Elvira's Movie Macabre

Peterson dressed as Elvira at the 2006 San Francisco Gay Pride parade

In the late spring of 1981, six years after the death of Larry Vincent (who starred as Sinister Seymour, the host of a local Los Angeles weekend horror show called Fright Night), show producers began the task of bringing the show back. Deciding to use a female host, producers asked 1950s horror hostess Maila Nurmi to revive The Vampira Show. Nurmi worked on the project, helping recreate the sets as they were and the long misty corridor, created scripts in the flavor of those of her 1950s show, and even agreed to her creative intellectual property being used. However, she knew 30 years had passed since she first started playing the character of Vampira and felt she was too old to still play the character herself. Nurmi only agreed to go forward if she could find and tutor the right actress herself. Nurmi had final approval to cast and personally train her as part of their contract agreement, but she had difficulty finding the right actress to be the new Vampira. Producers were getting impatient, and the station sent out a casting call behind Nurmi's back, effectively breaking their own agreement. Peterson auditioned against other horror hostess hopefuls and won the role. She and her best friend, Robert Redding, came up with the sexy punk/Vampira variant of the original Vampira dress.

The day of the first taping, producers were still using the name Vampira. Nurmi got word about what they were up to from a friend that worked at the studio and had the producers and Peterson delivered a cease and desist letter from Nurmi about mid-day. They broke early for a long lunch and basically the only thing they changed before coming back from their lunch break was the name of the character / show. The sets (similar to Vampira's 1950s originals), show format, even the scripts stayed nearly exactly the same. Rumors persist producers rejected a suggestion from Peterson to change the character to look look like Sharon Tate in The Fearless Vampire Killers but no credible proof has ever been shown to bolster this. Except for the omission of Vampira's pet spider Rollo, yet another holdover from the original 1950s show (but one too on the nose to get away with legally had they tried to keep it), the only thing that was changed was the name of the character and the way she was played. The song Valley Girl by Moon Unit Zappa was very trendy and popular at the time, so that type of stereotypical character would be much less likely to have adverse legal repercussions. Besides the similarities in the format and costumes, Elvira's closing line for each show, wishing her audience "Unpleasant dreams", was notably similar to Vampira's: "Bad dreams, darlings..." uttered as she walked off down a long misty corridor. Right before the court case, Nurmi's lawyer, abruptly quit the case without giving a reason, keeping all evidence and case paperwork that had been collected and prepared. With no way to get to the court house in downtown Los Angeles from Hollywood (Nurmi did not drive and her lawyer was to supply transportation to court), Nurmi was unable to make it to the courthouse on time. The judge in the case had no other recourse than to issue a default judgment in favor of Peterson and the producers. So, though urban legend has been perpetuated over the years that it was only about the color of a dress, a wig, and a similar shtick, the case was more specific. Since they were unable to continue with the Vampira name, Elvira was used instead. What followed was Elvira's Movie Macabre, featuring a Valley-girl-type character named Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, with heavily applied, pancake-horror make-up and a towering black beehive wig.

The Elvira character rapidly gained notoriety with her tight-fitting, low-cut black gown which showed ample cleavage (after all, Vampira had only been broadcast locally back in the day and Elvira was syndicated much wider). The movies featured on Elvira's Movie Macabre were always B-grade (or lower). Elvira reclined on a red Victorian couch, introducing and often interrupting the movie to lampoon the actors, the script, and the editing. Adopting the flippant tone of a California "Valley girl", she brought a satirical, sarcastic edge to her commentary. She reveled in dropping risqué double entendres and making frequent jokes about her display of cleavage, which was after all most of a not very bright bimbo's personality. In an AOL Entertainment News interview, Peterson said, "I figured out that Elvira is me when I was a teenager. She's a spastic girl. I just say what I feel and people seem to enjoy it." Her campy humor, sex appeal, and good-natured self-mockery made her popular with late night movie viewers, and her popularity soared.

Elvira was a frequent guest on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and other talk shows. She also produced a long-running series of Halloween-themed television commercials for Coors Light Beer and Mug Root Beer (her trademark cleavage was concealed for the Coors campaign). She appeared in guest roles on television dramas such as CHiPs, The Fall Guy and Fantasy Island and appeared on numerous awards shows as a presenter. Although she is known primarily as Elvira, Peterson has made out-of-costume appearances as herself for television interviews and specials.

In 1982, with the success of Movie Macabre, Knott's Theme Parks hired Elvira to replace Seymour as the host of its annual Halloween Haunt during October. Elvira appeared nightly at the park, live on stage with a Halloween-themed musical comedy revue similar to her Mamma's Boys act from the 1970s.

The Elvira character rapidly evolved from obscure cult figure to a lucrative brand name and "Mistress of all Media", spawning many products throughout the 1980s and 1990s, including Halloween costumes, comic books,[1][2] action figures, trading cards, pinball machines, Halloween decor, model kits, calendars, perfume and dolls. She has appeared on the cover of Femme Fatales magazine five times. Her popularity reached its zenith with the release of the feature film Elvira, Mistress of the Dark (co-written by Peterson) (1988).

• List of films in the public domain in the United States
• List of Cinema Insomnia episodes
• List of Mystery Science Theater 3000 episodes

• Movie Macabre at IMDb
• Elvira's Movie Macabre at IMDb
• 13 Nights of Elvira at IMDb
• Elvira's 40th Anniversary, Very Scary, Very Special Special at IMDb
• Elvira's Movie Macabre E1 Entertainment releases via TVShowsOnDVD.com