REVIEW: ‘Yours Cruelly, Elvira: Memoirs of the Mistress of the Dark’ by Cassandra Peterson
Image courtesy of Hachette / Provided by official site.
In her new autobiography, Cassandra Peterson offers fans of Elvira, her beloved Halloween-inspired character, a chance to go behind the scenes on how this cultural phenomenon was born and how the image of the actor decked out in makeup and a black beehive wig has sustained for nearly 40 years. Yours Cruelly, Elvira: Memoirs of the Mistress of the Dark is equally split between Peterson’s earlier, formative years and the past few decades, which are dominated by the Elvira look and brand.
The writing in the memoir is deeply personal and heartfelt, detailing Peterson’s relationships with her parents, her siblings and her partners throughout the years. Seemingly she doesn’t hold back on details, allowing the audience to appreciate a life lived, with many lessons learned along the way. She describes her family’s humble beginnings in Kansas and eventual move to Colorado, plus her early days of go-go dancing and being a “virgin groupie.” Eventually her story takes her to Las Vegas where she becomes a showgirl and has chance encounters with a variety of high-profile performers, including Tom Jones, Elvis Presley and others. Her experiences in Vive Les Girls, a show on the Strip, provides a main focal point for the first part of the autobiography, bridging her personal world of anonymity with a larger world of fame and fortune.
Between Vegas and Elvira there were numerous ups and downs for Peterson, many of them playing out in Italy. For example, she has stories to tell about struggling to survive in the European country, being cast as an extra in a Federico Fellini film and joining a band that toured the entire nation. The author is upfront about her poverty and the fear she had trying to find jobs in a male-dominated world.
As with any showbiz story, Peterson’s life eventually took her to Los Angeles. She fell in with the comedic actors at the Groundlings, an improv group that is still going strong today. She worked with many performers who were similarly trying to get a name for themselves, and one of the strongest bonds she formed was with funny man Phil Hartman. It seems as if her improv and comedy work directly led to her creation of Elvira, the so-called Queen of Halloween.
For those who have been living under a rock for the past 40 years, Elvira is a horror host who has a distinctive style of humor, always ready with a one-liner for the flicks she is lampooning. She exudes sex appeal, which is likely why she was chosen for an advertising campaign for Coors beer during the autumn season. Elvira has also starred in multiple movies (both Elvira: Mistress of the Dark and Elvira’s Haunted Hills are detailed in the book), appeared at fan conventions and made numerous live appearances, most notably at an annual show at Knott’s Berry Farm. She hosted horror screenings on TV, including at a local Los Angeles station where the character got its start, and today continues to pop up in different cultural settings.
Throughout Peterson’s multimedia portrayal as Elvira, she had a child, was married for a long time, sold her house to Brad Pitt, struggled financially and eventually found love with a woman named T.
Ostensibly Yours Cruelly, Elvira is a book for horror fans and lovers of this character, and no doubt if a devotee remembers tuning in on Saturday nights to see Elvira introduce the horror flick of the week, there’s a lot of nostalgia within these pages. However, Peterson is after something more profound and revelatory that mere nostalgia. Her stories are meant to teach lessons, bear witness and show just how wild a life’s journey can be from the farms of Kansas to the top of the media world.
Peterson has a clever technique when describing Elvira; it’s always in the third person. The character is never about me, myself and I, but rather her and she. Peterson understands that the Queen of Halloween is a performance, one that has brought her fame and established her as a frequent presence in scary culture. But she has a clear separation from the role, which means that this memoir, which is chiefly about Peterson the person, will present new material for fans who think they know the actor under the wig. This is not Elvira’s book, it’s Peterson’s, and that’s a good thing.
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Yours Cruelly, Elvira: Memoirs of the Mistress of the Dark by Cassandra Peterson. Hachette. 304 pages. Click here for more information.
