbarella to see what all the hubbub was about and, good grief, I was stunned at how horrible it was. Even Jane Fonda in those outfits couldn't make up for how amazingly bad this movie was.

3. In 2006, Cassandra Peterson held an estate sale, liquidating various personal effects, due to a divorce from her husband of twenty-five years, Mark Pierson. And I have to admit, I wondered if this was why she was making appearances at conventions (the pic above is from a 2006 convention appearance--she's 56 in that pic!). However, many celebrities who have staked themselves (no pun intended) in the Sci-fi, fantasy, and horror genres make routine appearances at conventions, both for the added income as well as to connect with their fanbase. And, in this sense, veterans of shows like Star Trek (any of the various incarnations: The original series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise), Battlestar Galactica (new and old versions), and StarGate (SG-1 or Atlantis) pretty much have a guaranteed income for as long as they're willing to show up, sign autographs, and wear smiles all day long (I'm sure the task gets harder for the female celebs when confronted with "older geeks" confessing their lifelong amorous inclinations for the characters portrayed by the celebs or when asked questions like "Do you remember in episode 249 when you...").

4. The wikipedia writeup on Elvira states "With heavily applied drag queen style horror make-up and a black wig, the transformation from Cassandra Peterson to the sexy Elvira was so drastic that no one ever recognized her out of costume." This is definitely the truth. In fact, the first time I saw a picture of Cassandra Peterson, sans warddrobe, I was a little shocked. She looked more like someone's mom or aunt than the seductive and sultry Mistress of the Dark.



On this page, you'll find some photos of Cassandra out-of-makeup, followed by some youtube clips:

Classic Elvira Moments


Clip of Cassandra Peterson getting into makeup:



Elvira's most famous movie scene: