Ed Wood

Ed Wood
Wood in Glen or Glenda (1953)
Born	Edward Davis Wood Jr. (1924-10-10)October 10, 1924 Poughkeepsie, New York, U.S.
Died	December 10, 1978(1978-12-10) (aged 54) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Other names	Daniel Davis Ann Gora Edward D. Wood Jr. Akdov Telmig Larry Lee
Occupation	Filmmaker author actor
Years active	1947–1978
Spouse(s)	Norma McCarty ​ (m. 1956⁠–⁠1956)​ (never annulled) Kathy O'Hara ​ (m. 1956⁠–⁠1978)​

Edward Davis Wood Jr. (October 10, 1924 – December 10, 1978) was an American filmmaker, actor, and author.

In the 1950s, Wood directed several low-budget science fiction, crime and horror films, notably Glen or Glenda (1953), Jail Bait (1954), Bride of the Monster (1955), Plan 9 from Outer Space (1957),^[1] Night of the Ghouls (1959)^[1] and The Sinister Urge (1960). In the 1960s and 1970s, he moved towards sexploitation and pornographic films, and wrote over 80 pulp crime and sex novels.

Notable for their campy aesthetics, technical errors, unsophisticated special effects, use of ill-fitting stock footage, eccentric casts, idiosyncratic stories and non sequitur dialogue, Wood's films remained largely obscure until he was posthumously awarded a Golden Turkey Award for Worst Director of All Time in 1980, renewing public interest in his life and work.^[2]

Following the publication of Rudolph Grey's 1992 oral biography Nightmare of Ecstasy: The Life and Art of Edward D. Wood Jr., a biopic of his life, Ed Wood (1994), was directed by Tim Burton. Starring Johnny Depp as Ed Wood and Martin Landau as Bela Lugosi, the film received critical acclaim and various awards, including two Academy Awards.

Early years[]

Wood's father, Edward Sr., worked for the United States Post Office Department as a custodian, and his family relocated numerous times around the United States. Eventually, they settled in Poughkeepsie, New York, where Ed Wood Jr. was born in 1924. According to Wood's second wife, Kathy O'Hara, Wood's mother Lillian would dress him in girl's clothing when he was a child because she had always wanted a daughter (Ed only had one brother, several years younger than himself).^[3] For the rest of his life, Wood crossdressed, infatuated with the feel of angora on his skin.^[4][5]

During his childhood, Wood was interested in the performing arts and pulp fiction. He collected comics and pulp magazines, and adored movies, especially Westerns, serials, and anything involving the occult.^[6] Buck Jones and Bela Lugosi were two of his earliest childhood idols. He often skipped school, in favor of watching motion pictures at the local movie theater, where stills from last week's films would often be thrown into the trash by theater staff, allowing Wood to salvage the images, and to add to his extensive collection.^[3]

On his 12th birthday, in 1936, Wood received as a gift his first movie camera, a Kodak "Cine Special".^[7] One of his first pieces of footage, and one that imbued him with pride, showed the airship Hindenburg passing over the Hudson River at Poughkeepsie, shortly before its disastrous crash at Lakehurst, New Jersey.^[8] One of Wood's first paid jobs was as a cinema usher, and he also sang and played drums in a band. Subsequently, he formed a quartet called "Eddie Wood's Little Splinters" in which he sang and played multiple stringed instruments.^[7]

Military service[]

In 1942, Wood enlisted at age 17 in the United States Marine Corps, just months after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Assigned to the 2nd Defense Battalion, he reached the rank of corporal before he was discharged in 1946 at age 21.^[9] Although Wood reportedly claimed to have faced strenuous combat, including having his front teeth knocked out by a Japanese rifleman, his military records reveal this to be false; apart from recovering bodies on Betio following the Battle of Tarawa, and experiencing minor Japanese bombing raids on Betio and the Ellice Islands, a recurring filariasis infection left him performing clerical work for the remainder of his enlistment, and his dental extractions were carried out over several months by Navy dentists, unconnected to any combat. Wood had fake teeth that he would slip out from his mouth when he wanted to make his wife Kathy laugh, showing her a big toothless grin.^[10][11][12] Wood later claimed (erroneously or otherwise) that he feared being wounded in battle more than he feared being killed, mainly because he was afraid a combat medic would discover him wearing a pink bra and panties under his uniform during the Battle of Tarawa.

Career[]

Directing and screenwriting[]

In 1947, Wood moved to Hollywood, California, where he wrote scripts and directed television pilots, commercials and several forgotten micro-budget westerns, most of which failed to sell. In 1948, Wood wrote, produced, directed, and starred in The Casual Company, a play derived from his own unpublished novel which was based on his service in the United States Marine Corps. It opened at the Village Playhouse to negative reviews on October 25.^[13] That same year, he wrote and directed a low-budget western called Crossroads of Laredo with the aid of a young producer he met named John Crawford Thomas. The film was shot silent and was not completed during Wood's lifetime.

In 1949, Wood and Thomas acted together in a play called The Blackguard Returns at the Gateway Theatre (Wood played the Sheriff and Thomas was the villain). Wood joined the Screen Actors Guild in 1951, and worked very briefly as a stuntman among other things.^[14] When writing, Wood used a number of different pen names, including Ann Gora (in reference to Angora, his favorite female textile) and Akdov Telmig (the backwards form of his favorite drink, the vodka gimlet).^[15]

In 1952, Wood was introduced to over-the-hill actor Bela Lugosi by friend and fellow writer-producer Alex Gordon, Wood's roommate at the time, who was later involved in creating American International Pictures. Lugosi's son, Bela Lugosi Jr., has been among those who felt Wood exploited the senior Lugosi's stardom, taking advantage of the fading actor when he could not afford to refuse any work.^[16] However, most documents and interviews with other Wood associates in Nightmare of Ecstasy suggest that Wood and Lugosi were genuine friends and that Wood helped Lugosi through the worst days of his clinical depression and drug addiction. Lugosi had become dependent on morphine as a way of controlling his debilitating sciatica over the years, and was in a poor physical (and mental) state.^[15]

Glen or Glenda[]

In 1953, Wood wrote and directed the semi-documentary film Glen or Glenda (originally titled I Changed My Sex!) with producer George Weiss.^[17] The film starred Wood (under the alias "Daniel Davis") as a cross-dresser, his girlfriend Dolores Fuller, Timothy Farrell, Lyle Talbot, Conrad Brooks and Bela Lugosi as the god-like narrator/scientist.^[18]

In 1953, Wood wrote and directed a stage show for Lugosi called The Bela Lugosi Review (a take-off on Dracula) that was put on at the Silver Slipper in Las Vegas. When Lugosi appeared on the tv show You Asked For It that same year, he announced that Ed Wood was producing a Dr. Acula TV show for him, but it never materialized. Wood acted as Lugosi's dialogue coach when he guest-starred on The Red Skelton Show in 1954, alongside Lon Chaney Jr. and Vampira.^[19]

Jail Bait[]

Wood produced and directed a crime film, Jail Bait (1954, originally titled The Hidden Face), along with his co-writer/ roommate Alex Gordon, which starred Herbert Rawlinson (as the plastic surgeon), Lyle Talbot, Dolores Fuller, Timothy Farrell, Theodora Thurman and Steve Reeves (in one of his first acting jobs).^[20] Bela Lugosi was supposed to play the lead role of the plastic surgeon, but was busy with another project when filming started and had to bow out. Herbert Rawlinson died the day after he filmed his scenes. Producer Ron Ormond changed the title from The Hidden Face to Jail Bait just before releasing it.^[21]

Bride of the Monster[]

Wood produced and directed the horror film Bride of the Monster (1955, originally titled Bride of the Atom), based on an original story idea by Alex Gordon which he had originally called The Atomic Monster.^[22] It starred Bela Lugosi as the mad scientist, Swedish wrestler Tor Johnson as mute manservant "Lobo", Paul Marco, Billy Benedict ("Whitey" of The Bowery Boys) and Loretta King. Soon after the film was completed, Bela Lugosi committed himself to the Norwalk State Hospital for three months, to be treated for drug addiction. The film premiered on May 11, 1955 at the Paramount theater in Hollywood while Lugosi was institutionalized, but a special screening was arranged for him upon his release, pleasing him greatly.

The Violent Years[]

In 1956, Wood wrote the screenplay (uncredited) for the film The Violent Years (originally titled Teenage Girl Gang), which was directed by William M. Morgan, starring Playboy model Jean Moorhead, Timothy Farrell, and serial star I. Stanford Jolley (as a judge).^[23]

Wood began filming a juvenile deliquency film called Rock and Roll Hell (a.k.a. Hellborn) in 1956, but producer George Weiss pulled the plug on the project after only ten minutes of footage had been completed. Wood's friend Conrad Brooks purchased the footage from Weiss, and some scenes were later incorporated as stock footage into Wood's later Night of the Ghouls (1959). (The entire ten minutes of footage was released complete on DVD in 1993, as Hellborn.)

Plan 9 from Outer Space[]

In late 1956, Wood produced, wrote, and directed the science fiction film Plan 9 from Outer Space (his screenplay was originally titled Grave Robbers from Outer Space), which featured Bela Lugosi in a small role (Lugosi actually died in August 1956 before production began but Wood inserted some footage into the film that he had taken of Lugosi back in 1955). The film also starred Tor Johnson, Vampira (Maila Nurmi), Tom Mason (who doubled for Lugosi in some scenes), and the Amazing Criswell as the film's narrator. Plan 9 premiered on March 15, 1957 at the Carlton Theatre in Hollywood, and later went into general release in July 1959 under the title Plan Nine from Outer Space in Texas and a number of other Southern states. It was finally sold to late night television in 1961, thereby finding its audience over the years. It became Wood's best-known film and received a cult following after 1980, when Michael Medved declared this film "the worst film ever made" in his book The Golden Turkey Awards.^[24]

Final Curtain (film)[]

In 1957 Wood wrote and directed a pilot for a suspense-horror TV series to be called Portraits in Terror that ultimately failed to sell. Final Curtain sees an old and world-weary actor wandering in an empty theatre, imagining ghosts and strange beings haunting the backstage area, until a la The Twilight Zone, he realizes that he himself is dead. The episode has no dialogue, and Dudley Manlove narrates the thoughts of Duke Moore as the actor. Bela Lugosi would've starred in this short film had he lived. Parts of the unsold pilot were later recycled for use in Wood's Night Of The Ghouls (1959). A complete copy of the episode was thought forever lost, before an intact print was located circa 2010. It was remastered and given its first ever cinema showing in February 2012. It is today widely available online and on DVD.

