Latest / Did That Age Well? / #173 – Did Elvira: Mistress of the Dark age well? (w/ Keith Garcia)

Transcript

#173 – Did Elvira: Mistress of the Dark age well? (w/ Keith Garcia) · Did That Age Well?

0:00
Hey everyone, welcome to another brand new episode of Did That
0:02
Age. Well?
0:03
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So thank you Becca and a new collective for being a friend of
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the pod. And now for the exciting part.
2:18
I am so happy today to be welcoming my guest, Keith
2:24
Garcia. Hello.
2:25
Hello. Hello.
2:26
Hello. What's going on with you?
2:29
What's going on at the sea? How was your day?
2:32
Let's talk. Day was good, just busy, busy
2:36
busy, but mostly just yeah. Finding lots of things to get
2:40
ready for. The Sea Film Centre just loading
2:43
that chock full of movies for the next few months.
2:46
Gosh, is there anything that you're really super excited for
2:48
in the next couple months? We're doing this so we have a
2:53
program called Seesaw that's our like retrospective film series.
2:58
And this month's August theme is summer camp, which is a hybrid.
3:05
It's from cabins to kitsch. It's both movies about summer
3:08
camp and camp movies. So got a lot of great stuff in
3:13
there from obviously The Parent Trap and Friday the 13th and
3:21
Sleep Away camp to whatever Happened to Baby Jane and
3:25
Showgirls and Valley of the Dolls and the Apple and a whole
3:31
bunch of stuff. So excited, excited to get to
3:33
that. I'm so excited too.
3:35
That's awesome. I have never really thought of
3:37
The Parent Trap as a summer camp movie, but it absolutely is
3:41
because when I think about that movie, I think about Lindsay
3:44
Lohan's character. Like playing poker at summer
3:49
camp. That was so iconic.
3:51
So at least half of the movie is at camp.
3:53
Summer camp. Yeah.
3:55
The girl that says hey, tie dye girl, I love her.
4:00
Now, Keith, I have been wanting to ask you a question since
4:02
before I met you. And this has nothing to do with
4:06
Elvira, but it has everything to do with maybe you and me moving
4:09
forward. And that is when I saw a baby
4:12
girl at the sea. And and you were you were there
4:17
doing an intro and you described it as a Christmas movie.
4:21
And I need to know why is Baby girl a Christmas movie?
4:25
I need you to explain. Well, for starters, important
4:29
fact of Christmas movies, they have to take place at Christmas.
4:32
OK, that is so and that's so true.
4:34
Famously Part 1 they do have to take place at Christmas.
4:38
And in that same effect, you know, as an example of of that,
4:43
it's like Showgirls takes place at Christmas.
4:45
Technically it's Vegas Christmas and we only get the idea when
4:49
she walks into one place and everything's decorated for
4:51
Christmas, which could have absolutely been that's just how
4:54
it was when they were filming. But where baby girl differs from
5:01
Showgirls is that you can't bring up Christmas any other
5:03
time in Showgirls. But there's essence of Christmas
5:09
throughout baby girl. There's the very notion of
5:12
giving and receiving. There's the notion of a family.
5:18
And you? Know what becomes of it.
5:22
Also, there is just a a lovely Christmas light hue.
5:29
Everything is just a little touched, a little Christmassy
5:32
that that like even when they go, when she goes to her rave.
5:36
Yeah, her big rave, red and green is very much a light
5:40
aesthetic in that warehouse. Yeah.
5:43
So it's just it's it's it's subtle stuff that I think the
5:46
director that she did very well. Yeah.
5:49
But yeah, Christmas movies don't always have to be what I percent
5:53
about Christmas at all. I mean, Tangerine is a favorite
6:00
of mine. It's like, how how does how does
6:02
the stress of the holidays add to the drama that's going on?
6:07
And, you know, people's annoyance with holidays,
6:10
people's just apathy for the holidays, people's love with the
6:13
holidays. All of that can have such an
6:15
interesting take on the rest of everything going on.
6:18
Right. And how it, especially in Baby
6:20
Girl, contributes to, like, the forcing together a family and
6:25
like that dynamic. OK, Keith, you've completely
6:27
changed my mind about what is a Christmas movie, not just about
6:30
Baby Girl, but about all Christmas movies.
6:34
And that's why we're here today, everybody to live and learn from
6:38
each other. Yeah, that honestly kind of
6:40
blows my mind. I did not put together the the
6:43
Reds and greens in the rave scene especially.
6:46
But I wonder, do you think that people will return to Baby Girl
6:51
around the holidays? Is that have to be OK for
6:55
something to be considered like a Christmas or holiday movie?
6:58
Do people have to sort of return to it around Christmas time?
7:03
I don't think they have to, but I think when you're put it into
7:06
context, like as a film programmer, right, if I was
7:10
putting together a series for this Christmas, and maybe I
7:13
will, maybe I will, I do always love to throw something in that
7:18
is more of a like what, what is that one?
7:21
And like I just mentioned the, you know, the notion of there,
7:24
there are there are themes within baby girl that are are
7:29
just accentuated by the Christmas time.
7:32
If that movie took place in the dead of summer, it's probably
7:35
still would have had the same effect.
7:37
But there's kind of there's there's more of a a, a cozy
7:41
nuance to the holidays and that type of weather in New York City
7:47
and like all that stuff where it's like, I don't know, it just
7:51
it, it, it I, I find baby girl would be one that it's like if
7:55
you just remind people that it's a Christmas movie and it's
7:57
associated, there may be some bring backs for people to be
8:01
like. I'd like to bring it back around
8:03
Christmas time. There you go.
8:04
I'd love to use that like as an excuse to be like, let's all
8:07
watch Baby Girl. Exactly, Yeah.
8:10
So did you love it? Did you love baby girl?
8:12
I did actually. Me too.
8:14
I just that movie I think really explores well trod.
8:21
You know. Ideas in in semi erotic film,
8:26
but I thought in really unique and interesting ways.
8:30
I love that. Oh my gosh, my age that just I'm
8:35
forgetting names the young actor who's the.
8:39
Lead the Hot 1. Yes, the Hot 1.
8:41
I mean, they're all. Exactly, I love that he he's
8:46
hot, but he's also a dork. He is such a dream because ever
8:52
the whole thing is that nobody knows what they're doing.
8:55
Yeah, and exactly that. He he's even shocked that any of
8:59
it works. Yeah.
9:01
And so I there's just there's a nice is that and also I just I
9:05
love to see Nicole Kidman just continue to explore me too.
9:08
Every nook and cranny area of her, her persona, her acting
9:12
ability, her everything that she's like.
9:14
I'll just I'll take any character and I'm gonna be, you
9:18
know, masturbating on a shag rug in this one.
9:22
Great. I've always wanted to do that on
9:24
film, like. Yeah, and she nails it.
9:27
And she nails. It and she nails it right on
9:29
that shag rug. Well, thank you so much for
9:33
clearing all of that up for me. And I feel like now we can move
9:36
forward in a more harmonious way.
9:38
Yes, I want to know what is your relationship to Elvira?
9:43
Well, I was born gay and so I feel like in.
9:48
The middle and end of of story. So my brain was automatically
9:56
attuned to the essence of what Elvira is, which is of course
10:02
strong female women that are bubbly, very sexy in various
10:13
ways, but also don't mind a stupid sexual inhuent.
10:22
I don't know. That was just I I when Elvira
10:25
was at the height of her fame. I guess she kind of came out
10:27
around like 8384. I was 7 years old and I
10:33
definitely caught movie macabre on on TV at the time.
10:38
And so I was just always transfixed.
