Ed Wood Wednesdays: The Wood Loop Odyssey, Part 26 by Greg Dziawer

A familiar-looking young lass appears in Virgin on the Ropes.

In my eternal search for the work of Ed Wood, I keep returning to the short 8mm loops produced by Noel Bloom. Noel began releasing pornographic loops under the Cinema Classics label in the early 1970s, eventually branching out to many other series during the first half of the decade. 

The sheer scope of these loops is mind-boggling. As I periodically scan through these films, it occurs to me again and again just how many loops we're potentially dealing with here. At the very least, it is hundreds upon hundreds. Could it even surpass a thousand? The promise of Ed Wood's involvement -- whether it's writing subtitles and box cover summaries or taking more instrumental roles in production or post-production -- is always lurking at the edges.

First things first, it's a matter of ID-ing a loop in the "early 1970s Noel Bloom/Ed Wood" target zone. As I recognize more commonly-used set decorations, in particular, that task becomes easier.

A good example of the kind of film I'm looking for is Virgin on the Ropes. I first came across this one a few years back. As the title card came up, I immediately recognized the very same little pegboard with the same white plastic letters that were used to spell out the titles of other loops I've discussed in this series. Because some of the set decorations in those loops correspond with others indubitably at Hal Guthu's studio on Santa Monica Blvd, I had my first clue that Virgin on the Ropes was also shot there.

Fittingly, the pegboard appears against a cross hatching of rope. Yes, this is going to be a bondage scenario. The rope prop, it turns out, will be central to the loop. When I first screened Virgin on the Ropes, though, I had not previously seen it (or so I thought.)

(left) Virgin on the Ropes main title; (right) A rope prop in Western Lust.

The familiar Cinema Classics logo appears at the end of the loop, solidifying that this was not only shot at Guthu's studio, but that it was without question a loop produced by Noel Bloom.

In between, a couple engage in bondage and sexplay. The camera pans and setups are highly similar to those we see in other Bloom-family series like Danish International Films or the earliest Swedish Erotica loops. We even get curtain wipe edits to transition us into and out of the action at the beginning and end.

Speaking of the Swedish Erotica series, I was recently watching the fourth loop in that series, Western Lust, and lo and behold, there it was during the interior sex scene: the rope prop. It is only partially visible for brief flashes at the left edge of the screen, so I had neglected to notice it before. The Virgin on the Ropes loop had planted the image in my head, though, so now I was really seeing it for the first time.

It made me want to revisit Virgin on the Ropes. Upon doing so, I had to scratch my head a few times as I watched. The lead female performer sure looked an awful lot like Madame Heles in Ed Wood's 1971 feature Necromania, which was shot in that same little space on Santa Monica Blvd! I had not noticed her elsewhere before, outside of Necromania (or so I thought).

Possibly the same actress in (left) Virgin on the Ropes and (right) Necromania.

What's it all mean? I'm never quite sure myself, but I suppose that remaining vigilant and seeing things with a fresh set of eyes will reveal more of the story. Just what were Ed's roles in the making of the loops, and how extensively was he involved? While we're never likely to fully know that answer—minus any documentation and all these years later—we can make some educated surmises along the way.

Virgin on the Ropes lacks subtitles, generally a sign that it predates even the earliest subtitled series like Pussycat. The pegboard also seems to be a hallmark of the earlier films, as the later ones move to optically-generated title cards. Ed was at Hal Guthu's studio directing both Necromania and The Young Marrieds in the latter half of 1971, and the timeline seems to fit here. The loop Prisoner's Lovemaking , in which Ed himself appears, actually features the very same CC (for Cinema Classics) logo at the end.

Could Ed Wood have directed the 8mm short Virgin on the Ropes? I say that he sure could have, and perhaps someday we'll know for sure.

Ed Wood Wednesdays: The Wood Loop Odyssey, Part 23 by Greg Dziawer

This week, we explore Ed Wood's "blue" period.

The standard cover for this series.

The color blue triggers calming hormones in the brain, especially conducive to relaxation and study. But that's not how the Blue Film series of adult 8mm loops released in 1974 got its name. In fact, that title is a nod to the history of adult films. The archaic term "blue movie" isn't used much nowadays to describe pornography, but 1970s consumers would have known exactly what to expect from a series with that name. With each 200-foot reel costing $50 (nearly $300 in today's money), they'd better know what they were getting.

