Elvira Pt.3 - Elvira Everywhere All at Once

Ready to meet the Queen of Halloween? We've got Cassandra Peterson, the unforgettable face behind Elvira, joining us for an exhilarating journey through her career, dodging hobos in New York, unanticipated one-night stands, and a regrettable nude shot that she was promised would never go public. Trust us, the tales from her early life are as fascinating as they are wild! 

Brace yourselves as we delve into the evolution of Elvira, from a rumored topless pose for Tom Waits’ album to the iconic vampire look that's loved by all. Did you know the name 'Elvira' was actually chosen from a hat? Or that Cassandra's life took an unexpected turn when her name appeared in the show credits? Get ready to unravel these intriguing stories, and more, about her illustrious career. Listen in as we chat about her friendship with the legendary Vincent Price, the ground-breaking 3D TV broadcast, and how her Elvira role gave her a Superman/Clark Kent-like anonymity. 

Our journey doesn't end there! Discover the legal battles Cassandra faced over accusations of character theft from Vampira, and the whopping $35,000 her manager had to fork over for legal fees. We'll also dive into the world of Large Marge, the fan fiction surrounding her character, and the eerie implications of her demise. So, sit tight and join us for this rollercoaster ride through Cassandra Peterson's career as Elvira, the highs and lows, the victories and challenges. It’s a journey full of fascinating tidbits, surprising revelations, and a few hearty laughs!

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Transcript

Shaun: 0:13

Elvira, Part 3. And now we finally get to the part of Cassandra's life where she begins her iconic role as the Queen of Halloween. In 76, Tom Waits releases the album Small Change. On the cover in the background is a topless woman. Legend is that's Cassandra Peterson. Cassandra actually doesn't really think that's her because she does not remember doing that job. However, she also admits it was the 70s and she was doing a lot of modeling work and she was high or drunk a lot of time. So maybe she just forgot. If you see the picture of the album, it kind of does look like her in the background, but also it's not like it's a real high res photo. So, uh, that's the Tom Waits album Small Change no thanks for saying that, because that was just giggling.

Nate: 0:52

It Okay, well, it's not like. Okay, so she is topless, but it's, it's not like. Uh, well, yeah, I guess you can see. I mean, I thought she was like straight up looking like, looking straight at her, but yeah, it's like side boob, yeah, yeah.

Shaun: 1:08

Whether that's Cassandra Peterson or not, we'll never know. I guess Lost the time.

Nate: 1:14

Yeah, it's like you, I totally believe it. The whole thing. Like she didn't remember, because hell you interviews John Cleese like hey, you remember making Um holy grail? He's like no.

Shaun: 1:24

Yep, yeah, I've seen those interviews Tuesdays Like dude, that was like 40, 50 years ago. No, we don't.

Nate: 1:29

Like it's like the only reason I remember his kids it's, it's, it's fucking holy grail. You know, everyone knows what it is Right. It's like I can't remember anything about it.

Shaun: 1:36

The movie a lot of actors are like that, you guys from by the part, and they're like oh god, I don't know, dude, that was a while ago. Sometimes even like right after the roll ends because they're just done with it.

Nate: 1:45

Yeah, I mean, if they do things like me, like even with my work, I mean I know I'm not exactly acting, but they'll be like, oh, did you do this? I'm like, look, I got the email, I did the thing and then I moved on. Yeah, I don't, I don't know my name. If my, if my name's on it, Then yeah, I did it.

Shaun: 2:02

So 1977, mama's boys run ends. Cassandra decides to stay in the area to see if she can end land acting gigs in new york. To get by, she managed to get a job at the espresso bar at fiorucci, a luxury clothing store in new york. There she got to meet, among others, andy warhol, lauren bacall, jackie o nazis, truman capote and another drag queen legend, jody arias, whom she became fast friends with. Side story of Cassandra's. Well, she was living in new york shoes, waiting for the train at 2 am. Suddenly she hears loud panting behind her. She turns around to find a hobo jerking off into a rabbit fur coat Lovely.

Nate: 2:42

Okay, yeah, like side notes, if yep, but I have to let the people know.

Shaun: 2:49

This situation, as well as new york being expensive and not landing an acting gig by now in the big apple, cousins could send her to move back to la, where she got a job at the playboy modeling agency.

Nate: 2:58

Okay, now it makes sense why I told this story.

Shaun: 3:04

Partly yes, partly no. It kind of has part of the story, but also I mean It'd be kind of gross, just and also. You're just behind you're.

Nate: 3:12

What? Uh? Yeah, it's one of the things that inspires her to move the leave to you.

Shaun: 3:16

It is yeah, when she saw that happening, she just literally threw off her coat and was like screw this, I'm walking home. Probably left a very happy hobo there to finish in her coat too. Was it her coat? Yeah, her, uh, no, her rabbit fur coat her. She was wearing at the time.

Nate: 3:31

Okay, that makes me more sense. I thought it was just some rad like Just told me about a hobo like over the quarter with his own rabbit coat Just jerking off and do it like okay.

Shaun: 3:40

Jerk off to her rabbit fur coat.

Nate: 3:42

There you go there. Okay, yeah, it's all. It's all come together.

Shaun: 3:46

And first you're like, wow, what a judgmental bitch. Let that poor hobo man jack off and do his rabbit fur coat if he wants. He's obviously had a rough time. Yeah, where's the?

Nate: 3:55

guy, oh his room? No, I think so.

Shaun: 4:00

He just builds a bunch of cardboard boxes. That's my masteratorium over there. I'm sorry it is. Anyways, she's got a job at the playboy playboy modeling agency. Now, this had very little to do with the actual nude magazine company it was the same company, but this was more about working conventions and doing entry-level modeling jobs Like posing next cars or dishwashers and the such she did. However, through this managed to land a job being a body double for her hero and margaret in a poster shoot for the movie the twist, which I keep on saying the twister. Oh, and also working a movie convention for this gig. She also met john void and then the two made eyes for a moment and then john sat shade over and said I'm gonna make love to you, woman, gonna lay you down by the fire. And that's exactly what he did. They went on a date and made sweet love on a bare skin rug in front of a fireplace. No regret, she said great night, that was it for those two though.

