Ed Wood's When the Topic is Sex: "Greenwich Village Lure " (1971)

I guess this artwork represents Gwen the Greenwich Gyro.

NOTE: This article continues my coverage of Ed Wood's When the Topic is Sex (BearManor Media, 2021).

The article: "Greenwich Village Lure." Originally published in Sensuous Strippers (Pendulum Publishing), vol. 2, no. 2, July/August 1971. Credited to "Someone Who's Been There."

Excerpt: "I like Greenwich Village. I had my eyes set on it from the first moment I decided to take up exotic dancing. And with my eyes trained on that one spot there was no turning to another direction because that might weaken my chances. It was to be the Village and the 3-MMM Club as my start or nothing."

The huntsmen: Kenne Duncan and Ed Wood.

Reflections: This is another of Ed Wood's articles about strippers, and it covers a lot of the same ground as "To Produce a Lovely Creature," which was published at almost the same time. We hear again about how there's a hierarchy of strip joints, ranging from expensive, high-end clubs to sleazy low-class dives. We are also reminded that the best-paid, most successful strippers are not only physically beautiful but talented dancers as well. Eddie even uses very similar language: "There are few strippers who know their right foot from their left."

The difference—and the thing that makes "Greenwich Village Lure" one of the gems in When the Topic is Sex—is that this article is written from the point of view of a stripper, namely Gwen the Greenwich Gyro who dances at the 3-MMM Club in Greenwich Village, New York. That's right, Ed Wood wrote this whole thing in character. I think Eddie really got into "portraying" female roles through his writing. He certainly must've enjoyed being Gwen, since this article is one of the longest I've encountered in this entire collection.

And why not? Gwen is a very colorful lady, both figuratively and literally. Let's start with the title of this article. That was supposedly Gwen's choice. She considers herself the human equivalent of a fishing lure, as she explains:

I headed this article with the word 'lure,' and I suppose that's what I really am. But I'm not using the word as a bad description of my character. Actually I'm a rather nice girl working in a job which can pay for, and is equal to, my talents. It's a position I'm well equipped to handle and I give value for value received. After all, a fisherman uses a lure when he's after the best fish, like trout . . . the really tasty ones. And those lures are all bright and shining and colorful and none too few are also adorned with feathers. Doesn't sound too different from me. I affix all the same adjectives and nouns which make me a lure to the better clientele.

This might seem like a wacky, far-fetched metaphor, but remember that Ed Wood was an avid hunter and fisherman. According to Tor Johnson's son, Karl, in Nightmare of Ecstasy, Eddie and Tor used to go fishing in Ensenada, Mexico. Karl also remembered inviting Eddie over to "fire a few rounds." Nightmare even includes a photo of Ed with actor Kenne Duncan posing with some birds they've apparently just killed. And fishing lures are pretty colorful. Have you ever taken a good look at a Disco Midge?

Like "To Produce a Lovely Creature," "Greenwich Village Lure" is about the nuts-and-bolts of the stripping profession and tells women what they should expect from the job, i.e. the hiring process, the hours, the rehearsals, the pay, the customers, etc. But Gwen goes beyond that, too. She tells us why she got into stripping, for instance. Her ambition had been ballet, but there are very few ballerina jobs to be had out there. There are only so many productions of Swan Lake to go around. Gwen also tells us how her parents reacted to the news that their daughter became an exotic dancer. In short, they didn't. She expected them to be shocked, but they weren't.

One unusual aspect of "Greenwich Village Lure" is that, in addition to describing her stripping career, Gwen also describes the process of writing this very article. Offhand, I can't remember too many times that Ed Wood wrote about writing. Here's what "she" has to say about it:

Even as I write this I find that I have forgotten some of the things I wrote at the beginning. I have to go back and check and recheck, then check again. But I think it reads quite good now, and the whole thing is one long piece of fine experienced advice.

And later:

Which brings me, and a cramped hand, to the conclusion of this article. And I hope the cramp in my hand was worth it. It will be if I have gotten through to a couple of would-be exotic dancers.

Does this describe Ed Wood's own writing process? The first quote might, but I have my doubts about the second one. If Gwen is complaining of hand cramps, that suggests she wrote this thing out with pen and paper. And we all know that Eddie worked on a typewriter.

Next: "Swing Loose" (1971)