Trivia

Once sued Cassandra Peterson, claiming that her "Elvira" persona was modeled after what she created as Vampira.

Is believed to be the first television "horror host".

As a cast member, she attended the original premiere of Plan 9 from Outer Space (1958). She did not get a chance to actually sit down and see the film. She claimed that she did not actually see the entire film until 1980.

Was involved with Orson Welles and claimed he was the only man she ever traveled to other cities to be with.

During the making of Plan 9 from Outer Space (1958), she would put on her Vampira makeup and costume at home and then take a bus to the Quality Studios soundstage where her scenes were filmed.

Following her death, she was interred at Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles, California.

Was fired by Mae West from the cast of West's 1944 Broadway play "Catherine Was Great", because West feared that she was being upstaged.

In 1958, singer Bobby Bare recorded a rock 'n' roll song about her entitled "Vampira".

She was played by Lisa Marie in Ed Wood (1994).

Once worked with famous stripper Lili St. Cyr.

In 1982, the horror punk band The Misfits recorded a song about her entitled "Vampira".

Kinescopes have been found from her first horror hostess gig showing Vampira emerging from the fog and letting out a loud scream.

Was a close friend of Anthony Perkins in the 1950s and shared a similar iconoclastic sense of humor. They were linked romantically by Allied Artists' publicity mill, though Nurmi was married at the time to TV writer Dean Reisner.

Posthumously inducted into the Horror Host Hall of Fame in 2011, as her character Vampira.

She is portrayed by Sabra Jardine in the short film The House That Ed Built (2019).

Was close friends with Hollywood artist and movie extra, Kenneth Kendall.

For a brief period in 1959, she was engaged to Carleton Carpenter.