Shaun: 4:57

No, no regrets. However, it was around this time she made her biggest professional regret. Hard up for money, she agreed to do nude shots for a couple who swore up and down that the pictures would never see the light of day. First fully nude pictures she ever let, taken over two. She had no problem with topless shots, but at that point she drew the line at showing pubic hair. However, she really needed that 500 bucks and agreed this would be a bummer because Came out of fire. Those photos were everywhere and since she agreed to them, nothing she could do about it.

Nate: 5:26

Yeah, that sucks.

Shaun: 5:27

Yeah, she also got a job being rachel welch's assistant during a movie shoot. Cassandra said rachel wasn't super nice to her during this shoot, always sending her on uh erins that seemed pointless or impossible, like finding fruit that wasn't in season or magazines that may or may not exist. It wasn't until after it was over she learned that rachel's horny slut of a husband was on set trying to bang everything in sight, so rachel was sitting all the hotgals away on missions to keep him away from them.

Nate: 5:52

Kind of makes sense, fair enough, yeah, right, yeah, she was in that fact she's like uh, I get it.

Shaun: 5:56

Now it apparently she like met the horny french june. He was literally just like a horny dog, trying to get on everything.

Nate: 6:01

Yeah, okay, fair. You know what Okay I was? I was having opinions about her that almost immediately changed.

Shaun: 6:06

Yeah, yeah yeah, that was kind of my thought. Reading to was like, well, that's kind of a bitch. Oh, okay, I can see Her career wheel still spinning and unable to get traction. She then decides to join the popular comedy improv troupe, the groundlings, to learn the secrets to the art of improvisational comedy. And in case you're wondering what that secret is, the secret is never say no, always say yes, and or not only that, but it keeps the comedy story going. And nothing kills improv comedy faster than saying no. There, I saved you improv lessons.

Nate: 6:33

There's a lot of people get to start the groundlings. I knew that was like that, sound familiar. But, man, the groundlings is a when she was there.

Shaun: 6:41

She would actually work alongside phil hartman, tress mcneal and paul rubens and even for a brief moment, john love. It's at the start of his run, I believe this is also where paul rubens would hone his peewee character and even peewee's playhouse was actually started the groundlings. When they do their performances one would say do like a little peewee herman show or peewee's playhouse. Cassandra's character she would mainly work on was a valley girl, the hot, dumb kind of vapid valley girl, and this would actually kind of be the precursor televira in a way. Oh yeah, during this paul rubens also had a character called jay longtoe, a tiptoe dancing, chain-smoking native american, which that sounds kind of problematic if you're to try to do that nowadays.

Nate: 7:19

Oh yeah, If he wasn't actually native american he which he's not. Yeah, that, no, no, no, no.

Shaun: 7:29

Yeah, uh, I feel kind of bad even just laugh. Yeah, yeah, oh, yeah, totally. I mean, I kind of want to see, because it might actually be funny. I don't know.

Nate: 7:37

I mean horribly racist. Yes, maybe, but nothing will ever like tap fucking the uh indian from a short circuit. So, like he got away with the native american, get no shit.

Shaun: 7:53

Because there was like two movies featuring around some white guy dressed as an indian, indian so this is also where kassadro meet lifelong friend john paragon, who had essentially become her writer for the alvira character and also her movies and other stuff. He was also one of the groundlings members and, yeah, if you look up the rest of the groundlings, yeah, there are some big names to come out there. In fact, uh, the jody arias, the drag queen we mentioned earlier, was one of the very early groundling members. So working for the groundlings did also get her a bit rolled in cheech and chong's next movie which, uh, I guess that included a lot of groundlings members. I guess, uh, cheech maron, when everyone's like, hey, I want to hire a bunch of you guys for this movie, nice, yeah, she also got wee tiny bits and stuff like the sony and share show, tony orlando and don happy days, etc. Etc. Commercials, this that the usual little tiny 70s little bit spot stuff.

Shaun: 8:44

We are now at the end of the 1970s. Along with all the other side work she's doing she's still working part-time at don kershner's rock concert. When john cougar rolls through the set he's not important, but one of his crew is a man named mark. He and kassandra would fall in love and he would become her manager and eventually husband and they would become husband and wife and he would also be father to her only child During their honeymoon. Cassandra gets a call from her friend. It turns out the local TV station KHJ Channel 9 is looking for an all-new late-night horror host and the casting director had seen Cassandra at the groundlings and thinks she'd be perfect for it. What's a horror movie host? Cassandra asked Yep. She had no idea what the job actually was when she heard about it and initially she had no interest in doing the audition because she was kind of burned out on doing tons of auditions and they were going nowhere.

Nate: 9:34

I mean not to be a dick, but I'd assume it's in the name. I mean it's not, it's a, You're hosting horror movies.

Shaun: 9:44

She was also kind of like not in the mood to apply for or uh, audition for stuff because she was kind of depressed because she had just lost the audition for her dream part as Ginger and Gilgames Island reboot. So she basically was just like they're all going to be dead ends. I should just give up my acting career. Her friend repeatedly bugged her about it because the auditions were going nowhere for the TV station. So finally Cassandra said fine, I will go over and do the audition.

Shaun: 10:09

When Cassandra first showed up for the audition, to her horror she realized everyone there was in full costume Lots of skimpy vampire outfits and tight cat suits and the such.

Shaun: 10:17

Cassandra looked way out of place and it was too late to change clothes, so the best she could do was quick makeup touch up to help out. Then she looked at the script they were going to have her read and it was godawful, like some of the most hacky, corny jokes from the fifties you had ever heard. Just, it was apparently just bad. Thankfully she was last to be seen that day, so she had plenty of time to punch up the script and add her own jokes and flair to it. And she says this was probably the most important step she did towards getting that job because they the jokes she wrote in apparently went over really well. They left her audition and gave her this job on the spot, which was most fortuitous as her thirtieth birthday was a couple months away and she had previously decided I'm not acting full time by 30, I'm going to give up trying to act. She also says in hindsight that that's a stupid thing to do and does not recommend that to any aspiring people.