Night of the Ghouls[]

In 1958, Wood wrote, produced, and directed Night of the Ghouls (originally titled Revenge of the Dead), starring Kenne Duncan, Tor Johnson (reprising his role as "Lobo" from Bride of the Monster), Criswell, Duke Moore, and Valda Hansen.^[25] The film played at the Vista Theatre in Hollywood in March 1959, and then promptly vanished from circulation. For many years, it was thought to be a lost film, but the negative was sitting in a film laboratory for 25 years because Wood hadn't paid the lab bill. Video producer Wade Williams paid the bill and released the film on videocassette in 1984.^[26]

In 1958, Wood also wrote the screenplay for The Bride and the Beast (1958), which was directed by Adrian Weiss. Wood's screenplay was based on Adrian Weiss' plot.^[27]

Wood also wrote the screenplay for a 1959 "nudie cutie" film called Revenge of the Virgins, which was directed by Peter Perry Jr.^[28]

The Sinister Urge[]

Wood wrote and directed the exploitation film The Sinister Urge (1960),^[24] starring Kenne Duncan, Duke Moore, Dino Fantini, Harvey B. Dunn and Carl Anthony. Filmed in just five days, this is the last mainstream film Wood directed, although it has grindhouse elements. The film contains an "eerily prescient"^[29] scene, in which Carl Anthony's character states, "I look at this slush, and I try to remember, at one time, I made good movies". The scenes of the teenagers at the pizzeria had been previously shot in 1956 for Wood's unfinished juvenile delinquency film, Rock and Roll Hell (a.k.a. Hellborn), which Wood never completed.

Also in 1960, Wood wrote the screenplay for The Peeper, which he intended as a direct sequel to his 1960 film The Sinister Urge, but it was never produced.

Wood also contributed to the plot of Jane Mann's 1961 screenplay Anatomy of a Psycho.^[30]

In 1963, Wood wrote the screenplay for Shotgun Wedding (an exploitation film directed by Boris Petroff about hillbillies marrying child brides in the Ozarks). Wood wrote the screenplay from a story idea by Jane Mann.

Orgy of the Dead[]

Wood's 1965 transitional film Orgy of the Dead (originally titled Nudie Ghoulies) combined the horror and grindhouse skin-flick genres. Wood handled various production details while Stephen C. Apostolof directed under the pseudonym A. C. Stephen. The film begins with a recreation of the opening scene from Night of the Ghouls. Criswell, wearing one of Lugosi's old capes, rises from his coffin to deliver an introduction taken almost word-for-word from the previous film. Set in a misty graveyard, the Lord of the Dead (Criswell) and his sexy consort, the Black Ghoul (a Vampira look-alike), preside over a series of macabre performances by topless dancers from beyond the grave (recruited by Wood from local strip clubs). The film also features a Wolf Man and a Mummy. Together, Wood and Apostolof went on to make a string of sexploitation films up to 1977. Wood co-wrote the screenplays with Apostolof and occasionally even acted in some of the films.

In 1969, Wood appeared in The Photographer (a.k.a. Love Feast or Pretty Models All in a Row), the first of two films produced by a Marine buddy, Joseph F. Robertson, with Wood portraying a photographer using his position to engage in sexual antics with his models.

Wood had a smaller role in Robertson's second film, Mrs. Stone's Thing (1970), as a transvestite who spends his time at a party trying on lingerie in a bedroom.

Venus Flytrap (1970) aka The Revenge of Dr. X, a US/Japanese co-production, was based on an unproduced Ed Wood screenplay from the 1950s.^[31] The film was produced and directed by Sci-Fi pulp writer Norman Earl Thomson. The film involves a mad scientist who uses lightning to transform plants into man-eating monsters. Wood did not participate in the actual making of the movie.

Take It Out in Trade[]

In 1970, Wood wrote and directed his own pornographic film, Take It Out in Trade, starring Duke Moore and Nona Carver. Wood played a transvestite named Alecia in the film.

In 1970, Wood produced a 45 rpm record which featured Tor Johnson on one side, reading The Day The Mummy Returned, and Criswell reading The Final Curtain on the other. It has never been determined whether or not the record was actually released.^[32]

Necromania[]

In 1971, he produced, wrote and directed Necromania (subtitled A Tale of Weird Love) under the pseudonym "Don Miller". The film was an early entry to the new subgenre of hardcore pornographic films. Thought lost for years, it resurfaced in edited form on Mike Vraney's Something Weird imprint in the late 1980s, and was re-released later on DVD by Fleshbot Films in 2005. In the Rudolph Grey biography Nightmare of Ecstasy, Maila Nurmi said she declined Wood's offer to do a nude scene sitting in a coffin for Necromania, claiming she was recovering from a major stroke at the time.^[33]

From 1971 to 1972, Wood directed an unknown number of short X-Rated films produced by the Swedish Erotica film company. These were short 12-minute loops that were silent films with subtitles. Ed was paid $100.00 for every ten loops he subtitled.