10:40
I had no, it led me to do more research on horror hosts of of
10:46
yore, you know, when I got a little bit older and was like
10:50
really exploring like, why do I love a virus so much?
10:54
So that was a great a great little bit that she did.
10:56
But there was just such this like the the valley girl Goth
11:02
was such a unique idea to me. And I don't know, it just all
11:06
made me just like fall in love with her.
11:08
And so I always watched me recover, learned a lot of about
11:12
a lot of very interesting bad movies, learned a lot about
11:16
Rodger Corman and those those that era of bad films.
11:21
But then just also, like I I I wasn't aware until doing later
11:26
research just how much her world was wrapped up with Pee Wee
11:32
Herman. Yeah, that, you know, we learned
11:35
much later that they were like best friends, but they all came
11:38
up from the ground lanes. And her whole shtick of Elvira
11:45
came out of the ground lanes, right.
11:47
And her Co writer on this film, John Paragon was a great writer
11:55
and actor. I was John B from from PBS.
12:00
Playhouse, yeah. And but that she just she was
12:04
just in that world that these were that she Cassandra
12:07
Peterson, you know, that's Elvira outside of the goth girl
12:13
would be at these LA parties just having fun and and just
12:16
laughing about all these things and coming from this world that
12:19
she did of being, you know, a Vegas showgirl.
12:23
Not Colorado owned, by the way. It's not owned, like she's not
12:27
owned by anybody. But we can claim her Colorado
12:30
claims Cassandra Peterson for graduating from Colorado
12:34
Springs. Yeah.
12:35
And spending time here. Yeah.
12:37
All that stuff. So at some point, though, it
12:40
just as a as a child, I was just like, this is this is someone
12:44
who's going to stay with me for a long time.
12:46
So when I saw the first preview in like 1988 for Elvira and it's
12:52
just the dark the movie, I was lined up.
12:57
Back then you literally had to line up.
12:58
You couldn't get your tickets online?
13:01
Yep. You lined up.
13:03
And I know I saw that film and I probably saw that movie in a
13:06
theater at least 20 times. I did a lot of sneaking in.
13:12
I did a lot of like I went to movies every weekend.
13:14
But I would definitely do the like, I'm going to this movie at
13:17
this time and then going to the bathroom and then I'm just going
13:20
to wind up in the other theater again to rewatch a movie that I
13:23
really. Like that, you're there all day.
13:24
Yeah. Exactly.
13:25
And then when this thing hit VHS like me and my my best friend
13:30
Richard, like we rented VHS's all the time and we both just
13:36
fell in love with the this movie and furthered our love of
13:39
Elvira. And how and how could it not?
13:42
She is so likable. She is, first of all, a dork.
13:47
She's she's both like the coolest girl you've ever met and
13:51
also a total dweeb telling corny jokes and just kind of being
13:56
like, well, I guess that's it, you know?
13:58
But also, she's really, I think, the prototype for hot goth, and
14:04
that is monumental for all of us.
14:07
And she, even though she plays sort of these valley girl
14:12
stereotypes, she still takes that stereotype and turns it on
14:16
its head by basically being a vampire.
14:19
That's so cool. Yeah, yeah, and she doesn't take
14:22
any guff from anybody. Certainly not.
14:24
Even when she's up against a demon, Even against a.
14:29
Demon, a warlock, fake uncle. She's not going to take gulf
14:34
from anyone. And that's one of the things
14:36
that I love best about this movie is that Elvira is she's a
14:42
sexual being, but she owns her sexuality in a way that is
14:46
actually her own and she doesn't take shit from anybody.
14:51
She's when these creepy guys make these sexual advances
14:55
toward her, she's not like, well, I am a slut, so I guess I
14:59
guess I'll have sex with you. It's like she's a slut with
15:03
standards. Yes, with, absolutely with
15:05
standards. Yeah.
15:06
And as much as the guys will be leering, she'll be leering right
15:09
back. With this one totally.
15:12
Like her complete falling over Bob in this movie, which I love.
15:18
The character of Bob, as you know and doing research on this
15:23
film, you know a while back that he was literally ridden to be a
15:26
blonde bimbo. Yeah, he's a he's a himbo.
15:28
He's he, and he does it so perfectly.
15:32
And also I love that he's that he's named after Robert Redding,
15:40
her costume designer. Who?
15:42
Died of AIDS exactly. To whom this movie is dedicated.
15:45
Exactly. Such a such a lovely little bit
15:47
there. And you know too, just that
15:50
that, you know, Robert Redding was that they created the look
15:55
of Elvira together, that that was, you know, he was a makeup
16:00
artist and hair stylist who could just be like, no, what it
16:03
needs is this. So what it needs is this.
16:04
And you literally like what's great about this movie that
16:08
differs from the TV that we watched or even the commercials
16:12
or whatever. And you can really only get if
16:14
you bought a poster or something.
16:16
Elvira at the time was, there's such great close-ups of her
16:22
makeup, her eye makeup, just a little facets.
16:24
You just catch it sometimes. Like the script is fun, but it's
16:29
not deep. Yeah.
16:30
This is about as deep as a kitchen sink for sure.
16:37
But there's this moment where you might be kind of like last
16:40
being on. It's it's it's the busy work of
16:43
the other characters having to move the story along where
16:46
you're like, OK, that's fine. I kind of get it.
16:48
But let me just look at Elvira's, like, just the cut of
16:51
her eyebrows and her, like, eyeliner and just like
16:54
everything, like just meticulous and lovely.
16:57
And so, yeah, so amazing that she dedicated this whole film to
17:01
him, you know, after losing him, which this this comes at a
17:05
really nice like second point in the 80s.
17:09
It was 88 and 8485 was when we really started to lose a lot of
17:16
queer people from dying of AIDS. And obviously her running with
17:21
the ground lanes, running with the peewee circle like she was
17:25
obviously these were her best friends and cohorts.
17:29
And and so I just knew it was a world that she just lived in and
17:35
didn't take for granted. And so, you know, she became a a
17:40
superstar based on even before the movie, the movie was a
17:44
modest hit. It was not.
17:46
It was not. It was nothing to really write
17:49
home about. No, exactly, but it just it just
17:53
cemented the just the the the the personality that we just
17:57
like, don't and love. Oh yeah, of course.
18:00
And I think it's really beautiful how she took this she
18:05
took this movie as and made it just like a fuck you to the
18:10
moral, right? This group that like essentially
18:12
was just like letting her friends die.
18:15
And she was like, these people are bozos and we're going to
18:19
write a silly movie. About it.
18:21
And we're going to make fun of them.
18:22
And I think that it's so it's so refreshing to see somebody take,
18:28
I don't know, something that while this movie is deep as a
18:32
kitchen sink, the way that it really does address what's going
18:36
on in the current moment, but not in a heavy-handed way.
18:40
I think it's so. I don't know that like you said,
18:43
it's like there's so much love behind it.
18:45
Exactly. And, you know, it's it's a
18:47
definitely a film that you can watch today and get a lot of
18:51
like you'll find these films that are associated a bit with,
18:57
which is always very sad that we're still in this.
19:00
We're still, it's still about the moral majority and then
19:03
everyone else and always having to fight against that and, you
19:08
know, underdogs having to, to just really, you know, tooth and
19:14
nail their way out of every situation.
19:16
Right. But it's nice to apply the lens
19:20
of like, well, you know what I can plug into my inner Elvira.
19:24
Yeah. And pull myself up by the
19:28
bootstraps or the bra straps. In this case I was gonna say the
19:32
bootstraps. Really.
19:35
Yeah, and just like make it happen, you know, and I can you
19:39
can absolutely see were they to update this film today like that
19:44
she ends up on a in a in a mega town.
19:46
And you know, it's the same kind of thing that right, you know,
19:50
you don't have to, you know, when you name your your lead
19:55
covillain character, Chastity pariah, you know, like.
20:00
It's so much to work with Chastity Pryor, Marjorie Taylor
20:03
Green, whatever you want. To whatever you want to make
20:05
them interchangeable yes yeah, exactly.
20:08
Have you seen the the documentary about the making of
20:13
this movie, The 2 Macabre? I think you've seen a little too
20:17
some bits and pieces. Yeah, I haven't seen it, so I
20:19
was going to ask you if it's worth seeing, but.
20:22
I think it is. I mean, that was the nice thing
20:24
about projects at this time is someone was always recording
20:26
something. Yeah.
20:28
So there's so much behind the scenes of everything made in the
20:31
80s and 90s because it was just like, we're just doing all this,
20:34
right. Even before social media was
20:36
like a real thing. It's like, well, we got to
20:37
market the movie somehow, right? So the best way to do that is
20:41
it's this way. Yeah.
20:42
I can't remember where that doc ended up.
20:44
Like if it was through, I think it was made-up of pieces that
20:47
ended up on like a like bonus DVD kind of stuff or like the
20:52
tail end of the VHS tape. Yeah, that makes sense.
20:55
Yeah. So excited to read that.
21:00
She came out as sexually fluid in her memoir.
21:03
Yes, I forgot. I completely forgot about that.
21:05
Like I remember seeing it on Twitter and stuff and people
21:08
being like wow, this is awesome. But I was just like, so I was so
21:14
touched that she came forward about this like 20 year
21:18
relationship that she had with a woman and that she like had kind
21:24
of been hiding it because she felt like Elvira's sex appeal
21:29
was so like male centered and she was afraid of like how it
21:33
was going to impact that character and her brand and all
21:36
of that. But the fact that she was just
21:38
like, I mean, all of her fans are gay, so it's like everyone
21:42
was like, yeah. I feel, I feel like that's
21:44
absolutely the, the thought process she must have gone
21:47
through too. It's like, sure, she hit it for
21:49
20 years, 'cause, you know, I think 20 years ago the character
21:55
was at that point where it was not making the money that it had
22:00
once before. And, you know, not that she was
22:02
ever going to be forgotten, of course, by any means, but I can
22:08
understand as as like, you know, an actor and and a
22:11
businesswoman, like, yeah, there's, there's there's always
22:16
something to worry about, which I feel must have felt like a a
22:20
prison cell to her, you know, going through the queer
22:24
community. Yeah.
22:25
And, you know, this realization seems to have come very late in
22:28
life, which is great. That's fine.
22:30
Whenever you get there, that's great.
22:32
But then to be like, oh, my God, I thought we'd progress.
22:36
But now I have to consider right, like what coming out, or
22:40
at least being representative of the queer community could do to
22:45
this character. And.
22:47
Right. Although that's the that's the
22:49
really great thing about it is like Cassandra is very
22:52
different. Right.
22:53
Than than Elvira, I mean, they're they share a brain,
22:57
right but but they. Do share a brain.
23:00
It's like, you know, this wasn't about the character of Elvira
23:04
coming out, right? You know, I think Elvira as a
23:09
character is probably just as as lesbian as most women end up
23:16
being in like a Hammer vampire film or something like that.
23:19
It's like, well, it's just the thing to do.
23:21
It's just. Heteroflexible.
23:24
Exactly. It's the Catherine of Susan's
23:26
Sarandonness of like the hunger. It's like, well of course 2
23:29
beautiful women are just going to make out and, and, and just,
23:33
you know, touch each other's breasts.
23:34
A little bit, yeah. It's not gay.
23:36
Yeah, exactly. But I still, regardless of
23:40
Cassandra's leanings, I, I've, I, I've never thought Elvira
23:46
thought of anything more than than dudes.
23:50
Completely. And I think that while Elvira
23:55
does have these these pieces of Cassandra Peterson, you know,
23:59
like the Vegas showgirl of it all, hosting her own, like,
24:03
horror B movie commentary, she actually had said that she
24:08
figured out after playing Elvira for a while that she was Elvira
24:13
as a teenager. She said that she's a spastic
24:16
girl. I just say and feel.
24:19
I say what I feel. And people seem to enjoy it.
24:22
And I think that totally shows. She's like a weird little
24:26
teenager who's like kind of says whatever she wants and is like,
24:30
here I am. Yeah, I definitely think like
24:33
her. The teenage aspect is a majority
24:36
of the persona. Like I think about when she, she
24:42
kind of throws the fake crying fit when she finds all the kids
24:46
and none of them will hang out with her 'cause they're going to
24:48
get expelled if they're hanging out with her.
24:50
And she goes to the very model. And like the lines in this
24:56
movie, by the way, I recite at least 5 lines a week from this
25:01
film. It's like this movie and
25:03
Clueless has worked itself into my lexicon daily, weekly,
25:07
etcetera. But she just begins the whole
25:09
process of like, you know, you know, when when they talk about
25:14
me, you know, just tell them I was, I was more than just a
25:18
great set of boobs. I was also an amazing pair of
25:21
lines or or. When you talk about me, just
25:27
tell them that it's. Two simple words.
25:30
Yeah, 2 simple words. Any 2 will do as long as they're
25:33
simple. And then just, yeah, throwing
25:36
herself on the counter, just crying until they all come
25:39
around. And then she's like, oh, great,
25:41
yeah, lovely all. Right.
25:42
See you guys at See you guys at the theater.
25:44
But yeah, that it's it's a, it is the Valley girl, it is the
25:47
teenager. Just a lot of the, like, facial
25:49
expressions, that rolling of the eyes that, you know, just, yeah,
25:54
just so much of that around. But then there's the, like the
25:57
the hard woman who'd been through the business.
25:59
Yeah. Who'd been fucked around too
26:01
much. Yeah.
26:02
Who? Says I'm never working for that
26:04
sleaze ball again, but I'll just probably end up working for
26:06
another sleaze ball. Exactly one of my favorite
26:08
things. This was in the first, I guess
26:10
it's the 1st 10 minutes and it's after the opening credits when
26:14
she's driving to Falwell, Massachusetts and lands there is
26:20
when she runs to it, runs into Edie Mcclurg, their whole
26:24
exchange, which first of all is like, well, I never.
26:27
And she says, well, you never will with those soup cans on
26:29
your head. And then Edie says something
26:32
about her dress and she says, listen, if I want your opinion,
26:35
I'll beat it at you. And it's that that to me sets
26:40
the tone of so much of like, that's the the tough Elvira
26:44
dancing with the the teenage Elvira who, yeah, it's just so
26:51
amazing. Just makes this film so
26:53
fantastic. I feel like this movie, if she
26:55
wasn't already an adult woman, this movie really could be a
27:00
coming of age and her finding her power, like the power was
27:03
always within you. Like this sort of this sort of
27:06
like Wizard of Oz type message. Like it does really have that.
27:12
I don't know it has that twist to it, but she also is like a
27:15
fully formed person and a human adult.
27:17
Yeah, I mean, when I think about what age Elvira was supposed to
27:21
be in this period as Elvira, I always just pictured her as like
27:26
a 20, 4 year old. Yeah, very young.
27:31
And just like eternally, like whenever I see her, I'm, I was
27:33
like 24. Exactly because that is the gift
27:37
of being a vampire. Yes, you're ageless.
27:41
Yes, that's like her quality is that she's ageless.
