Little known VAMPIRA facts...

• The actress who played Vampira was Maila Nurmi.

• Vampira hosted a horror tv show for KABC-TV in 1954.

• She owned a boutique in Hollywood.

• Maila sued Cassandra Peterson for stealing her persona... do you know who Cassandra is?

• Was fired by Mae West from the cast of West's 1944 Broadway play "Catherine Was Great," because West feared she was being upstaged.

• The idea for the Vampira character was born in 1953 at Lester Horton's annual "Bal Caribe" Masquerade in Hollywood at which Nurmi wore a costume based on the ghoul woman in Charles Addams' New Yorker cartoon strip.

• At the same time Vampira was hosting her weekly fright fest of monster & horror movies, "Zacherley," an East coast counterpart was running amok on late night television in 1950s New York City.

• Born on December 21st, 1921, Maila died in her sleep on January 10, 2008, at the age of 86.