Dead and Kind of Famous
The podcast where two friends (one who's a nobody and one who's kinda famous) dive into the life stories of dead folks who enjoyed a touch or two of fame in their time and now reside permanently in Hollywood Forever Cemetery.
Dead and Kind of Famous
Punk Vampira: Maila Nurmi Part 4
Well, here it is. The final installment of our four part series on Maila Nurmi. Maila didn’t get all she deserved in her life and she never really reaped the benefits of her creations. But the life she lived was full of adventure, fascination, excitement and in many ways, love. In this particular episode, we explore her final romances, alleged marriages and marriages of convenience. We also dig into her lasting friendships (including Marlon Brando) and her counterculture grandmother relationship to the punk musicians of the late 70s and 80s. We all need someone to love and care for us, and Maila always found her community, even in her old age.
This serves as some consolation for the loss of her intellectual property and her legal battles against her unwelcomed predecessor, Elvira. There's a lot of dirt to dig into here and we DIG.
Thank you for listening to this one, and please leave us comments with any tributes or words you’d like to pass along for when we visit Maila’s grave.
Links for this episode:
Maila and Satan’s Cheerleaders: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2duQNeim6k
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okay, here we go. Part four myla nurmy, punk vampire. I'm so excited but also sad, I don't want to. Part four Myla Nurmi, punk Vampyra. I'm so excited but also sad, I don't want to. I don't want it to end. I love her.
Speaker 2:I know I feel like there's a lot, there's a lot, there's a lot, there's still a lot, there's always a lot. What a life.
Speaker 1:What a life. Hello and welcome to Dead and Kind of Famous, where we dig into the life stories of dead folks who enjoyed a touch or two of fame in their time.
Speaker 2:And now reside permanently in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery.
Speaker 1:I'm Marissa Rivera and I know nothing, but I do know that your daughter's favorite sweet treat is the banana bread. I bake her. It is it very much is um she's obsessed with it.
Speaker 2:She had a monkeys and banana themed birthday this weekend for her second birthday. She did. It was really cute, and she was. That banana bread was a whole activity in and of itself. Someone was eating it, she was interested. You know she wanted your. She was stealing bites. She was stealing bites. She's such a bite stealer.
Speaker 1:Love her.
Speaker 2:Yes, and I'm Courtney Blomquist and I know way too much, but I don't know what don't. I know I don't know, oh, how to send a fucking invitation or to text people from my like computer, and and I think I just don't know how to juggle having this is really what it is. I don't know how to juggle having a child's birthday party, which is actually extremely involved, they party, which is actually extremely involved. Um, any party planning is involved. Yes, with like the rest of my life. Yeah, because I feel like, um, there's like, even if I think I'm doing it right, I'm gonna fuck something up because I have too much going on.
Speaker 2:That's like what's going on yeah, you know she's a mom on the go yeah, but I fucked up somebody's invitation like it didn't go through and I was so it was.
Speaker 1:It was like an apple to android situation computer to apple computer to and you know, it's because it's because apple is apple is the devil. I'm gonna say it, I said it I'm sorry, I said it and I have all apple products I was gonna say I have all.
Speaker 2:Where's your brand loyalty?
Speaker 1:I have listen, they don't. They're not paying to sponsor this. I'll tell you that much true, they're not paying to sponsor this. They've never cast me in one single commercial. You have to buy my loyalty that's fair.
Speaker 2:I'll accept that, okay, okay yeah, it was.
Speaker 1:It's the whole apple android interface war thing that you know. We didn't ask to be a part of that and here we are, pawns.
Speaker 2:Pawns in it and it's true, like it doesn't tell you right away that it doesn't go through. Sometimes it does, but sometimes it's just like, oh, let's just wait long enough for you to not look anymore.
Speaker 1:And for your ADHD to take over and you've moved on to another task.
Speaker 2:It's not even ADHD. I just had to move on to another task. I had to keep going Because she's a mom on the go. That's right, I'm a mom on the go. This is the song that you and Ellen have come up with, this week. Our dear friend Ellen, who also lives in this compound that we have here this compound of friendship.
Speaker 1:Yeah, this cult Speaking of. Yeah, if Vampyra started a cult.
Speaker 2:Oh, I'd join. That would be the easiest cult to join ever. That's so fun. Yeah, I'd follow her right into her grave. I'd snuggle up to her corpse.
Speaker 1:That's right. That's right Into her hot beautiful.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I wonder what her skeleton looks like after she trained her waist like that. You know, it's probably like distorted, probably yeah but anyway, not to be disrespectful, but no, but she knows, god yeah her waist was it's impossible. Do we have a measurement? I think it was 17 inches, that is smaller than my thigh, that's like smaller than? Uh, what's the? The? That was like the gone with the wind measurement, I think, when she's like bragging about her waist, which is, by the way, with the, with the corset right, right, right, but it was like 18 inches, I think, so it's even smaller than that.
Speaker 1:So I just like audibly, like swallowed. Yeah, jesus christ, I can't breathe for you like like seriously, that's bigger than my thigh and I am a 5'2 petite lady. Yeah.
Speaker 2:And honestly we're going to get into it, but she kind of paid a price for all of that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, usually do. Price for skinniness, a price for fame, a price for beauty, a price for beauty.
Speaker 2:Pain is beauty and beauty is pain. But this is our final episode of Mylon Ermey's story and I'm calling it Punk Vampyra, and you shall all see why. You're not going to see why right away. Don't judge me for this title within the first like I don't know 25 minutes of this podcast, because I feel like we're not going to get to the point about that yet. But we will.
Speaker 1:All right Okay.
Speaker 2:All good things come with time. Yes, that's right. So all right. So let's just jump in right to where we left off when we last left you, sophie my mother. Yes, had died um. She, basically that woman I think, worked herself to death I finally had to quit working. Yeah, I finally had to leave my job because my body won't function anymore. And now my body just actually doesn't function anymore. That's what you did.
Speaker 1:You know what I feel that yeah I feel that deeply that you'll work until you die no, but that my body has literally, physically stopped me from working.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, you know that, oh my yeah, and I feel again, I think you're gonna really I don't wanna, I'm gonna I'm just gonna hide it for now. Let's not not jump ahead okay, so two months prior to her death, to sophie's death, myla had appeared on queen for a day, and this is a tv show.
Speaker 2:I actually heard about it on another podcast, okay, um called classy, which is like about classism in the country, or like class as a concept, and Queen for a Day was like an old TV series in the 50s and 60s, I want to say where it was like they would basically have people show up and like talk about how terrible their life was, pretty much to compete for whatever stupid prize that was to be queen for a day, because it's like, oh, look at all these sad people.
Speaker 1:That's pretty much what it was the precursor to reality television.
Speaker 2:Yes day because it's like, oh, look at all these sad people that's pretty much what it was like the precursor to reality television yes, but it was really gross so like well, well, and so is reality yeah, yeah yeah, it's true, but, um, this feels more predatory to me somehow, because it's like you'll get a prize, like I don't know what kind of prize did she get I?
Speaker 1:I don't think she. I think she didn't. She didn't win queen of the day, she was just on. I don't actually.
Speaker 2:I think actually she was not on as a contestant, I think she was just on as, like a featured guest. So I think like cause. I don't have a ton of details about this but yeah she didn't have to like talk about how much her life sucked. I don't so, but Sophie. The point is that Sophie had tagged along for the filming and so for like at one point she got to see Myla on live television.
Speaker 2:So that was like her little thing to kind of take away from it, like she kind of got to see me in character doing my thing, so that made her feel better. But basically, like we also think, yeah, she worked herself to death, but it's also the years of alcohol abuse, um, and her heart really just gave out that series called Playhouse 90.
Speaker 1:The Range, yes, where she earned the under five line rate of 108.50 plus 10%. You know what that 10% is for? Tell us, the 10% is for the agent.
Speaker 2:The agent fee.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so she got to collect that herself.
Speaker 2:She got to just take it. For once it benefited her to not have an agent that's for one one job um I mean it would. It's ten dollars and 85 cents you're right, she got an extra 10 bucks hey hey, don't spend it all in one place, my love.
Speaker 1:Maybe that might have been gas for two months. Uh, I don't think she had a car.
Speaker 2:God damn it, Myla. There's never any mention of this woman having a car.
Speaker 1:That's right, just her like rolling around in what's-his-name's car. Yeah, in the hearse, in the hearse, yes, yes, yes.
Speaker 2:Yes, so also as Vampyra, she emceed a banquet for Jack Benny, like I don't know. She just did little gigs here and there. Yeah, then the woman who claimed to be married to Dink without actually being married.
Speaker 1:I cannot believe we are still talking about this man, about Dink, how?
Speaker 2:He is, so she didn't we're talking. Yeah, there's, you know, Myla, I got to say if you're listening, I feel like so we're there in. Yeah, there's, you know, Mila, I got to say if you're listening.
Speaker 1:I feel like, so we're in, yeah, in the horror heaven and the horror heavens.
Speaker 2:We love you, but also like the reoccurring characters of shit men that just they're, you know, speaking of acting roles and whatnot, their arc is too long. They needed to die in the first episode they were presented. So I'm annoyed, but yeah, anyway, dink is pretty much gone. I'm just bringing them up to say Myla, yes.
Speaker 1:Who had claimed to be married, to Dink this whole time, right?
Speaker 2:Well, not that you know, up until the relationship ended Right, right, right right Without but but she was never actually married to him um, she allegedly did actually marry a man named john brinkley, but it is alleged in the book written by her niece sandra that we are referencing exclusively pretty much she states that they were secretly allegedly married on march 10th 1958.
Speaker 2:But from the sounds of it john could have been a lover, but he also could have been a friend who was convenient to marry for whatever reason what kind of reasons is it convenient to marry? I mean, in that day and age. There could have been a lot more, because I feel like taxes living with someone, even if you just like were trying to share a space, like you couldn't unless you were married at that time like stuff like Stuff, like that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay, it was a different time. Maybe this was like a lavender marriage.
Speaker 2:Something I don't know. Well, there's another one. Yeah Well, I'm jumping ahead of myself.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh, this is so exciting. Oh, I really hope it was a lavender marriage.
Speaker 2:I know we don't know a ton about this guy, but I like a lot of the connections actually. So john was a b movie actor, do you know?
Speaker 1:what do you know what a lavender marriage?
Speaker 2:is yes. Oh yes, I do. Should we talk about it? Let's talk about it. Let's talk about it for a second, because, okay, marissa, you explain. I do know the listeners might not know you're right. You're absolutely right. I would listen back on this and be so annoyed that I didn't explain it.
Speaker 1:So go ahead okay, so a lavender marriage was when a gay man and a straight woman married each other, knowing full well that he was gay and she was straight and there wasn't going to be like anything sexual or anything. But they would kind of have this companionship and all of the protections and good stuff that you could have about marriage and you would basically like marry your bestie, yeah, totally. Why not marry your bestie? And like be like in an open marriage it's like it's very progressive.
Speaker 1:It's very progressive and also just very safe I feel like that's the way to be safe at that. Safety in numbers yes. Safety under the law right exactly so like somebody can suspect something about you.
Speaker 2:Whatever, I'm married I'm married.
Speaker 1:Yeah, what you gonna do about it. Yeah, what you gonna do about it. I have a fancy lavender marriage what you gonna do about it. I'm just very, very uh, fashion conscious and right yeah, so and my wife doesn't pick out my clothes? She sure doesn't, I do it for her, and she and I cuddle all the time platonically on the couch that we share and talk shit about people honestly, we'd make a great lap. Yes, we would. We absolutely would um, okay, so who was john john.
Speaker 2:John was a b-movie actor who had been in several roger corman movies, and roger corman was like you know. If you don't know who he is, he's like a famous John John. John was a B-movie actor who had been in several Roger Corman movies, and Roger Corman was like you know. If you don't know who he is, he's like a famous.
Speaker 1:B-movie director. But I believe, hold on, I want to just fact check myself right here.
Speaker 2:Check it, check it, check it. I believe that Roger Corman was the director, slash, auteur of the original Little Shop of Horrors, like before it became a musical.
Speaker 1:yes, and Jack Nicholson was in it oh, wow so I think he plays one of the patients for the dentist okay, yeah, one of his really really early, early, yeah, yeah, so like so this is, like you know, somewhat legit. I would say yeah, more the most legit man she's ever been with.
Speaker 2:I was the guy who's been in roger corman movies. But the movies he was in were called a bucket of blood and teenage doll and all of this seems very on brand for myla very on brand.
Speaker 2:Yes, um, to have any kind of relationship with him really, because his films seem like films she would have featured on her own show years before. So within a year, milo was engaged again to a man named Carlton Carpenter. She met him at a party, so I'm kind of like I don't know if they got married, I don't know what happened. There's very little trail with this, okay.
Speaker 1:So little to no paper trail yeah.
Speaker 2:All with this. Okay, so little to no paper trail. Yeah, all I know really is that there's an alleged marriage and that's just in this book, and so I don't have much more than that really to back that up I mean if they were married and divorced, there should be a paper trail.
Speaker 2:I'm sure, yeah, maybe they're, I don't know she might have just gotten tired because mile had so many journals and she's like, yes, I'll just read this and I get it. I've just been reading your book and I'm just kind of like, damn, what do I choose to talk about?
Speaker 1:and not because there's a lot Anyway, so. No, you mean Mila, her niece.
Speaker 2:Her niece Sandra. Yes, exactly Like it's right, the book about Mila written by her niece. Within a year, myla was engaged again to a man named Carlton Carpenter. She met him at a party where she was quote champagne drunk and ready to embarrass the friends that brought her there. Myla, writes.
Speaker 1:Now am I going to disgrace them by hanging from the chandelier by my knees again? No, here's an arm, I'll hang from it. Hey, catch my feet, he did. I put my hands on his shoes. We danced upside down, was I? He threw me around like a beanbag. He was a marvelous dancer. I'm Carlton Carpenter, he said. I stepped back a pace and squinted. I saw a tall, skinny silhouette. If you are, it's too good to be true. I said. But I am, then I love you. I've always loved you damn yes what so this?
Speaker 1:is a very whorel whin yes, an upside. Yes, an upside down dance, an upside down dance. So, wow, she's very champagne drunk.
Speaker 2:Yes, so Carlton Carpenter was known for being in MGM musicals and Myla had claimed him as her movie star crush ever since. She'd seen him star in Two Weeks with Love alongside Debbie Reynolds. Oh my god. He performed a song called Abba Dabba Honeymoon, and that's all it took for Myla to be over the moon. Wow. He was her type, skinny with an Adam's apple.
Speaker 1:And now she'd met him in person With a large Adam's apple, with a large, it just sounds like you said skinny with an Adam's apple. It sounds like you're like. He was her type A man. A man, a skinny man he was just a skinny man.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he had a large Adam's apple, and now she'd met him in person and he literally swept her off her feet.
Speaker 1:Literally.
Speaker 2:However, myla refused to give him her number right away when he asked she said Next time we found each other, we love each other.
Speaker 1:Don't be greedy.
Speaker 2:The cheek, the cheek, the confidence. But he didn't call right away until Milo was working her late night shift at her job at an answering service, because apparently that's what she was doing at the start.
Speaker 1:That was her day job. Slash night job yeah.
Speaker 2:Her co-worker at the answering service had a son who was best friends with carlton. So one night he called while she was working and for once the call was actually for myla, but he'd hung up without asking her for a date or asking her for her actual phone number. That's some shit. I would do.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's some, that's a game, that's a little game, that's a oh, or you think it's adhd. I feel like I would have been like had such a good conversation and be like it was so happy, like, oh, I'm reconnected, had such a fun conversation, hung up and been like well shit.
Speaker 2:I missed the whole point of that.
Speaker 1:I missed the whole point of that and I can't call back right away.
Speaker 2:Yeah, now I, I got to play, so I think that that might have been. Maybe that's what was going on, Maybe Because a few weeks later they saw each other at a dinner party and he sweet talked her but still made no offer of a date. He is playing games yes or asked for her phone number. Quit playing games with my heart, Mr Carlton.
Speaker 2:But somehow he acquired it anyway and called to take her out officially. They went to the keyboard club to see one of Carlton's friends sing, because he's a musical theater guy, of course he's got a bunch of friends who can sing and they held hands the whole time. Cuties, yes, a mutual friend was there that night and asked Do I hear wedding bells for you too?
Speaker 1:Carlton asked Myla, are you still with John Brinkley? Myla said no, then there's no reason why we can't.
Speaker 2:And again Myla said no. All she said was no. And yet the next day Myla's engagement was announced in Harrison Carroll's column.
Speaker 1:I don't know what that is.
Speaker 2:I don't either, but he was a popular columnist at the time. Okay, well, it didn't actually say that Carlton would be marrying Myla. It said he'd be marrying Vampyra Cause every single every single thing about her that gets published is like. It's not Myla Nermy, it's Vampyra.
Speaker 1:Like.
Speaker 2:I'm surprised anyone. I don't think most people do know her name, because everyone just thinks at that time. Anyway, nobody even knows that now, but you should by now. You should by now because you're listening to this show. That's right, but they appear to be very much in love In true Los Angeles fashion.
Speaker 1:Carlton hired an astrologer to do their charts and see if they were compatible. Wow.
Speaker 2:I know Wow I know, know.
Speaker 1:It truly has never gone out of fashion.
Speaker 2:It's always been there it's always been so heavy what a heavy part of los angeles culture, I know my, I know god I know. I wonder how much money he spent on it. I wonder what the inflation rate on. That is Probably a lot. They agreed to name their future daughter Clancy Interesting choice.
Speaker 1:That's a cool name, you think so I like it.