27:44
She's timeless. She's also, you know, like our
27:47
Christmas movies, some of them she's associated with a holiday
27:51
and therefore she's relevant every year.
27:53
Yeah. You know, the Halloween and
27:56
Elvira combo, the combo that was always meant to be.
28:00
Yes. I mean, like, so she's kept up
28:03
her relevance that way and through this movie, of course,
28:08
and her character coming up every year around Halloween.
28:11
But of course it's good all year round because it is July and
28:15
we're talking about it today. Yep, Yep.
28:16
A. 100%. 100% I I did also love that this is just like a classic
28:28
fish out of water story and it starts off so, you know, it has
28:34
all the beats of just a normal fish out of water story.
28:37
It's you know, it's footloose. It's a someone coming to this
28:40
conservative town and being like, and you can't dance here.
28:43
You can't watch R rated movies here.
28:45
What's going on? Why don't you just live a
28:47
little? But then and then it's about
28:52
witchcraft. And then it's like the dog is a
28:54
familiar and she's like, but at the same time she's befriending
28:59
these teenagers. Like we're rooted in sort of
29:01
this, these like movie conventions and then or I guess
29:06
sort of these like the fish out of water conventions.
29:08
And then all of a sudden there's like there's a fight between a
29:15
witch and a warlock. Yep.
29:17
I mean, the movie peels back like a really good onion.
29:20
Yeah, you know, to on the surface, it's just a very simple
29:23
like whatever. And then you're like, Oh yeah,
29:25
we are in a horror film just like any of the horror films
29:28
that she would have had on her show, Right.
29:31
And it's. It's not going to be a great
29:34
script of a horror film. It's going to be just very
29:36
basic. It's.
29:38
But then, oops, I just ended up being in this place.
29:44
But yeah, there's just so many fantastic nuances with
29:47
everything from, you know, the revelation of of her powers, you
29:53
know, that she's had in her family from her mother and her
29:57
aunt. And, you know, there's the the
30:00
amazing. I will always remember the look
30:03
of the little baby Elvira at the orphanage already fully done up
30:08
in makeup and hair. Incredible.
30:12
Just born that way. Yeah.
30:14
Yeah. And.
30:17
Oh, God, I just forgot what I was going to say.
30:19
We were talking about her. Oh, yeah.
30:22
The horror comedy of it all. So I feel like I'm not very
30:28
familiar with horror comedies before this time.
30:32
I imagine that they I don't know if that's just a lack of my
30:35
knowledge or if horror comedy just wasn't really a genre up
30:38
until this point. It had been for many years
30:41
before, but I think definitely had taken a a downturn.
30:46
I'm only going back to like Abbott and Costello and then,
30:50
you know, meeting Dracula, Frankenstein, etcetera, the
30:53
various the various characters that they did.
30:57
It's always kind of been an interesting notion to me that
31:01
horror as a genre always had an, A callback of comedy in some
31:07
essence that if there wasn't, you know, for for every scream,
31:12
etcetera, there was a balance of Scary Movie, Yeah, to like, do
31:16
that stuff. Or there's a couple of fun
31:20
comedies from the 70s and early 80s.
31:23
There's Saturday the 14th. Oh, yeah.
31:27
Yeah. Which is less slasher movie
31:28
related and more just like spooky but funny.
31:31
Yeah. There's Student Bodies, which is
31:34
a spoof of slasher movies. OK.
31:37
And that's really fun. And then I just think, yeah,
31:40
there's just there's kind of been a light essence, you know,
31:44
it's that levity that's needed. Yeah, you know, in a genre
31:47
especially to do that. And yeah, this movie just
31:52
perfectly balances. I mean, it's it's Cassandra and
31:55
and John Paragon really working to keep Elvira just moving
32:01
through the set piece of this this wild horror comedy.
32:06
Totally and. Keep the the laughs rolling.
32:08
Yes, at a clip and at at every point when you think, oh, is it
32:12
gonna get dark, then she says some corny line.
32:15
And I mean that. I say corny with with love.
32:18
I love the, I love all the corny lines.
32:20
I love all the stupid little innuendos.
32:22
Like this movie is stupid in the best way.
32:25
You know what I mean? Yeah, I also, I like that in the
32:33
end she doesn't stay in the town like the typical like I think
32:39
what we would expect in most movies is that this this fish
32:43
out of water person, the town comes to apologize to her.
32:48
They want to take her in, they love her.
32:50
And then she in turn decides, oh, actually, we can just bridge
32:54
our differences and I'll stay here and be the hometown hero.
32:57
Instead, she says no thanks and she goes to Vegas to do what she
33:01
always was going to do. Exactly.
33:04
I mean, that's the whole thing. Pursue your dreams, you'll reach
33:08
them. And, you know, since this
33:09
ultimately is about the underdog, Yeah, making their way
33:13
through. I mean, it is.
33:15
It's not a cheat of an ending in that it's like, well, you
33:20
Vanquish the villain and because you're related, you're the only
33:22
person who gets his his estate, albeit that's kind of the same
33:28
logic that came to getting her to fall.
33:31
Well, right. You know, the the great Aunt
33:36
Morgana, and she says I didn't know I had a good aunt, much
33:39
less a great 1. So stupid.
33:46
I love it. And not only that, but in the
33:51
MO, this is where I think sometimes I'm like, is this
33:53
movie really how earnest is it? Is it earnest or is it really
33:58
just a spoof in many ways? Because she says, oh, my God,
34:03
can you like, imagine that timing just right in the nick of
34:06
time? This offer has come my way.
34:09
Like she spells it out in a way that is so funny in camp.
34:12
I'm like, well they did that on purpose, right?
34:16
Yeah, they're literally doodling on the screenplay of a bad
34:19
horror movie, Right? Yes.
34:20
Like, but what if. Yeah, exactly.
34:23
You know, it's the, it's the the, I mean, they came from the
34:26
ground lands. They came from improv.
34:27
It's the yes end. Yes, exactly.
34:30
Exactly. It's the Imagine a town ruled
34:33
this way with a warlock at its center and and this bubbly goth,
34:42
you know, vampire Valley girl shows up.
34:45
Yeah, it's like they said, OK, give us give us a few
34:48
suggestions. They said Goth Valley girl
34:51
witches and they said, OK, we'll make a movie.
34:57
And I also, I'm sorry. I just lost my train of thought
35:01
again. Dang it.
35:03
Oh, yeah, OK. I was also going to say that the
35:06
other piece that I think is really cute about Elvira, more
35:10
cute's not the right word. The thing that's important about
35:13
Elvira is that like she, even though she's conventionally hot,
35:20
she's she's like turning that she's turning that like hot girl
35:24
stereotype on its head by being a cool goth girl, but she's also
35:29
smart. Like the hot dumb girl can be
35:32
smart and clever. And I, I love to see that.
35:35
Yes, yes. It's not just like it's not just
35:38
like the traditional like dorks that are smart.
35:43
Like you can be hot and smart too.
35:45
She's it's essentially just like the perfect balance of like
35:49
everybody like, yeah, like smart enough to not be fooled by most
35:54
things, but also dumb enough to be like, oh, which we all are,
35:58
right. But it's like, you know, one of
36:00
my favorite sequences in the movie is when, which it's funny
36:04
because I always, my brain always goes into a timeline.
36:07
Yeah, which doesn't matter because we're in a movie.
36:09
But she has the midnight movie at the theatre, it's run, so
36:16
it's 90 minute runtime about we have to estimate.
36:18
So at that point it's almost 1:30 in the morning.
36:22
Then she has her dance sequence and then she gets tar and
36:25
feathered. Thinking the same and.
