EDWARD D. WOOD JR.

The Man, The Movies, The Phenomenon

Ed Wood was a movie maker whose similarity to great artists lies solely in the fact that he was recognise for his work only after his death. Like Van Gogh, Wood died penniless and unappreciated - breathing his last in Los Angeles, California, on 10 December 1978, aged 54. The birth of the Wood legend occurred two years later when Harry and Michael Medved published The Golden Turkey Awards, naming him "Worst Director of All Time". This spawned a cult following, bringing Ed Wood to international attention.

Early starter...

Edward Davis Wood Jr was born in Poughkeepsie, New York, on 10 October 1924, the son of a postal technician and a jewellery buyer. His mother, Lillian, had hoped for a daughter and dressed Ed in girl's clothes - a mode of dress for which the boy developed a taste. In Rudolph Grey's definitive biography of Wood, NIGHTMARE OF ECSTACY (Faberr & Faber,1994), an acquaintance of the embryonic auter recalls that Wood and his childhood friends would re-enact weekly chapters of cinema's "Flash Gordon" on Sunday mornings; "Everybody wanted to be Flash. Not Eddie. Eddie had no competition... he wanted to be Dale!"

Ed was given his first movie camera as an eleventh birthday present and delighted in recording local life. He was particularly proud of having filmed the Hindenburg airship on it's journey down the Hudson River to New Jersey where it burst into flames. After graduating from Poughkeepsie High school in 1941 Wood found work as an usher at the Bardavon Cinema, eventually becoming assistant manager.

Army years

EW as a marine

With America's entry into the Second World War in 1942, Wood joined the US Marine corps, gaining a distinguished service record. He saw action during assaults on the Japanese in Tarawa and Nanumea, his fear of injury greater than his fear of death, as fellow Marine Joe Robertson remembers:"...he was in the invasion of Tarawa. 4000 Marines went in...400 came out. He was one of the 400. He was wearing pink panties and a pink bra underneath his battle fatigues - and he said to me 'thank God Joe I got out, because I wanted to be killed. I didn't want to be wounded, because I could never explain my pink panties and pink bra'"

Wood continued cross-dressing in his career after discharge from the Marines in 1946. Following study at the King's School of Dramatic Arts at the Frank Lloyd wright institute, Washington, he toured with a carnival in which his penchant for female clothes was indulged while playing the half man-half woman. On arrival in Hollywood in 1947 he began acting in stage productions

Ed Wood's directorial debut was on his self penned 1948 western, THE STREETS OF LAREDO (aka THE CROSSROADS OF LAREDO), of which only thirty minutes of silent footage were shot. The movie was to have been accompanied by a soundtrack of Cowboy ballads and snatches of dubbed on dialogue, but neither this nor the filming were completed.

Over the next five years, Wood wrote, directed and acted in THE CASUAL COMPANY, a play about his Marine experiences, produced at Hollywood's Village Playhouse; appeared as the Sheriff in a long running play, THE BLACKGUARD RETURNS, at the Gateway Theatre; worked as a stunt man, appearing in drag falling from a speeding stagecoach in Samuel Fuller's western THE BARON OF ARIZONA (which starred Vincent Price); directed a half hour TV drama called THE SUN WAS SETTING; and wrote the screenplay for THE LAWLESS RIDER. Bela

The Mighty Fallen

In 1953 Wood met Bela Lugosi, of whom he had been a big fan since childhood. Lugosi was a star of the archetypal Universal horror films of the 1930s, creating the definative bloody count in Tod Browning's 1931 production of DRACULA. Following success as the toothy Transylvanian, Lugosi was offered the part of the monster in James Whale's FRANKENSTEIN, also made in 1931, but turned it down, allowing Boris Karloff to eclipse his Dracula with the best known portrayal of the flat topped creature.

Althogh Lugosi's 1930s films received American TV airings at the start of the fifties, by then the actor had fallen on hard times and had a drug and alcohol problem. Seizing the opportunity to cast one of his silver screen idols, Wood gave the initially reluctant Lugosi the part of the Narrator in his first cinematic milestone - GLEN OR GLENDA? (also known as I LED TWO LIVES, THE TRANSVESTITE and I CHANGED MY SEX)

Glen or Glenda

Originally conceived by B-Movie producer George Weiss as a sexploitation flick based on the tabloid story of Christine Jorgensen - a GI who underwent an early sex change operation - Wood's script additionally centered on his own cross dressing. GLEN OR GLENDA? interweaves the tale of a man considering sex change surgery and that of a transvestite plucking up courage to tell his wife of the pleasure he takes in secretly pulling on her angora sweaters.

