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Doris Wishman

Doris Wishman (June 1, 1912, New York City, New York – August 10, 2002, Coral Gables, Florida) American film director, screenwriter, film producer

Biography and Early Life

Doris Wishman was born on June 1, 1912 in New York City. She was still a young child when her mother had passed away. Her father was a hay and grain salesmen who raised her and her five other siblings. Wishman studied for awhile at Hunter College where she studied several courses including acting. She then worked as both a secretary and a movie booker until she met and then married a man by the name of Jack Abrahms. After Abrahms died, Wishman wanted to do something in her life that we keep her busy instead of being a grieving widow.

Early Film Career

Despite being the cousin of one of the founders of the famous British Horror production companies, Amicus, Max Rosenberg, Wishman decided that she wanted to go into the film business on her own. recent legislation allowed to let nudity be seen in film in the context of Documentary footage. Wishman then borrowed $10,000 from her sister, Pearl Kushner. Her first feature was a film by the name of Hideout in the Sun in 1959. Her next film Nude on the Moon released in 1960 was an early Nudie film, which Wishman featured Science Fiction elements in it.

The film was banned in New York State as the censor board stated that films featuring nudity in a Nudist Colony setting is fine; But the fact that Wishman decided to make it a science fiction themed film on a Nudist colony on the Moon was not fine. Her next films included the starring for the legendary Burlesque performer, Blaze Starr, Blaze Starr Goes Nudist (1962) and other films that featured nude women making about one or two a year. After countless features in the Nudist genre, she decided to leave the genre when its popularity started to fade. 

Rise in the Sexploitation Genre

When beginning her work in the Sexploitation Genre she decided to use a pseudonym "Louis Silverman". One of her first films for the genre Bad Girls Go to Hell(1965), would be considered one of her earliest successes of the genre. With this film we see that it was her first collaboration with her long time Cinematographer C. Davis Smith, who would work with Wishman until her death. Most of these films were shot in Black and White and in 1968 with her film Love Toy she transferred in to shooting her films in color as she went on to do soft-core films. Her biggest claim to fame was when she went on to direct two films with the sexploitation starlet, Chesty Morgan. The films Deadly Weapons and Double Agent 73 featured Morgan with her massive 73 inch bust, in the vein of fellow sexploitation works of filmmakers like Russ Meyer, The Chesty Morgan films had a high camp factor with scenes that featured Morgan taking off her top with sound effects accompanying it to convey the massiveness of her breasts.

Pornographic and other Exploitation work

Later on in her career after her long period of sexploitation work, Wishman went on to do a couple of Hardcore pornographic films like Satan Was a Lady (1975) and Come With Me, My Love (1976) both of which starred Porn Star Annie Sprinkle. Wishman was not fond of working on these films and continually denied working on them. She was known to have left the room on the set of these film during the sex scenes as she deemed them to inappropriate. As her biographer and long time admirer, Michael Bowen had stated in her New York Times Obituary, "She was actually rather sexually naive" He also stated that "She personally thought that someone's hand caressing your face was more erotic than sex itself." Although the project started in 1971, the 1978 release of her documentary on Transsexuality titled Let Me Die A Woman, featured many interviews with actual Transgendered subjects. The film also featured dramatized scenes about daily struggles of Transgendered people featuring that also featured Deepthroat star Harry Reems. She later became quite interested in joining in the Slasher film craze started with films like Halloween (1978), Friday The 13th (1980) Maniac (1981) and Prom Night (1980), Wishman decided to make her own film in the genre titled A Night to Dismember (1983), but the project was a commercial failure for Wishman.

Later Life and Death

After the failure of A Night to Dismember, She moved to Florida in the mid-80s where she worked at a lingerie store. During this time people readily started to become very interested again in her work as much of it came to home video. Cult followings started to form and Wishman was honored at the New York Underground Film Festival. Cult Filmmakers like John Waters featured her Chesty Morgan work in his film Serial Mom. Joe Bob Briggs, The Drive-In Movie Critic described Wishman as "The greatest female exploitation film director in history". Wishman died on August 10, 2002 at her home in Coral Gables, Florida after a long term battle with Lymphoma

Filmography

• Hideout in the Sun (1960)

• Nude on the Moon (1961)

• Diary of a Nudist (1961)

• Blaze Starr Goes Nudist (1962)

• Gentlemen Prefer Nature Girls (1963)

• Playgirls International (1963)

• Behind the Nudist Curtain (1964)

• The Prince and the Nature Girl (1964)

• Bad Girls Go to Hell (1965)

• The Sex Perils of Paulette (1965)

• Another Day, Another Man (1966)

• My Brother's Wife (1966)

• A Taste of Her Flesh (1967)

• Indecent Desires (1967)

• Too Much Too Often! (1968)

• Love Toy (1968)

• The Amazing Transplant (1970)

• Keyholes Are for Peeping (1972)

• Deadly Weapons (1973)

• Double Agent 73 (1974)

• Satan Was a Lady (1975)

• Come with Me, My Love (1976)

• Let Me Die a Woman (1978)

• A Night to Dismember (1983)

• Dildo Heaven (2002)

• Each Time I Kill (2002)

Sources

Who's More Peculiar Than Doris Wishman?, Spin Magazine, May 1998. 

Doris Wishman by Christopher J. Jarmick, Senses Of Sound.com

Doris Wishman, 'B' Film Director, Dies by Douglas Martin, Th New York Times, August 19 2002

Doris Wishman Gerald Peary, 1997

External Links

•	Doris Wishman at the Internet Movie Database

• Doris Wishman at AllRovi • Senses of Cinema: Great Directors Critical Database

Categories

American Film Directors, Female Film Directors, Exploitation Filmmakers, Porn directors, Deaths Of Lymphoma, 2002 deaths