Confusingly to modern day aficionados, this series was known as both Blue Film and Blue Movies. The standard front covers of the boxes use the title Blue Movies as a kind of generic descriptor, while the back covers and index numbers use the Blue Film moniker instead. For instance, the short "Joint Connection" is designated as Blue Film No. 4. In August 2017, I deconstructed a loop from this series called "Tammy and the Doctor" (Blue Film No. 5). Back then, I noted the many correspondences between this film and entries from other West Coast loop series produced by Noel Bloom, son of publisher Bernie Bloom. The Blooms were, as you know by now, Ed Wood's most frequent employers during the 1970s.

One common element uniting these films is that they are silent with subtitles. It's my contention that those subtitles were often -- and perhaps always -- penned by Edward D. Wood, Jr. himself. A host of artistic tropes, ranging from editing to camerawork, also mark these series as being the work of the same creative principles. Eddie is generally accepted to have been one of those principles, directing the first 19 loops in the long-running Swedish Erotica series and even cameoing in the 1971 loop Prisoners Lovemaking (aka The Jailer). 

Another hallmark of the earliest subtitled loops, including such series as Pussycat and Danish International Films, is that they feature common sets and set decorations. The interiors for these films were largely shot at talent agent/cinematographer Hal Guthu's studio on Santa Monica Blvd. Many interiors in the earliest Swedish Erotica loops, produced in 1972 and possibly into 1973, were shot here as well. But by the time we arrive at the Blue Film series, which carries a 1974 copyright, interiors were being shot on actual locations rather than sets.

It is unknown if Ed Wood was involved in any way on set for the Blue Film series. But these films are subtitled, so it's safe to say Ed was a key contributor. He may have also written the box cover summaries. His textual signatures are at times noticeable across various loop series. This week, we present for your consideration all eleven Blue Film summaries. Eddie or not? You make the call.

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

A familiar set from The Young Marrieds went on to star in some other films!

I've spent a lot of time these last few years delving into silent 8mm porn loops from the 1970s, looking for the presence of Ed Wood. Mostly, I've focused on transcribing the subtitles, as there are hundreds of examples to index, collate, compare, and contrast. The evidence suggests these captions were written by none other than the director of Plan 9 from Outer Space. But could there be other loops with a connection to Ed Wood?

I've already shown that the answer is a definitive yes! For instance, Eddie himself cameos in the loop "Prisoner's Lovemaking."  This short film was originally released in 1972 as loop #17 in the NM Series, whose tagline boasted: "The finest action films Hollywood, Denmark and the World have to Offer!" There was also Best of the NM Series, which carried a 1974 copyright and consisted of at least 30 titles. While a complete index of both series remains lacking, enough examples survive to piece together the basics.

Mickey Zaffarano, the capo of porn.

These two series include some of the earliest loops released to the home market by producer Noel Bloom, son of porn publisher Bernie Bloom. At that time, Noel was partners with gangster Mickey Zaffarano, a capo in the Bonanno crime family and the de facto head of porn distribution in the United States during the '70s. By late 1971, both adult features and loops were transitioning from softcore to hardcore, meaning that they now included unsimulated sex acts.

Back then, pornographic loops were mainly shown at peepshow arcades, where customers could watch a film in short increments by feeding quarters into a machine. Inevitably, however, adult producers began eyeing the home market. Customers who wanted to watch X-rated loops in private would buy (expensive) film reels in adult shops or from under the counter at cigar shops or even drugstores. The 8mm projector had long been a staple in many American homes. In fact, I still have my dad's 8mm camera and projector, along with a few reels of film of me and my family from 1972. It's also highly possible that my dad had some 8mm loops of his own, but if he did, I haven't come across them.

The NM Series box covers I have seen from 1972 are very plain, containing only a picture and an index number with an "N.M." prefix. Released a mere two years later, the Best of the NM Series titles have much more distinctive packaging, with a colorful, stylized logo on one side and a graphic photo and plot summary on the other.

Ed Wood Wednesdays: The Wood Loop Odyssey, part 21 by Greg Dziawer

Scenes from the 1976 loop "Jam Session."

"Dis-moi ce que tu manges, je te dirai ce que tu es."

("Tell me what you eat and I'll tell you what you are.")

- Anthelme Brillat-Savarin 

Ed Wood Wednesdays: The Wood Loop Orbit, Part 13 by Greg Dziawer

A creep in the early '70s loop Notorious Landlady.