Nate: 11:03

Yeah, put an artificial deadline like that. I mean, if you're going to stop, you know, okay, fine, you know it's whatever. But if you're, you know, put an artificial deadline like that. It's because if you're still hungry to go, but also you're like, no, I gotta stop. Yeah, you're right, it's just not good.

Shaun: 11:18

The station wanted to put Cassandra in the role of the daughter of Vampira, another horror movie host from the fifties, who is played by Myla Nourmi who, oddly enough, like Cassandra, was also a showgirl model and celebrity groupie.

Shaun: 11:30

apparently, cassandra got to be like I was saying, like she's a vampire and you're like well, yep, because they're originally going to have her be the daughter of Vampira and be her own little kind of thing where it's just like hey, you know, I'm a vampire lady, so, and so we'll see why it didn't become a vampire lady in just a moment. But Cassandra did get a meat vampire, or Myla, I guess that's how you pronounce her name. Well, there are hammering out the details of the show, and mainly she remembers about Vampira being mostly toothless at Pastor Prime and rambling about stuff that didn't make sense and also talking about James Dean in a way that made it sound like the two were dating, despite James Dean being dead for a while. Wow, yeah, she was like she kind of all over the place and yeah, apparently it was really into James Dean and her dating is like what the hell's going on? I do you guys just clear it to bring her from the home? Yeah, right, that's kind of what it sounded like.

Shaun: 12:24

In order to help figure out the characters, looks and mannerisms, Cassandra went and got the dudes who ran the show, mama's Boys, and they they helped her hammer out the act, the character and the costumes too. But their first actual concept wasn't going to be the vampire looking chick. Their first concept was Cassandra wearing a pink, pale, tattered gown with a dead girl makeup, sort of like a zombie prom queen, and the TV station hated it. They're just like no, no, no, all black outfit. We're going with the vampire look. So they agreed and brought back version 2.0, aka the outfit we all know and love black polyester dress designed to hide the remains of her childhood scars, and a dagger attached to the waist to hold the belt together. Honestly, I never noticed the dagger before this, but apparently that's like one of her signature looks is the little dagger at our belt.

Nate: 13:07

I think it says more about you than I mean, I never saw a dagger either, but, as I've said before earlier, the boob guy, you can't. You look at her, eventually see the rest of her. But yeah, it's not. Let's just say the first thing you look at all virus not like, oh look, there's a dagger at her waist.

Shaun: 13:25

The studio loved this new look. They only had one recommendation Make the slit for the leg a little longer or a little higher. And we are good. So all right, yeah, fair enough. First day on set, mere moments before start filming, someone runs on the sentences shut it all down for the day. Vampire is suing us. We can't use that name. The vampire actress decided the last minute she didn't like Cassandra for the role and she kind of want to put her own actress in the spot, not herself, but somebody else that she had handpicked. And so she decided hey, I'm not going to let them use my name for the show. I'm pulling my name and I'm going to sue them if they try to use the name. So the crew decided to use the most scientific method of the time for picking a new name pulling a name out of a hat. Everyone picked a name, wrote it down and tossed it in the hat. Cassandra's contribution was the name Cassandra and her book. She's like. That was stupid. I don't know why I did that.

Nate: 14:16

Well, my quit. Like I know you just said that she was kind of old or whatever. But like the show is not dependent on you, it's like it's more just like oh hey, here's a cool idea. What if you know she has ties to this? You know other character, but the show can work just fine without that character. If you're going to make it difficult for them, then why would they like okay, fuck you, then we'll do something else.

Shaun: 14:39

Yeah Right, they'll just cut you off because, literally, it was just the name that they're trying to carry over. Yeah.

Nate: 14:45

And that's exactly what happened. Like you shuffle the stars and then you missed.

Shaun: 14:49

Yeah, the name that got pulled out of the hat was actually Elvira Yay, a name that was probably put in there because the Oak Ridge Boys had just released that song Elvira a little bit earlier. So in case you're ever wondering, that song Elvira by the Oak Ridge Boys is not about Elvira Mistress of the Dark. In fact, the Oak Ridge Boys weren't even the first people to do that song. It was originally from 1966 by Dallas Frazier. It was also covered by Kenny Rogers at one point too. Oh, yeah.

Shaun: 15:17

September 1981, an Elvira's movie macabre debuts. Their first movie was 1972's Mark of the Vampire apparently a snooze fest. The show airs midnight on Saturday and replays Sunday afternoon as an alternative football, because apparently that station wasn't rich enough to carry football at the time. So, building up to the show, cassandra had been telling all her friends about it and telling them to tune in and watch and let her know what they think. And as soon as the show ends her first show the phone starts ringing off the hook. At first it's her friends calling to congratulate her on an awesome job, and then next up are some agents that she's never heard of, asking if she's gotten aged or not. And then soon a bunch of calls from pervy dudes with pervy questions starts calling like you know, how does your hair smell and are those breasts real? She then realizes that, oh yeah, my name's in the credits and my name's in the phone book. That's where all these weird calls are coming from. Maybe I shouldn't have my name in the phone book anymore.

Shaun: 16:09

Yep People saw her name as the credits right afterwards and were like I'm going to call that number, yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's the way it was back in the day.

Nate: 16:20

Yeah, the 20,. You know the 70s, what was it 70s?

Shaun: 16:24

We are 1981 right now.

Nate: 16:26

Okay, it was like, yeah, especially the 80s, I mean just 70s, 80s. I was before like, dude, don't dox yourself. Yeah, yeah, fair enough. It's not like the internet wasn't that damn, but, like you said, phone books.

Shaun: 16:41

Yep, they had your address in there too. You could just look in the phone book and drive up to somebody's house sometimes. Oh wow, I forgot about that.

Nate: 16:47

You're right.

Shaun: 16:47

Oh yeah, it's actually like 1234 FAKE STREET. That's right where they live and here's their phone number. Enjoy stalking people, stalkers Paradise. Yep, I remember that song from Bakulio Elvira was a hit. People couldn't get enough of her and soon the appearance offer started coming in. She exploded with joy the first time she was offered $100 to show up at a mall and sign autographs. A whole $100 just to show up and sign autographs for a few hours, nate, she was ecstatic.