Wood's friends Kenne Duncan and Tor Johnson both passed away during this period. (Ed Wood was named executor of Kenne Duncan's estate, and following Duncan's death, Wood held a small memorial funeral for him with his wife and some friends in his backyard around the swimming pool where they eulogized the departed Western star.) Wood's friend Duke Moore died in 1976.^[34]

Throughout the 1970s, Wood worked with his friend Stephen C. Apostolof, usually co-writing scripts with him, but also serving as an assistant director and an associate producer. (Together they had made Wood's Orgy of the Dead back in 1965.) Wood's last known on-screen appearance (a dual role) was in Apostolof's 1974 film Fugitive Girls (a.k.a. Five Loose Women), in which he played both a gas station attendant called "Pops" and a sheriff on the fugitive women's trail.

At the time of his death, Wood was working on a biographical screenplay based on the last years of actor Bela Lugosi to be called Lugosi Post Mortem, which was supposed to star actor Peter Coe as Lugosi and Karl Johnson as his father Tor Johnson. The nearly completed script was left behind the last time Wood was evicted and is presumed to have been discarded in the trash. Wood was also working on a screenplay for a film called Venus De Milo, a mystery that would explain the famous statue's missing arms.^[35]

Technically, Wood's last acting job was in the 1978 Stephen Apostolof film Hot Ice. Ed Wood played a janitor in the film, but his scene was cut out at the last minute due to his drunkenness on the set. Wood died soon after this film was made in 1978, at age 54. (Ironically his demise coincided with the end of the soft-core porn industry circa 1978. Apostolof himself stopped making films as well at this time.)

Books and novels[]

Beginning in 1963 up until his death, Wood wrote at least 80 lurid crime and sex novels in addition to hundreds of short stories and non-fiction pieces for magazines and daily newspapers.

His novels include Black Lace Drag (1963) (reissued in 1965 as Killer in Drag), Orgy of the Dead (1965), Parisian Passions (1966), Watts the Difference (1966), Side-Show Siren (1966), Drag Trade (1967), Watts After (1967), Devil Girls (1967), It Takes One to Know One (1967), Death of a Transvestite (1967), Suburbia Confidential (1967), Night Time Lez (1968), The Perverts (1968), Bye Bye Broadie (1968), Raped in the Grass (1968), Sex, Shrouds and Caskets (1968), Love of the Dead (1968), The Sexecutives (1968), Young, Black and Gay (1968), Hell Chicks (1968), The Gay Underworld (1968), Carnival Piece (1969), Toni, Black Tigress (1969), Mama's Diary (1969), To Make a Homo (1969), Mary-Go-Round (1969), The Sexual Woman (1971), The Only House (1972), A Study of Fetishes and Fantasies (1973), Tales for a Sexy Night Part 1 and 2 (1973), Death of a Transvestite Hooker (1974). Forced Entry (1974), and TV Lust (1977).^[36]

In 1965, Wood wrote the quasi-memoir Hollywood Rat Race, which was only published years later in 1998. In it, Wood advises new writers to "just keep on writing. Even if your story gets worse, you'll get better", and also recounts tales of dubious authenticity, such as how he and Bela Lugosi entered the world of nightclub cabaret.

Thirty-two short stories known to be written by Wood (he sometimes wrote under pseudonyms such as "Ann Gora" and "Dr. T.K. Peters") are collected in an anthology Blood Splatters Quickly, published by OR Books in 2014.

Unrealized Projects[]

