I just saw on Bob Dearborn's The Olde Disc Jockey's Almanac that Cassandra Peterson, aka Elvira, is turning 62 years old today.
I've never met her, but I did talk to her on the phone once when I was Steve & Garry's producer during the Halloween season more than twenty years ago. The conversation went something like this…
“Hello this is Cassandra calling the Steve & Garry show.”
“Elvira?” I asked.
“That’s a character I play,” she said. “Please call me Cassandra.”
“OK, Cassandra. You’ll be on the air with Steve & Garry in just a minute. Obviously we’ll be talking about Halloween. Please hold.”
I put her on hold for a second and stared at the phone. I had that queasy feeling in the pit of my stomach. I picked up the phone again.
“You will be going by ‘Elvira’ on the air, right?” I asked.
“That’s not my name,” she said. “My name is Cassandra. If they want to discuss the character of Elvira, and how I get into the character, I’d be happy to do that.”
“OK, thanks,” I said. “Please hold.”
That’s when I knew it was going to be a horrible train wreck. Steve & Garry had an incredibly low threshold for actors who took themselves too seriously. I walked into the studio during the commercial break, and prepared to take my punishment.
"Elvira's on hold," I said.
“Tell her we’ll get to her after the commercials,” Steve responded, barely looking up at me.
I cleared my throat.
“Actually…there’s something you should know before we put her on.”
Steve looked up. His radar was beeping.
“What?”
“Um…well, she wants you to call her... Cassandra.”
Steve gave me the classic “Bye Bye Now” flight attendant wave.
“Get rid of her?” I asked.
"No," Steve said. The sarcasm was dripping. "I'm sure our listeners would love to hear all about someone named Cassandra."
And that was that.