Nate: 17:16

Well, also $100 is a 1980 movie Money.

Shaun: 17:19

Oh yeah, oh yeah, I'd be ecstatic if somebody offered me $100 to sign my name a few times right now. Honestly, yeah, fair enough. Apparently, though, that her first appearance for the signing was kind of a bummer, because she got food poisoning beforehand, so it was kind of a slog to get through. Oh, that sucks, yeah, but she was like I'm going to make this because I have to. This is my chance, sir, husband slash manager, a musician wrote the theme song to the show, and Cassandra brought in John Paragon from the groundlings to help write the jokes, and so, yeah, john Paragon from the groundlings, he did most of the comedy writing for the show. Uh, him and Cassandra. One thing that was a bummer about this job, though, was watching the movies. For the show, cassandra and John had to squeeze into a tiny little room with a TV sized projector screen. Someone in a different room would turn on a projector, and the two would have to sit there and watch the movie all in one sitting, because they had no pause or no rewind.

Shaun: 18:11

So, in order to, yeah, so in order to get all the info they need, sometimes they'd have to watch movies four or five times in a row, which is not great when you're watching what's considered some of the worst movies out there. Yeah, that sucks. Yeah, apparently, like by the fourth showing, they're kind of like waking each other up and be like huh, huh, huh, huh, like real life. Mr Science of the Year 2000.

Nate: 18:29

Yep.

Shaun: 18:31

Cassandra's poor eyesight we talked about earlier also became an issue because she couldn't wear glasses, because it didn't look good for the outfit, and also that made she couldn't really read the cue cards very well either, which led to some pretty painful early shows to record. However, on the recommendation of actor Idiom McClurrigan, robert Wagner, she got Radio Karaatotomy, the precursor to Lasik, successful and now she could do the role without having to put contacts in and be very uncomfortable with contacts.

Shaun: 19:01

Apparently the worst part about the contacts too is because of her long eyelashes and stuff. Putting them in would like damage the eyelashes and sometimes getting you know mascara stuck in her eyes. Yeah yeah, apparently it was just not easy to do the contact.

Nate: 19:15

Well, even laser eye surgery is risky. I mean, I had a friend, yeah, especially in 1982. Yeah, well, I had a friend that she got hers done and she has halos so she can't really drive at night because, yeah, she could walk around without glasses, but she drives at night. She gets halos running any light source.

Shaun: 19:32

Yeah.

Nate: 19:33

So it's like man, that would you know.

Shaun: 19:35

So yeah, she's not a bullet. Yeah, I got a coworker too who got Lasik and yeah, he doesn't have to wear glasses, but he says night driving is not easy because everything's just like really bright and just ring Mm. Hmm, yeah, I don't know if it's actually halos he sees, but he's just like, yeah, night driving is not cool. Eventually, the show is doing well enough that they're able to get some guest stars on the show. So Aaron Arseneo Hall, paul Rubins, john Astin and, more happily, appeared on the show for little or no money, just because seemed like a fun time. Yeah, I mean, it was a local show. Was it national? Yep, it was just completely local down there in Southern LA at this point. Yeah, so that makes sense.

Nate: 20:09

I mean, you get it, you know, because it get a little bit of money. It's like, okay, hey, I'm a celebrity. Here's a local show from this. Actually, this woman who's fairly popular for this cheesy show, why not? Yeah, it would only help your career. Yeah, exactly it. Either nothing will happen or it'll help they really, unless you go on there and start like, I don't know, yelling, race is shit. Actually, you know what the ages might have helped, but yeah, yeah, it's still. It's not going to hurt you to show up and do something like that.

Shaun: 20:42

The biggest guest star of all for Cassandra was the time they got Vincent Price on the show for a Halloween special. That's awesome.

Shaun: 20:49

Yeah, for the Halloween special. They were like, hey, this is actually early on too, we should invite Vincent Price to what happens. I mean, they actually assumed it was not going to happen, that this is like a Hail Mary on their part, but luckily for them, Vincent Price was doing a one man show about the life of Oscar Wilde and appeared to agree to appear on the show, as long as you could plug the play he was doing. And that's the secret. Right there too, you want a celebrity on your show slash podcast. Make sure they're selling something or, you know, releasing a book or doing a tour like that.

Nate: 21:15

So you let them hawk their properties.

Shaun: 21:17

They'll probably happily be on your show. And just don't be a dick to the celebrity either.

Nate: 21:23

Absolutely. Yeah, vincent Price, I mean, I mean I would assume he's, especially because I mean look, it's Vincent Price, he's, he's absolutely been involved. Some cheesy ass, oh yeah, horror stuff. I mean it's like, um, like Christopher Lee. I was like, oh man, you know, christopher Lee, he's this, you know highfalutin actor. Then you're like, oh, wait time out, take a look at his career. Like he's, he's done some giant pie, wild turds with a smile on his face.

Shaun: 21:53

So yeah, you know in fact, we're going to actually talk about that a little bit later. Oh yeah, very briefly, not that long, so don't get too excited.

Nate: 22:02

We're just been an hour on nothing.

Shaun: 22:04

But Cassandra and Vincent would become friends during this time and Vincent would even teach Cassandra how to cook fish in her dishwash in her dishwasher. Apparently, vincent Price has a few cookbooks out. I looked up some reviews because like I wonder if they're any good, and a lot of them are. Like I mean, they're good for the time, which was the mid 60s. So, yeah, probably probably a lot of aspect dishes and stuff. Here have your gelatinized fish.

Shaun: 22:30

Yeah, fun Cassandra fact she says her second dream job after Elvira would be a professional driver, a stunt driver. She says she's loves driving and is good at it. So there you go. Another fun fact Awesome, 1982 rolls around and for this year's holiday special they decided to go 3D. In fact, this was actually when the very first TV stations to broadcast something in 3D. Naturally, since this was early 3D, it wasn't great and mainly had scenes of Elvira like hitting ping pong balls at TV, thrusting her breasts out, and you know that usual stuff, tassel work. You know that standard, god awful thing. Yo, hey, look, I got that little yo-yo thing.

