{"product_id":"vampira-isbn-9781593765439","title":"Vampira","description":"\u003cb\u003eThis whip-smart piece of pop culture details the life of the cult horror figure, as well as the much wider story of 1950s America, its treatment of women and sex, and a fascinating swath of Hollywood history.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eVampira\u003c\/i\u003e, Poole gives us the eclectic life of the dancer, stripper, actress, and artist Maila Nurmi, who would reinvent herself as Vampira during the backdrop of 1950s America, an era of both chilling conformity and the nascent rumblings of the countercultural response that led from the Beats and free jazz to the stirring of the LGBT movement and the hardcore punk scene in the bohemian enclave along Melrose Avenue.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA veteran of the New York stage and late nights at Hollywood's hipster hangouts, Nurmi would eventually be linked to Elvis, Orson Welles, and James Dean, as well as stylist and photographer Rudi Gernreich, founder of the Mattachine Society and designer of the thong. Thanks to rumors of a romance between Vampira and James Dean, his tragic death inspired the circulation of stories that she had cursed him and, better yet, had access to his dead body for use in her dark arts.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn Poole's expert hands, \u003ci\u003eVampira\u003c\/i\u003e is more than the story of a highly creative artist continually reinventing herself, but a parable of the runaway housewife bursting the bounds of our straight-laced conventions with an exuberant display of camp, sex, and creative individuality that owed something to the morbid \u003ci\u003eNew Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e cartoons of Charles Addams, the evil queen from Disney's \u003ci\u003eSnow White\u003c\/i\u003e, and the popular, underground bondage magazine \u003ci\u003eBizarre\u003c\/i\u003e, and forward to the staged excesses of Madonna and Lady Gaga. \u003ci\u003eVampira\u003c\/i\u003e is a wildly compelling tour through a forgotten piece of pop cultural history, one with both cultish and literary merit, sure to capture the imagination of Vampira fans new and old.\"W. Scott Poole has written a fascinating and illuminating socio-sexual history of the last half decade of American Pop Culture . . . W. Scott Poole explores deftly and accurately the history and the politics of both feminism and 'the outsider,' the parts of America pushed to the curb but yearning for acceptance, love, and financial success, the 'new and shiny' promise of the (supposed) post war era. Poole has done a great job in bringing such a variety of disparate pieces into a singular whole, and this book should be bought and read by anyone interested in the unspoken history of Hollywood, and the darker story of our culture.\" —\u003ci\u003eThe Examiner\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Poole is as concerned with the larger social changes afoot in mid-century America and uses the Vampira narrative to approach the second half of the 20th century from a fresh, and new thought-provoking perspective . . . [\u003ci\u003eVampira\u003c\/i\u003e] provides an interesting and singular window into a time in the nation's past that can hardly be over-examined, especially as so many of the battles described are still being fought and it can often seem as if some of the hard-won gains of the era are slowly being given up.\" —\u003ci\u003eCharleston City Paper\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"This pioneering book is a tribute to the change that Vampira incited and the awakening that so many unknowingly received from her presence.\" —\u003ci\u003eSanta Fe New Mexican, Pasatiempo\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Poole goes to great, and effective, lengths to identify the attempts at social engineering that fostered specious notions of maleness and femaleness in the name of governmental control and selling the American dream. But the most impressive thing (besides his impeccably researched historical insight) is his understanding of Nurmi and her character in that context.\" —\u003ci\u003eDelirium Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Finally, Poole lovingly gives Vampira her due.\" —\u003ci\u003eBooklist\u003c\/i\u003e, starred review\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Pop culture critic Poole sure knows a monster when he sees one. He continues his macrocultural exegesis in this microquasibiography and cultural (especially the 1950s) explication of TV's first and most revelatory horror host . . . This stone-cold winner belongs in every American studies collection.\" —\u003ci\u003eLibrary Review\u003c\/i\u003e, starred review\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Scott Poole has the chops, the Hollywood savvy, and the horror genre's insider smarts to write a killer book on Vampira. I'll be first in line to grab a copy.