Episode 71: Vampira and Elvira - The Real Women Behind the Halloween Queens

Explicit content warning

10/14/23 • 185 min

In a special, super-extended, spooky season episode, your hosts read a double feature of horror hostess biographies! Glamour Ghoul: The Passions and Pain of the Real Vampira, Maila Nurmi by Sandra Niemi and Yours Cruelly, Elvira by Cassandra Peterson recount the drama-filled careers of two of the most iconic, goth-adjacent TV figures of all time. Jack and Kate take a candid look at the trials and triumphs of two real-life Halloween queens.

Does the appeal of late-night metaphysical diner talk span generations? How young is too young to launch your showgirl career? Why do the Red Hot Chili Peppers ruin everything? Is a decades-long goth girl beef even more odious than the Red Hot Chili Peppers? All these questions and more will be explored in this episode of the podcast!

BBfBP theme song by True Creature.

Find us at BadBooksBadPeople.com, on Twitter @badbooksbadppl, Instagram @badbooksbadpeople, on Bluesky @badbooksbadppl.bsky.social, and on Facebook. Got questions, comments or feedback? Email us at [email protected]

BBfBP theme song by True Creature.

Previous Episode

Episode 70: Priests of the Abomination and Still Dead, Book of the Dead 2

In this episode, your hosts dig deep into their collection of vintage paperbacks and share their thoughts on dusty, lurid tales from decades past. Kate reads The Priests of the Abomination, a cult-flavored 1970 crime conspiracy thriller from Ivor Drummond, and Jack selects three gruesome stories from the zombie horror anthology Still Dead: Book of the Dead 2.

Do rich people have a secret sixth sense that detects perverts? What is it with British pulp authors and their insistence on stopping the action for relaxing, fish-related interludes? Will Jack share the grossest story we’ve encountered yet? The Nineties - a different country or a whole ‘nother planet entirely? All these questions and more will be explored in this episode of Bad Books for Bad People.

BBfBP theme song by True Creature.

Next Episode

Episode 72: Spawn - Welcome to 90s Hell

Todd McFarlane’s Spawn is one of the great comics success stories of the 1990s, and yet... our hosts remain in semi-complete ignorance of this undead superhero. Jack and Kate decide to educate themselves by reading the first 18 issues of the series where they encounter a world of bedazzlement, from shape-shifting demons and mafia cyborgs to a controversial Neil Gaiman collab.

Other than fighting, killing, and baseball, what exactly is Spawn good at? Can anyone possibly care about the Youngbloods? Could there be a shared Spawn / Jess Franco’s “Erotic Rites of Frankenstein” shared universe? All these questions and more will be explored in this episode.

BBfBP theme song by True Creature.