The LA Beat

P-22. Photo from the National Park Service public domain via Wikicommons.

Today Angelenos received the news that we all were dreading. P-22, Griffith Park’s beloved mountain lion, a symbol of everything free and wild in each of us, had to be put down. According to officials at the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW), he was put to sleep at 9 a.m. on Saturday ‘the 17th at San Diego Zoo Safari Park,

For weeks, the intrepid mountain lion had been increasingly wandering around populated areas and then he attacked three small dogs, even those on leashes, with a person at the other end. This told researchers he probably was no longer able to catch his usual prey anymore and was getting desperate. The photos also showed that he was under-weight with thinning hair. At approximately 12 years old, P-22 was elderly for a mountain lion, and the team caring for him was deciding whether or not to capture him for a checkup. That decision was made when a local animal shelter received an anonymous call that a driver had hit a mountain lion on Los Feliz Boulevard, near where P-22’s collar had recently pinged.

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Photo Courtesy of The Hollywood Museum

The Hollywood Museum was all astir on the first night of the last annual month that kicks off all Winter Holiday Celebration! Featuring a virtual parade of actors-turned-artists and/or artists exploring their creative expanse, The Hollywood Museum welcomed roughly 20 plus, celebrities to share their most arresting Christmas memories by way of painting and parlance.

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Vampira (Maila Nurmi) on her studio set in 1955.

Are things a little too Chrismassy for your liking? Bring a little Halloween into December by celebrating what would have been the 100th birthday of the coolest ghoul we have ever known. Feral House, known for their alternative publishing, is planning a Sunday event honoring Maila Nurmi, known by the stage name Vampira.

Vampira, born December 11, 1922, found success in Hollywood as television’s very first horror host, a la Elvira and Svengooli. But she is perhaps best known as the star of Ed Wood’s campy classic, “Plan 9 from Outer Space.”

The day will begin with a 3pm wreath-laying at Maila Nurmi’s monument at Hollywood Forever Cemetery, followed by a signing and film festival starting at 5pm at American Cinemateque Los Feliz 3, which gives you just enough time to drive and grab a bite.

At 5pm there will be a signing by Sandra Niemi, Maila’s niece and author of Glamour Ghoul: The Passions and Pain of the Real Vampira (Published by Feral House). A screening of Tim Burton’s Ed Wood starts at 7pm, followed by a panel discussion including Ed Wood screenwriters Larry Karaszewski and Scott Alexander, Sandra Niemi, RH Greene, director of “Vampira and Me,” Oscar-nominated makeup artist VE Neill, who worked on “Ed Wood,” and Dana Gould. Following the panel at 10pm, the theater will screen “Plan 9 From Outer Space,” as well as rare Vampira footage.

Tickets are $13 for the films, but you can probably just crash the wreath-laying. TICKETS.