The North Coast’s forgotten movie star
Astoria International
Film Festival will
highlight local legend
BY PETER KORCHNAK
A nearly forgotten local legend will
be highlighted during the the 14th annual
Astoria International Film Festival this
weekend at Liberty Theatre.
Festival founder and executive director
Ron Craig created the event to highlight-
Northwest fi lmmakers.
“ We like to show fi lms that are educa-
tional,” said Craig . “I like people to walk
away scratching their head.”
The local focus will come courtesy of
Vampira, an American actress and television
personality who created the campy 1950s
gothic character, and grew up in Astoria.
A scene from ‘Plan 9 from Outer Space,’
starring Maila Nurmi.
Local roots
Maila Elizabeth Nurmi, the actress who
became known as Vampira, was born in
1922 in Gloucester, Massachusetts. She
moved to Astoria with her family as a teen-
ager in 1939.
The
Illahee
Apartments
Actress Maila Nurmi lived in Astoria as a
teenager.
Downtown Astoria’s
Most Respected
Apartment Complex
Since 1969.
1046 Grand Avenue
Astoria, OR 97103
503-325-2280
4 // COASTWEEKEND.COM
Sandra Niemi, Nurmi’s niece, dug exten-
sively into her aunt’s history to craft a biog-
raphy called “Glamour Ghoul: The Pas-
sions and Pain of the Real Vampira, Maila
Nurmi.” The book tells the intriguing tale
of her aunt’s incredible rise to fame.
Nurmi graduated from Astoria High
School and worked as a strawberry picker,
bookmobile operator and tuna canner at the
Columbia River Packer’s Association .
While taking a bath in her family’s Asto-
ria home one day, Nurmi listened to Orson
Welles on the radio. Animated, she told
her mother he was a genius and she would
befriend him one day.
“Her mother said, ‘Don’t talk like that,
people will think you’re crazy,’” Sandra
Niemi said. “‘You’re Maila Nurmi and you
work in a fi sh cannery and that’s all you are.’”
The cover of ‘Glamour Ghoul: The Passions and Pain of the Real Vampira, Maila Nurmi,’ written
by Sandra Niemi, Nurmi’s niece.
According to Niemi, thats when the girl
who would eventually become Vampira
decided to leave and go to Hollywood.
In October 1941, future Vampira took a
bus to Los Angeles and never stepped foot
in Astoria again.
“I’m not surprised she never came
back,” said Niemi. “She was a free spirit,
she wanted to fl y.”
Nurmi did end up befriending
Welles, an American director, actor, screen-
writer and producer. According to public
See Page 5