Speaker 2:Okay, I think it sounds like an old man.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's kind of why I like it.
Speaker 2:I mean, I would name my cat Clancy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, my cat baby.
Speaker 2:Your cat baby. It's a dog named Clancy. I like a dog named Clancy.
Speaker 1:Oh, you heard it here first, folks. You can take that for your list. I like it. That's a cool name.
Speaker 2:So they were cool, they were with it, they were like we're going to be unique.
Speaker 1:Wow, they like. Oh my God, they're already talking about baby names, baby names.
Speaker 2:Yes, baby names, baby names. Yes, they're in love. He cooked for her. He tried to impress her by taking her to a private screening of his film Fearless Fagin, in which his co-star was a lion Whoa.
Speaker 2:He wanted her to know he was brave yes, but a former friend of Myla's, on whom she'd always had a crush, got in the way. It was Anthony Perkins, myla, anthony Perkins. The way. It was anthony perkins, myla, anthony perkins. The friend who was, uh, norman bates in psycho, that's who that is. Yeah, we brought him up briefly before, but like, yes, she was right friends with him as well, but she did have a crush on him.
Speaker 2:She had a crush yeah, because he's also skinny with a large adam's apple. So she do have a type. She got type because he's also skinny with a L'Arche Adams apple. She do have a type. She got a type. He had become a very good friend to Myla's fiance and now that Myla knew Tony Anthony Perkins was gay, she thought he was trying to steal her man. So she and Carlton got in a fight and she called him a pig and then he responded by no, not homophobia, not homophobia, no.
Speaker 1:But she. Just because someone's gay doesn't mean that they're trying to get with, you know.
Speaker 2:But like I think the thing is. I think it was probably a little friend jealousy too, to be honest, because like he was such a he was kind of like a dick to her. We didn't really get into that that much, but he was just kind of like, oh, he was a dick to her and he got close to his.
Speaker 2:I don't know if he was such a I don't know if he was a dick to her or if she just really didn't know he was gay, and stuff felt like an advance sometimes when it wasn't. You know what I mean.
Speaker 1:Oh, or like she tried. Or she tried to hit on him and yeah, like rebuffed her.
Speaker 2:Yes, and then he would like kind of only be interested in her. He was a little bit of like a fame, you know, didn't, didn't feel like there's anything to talk about unless you like, had a job that felt like it could elevate him and if and he didn't even want to take her places if, like, he felt like it was an important party and stuff like that you know, he was a little, a little gross a little gross.
Speaker 2:So I think she's kind of just doesn't trust him. So I do kind of want to give her the benefit of the doubt.
Speaker 1:Okay, okay, you know, let's give it to her. I don't think she is homophobic. I feel like she's a.
Speaker 2:She's a counterculture queen that's true, that's true.
Speaker 1:Hate she, she screams ally, yes, so I think.
Speaker 2:I think she's just like fuck you, I know you and you're, you got something going on right, because you kind of fucked me over before okay so, um, she thought he was trying to steal her man, so and also like probably him hanging around more when he was kind of like buffing her off for a while and then he's all round, all the time.
Speaker 1:All of a sudden, she's like you know what? What the fuck? Yeah, you know what? Yeah, what the fuck yeah. But she instead of yeah, instead of talking to him about it, she just got she got into a fight with her fiance yeah and called him a pig.
Speaker 2:And then he responded by giving her a case of cat food wrapped up like a present on Christmas morning. And his note read from your friendly neighborhood piglet damn it sounds to me like he was trying to be like. I feel like that sounds like some sort of like attempt at being a cute end to an argument Like oh like look at I can be.
Speaker 1:Yeah, also, she has cat food. Yeah, she has cats, so it's a gift for her. Her beloved cats who we established she.
Speaker 2:She gave up a gig with Liberace to feed To Exactly.
Speaker 1:Yes so.
Speaker 2:So he's feeding them, so he's feeding her beloved. There's a way, there's other ways to look at this, myla. Yeah, that's what we're trying to say.
Speaker 1:Um, so myla was pissed and she writes he was a millionaire and here I was practically starving to death. And for christmas he bought me a case of cat food. The whores get the furs and sports cars. Me I get water pistols, jewelry made from plumbing parts and cat food I want to know who gave her the water?
Speaker 2:I want to know too plumbing parts, because I'm like that's not something you just make up. No, that's very specific very, very, but we have no reference for those things, but my God, those sound like bigger offenses in my opinion. So she wrote him her own note.
Speaker 1:You and I were deliriously happy until Sinbad Perkins her new nickname for Tony cruised himself into your heart and stole you away from me. It's just as well, love. You needed somebody tall. When you speak of me and you will speak of me, you can say that Vampyra is playing nightly with herself at Bailey's.
Speaker 2:Lounge. I think Bailey's Lounge was like their spot, so I don't know if she's trying to. That sounds like a masturbation. I know I don't know, I wouldn't put. It was like their spot, so I don't know if she's trying to. That sounds like a masturbation. I know, I don't know, I wouldn't put it past her.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like it's a double entendre, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:She's always speaking in double entendre.
Speaker 1:To me, that's what it sounds like.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so to hell with love and back to focusing on her career. So how short-lived with this was this were whole wind were home.
Speaker 1:Uh, I would say like six months yeah brutal, yeah, something like that.
Speaker 2:It wasn't that long um.
Speaker 1:So she's focusing back up on her career, but what career?
Speaker 2:oh god. Well, milo was still seeking acting work at this time and still getting some in 1958. She had an unaccredited role in the 1958 film Too Much, too Soon starring Errol Flynn.
Speaker 1:Her line was we're almost out of ham sandwiches.
Speaker 2:Which I love, Love that Perfect. She followed up with some B-movie work for producer Albert Zugsmith. He wanted name recognition, so once again she was billed as Vampyra and not Myla Nurmi. She played a beatnik in his film the Beat Generation and for once you see her performing out of her vampire garb.
Speaker 1:I have a question yeah, what's a beatnik?
Speaker 2:You don't know what a beatnik is. No, it's like in the 50s yeah, in the 50s and maybe early 60s, when people were. It's like the black turtleneck beret, like speaking, like you know, poetry over, yeah, kind of, but like within, with like a drum beat and kind of like feeling your, yeah, it's scatting and that kind of shit, okay, okay.
Speaker 1:And if I'm, if I'm being too, it's like jazz poets.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I feel like I had like a whole album of like I thought you were going to say phase.
Speaker 1:I had a whole phase in high school.
Speaker 2:But no, I it was more like. It was more like I don't know.
Speaker 2:I just had an album of like these old recordings of beatniks and it's kind of it's like, yeah, it's, I don't know, it's it's. It's kind of it's like, yeah, it's, I don't know, it's, it's the jack kerouac time and people you know doing their, doing their, that was their, that was the, the, the open mic of the time. Okay, you know all right, um, so, and if I'm explaining that wrong, somebody comment, tell me that I suck, leave more messages, tell us what's going on. Yes, we see you listening. Say, say something. Okay, if you hear something, say something. Yeah, you're hearing a lot, my God, all right. So she played a beatnik in this film. It was called the Beat Generation and for once, you can see her performing out of her vampire garb In the film. Her hair is blonde and cropped, as it was in her day-to-day life, and she wears a sweater and jeans as she recites a poem with a rat on her shoulder and smokes a cigarette. This is so cool, I know. Wait, hold on, I've got a picture.
Speaker 2:Yes, I've got a picture. I don't think I have a recording, but I do have a picture.
Speaker 1:Oh my God, it's so cool. And hold on the rat. It looks like he's just like perched on her shoulder. It looks like he's singing yeah, he's like the toto of this episode oh my god, the, the, she looks so good and this rat looks so cute. Yeah, and she's just like smoking a cigarette. Yeah, I've got it.
Speaker 2:I've got a whole, all the pictures from everything I gotta post like we're gonna do a whole mile of thing, um, but yes, the the rat does look like. It's like singing on her shoulder, oh, so good, and the smoke is obscuring this. But, um, this is the point in time we're going to talk about it. But, like, her teeth are starting to look a little wonky, like starting from this clip on um this, she's getting their signs of maybe some health whatever way, because from the not eating. Yeah, Like she's malnutrition man is happening.
Speaker 2:So she also played a shopkeeper in the big operator with Mickey Rooney, and then she played a computer lab assistant in an exploitation film called sex kittens Go to college. That also starred bridget bardot's little sister, mija new. Oh, my god, oh. And I said here yeah, she looks emaciated and like her teeth are decaying.
Speaker 1:It's like both of these things like it's like starting to be a thing, oh so.
Speaker 2:Um. Then she had another chance to perform with liberace. I forgot about this until I sang it out.
Speaker 1:No, she had another chance to perform with liberace.
Speaker 2:I forgot about this until I sang it out. She had another chance to perform with Liberace and was booked to appear with him for 16 weeks in London. A dream, yes.
Speaker 1:Your dream, my dream. Yes, including the Liberace part. Yep.
