Ed Wood Wednesdays: The Wood Magazine Odyssey, Part 16 by Greg Dziawer

Ed Wood in 1969, when life was slow and oh so mellow.

Note to Readers: Normally, Greg sends me his articles by e-mail, which is my preferred method of correspondence. This week, however, he chose to send me a mysterious envelope filled with random scraps of paper, most of them badly stained and wrinkled. After considerable detective work and one particularly productive seance, I have managed to assemble these scraps into their proper order as Greg intended. Together, they form a comprehensive index of all the magazines produced by Pendulum Publishing in 1968 and 1969. Please enjoy. - J.B.

Ed Wood Wednesdays: The Wood Magazine Orbit, Part One by Greg Dziawer

Some gentlemen get to know each other in this 1971 magazine from Calga.

Au-topsy, Au-turvy: Calga's My Boys

  

My Boys, Vol. 2. No. 3. Aug/Sep 1971.

We ended last week's Ed Wood Wednesdays by mentioning that, in the coming year, we'll venture into a new series of articles I've dubbed the Wood Orbit. The Orbit will be devoted to establishing parameters in which Ed's work might have appeared, sensitive in avoiding any false Ed-tributions while casting a wide and inclusive net.

With upwards of a thousand magazines in which Ed's work may have appeared, and Wood's own claim to have penned a thousand magazine short stories and articles, the Orbit of the magazines is a vast one. This week, in our very first Orbit, we'll summarize a typical Calga magazine from 1971, the very heart of Ed's involvement in adult magazines.

My Boys, Vol. 2., No. 3, Aug/Sep 1971, Calga Publishers, Inc.

Launched in May/June 1970, the gay-themed Calga mag My Boys ran a mere five issues, this number being the last. Calga, you may remember, was the sister publisher to Pendulum, both carrying the W. Pico Blvd. address in Los Angeles were Ed was working as staff writer for publisher Bernie Bloom. Ed was the most prolific of the four or five writers on the Pendulum staff, operating across all fronts. In particular, Ed often wrote the lion's share of nearly all textual content in dozens of gay-themed Pendulum-family mags in the early '70s.

Having seen three out of the run's five issues, I noted that My Boys was unique in being holistic. The photos and accompanying texts are fully integrated in each issue, the former drawing from the same small cadre of models and the latter imagining a narrative and characters for the actions depicted, developing in a pass-the-baton fashion from each photo feature to the next.

The cast of characters for this particular issue of My Boys consists of Don, who is the catalyst of this free-love cohort and who tells the entire story in first person, and his "boys," Kirk, Bruce, Randy, and Pete. All are characteristic of the (largely unknown) models in the Pendulum-family mags: a bunch of nice-looking, everyday guys, presented authentically. The tone of the accompanying texts, which are substantial enough to add up to their own short stories, is almost childlike and innocent, even though the vocabulary is sexually graphic in the extreme. As is also characteristic of the editorial stance of the Pendulum-family mags, the free love ethos is expressed naturally, without judgment, often even celebrated.

This issue of My Boys contains five photo features, as follows:

Ed Wood Wednesdays: Advertising T.K. Peters by Greg Dziawer

Well, maybe not everything, but Greg's working on it.

NOTE: Greg Dziawer has been doing extensive research into the career of Dr. T.K. Peters, whose name is often touted as a literary alias for Edward D. Wood, Jr. Much more Peters-related material will appear in this space in the weeks to come. For now, here is a preview of what Greg's been working on. Enjoy. J.B.

A T.K. Peters book from SECS.

There was a time when many considered the name T.K. Peters, which appeared on close to 50 photo illustrated sociological sex paperbacks, to be a pseudonym of Ed Wood. Or even a shared pseudonym of multiple authors at Pendulum Publishers. Leo Eaton, fellow staffer of Ed's at the Pendulum magazine offices in Los Angeles, laid these notions to rest when he revealed that Peters was a real person and that the paperbacks were sourced from a comprehensive sex study he had sold to Pendulum.

The sociological angle was a legal gambit, justifying the hardcore sex of the photographs (the raison d'etre of the books, with a pic on each right-hand facing page), common practice of many adult publishers during the transition to the legalization of pornography. These kinds of books exploded across the adult paperback world in the late '60s and early '70s, albeit briefly, when the educational pretenses quickly became unnecessary.

