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| Sampling the merchandise. |
NOTE: This article continues my coverage of Angora Fever: The Collected Short Stories of Edward D. Wood, Jr. (BearManor Bare, 2019).
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| The full artwork for this story. |
The story: "Hooker by Choice," originally published in Goddess, vol. 1, no. 2, November/December 1972. Credited to "Ann Gora."
Synopsis: Stella, 32, is one of four prostitutes in a small factory town and considers herself the best of the lot. She charges $10 per half hour and $50 for a whole night. Business is steady, especially since there's very little else to do in town, but she dreads to think of what would happen if the factory ever closed down. She's been saving her money in case of such a disaster. Stella knows very well when the men get paid and when new workers are hired. Her customers range from teenagers having their first sexual experiences to old men looking for a last thrill. Commiserating with another hooker, Stella, Doris considers moving on to bigger and better things but decides that she still has a lot of "servicing" she can do in this town.
Wood trademarks: Prostitution (cf. "Tank Town Chippie," "The Hooker"); woman aging (cf. "Flowers for Flame LeMarr"); "broads" (cf. "The Saga of Rance Ball," "Wanted: Belle Starr"); referring to children as "house apes" (cf. "Taking Off"); "excellent" (a favorite Wood adjective, cf. "The Loser," "The Fright Wigs," "Like a Hole in the Head"); contempt for old age (cf. "Mice on a Cold Cellar Floor"); cemetery (cf. "Invasion of the Sleeping Flesh"); character named Doris (cf. "The Loser"); color pink (cf. "2 X Double"); "beer bar" (cf. "Starve Hell," "The Fright Wigs").
Excerpt: "And then she was at the buckle of the belt or the strap of the overalls and before the kid knew it, he was standing there stark naked in front of a naked woman for the first time in his life and it would never be the same from that time forward. The female body would be his entire lure in life. He would work, he would slave, he might even go hungry just to please the woman or women of his choice… he would have a lust that would last to nearly the day he died… most of them."
Reflections: Every once in a great while, Ed Wood liked to write a short story that wasn't really a "story" in the traditional sense but was more of a character study. "Hooker by Choice" is a prime example, and it's one of the more positive portrayals of prostitution in all of the Wood canon. Sure, the factory town setting is pretty bleak. The place endures "hard winters," and the life expectancy is only 70, plus a lot of the workers are described as short-term "transients." But Stella seems to have carved out a comfortable life for herself here and doesn't seem inclined to leave any time soon. She's good at what she does, and she believes she is providing a valuable service. Why quit?
As always, it's difficult to avoid the conclusion that Ed Wood wrote about hookers so frequently because, as a writer and filmmaker laboring in pornography, he identified with them. Through that lens, Stella becomes an aspirational figure. She's saving her money, after all, and seems to have her business nicely organized. And she's aging well, too. "She dressed the part," Eddie writes, "never too daring… but always in clothing designed for the girl in her early twenties, and she was an artist when it came to makeup." In contrast, largely due to his dependence on alcohol and other setbacks, Eddie had no money saved up and was not aging particularly well by 1972, generally looking older than his 47 years.
On the subject of booze, Stella has some sensible policies in place to protect herself. Noting that some of her customers "could be mighty mean" while intoxicated, "she never allowed more than three drinks in any one session." Stella is particularly keen to protect her "excellent" teeth from her customers' fists. "She wasn't about to let some pig of a drunk knock her around," Ed writes. It's darkly fascinating to see how Ed weaves elements of his own life into his fiction. In reality, Ed wore dentures and was known to become abusive toward his wife when he was drunk. So, in more ways than one, "Hooker by Choice" is a marked improvement over Ed Wood's own life.
Next: "Filth is the Name for a Tramp" (1972)