Speaker 2:But just as it was with Broadway, she did not go. No, Myla. I know it's like a second chance that you don't take.
Speaker 2:It's so frustrating to see somebody not take a second chance, like oh, what are you doing? So her niece, sandra Niemi, the author of this book, thinks this was likely because she was beginning to struggle with her health, as we're seeing signs, but the reasons are not actually known. It's sad to know that instead of performing glamorously with liberace in london, she had taken to cleaning the homes of her friends for 99 cents an hour to make ends meet. Oh my god.
Speaker 1:She writes maybe that's what I was meant to be a charwoman like my mother. I am the daughter of Sophia, the Finnish chambermaid, the cleaner of Marlena Dietrich's toilet bowl. Elizabeth's bowl have no ring, they exclaimed in Beverly Hills and Brentwood. Elizabeth was my housecleaning name and it was true no rings. I cleaned the infamous Hollywood whorehouse. It was very popular with the in crowd. A famous band leader, slash actor, married to a top TV redheaded comedian, used to arrive in his limo, have a girl and then go off into the night. He was a $100 customer.
Speaker 2:So I like that. She's like trying to hide Desi Arnaz's.
Speaker 1:I was just going to say that's Desi.
Speaker 2:Arnaz yeah, she's trying to hide his identity in her journal. It's like you can just say it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know.
Speaker 2:I mean it's being published now, of course, but like but we know who she's talking about. We know who you're talking about, you're being very clear. But her ringless toilet bowls were not keeping her afloat. But the ring that came with a marriage of convenience did, for a time Italian actor Another one. Another one Italian actor, fabrizio Mioni, was looking to stay in America to continue his career and needed to be married to do so. See, this is when marriage is convenient.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:Yes, it helps him reach his goals. Myla found out about it from a friend and stepped up to the plate in exchange for a monthly stipend. Okay, Fabrizio said Pay me to be your wife. That's right, that's what I'm talking about. She's like where can I make some money? She was hustling for a long long time, damn so. Um fabrizio said before I married her I was so excited to see what you did with those and you didn't disappoint keep going, keep going.
Speaker 1:Before I married her, I had stop it, stop it, stop it, stop it, stop it, don't look at me, don't look at me. Before I married her, I had to clean her up. She was a mess. I paid for her new clothes and a full beauty salon treatment head to, because I knew there would be press Hire. Marissa for all of your Italian accent work needs.
Speaker 2:That was terrible. It was so bad and I loved every second of it.
Speaker 1:I loved it so much. Oh my God, I loved it. I want to see if I can do better.
Speaker 2:Hold on, no, oh my God, how can you do better than being that bad you guys?
Speaker 1:can't even see it, but I'm doing a gesture with my hand too at the same time.
Speaker 2:Oh, she's got the full Italian hand, it's bad. It's really bad, am I?
Speaker 1:ashamed. Okay, hold on, let me see. Before I married her, I had to clean her up. No, fuck it. No, I can't, I can't, it's gonna. You did it.
Speaker 2:You did it, it was great. I did it. It's done and.
Speaker 1:I'm sorry, I loved it so much. Let's just, let's just keep in mind, guys.
Speaker 2:I thought you were gonna say let's just cut this.
Speaker 1:And I was like no, no, no, just keep in mind audience, please. This is the first time I'm reading this. My context clues are he is fresh off the boat and needing a green card marriage, so do not come for me please, oh my.
Speaker 2:God, I love it. It's a whole show is like doing a prank on you. It's so good anyway. So on june 20th 1961, myla became myla elizabeth mioni that's beautiful. It's kind of beautiful, beautiful and immediately mioni I'm sorry, you're right, I should have deferred to you that's right.
Speaker 1:You should have. Italians are gonna come burn me at this stake. No, no, no I love it.
Speaker 2:So on June 20th 1961 Mila became Mila, elizabeth Mione, that's correct. Keep going, thank you. And immediately after the ceremony both she and Fabrizio went back to their separate homes to live their separate lives. Wow, very lavender marriage-ish Very. But Mila kept the last name Mione for the rest of her life.
Speaker 1:I mean it was cute. It's cute. It's also like and it's Mione for the rest of her life. I mean it was cute.
Speaker 2:It's cute. It's also like and it's Mione, mione, I'm so sorry, you're right. You're right. There was a little hand gesture with that, mione. That's what I missed the first time, mione, there was a hand gesture. There was a hand gesture. I can't talk, oh God.
Speaker 1:God.
Speaker 2:You know the Italian hand gesture? Yeah, they talk with their hands.
Speaker 1:Listen, the Italians and the Puerto Ricans is very close.
Speaker 2:It's very close. Okay, there you go, yeah.
Speaker 1:So it was in me, it was in me, it was in me.
Speaker 2:Oh my God. Myla moved again to a new apartment and regularly filled her home with circus acrobats drugged out painters, hustlers and any other misfits that happened to be around. All right, she had built an unstable, flop house of cards and it was about to collapse, Ay-yi-yi. In 1962, she found out that her father had died. She could not attend the funeral and mourned his death alone, without the consolation of family members or real friends I wonder why she couldn't attend.
Speaker 1:Was she gonna afford to travel there, or uh? I think so yeah, I think she was very broke for a long time and I think this was in this moment.
Speaker 2:I mean, she's cleaning houses for 99 hour. So her stepmother inherited all of her father's money, so that did her no financial favors. And then in 1964 she granted fabrizio mioni a divorce with a final payout of a hundred dollars to her, and then the phony friends disappeared and myla was alone for a while there.
Speaker 1:I thought I was ninas, what I don't know, but you have to say it, I don't know what this is, ninos de.
Speaker 2:Leenclos reincarnate. Let's look it up.
Speaker 1:French.
Speaker 2:Italian Ninon is what it says, so I think she didn't spell it right in her journal, but it's Ninon de Leenclos, I think it might be french and ninon de enclo also spelled yeah, yeah yeah, no was a french author, courtesan and patron of the arts okay, okay, yeah, so I think she had like a salon of sorts. Right, yeah, okay for.
Speaker 1:Okay, for a while there I thought I was Ninon de Lincolne, reincarnate, opened up my wings and let the young chicks nuzzle in my down. Ninon de Lincolne no more. No more actress, no more gypsy. I sit quietly at 40. No more noses under my wing. The down wore away. I sit quietly at 40, no more noses under my wing, the down wore away. In 1953, I went to a masquerade party and the costume I wore stuck to me. I was a professional vampire or something. For 11 years I tried to scrape it off, peel it off, burn it off with acid.
Speaker 2:Finally I gave up trying. Yeah, so sad she was just like this is who I've become.
Speaker 1:I cannot escape it? Yeah, because it's like there's people at this point aren't sticking. She's all alone, yeah, with her character that she created.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it's like it's not, it hasn't served her. It's like feeling like a curse. I think is what I'm hearing from that In 1965, when she had finished a hard day of cleaning houses, she returned home to find a familiar face waiting for her on her stoop. It was Chuck the Fuck Beatles. Another one of these fucking men Dink and Chuck. They're just circling around showing up again.
Speaker 1:They always come back, they always come back, they always circle back around, although he wasn't so familiar looking anymore.
Speaker 2:It had been eight years and he had changed.
Speaker 1:He stunned me. A Republican crew cut killer eyes, fascistic looking. He wore a gray business suit and a wristwatch. He looked like he owned slaughterhouses and he had a car, a red one.
Speaker 2:He said he would love her, protect her and never again abandon her. And she bought it hook line and sinker girl and sinker he's gonna sink you myla, oh my gosh.
Speaker 1:But I mean if you're in dire straits.
Speaker 2:Yeah, she's in a low. He caught her in the right moment.
Speaker 1:Yeah, she caught her in a low and he had all of these things to show her. Oh, yeah, that he had money and she needed it.
Speaker 2:And she needed it and I think it grossed her out, but she also needed it.
Speaker 1:That's what I'm hearing.
Speaker 2:Like ugh, a red car, but also where did you get the money for the car? Hearing like a red car, but also where did you get the money for the car? You know, they reunited and hatched a plan to capitalize on the influx of shops that were popping up around myla's apartment on melrose ave. Her place was on the ground floor and had a large front window, so they decided to turn it into a store by day and living quarters by night. Chuck sold his flashy car to do so, okay, and then he put the money into the business. They were working on it together and for a time Milo was very happy. They called it Sheer Madness, object Deart, which is a terrible business name.
Speaker 2:But the business didn't do well. Surprise, surprise, and Chuck went back to his old shitty ways. He started stealing items from other stores and brazenly wanted to sell them in their own store. Oh my God, what an idiot. Yep. And soon became it. Soon became apparent to Myla that Chuck hadn't changed at all. Actually, he had been stealing for quite some time at this point to support a growing drug habit.
Speaker 1:Again yes, I mean it never stopped.