Nate: 23:10

Yeah.

Shaun: 23:11

Yeah, that kind of stuff. She said it wasn't good, but the ratings were really good for it. Apparently they even actually produced a song for that show, with her husband writing the song and Paul Rubin's helping her sing on. It called 3D TV. In order to get a special low quote, unquote, lo-fi sound for what they wanted, they recorded part of the lyrics in a shower. So for this 3D special, naturally you need 3D glasses, as was the tradition Still is, I guess. Yeah, they sold exclusively at 7-Eleven for $3 a pop and they sold 2.7 million pairs of those glasses apparently. Oh, wow, how much did Elvira get from this? Nothing, in fact. She was still on her $350 a week salary from when she first started. That sucks.

Nate: 23:56

Yeah, I believe it. It makes me feel they still, if they can, they'll screw it all over, yeah, so I mean, that was the whole thing about the actor strike. It was one of the things they wanted to do. You're like, okay, we want you to come in, we're going to digitalize you and then you know we'll pay you that for that one time. Yeah, then, going forward, we're going to, like, use your AI or your, your visage, with some AI stuff to say whatever you want to say, and you're not getting anything.

Shaun: 24:20

Yep, or even just read these five lines and we'll have the AI do the rest. Sometimes this is what I call digitalize. Right On top of her not getting any money from it, the studio didn't even provide her with free 3D glasses. She had to go to a 7-Eleven and pay for them herself. Oh, that's true, right. Funny thing is too is like the day of the 3D special. She's like well, I got to run down to the local you know corner 7-Eleven and grab some glasses be back in a minute. And apparently there's like a decent line outside of the 7-Eleven waiting to try to buy glasses and issues waiting. And then there's like a local news station, pop sound, starts interviewing people along the line. They're like are you here for the Elvira special? And well, also Cassandra realized oh wait, my nails are painted black, which, you know, that wasn't really that big of a thing back then. And also, people are probably going to recognize her voice if she talks on TV.

Shaun: 25:08

So, as soon as the news crew show up. She just had to vamoose and go find a 7-Eleven a few miles down the road.

Nate: 25:14

I mean, yeah, it's also like the studio might get mad at her because they're like telling everyone that she didn't. You know, the person who's going to be in the show didn't even get 3D glasses.

Shaun: 25:25

Yeah, that was actually her thought. She was like how big of a scandal would that be, if you know, it would make the studio look bad, but the studio would just take it out on her kind of thing. Yeah, yeah, cassandra did say that essentially Elvira was a drag character. For the most part nobody really recognized her outside of the role which she really liked it that way.

Nate: 25:43

Oh, absolutely yeah.

Shaun: 25:45

Because I yeah, totally.

Nate: 25:46

I mean, when I saw her without her wig and stuff it, yeah, I didn't recognize her at first either. Yeah, you take, you look at her. Yes, sure, I mean it was the whole Superman, Clark Kent thing.

Shaun: 25:56

Yeah, exactly. But if you saw her on the street like, huh, she kind of looks like Elvira sort of ish in a weird way, whatever. And while we're also touching on their salary and the studio being cheap. So after this special blew up and became huge and Elvira was like kind of a household name after this down Southern California, she did go in there and tried to negotiate for more money and they were like most we can ever pay you is $500. That's it. Don't ever ask for anymore. So Cassandra did something very smart Whenever they would refuse to give her a raise and they're like, nope, can't pay you more than 500 bucks a week, she would instead ask for certain rights for the Elvira character.

Shaun: 26:29

Like, hey, can I have the rights to do commercials with this character? Can I have the rights to do, you know, license my looks for toys on this or posters? Eventually she kind of nickel and dine them. She wound up getting all the rights to the character that way, like every last one of them, she actually owns yeah, she actually owns the Elvira character. That because she's like, yeah, and eventually she still made 350 bucks, but she had all the rights to her 500 bucks a week, but that was she, is that was genius Yep Perfect Like, especially after they treated her like that nice.

Shaun: 27:02

Yeah, I applaud her on that. I was like that is genius.

Nate: 27:05

I mean, that's like George Lucas, star Wars, you know. He was like, oh, yeah, I'll take a lower cut. Like when he first put the original ones out, I was like, yeah, I'll take a lower cut of the movie, but let me get the marketing and merchandising rights? Yeah, sure, whatever. And he's like now he's sitting his gold throne somewhere.

Shaun: 27:20

Yeah, right, I mean because back then they're like what kids are going to want to buy toys of this show? Same thing actually happened with the South Park guys with the digital rights to their show. Like very late nineties, early 2000s they went to Comedy Central like hey, probably the negotiation, we want the digital rights to the show and all the big fat cats are like that's a stupid thing to ask for who wants to watch stuff online? And apparently those rights are worth way more than anything else they have.

Nate: 27:46

Yep, absolutely, and I was thinking that's almost like the reverse, howard the Duck you know the creator, she was the creator and I'm getting the rights. Meanwhile the creator, howard Ducks, like lost the rights almost immediately.

Shaun: 27:58

You'd almost say that Howard the Duck lost. Who might have had some influence in this too? Maybe, yeah, I mean she paid attention to it like, yeah, or maybe her agent did, or somebody along the line. Was her manager Very smart that she did that? Very yeah, yeah, bravo, good job, cassandra, way to work the system. Also another really good reason for her to get the Elvira character. In 1988 that station, due to, you know, bad management, basically went under and was sold to the Walt Disney Company and if they still owned the right Elvira, elvira would have been Disney character and Elvira was like they wouldn't have done anything with that character, they would have scrapped it, yeah.

Nate: 28:33

Yeah, Maybe nowadays, you know maybe, but you know Disney back then absolutely not, yeah, so back to the 3D show.

Shaun: 28:42

it was huge and led her to her first appearance on Johnny Carson. Oddly enough, though, they wander hers Cassandra Peterson and not Elvira Pretty much the only time that would actually happen. She also read yeah Right, she was like well, but ever after that everybody just wanted Elvira.

