Live Stream with Cassandra Peterson: Yours Cruelly, Elvira on Oct 25

I've signed up for this and am excited to participate! Did you know that one of our local realtors is a cousin of hers? #localconnection

Tattered Cover is Pleased to welcome Cassandra Peterson to discuss her legendary new memoir, Yours Cruelly, Elvira. This will be a virtual event on Monday, October 25th at 7pm MT.

Description

**Instant New York Times Bestseller, Los Angeles Times Bestseller, USA Today Bestseller, Publishers Weekly Bestseller**

The woman behind the icon known as Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, the undisputed Queen of Halloween, reveals her full story, filled with intimate bombshells, told by the bombshell herself.

On Good Friday in 1953, at only 18 months old, 25 miles from the nearest hospital in Manhattan, Kansas, Cassandra Peterson reached for a pot on the stove and doused herself in boiling water. Third-degree burns covered 35% of her body, and the prognosis wasn't good. But she survived. Burned and scarred, the impact stayed with her and became an obstacle she was determined to overcome. Feeling like a misfit led to her love of horror. While her sisters played with Barbie dolls, Cassandra built model kits of Frankenstein and Dracula, and idolized Vincent Price.

About the Author

Cassandra Peterson was born in Manhattan, Kansas, and raised in Colorado Springs, Colorado. At age 17, she began performing as a showgirl at the Dunes Hotel in Las Vegas, then traveled to Europe where she pursued a career as a singer and actor. Upon returning to the states, Peterson toured America as star of her own musical-comedy show, Mama’s Boys. She eventually settled in Hollywood, where she spent four years with L.A.’s foremost improvisational comedy group, The Groundlings. In 1981, she auditioned for the part of “horror hostess” on a local Los Angeles station. That show, Movie Macabre, and her newly created character, Elvira, became an overnight sensation and gained national syndication. Peterson also co-wrote, produced, and starred in two feature length films: Elvira, Mistress of the Dark and Elvira’s Haunted Hills. She has spent four decades solidifying her unique brand and building it into an internationally recognized pop culture icon synonymous with Halloween and the horror genre.

**Important Event Information**
-- This is a ticketed, live stream event
-- A link will be emailed to you ~24 hours before the event.
-- Tickets are limited to one ticket per email address.
-- Attendees will be sent a link to join the live stream at least 30 minutes prior of the event via email
-- Presentation begins at 7:00pm MT
-- The event will last about one hour but the official end time of this event is an estimate
-- Event registration/tickets are available online ONLY, through Eventbrite. Tickets will not be sold in-store or through our website.
-- If you purchased a book, it will be mailed via media mail after the event

Buy Tickets
Book with Ticket & Shipping
$34.00+$2.69 Fee+$3.23 Sales Tax

It was fun! She's so down-to-earth and relatable. And hard to believe she's 70! She's freaking gorgeous.

She talked about writing a follow-up to Elvira: Mistress of the Dark, but it just never happened. She said she's probably never going to portray the character of Elvira again, but she'd love to do a documentary about her life/character, and possibly a musical (how fun would that be?) and she expects that Elvira will live on long after her.

One of the highlights I learned was that not only was she a big fan of Elvis, but she met him not long after she moved to Vegas and started working as a showgirl (she was 17 at the time). Elvis told her she was far too young for that life and she should get out, and also that she should stay away from drugs (ironic given what happened to him). She took his advice to heart, and it led her on the path to becoming Elvira. She said if she hadn't, she'd probably be the oldest showgirl in Vegas right now.

She and Vincent Price became pen pals after meeting at an award show or some horror project. They saw each other at a lot of horror-themed functions where she invariably would be introducing him, or he, her. (The photo on the shelf behind her is of him and her).

One of her biggest starstruck moments was meeting Jimmy Hendrix at a concert in Denver. During the concert the crowd got rowdy and she ended up getting hit in the head with a tear gas canister and knocked out. After being helped by paramedics, she ended up in an area where she was invited back stage and got to hang out with him for some time. They parted on a kiss (she said he was an incredible kisser), and he gave her his number to call him but for some reason she never did and and never saw him again.

She was not the first horror hostess, that title went to actress Maila Nurmi for creating the character Vampira in the 50s. When Cassandra first took on the role of a horror hostess, the TV station/studio has licensed the rights to the name Vampira and had her meet with Maila. Maila was adamantly against Cassandra as her "successor" because she didn't want a comedic actress. Sadly, she went on to make Cassandra's life a living hell for many, many years (it sounded like she even hired guys to beat her up in a dressing room once), when all Cassandra was trying to do was audition for a role and get a job. Maila died in 2008 and Cassandra did hear from one of her relatives sometime after saying Maila regretted how she'd treated her.

While Elvira the character has a reputation for being promiscuous, she herself never was. When she got married and had a daughter, she didn't talk about it because she didn't think her fans would want to think of Elvira as being a mom and wife. Same for when she started her current long-term relationship with her partner.

She spoke at length about the 70s gay club scene and the AIDS epidemic when it started. She said it was such different times, everyone was just out having fun and enjoying life. When friends started getting sick and dying, it was heartbreaking and frustrating seeing it happen to so many and it be ignored for so long. She worries about this generation not having that historical perspective and not being safe enough these days, blowing off contracting HIV because there are drug treatments (which have serious side effects and are not a cure).

Her favorite TV to watch is straight up real-life documentaries.

There's a lot more in her new book about her family, other celebrities, and how she established and got control of her brand. She said it was a long time coming, and very cathartic to write. I'm looking forward to reading it!