Speaker 2:Yes, I mean, it never stopped. Yes, he wore his hair conservatively and flashed his expensive stolen watch to make it appear that he'd had money so he would never be suspected, myla said I felt deeply defiled.
Speaker 1:He didn't know me from gutter people. I didn't know how to steal, screw or push dope for a living and I wasn't about to learn. I didn't know how to steal, screw or push dope for a living and I wasn't about to learn Integrity. That's right. She like never Her teeth weren't falling out because of meth people.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's right, let's just say that. Let's just say that, yeah, she had her lines that she would not cross. So she was scared of him and wanted him to leave. So she barricaded herself in the bathroom and refused to come out for days. Uh, he finally flushed his stash down the toilet and agreed to get clean by heading to a place called the church of synanon. Have you heard of synanon?
Speaker 1:no, is this? It's a. Is this a cult? Yes, it's a cult. So now, yeah, if you have a church of scientology and the church of synanon sound oddly similar.
Speaker 2:Every time I hear about it, though, I always think of Cinnabon, and I'm like I would join, just because it sounds like.
Speaker 1:Another cult you would easily get.
Speaker 2:I would easily join All you'd have to do is say it's called Cinnanon and I would say, can I have a Cinnabon then? And they'd say yes, and I'd say, all right, I'll come inside. Yeah, sure, sure, sounds good, smells good in here, smells great, yeah. So it was a cult. They touted themselves as a drug rehab clinic run by former alcoholic Charles Diederich by 1965, it was less of a rehab and more of junkies helping other junkies overcome addictions like that kind of situation. But they also all shaved their heads at one point, were forced into relationships with people.
Speaker 2:You know it's a bigger rabbit hole than we have time for right now. To be frank, um, because this is not his story. It's not his story and also, yeah, like it's just a whole that. That's a whole thing. People do all entire podcasts about synodon, so go listen to them. You can go down the rabbit hole from here. But Chuck went there, so we're saying that and he didn't even stay because he said it was all bullshit and bad vibes and honestly, from everything I've heard, he was probably right, but also from everything I know about Chuck, he couldn't have found a spot he deserved to be at more. Yeah.
Speaker 1:But also for him to say that it was. That means that it was really bad.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was weird. It was a cult. So Myla didn't know what to do when he came back. I don't think she wanted him to come back, but all she knew was that she needed him to be gone. So she simply lied and said the cops are here looking for you, without knowing if he'd actually done anything, but she had a pretty good hunch.
Speaker 1:He immediately panicked and started packing, saying I'm sick, oh, I'm sick. I can't tell you what's wrong, but it's the worst thing that could be.
Speaker 2:Pray for me, and then he drove off.
Speaker 1:He just drove off oh my god, so clearly whatever he did was real fucked, real fuck so he drove off. So you think? What do you think?
Speaker 2:I don't know I really don't know. I mean like if it's a if it's the worst thing when I killed someone is the worst thing I think, I think, kid, kid stuff really. Yes, oh shit, my brain didn't even go there. That, to me, is worse. I'm gonna say something that I feel like I don't know if this is true or not, and I'm sad if it is, but I feel like I don't know how many people got caught for that kind of thing back then oh yeah exactly, but I don't even know how much they prosecuted people for it.
Speaker 2:I don't know. I don't know. I could be wrong. I could be really wrong about that.
Speaker 1:I just I hope you're wrong.
Speaker 2:I really hope I'm right, but I don't, but I believe it I yeah yeah, I it's.
Speaker 2:I mean it's, but that's why I'm kind of like was it in his head? The worst thing, because to me's a selfish piece of shit. So I think the worst thing would be something that's going to put him in jail for a really long time, like selling a kid for drugs Damn or access to kids. You take so many acting classes and you can tell. Like your worst case scenario imagination is very strong. Mine is weekend because I'm trying to protect myself from all the shit that's, you can't think about that you can't think about that shit you think murder, I think I think sex trafficking they're both really bad.
Speaker 2:Something really bad. He did something really bad, so he drove off, he wrote letters, he sent money for a time and then you know, he didn't anymore and that was the end of that. Yet another disappointment in the form of a man.
Speaker 1:At least she didn't marry him.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, for sure, at least she didn't legally. No, no, no If if she even married either one of those guys. I mean, I guess you did marry Fabrizio, like, and then I don't know if we met she married the other don't feel like marriage or marriages don't feel like the worst thing. They don't they weren't the things that are legal marriages. Yeah, yeah, yeah, not the dink marriage was a you know? Yeah, that was a whatever that was like we're, we're, we're married in spirit dumb um.
Speaker 2:So she reopened her shop after he'd left and renamed it vampire's Much better name. But she never reopened her heart. She was 42 and she decided to remain celibate for the rest of her life. From that point on.
Speaker 1:No, you, no you don't.
Speaker 2:Oh, no, girl. And I really do feel like you'll see, in the story she just, it's almost like this is the turning point, like to me, that's like these love sick stories of like you know, she's in these relationships and she's still kind of being young, and then I just feel like she gets old. This is like the part where she just gets old. Yeah, happens real fast In heart, spirit and body, mind and body. Yeah. So, and for a time she'd have to close up her shop as well. Not because of money. It was because Myla was diagnosed with pernicious anemia. She had finally sought the help of a doctor after feeling like her legs were weighed down with lead and she could hardly lift them or walk or get out of bed. And pernicious anemia is basically caused by malnutrition. And Myla had to get regular B12 shots, stay hospitalized in a rehabilitation center for 15 weeks and retrain herself to walk. Damn, she had nothing but time on her hands while she was bedridden, so she wrote poems like this one.
Speaker 1:The patience of Job I must now elicit to keep tidy this bed and try not to piss it.
Speaker 2:So she's done. Is that the hammer? Her teeth, again, were not in a good state from the dearth of nutrition in her life. They were just colored and some of them were even falling out at this point, yikes. As for the pernicious anemia, Sandra Niemi thinks that her condition was indeed caused by malnutrition, but also that displacing her organs by cinching her waist down to nothing probably didn't help her cause.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm going to say that didn't move the needle in the positive direction.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it just moved her organs around, which is something you probably shouldn't do. Yeah, which is what happens during pregnancy, which is so weird. Your organs move around, strange, gross. Yeah, it was not a fun situation, of course, but there was one perk milo was now receiving disability income, so she had regular money coming in that she could rely on.
Speaker 1:Okay, yep all it takes is your teeth falling out, your inability to walk out of this. So she's getting. She's getting some disability check. She's getting some help from the government yeah, as she limps along.
Speaker 2:And so out of this dim period came a bright one and a new alter ego for Milo. Ooh, a reinvention, a reinvention. So we're not Elizabeth the cleaning lady with her ringless toilets anymore. No, now her street, melrose Ave, had become a bustle of outdoor markets and swap meets, and still is a bustle of outdoor markets and swap meets and still is.
Speaker 2:And still is yeah To this day. And Myla joined in as an entirely new version of herself. She was known by other street vendors as Melrose Rose, the curator of crap, with distinction, yes, her brand of crap in particular was thrifted clothes, and vendors and customers alike befriended her. Not for nothing, myla had regulars at her table, regulars like shelly winters. Shelly winters pops up again she's in like every episode. She's our little easter egg. We should like this should be a drinking game if shelly winters shows up in an episode Take a sip.
Speaker 2:And even Carol Burnett. Nice yeah, she was earning money and happier than she'd been in a long time. But the popularity of Melrose Ave had caused rents to spike, of course, of course, and Mila soon had to move over to the less desirable East Hollywood neighborhood, which I think is still less desirable.
Speaker 1:Now, that didn't really. That also hasn't changed, that hasn't changed either?
Speaker 2:yeah, she found a little Mexican restaurant in her new neighborhood and drank coffee there every day. I feel like she was that person.
Speaker 1:She had to find her place for her coffee every day.
Speaker 2:And when the owner of the shop, Hilda Alvarez, finally asked her name, she told her she was Helen Heaven. So another quiet alternate identity was born.
Speaker 1:Yeah, helen, heaven Helen.
Speaker 2:Heaven. I love how she and you just I know she came out with that on the fly.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, I didn't think about that at all. One hundred percent, but she like stuck to it.
Speaker 2:That woman knew her as Helen. Oh my God, yeah, this is like you going into like clothing stores with a british accent. Oh yeah, pretend like coming up with an entire job for yourself. You told me you did that and I wasn't even with you in person. I was so embarrassed first of all.
Speaker 1:first of all, it was when I was waiting tables and super bored I didn't go into other establishments.
Speaker 2:I pictured you like hunting through a clothing rack, just like maybe I have done that I feel like you did, I'm pretty sure that I did. That didn't just come into my mind. You said that.
Speaker 1:Guys, I have an overactive imagination and I get bored very easily, okay, You're just an actor.
Speaker 2:Just call it what it is.
Speaker 1:You're just an actor who's sometimes an annoying actor Sometimes.