• Dr. Acula - Wood was supposed to write and direct this proposed 1953 TV program in which Bela Lugosi was supposed to play a mysterious investigator of the supernatural, produced by Ted Allan. (Lugosi mentioned it when he appeared that year on You Asked for It.)^[37]
• The Vampire's Tomb - This was a planned 1954 horror film starring Bela Lugosi as the "Dr. Acula" character again. The cast would also have included Loretta King, Bobby Jordan (of The Bowery Boys), Dolores Fuller, Lyle Talbot, Duke Moore, Tom Keene and a Vampira-lookalike named "Devila". Wood shelved this project and filmed Bride of the Monster instead.^[38]
• Doctor Voodoo - A projected 1954 horror film (similar in plot to the 1934 The Black Cat) that was supposed to have starred both Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff, but Allied Artists rejected the script. It is said Karloff wanted no part of the project anyway.^[38]
• The Ghoul Goes West (or The Phantom Ghoul) - Wood worked on this script for two years, and had planned to produce it in Color/ Widescreen. It was a proposed 1955 Western/Horror film that would have starred Gene Autry, Bela Lugosi, Tor Johnson, Lon Chaney Jr. and John Carradine, with Harold Daniels slated to direct. Gene Autry dropped out, and Wood tried to replace him with either Bob Steele or Ken Maynard, to no avail. Lugosi was reading the script the whole time he was staying at the Norwalk State Hospital in 1955, where he was being treated for drug addiction. (Coincidentally, Lugosi, Chaney, Tor Johnson and Carradine all appeared together the following year in The Black Sleep.)^[38]
• Rock and Rock Hell (or Hellborn) - Wood's version of Rebel Without a Cause, it was supposed to have starred Conrad Brooks, Duke Moore, Tom Mason and Wood himself, to be produced by George Weiss. It began shooting in June 1956, but Weiss decided to abandon the project and sold the ten minutes of footage he shot to Conrad Brooks. Footage from this film was later incorporated into Wood's 1959 Night of the Ghouls.^[38]
• The Dead Never Die - Criswell and Paul Marco came up with the story for this 1957 project, which Wood was slated to direct. It would've starred Criswell, Paul Marco, Bunny Breckinridge and Vampira, but it never got off the ground.^[38]
• How To Make a Monster - Wood's widow Kathy claimed in a 1992 interview that her husband always felt that the idea for How to Make a Monster (1958 film) was stolen from him by AIP producer Sam Arkoff. She said "Eddie condemned Arkoff, he really hated him. Eddie gave them a script for approval, and they changed the characters a little bit around. Eddie had written it for Lugosi. It was about this old horror actor who couldn't get work any more, so he took his vengeance out on the studio. (They changed it to) a make-up man who takes revenge on a studio." Arkoff always denied Wood's claim was true, stating Herman Cohen originated the entire project.^[39]
• Ghouls of the Moon - Another attempt to build a horror film around a reel of unused silent footage that had been taken of Lugosi before he died in 1956, but nothing came of it since by 1958, Wood discovered the film in the can had degraded into an unusable sludge due to bad storage conditions.
• Masquerade into Eternity - A 1959 Cold War political drama that Wood was supposed to write and direct, about a troupe of actors who get stranded in post-Revolution Cuba; it was to be produced by Ben Frommer, who was slated to play a Communist Colonel, but the project fell through.^[40]
• House of Horrors - Kenne Duncan and Tor Johnson were supposed to star in this 1960 film, which never materialized. Kenne Duncan was to play a mad artist who paints pictures of kidnapped women he confines in a dungeon, while Tor played a Lobo-like henchman.^[40]
• Portraits in Terror - A 1960 made-for-TV trilogy consisting of three episodes; it was to include The Final Curtain, The Night the Banshee Cried and Into My Grave (all written and directed by Wood), but the project fell through.^[40]
• Attack of the Giant Salami - A 1964 horror film spoof that would've starred Boris Karloff, Joe E. Brown and Valda Hansen, Wood no doubt inspired by the 1964 Brown/Karloff collaboration The Comedy of Terrors. Unfortunately, Joe E. Brown passed away before the filming could get started.
• Tangier - A 1966 proposed action-adventure TV series that was supposed to be produced by Wood's friend Stephen Apostoloff. Wood wrote a sample screenplay for the series which was never produced.^[40]
• 69 Rue Pigalle - In 1966, Stephen Apostoloff was set to produce and direct a film called 69 Rue Pigalle, based on Ed Wood's novel Parisian Passions, but the financing never materialized. The plot was supposed to be about a transvestite who solves a series of murders in Paris, and Lon Chaney Jr. was supposed to have been in the cast.^[41]
• The Enchanted Isle - An unfilmed 1966 Ed Wood screenplay for a film that was supposed to feature Lon Chaney Jr., Dana Andrews and John Ireland, about a Mafia princess stranded on a South Sea island and a mystery involving black pearls.^[40]
• Devil Girls - An unrealized 1967 Crime Drama about a drug-smuggling teenage girl gang who hang out at a seedy hamburger joint. Tor Johnson was to have played the brutish "Chief", a goon who works for a retired race car driver named "Jockey". It was based on Wood's eponymous novel.^[41]
• The Life of Mickey Cohen - A 1967 proposed Crime Drama Wood was working on, in which Paul Marco was supposed to play the infamous gangster (a full decade after Marco appeared in Plan 9 From Outer Space).^[41]
• The Day the Mummies Danced - A 1976 unproduced Ed Wood script that was supposed to be Wood's long-awaited return to directing horror films; it was set to star John Agar (a long-time drinking buddy of Wood's), Aldo Ray and Dudley Manlove (who was also supposed to produce the film). The filming was set to take place in Guanajuato, Mexico at the famous Mexican mummies exhibit there, but it never happened.^[41]

Wood's list of unrealized film projects also included scripts called Piranhas (1957), Trial by Terror (1958), The Peeper (a proposed 1960 sequel to The Sinister Urge), Silent Night (1961), Joaquin Murieta (a 1965 biopic about the infamous bandit of the Old West), Mice on a Cold Cellar Floor (1973), Epitaph for the Town Drunk (1973), To Kill a Saturday Night (1973, which was set to star John Carradine), The Teachers (1973), The Basketballers (1973), The Airline Hostesses (1973), I Awoke Early the Day I Died (1974, a rewrite of Wood's 1961 Silent Night), Heads, No Tails (1974, a take-off on Sweeney Todd), and Shoot Seven (1977, Wood's proposed musical based on the St. Valentine's Day Massacre).

Personal life[]

Relationships and marriages[]

Ed Wood apparently had an illegitimate daughter, coincidentally named Kathy (born in 1946), whom he fathered with an unknown young lady he had dated right after World War II, when he was in the Marines (see following section for details).^[34]

Wood had a relationship with actress and songwriter Dolores Fuller, whom he met in late 1952. The two lived together for more than 3 years and Wood cast her in three of his films: Glen or Glenda, Jail Bait and, in a very brief cameo, in Bride of the Monster. Fuller later said she initially had no idea that Wood was a crossdresser and was mortified when she saw Wood dressed as a woman for the first time in Glen or Glenda. The couple broke up in 1955 after Wood cast another actress for the lead role in Bride of the Monster (Wood originally wrote the part for Fuller but later reduced her part to a brief cameo appearance) and because of Wood's excessive drinking.^[42]