Nate: 28:58

So yeah, I mean it's like. I mean it's like having kiss on, like yes everyone knows them, but like back in the day, without your makeups you're nobody Like yeah people. So I still remember seeing clips their first interview without their makeup on and it's just, I don't know, For some reason. It was very disappointing.

Shaun: 29:18

It was disappointing for everybody.

Nate: 29:19

Yeah, it's just like oh, come on. You know it's the magic is gone. You know it's dumb as it is, yeah, go in there with your makeup.

Shaun: 29:28

Yeah, I was like. Gene Sim is now just looks like he wants to sell me insurance. What the hell.

Nate: 29:32

I mean, it's almost like and this is not a one to one either, but like the first I thought of that. I also thought of you ever watched the Halo show that came out a bit ago on like I don't know, plus you know of it, I do know of it.

Nate: 29:43

Man, the biggest thing they do in that show is like, ok, master Chief has his helmet on. No, the whole thing about that like no one saw him with his helmet off, he was his outfit. And then the TV show comes off. First thing they do is like helmet off. And if I one see, I mean he shows up and he like he's walking there oh look, it's a Spartan. And then he has that helmet off for like 2.3 seconds and then it takes off. So I talk to somebody. I'm like same thing. Like the Elvira is her Halo costume and our Halo armor. Like you leave that shit on, yeah, or actually nevermind Halo. I don't know why would there Boba Fett?

Shaun: 30:21

I should have used Boba Fett. Actually, my entire thought was like the Boba Fett of the Mandalorian series he took his hat off.

Nate: 30:27

Yeah, lord knows why I went to like nobody wants Paramount Plus show of Halo. Fuck that, let's rewind time. And then I talked about Boba Fett, ok, cool.

Shaun: 30:38

She also received a local Emmy nomination in 1982, which she never thought would be possible with that character when she first got the role. Yeah, fair, yeah, I mean I wouldn't expect that either. But one big pain in the neck came back real quick, vampira Soon. As Elvira started becoming lucrative, vampira sued, saying Elvira stole her character. Maybe she needed money because she found out her boyfriend, james Dean, was dead. Yeah, yeah, she even named Cassandra in the lawsuit, not just the station. She was doing both the station and Cassandra at the same time, which is that's a dick move. Yeah, and this is even before Cassandra had, like this, 82. So this is before she had all the rights as well, if I recall.

Nate: 31:17

And also like OK, look, you cause problems. Like you can't use this character unless you use the other person, and so they're like OK, then we won't use your character. And like, because Elvira I mean, obviously she won, but like Elvira, the character Elvira was not there Like, oh, we made this character, we're putting this loose link with this other character. Yeah, what's that? Cut that line.

Shaun: 31:41

Yeah, and that's why it was like she was kind of supposed to be a vampire first, but no, she's not. For legal reasons Now, definitely for legal reasons. So Cassandra and her husband, slash manager, had to come up with $35,000. They didn't have for lawyer fees, boo.

Nate: 31:56

Yeah that, that really sucks I mean the way our system works is like it's not. You don't need a lot of money to sue somebody, but you need a lot of money to defend yourself.

Shaun: 32:04

And you could sue anybody for anything at any time, if you want Especially back then there's a lot.

Nate: 32:09

I mean, there's more like guardrails now, but I'll not buy a lot.

Shaun: 32:14

Yeah, so Vampira, she lost a lawsuit. One reason she didn't even show up for court. I know how to piss off a judge. Don't show up for court when you want them to.

Nate: 32:24

Well, they probably, like I don't know she'd show up with no teeth and act all crazy. Talk about Dean. Yeah, yeah, probably for the best.

Shaun: 32:31

Somebody was probably like you shouldn't go in today, you're too high on crack. But also the judge even ruled. It's like hey, you're not copying her. Nobody owns a right on wearing a black dress and hosting horror movies. So what are you?

Nate: 32:42

Had she even shown up.

Shaun: 32:43

Yep, she would have lost too.

Nate: 32:45

So she probably was hoping they would just roll over.

Shaun: 32:48

Yeah, vampira would be a major pain in Elvira's butt from the future. From here on out, though. Like at one point Elvira was about to be made into a cartoon in the 80s, vampira mailed the studio that was going to make that cartoon A bunch of nude pics of Cassandra. They're floating around like the topless ones, and that one bitch, yep, and that got that scratch, because, like well, we can't have somebody show Bresticles on a cartoon.

Shaun: 33:11

Yeah that just yeah, that's just that's shitty neighbor kind of stuff. 1982 would also see the start of her stint at Knott's Berry Farm, where she would replace Wolfman Jack for their Halloween Haunt Show. Here she would break out her Vegas showgirl skills and do a song and dance and comedy routine. She would do this for 25 out of the 40 years she would spend as Elvira and you can see recordings of this on YouTube. But it kinda looks like a fun little show, to be honest, and you can even see the final show she did. And for being in her late 60s doing it, she moves around pretty good, yo. I mean she's not like doing splits and back flips, but I mean she moves. She does a dance routine better than I could, probably Right.

Nate: 33:48

Yeah, I mean I've seen some people like, oh yeah, this person's 17,. Like go fuck yourself. They're doing things I can't do.

Shaun: 33:54

Yeah, yeah right. Oh yeah, and also I meant to bring up that also to Vampira. Apparently, down the road too, she would like show up with a bunch of people at like conventions and just heckle Elvira as well, just to be a bitch. As far as we can tell man, yeah right.

Nate: 34:12

You know that air that really bothers me because, look, I know you had this character, but it's like find something else. You know it's.

Shaun: 34:21

And also I see, on the cake in Elvira's mind, Cassandra's mind was like in like the late 90s Elvira, or Vampira even did an interview where she's like yeah, I ripped this character off from somebody else that was before me too. So yeah, see, yeah, yeah. So Vampira not that good of a person, it seems?

Nate: 34:38

No, I mean I barely. I've hardly ever even thought of that chick, Elvira or Vampira or whatever.

Shaun: 34:45

Yeah, Vampira was actually only on the air for like two years, I think too. She was on for like one season and then fired and then she went to a different station and then she was only on for one other season, so she was not around very long. Maybe we'll do a horror host episode and do stuff like Joe Bob and Sven Gully. There's a lot more than you think, yeah she looks like a bitch.

