Published in 2021
305 pages
10 hours and 42 minutes
Cassandra Peterson has carved out a niche in popular culture that will endure for generations to come as Elvira, Mistress of the Dark. Her reign as the Queen of Halloween has now spanned 38 years and includes two nationally syndicated television series, two feature films, and an IMAX movie. She has appeared in national ad campaigns for Pepsi and Coors, recorded five albums, and licensed over a thousand products including pinball machines, action figures, jewelry, clothing, guitars, four comic book series, her own beer, wine, soda, perfume, slot machines, and the best-selling female Halloween costume of all time. Cassandra has made hundreds of film, television, and live appearances, including The Grammy Awards, Saturday Night Live, The Tonight Show, two MTV Specials, Monday Night Football, NBC’s Today Show, The Tournament of Roses Parade, Scooby Doo (as an animated character), and reality shows — Search for the Next Elvira, Celebrity Ghost Stories, Oddities, Counting Cars, Face Off, Halloween Wars, Storage Wars, and Ru Paul’s Drag Race. Most recently, she co-wrote, produced, and starred in 13 Nights of Elvira. She published three young adult horror novels with Penguin in the late 90s and self-published a ”coffin” table book with Colebank Publishing in 2017. Elvira is to Halloween what Santa is to Christmas. Before she was Elvira, Cassanda grew up in Kansas, worked as a Vegas showgirl, toured as a pop singer in Italy, posed for Playboy Models, and performed with The Groundlings.
What is this book about?
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 – and 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 percent 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 played with model kits of Frankenstein and Dracula and idolized Vincent Price.
Due to a complicated relationship with her mother, Cassandra left home at 14, and by age 17 she was performing at the famed Dunes Hotel in Las Vegas. Run-ins with the likes of Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., and Tom Jones helped her grow up fast. Then a chance encounter with her idol Elvis Presley changed the course of her life forever and led her to Europe, where she worked in film and traveled Italy as lead singer of an Italian pop band. She eventually made her way to Los Angeles, where she joined the famed comedy improv troupe The Groundlings and worked alongside Phil Hartman and Paul “Pee-wee” Reubens, honing her comedic skills.
Nearing age 30, a struggling actress considered past her prime, she auditioned at local LA channel KHJ as hostess for the late-night vintage horror movies. Cassandra improvised, made the role her own, and got the job on the spot. Yours Cruelly, Elvira is an unforgettably wild memoir. Cassandra doesn’t shy away from revealing exactly who she is and how she overcame seemingly insurmountable odds. Always original and sometimes outrageous, her story is loaded with twists, travails, revelry, and downright shocking experiences. It is the candid, often funny, and sometimes heartbreaking tale of a Midwest farm girl’s long, strange trip to become the world’s sexiest, sassiest Halloween icon.
