Ed Wood Jr. - When The Topic Is Sex

When The Topic Is Sex

2022 Edward D. Wood Jr

Foreword by Bob Blackburn copyright 2021
Introduction by Bill Shute copyright 2021

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ISBN978-1-62933-848-4

Table of contents

Foreword

IT WAS THROUGH a chance, fortuitous happenstance that I discovered in the summer of 1992 that one of my neighbors in the old run down apartment building I had moved into in Hollywood, Ca. in 1989 was Kathy Wood, the widow of the cult film director Edward D. Wood Jnr. (he always spelled his name this way I was later to learn). I had been attending a series of weekend film screenings at the now long gone Hawaiian Theater on the east end of Hollywood Blvd. produced by the late Eric Caidin of Hollywood Book & Posters, and rockabilly singer, Mexican wrestling expert and cult movies fanatic Johnny Legend. These were all-weekend affairs, films by Hershell Gordon Lewis, Russ Meyer and one particular weekend they did an Ed-Wood-A-Thon, which included screenings of most all of Eds full length feature films, as well as rarities including a British documentary titled The Incredibly Strange Film Show hosted by presenter Jonathan Ross. One of the people interviewed in this doc was Kathy Wood-Ed Woods Wife, as I looked at the lady I thought, she really looked familiar, her hair was a bit lighter than my neighbor but I knew Id have to look at her mail box when I got home that evening, sure enough it said K. Wood. A few weeks later I bumped into her in the stairwell of our building, I had spoken with her a few times before, usually when she was taking her dog named McGinty out for a walk, but this was the first time I had an inkling of who she was, I asked her if indeed she was Mrs. Ed Wood, she eyed me a bit suspiciously and answered yes she was and why did I want to know, I proceeded to tell her about the film festival of her husbands work, and of the panel discussion they had between films with many of the still surviving folks who had known or worked with Ed, including Vampira (Maila Nurmi), Paul Kelton The Cop Marco, Stephen Apostolof (girlie film maker) and many more. Kathy was upset that she hadnt been invited, I found out later from Eric Caidin that they wanted her there but didnt have any contact information. This was also in part a weekend to promote the then recent oral biography of Ed Wood titled Nightmare of Ecstasy by Rudolph Grey who was also in attendance signing copies of the book. Unbeknownst to me or Kathy Wood there was a script that had made its way to filmmaker Tim Burton written by Scott Alexander & Larry Karaszewski titled ED WOOD. A few months after the weekend film festival I was at a show for a friends band at the Whiskey A-Go-Go in Hollywood and the boyfriend of one of the band members who was also at the films screening asked me if indeed the lady I told him might be Mrs. Wood was indeed her, I told him yes and then he told me he had heard that Tim Burton was working on a film about her husband that was to star Johnny Depp. Now this information set in motion events that would in many ways change my life, I approached Mrs. Wood and told her what I had heard, she was unaware of this as I suspected. I offered to find out more information, I did and confirmed that indeed the film was slated for production, and that the producers had been trying to reach Mrs. Wood. I helped her find an entertainment lawyer who was a godsend in many ways. Long story short Kathy Wood & I became friends, I would drive her to the grocery store every weekend, sometimes with David Ward a friend of the Woods from the 1970s who still lived in the area, Kathy & I would occasionally go see movies, she always loved films, her favorite we saw was Bowfinger starring Steve Martin & Eddie Murphy about a down on his luck film director (notice any resemblance there?). And I would visit her most days after work.

Unfortunately her health started to take a turn for the worse in 2005 and by August 2006 she passed away. She was a funny spitfire of a petite lady, who told me all kinds of stories about the rough life she lead with Ed, she said her dad had told her as a young girl growing up in Vancouver, B.C. To hitch your wagon to a star, and she always told me that for better or worse, thats what Eddie was for her, We had that inscribed on her grave marker.

So, after Kathys passing I started to purchase off of eBay some of these girlie magazines that Ed had been writing for since the late 1960s to the mid 1970s when his drinking got so bad Bernie Bloom the primary publisher he worked for just couldnt keep hiring him back, by this time Ed was not only writing short fiction and the articles included in this volume as well as copy for the pictorials, but because of his film making background started working in the nascent porno film industry, initially the 8mm loops and some of his last feature films, like Necromania or The Photographer were more soft core (with some more hardcore inserts included) some only recently discovered.

I am happy to be able to get these articles or essays out into print, I basically didnt change the way Ed spelled words, unless it was a blatant error, so youll still see him using the word theatre instead of theater, and a few others, I wanted to stay as close to the way these articles original appeared in print in the early 1970s. There are one or two that might be a little squirm inducing (youve been warned), and I think that these more than his short fiction really show more of the real person of Ed Wood in them, especially those that he talks about transvestism, Ed was a well know transvestite in Hollywood in a time that he easily could have been arrested, at least until they changed the laws in California. Here also we see Eds love of a fetish nature, especially for his beloved Angora, youll see it popping up pretty often, and he also uses the name Shirley from time to time, this was Eds own drag name. Also Ed used a couple of pseudonyms or pen names Ann Gora & Dick Trent so some of these were authored by Ed under those names, the bulk though under his own name.

Kathy didnt talk much about Eds transvestism, but they were married for over 20 years so she accepted it and was tolerant of it and even told me that a few times they went to Hollywood drag parties with some very famous film & TV stars in attendance, she wouldnt name names. And I didnt pry.

I have grouped these articles loosely by subject or the type of article, Ed as sexologist, Ed as Dr. Ed., Ed writing on fetishes, Ed on film, or on the Sexual Revolution, some of these are basically fiction in nature the interview ones in particular, but Ed did get his fact right on many occasions, all this pre-internet days no small feat.

This is a companion volume to two books of Eds short fiction that have been published Angora Fever-The Collected Short Stories of Edward D. Wood Jr. publish in 2019 by Bear Manor Bare, and Blood Splatters Quickly published in 2014 by OR Books.