36:26
Then she goes home, and then she's got to soak in gasoline to
36:29
get the tar out right after the after Patty foils her.
36:33
Yeah. And I'm like, they're sitting on
36:35
the couch and it's got to be 3. AMI was thinking the same thing.
36:39
It's 4:00 AM at this point, yeah.
36:41
And mighty they do get to the end of, you know, the IT doesn't
36:44
happen on TV anymore, but the, like, station signing off, which
36:48
it was like a 4:00 AM kind of thing.
36:50
And then it's like, are you hungry?
36:52
I'm hungry. Let's like, yeah, it's like, all
36:54
right, now I'm going to cook dinner at 5:00 in the morning.
36:57
Anyway, like I said, that's irrelevant to the whole thing,
36:59
but exactly. But my brain always goes to it.
37:02
But anyway, the sequence where she decides to cook dinner out
37:06
of the recipe book and just the like, you know, these wild names
37:11
for these, you know, spell, you know, potions and things and
37:15
just go into the cabinet where the things are and just like
37:18
obviously pulling worms out of a jar and be like.
37:22
Yeah, like I've never made casserole before.
37:23
But just the it's a great and it's always love where she just,
37:27
she says, doesn't taste bad, but it looks like cockadooda and
37:31
then puts cheese whiz on it and then sits on a bag of potato
37:35
chips to add a little little crunch to the top.
37:38
I. Love it.
37:40
It's just, it's just such a great sequence of like her
37:45
silliness. I won't call it stupidity
37:47
because she's not right, just her absolute silliness to just
37:50
be like, here we go, we'll do this.
37:53
She's just kind of, it's kind of a yes.
37:55
And again, it's like she's like, well, that's what's in the book,
37:58
so I guess I'll do it. She also, I think her sexual
38:07
liberation was ahead of its time in many ways.
38:10
Like I think that the campiness of it was probably more
38:16
pronounced or like resonated more in the 80s when like the
38:20
the moral majority was more of A and like the Satanic panic of it
38:24
all was kind of more prevalent in that special 80s way.
38:30
But she's wearing what she wants to wear because she wants to
38:34
wear and not just for male attention.
38:38
She's trolling on these guys who are sleazy with her.
38:42
And like I was saying before, like she's a sexual being, but
38:44
she has standards. She rebukes people who are
38:47
creepy to her. And I just think that for the
38:51
80s, it was so, it was so ahead of its time.
38:56
And I kind of wonder if maybe maybe audiences needed a little
38:59
bit more time to resonate with it and maybe that's why it
39:04
gained more popularity later. But I don't know, just
39:08
speculation. I mean, definitely a feminist
39:10
icon, you know, from the start, like, you know, just putting out
39:15
there. That's who she was.
39:16
She's like, yeah, I like being sexy.
39:18
I feel good sexy. I'm gonna lead, you know,
39:22
cleavage out for everything. Like totally, you know, the
39:25
fact, you know, she really only has one outfit to wear
39:31
variations on it. I love I love that she has the
39:34
the dress with the slit. And then when she's going to do,
39:37
when they start to do repairs on the House, she puts on this kind
39:40
of like it's a black, black, like top and pants ish.
39:47
But they're also like tear away from the side, like they're just
39:51
linked by little, like loose chains or something.
39:55
But yeah, someone says something about her outfit.
39:57
And don't you ever wear anything?
40:01
Don't you ever wear anything nice?
40:03
And she goes, yeah, sometimes I like to wear something low cut
40:05
and sexy. Yeah.
40:10
That's the best. Yeah, but yeah, yeah, so many
40:13
things. This is the the the queer kid
40:17
watching this just being like, lady, you're amazing.
40:21
Yes, like every little thing in here that someone I can even I
40:24
love my parents. But well, my mom specifically
40:28
would have been the one to like walk by me watching this on TV
40:30
and been like, like, if is everything OK here?
40:36
Right. We just be like, what?
40:40
Yeah, what? My dad would of course be
40:41
appreciative from the back. Yeah, of course.
40:45
No, no, no, no, leave it on. Yeah.
40:47
Yeah, yeah. I just want to see what happens.
40:49
Yeah, that's like around the ish, same time ish.
40:54
I remember having HBO. And.
40:58
Every movie that came on HBOI remember seeing commercials for
41:02
The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas that it was going to be
41:05
playing on HBO, and I was definitely told I couldn't watch
41:12
it. Yeah, and I guess to that
41:16
effect, I didn't even really realize what a whorehouse was
41:18
like. Sure, yeah.
41:20
But I remember my dad watched it late at night on HBO and it was
41:26
after I'd gone to was supposed to have gone to sleep and I
41:29
snuck out of the room to like watch from the back of the couch
41:32
essentially this little whorehouse.
41:34
And Oh my God, just to add into the pile of of of these various
41:39
things, dealing with Dolly Parton, another amazing woman of
41:43
the time. Yeah, another amazing gay icon
41:46
with not just a great set of tits, but a great pair of legs
41:50
as well. Yes.
41:52
And songs. And songs don't forget.
41:55
But yeah, that was the thing. Yeah, Dolly was of the same era
41:58
as I'll wear what I want to wear.
42:02
My boobs are obviously big. Deal with it.
42:06
Yeah. Essentially what it is, and
42:08
I'll, I'll joke with you. I I know, I know what I have on
42:11
my body. I have it all the time.
42:13
Totally. I know that I'm a sexy dumb
42:16
blonde, but totally I'm in on the joke too.
42:18
And that's actually, we're going to get around to it with Elvira
42:22
totally in on the joke. And that was the whole point.
42:25
Is exactly is. There.
42:28
There isn't 1 moment that we're worried about Elvira.
42:32
We're worried that she's going to make it out of the situation
42:34
OK when she's been tied to the stake and they're going to set
42:37
her on fire, OK? What's going to happen?
42:39
With the Girl Scouts roasting marshmallows at the fire.
42:42
Exactly. Incredible.
42:43
But you know, as, as a character, we're just like, but
42:47
we, she, she's just going to make it through.
42:49
She makes it through everything else in this world.
42:51
Right, she's just going to figure it out.
42:54
Yeah, her superpower is herself. And that's the thing, she's
42:58
always had the power within her. She saves herself.
43:01
Like Bob is there to support her.
43:04
He's there because she wants him, but not because she needs
43:08
him, not because she needs to be rescued by him.
43:11
Like she's the one that does it herself.
43:14
I mean, I guess her aunt also, you know, revealed that power to
43:19
her, but it wasn't that she, like, bestowed it on her.
43:22
She always had it, but then she becomes aware of it.
43:25
Yeah, like ultimately, I mean, we see, Yeah, Bob tries to help
43:28
her, Gonk tries to help her, you know, and Morgana from the
43:33
afterlife is trying to help her. But at the very end, the only
43:36
things that really get her through at the end of the film
43:39
are her quick wits on and Yep, in the moment, it's tripping and
43:44
falling in the graveyard and then using her stiletto heel to
43:48
throw into Uncle Vinny. Uncle Vinny, his forehead and
43:55
then, you know, the whole thing in the house, fighting with him
43:59
and severing his hand and getting the ring off the hand
44:02
and just everything. She's she's like, Nope, I'm not
44:04
going down this way. I'm going to make it out of here
44:07
a lot. I'm not a victim.
44:09
I'm not going to burn up in this house before I get to go to
44:11
Vegas. Right.
44:11
She's she's got her eyes on Vegas.
44:14
That's what she needs to do. Exactly, Yeah.
44:17
I I wonder, Keith, if you so Bob, he he runs the movie
44:22
theater. He picks the movies just like
44:24
you. Yeah.
