ABOUT THIS MONTHS COVER...

OCTOBER 2008: "Rebel’s Out With A Coors"

by

Sid Terror

For this months cover I deviated slightly from my usual bill of fare. That is because it is much more personal to me.

For October we’re featuring Maila Nurmi aka VAMPIRA, who was a close personal friend of mine for many decades. But it isn’t the Vampira that people would expect, in fact I can imagine Maila herself would say about this photo "No, that isn’t Vampira at all, though it could possibly be a distant relative of hers". This witch variation of her Vampira persona was a costume that she wore at a private Halloween party in 1956 that as far as I know there are only two photographs that exist of. So if you ever wondered what Vampira dressed up like for Halloween, now the question is answered.

What about the FRANKENSTEIN’S MONSTER on our cover you ask? You may not recognize him from this photo, but it is none other than Maila’s best friend in real life, actor James Dean. You say you never knew the actor had portrayed Doctor F’s Monster? Well this is an ultra rare shot of him in a high school stage production from the days before he was a star! Yes, America’s first teenage rebel and the star of REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE (hence the punny title of this cover "Rebels Out With A Coors") was fully capable of truthfully saying "I WAS A TEENAGE FRANKENSTEIN" too!

Anyone who ever thought his and Maila’s friendship was a odd mix and wondered why they were best friends need look no further than this picture of the teenage Dean. Deep down, he a horror film fanatic and was one of us. In fact, Maila once confided in me that James Dean had once made a uncredited appearance on THE VAMPIRA SHOW. He was however under contract to Warner Bros. at the time and the studios forbid their contract stars from appearing on television, so he appeared with the back of his head to the camera. Those horror movie loving rebels.

I knew that I had to use this photo of Dean, but it is a rarity that is the only known photo of him as the monster. Slightly out of focus and of poor quality, it took a lot of work to get it to look this good. It was also only a head shot and I had to graft his head onto a photo of Glen Strange from ABBOTT & COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN, if you were wondering.

Now, the reasons that this cover is so personal to me... Well, like I said, Maila was a dear longtime friend of mine. To me she was the Queen Of Halloween and we spent a lot of Halloweens (and other holidays) together. Since her death early this year, this will be the first Halloween I’ve spent without her. In a way, I guess this is my own little way of spending another Halloween with her, even if it is only by proxy.

James Dean had been an inspiration to a lot of the early rock and rollers that started the genre... Elvis, Gene Vincent, Eddie Cochran, Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, etc. and those are also a lot of the people that inspired me. I also identified a lot with Dean when I was growing up and still do.

Maila missed James a lot after his fatal car accident in 1955. She would talk about him often. No, they weren’t romantic, there was a deep and special friendship there that transcended a romantic relationship. Maila would often say that I reminded her a lot of James Dean and that our friendship was the closest thing she’d had to her friendship with him. That meant a lot.

I realized that when the Witch photos of Maila were taken, it was the first Halloween she had actively celebrated since James Dean’s death... She had taken the year he died off, still too broken up about his loss. I find it interesting that in the only other photo I’ve seen of her in the witch costume, she is with another close friend, Jack Simmons, who is in a costume some might find of questionable taste... What Dean would have looked like had he survived his fatal car crash and was still in bandages. I’ve included that photo here...

Maila was spending one more Halloween with Dean, even if it was by proxy, in the same way I’m spending one more Halloween with her now, if only by proxy. But then again we’re all the type to celebrate HALLOWEEN 365 days a year aren’t we. She was definitely one of the people who helped me form that concept with which I wrote the song HALLOWEEN 365.

I thought this would be the perfect cover for the October issue for a lot of reasons. James Dean died on September 30^th, the day before October. Maila Nurmi is buried at Hollywood Forever cemetery in Hollywood California, the location of the largest DAY OF THE DEAD celebration in Los Angeles on November 1^st, the day after Halloween. That bookends the month of October quite well if you ask me.

This year, I’ll be there at Maila’s graveside at Hollywood Forever, celebrating and remembering her on the evening of The Day Of The Dead festival on November 1^st . You are all invited to join me and all of the other Horror Drunx in the Los Angeles area that will be attending. Let’s celebrate our first lady of horror together. See you there.

"My name is Sid Terror and I am a Horror Drunx!"

Sid Terror

October 1, 2008