Choice 8x10-inch black and white portrait, shown casting her ballot for the Night-Mayor of Hollywood in her prime, boldly signed in blue felt-tip marker, using her real and character names, in her later years. The alter ego of Finnish-American actress Maila Nurmi was Vampira, the black-clad, buxom, wasp-waisted horror hostess of the 1950s who made a handful of film appearances, perhaps most memorably in Ed Wood's Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959).

• Tweet