\" —Jonathan Maberry, multiple Bram Stoker Award winner and \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003ebestselling author of \u003ci\u003eAssassin's Code\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eDust \u0026amp; Decay\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Horror hostess, bondage goddess, Charles Addams cartoon comes to life, Vampira was every first-generation fanboy's wet dream. Scott Poole takes us on an unforgettable ride through the overlapping underworlds of B\u0026amp;D magazines, Hollywood noir, and early political liberation movements that inspired actress Maila Nurmi to challenge a postwar culture bent on stifling women's choices, bodies, and desires. This book is a subversive masterpiece.\" —Sheri Holman, author of \u003ci\u003eWitches on the Road Tonight\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe Dress Lodger\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"W. Scott Poole's last book, \u003ci\u003eMonsters in America\u003c\/i\u003e, was a dazzling work of cultural history: smart, funny, subversive and wildly entertaining. He showed a special gift for playfully saying serious things. His new book is even more wonderful. The life of Maila Nurmi, better known as the late-night TV hostess Vampira, is a great, strange story in itself, but also allows Poole to explore our attitudes about sex, death, fear, and difference. 'The Lady of Horror' was famous in the 1950s, but she is a remarkable symbol who connects backward to Poe and forward to Goth. She is as American as the Statue of Liberty.\" —Christopher Bram, author of \u003ci\u003eGods and Monsters\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eEminent Outlaws: The Gay Writers Who Changed America\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Vampira is up there with Vincent Price for lovers of the macabre, an icon whose shadow and influence lingers long after death. She's not only important to modern children of the night for being the first TV horror host, but as the original 'Glamour Ghoul'; whose style has inspired generations of Goth Girls to adopt the sexy undead look as their own. But there is more to her story than her ability to look good screaming, and Scott Poole, whose writing on the dark side of popular culture has proven to be some of the smartest, sassiest com-mentary on American society around, is the man to tell it.\" —Liisa Ladouceur, author of \u003ci\u003eEncyclopedia Gothica\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"An expert critic of pop culture, W. Scott Poole is one of the finest historians of all that is wicked, salacious, and sexy in America. Poole's previous award-winning books on monsters and the devil in movies, comic books, and television have revolutionized how we think about evil and culture. Now with \u003ci\u003eVampira\u003c\/i\u003e, he plans to wow us again. By looking into the life and times of Maila Nurmi, the former stripper turned television's dark goddess of sex and death, Poole unveils a new side of midcentury America, the 'American century'; in which we too often forget the steamy, scary, and sensational.\" —Edward J. Blum author of \u003ci\u003eReforging the White Republic\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe Color of Christ: The Son of God and the Saga of Race in America\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Scott Poole is, in my view, the finest (certainly the wittiest and most crafty) scholar working in this area and by far the most persuasive. Vampira represents a way to talk about fifties culture, especially about the political and moral pressures exerted then and what costs ensued. Scott Poole has shown how brilliantly he can unearth cultural fears and desires, both dangerous and heartbreaking, by analyzing what passed itself off as entertainment.\" —James R. Kincaid, Aerol Arnold Professor of English at USC and author of \u003ci\u003eErotic Innocence\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eAnnoying the Victorians\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003eW. Scott Poole\u003c\/b\u003e, who teaches at the College of Charleston, has written widely about American history, horror, and pop culture, including most recently in his award-winning history, \u003ci\u003e Monsters in America \u003c\/i\u003e, which received the John G. Cawelti prize from the Popular Culture Association and was named among the \"Best of the Best\" by the AAUP for 2011. \u003ci\u003e Monsters \u003c\/i\u003e received nominations for the Bram Stoker and the fan-sourced Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Awards. Poole is a regular contributor to \u003ci\u003e Popmatters \u003c\/i\u003e and his work has appeared in the \u003ci\u003e Huffington Post \u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003e Religions Dispatches \u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003e Killing the Buddha \u003c\/i\u003e. He has been a guest speaker at Authors@Google and has collaborated on films for the History Channel, PBS, and, most recently, the Banger Films project, \u003ci\u003e Satan: The Movie \u003c\/i\u003e. He blogs at his website, monstersinamerica.com.","brand":"Soft Skull","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46302873223397,"sku":"NP9781593765439","price":16.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9781593765439.jpg?v=1767743368","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/vampira-isbn-9781593765439","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}