The following scans are of two advertisements, both of which appeared in many Pendulum/Calga/SECS Press magazines, regardless of theme, circa 1971. The first ad consists solely of titles from the Peters source, whose name is not even mentioned in the copy, as part of the SECS Press Encyclopedia of Sex series. The second ad throws in a few titles from Calga's Sexual Enlightenment Series and even a couple from the non-Peters PsychoMed series (published by Pendulum's Atlanta office). 

As you check them out, how many of the Peters titles in these ads do you recognize as being by Ed? He wrote or collaborated on approximately a dozen books from the Peters source. The answer is below, after the second scan.

"Every aspect of sex... from foreplay to orgasm..."

"Photos are censored. Books are not!"

So how many did you spot? If you said zero, then congratulate yourself. You really know your T.K. Peters!

Ed Wood Wednesdays, The Wood Collaborator Odyssey, Part Three by Greg Dziawer

Wood-ologist Greg Dziawer reading Sex On Campus by Norman Bates with Dr. T.K. Peters.

   

"If he [Ed Wood] was working on a job like at Pendulum, he would start as soon as he got home. That would continue until about the time he would pass out at about 9:30 or 10, and then he would go to sleep wherever it was he passed out, wake up about 4 in the morning, and head immediately for the refrigerator for a big pitcher of Kool-Aid."

-Charles D. Anderson, from Rudolph Grey's Nightmare Of Ecstasy

One name that crops up regularly in Ed Wood's later years of writing pornography is that of editor and writer Charles D. Anderson. Like Wood, Anderson was a staffer at the Pendulum magazine offices on W. Pico Blvd. in the early 1970s. The two also shared the occasional project outside of magazine work, but they did not share a pseudonym. We've discussed a few titles sometimes still erroneously attributed to Ed and credited to Anderson's pseudonym Norman Bates previously here  and here. But now, let's take a closer look at Anderson's entire career.

  

Ed Wood Wednesdays: The Wood Magazine Odyssey, Part Five by Greg Dziawer

A lot of Eddie's creative output went straight to adult bookshops like this one.

In the last two installments of Ed Wood Wednesdays, we indexed the magazine titles and issues filed for copyright (in 1970-71 and 1973 Library of Congress catalogs, respectively) by Pendulum/Calga, both incorporated publishers running out of Bernie Bloom's W Pico Blvd office, where Ed Wood and a small cadre of large talents and free spirits worked. Dramatic changes ensued in 1973, as both Pendulum and Calga disintegrated by the Spring. Common speculation relates to the burgeoning legal troubles of Michael Thevis, finally resulting in two murder convictions.

By the spring of 1973, solely Gallery Press, Inc. existed. It was still run by Bloom on W Pico under the imprints Gallery Press and (d.b.a.) Edusex, the Pendulum sensibility maintaining: free-love hippiedom, pleas-for-tolerance, utterly objective – well, excepting legacy terms like "perversion" and "deviation" – pseudo-science, lots of b&w and color graphic sexual photos (the proverbial raison d'etre), and, with regularity, Ed Wood's short stories and articles.

Ed listed 27 short stories and 49 articles on his resume for 1973, most of which are spread across the approx. 130 individual issues indexed here.

Ed Wood Wednesdays: The Wood Magazine Odyssey, Part Four by Greg Dziawer

Eddie (barely) kept himself afloat, one story at a time.

In last week's edition of Ed Wood Wednesdays, we indexed all magazine issues/titlesfiled for copyright in 1972 by Pendulum/Calga. Moving backward in time, this week we're covering same for all of 1970 and 1971, albeit the periodical filings for 1970 and 1971 are merged and seemingly incomplete, and therefore partial. Ed was at his most prolific as a short story/article writer in 1971, tallying 68 short stories and 67 articles. Interesting that Edusex and Gallery Press do not seem to have been launched until 1972.

Ed Wood Wednesdays: The Wood Magazine Odyssey, Part Three by Greg Dziawer

Let us journey once again into the swirling vortex of Ed Wood's magazine writing career.

Another fine Pendulum publication.

