Ed Wood Wednesdays, week 256: Carl Anthony (1932-2021) [PART 1 OF 2]

It's time to shine a spotlight on a key player in the Ed Wood canon.

I have not been especially kind in my descriptions of actor Carl Anthony (1932-2021), a friend of Ed Wood who played prominent roles in both Plan 9 from Outer Space (1957) and The Sinister Urge (1960) and who later appeared as an interview subject in the documentary Flying Saucers Over Hollywood (1992). Here are some of the adjectives I've applied to Carl's work over the years: "colorless," "pedestrian," "stiff," "dull," and "uncomfortable." Not exactly the rave of the century. Hey, at least Carl got his own trading card in Drew Friedman's Ed Wood Players set. 

Carl's trading card.

Look, if you're studying the work of Edward D. Wood, Jr., you're going to spend some time (vicariously) with Carl Anthony. Hearing his voice. Looking at his face. And Carl is maybe, just maybe, not the most fun actor to watch. Though they're on opposite sides of the law, his characters in both Plan 9 and Sinister are kind of the same: surly, impatient, and unimaginative. This actor has the demeanor of a man waiting for a bus that will never arrive. And he has a pebble in his shoe the entire time.

But Christmas is a time for forgiveness and reconciliation, and I thought I'd give Carl's work a more charitable evaluation this year. Perhaps it will help to learn more about the man himself. He was born Carl Anthony Wuco in Garfield Heights, OH, a suburb of Cleveland, on November 4, 1932. That makes him one of the younger members of the Ed Wood repertory company. Of his Plan 9 costars, the closest in age would have been Conrad Brooks, born in 1931.

Carl's parents, Anthony and Gloria, stayed in Garfield Heights while their son moved first to Florida and finally to California to pursue his show business aspirations. According to back-to-back obituaries that ran in the August 22, 1965 edition of The Cleveland Plain Dealer, both Anthony and Gloria died "suddenly" on Monday, August 16, 1965. I can only assume it was a car accident or other tragedy that claimed their lives. 

Carl Anthony Wuco had two older brothers: Walter (who died in 2004) and Raymond (who died on December 30, 2014 at the age of 86). Raymond's elaborate obituary in the January 7, 2015 edition of The Cleveland Plain Dealer is quite an entertaining read by itself. Raymond was a distinguished mathematics teacher who spent 25 years as a religious Brother in the Marianist Catholic order but left the order in the early 1970s and married a woman named Lynn Valin in 1975. The two met when Raymond was teaching at a college in California. His academic career lasted 50 years and spanned both the monk and non-monk eras of his life. The obituary also reveals that the family name Wuco was originally Vuco, which is Croatian in origin. If you're wondering where Carl Anthony got his dark wavy hair and strong jawline, it's his Croatian roots.

Meanwhile, Carl married a woman named Lydia La Marca in the summer of 1961. Their nuptials were announced in the June 18, 1961 Plain Dealer, and the article yields some surprising information about Carl's career.

Oh, sure, mention the best part casually in the last sentence, like it's no big deal.

Okay, the article says that Carl is an actor in Hollywood and even mentions his stage name. We knew all that. But Carl Anthony was the voice of a character on Hanna-Barbera's The Huckleberry Hound Show (1958-1961)? That's news to me. The credits of this classic animated series are no help, since the only voice actors listed are Daws Butler and Don Messick. But there are 68 episodes of this series, spread out over four seasons. Anyone feel like going through them and listening for Carl's voice?

Another tantalizing tidbit appeared in the January 7, 1961 edition of The Cleveland Plain Dealer. Writer Stan Anderson mentioned Carl Anthony in his "Entertainment Pages" column. This will be of particular interest to Ed Wood fans because it namechecks both Dino Fantini and The Sinister Urge.

Fourth billing, eh? Moving up in the world!

Again, there's a lot to process here, mainly in the article's bizarre final paragraph. According to this blurb, Carl Anthony flew a plane blindfolded under the assumed name "Alessandro Di Cagliostro." That pseudonym is taken from a real-life occultist and con artist who lived in Italy in the 1700s. But did Carl Anthony ever actually perform this stunt? The evidence says that he did! Here's an article, complete with a photograph, from the February 10, 1955 edition of The Miami Herald. Keep in mind, this was a year before Ed Wood shot Plan 9.

A literal 15 minutes of fame?

And here's an advertisement from the February 25, 1955 Miami Herald for an air and water show featuring the aerial antics of Cagliostro. I feel obligated to mention that this ad ran right next to one for a "burlesk" show featuring dancer Rusty Russel, billed as "the hottest redhead in town." Was the world way more interesting in 1955 than it is in 2025 or do old newspapers just make it seem that way?

Barefoot skiing and clown acts but not barefoot clown acts. That would be indecent.

Carl Anthony's one-paragraph IMDb biography, written by Lesli Wuco-Baker (presumably a relative), mentions Carl's acting career but mainly focuses on his blindfolded flying stunts. According to Lesli, Carl performed his signature routine on the popular television program You Asked for It in 1955. Naturally, I went looking for this particular episode but did not find it. However, I found something even better: a Pathe newsreel from 1955 featuring not only the flying stunt but also some footage of Carl Anthony grinning as his mask is removed! Watch for yourself!

Isn't that great? I realize that we are deep into this article, and we have not even begun to discuss Carl Anthony's acting career or his friendship with Ed Wood. So that will have to wait until next week. Until then, I bid you the merriest of Christmases.