Cassandra Peterson was almost 2 when she pulled a pot of boiling water onto herself, leaving severe burns and lasting scars across her shoulders, neck and back. Years before she became known as Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, other children used those scars to mock her appearance.
“I was teased all the time for looking like a monster,” Peterson recalled. “So for someone to say, ‘Someday you’ll be a beauty icon’, was like, ‘You gotta be kidding.’”
Now 75, Peterson said her childhood image of herself, with permed red hair and glasses, stayed with her throughout her life. Elvira, who first appeared in the 1980s series Elvira’s Movie Macabre, became the character through whom she’d earn that unexpected beauty-icon status.
Peterson also sees a connection between Elvira and Dolly Parton: both embraced their sexuality while becoming symbols of female empowerment. “I was sexy, and in those days, if you were sexy, you couldn’t be funny,” she said. “It was just the law or something.”
Her parents were proud of the character, costume included. They traveled to see her perform, and her late father wore a trucker hat that read “I’m Elvira’s father.”
Asked how her parents felt about Elvira’s revealing outfit, Peterson pointed to her teenage years as a showgirl: “They’re just happy I’m wearing any clothes at all.”