By 1972, Bernie Bloom's Pendulum Publishers, Inc. was humming along, producing magazines, paperbacks and films. The magazines were packaged and distributed by mob boss Michael Thevis. Thevis diversified beyond solely magazine distribution in the late '60s, his Peachtree News Company of Atlanta merely the first in a long line of companies. He launched Pendulum as an adult paperback publisher in 1967 in Atlanta, then Bernie incorporated the name in LA in 1968. The name of Calga Publishers, Inc. derived from the then-current state postal abbreviations for California (CAL) and Georgia (GA).

By 1972, Pendulum's small office on 5585 W Pico Blvd in Los Angeles churned out an average of three magazines per week under the Pendulum and Calga imprints. Both were legitimate business in their own right, operating from the same address. In those days, Calga published titles under its own imprint, as well as under two DBAs (copyright-speak for "doing business as," in which a business can use a fictitious name so long as it's not trademarked): Gallery Press and Edusex. Pendulum, too, carried a DBA: SECS Press (also a concurrent paperback line: the Sex Education Clinical Series).

Ed Wood, the most prolific staff writer at the W Pico office, wrote as much as the other four or so staffers combined. His resume lists 51 short stories and 52 articles in 1972 alone. (Thanks to Bob Blackburn, co-heir of the Ed Wood estate, for this count.)

Although much of Ed's work from this era has been identified, it is our hope that this list furthers research ultimately leading to the discovery of more. Stories and articles were often written under pseudonyms, or even without credit, and the staff also wrote any and all supporting text: photo captions and narratives accompanying photo sets, and even editorials. The magazines often formed the basis for paperbacks, the staff quickly stitching them together to collect the $100 bonus per paperback offered by Bernie Bloom.

The following list contains all titles filed for copyright in 1972, 154 individual titles in all. A few were filed for copyright as books, though listed in the periodical copyright index owing to being serialized. Volume and Number were oft-times fluid, duplicating or even skipping a number. Some titles only had Volume numbers. The specific day of copyright likewise varied, sometimes coming after publication, sometimes before, and at the end and beginning of the year, copyright records for 1972 cover a handful of titles published in late 1971 or early 1973.

Pendulum/SECS Press

Pendulum

Balling

v2n1 FebMar

Black and White

v2n1 AprMay

v2n2 JunJul

v2n3 OctNov

Blazing Films

v6n1 JanFeb

v6n2 AprMay

v6n3 OctNov

Body and Soul

v6n1 FebMar

v6n2 JulAug

The Boy Friends

v4n1 JulAug

Dynamic Films

v6n1 MarApr

v6n2 JulAug

Ecstasy

v4n1 FebMar

v4n2 JulAug

v4n3 OctNov

Flesh & Fantasy

v5n1 MarApr

Garter Girls

v6n1 FebMar

v6n2 MayJun

v6n3 SepOct

v7n1 NovDec

The Girl Friends

v4n1 JanFeb (in notice: Dec71)

v4n2 MayJun

Girl Lovers

v2n1 JulAug

Gold Diggers

v4n1 JanFeb (in notice: Dec71)

v4n2 MayJun

Heads Up

v4n1 JanFeb (in notice: 1971)

Lezo

v6n1 MarApr

Nude But Nice

v2n1 FebMar

v2n2 MayJun

Nude Rebels

v4n1 FebMar

v4n2 MayJun

v4n3 SepOct

v5n1 JanFeb73 (in notice: Dec72)

One Plus One

v4n1 JanFeb (in notice: Dec71)

v4n2 AprMay

Orgy

v4n1 AprMay

v4n2 SepOct

Pendulum

v4n1 AprMay

Pussy Willow

v4n2 AugSep

v4n3 NovDec

Roulette

v6n1 JanFeb

v6n2 MayJun

Savage Sex

v4n1 FebMar

v4n2 AprMay

Sensuous Strippers

v3n1 MarApr

v3n2 JunJul

Spice 'n' Nice

v3n1 AprMay

v3n2 AugSep

v3n3 NovDec

Suck-em-Up

v2n1 MarApr

Swap

v6n1 MarApr

v6n2 MayJun

v6n3 OctNov

Two Plus Two

v4n1 JanFeb (in notice: Dec71)

v4n2 AprMay

The Wild-Cats

v6n1 FebMar

v6n2 MayJun

Wild Couples

v4n1 MarApr

v4n2 JulAug

Young Beavers

v6n1 MarApr

v6n2 JulAug

SECS Press

Adult Garden of Sex

SECS Press

n6 MarApr

n7 JulAug

n8 NovDec

Bride & Groom

SECS Press (book)