Speaker 2:Most of the time, most of the time, myla or Helen and Hilda became friends Cute, yeah, they were friends. She helped her clean up the restaurant for free meals and she watched her children and became like a surrogate grandmother to them.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2:Because English wasn't Hilda's first language, so she could like kind of help.
Speaker 1:Yeah, facilitate.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and for the kids especially like for that part of their schoolwork, and stuff. So she was very helpful to them. That's really sweet.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And Marlon Brando was still in the picture.
Speaker 1:Marlon Brando yeah, he's still there.
Speaker 2:Hilda attests that she saw him come by and drop off checks for Myla. He had wanted to help her with living expenses, but also he was trying to make sure she could defend her intellectual property legally. Wow, because Myla may have been ahead of her time in the creation of Vampyra, but now the public was hungry for a little Vampyra in their lives and the exploitation of her intellectual property had begun, at least in Myla's eyes. She often told Marlon they were quote picking my bones. There was a movie that was released called Old Dracula, with a character named Countess Vampyra, and originally that movie was called Vampyra, but then they were trying to like capitalize on other Dracula popularity. That film was just like a let's like ride the gravy train or some other shit.
Speaker 2:And then the characters like kind of styled after her. They kept the name the same. And then the Addams Family TV show came out around this time and Miley was convinced that the character of Morticia was based more off of Vampyra than Chaz Addams original creation.
Speaker 2:So, and I don't. I've we looked at pictures of that. It's like, yes, there wasn't like a bunch of cleavage and like the voluptuousness in the original comic. She was kind of like emaciated looking. But I don't know, I'm not sure what I think about that one. To be honest, it's weird and I guess part of it is that I think I was familiar with Morticia in my head before being familiar with Vampire. It's just a little backflip my brain is doing on that. I don't know.
Speaker 1:I believe it. 100, you believe it 100.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, myla had tried to alter her vampire getup so as to create something new and different and not rip off charles adams work, but the world of tv knows no such bounds. So they, you know, definitely like they. They definitely ripped off some style notes from her, at the very least. She also felt that Natasha, the spy cartoon from Rocky and Bo. Winkle was based off of her.
Speaker 1:And that.
Speaker 2:Disney had used her likeness in Cruella de Vil. I don't know if I see Cruella de Vil, to be honest.
Speaker 1:I don't think I see that one. No, Just like the cheekbones emaciated thing, yeah, yeah, and like the cheekbones emaciated, yeah, yeah thing.
Speaker 2:and like the cheekbones but I feel like cruella de vil is, like she's myla's, a very beautiful woman. I feel like cruella de vil is like emaciated in an ugly way and like it looks, like her nose is like she had a bad rhinoplasty yeah, it's kind of like a piggy, like a piggy nose, it's like very upturned, but in an ugly way. Yeah, so I don't know if I see that one. And that's a compliment to you, Myla, that's right baby.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so anyway, I can see the rocking boat, but I mean Natasha, did she have?
Speaker 2:red hair.
Speaker 1:No, she had black hair Okay. Yeah, they couldn't even change the hair color. Why do I feel like she had red hair? I think that was red outfit.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, she had black hair. Okay, yeah, I see it, I see it. Yeah, the eyebrows in particular. The eyebrows, the face shape actually and yeah, I see that one, that one's I forgot what she looked like. To be honest with you, that's, that's, that's pretty pretty close. Yeah, she kind of has like 1940s bangs that are different, but other than that, yeah, so interesting, um, yes, but also it's like a weird thing because you know that, like she took some inspiration from something and made something else out of it and like how is that any different?
Speaker 1:right, you know what I mean. So when is it inspiration? When is it? Is it um forgery or whatever stealing, yeah?
Speaker 2:yeah, soon her connection to marlin sputtered out, and so did his funding. What happened, I don't know. I think he just probably got distracted. He seems like that type of person, yeah or he's like onto his busy little either busy or thinking that what did we talk about? Like that, alfred alfred einstein was like talking to him from the grave, like you forgot about this part.
Speaker 2:Yes, I did forget about this, yeah yeah, yeah, he like had a whole thing that he thought he was like telling him stuff from the grave. Okay, bro, yeah, so I think he just you know, yeah, a little distracted sometimes okay mile had no bed, no furniture except for plastic chairs and no electricity.
Speaker 1:What.
Speaker 2:So she was truly living in poverty. I mean, marlon Brando the money he was giving her was going towards her phone bill, okay, and so she just didn't have a phone after he stopped giving her money.
Speaker 1:Oh, come on. So he couldn't even reach her.
Speaker 2:But she still had no bed. No bed, I know, I mean maybe it's like a mattress at least, but they don't even say that, I don't know. So she, um, still had cachet to some. You know, in the late 70s and early 80s, punks were coming out of the woodwork and this is punk vampire.
Speaker 2:This is punk vampire. We're coming, we're coming, um. So in the late 70s and early 80s, punks were coming out of the woodwork and myla admired their free-spiritedness and their artistry. A punk musician named tomata duplenty was the front man. Yep, he was the front man for a band called the screamers and he met myla in a parking lot in the neighborhood they both lived in and instantly befriended her. Okay, his punk ethos and artistic mindset resonated with Myla in every way. Tamada and his other musician friends checked on Myla regularly, made sure she had food and became a pseudo-family to her.
Speaker 1:Isn't that cute. It was like he was the mother hen, yeah, and she was the duckling.
Speaker 2:I think that's really really sweet to be like. I'm like this counterculture or whatever, but I'm seeing this like woman. Who this old lady?
Speaker 1:who needs help.
Speaker 2:But not even just that. Like he's, like he gets along with her, like they share wit, like it said you know? They like they had similarities and but he just took care of her and but he just took care of her. He saw somebody like that he really liked, who needed taking care of you know you gotta take care of the neighborhood freak yeah, for sure, and I love that because I think, yeah, he's like I'm a neighborhood freak too let's take care of each other.
Speaker 2:Her bud, jack simmons, had moved to long beach with his partner phil, but he still came around at times to call on myla, like generally, pretty regularly, actually like once or twice a month. But sometimes she didn't even let him in. She was such an ass to Jack Simmons, which is funny, but he just kept coming, good friend. So generally her life became small, isolated and quiet. But new interest in her re-emerged when a book called the Golden Turkey Awards by Harry Medved named the Ed Wood film Plan 9 from Outer Space as the worst movie of all time. This resulted in some buzz and a screening of the film at the Vista Theater. Capitalizing on the moment, myla sold Vampyra t-shirts and sold them at the screening. Hell yeah, girl, get it. Guests included Diane Keaton and Warren Beatty, and that screening proved to be the first time Myla actually watched the movie herself. It had been 24 years. She didn't give a fuck, she's just like all right.
Speaker 1:I love that. Yeah, I never saw this movie.
Speaker 2:here's a t-shirt, yeah I will profit off my likeness. Thank you very much thank you so much. Um, so she wore the t-shirts she made, sometimes with her face on them, and she went from hiding behind her alter egos like her ringless toilet, elizabeth and hell in heaven and Melrose Rose, to owning her vampire image again.
Speaker 1:All right, full circle yeah.
Speaker 2:She did a short film called Bungalow Invader as a version of Vampyra and was paid 350 for her efforts. Okay, then in 1981 an article came out in the los angeles magazine about the film, describing it as a silly romp through the many rooms of a hollywood bungalow, using many windows, much screaming and burning candelabras.
Speaker 1:Honestly her brand. Yeah, sounds great, sounds great yeah. It sounds like she was perfectly cast yeah.
Speaker 2:No, I think that they they were like. At this point people were knowing who she was, even just from that movie.
Speaker 1:So they're like all right yeah let's make something around you.
Speaker 2:That's kind of what I feel like happened with that tv. Walt baker read the article and set out on a quest to find myla. She wasn't easy to find yeah, she didn't have a phone. She didn't have a phone, but eventually she got the message that he wanted to meet with her and 25 years after leaving the station, myla walked back in. Wow, so this is the one where, like she made the like bad snake rape joke.
Speaker 1:oh, yes, yes, and got slowly canceled. Yes, basically.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and then now she's back there, wow.
Speaker 1:Because they were looking for her.
Speaker 2:They wanted to do the horror host concept again and Walt wanted Myla to play Vampyra's mother. Oh, God. Yep, to which Myla responded no.
Speaker 1:I'm afraid I couldn't do that. Vampyra was born magically. She has no mother. Perfect answer. Beautiful yeah.
Speaker 2:She's like. I have written her backstory and it is 300 pages long, if you would like to see it. Myla suggested that she play other characters on the show from time to time, citing the Carol Burnett show as inspiration, but it's kind of like how she just lived through the world as an annoying actor.
Speaker 1:Much like me, much like.
Speaker 2:Marissa, but she said she could find a girl to play Vampyra and train her Interesting yes. When Walt asked how she'd find her, Myla suggested she would do a contest and choose someone who was innately self-absorbed yet intelligent with a great sense of timing, beautiful. Yes, she demanded six weeks to train the girl. You know minimum. She wanted the after minimum for any time that she was asked to appear on the show as characters.