Nate: 35:04

Yeah, I realized like I hadn't really even I couldn't bring her to mind. But now?

Shaun: 35:09

Oh, it was Morticia Adams she stole the look off of. That's who she admitted she stole the look off she absolutely did.

Nate: 35:14

Yeah, like there's not a question on my that she did. She stole that. Look off her.

Shaun: 35:19

Yeah, yeah, and also the way she was acting during that meeting. It kind of sounds like she's probably into drugs or alcohol or something Just like. I need money, no matter what, yeah.

Nate: 35:30

I mean that again. I mean I hate. I'm sure that she Vampira was miserable and so she's like. She probably thought the Elvira had stolen some kind of like you know money from her. Because I was trying to sue you know the, I thought the studio roll over, they didn't, and so I'm going to blame this. Is this person. Is the the like avatar of my ire?

Shaun: 35:53

Yeah, so still fuck that bitch Yep. Fuck that bitch 1983.

Nate: 36:00

Elvira releases official stance of off topic. Yeah, Fuck the fuck the Vampira bitch. Yeah.

Shaun: 36:06

Official stance Stoom 1983. Elvira releases a Halloween theme album and as Cassandra she got to start with Bert Reynolds, lonnie Anderson and Jim neighbors in the movie Stroker Ace, where her whole role was to pick up and seduce Jim neighbors, which she said that wouldn't happen in real life. Barely all three actors mentioned were super nice to her and for the record in case you don't know, jim neighbors gay, I assume, so Based on. Yeah, and there's a Gummer pile, by the way, in case you didn't know.

Shaun: 36:37

Oh, actually, while I was like the low key, like Jim neighbors, yeah, I meant to write in a Gummer pile, but he was Gummer pile also and I spelled that I spent.

Nate: 36:46

I spelled neighbors as in like my neighbors versus neighbors first in a BORS.

Shaun: 36:52

Also Jim neighbors. Very, very good opera singer, like classically trained, oh yeah, yeah, like the dude could sing. You can find all that stuff online too.

Nate: 37:01

I think I actually saw like I saw there was a bit Gummer pile in the episode of oh God, toi Blaket, not Malak, but Andy Griffith, andy Griffith, thank you, jesus Christ. There's episode Andy Griffith, where what's his face? All the names Andy Griffith, the Gummer pile, no.

Shaun: 37:23

Barney Gumpel or Barney Fife. Thank you.

Nate: 37:25

God damn it, man. Barney Fife. He was supposed to sing right and so he was a terrible singer. He'd get up there, and so to make him feel better, because they wouldn't just tell him dude, you suck it off, he like would sing really low and Gummer was behind him, like in a like behind this sheet in the background, and he was really singing. So that's how they kind of like I've seen him sing before. Based on my memory of watching that episode of Andy Griffith, the end the end.

Shaun: 37:50

This is storytime with Nathan Right Storytime.

Nate: 37:53

Nathan, who forgets all the names of the people he's talking about.

Shaun: 37:58

That makes your story time like a mad lib right? The guy who?

Nate: 38:01

did that thing, though, on time. Yeah, he has a face and eyes and teeth. Buster Keaton, that's it. But give you, I'll tell you what man you are on fucking point, Like through all these podcasts we've been doing, I'm like I'll toss up minimal information You're like oh, I don't know. That's exactly right. You've nailed it. You've done some haymakers that just yeah.

Shaun: 38:27

I hit on him Sometimes, you know, I'm just like wow, that was home, All right.

Nate: 38:31

I was. I gave you credit, man, you are on point.

Shaun: 38:34

I thank you.

Nate: 38:35

I'm trying to figure out who fucking people are.

Shaun: 38:40

March 9th 1984 was declared El Vira de en the city of Los Angeles and later that same year also in Atlanta, georgia. And that year she also appeared at the Grammys where she met Michael Jackson, who shook her hand with that big old rhinestone glove and apparently that thing really hurts to shake because those rhinestones are very sharp on it but he said, much to her surprise, that he was a huge fan of El Vira and even wanted her to be in the thriller video doing the opening voiceover thing. But the studio execs said no and they got Vincent Price instead and they were correct.

Nate: 39:10

Yeah, I like El Vira. She's awesome, Like especially with this thing. I definitely have affection for her, but they were correct.

Shaun: 39:19

Yeah, she even said like she's like well, if I was going to lose out a job to the biggest music video in the world, imagine I'll be to Vincent Price. Yeah, Apparently too. I guess it sounded like they were trying to find like background character games for her too, because Michael Jackson wanted her so bad in the video. But the studio was just kind of like so Michael Jackson, big El Vira fan, Nice, it felt, was Well, it was yeah, hey kids, you want to come over to your El Vira show?

Nate: 39:42

Yeah, there's two favorite things El Vira and little children. Yeah, yeah.

Shaun: 39:54

Uh, random Cassandra fact her favorite movie of recent time is everything, everywhere all at once. She says it's one of the best new movies she's seen.

Nate: 40:02

I need to watch that I still need to watch, that I actually have access to it. I keep on meaning to watch it. It's on Max right now, maybe I don't know. I don't know, it's all one of my streamer services that I have.

Shaun: 40:12

Yeah, I think it is Max.

Nate: 40:14

I see it on there and I'm like I need to watch this. And I still have it because I want to watch it with Jenny, the kids that heard you know it's really good, but I might as well end up watching it while.

Shaun: 40:22

I'm watching. Yeah, I have heard nothing but good things about it. Also, cassandra, not that huge in the modern day horror slasher like Super Gory, violent ones. She likes more of the old school suspenseful movies. I'm kind of with her on that a little bit because you know I mean suspenseful horror is good horror.

Nate: 40:37

They're. They're pretty different. I mean, especially if you go back like, uh, like Exorcist, there is a lot of just nothing happening. Oh, there really is. There's a guy, he's standing there, he's on a cliff and he's staring off in the distance and they just hold it for a while, yeah, and he's like, okay, is anything ever going to happen?