In 1956, soon after his breakup with Fuller, Wood married actress Norma McCarty. (McCarty appeared as Edie, the airplane stewardess, in Plan 9 from Outer Space, and was recently divorced with 2 sons, Mike and John McCarty, from her earlier marriage.) Their marriage was suddenly announced one night when Wood called everyone to the sound stage for what they thought was a cast party, but when everyone was present, Wood brought out a huge wedding cake and a preacher, and announced he was getting married. The marriage broke up about a month later, as soon as McCarty discovered that Wood was a cross dresser, and while it has been reported that their marriage was annulled,^[43] according to film archivist Wade Williams, they neither annulled the marriage nor legally divorced. (McCarty died on June 27, 2014 at age 93.)^[44][45][46]

Wood moved in with Paul Marco for a short while after Norma left him, then moved in with his second wife, Kathy O'Hara, in 1956. He had met her in a bar where he was drinking one night with Lugosi, and she fell in love with him immediately. They were married in Las Vegas a short while later, and Wood always considered him and Kathy to be married even though technically his first marriage had not been legally annulled. Wood and O'Hara lived together until Wood's death 22 years later.^[47] Ed's wife Kathy never got along with his mother Lillian, calling her "a strict disciplinarian" who messed Ed up psychologically from early childhood. Wood occasionally sent money to his mom in the mail, without Kathy's knowledge.^[48]

Lillian Wood died in 1989 in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. at age 85. Kathy died on June 26, 2006 (at age 84), having never remarried.^[47][48]

The story of Ed Wood's daughter Kathy[]

Ed Wood was shocked to learn he had fathered an illegitimate daughter after World War II with a young woman he had dated while he was in the Marines. According to Conrad Brooks, Wood and his wife Kathy only met the young lady (also named Kathy) around 1967 when she was 21 years old. Born on May 23, 1946, the girl had been living in Lancaster, California, and had managed to trace her father's whereabouts. She visited the Woods and stayed over at their house for a couple of days, but apparently the two Kathys did not get along well. In fact, Wood's wife physically threw her out of the house on the second day when she found her sleeping on their sofa.^[34]

Wood's wife Kathy never believed that the girl was Wood's daughter, saying in an interview, "There was never any proof, only the woman's statement on a birth certificate." Wood told Kathy that the woman he had sex with in 1946 used to sleep around regularly "with 10 or 20 other Marines at the base", so he probably wasn't the girl's father. She said "She's not your daughter, that bitch lied to you!... The father could have been anyone. There was only her accusation."^[34]

Actress Valda Hansen said "I met Ed's daughter at his house in the Valley. She looked just like him. Beautiful, delicate. Green eyes, dark chocolate brown hair. She was very sweet." Art director Bob Derteno, who worked with Wood on Orgy of the Dead said that Wood later travelled to attend his daughter's wedding in New York and was later told that he was a grandfather.

Wood's mother Lillian said she had been contacted by the young lady back in 1963 when she sent his mother a photo and introduced herself to Lillian as her granddaughter. Lillian said she sent the girl a watch for her graduation in 1964, but never heard back from her.^[34]

Cross-dressing[]

In Rudolph Grey's 1992 biography Nightmare of Ecstasy: The Life and Art of Edward D. Wood Jr., Wood's wife Kathy recalls that Wood told her that his mother dressed him in girls' clothing as a child.^[3] Kathy stated that Wood's cross-dressing, at that time called transvestitism, was not a sexual inclination, but rather a neomaternal comfort derived mainly from angora fabric (angora is featured in many of Wood's films).^[49] Even in his later years, Wood was not shy about going out in public dressed in drag as "Shirley", his female alter ego (a name that appeared in many of his screenplays and stories).^[50] In his partly autobiographical film Glen or Glenda, the heterosexual Wood takes pains to emphasize that a male transvestite is not automatically also a homosexual. Wood directed many of his pornographic films in drag, but usually would not take the time to shave, which made for a bizarre sight, according to his friends. Wood always swore that he had never had a single homosexual relationship in his life, and was even considered quite a womanizer by many of his acquaintances. He said once that his greatest fantasy though was to be reincarnated as a gorgeous blonde.^[51]

Alcoholism[]

During the last 15 years of his life, Ed Wood depended almost entirely on writing pornography to earn a living, receiving about $1,000 per novel which he spent almost immediately on alcohol at the local liquor store. Friends have stated how, in his final years, he eventually stopped bathing, and that his apartment was so unkempt, he would be horrified to have friends come over. Paul Marco said Wood was constantly bemoaning "My God, I've given everything away. I should be a millionaire. I should have a million bucks right now!"^[52]

Actor John Agar was drinking at Wood's apartment when the afternoon news program erroneously announced Agar's obituary. Wood called the studio and told them that Agar was not dead. He told them "He's alive....he's sitting right here with me now". The story was corrected shortly thereafter.^[53]

Ed and Kathy were constantly being evicted for non-payment of rent, and each time they moved, Ed would immediately establish credit with the liquor store nearest his new address. Their last apartment was in a violent ghetto area "at the corner of Yucca and Cahuenga" inhabited by alcoholics, racetrack people and prostitutes. Wood was constantly hocking his typewriters to pay bills and being mugged when he'd walk to the liquor store, and their apartment was always in danger of being burglarized. One night, a transvestite was beaten to death in the hall just outside Wood's apartment door and the sound of gunshots outside the building was a regular nightly occurrence.^[54]