44:25
And I also got I just got to say I love that he's hot and dumb.
44:29
That's like just how I like him. But let's say the moral majority
44:35
comes over, they take over the sea and they say you can only
44:39
run G rated movies. Would you quit or would you make
44:44
the most of it? I would tell them no, there's
44:47
nothing wrong with G rated movies.
44:48
Sure, as long. As there's plenty of sex and
44:50
violence. I mean, I'm someone who I would,
44:56
oh, I would push back the hell around that, you know, But I
45:01
work for a nonprofit, so we have a board, and thankfully the
45:07
board is not like the Marble Geordie.
45:12
Not like the town council. No, not at all, not at all.
45:14
And Falwell, but you know, the the benefit I have is I have the
45:20
trust of a lot of people and right sort of keeping that up
45:23
and yeah. They kind of gave Bob that job
45:26
because they were like, well, someone has to do the job and
45:29
you have these impossible parameters.
45:31
He doesn't know anything about movies.
45:33
He's just kind of just kind of there.
45:37
I do love in that movie, too, where she, Alvira criticizes him
45:41
for having an extra E in matinee.
45:43
And I'm like, no, no, no, no. You're correct.
45:46
Or he's correct. Yeah, she's like, I work in the
45:49
movies, duh. It's like, no, you're about to
45:52
put Mateen. Mateen on the.
45:55
Marquee. Yeah, I know.
45:58
I was really surprised that Bob knew how to spell matinee the
46:01
correct way. So, you know, maybe he's full of
46:04
surprises. Maybe he is too.
46:06
Yeah, but I guess if I'm trying to think of some of my favorite
46:12
G rated movies, and I got to admit, it's hard.
46:16
I mean, we just got to look at, you know, Disney flicks exactly
46:20
the age of or I mean, yeah, we'll go with like Fox and the
46:25
Hound or sure, you know, Aladdin or I guess the question is when
46:29
did those start becoming PG? Right?
46:32
Is the the essence Aladdin was probably APG movie?
46:36
Probably we have to look at Elvira Brush in the Dark as
46:39
being APG 13 film right of the time.
46:41
Yeah. Which was that whole new rating
46:43
system from like 8485? Yeah.
46:48
But yeah, always interesting balance of morals in those early
46:53
movies and what constituted too much.
46:58
Right. You know, this movie, and I mean
47:01
like beautifully fits within the the parameters of PG13 by just
47:06
using innuendo the whole time. Like you can't say that.
47:11
How's your head? I haven't had any complaints yet
47:14
Is explicitly, you know, about sex because it's innuendo.
47:20
So I mean that really, I think saved this movie from being
47:24
rated R and no one being able to see it.
47:27
But weirdly, even the the tameness of that, yeah, that
47:31
innuendo is cost the film the the presence of Vincent Price
47:39
because he he the the role of Uncle Vincent was written for
47:43
him. Right.
47:44
Yeah. And he, though appreciative of
47:48
Elvira, thought the movie was too racy.
47:51
Yeah. For him to be in it.
47:53
Right. Which is really kind of sad,
47:55
especially because there there's a period of Vincent Price's
47:58
career where, I mean, he never really played an innuendo, but
48:02
he did some horror comedies that lightly touched on that stuff.
48:07
And it's like, you wouldn't have lost.
48:09
In fact, you would have gained a whole new generation of people
48:13
if you could have gone toe to toe with Elvira.
48:15
Yeah. But I don't know if it was the
48:18
the notion of like, you know, when she's talking to to Uncle
48:22
Vincent at his car and Jesse Pryor thinks that he's
48:27
soliciting Elvira. Right.
48:29
Yeah. Oh my God, that was so funny.
48:31
Yeah. I'll do it for 50 bucks, yeah.
48:38
And yeah, so that is always a question of like, oh, what could
48:43
have been if Vincent Price had gotten to to be in this film.
48:47
You know, unfortunately, he passed away very shortly after
48:51
this movie came out. But I guess he got in his last
48:55
touch with Edward Scissorhands as his his final role, which is
49:00
fitting. Interestingly enough, I don't
49:02
know if you know this from research, is that Elvira wanted
49:07
Tim Burton. Yeah, I was gonna this movie, I
49:09
was gonna ask you, if you like, what impact do you think it
49:12
would have made if Tim Burton had ended up directing this
49:15
movie? I mean because he was busy with
49:16
Beetlejuice. Yeah, Beetlejuice at the time.
49:19
But obviously Elvira was like you did, you did Pee Wee's big
49:23
Adventure, right? And like, that's how I picture
49:26
this movie. It's like my friend Paul Rubens
49:29
got to be in this amazing leap from the TV to the screen movie,
49:33
and I want the exact same thing. And I think he could have
49:37
absolutely pulled it off, right. I mean, that's The thing is
49:39
there isn't too. There's not a lot, right, like
49:45
as a director. And that's probably why it
49:48
worked with the director that they did go with, who had a huge
49:52
career directing episodes and scenes in Saturday Night Live,
49:56
right? Yeah, for decades.
49:58
And he did a lot of the parody commercials when they started
50:00
filming those separate from doing it live.
50:04
I think she picked someone who who got it, who understood
50:07
everything, right. And I guess the question is, is
50:09
like, what style elements would Tim Burton have brought to it,
50:13
right? You know, would it have been a
50:15
lot more gothy? Would it have been a lot more
50:18
super stylized? Like, probably.
50:22
Like, I can only imagine that the residents of Falwell would
50:25
look a lot more particularly. They probably look like
50:29
conservatives of like the 60s. Versus the. 80s and Elvira
50:34
probably would have gotten to put on some other outfits that
50:38
are a little bit more interesting and intense.
50:42
But I think the job was served perfectly well.
50:45
Yeah. By the director at hand.
50:47
And, you know, just like with Vincent Price, it's just what
50:50
what could have been. It probably wouldn't have been a
50:53
better film. Yeah.
50:54
But just a different one. And just with a little touch of
50:57
everything. I think the actor and I always
50:59
forget his name because he's one of those like three name people
51:02
almost. Like.
51:04
Yeah. The one who ended up playing
51:06
Uncle Vincent, Yes, Yeah. Not, not really Bobby Brown, but
51:09
you know, right? But but that basically, yeah.
51:13
I think he puts in a fine performance.
51:15
He's he's got all the the great anger and gruff of a of a
51:18
frustrated warlock who has to deal with.
51:21
Totally. This entity that comes into his
51:23
town that mess everything up, right.
51:27
And I think it's great. Yeah.
51:29
So. Yeah, yeah.
51:30
I also thought, like, OK, it makes sense that this director
51:34
is used to that. Like, most of his work has been
51:38
like, spoofs, satire. It just kind of, to me, it made
51:43
sense. And I felt like, yeah, it was
51:44
good enough. Yeah, yeah.
51:47
It didn't need to be great around it.
51:50
It really needed to just serve the purpose of providing a
51:54
silver platter for Elvira to rest on and just be served to
52:00
the American public and the world.
52:02
Yeah. Beyond that and to that effect,
52:05
absolutely perfect. Yeah.
52:06
Like, yeah. And this wasn't an era where it
52:09
was a lot more popular for ATV character or even like an SNL
52:13
character, another improv character to move from TV or the
52:18
stage to a feature film. And I feel like, I mean, and I
52:23
feel like I hardly ever see that anymore in the way that we did
52:26
in the 80s and 90s, you know? Yeah, And, you know, to tie it
52:30
back to Saturday Night Live, that probably was the last
52:33
bastion of jumping from the screen to screen to screen was
52:38
the various characters from SNL, from Totally Wayne's World to
52:42
Night at the Roxbury to Coneheads to just all these
52:47
different things. But I think in the essence of
52:52
those, and why most people complained about a lot of those
52:54
SNL jumps, was that those characters were only ridden for
52:58
sketches. And Elvira had just created an
53:03
entire persona, a whole world for this character that she
53:08
could walk into any situation and be fine and.
