After successfully auditioning to become the host of a horror show on a local Los Angeles TV station, actress Cassandra Peterson created the character of Elvira, Mistress of the Dark. Elvira's Movie Macabre began airing on TV in 1981, with her sarcastic commentary and Goth-meets-Valley-Girl persona making the show an instant success. For a now-legendary 1982 Elvira's Movie Macabre 3-D telecast, Los Angeles-area 7-Eleven stores sold 2.7 million pairs of 3-D glasses!

It wasn't long before the program was syndicated nationally, establishing Elvira as an enduring pop-culture icon, with hit records, feature films, and more than 400 licensed products, including her own pinball machine, the bestselling female Halloween costume in the world (year in and year out), and even her own beer, Elvira's Night Brew.

Elvira specialized in sending up only the schlockiest movies, making fun of the clumsily overdubbed voices, the incomprehensible plots and the unbelievable—literally unbelievable—special effects. These flicks are true B-movie classics where blood flows like chocolate syrup, virgins are sacrificed with alarming regularity and Transylvania looks like suspiciously like Southern California.