CASSANDRA PETERSON/ELVIRA INTERVIEW

Remember that cheesy eighties country pop hit Elvira? Well the only thing TV Horror Show Mistress of the Dark Elvira has in common with that is the bass line or base line as the case may be- “Oom Papa MOW-MOW!" To stretch a point Elvira also has about the same cultural impact, she’s ubiquitous but ankle deep unlike actress Cassandra Peterson whose been playing Elvira for the last twenty plus years. I was only able to catch Elvira a few times growing up but was excited to talk to America’s reigning Horror Show Host Queen.

DAVE: So many people have such fond memories of watching their favorite TV Show Horror Host. I grew up watching Creature Feature, the Groovy Ghoulie and Son of Svengoolie. What’s it’s like to be part of that heritage?

CP: It’s my favorite thing about the business really. You run into people all the time that appreciate what you do so much.

DAVE: Does it make up for sort of being locked into Elvira as a career? I mean it does sort of typecast you doesn’t it?

CP: You know I have to say yes. Elvira affords me a lot of anonymity. I have so many famous friends who can’t go anywhere in public and hardly anyone ever recognizes me unless I’m at a convention or in makeup which is probably good since the freaks can really come out of the woodwork when you play a character like this.

And as far as being locked into the character I was a singer, actress and dancer from the time I was about 17 til I was 30, I had the opportunity to do lots of different things. And unlike a lot of actors who get stuck making very little money for playing characters that are owned by the studio, or their creators I’m the one who owns Elvira. So Elvira has given way more back to me than she’s taken away.

DAVE: TV Show Horror Hosts don’t usually have the longevity that Elvira has enjoyed. How has your approach to the character changed as you’ve had to consider playing it over the long haul?

CP: When I first started I thought I’d be lucky to have one week but it was an extra $300 a week and it left me enough time to pursue other “real” acting work. I certainly didn’t think it was going to set me up for life or anything. But then came syndication.

99% of all hosts stay in local markets on local stations. But I was able to get a syndication deal back when the whole syndication thing exploded. As far as I know that made me the first national horror host. And it happened early enough in what we were doing that we were able to take full advantage of it and respond to it so our show took on a less “local” flavor, it was accessible to a wider audience.

Then Elvira became identified strongly with Halloween and she became bigger than the show. That’s the big reason I’m still invited to do the character 24 years later. Elvira is to Halloween what the Easter Bunny, or Santa Claus is to Christmas because she personifies what her holiday has become. She’s fun, a little sexy, dark. Halloween is so much more adult now than it used to be. Kids can still enjoy it but they can still enjoy it after they grow up too.

And the beauty of owning the character is I can always pass the wig and the gown on to someone else. I mean heck you could probably play Elvira!

DAVE: I’ll have to ask my wife about that.

CP: (LOL.) So yeah I’m not sure what the future holds but I think Elvira could make a great animated show, we could do another movie…

DAVE: So lets talk about the freaks! Just kidding. You’ve got a good fan base what’s been good about that?

CP: The nicest thing that ever happens, and it’s been happening more and more lately is having grown men and women come to me at the autograph signings saying things like, “You know my mom or dad passed away recently and one of the things we used to together was watch Elvira, it was something we both liked, and we didn’t argue about it, and we could just sit together and be together every week and bond doing that.” Things like that to me are just proof how the silliest things can be so meaningful or lead to meaningful things. I feel really good to be part of that for some people.

DAVE: Yeah I’ve been involved in something like that on a smaller scale. I give away monster models at a big arts and music festival I’m part of and I have whole families who I introduced to the hobby and kids who’ve grown up doing our kits.

CP: See! You could play Elvira!! I had all those monster models growing up.

DAVE: But…you were…a girl.

CP: Still am. But yeah, I was odd. Every other girl in my class was into Bar-bie and I was into Boris. I lived in this dinky town and I had to order my monster models through the back of comic books and stuff like that. We didn’t even get Famous Monsters of Filmland.

I worshipped Vincent Price whom I got to meet and get to know a little years later because of the show. And the nightmares! I went to see House on Haunted Hill and had recurring bad dreams for about a year. I saw all the Poe movies and as far as other horror stuff I did what you had to do when you were a fan in a small town back then. I watched Outer Limits and Twilight Zone and caught everything else when I could. The one thing I was lucky about was that my mother ran a costume shop.

DAVE: Yeah, my grandmother’s birthday was Halloween and when she passed away the family let me have all the props and costuming and decorations. We got FM in my town but other than that it could be pretty slim pickings. Where were girls like you when I was eight?!

You know this event I throw and writing I do is underwritten by a large Christian organization so I find myself in equally strange waters these days as a fan. But they underwrite everything I do including the book I’m working on about modern horror film.

CP: Yeah it’ funny but a lot of the modern stuff just doesn’t work for me. We just won’t show, and I don’t even bother seeing a lot of the gorier bloody movies that pass for horror movies anymore. Friday the 13th, Halloween, none of that stuff.

DAVE: Yeah but modern horror culture is so oriented around gore.

CP: Gore in the right context doesn’t bother me but a lot of the violence in these movies seems directed at women outside the context of fantasy or story or anything worthwhile. I think horror films often speak to important questions and that can be disturbing and I think that’s important. But I draw a difference between that and a lot of these hyper-violent basically pretty pointless movies.

DAVE: So do you still watch the kinds of films you show on Elvira?

CP: I do. But I’m a big film buff, I watch a little of everything. One thing I will say is that as absolutely awful as a lot of the films on my how are many of them leave much more to the imagination than a lot of the film’s you see today. I think that’s really missing from modern horror. We show everybody everything.

DAVE: Speaking of showing everybody everything don’t you worry that you’re encouraging this objectification of women by the way that Elvira is costumed? I mean when she was satirized on The Simpsons they called her Boobarella.

CP: Well right off the bat I want to say I very much consider myself a feminist. In my mind Elvira isn’t a sex object in any sense of the word. She’s almost a chauvinist pig in reverse in that she’s nobodies toy. She’s resourceful, she doesn’t look to men to solve her problems, and she thinks for herself

DAVE: Horror rises up partly out of societies struggle to overcome the extremes of human nature. Do you think the world would be better off if Elvira were a little more modest?

CP: She’s certainly an out front aggressive female but I mean c’mon most bathing suits show off more flesh than Elvira’s gown does. I mean let’s talk about Pamela Anderson! It’s a difficult line to draw but I’ve tried hard not to go over it. At the same time let’s face it Elvira just isn’t going to go over as well if she’s dressed in a burka.

I was a Geek before there were geeks and I love the Goth kids that come up to me at shows. Their response to Elvira is proof to me that it’s a good thing. I was such a nerd growing up, Elvira isn’t who I am but parts of her are.

At this point in the interview Cassandra’s 10 year old daughter, who has been listening, blurts out, “You were a nerd?!” and Cassandra laughs.

DAVE: It must be really odd to get all Elvira’d out for convention and have your daughter in the background going “Oh gaaaaaaaawd mother, you are so embarrassing!”
I mean it’s the nerd thing all over again- you’ve come full circle!

CP: “Nobody wears that much makeup mom!”

DAVE: So besides being a nerd what legacy would you like to leave as you think about hanging up the gown or passing the wig on to someone else?

CP: I’m really grateful as an actress to have done something that did more than just make me money and that I was able to do it for so long. It’s the letters from cancer patients, or even the wacky people who have named their kids after me Cassnadra! Not Elvira! Cassandra! It’s just the feeling that as grim as life can be what I do has made them smile, or brought them closer to someone they love or helped them through a hard time. I guess I’m a very lucky ghoul.