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| A solemn Ed Wood (top row, center) poses for a class photo in 1940. |
NOTE: Author James Pontolillo has been diligently researching the early, pre-Hollywood years of writer-director Edward D. Wood, Jr. His goal is to fill in some gaps in the timeline of Wood's life. The following article contains photographs and information that James has discovered while conducting this research. Enjoy. - J.B.
Ed Wood attended Poughkeepsie High School [Figure 1] from September 1940 until early May 1942 when he paused his studies in order to join the U.S. Marine Corps. For unknown reasons, Ed only took part in his 1940 Freshman class photo [Figure 2] and does not appear in his subsequent 1941 and 1942 class photos.
Unfortunately, the 1940 yearbook staff managed to mix up Ed and two of his classmates when it came to identifying the participating students [Figure 3]. Ed was mislabeled as Thomas Martell, Tony Rinaldi was mislabeled as Ed, and Thomas Martell was mislabeled as Tony Rinaldi. Additional photos of all three men to demonstrate this point and short biographies of Ed's classmates are given here for the first time.
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| A collage of photos of Ed Wood from the 1940s. |
Ed, who died young at the age of 54, managed to outlive his two other classmates caught up in the yearbook confusion.
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| Ed Wood's classmate, Tony Rinaldi. |
Tony Rinaldi was born in Poughkeepsie on April 1, 1924. He attended Poughkeepsie High School from 1939 to 1943 where he was widely known as a football player. Tony registered for the draft in June 1942 and enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Force on March 16, 1943. In May he was stationed at Scott Field, IL taking the radio operator training course. Tony finished among the best in his class and was awarded the rank of Staff Sergeant.
By November, Tony had moved on to flexible gunnery school at Tyndall Field, FL and was engaged to marry his high school sweetheart Elizabeth Ada ("Betty") Chisholm. Sometime in early 1944 Tony and Betty were married at Richland, SC. In May 1944 he was deployed to the 822nd Bombardment Squadron ("The Black Panthers") / 38th Bombardment Group / Fifth Army Air Force based at Port Moresby, New Guinea. Tony served as a radioman-gunner aboard a B-25 Mitchell bomber. His unit was tasked with attacking Japanese targets along the northern coast of western New Guinea.
Barely three months later, Tony died on August 1, 1944 in an unspecified non-combat incident while in the line of duty at the Nadzab Airfield Complex, New Guinea. Two of his brothers were also with the armed forces at this time. A week later, a funeral ceremony was held for him at St. Peter's Cemetery in Poughkeepsie. On November 11 he was honored at an Armistice Day ceremony as one of nine former Poughkeepsie High School football players who had thus far died in the war.
A little over a month later (December 15) Betty gave birth to a daughter named Toni Lee. In April 1945 Betty relocated with their daughter to Redwood City, CA where her grandmother resided. [Betty later remarried, had more children, and lived out her life in California.] Following the return of his body from New Guinea, Tony's journey finally came to an end on June 23, 1948 when he was buried at St. Peter's Cemetery in Poughkeepsie.
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| Another of Ed's classmates, Sonny Martell. |
Sonny Martell was born in Poughkeepsie on June 9, 1923. He left Poughkeepsie High School after two years and on September 19, 1940 enlisted in the New York State National Guard. From late 1940 to early 1942, Sonny served as a Private with Battery B of the 156th Field Artillery based in the Poughkeepsie area. On January 24, 1942 he enlisted in the U.S. Navy. Sonny was one of nine Martell family members from Dutchess County in the armed forces during the war.
By late March, Sonny was mustered in as a Seaman, First Class aboard the battleship USS South Dakota. In June, the South Dakota was sent to reinforce Allied forces waging the Guadalcanal campaign in the Pacific Theater. From October 25-27, the South Dakota took part in the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands. The result was a tactical Japanese victory but at a high cost in aircrew deaths. The US lost an aircraft carrier, and the South Dakota was damaged by dive bombers.
On November 14 and 15 (Battle of Savo Island), the South Dakota sank three Japanese cruisers and shot down 32 aircraft. Sonny was badly wounded (shrapnel in his arms, back and legs), awarded the Purple Heart, and returned to the US for hospitalization. The South Dakota also returned home for repairs and spent February-August 1943 in the Atlantic Theater. In August 1943 Sonny rejoined the South Dakota as it headed back to the Pacific Theater.
From 1943 to 1945, he took part in all major Pacific campaigns (Gilbert and Marshall Islands; Marianas; Saipan; Tinian; Battle of the Philippine Sea; invasions of Leyte, Luzon, Iwo Jima and Okinawa; and the Formal Surrender of Japan in Tokyo Bay). In September 1945 ,the South Dakota returned to the US. On July 19, 1946, Sonny married Dorothy McManus. They would go on to have two sons and a daughter. Sonny was honorably discharged from the U.S. Navy in December 1946. He rejoined Battery B of the 156th Field Artillery in the late 1940s and served at least through the mid-1950s.
On August 6, 1962, Sonny died at home from a sudden heart attack at age 39. He was buried a few days later at St. Peter’s Cemetery in Poughkeepsie.
Sources
Sources
- 1939-1943 Poughkeepsie (NY) High School Yearbooks
- 1930, 1940, and 1950 U.S. Federal Census
- Ancestry.com
- Grey, Rudolph, 1992, Nightmare of Ecstasy: The Life and Art of Edward D. Wood, Jr., Los Angeles: Feral House.
- Pontolillo, James, 2017, The Unknown War of Edward D. Wood, Jr. 1942-1946, Hollywood: Big Green Dragon Press.
- Poughkeepsie Journal