Speaker 1:After was the union at the time Right right, so she wanted union. Union rates baby.
Speaker 2:And she wanted $400 for each episode for the use of her character Vampyra.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:Yes, but then this is where I feel like she was a little flawed in coming up with this plan. Okay, personally, and you can tell me if I'm wrong, but she said that she would pay the new host out of this $400. No, yeah, oh my love Like why would you no? No, let them pay the new host, let's just.
Speaker 1:How did they even agree to this?
Speaker 2:She's not, this is just her. This is her brainstorming, coming up with what would be good for her. Okay, because she can't do that.
Speaker 1:She's not her employer. Yeah, it's weird. That was a weird one.
Speaker 2:All right, so this did not happen. No, that didn't happen. Okay, she also wanted to write the scripts. Waltz wanted the show to air twice a weekend on Saturday at 6 and on Sunday at 4, which are like primetime spots.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And Milo was told she would be an associate writer and producer.
Speaker 1:So she was really hopeful.
Speaker 2:That sounds good yeah, this sounds like like really kind of too good to be true. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So they had plans to have a contest, to be judged by Myla and the producers, where each girl would do their own costume and makeup and then do an on air audition. Whoa yeah, but then they decided not to have a contest and to do an audition instead okay.
Speaker 1:Well, what is an audition but a contest?
Speaker 2:it's very true. I mean, like it's more just like, are you airing it or not?
Speaker 1:and I guess they're like we won't air it. We won't air it because how are they probably just got into like so much red tape? Yeah, and also yeah, yeah, it doesn.
Speaker 2:Also it sounds boring because you'd listen to the same people say the same thing over and over again, because that's really what an audition is yeah. But then they decided not to have a contest and to do an audition instead. But Myla was told she could still be present for the auditions. She was also told that they really did need her to be present as the new vampire's mother on the episodes, and on that point myla actually compromised, okay she said okay, fine, she's born magically.
Speaker 2:But fine, fine, and she's, but she. Her compromise was that she would be um on the phone, that she wouldn't appear, she would just be on the phone as a voice. Oh cute.
Speaker 1:That's what she said.
Speaker 2:I like that she's like, yeah, I could be, because in her head she's probably like I am her magical mother, who is actually made of stardust and sand and and the ashes of the evil.
Speaker 1:The evil, yeah, the evil, and I have figured out how to use the phone.
Speaker 2:How to use the phone. How to use the phone Exactly. I'm speaking through the phone. I feel like there's some sort of Twilight episode about like a ghost calling. Yeah, I love that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm here for it.
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm, but, but None of that actually played out. What actually happened was they brought Myla in and told her they'd found the girl. Okay, she went there. Whatever, whatever audition happened, she was not there for it and her name was Cassandra Peterson. But the kicker was that they had promised Cassandra Vampyra merchandising rights as part of her contract.
Speaker 1:No, which is a pretty big slap in the face.
Speaker 2:They even went over Myla's head on conceptualizing the costume and creating and writing the script. And now they wanted Myla to sign all of this into being, and Myla refused and in doing so she invalidated the entire contract.
Speaker 1:That's right, and Walt Baker told her if you don't sign it within 24 hours, we'll go with another format.
Speaker 2:Now he has eight chins and I wasn't picturing him that way before I am now. Myla said go fuck yourself and walked out.
Speaker 1:That's right.
Speaker 2:Baker denied in an article in Fangoria magazine stupid that Myla would have never been allowed to audition and train the new horror hostess. He said all he wanted for Myla were the rights to use the character Vampyra. Since she didn't allow him to have them, in the end he came up with a new name for the character and that name was Elvira. Oh Yep. So now this is where this comes in, and it pained Myla greatly to see the success that came from that show.
Speaker 1:She wrote in her journal Now, as I count pennies for each can of tomato soup, the world has come to believe that the world Vampyra is in the dictionary, that it is the female word for the male vampire. They believe that Vampyra herself is in public domain and lift my product. This is America. Where, then, is the pauper's attorney?
Speaker 2:She tried to speak out, but it was hard without any money. She put flyers on cars about this. She even wrote a line in the personal ads of the newspaper that read All who resent Elvira's brazen thievery write to Vampyra.
Speaker 1:723 North Heliotrope. I know where that is, do you? It's in a shitty part of town.
Speaker 2:Okay, heliotrope, so it's still shitty. It's still shitty. I just I think it's funny that she's like complaining all the time, though about like everyone's trying to find me, and now she's like this is my address.
Speaker 1:That's right. Write me if you're as outraged as I am. Find me.
Speaker 2:Myla hated her with a passion and said that Elvira acted like a stripper in a basement of an Elks Club, whatever that means? What does that mean? I don't know. She wrote a letter that was published in an issue of LA Weekly signed Vampyra. It read Dear.
Speaker 1:Editor Three jeers To laugh out loud when alone is, psychologists declare a sign of madness. Knowing this, I was nonetheless guffawing aloud some supremely un-vampire-like guffaws, as I rollicked through the best of the worst and lo fathom my delight to come upon while, in this sublime state, your selection of the most disappointing cleavage state. Your selection of the most disappointing cleavage, elvira interrupts. The dark mistress of the mediocre, now jubilant. As well as rollicking, I hastily poison-panned an ode to this same odious vampyra. You darling, you guessed it.
Speaker 1:Some bad blood lies between those lovely vampire ladies. Sincerely and hatefully, your abhorring fan. Beach balls made of silicone. Sneering, drowning, monotone Of such things. The maid is fashioned, then of smugness. Adidasioned things. The maid is fashioned, then of smugness. Add a dash end. Watch the silly slattern slut pull her punches, preen and strut for vampires' private ingrates. Satan's puppet proudly gyrates. And what will new tomorrows bring? More of this? Disgusting thing. Deeper necklines, disgusting thing, deeper necklines, pubic hair, don't you wish that you were there? The above is my literary opinion. Print it if you like. I take full responsibility. Let her try to touch my Transylvania bank account, signed Vampyra. I love it, damn I love that they printed it.
Speaker 2:I love it, daryl. I love that they printed it. They printed it. She's basically like look, I'm just going to use the power of my pen, because at this point it's all about revenge for her, not even the money.
Speaker 2:In this one I mean it is, but it's not, but it is, but it's not, but it is, but it is, yeah. So Myla became depressed and practically suicidal after all of this. She locked herself in her apartment and she wouldn't come out until some punk singers in a group called the misfits came to pay her oh, just the misfits yeah, whoa.
Speaker 2:They were releasing their very first lp withinyl Fetish Records. So on brand all of it, wow. And they had written a song on it called Vampyra for her. Oh yeah, and they wanted Myla to attend their record deal signing. So she was touched and obliged putting on her whole getup for the event. Oh, wow, yeah. She soon became a grandmother to the punup for the event. Oh, wow, yeah. She soon became a grandmother to the punks in the neighborhood and their desire to challenge the world with their art made them kindred spirits. And Tamada DiPlenty, who we already knew, was looking out for her. He came around many times, like we said, to make sure Milo was fed and that her spirits were lifted, and he arranged for her to make money doing a series of monologues as a new character, honey Gulper, at a place called the Anti Club. Honey's backstory.
Speaker 1:This is Milo's latest character.
Speaker 2:Please give it to us. Honey's backstory was that she had come to Los Angeles from Arkansas with big dreams but had had many unfortunate cosmetic surgeries and now is just stuck with her memories.
Speaker 1:That's really funny.
Speaker 2:Yeah. That's really really funny and the monologues apparently got really good reviews from LA Weekly, LA Reader and Los Angeles Times.
Speaker 1:Well, and the Times, yes, Wow.
Speaker 2:So she's really, yeah, like still still making headlines you know, and she also expressed herself artistically with yet another punk band called satan's cheerleaders. They asked her to perform some songs with them on their album. She didn't sing so much as proselytize, performing the sermon from a discarded flyer over their music. The songs were called I'm Damned and Genocide Utopia and according to one band member, the record turned out to be Our Louie Louie, which I think is just like it was like our hit.
Speaker 2:Wow, so I feel like I kind of want to play a part of this. Okay, so let's do Genocide, utopia, that's her. This sounds. This rings true for today. She's just reading a flyer. She's like just reading a flyer love it. Oh Lord, holy and true, Last thou not done and avenge our blood on them. It's really cool.
Speaker 2:I feel like that's so cool and at that point in time, Okay, so she was born in like the 20s, so then that would be 30. 60s she's in her 60s at this point, so she's like yeah, cool.
Speaker 1:She's doing this in her 60s is pretty, pretty rad. That's so punk it is.
Speaker 2:It's awesome rock and I love that like they were courting her all of these people to do stuff with them. Yeah, so it's just they they really respected. I think she was early counterculture and they're like oh, 100 percent, yeah they're like we're current counter culture and like bow down respect yeah, do anything with us like it's such a a boon right so we see you, you see, see us yeah, so I think that that's really, really rad.
