Ed Wood Wednesdays, week 231: Catching up with some recent reader feedback

What can I say? I love a cheap pun.

I have some very knowledgeable and attentive readers. This is mostly a good thing, but it can be a little worrying sometimes. Niche fandoms tend to attract people who are passionate and detail-oriented when it comes to their chosen subject matter, so I know that some complaints and corrections are (potentially) headed my way whenever I post a new article in this series. For the most part, however, Ed Wood's dedicated fans have been extremely generous in sharing books, articles, scripts, videos, photographs, and more with me. I'm truly grateful for that. Many articles in this series have come about because of the items people have sent me or because of the information they've shared with me.

Generally, the day I post a new Ed Wood Wednesdays article, I'll mention it on my various social media accounts, including the very active Ed Wood Jr. Facebook forum moderated by Bob Blackburn. These Facebook posts often inspire some interesting and informative responses. But social media is, by its very nature, ephemeral, so I wanted to document some of these responses before they evaporate forever from my memory.

An untrustworthy undertaker.

Last week, for instance, I presented the story of an evil, unscrupulous mortician that turns up in at least three of Ed Wood's books from the 1960s. I compared Ed's gruesome tale to the 1963 AIP film The Comedy of Terrors and the real-life saga of "anatomy murderers" William Burke and William Hare who scandalized Edinburgh, Scotland in 1828. Reader Paul Apel observed:

Wood may have also been familiar with the 1960 flick about Burke and Hare, The Flesh and the Fiends [starring] Peter Cushing and Donald Pleasance, but I have to assume he HAD to have known of [1945's] The Body Snatcher with Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi. It's not explicitly about Burke and Hare, but tells a similar story of a graverobber (Karloff) supplying a doctor [with corpses]. Lugosi is the doctor's assistant who learns of his scheme and attempts to blackmail him. It's a good flick, the only problem is although Lugosi has one good scene with Karloff, he's otherwise wasted in an almost bit part.

Barry Goubler commented:

Burke and Hare were the subject of a [1948] Tod Slaughter movie [called The Greed of William Hart]; I remember a mention of Ed being a Slaughter fan in [the 1992 biography] Nightmare of Ecstasy, so maybe that's where he first heard of them?

And Bob Blackburn himself chimed in:

We know that Ed more often than not did research [for his books and articles]. Again [he may have consulted] a local library [or] files that [his publishing company] Pendulum may have kept, that were [about] historical villains, many he wrote about in [his 1967 true crime book] Bloodiest Sex Crimes of History, so I would also agree that he might have run across the Burke & Hare story. I also wonder how much he and Criswell might have talked about the funeral business? Maybe he even got the original idea from Cris?

A very intriguing possibility, one I hadn't even considered! Before appearing in Ed's movies, like Plan 9 from Outer Space (1957) and Night of the Ghouls (1959), Criswell grew up in the funeral business in Indiana, and it's likely that he discussed these experiences with Ed Wood at great length. Perhaps these conversations inspired Ed to write about a corrupt funeral director who took terrible liberties with his profession.

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about how Ed Wood may have been an influence on Woody Allen's 1972 film, Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask). Talented artist Shenandoah Seth See, whose work I have highlighted previously, had some thoughts on this topic:

I felt that Wood's influence would have gotten around somewhere, because there are unexplained references to his movies from filmmakers who may have never seen him. Allen provides us with this more direct link from Wood and then to him. My dad actually got to see Woody Allen at one of his lectures when he was in college and might have gotten to ask him a question. This film was "the movie I always wanted to watch but was too afraid to ask for" because I thought it had porn in it, similar to [the 1996 Demi Moore film] Striptease, so I still haven't seen it. 

Although people may wish to avoid Woody Allen's work for numerous other reasons these days, I can avow that Everything You Always... is not pornographic and contains no actual sex or nudity whatsoever. The movie has a great deal of innuendo and a few rude words along the way, but that's it. In fact, the first place I ever saw Everything You Always... was on television decades ago, and it required minimal editing before airing in a late-night time slot.

Ed Wood in a director's chair.

Last but not least, I'd like to talk about the feedback that greeted my review of Ed Wood's book Orgy of the Dead (1966). There are some layers to dig through here! This Greenleaf Classics paperback was a novelization of a film that Ed had written for director Steve Apostolof the previous year. I've never owned a physical copy of this book in its original printing, even though it's one of Eddie's better-known paperbacks. Paul Apel, who does have a physical copy, was able to supply this sworn testimony:

One thing only owners of the original novel know -- Ed Wood himself inexplicably appears in it. Right in the middle of the book there's a photo of Ed in a director's chair, apropos of nothing. It's the photo that appears right before the "Introduction" of Nightmare of Ecstasy. I'm sure Grey pulled the exact photo from the novel. There's also a shot of Criswell that is not from the set of Orgy as well as a behind-the-scenes shot of some of the Orgy girls in their dressing room.

This prompted reader Shawn D. Langrick to respond:

Are the photos in the book credited to R(obert) Charleton Wilson? He was the on-set photographer for Orgy. There's another interesting Ed connection with him: He directed the [1970 adult] film Dandy, which has a scene shot in the same bedroom from [the 1969 Ed Wood-scripted film] Love Feast. Which hasn't helped one bit in trying to find the location. Wilson also wrote/directed Turn Me On (1968), and was the replacement cameraman [for Steve Apostolof's 1966 film] Suburbia Confidential. I'm sure he did a lot more uncredited, or faux credited stuff as well.

To which Paul responded:

The shot of Criswell in the book that I said before is not from the film is obvious because he's not wearing his costume and looks younger. But it has one thing in common with the shot of Ed -- both appear to be "cut out" rather clumsily, scrapbook style. I was going to say this makes me think both of them are not from the set of the film. However, there is ONE shot of [actress] Fawn Silver in the book that is also "cut out" in this way. These are the only three like this in the book. 

I took a look at the behind-the-scenes home movie shot on the set of Orgy (you can find it in the [2011 DVD box set] Big Box of Wood) to see if Ed there looks like Ed in this "cut out" shot -- it's hard to say. I'd say maybe he's heavier in the Orgy footage than in this photo?

In any case, looking at the behind-the-scenes Orgy footage reminded me of another mystery. Portions of this footage seem to have been double-exposed with other footage of topless women sitting on a couch. Some seem to be opening gifts and trying on bras, others seem to be playing cards. One stands up and holds a book over her privates to cover herself. Question is, what's THIS footage from?

As you can see, my review of the Orgy novel prompted a lot of discussion that had very little to do with the text of the book but nevertheless raised a lot of intriguing questions about other Ed Wood-related projects. And it's possible that this very article, the one I'm writing now, will inspire yet more debate. We'll see. Meanwhile, we're hoping to bring you more information about Love Feast and Dandy in the near future. Keep watching this space!