Ed Wood

This article is about the film director. For the film about his life, see Ed Wood (film).

For other people named Edward Wood, see Edward Wood (disambiguation).

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
Occupation(s)	Filmmaker, author, actor
Years active	1947–1978
Spouse(s)	Norma McCarty ​ (m. 1955⁠–⁠1956)​ (never annulled) Kathy O'Hara ​ (m. 1959⁠–⁠1978)​

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 (1959), Night of the Ghouls (1959) and The Sinister Urge (1960). In the 1960s and 1970s, he moved towards sexploitation and pornographic films, and wrote over 80 pulp crime, horror and sex novels. Notable for their campy aesthetics, technical errors, unsophisticated special effects, 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.

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 Wood, the film received two Academy Awards.

Early years

Wood's father, Edward Sr., worked for the U.S. Postal Service 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. For the rest of his life, Wood crossdressed, infatuated with the feel of angora on his skin.

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. 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 that day's film would often be thrown into the trash by theater staff, allowing Wood to salvage the images, and to add to his extensive collection.

On his 12th birthday, in 1936, Wood received as a gift his first movie camera, a Kodak "Cine Special". 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. One of Wood's first paid jobs was as a cinema usher, and he also sang and played drums in a band. He later fronted a singing quartet called "Eddie Wood's Little Splinters", having learned to play a variety of string instruments.

Military service

In 1942, Wood enlisted in the United States Marine Corps, just months after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Assigned to the 2nd Defense Battalions, he reached the rank of corporal before he was discharged. 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 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 his secret due to wearing a bra and panties under his uniform during the Battle of Tarawa.

Career

Main article: Ed Wood filmography

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 with names such as Crossroads of Laredo and Crossroad Avenger: The Legend of the Tucson Kid. In 1948, Wood wrote, produced, directed, and starred in Casual Company, a play derived from his 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.

In 1952, Wood was introduced to 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 refuse any work. 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 state.

Wood billed himself under a number of different pseudonyms, including Ann Gora (in reference to Angora, his favorite female textile) and Akdov Telmig (the backwards form of his favorite drink, the vodka gimlet).

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. The film starred Wood (under the alias "Daniel Davis"), his girlfriend Dolores Fuller, and Lugosi as the god-like narrator.

Jail Bait

Wood directed and produced a crime film, Jail Bait (1954, originally titled The Hidden Face), along with co-writer Alex Gordon, which starred Lyle Talbot and Steve Reeves (in one of his first acting jobs). Bela Lugosi was supposed to play the lead role of the plastic surgeon, but was busy working on another film project when filming started and had to bow out.

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 called The Atomic Monster. It starred Bela Lugosi, Swedish wrestler Tor Johnson, and Loretta King.

Plan 9 from Outer Space

In 1956, Wood produced, wrote, and directed the science fiction film Plan 9 from Outer Space (originally titled Grave Robbers from Outer Space), which featured Lugosi in a small role (his final film role; Lugosi died during production), Tor Johnson, Vampira (Maila Nurmi), Tom Mason (who doubled for Lugosi in most scenes), and the Amazing Criswell as the film's narrator. Plan 9 premiered (as Grave Robbers) at a very small screening in 1957, was only released theatrically under the title Plan Nine from Outer Space in 1959, and 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.

The Violent Years

In 1956 Wood extended his creative input for the film The Violent Years (originally titled Teenage Girl Gang) with director William M. Morgan, starring Playboy model Jean Moorhead.

Final Curtain

1957 saw Wood write and direct a pilot for a suspense-horror TV series 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. The episode has no dialogue, and Dudley Manlove narrates the thoughts of Duke Moore as the actor. Parts of the pilot were recycled for use in Night Of The Ghouls. 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 widely available online and on disc.

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 (as "Lobo" from Bride of the Monster), Criswell, Duke Moore, and Valda Hansen. The film may have been released marginally in March 1959, and then promptly vanished from sight for a quarter century. For many years, it was thought to be a lost film but it was rediscovered and finally released on home video in 1984. (In 1958, Wood also co-wrote the screenplay for The Bride and the Beast (1958), which was directed by Adrian Weiss.)

The Sinister Urge

Wood wrote and directed the exploitation film The Sinister Urge (1960), starring Kenne Duncan, Duke Moore, 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" 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 teenagers at a pizza place had been shot in 1956 for Wood's unfinished juvenile delinquency film Rock and Roll Hell (a.k.a. Hellborn)

Orgy of the Dead

In 1963, Wood wrote the screenplay for Shotgun Wedding (an exploitation film about hillbillies marrying child brides) and his 1965 transitional film Orgy of the Dead (originally titled Nudie Ghoulies), combining 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 the then-unreleased 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 and occasionally acted. Venus Flytrap (1970) aka The Revenge of Dr. X, a US/Japan horror film, was based on an unproduced Ed Wood screenplay from the 1950s.

Necromania

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, portraying a photographer using his position to engage in sexual antics with models. He had a smaller role in Robertson's second film, Mrs. Stone's Thing, as a transvestite who spends his time at a party trying on lingerie in a bedroom.

In 1970, Wood made his own pornographic film, Take It Out in Trade. The following year, he produced, wrote, and directed Necromania (sometimes subtitled A Tale of Weird Love) under the pseudonym "Don Miller". The film was an early entry to the new subgenre of hardcore pornographic film. Thought lost for years, it resurfaced in edited form on Mike Vraney's Something Weird imprint in the late 1980s, then was re-released on DVD by Fleshbot Films in 2005.