Ed and Kathy were both violent drunks, and stories abound about the two of them physically beating each other, Wood sometimes knocking Kathy unconscious. Criswell commented once, "I always had the feeling that one would kill the other. And if you were there, the killer would say you did it!". Nonetheless, years after Wood's death, his wife always professed to love him dearly.^[54]

Lugosi biographer Robert Cremer interviewed Wood in his Yucca apartment for his 1976 book Lugosi: The Man Behind the Cape not long before Wood died. Cremer said Wood started out sober, but quickly became intoxicated as the interview proceeded. Cremer said "He started getting really angry at me because he felt he was the person who should be writing it.....He went out in the kitchen, grabbed a bottle of Wild Turkey...He smashed the bottle on the kitchen counter and then came after me with it. He lunged at me but he was so drunk, I just pushed him against the wall and he collapsed. I just walked out the door and said "Okay Ed, I guess that was our last interview, I'll see you."^[55]

Death[]

By 1978, Wood's depression had worsened, and he and his wife Kathy had both become alcoholics. They were evicted from their Hollywood apartment on Yucca Street on Thursday, December 7, 1978 in total poverty by two sheriff's deputies and had to leave behind all of his scrapbooks and unfinished screenplays, which the landlord allegedly threw into a dumpster. The couple moved into the North Hollywood apartment of their friend, actor Peter Coe, located at 5635 Laurel Canyon Boulevard. Wood spent the weekend drinking vodka and desperately calling old friends for help (to no avail).

Around noon on Sunday, December 10, Wood felt ill and went to lie down in Coe's bedroom while the others were watching a football game on TV. From the bedroom, he asked Kathy to bring him a drink, which she refused to do. A few minutes later he yelled out, "Kathy, I can't breathe!", a plea Kathy ignored as she later said she was tired of Wood bossing her around. After hearing no movement in the bedroom for 20 minutes, Kathy sent a female friend to check on Wood, who discovered him dead on the bed from a heart attack. Kathy later said, "I still remember when I went into that room that afternoon and he was dead, his eyes and mouth were wide open. I'll never forget the look in his eyes. He clutched at the sheets. It looked like he'd seen hell."^[56]

Wood was cremated at the Utter-McKinley mortuary, and his ashes were scattered at sea.^[57] Paul Marco, Kathy O'Hara, David DeMering and Criswell attended Wood's makeshift memorial service which was held at Peter Coe's apartment following the cremation. Marco recalled how devastated Kathy was at the time.^[58]

Legacy and homages[]

In 1986 in an essay paying homage to Wood in Incredibly Strange Films, Jim Morton wrote: "Eccentric and individualistic, Edward D. Wood Jr. was a man born to film. Lesser men, if forced to make movies under the conditions Wood faced, would have thrown up their hands in defeat".^[59]

In 1994 director Tim Burton released the biopic Ed Wood, starring Johnny Depp in the title role and Martin Landau, who won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Bela Lugosi. It also won an Academy Award for Best Makeup for Rick Baker. Conrad Brooks appeared in the movie, in a cameo role of Barman, along with Gregory Walcott in the role of a potential backer.

The film premiered on September 30, 1994, just ten days before what would have been Wood's 70th birthday. Despite receiving mass critical acclaim, the movie did poorly at the box office; however, it has since developed a cult following.

In 1996 Reverend Steve Galindo of Seminole, Oklahoma, created a legally recognized religion with Wood as its official savior.^[60] Founded as a joke, the Church of Ed Wood now boasts more than 3,500 baptized followers. Woodites, as Galindo's followers are called, celebrate "Woodmas" on October 10, which was Wood's birthday. Numerous parties and concerts are held worldwide to celebrate Woodmas. On October 4^[61]–5, 2003,^[62] horror host Mr. Lobo was canonized as the "Patron Saint of late night movie hosts and insomniacs" in the Church of Ed Wood.^[61][62]

In 1997 the University of Southern California began holding an annual Ed Wood Film Festival, in which student teams are challenged to write, film, and edit an Ed Wood-inspired short film based on a preassigned theme. Past themes have included Rebel Without a Bra (2004), What's That in Your Pocket? (2005), and Slippery When Wet (2006).^[63]

Documentaries[]

• Wood was profiled in The Incredibly Strange Film Show (Season 2, Episode 4), presented by Jonathan Ross. It was first broadcast Oct. 13, 1989. Guests interviewed included actors Vampira, Norma McCarty, Paul Marco, Dolores Fuller, biographer Rudolph Grey and critic Harry Medved.
• Flying Saucers Over Hollywood: The Plan 9 Companion, was released in 1992. This exhaustive two-hour documentary by Mark Patrick Carducci chronicles the making of Plan 9 from Outer Space and features interviews with Vampira, Paul Marco, Conrad Brooks, Joe Dante, Valda Hansen, artist Drew Friedman, Forrest J. Ackerman, Gary Gerani, Sam Raimi, Kathy Wood, Carl Anthony, Harry Thomas, Gregory Walcott, Stephen Apostolof, Martha Mason, Norma McCarty, Dolores Fuller, et al. In 2000, Image Entertainment included the documentary on the DVD reissue of Plan 9 from Outer Space (in a two-disc set with Robot Monster).
• The Haunted World of Edward D. Wood Jr., written and directed by Brett Thompson, came out in 1995.^[64] This 90-minute documentary - about the life and films of Ed Wood - features interviews with Wood's friends and co-workers, and closely resembles Wood's own style albeit with slightly better miniatures. People interviewed included Vampira, Bela Lugosi Jr., Dolores Fuller, Paul Marco, Conrad Brooks, Loretta King, Lyn Lemon, Norma McCarty and her son Mike, Mona McKinnon, Lyle Talbot, Gregory Walcott, Crawford John Thomas, makeup man Harry Thomas and Ed Wood himself.