1 FebMar

3 JulAug

4 SepOct

The Sexual Man

SECS Press

n4 JanFeb

n5 AprMay

n6 JunJul

n7 OctNov

The Sexual Woman

SECS Press

n5 FebMar

n6 AprMay

n7 AugSep

n8 JanFeb73 (in notice: Dec72)

Workbook of Adult Sexual Education

SECS Press (book)

2 MarApr

3 MayJun

World of Love & Sex

SECS Press (book)

11 Apr

Calga/Gallery Press/Edusex

Calga

Belly Button

v3n1 AprMay

Erotic Love

v3n2 OctNov

Group Sex (An Illustrated Study of Group Sex)

v4n1 MarApr

v1n2 AugSep

v1n3 NovDec

Hit and Fun

v3n1 FebMar

v3n2 AugSep

An Illustrated Study of Voyeurism (Formerly: Voyeurism)

v3n2 OctNov

Lesbianism

v3n1 AprMay

Lesbo Lassies

v4n1 JanFeb (in notice: Dec71)

v4n2 MayJun

v4n3 OctNov

Love Me

v3n1 FebMar

v3n2 JunJul

Mastering Sexual Adequacy

v1 JanFeb (in notice: Dec71)

v1 MarApr

v3 Apr May

Primer for Sexual Education

v5 JanFeb

v5 MarApr

v7 JunJul

v8 SepOct

v9 NovDec

The Reel Thing

v1 JanFeb

v2MayJun

v3SepOct

Sado-Masochism (A Study of Sadomasochism)

v4n1 JanFeb

v4n2 MayJun

Skin & Bones

v4n1 FebMar

v4n2 JulAug

A Study of Erotic Love Practices

v3n1 MarApr

Switch Hitters

v3n1 MarApr

v3n2 AugSep

v3n3 NovDec

U.S. Sex and World Views

v5 FebMar

v6 AprMay

Voyeurism (Continued as An Illustrated Study of Voyeurism)

v3n1 AprMay

Gallery Press

Boyplay

Gallery Press

v1n1 NovDec

Cherry

Gallery Press

v1n1 NovDec

Couples Doing It

Gallery Press

v1n1 AugSep72

v1n2 OctNov

Deuce

Gallery Press

v1n1 NovDec

Fantastic

Gallery Press

v1n1 AugSep

v1n2 NovDec

Gallery

Gallery Press

v1n1 OctNov

Gemini

Gallery Press

v1n1 SepOct

v1n2 NovDec

Goddess

Gallery Press

v1n1 SepOct

v1n2 NovDec

Hellcats

Gallery Press

v1n1 OctNov

Legendary Sex Tales

Gallery Press

v1n1 SepOct

Lesbian Life

Gallery Press

v1n1 AugSep

v1n2 NovDec

Monster Sex Tales

Gallery Press

v1n1 AugSep

Party Time

Gallery Press

v1n1 AugSep

v1n2 NovDec

Passion

Gallery Press

v1n1 OctNov

Savage

Gallery Press

v1n1 SepOct

v1n2 NovDec

Turn On

Gallery Press

v1n1 SepOct

v2n1 JanFeb73 (in notice: Dec72)

Wanted Women

Gallery Press

v1n1 SepOct

v2n1 JanFeb73 (in notice: Dec72)

Weird Sex Tales

Gallery Press

v1n1 JulAug

Woman's World

Gallery Press

v1n1 SepOct

v2n1 JanFeb73 (in notice: Dec71)

Edusex

The Anatomy of Sex

Edusex

v1 AugSep

v2 NovDec

Female Sexuality

Edusex

n1 OctNov

The Sex Experience

Edusex

n1 AugSep

n2 NovDec

Sex Forum

Edusex

n1 OctNov

Sex in America

Edusex

n1 OctNov

The Sex Scene

Edusex

n1 NovDec

Sex Studies

Edusex

n2 NovDec

Sexworld

Edusex

n1 AugSep

n3 NovDec

We'll continue indexing all magazine titles produced by Pendulum/Calga during Ed's tenure there (the majority of the publisher's existence) in future installments of Ed Wood Wednesdays.