I bought this book a few weeks ago thinking I had found myself another neat example of Vampira illustrative goodness. Yep, right there on the back cover of Esquire's Handbook for Hosts, sandwiched between Clifton Webb and a goofy grinning Groucho Marx caricature, (and hovering above some tasty hunks of toothpick impaled party cheeses too, no less), wearing her trademark crimson lips, inclinating eyebrows, and ghostly, blood-drained pallor, --why, this looks to be every bit of Maila Nurmi's famous, midcentury, KABC-TV horror hostess, Vampira. There's only one catch-- this book was published in 1949, and Vampira wasn't created until 1954. So who the heck exactly was cover illustrator L. J. Allen caricaturing here then?! The interior of the book provides no information, and when I put the isolated image into a Google search engine, it delivers wildly random hits for Tallulah Bankhead, Katy Jurado, Caroll Borland, Yvonne DeCarlo, Jean Brooks, and silent screen queen, Theda Bara. But none of these seem even remotely correct either. And while Charles Adams did indeed do work for Esquire, his Morticia Addams character was strictly for The New Yorker-- plus, this doesn't really resemble the Morticia comic character's sleek uniqueness anyway. The truth is, it only resembles one person on planet Earth, and that's Vampira. If anyone has a clue to this Hollywood mystery, we'd sure love to hear it! And don't say Bette Davis, --she's already featured on the back cover in pearls!
6 comments:
This is one heckuva mystery you’ve unearthed! Was L. J. Allen a time traveler? Would Vampira approve of those levitating cheese cubes in her bosom? What ARE “male-slanted food recipes”??? (If I’m reading that right, and I sincerely hope I am.) This book already has me fascinated and I haven’t even gotten to canapé #1 of 316!
It's a stretch, because the eyebrows don't seem quite right, but how about Sylvia Sydney? Compare this picture: https://nl.pinterest.com/pin/504614333222089544/
(Worried that my previous post got suppressed because I tried to post an image URL) It's a stretch, because the eyebrows don't look right, but maybe it's Sylvia Sydney?
Well, save your appetite after #316, because the crostinis, pinchos, and bruschettas are still a'comin'! If you couldn't tell, I love teeny toast treats!
That's as good a guess as any, I guess! Buuut I'm gonna say no...
I feel like the answer to this is gonna be found in the dark hair / exaggerated eyebrows. And probably no one as exotic as Lupe Velez, nor as obvious as Gene Tierney... it's possible she's not even an actress, it may even be a singer of the era
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