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

Books and novels

Main article: Ed Wood bibliography

Beginning in the early 1960s 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. Thirty-two stories known to be written by Wood (he sometimes wrote under pseudonyms such as "Ann Gora" and "Dr. T.K. Peters") are collected in Blood Splatters Quickly, published by OR Books in 2014. Novels include Black Lace Drag (1963) (reissued in 1965 as Killer in Drag), Orgy of the Dead (1965), Devil Girls (1967), Death of a Transvestite (1967), The Sexecutives (1968), The Photographer (1969), Take It Out in Trade (1970), The Only House in Town (1970), Necromania (1971), The Undergraduate (1972), A Study of Fetishes and Fantasies (1973) and Fugitive Girls (1974).

In Nightmare of Ecstasy, Maila Nurmi said she declined Wood's offer to do a nude scene sitting in a coffin for the film version of his Necromania, claiming she was recovering from a major stroke at the time.

In 1965, Wood wrote the quasi-memoir Hollywood Rat Race, which was eventually published 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.

Personal life

Relationships and marriages

Wood had a long-term relationship with actress and songwriter Dolores Fuller, whom he met in late 1952. The two lived together for a time and Wood cast Fuller in three of his films: Glen or Glenda, Jail Bait, and 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 in Glen or Glenda. The couple broke up in 1955 after Wood cast another actress in the lead role of Bride of the Monster (Wood originally wrote the part for Fuller and reduced her part to a 1-minute cameo) and because of Wood's excessive drinking.

While making Bride of the Monster in late 1955, Wood married Norma McCarty. McCarty appeared as Edie, the airplane stewardess in Plan 9 from Outer Space. They broke up in 1956, but they neither divorced nor annulled the marriage.

Wood married his second wife, Kathy O'Hara, in 1959. They remained married until Wood's death in 1978. Kathy died on June 26, 2006, having never remarried.

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. Kathy stated that Wood's transvestism was not a sexual inclination, but rather a neomaternal comfort derived mainly from angora fabric (angora is featured in many of Wood's films). Even in his later years, Wood was not shy about going out in public dressed in drag as Shirley, his female alter ego (who also appeared in many of his screenplays and stories). In his partly autobiographical film Glen or Glenda, the heterosexual Wood takes pains to emphasize that a male transvestite is not automatically – or even usually – also a homosexual. At least one edition of Wood's films on DVD includes a brief silent 8mm cine clip of Wood in drag.

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. The couple moved into the North Hollywood apartment of their friend, actor Peter Coe. Wood spent the weekend drinking vodka. Around noon on Sunday, December 10, Wood felt ill and went to lie down in Coe's bedroom. 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 friend to check on Wood, who discovered him dead 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."

Wood was cremated, and his ashes were scattered at sea.

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".

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 as a potential Backer. The film received mass critical acclaim, but did poorly at the box office. 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. 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 4–5, 2003, horror host Mr. Lobo was canonized as the "Patron Saint of late night movie hosts and insomniacs" in the Church of Ed Wood.

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).

In popular culture

From 1993 to 1994, three of Wood's films (Bride of the Monster, The Violent Years, and The Sinister Urge) were featured on the television series Mystery Science Theater 3000, which gave those works wider exposure. Producers of MST3K considered including Plan 9, but found it had too much dialogue for the show's format.

In 1998, Wood's previously unfilmed script I Woke Up Early the Day I Died was finally produced, starring Billy Zane and Christina Ricci, with appearances by Tippi Hedren, Bud Cort, Sandra Bernhard, Karen Black, John Ritter and many others. Outside of a brief New York theatrical engagement, the film did not receive a commercial release in the United States, and was only available on video in Germany due to contractual difficulties.

In 2001, horror film director and heavy metal musician Rob Zombie released The Sinister Urge, which is titled after Wood's film.

In 2002, American horror-punk supergroup Murderdolls released the album Beyond the Valley of the Murderdolls, which features the single "Dead in Hollywood" and makes a reference to Wood with the lyrics, "You can knock on Ed Wood, but it won't do you no good/Cause all of my heroes are dead in Hollywood".

In 2005, the Plan 9 cast were lampooned in an episode of the television series Deadly Cinema; the following year, clips of this episode were featured in the documentary Vampira: The Movie.

In 2006, MST3K head writer and host Michael J. Nelson recorded an audio commentary track for a DVD release of a colorized version of Plan 9 from Outer Space. In 2009, Nelson and fellow MST3K alumni Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett mocked Plan 9 again in their very first RiffTrax Live event, coinciding with the film's 50th anniversary.

In 2012, director John Johnson announced plans to film a remake of Plan 9 From Outer Space, released straight-to-DVD in 2015.

In 2017 Dreamer - The Ed Wood Musical was produced by award-winning composer Rick Tell.

Documentaries

• 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 Maila Nurmi (Vampira), Paul Marco, Conrad Brooks, 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).
• Ed Wood: Look Back in Angora, released in 1994 by Rhino Home Video, is a one-hour documentary on Wood's life and films. This includes rare outtakes and interviews with Dolores Fuller, Kathy Wood, Stephen Apostolof, and Brooks. Gary Owens narrated; while Ted Newsom wrote and directed.
• The Haunted World of Edward D. Wood Jr., written and directed by Brett Thompson, came out in 1995. This 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.
• Wood was profiled in The Incredibly Strange Film Show, presented by Jonathan Ross.

Lost films

Wood's 1972 film The Undergraduate is considered to be a lost film, as was his 1970 film Take It Out in Trade. An 80-minute print of the latter was discovered and publicly exhibited at Anthology Film Archives in New York City in September 2014. Silent outtakes from the film were released by Something Weird Video.

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

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
• 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 0-7864-5423-7.
• 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 0-7867-4700-5.
• 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 1-5488-6947-3.
• 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 lost TV pilot, "Final Curtain"
• Book page for Blood Splatthharvers Quickly: The Collected Stories
• Ed Wood at Find a Grave