53:11
Say, what would Elvira do? Exactly, and I don't know if
53:13
you've ever seen the sequel to this film.
53:16
I actually haven't seen it. Yeah, Elvira's Haunted Hills.
53:21
It's not the best. Yeah.
53:23
Part of that is I think I feel like John Paragon wasn't part of
53:29
it, and I think Alvira had too much of a hand having to
53:35
executive produce. So I feel like it became one of
53:38
those films that I see very often, which is like, the star
53:43
ends up having to put in more of the money and more of the
53:46
effort, and they get distracted, right, trying to make sure the
53:50
project happens. She's not performing on the
53:54
Vegas stage. She's raising $50,000 to self
53:57
fund her new. It's her new show exactly.
54:01
We've seen it time and time again.
54:03
And she puts a fine, you know, she does.
54:10
She does Elvira great in this film, which is I think it came
54:13
out circular like 2002, something like.
54:16
That yeah, I was going to say it was sometime in the early 2000s.
54:18
Yeah, 2001, 2002, which was, you know, 1214 years different from
54:25
the Salvira. But there's a pacing that I have
54:30
that is had a problem in that sequel.
54:32
And I think that's the whole thing, a lot of what what makes
54:36
the rat a tat tat of all the innuendo and this just essence
54:40
of Elvira just moving through the world is comic timing.
54:44
And I think that the director and everyone just got that.
54:49
And so the movie is just there's beats and edits and everything
54:53
just flows. And I think the problem with
54:54
Elvira's Haunted Hills is that there isn't.
54:58
I don't know that the people involved got that.
55:01
So it just kind of sits heavy sometimes jokes and innuendos
55:06
are left kind of hang in the air versus really like clip and hit.
55:11
And that one's more of her her actual take on on Hammer horror
55:16
films, British Hammer horror film.
55:18
So she's like it's a castle drama, castle horror film drama
55:23
and there's just something about it that doesn't work 100%.
55:27
She's fine in it. But if you if you want to just
55:30
remember one amazing Elvira film performance, it really is just
55:35
this one. Yeah, totally.
55:36
What did you think about her? Like Netflix and Hulu specials
55:41
like in more recent years. I thought those are great.
55:45
Yeah. I mean, because it was getting
55:46
back to the movie macabre stuff where she's just like playing
55:52
around with films like. Totally.
55:54
You know, I'm a I'm a big sucker for talking over movies.
55:57
Me too, which is a world that as a programmer, I worked with some
56:05
local comedians who did a really great program called Mile High
56:09
sci-fi back in the day where they just, they did comedy over
56:15
over a film. But most of that as distributors
56:19
got like cold feet about the the right or wrong of what it is to
56:27
put something over somebody else's work without their
56:30
permission per SE. So they stopped permitting the
56:34
rights to show films if you were going to talk over them.
56:37
So they started did this kind of like, yeah, this just, it just
56:43
wasn't for them anymore. But but in the essence of where
56:48
Avira comes from, like a lot of those movies are public domain,
56:51
right? So no one really has the rights.
56:53
And because they're public domain and most of them are were
56:56
shot for $20.00, right? It just it's more ripe for the
57:01
the comedy, for the takedown, for certainly.
57:04
More discussed. Exactly.
57:08
Yeah. And I think that, you know, she
57:09
kind of like, I think Elvira today has definitely, she
57:14
survived a lot and she's moved through so many aspects of the
57:18
industry. She's come out on top the whole
57:21
time. And I think like the recent call
57:23
back to these movie macabre films was really to kind of
57:27
bring things full circle to remind the younger generation of
57:30
the last few years. Like there was a thing there
57:33
used to be like this, you know, these old movies that you
57:37
probably don't ever want to watch.
57:38
Like, yeah, you don't want to watch them because they most
57:40
likely are bad, right? But I used to talk over them and
57:44
used to be fun. And I remember when Elvira kind
57:50
of announced that she was retiring Elvira, just before the
57:56
pandemic hit, right? Being kind of really sad about
58:01
that. And, you know, the fact that I'd
58:02
never gotten to go to Knott's Scary Farm and see her show and
58:08
any of those things. And then what I was appreciated
58:12
about Cassandra Peterson was that when the pandemic hit and
58:17
everyone's in lockdown and 2020 was just really being a jerk.
58:22
Yeah, to say the least is that she brought Elvira back.
58:28
Yeah, she knew we she said. You guys need this?
58:30
Yeah, she knew that like, people smiled because of her, that
58:34
people really just like wanted that.
58:38
And for whatever reasons that she set forth to retire from
58:44
that she really couldn't. That she owed it to all of us
58:48
and and the world to at least let Elvira like make her way
58:54
through COVID to kind of give her give her stamp of of what
59:01
what that was like. Right.
59:02
And then and then after that, you know, it seems that that
59:07
where she's taken is, you know, she got her book out.
59:10
We wrote a memoir, and that was fantastic.
59:12
Yeah. You know, let us see all aspects
59:14
of you and your new the, the, the second part of your life
59:18
that you're going forward with makes us appreciate her even
59:21
more, especially in the queer community coming out in that
59:24
way. Absolutely.
59:26
But it seems like Cassandra is definitely kind of retired,
59:29
quietly retired, Elvira, at this point.
59:31
And I think that's probably the right thing to do, is quietly do
59:34
it. I agree.
59:35
I agree. You know, when she goes to all
59:37
the conventions now, she shows up as Cassandra and yeah, and
59:42
probably saves. Like Elvira can come out again,
59:45
I'm sure, for the right dollar amount.
59:48
And I'm like, that's great. Like.
59:50
Keep the demand coming and you will get your check.
59:56
Exactly. I mean, that's the the whole
59:58
thing with RuPaul's like RuPaul. Oh.
1:00:00
Yeah. Will anytime they have to get
1:00:03
into drag, they will do 45,000 things?
1:00:06
Yeah, to make more money while they're in drag so that they
1:00:10
don't have to kind of fall back on that.
1:00:13
Right. Doing the thing they did that
1:00:15
already. They did the the schedule of
1:00:18
every day for, you know, for four weeks, right?
1:00:21
You get up, you get to the makeup chair, you sit and you
1:00:23
get all the stuff ready together for hours.
1:00:26
You sit in the uncomfortable shoes, they push up bra, the
1:00:29
uncomfortable dress, yeah, yeah, everything.
1:00:31
And you just do it and you do it and you do it.
1:00:33
And then they do it all over again, like they put in their
1:00:36
time and so. I absolutely agree because it's
1:00:40
like, I imagine that the pandemic hit, even though she
1:00:44
kind of retired Elvira before the pandemic, I imagine the
1:00:47
pandemic hit and she said, I like sitting at my house wearing
1:00:53
my normal regular degular clothes and I could get used to
1:00:57
this, you know, and good for her.
1:01:01
And I and I also agree that, like, quietly retiring Elvira is
1:01:05
a better way to go because it doesn't.
1:01:08
I think that it would be honestly too sad if there was
1:01:11
like, a funeral for Elvira, you know?
1:01:14
And also, she's got to keep the door open to bring her back.
1:01:19
I mean, Speaking of RuPaul, I mean, she was a guest judge.
1:01:22
I think I was before the pandemic, though, maybe.