Shaun: 40:57

Right, yeah, the pacing on some older movies is just bad.

Nate: 41:01

Yeah, not all of them, though no, not all of them If sometimes they can find like the balance of like, okay, it's not something happening all the time and it's also not some dude staying there like just not even talking, just you know eerie music as you stand there looking off in the distance, like do I see a shadow on this distance? Yeah, and then cameraman music plays. Yeah, Do we need to really be standing here for two minutes straight seeing if you can see something in the distance?

Shaun: 41:27

It's building suspense, right. So much suspense and then nothing happens. The greatest terror of all, right.

Nate: 41:34

And then also a cat jumps out Like yeah, yeah Me, and only like that, right.

Shaun: 41:39

At this time Elvira was getting bags and bags and bags of fan mail and she remembers one day it was pretty funny that she got a signed card from a bunch of prisoners at Chino State Prison and a few letters later it got a signed card from the LAPD. Nice, yeah, right, it shows that everybody liked Elvira back in the day. Well, still do, I think. Yeah.

Nate: 41:58

I mean, I think, unless they don't know who she is, they like her. Oh, actually.

Shaun: 42:03

I asked my coworkers, because you know I've got coworkers in the 30s and one in the 20s. The one in his 20s didn't know the name Elvira. In fact he asked if it was Mexican food. But to our, to his credit, we were talking about Brito's moment before. But once I showed him a picture he's like, oh yeah, that one, the guy in his 30s, knew who Elvira was, although he had a funny story which I can totally see. When he was like really young and saw Elvira, he thought Elvira was a like a character that Dolly Parton played around Halloween for people kind of thing. And you know what? I could kind of get that the first time. You see, like, oh, because she does kind of look like Dolly Parton-ish Kids have no idea who she is.

Nate: 42:40

I mean again, yeah, that old 15, so whatever, but like no clue. Yeah, I was telling like I was talking about this, this podcast we're doing, and just like nothing, like no recognition whatsoever, Daring at you.

Shaun: 42:51

Yeah, elvira started making a bunch of tonight show appearances at this point and she also became the lead in Disney's Parade of Villains where she had run into Bob Hope, whose wife was a big fan of Elvira, and Bob Hope's wife got her on a couple of those Bob Hope specials from back in the day that we all remember as kids.

Nate: 43:06

That weren't that funny.

Shaun: 43:07

I don't think I remember watching them being like it's a comedy special. I'm like, ooh, I'm ready to laugh and uh yeah.

Nate: 43:14

I mean, yeah, I've seen some of Bob Hope stand up. It's definitely for the time.

Shaun: 43:21

Yeah, it is.

Nate: 43:22

At the time they were all laughing so clearly it was funny and you know what, I'll trust them. I don't think they're lying to me. Yeah, I don't.

Shaun: 43:31

I feel like I should laugh at this sea Everett coop joke, but I don't know why. Yeah.

Nate: 43:36

It's like well, maybe because I have no, no, like frame of reference or anything he's talking about. Just sure, why not yeah?

Shaun: 43:43

From what I learned, apparently Bob Hope to um good comedian overall but apparently bad at improv, Like if you ever see any of his interviews and everything, everything he does is super scripted and you have to super stick with the script for him to be funny, kind of thing.

Nate: 43:55

Yeah, so I've heard. Well, you know what, not everyone's good at everything.

Shaun: 44:00

Yeah, absolutely. Improv's hard being funny on the fly.

Nate: 44:05

So part of me is like what? And then, before I even like, started shitting on like you know what. Yeah, fair enough.

Shaun: 44:10

Yeah.

Nate: 44:12

Not everyone can be witty. Some people can like, if you give him pre-written lines, they can deliver. Like some people write songs, you know, and some people can sing. It's just, it's all skill set.

Shaun: 44:25

Very rarely is somebody everything everywhere all at once. Yeah, yeah, anyways, yeah.

Nate: 44:33

Fine Golf flap.

Shaun: 44:38

I don't ever reference a comment early on in the episode. That wasn't really that important. 1985 and Paul Rubins would hire Cassandra for a bit part in Pee Wee's big adventures.

Nate: 44:49

Oh yeah, she was a big adventure. That's right. Yeah, that was one of my. Jenny loves Pee Wee and we've seen Pee Wee big adventures multiple times, so that's right. I keep on forgetting. I'm not exactly on that.

Shaun: 45:00

I didn't see that movie the first time until I was like in my 30s, and you know what. It's actually not bad, even as an adult.

Nate: 45:05

No, it's not bad. That is the one that terrifies me. It has that one scene which is really scary, Do you don't talk about?

Shaun: 45:13

The large Marge one.

Nate: 45:14

Yes.

Shaun: 45:15

Yeah.

Nate: 45:17

To the like looking. I've seen it recently with my kids. First of all, my kids did not like like the scene came on like nothing, just stone cold. Like listen, you little shits, you guys one of your YouTube's and you're all like nothing scares you like that anymore. Well, I was terrified. I saw that the movie theater and I'm about to shat myself. So you guys go to hell.

Nate: 45:41

And now it's like I see, I see images of it. Like you know, for reasons that search came up because I was like and it is, it's clay nation and it's dumb. But man, when I first saw that movie I literally got a shot myself.

Shaun: 45:57

It's because it wasn't expected. It was just like oh yeah.

Nate: 46:01

And it went nowhere. She's like she looked like this, Ah, she's like ah. And then she dropped them off and drives away. Okay, it's like all that for just one, like quick psychic, and then they move on Just to scare the shit of a little boy, Nathan.

Shaun: 46:18

I just realized there has to be so much large Marge fanfic on the internet People writing stories about that. What happened afterwards?

Nate: 46:23

There has to be like limitless it has to be, because you know the whole gag is like once he gets to the diner they're like oh, large Marge died forever ago.

Shaun: 46:30

Yeah, right Like scary yeah, spooky. And that's going to do it for this episode. Tune in next time when we talk about the Elvira movie, which famous actors owe her a favor, and for some reason, we talk about Jane Goodall having carnal relations with gorillas. All this and more on the next episode of Offed, off Topic.