Elvira

She also sang "Monster Rap" and "Haunted House" on the Elvira's Monster Hits album. Roberti died from a heart attack while bending to tie her shoelace. Elvira has become a symbol of Halloween, and owns the trademark to her wig and costume. She began to work less frequently although two days before her death she performed a radio show with Al Jolson. One of the first successful horror hostesses, Vampira (Maila Nurmi), later sued Peterson over character rights issues. Roberti replaced Thelma Todd in a couple of films after the death of Todd, but her health was failing due to heart disease. Shortly after her marriage to Mark Pierson (now her business manager) in 1981, she created the character Elvira after a successful audition to be a horror movie show host. She was the first such host to be nationally syndicated. In Roberta (1935), Ginger Rogers played the role that Roberti had originated on Broadway, with reviewers commenting that Rogers' performance was a completely accurate imitation of Roberti's idiosyncratic speech and mannerisms.

Back in the US, she joined the Los Angeles-based improvisational troupe The Groundlings. She found success as a comedienne and was also popular as a singer on radio. In Italy, she was the lead singer in a rock band and a chance encounter with Federico Fellini led to a small part in Roma (1972). Her sexy but playful characterisations, along the unusual accent she had acquired during her years in Europe and Asia, made her popular with audiences. She became a showgirl at The Dunes in Las Vegas at age 17. She moved to Hollywood and during the 1930s played in a string of films. Born in Manhattan, Kansas, Peterson grew up in Colorado. She made her Broadway debut in You Said It in 1931, and with its success became an overnight sensation.

She gained fame wearing dark, gothic, and cleavage-enhancing clothing as host of Elvira's Movie Macabre, a weekly horror movie presentation. They moved to the United States in the late 1920s where Roberti began singing in nightclubs. Elvira, Mistress of the Dark is the screen persona of Cassandra Peterson (born September 17, 1949). As the family toured Europe and Asia, Roberti's mother left her husband, settling in Shanghai, China where the younger Roberti earned money singing. Born in Warsaw, Poland, Roberti was the daughter of a clown and as a child performed in the circus as a trapeze artist, and as a singer on vaudeville. Lyda Roberti (May 20, 1906 - March 12, 1938) was a film actress.