Speaker 2:Um, really cool thing she did. But milo was still at this point in time, licking her wounds from the alvira situation. So she finally got the gumption to put together a lawsuit. She claimed that the series had used her identity, character and sets without obtaining her permission. The red velvet couch was the same on both shows. The low cut, tattered black dress was the same, the voluptuous figure candelabras.
Speaker 1:I mean everything. The. The name was barely not.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was very thinly veiled yeah, um, on the first day of filming actually of the show and she had like documentation of this because she had like the yes, original she had the receipts. Yeah, and on the first day of filming the show was still called the vampire show, because they hadn't come up with a new name yet.
Speaker 2:Oh my god so it's like but the judge and I'm like glossing over some of this legality stuff, but the judge did not rule in myla's favor. No, he did not. According to him, a likeness is an actual representation of a person, not a close resemblance, which was basically the argument that the lawyers on the other side made, and he bought into it. That's.
Speaker 2:That's so dumb yeah, so that just allowed them to steal from her yeah, and he hinted that myla could still sue for trademark infringement, but she was too wounded and distrustful at this point and broke to attempt that. Uh, so she continued to just lead a quiet life. Um, she fuck that, I know it.
Speaker 1:It really fucking sucks, you know, oh, that makes me so mad that to in, to be able to get justice, a lot of the time you have to have money. Yeah, no, you do, you really do you really do. Yeah, it's so frustrating it's really stupid.
Speaker 2:I'm so sad for her I know mad and sad for her.
Speaker 1:I know justice for myla.
Speaker 2:Justice for myla, justice for vampyra yeah and yeah, I don't know, I'm not sure. It's weird, like I don't know what to think about alvira after all of this because it's like part of it is like studio execs and stuff, but it's just like also, I don't know it's, it's icky she's implicated for sure um, and she's the one taking all the money, like good lord so myla.
Speaker 2:You know she's leading her quiet life. She had dogs now rather than cats. She reconnected with her niece, sandra a bit um, I didn't talk about this part, but she like when she hung out with them for the first time, like her 13 year old grandniece came, like sandra's daughter, and she was being like kind of like a little brat because they were like going thrifting for school clothes and she was like, oh, I don't want this, I want to go to the mall.
Speaker 2:And she was like you're a little bitch and she just like punk to the end she's like you're a little bit, but in the end, myla died alone in her apartment, sitting in a plastic chair in her underwear. Her pants that she'd taken off to hand wash were draped over a chair beside her and her tiny TV was on. Her dog was hungry. Her neighbor, hilda, is the person who found her, and after her death, the vampire intellectual property that she had defended so fiercely was snatched up by the first person who could grab it, and her family doesn't make any money off of it. So even though she defended it so much through her life, she didn't really set it up into a will or something that would exist after her life ended, so it just was. It sucks because it was like all for naught. Yeah, you know, jeez, but money was pulled together by the people who loved her to make sure she found her final resting place at Hollywood forever. That's why we're talking about her now.
Speaker 2:I'm crying. Resting place at Hollywood forever. That's why we're talking about her now. And it's really sad. I'm actually really crying, yeah, it's really sad, um, and she lies there now for all to come and visit, and I yeah, I was getting emotional right in the end of this too, because you know, we always suggest an offering for people and I think you should go see myla if you have a chance. Go see her. Go sit by her. Her, her grave is the kind that we always get the grave terms wrong again somebody write in and tell me what, what, that, what I'm saying.
Speaker 2:That's wrong because I never look it up in real time. But, like the kind that are flat, get the grave terms wrong. Again, somebody write in and tell me what I'm saying. That's wrong because I never look it up in real time.
Speaker 2:But like the kind that are flat on the ground. Right is the kind of grave she has, so it's like you can go sit right there with her. You can just sit right there, smoke a joint, you know, like she used to do with her graveyard buddies back in the day with James Dean and Jack Simmons.
Speaker 2:Crack a joke about being a grave robber from outer space. You know, go go talk to her. That's what I feel you should do Just go sit and talk to her and tell her that you appreciate what she did and what she created, because I think that that's the best thing that we could all leave her, because it's just like some company and some thanks yeah, and some thanks, because she worked really hard to create in her life and also just like made her life all about creating things and she didn't get.
Speaker 2:She got like really beaten up about it a lot and she created things people wanted and that's what sucks. It's like she did have that ability, yeah and it. It just never benefited her and she was. She suffered a lot, you know. But I think like, truly like when you were asking about this before, because you're like where does she end up? What happens, whatever? A couple episodes back, it's like she is somebody who I feel like she never lost her artist perspective ever, ever and and it's like she still did have respect from it.
Speaker 2:I love the punks in this story. I love the punks in this story so much for being, for never letting her forget that she was an artist and making sure for never letting her forget that she was a punk yeah, that she was a punk, that she was respected and that she was an artist and that she, that people wanted to see her.
Speaker 2:You know because hear her yeah, and I think that that, like that's beautiful to me. I just like I love that. I love every part of that. But what's hitting you the most, marissa? Because you are, you're getting emotional. I'm really tired.
Speaker 1:It's very late it's very late, but you know, it's just like. I feel like she just got taken advantage of her whole life yeah like personally, through her art, and like I said this like a few episodes back, but I was like where, through her art, and like I said this like a few episodes back, but I was like where, where are her? Where are her female friends? You know what I mean?
Speaker 2:Yeah, there was one friend I didn't mention Cause it was like a blip that I almost did just because I wanted to bring it up, but like it was like after she got out of the rehabilitation center, a friend who like like they drove to like vegas together and stuff and so like it was like like trying to, you know, but it was somebody from her um, like cheesecake modeling days, you know like a long ago friend but that's nice, you know, like yeah but they still weren't the people who were like consistently there?
Speaker 1:right, right. It's just like oh, I don't know it makes it makes me so mad and when I get really, really mad, I cry and I'm so mad on her behalf yeah, and I just it also.
Speaker 2:Just, you know it doesn't. I think the saddest thing is like she just didn't have anything. She didn't have anything. She had like plastic chairs in her apartment. Yeah, and she died in that plastic chair. I hate that. I hate that for her. She deserved to die on a red velvet couch with smoke all around it and a bunch of like and a bunch of candelabras and a bunch of candelabras and like, and, and you know, like just the most gothic elegance all around her.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I hope that that's where you are right now, myla, I really do. I hope that you are surrounded by all of the gothic elegance that you deserve and I hope that you have an audience who gives you a standing O every day, every night.
Speaker 1:And every night. Yeah, every day, uh-huh, every, every night and every night, yeah in your lounging, in your, in your velvet fainting couch? Yes, exactly giving us all hell that's right.
Speaker 2:So I don't know. Cheers to the woman who got away with making an orgasm joke night after night on television in the freaking mid 50s jeez that's crazy, that's that in and of itself is a life accomplishment yeah, you know yeah so, myla, we love you we love you so much we're gonna have to go, we're gonna go do a visit soon, we're due for a visit to go sit with her and and do that because mad respect, I just think like to me, like this is, this would be a revolutionary woman today.
Speaker 1:Yes, absolutely, yeah, absolutely. So, she, it was like she some points, you know.
Speaker 2:And because it's like you could have easily bent in any of these areas and she might have profited more from it, and because that's how this town works and it sucks and I feel like she wasn't. You know, she's too pure of an artist for that kind of game and so it wasn't gonna work for her, but like when you're a performer, like what else do you do? So, god, yeah, rough out there.
Speaker 1:It's rough out there, and it's always been rough out there in these hollywood streets.
Speaker 2:Yep, yep, but thank you, myla, for paving the way for all of the goths out here, for the glamorous goths and ghouls in this world, because we know you were mother. We know, we know, yeah, we know, and now so many more people know. So, yeah, write us honestly, write us some like dedications. I think that's a good idea.
Speaker 1:Why don't you guys?
Speaker 2:write us some dedications that we can read for um when we go visit vampire yeah, because we haven't done it yet. So if you have anything you want to say to her, any notes, anything you want us to you know to to you know to gift, or any ideas for that, please leave comments. Um, in our uh apple podcast, let us know what you think of the show too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and we will gladly, gladly go do that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, for sure. So please do that, and then we'll film it so you guys can see it.
Speaker 1:And dress up.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yes, we're going to be so gothed out. I love it. Marissa's really good at doing makeup, actually, so that would be pretty sick.
Speaker 1:Dead and Kind of Famous is written, researched and produced by Courtney Blomquist. It is co -hosted by Marissa Rivera. We tag team on socials. Jesse Russell and Courtney Blomquist do our editing.
Speaker 2:If we piqued your curiosity and you enjoyed the show, please leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts and follow us. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. We love you. Love you to bits, until next time. Remember, you may not be famous, but you got a story to tell.
Speaker 1:And you ain't said yes, bye you.