1:01:25
Yeah. Yeah.
1:01:25
I think she'd been on twice before, isn't?
1:01:27
It OK, yeah. Yeah, but she was a judge on one
1:01:32
of my best friends who was on that show, Evie oddly, who ended
1:01:36
up winning a best. Friend of yours is Evie, oddly.
1:01:39
Yeah, just kinda. That was supposed to be a slam
1:01:44
shut dramatic. Me gasping.
1:01:48
Evie, oddly, is your best friend.
1:01:50
Oh my God. And I will always remember that
1:01:56
Elvira paid a huge compliment to Evie.
1:02:00
I can't remember if it was to her face or it was in the
1:02:03
discussion after a runway. Yeah.
1:02:06
But it was Evie, it was a, it was a Yep, the runway challenge
1:02:14
was a ball, and it was a Halloween ball.
1:02:18
And one of Evie's outfits was you had to, like, drag up a
1:02:24
child's basic, like, Halloween costume, right?
1:02:28
And so Evie did dinosaur. And Evie put Dino feet on on top
1:02:39
of high heels. Yeah.
1:02:42
And Elvira, like, called that out and was like, that's one of
1:02:45
the smartest things I've ever seen anyone do in training.
1:02:50
And he like went Elvira, mistress of the Dark, Queen of
1:02:54
Drag herself. I was just going to ask, do you
1:02:56
think Elvira is a drag? Queen, 0100.
1:02:59
Percent. OK, great.
1:02:59
Me. Too it's I'm glad we didn't.
1:03:01
Anytime you have to, you have to put on a character.
1:03:06
Yes, Top to bottom, you are doing drag.
1:03:09
Yeah, that's what that all is. I mean, we're doing drag every
1:03:11
day, just putting clothes on. We're all, we're all born as a
1:03:14
drag, as a. Drag queen, yes, As an ultimate
1:03:18
layer of that, yeah, she is. But gladly.
1:03:21
Agree. But yeah, the fact that I just
1:03:24
always will remember, like the thought I was very, I was, I was
1:03:27
very proud of Evie, of course, for that entire season.
1:03:29
Yeah, but I was particularly proud.
1:03:33
When your icon complimented your.
1:03:36
Yes, and it and it wasn't just so like, oh, that was great.
1:03:39
It was like I am telling you like looking at a camera.
1:03:43
I am telling you that what she just did was one of the smartest
1:03:45
things I've ever seen anyone do in drag, ever.
1:03:48
And that is really saying something.
1:03:51
Exactly when I reset. God that's amazing.
1:03:54
Can you imagine getting a compliment like that from
1:03:56
someone like that? I know.
1:03:58
I would just pass it. I would pass it away.
1:04:01
Yeah, you'd. Find me in the underworld, babe,
1:04:05
because I would be passed away. I will say, too, I was looking
1:04:10
at social media the other day and saw we had the Fan Expo come
1:04:14
through town, and Cassandra Peterson was here for that.
1:04:17
Yeah. And then I saw on social media
1:04:18
that she's like, I'm at Casa Bonita and I just know that if I
1:04:23
had been at Casa Bonita and Cassandra Peterson came walking
1:04:25
in with an enchilada, I that would literally would have been
1:04:29
a pass away. Like I would have just been
1:04:31
like, I can't. I can't, I can't go on living
1:04:33
it. It doesn't get any better than
1:04:35
this. It's all downhill from here.
1:04:37
Exactly. God, that's so cool that she was
1:04:40
here. And I mean, I guess like you
1:04:44
said, she was here for a number of years earlier in.
1:04:47
Her life, right? So we.
1:04:49
She does call Colorado Springs like a a home of hers.
1:04:53
I think she's always happy to come back here.
1:04:55
I definitely know it's still in my strategic plan to find some
1:04:59
way to bring Cassandra to the Sea Film Center.
1:05:03
Absolutely. Some aspect I know I think you
1:05:05
can't really show. I don't think they let you show.
1:05:09
Elvira Miss the Dark on screen unless she's there with it.
1:05:14
Well, what a perfect excuse to get her there.
1:05:17
That was kind of the MO for the rights, at least like a decade
1:05:20
or so ago. She had, she had taken it all
1:05:23
back, OK, like brought it all to her and you had to work with her
1:05:26
company to screen it. But then you also had to be
1:05:28
like, you have to invite her out.
1:05:30
Right, of course. And and yeah, so wow.
1:05:34
Someday soon. So thoughts and prayers
1:05:36
Cassandra Peterson consider becoming AC film member?
1:05:41
It's only what, like $60.00 a? Year yeah, $60.00 a year.
1:05:44
Easy, come on. And then?
1:05:46
I'll name we'll name of the Elvira Film Center if you.
1:05:50
A. Few $1,000,000, but I'd like you
1:05:52
to enjoy the what you have in reserve right now for your long
1:05:56
career. Absolutely.
1:05:57
But no, like give a little donation and we'll we'll name
1:06:00
the what would we name of what? What part of the Film center
1:06:04
could we name? I think that you could, you
1:06:06
could name like the bar and lobby after her, like the the
1:06:10
Elvira bar. I mean, we could come up with
1:06:12
something a little bit like. Well, I was probably trademarked
1:06:14
and there'd probably be a whole lot of things about that, but
1:06:16
the Cassandra Peterson Lounge. Yes, the Cassandra Peterson
1:06:19
Lounge, or maybe one of the theaters.
1:06:22
It's like you have Theatre One, Theatre 2, Theatre Cassandra
1:06:26
Peterson. I mean, that could be fun.
1:06:31
I was just thinking of theater 2 as in like theater 2 boobs an
1:06:35
amazing. And an amazing pair of legs.
1:06:40
Oh my gosh. Well, we've covered a lot today.
1:06:42
Is there anything else that we haven't covered that you want to
1:06:45
be sure that we talk about? I think that's about it.
1:06:48
I mean, if you've never seen, I guess we should just put this
1:06:51
call to everybody. You've never seen that virus.
1:06:53
It's the dark, the movie. What the hell is wrong with you?
1:06:57
It's like, go do it right now. I know it is available.
1:07:01
It's free on Tubi. Free on TV is where everybody
1:07:03
finds everything. You gotta watch a couple
1:07:05
commercials, but they're fine. It's worth it.
1:07:07
It's only a 90 minute movie anyway.
1:07:08
Exactly. The commercials, it ends up
1:07:09
being like, you know, less. It's still less than two hours.
1:07:12
Exactly. But no, like your life will be
1:07:15
so improved, yes, by just watching how viral misses the
1:07:19
dark. And yeah, that's just all I can
1:07:24
say. You can't stop smiling when
1:07:26
you're watching that movie. Exactly.
1:07:28
It's it's no notes, it's it's a near perfect film.
1:07:32
Yep, aged basically perfectly. Aged perfectly.
1:07:36
It aged perfectly. Like Elvira herself, like
1:07:39
Cassandra Peterson. Exactly.
1:07:41
It sure aged well. Yeah, and I guess, I guess you
1:07:45
know, case closed. Open and shut.
1:07:47
Let's go. Do do.
1:07:50
Do do well, Keith, thank you so much for coming on the show.
1:07:55
This has been such a delight and such a fun, such a fun excuse to
1:07:59
rewatch this movie and to talk about how much we love it for an
1:08:03
hour. So.
1:08:04
Absolute pleasure, thanks for inviting me so we could talk
1:08:06
about Elvira. Yeah.
1:08:09
All right. Well, we'll see you next time,
1:08:11
OK? All right, can't wait.
1:08:12
OK, Bye everybody.