Ear: Vampira

Astoria High School grad Maila Nurmi, aka Vampira, is by no means forgotten, although her short reign as a ghoulishly glamorous TV hostess in the 1950s, and her appearance in what is often described as the worst movie ever made, Ed Wood’s “Plan 9 From Outer Space” was decades ago. (The movie is available on tubitv.com.)

A Finnish production company, launched last fall, ICS Nordic, is doing a documentary, currently in development, based on a biography of the “horror icon” by her niece, Sandra Neimi, “Glamour Ghoul: The Passions and Pain of the Real Vampira, Maila Nurmi,” realscreen.com reports. The project expects to be in three 30-minute segments as a series, and a 90-minute feature. The creative team includes writer and popular Finnish actor Irina Isberg.

The production company will have plenty of material to work with. Here’s part of the book’s synopsis: “Maila Nurmi, the beautiful and sheltered daughter of Finnish immigrants, stepped off the bus in 1941 Los Angeles intent on finding fame and fortune … Her diaries, notes and ephemera and family stories bring new insights to her relationships with Orson Welles, James Dean and Marlon Brando … after the limelight faded … she found a new community within the burgeoning Los Angeles punk scene who embraced her as their own.” (Photo: realscreen.com)