Teresa “T” Wierson, whom Peterson first spotted at Gold’s Gym in Hollywood, was her friend and trainer for several years before they became romantic. When the book came out last month, Peterson immediately made headlines with the news that she has been in a relationship with a woman for 19 years. icon with “Yours Cruelly, Elvira: Memoirs of the Mistress of the Dark.” The irresistible tell-all digs deeper than Hollywood dirt to examine Peterson’s circuitous path to stardom and reveal how private she has been. Whether or not that happens, Your Cruelly, Elvira is a super fun read of a life that is still very much well lived and a perfect tale for the Halloween season.It’s very easy to write off Cassandra in the horrible way that people write off somebody who’s beautiful and sexy.That all fell by the wayside as soon as I saw her perform.Īt 70, Peterson is finally lifting the veil on Elvira and putting herself in the spotlight as an L.A. Peterson remarked that she’d “never heard of the place, but soon found out that for a ‘fag hag’ like myself, it was like I’d died and gone to gay heaven.” And she’s been returning to Provincetown for years as a visitor, and if many in town have their way she’ll be the grand marshal for the 2022 Carnival parade.
The show featured her and seven gay men, including Robert Redding, who helped her develop the character of Elvira just five years later.
And there is of course all the years as Elvira! But of particular interest to Provincetown readers will be the chapter in which she recounts the summer of 1977, when she stared in a musical comedy burlesque revue titled Mama’s Boys at the Post Office Cabaret. She also reveals difficult periods of her life as well as her life as mother and coming out about her relationship with her female partner. That led to a fabulous life in which Peterson had been a proud rock and roll groupie, a Las Vegas showgirl, a model, a member of the famed improve troupe The Groundlings where she met longtime friends Phil Hartman and Paul “Pee Wee Herman” Reubens, the lead singer in an Italian pop band as well as appearances in the James Bond film Diamonds are Forever, Pee Wee’s Big Adventure, and Fellini’s Roma. Those seminal experiences at such a young age put Peterson on a trajectory toward being a pioneer in the sexual revolution as well as a horror and Halloween fanatic, as they helped her develop a healthy self-esteem and embrace her sexuality, and sensuality, as well as find a community that embraced her for being different. Peterson and Mama’s Boy castmate Robert Redding, 1983
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