Wood starred as the transvestite emerging from the closet alongside his real life girlfriend Delores Fuller. Lugosi, as the all seeing, string pulling Spirit ensconced in a study furnished with skeletons, intones "Pull the string! Dance to that which one is created for!" and the film features Wood's trademark usage of stock film footage including highway traffic, battle scenes from World War II and lightning. Publicity shot: Wood is 2nd from right in back row

His next film, BRIDE OF THE ATOM, released as BRIDE OF THE MONSTER (1954) included not only stock footage, but film which any other director would have consigned to the cutting room floor. Wood's movies were made at a frantic pace because of their very limited budgets, and, to save time, he would not bother to re-shoot bungled scenes. Ed recruited the twenty five stone, bald, former wrestler Tor Johnson to play the eponymous monster in BRIDE, casting Lugosi as his master. In one scene, Lugosi whips Johnson into submission and is supposed to declare that he is "gentle as a kitten", but actually proclaims that the mammoth man is "gentle as a kitchen"

Plan 9 from Outer Space

PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE was written around footage of Lugosi shot in April 1955 - two weeks before his drug addiction led to hospitalisation - and another Lugosi shoot in June 1956. The quintessential horror star died on 16th August that year. Anxious to bill his next cinema outing as "Bela Lugosi's Last Film", Wood found a "lookalike" to replace him - chiropodist Tom Mason. According to Ed, Mason had the identical skull structure to Lugosi, but ensured that when he appeared in Plan 9 the lower part of his face was "elaborately masked" behind his black cloak! Tom Mason

Wood Also recruited Maila Nurmi who, as the vampish Vampira, had hostessed KABC and KHJ TV horror film slots in the early fifties. While at the height of her TV success, Nurmi had refused to work with Wood, but by 1956 her career was in steep decline and she travelled to the PLAN 9 shoot - dressed in full Vampira costume - on a bus. Nurmi agreed to a day's filming for $200 with the proviso that she could portray a mute zombie, later conceding a bloodcurdling scream within the price.

PLAN 9 - originally entitled GRAVE ROBBERS FROM OUTER SPACE - was largely financed by the Baptist church. The church became involved in the project with a view to producing a Hollywood blockbuster which would in turn raise money to finance religious movies. Part of the deal was that members of the cat should be baptised, and Ed persuaded them to do this in a Beverly Hills Swimming Pool. The mighty Tor Johnson decided to throw a spanner in the works of the mass immersion, as Wood recalled:"...this skinny old Reverend Father dunks Tor for the third time and Tor stayed on the bottom. The Reverend was screaming, 'He's drowning! Help! Help!' running around like a madman trying to get someone to help him get that huge wrestler out of the pool. They came accross with a lot of money."

Less than special effects...

As well as it's oddball cast, bungled scenes and stock footage, PLAN 9 had some highly dubious special effects. The flying saucer scenes were originally shot using $2 plastic models suspended from piano wire over a miniature town. Many of these models were damaged when the wire broke, and, after the local store ran out of the toys Wood claimed he used painted Cadillac hubs instead.

The film previewed at the Carlton theatre, Hollywood on 15 March 1957 under it's original GRAVE ROBBERS title, and was given an American release as PLAN 9 in July 1959. Wood said of the movie "If you want to know me, see Glen or Glenda, that's me, that's my story, no question. But Plan 9 is my pride and joy..."

The end?

Wood's "pride and joy" became the centrepiece of many cult film festivals following the publication of the Golden Turkey Awards in 1980. The director went on to produce pornographic films throughout the sixties and seventies, sliding into alcoholism before his death from a heart attack. As well as having his "classic" fifties movies issued on video, Wood inspired two TV documentaries - LOOK BACK IN ANGORA and THE HAUNTED WORLD OF ED WOOD.

Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski, the writers of Tim Burton's 1994 biopic ED WOOD, were inspired by the directors integrity and innocence. This, they conclude, is the source of the Ed Wood phenomenon: "It's a classic American success story: an eccentric individual achieves immortality, simply because he wouldn't bend to tradition."

INtegrity is the essence of cult. The important thing is that cult artists *believe* in what they do, even if they fail to attain even the most basic of acceptable standards. While more competant film makers have vanished in a swamp of mediocrity, Ed Wood's work is in a class of it's own because it's so bad, it's good.