Lost films[]

Wood's 1972 film The Undergraduate was a lost film, as was his 1970 film Take It Out in Trade, but they both eventually turned up years later. An 80-minute print of the latter was discovered and publicly exhibited at Anthology Film Archives in New York City in September 2014.^[65][66] Silent outtakes from the film were released by Something Weird Video.^[2] (Both films in their entirety are now available on DVD.)

Wood's 1971 film Necromania was also believed lost for years until an edited version resurfaced at a yard sale in 1992, followed in 2001 by a complete, unedited print.

A complete print of Wood's lost 1972 pornographic film, The Young Marrieds was discovered in 2004. It was released by Alpha Blue Archives in July 2014 as a part of the four-DVD set The Lost Sex Films of Ed Wood Jr..^[66]

Wood is said to have filmed some scenes of Lon Chaney Jr. in a werewolf costume in Hollywood in 1964 that were said to have been later incorporated into Jerry Warren's film Face of the Screaming Werewolf (1965). Chaney biographer Don G. Smith however has stated that this story was never substantiated.^[67]

Collaborations[]

Actors[]

	Glen or Glenda	Crossroad Avenger	Jail Bait	Bride of the Monster	Final Curtain	Plan 9 from Outer Space	Night of the Ghouls	The Sinister Urge	Take It Out in Trade	Crossroads of Laredo	Total
Criswell						N	N				2
Carl Anthony						N		N			2
Conrad Brooks	N		N	N		N	N	N			6
Kenne Duncan		N					N	N			3
Harvey B. Dunn		N		N			N	N			4
Timothy Farrell	N		N								2
Dolores Fuller	N		N	N						N	4
Tor Johnson				N		N	N				3
Tom Keene		N				N					2
Bela Lugosi	N			N		N					3
Dudley Manlove					N	N					2
Paul Marco				N		N	N				3
Tom Mason						N	N				2
Duke Moore					N	N	N	N	N	N	6
Bud Osborne		N	N	N			N				4
Lyle Talbot	N	N	N			N					4
Ed Wood	N	N				N	N	N	N		6

See also[]

• List of films considered the worst
• B movie
• Z movie
• Tanio Boccia, nicknamed the "Italian Ed Wood"
• Jesus Franco, nickmamed the "European Ed Wood"^[68][69]
• John Waters
• William C. Thompson was Wood's cinematographer for all but Take It Out in Trade.
• Frank Worth composed music for Bride of the Monster and Plan 9 from Outer Space.

References[]

• Benshoff, Harry M. (1997). Monsters in the Closet: Homosexuality and the Horror Film. Manchester University Press. ISBN 0-7190-4473-1.
• Craig, Rob (2009). Ed Wood, Mad Genius: A Critical Study of the Films. McFarland. ISBN 978-0-7864-5423-5.
• Ford, Luke (1999). A History of X: 100 Years of Sex in Film. Prometheus Books. ISBN 1-61592-631-3.
• Gerstner, David A., ed. (2006). Routledge International Encyclopedia of Queer Culture. Routledge. ISBN 0-415-30651-5.
• Grey, Rudolph (1994). Nightmare of Ecstasy: The Life and Art of Edward D. Wood Jr. Feral House. ISBN 0-922915-24-5.
• Hoberman, J.; Rosenbaum, Jonathan (2009). Midnight Movies. Basic Books. ISBN 978-0-7867-4700-9.
• Morton, Jim (1986). Juno, Andrea; Vale, V. (eds.). Incredibly Strange Films (1 ed.). San Francisco, California: RE/Search. ISBN 0-940642-09-3.
• Pontolillo, James (2017). The Unknown War of Edward D. Wood, Jr.: 1942 - 1946. Self-published. ISBN 978-1-5488-6947-2.
• Weaver, Tom, ed. (2004). It Came From Horrorwood: Interviews With Moviemakers In The Science Fiction And Horror Tradition. McFarland. ISBN 0-7864-2069-3.
• Weldon, Michael (1996). The Psychotronic Video Guide. Titan Books. ISBN 1-85286-770-1.

Further reading[]

• Conway, Rob (2009). Ed Wood, Mad Genius: A Critical Study of the Films. McFarland. ISBN 978-0-7864-3955-3.
• Medved, Harry and Michael (1980). The Golden Turkey Awards. Perigree Books. ISBN 0-399-50463-X. pp. 168, 169, 176–181, 204–208, 211, 217

External links[]

• Ed Wood at IMDb
• The Hunt for Edward D. Wood Jr. Exhaustive guide to Wood's films and their commercial releases.
• Ed Wood Jr.'s magazine work (Includes adult images)
• Ed Wood: A Neighbor on the Boulevard of Broken Dreams
• Ed Wood's TV pilot Final Curtain [1]
• Ed Wood's lost TV pilot, "Final Curtain"
• Book page for Blood Splatthharvers Quickly: The Collected Stories
• Ed Wood at Find a Grave