A few months ago, I was screening some 8mm pornographic loops made on the West Coast in the early 1970s. Specifically, these were loops produced by second-generation smut peddler Noel Bloom and distributed by alleged mafioso Mickey Zaffarano. These include the early Swedish Erotica loops—the  first 19 of which are unchallenged as the work of Edward D. Wood, Jr.—plus dozens of other series, totaling hundreds of subtitled loops. One film in particular, Notorious Landlady, was released as the sixth entry in the VIP Series, which was produced in the wake of those first 19 Swedish Erotica loops and studded with remarkably similar attributes.

Like what, you ask? Well, for one, the subtitles, baby!  We can be confident that Eddie himself wrote at least some of the onscreen captions in these silent movies. Given their internal consistency, in fact, it's safe to say that he wrote lots, if not all of them, right until his passing in December 1978. Even then, some of those loops did not hit the market until 1979.

What follows is my transcription of Notorious Landlady. For you textual analysts, there are 26 lines of subtitles here, totaling 85 words, giving us a word-per-line average of 3.27. That's toward the mid-to-low end for loops in this family, but it's within the accepted range.

A sexy brunette returns to her apartment, walking into and away from the camera under the film's title card:  

A potential tenant meets his landlady.

NOTORIOUS LANDLADY

Maria Arnold—yes, the actress who plays the beautiful and inscrutable Tanya in Ed Wood's feature Necromania—enters a room and undresses. The first subtitle appears onscreen.

Girl: OHHH!!!!!!! 

This opening line is extremely common in Bloom-produced loops of the era, with only the number of H's and exclamation points varying. It's usually used to denote the moans of pleasure during sex, but here it's repurposed as the sound made by the girl as she stretches before beginning to undress.

And then, in an astonishingly superfluous moment the horny audience likely barely noticed, the camera pans away from the girl in mid-close-up as she removes her top. The shot then drifts off into the edge of the room where it blends into a shot beginning at the left-hand edge of the same room, finally uniting on a mid-close-up of the now-topless girl as she begins to remove her skirt. 

A split-screen edit reveals a close-up of a man's eyes, suggesting our heroine is being spied upon. There is another split-screen edit as the girl dons her slip at right, while a finger presses her doorbell in close-up on the left. The imagery, in this context—or perhaps only in my mind—evokes the pad of a finger pressing against a clitoris. A preceding close-up indicates the leading lady is the MANAGER.

She answers the door wearing the slip. Her dwelling seems to be part-real apartment and part-movie set.

Guy: WELL, HELLO THERE.

A man enters, looking distinctly unlike Jack Lemmon. I'll explain that reference in a moment.

Girl: COME IN! PLEASE DO.

Guy: I AM LOOKING FOR AN APARTMENT.

Guy: WHAT DO YOU HAVE? 

Girl: I WOULD LOVE TO SHOW YOU.

Characteristically functional opening lines, as the pair settle on the inevitable couch against a completely curtained "wall" with a lamp on a small table in the corner. Guess what happens next?

Guy: I SEE IT ALREADY!

As he spies her thighs, a dreamy dissolve manages to move the narrative forward while concurrently maintaining the guy's status as a creep. Nothing personal against this actor, but he looks the part.

Foreplay ensues, with a focus on eager tongue-kissing in close-up.

Girl: UN ZIP!

Apparently, "unzip" counts as two words in her sexual vocabulary.

She goes down, accompanied immediately by another trademark subtitle in these loops:

Girl: UMMMMM!!!!

Guy: OH BABY! LICK IT GOOD.

Guy: SUCK AWAY!

Guy: LICK IT UP!

Girl: LET'S GET MORE COMFY.

"Lick it up!" and "comfy" are both common utterances in these loops.

The actors walk into the camera and a dissolve deposits them upon a bed.

Guy: LIFT UP.

Girl: OH! HONEY, LICK IT OFF.

Girl: OHHH!!!!!

More dissolve edits and the guy goes down on her.

Girl: AHHH!!!!!!  

Since that's three H's and six exclamation points, we can reasonably infer that she's quite excited. Our leading man must be doing a good job. 

Girl: LET ME TAKE OFF MY SLIP.

Girl: PUT IT IN

Girl: LET ME GET IT WETTER.

Kudos to the couple for crystal-clear communication.

Girl: NOW!

Girl: PUMP AWAY!

Guy: MOVE YOUR ASS.

Girl: OH, THAT HURTS SOOOO GOOD. 

Anal sex, of course.

The camera is now looking over the girl's shoulder in close-up. There is no sound, but she clearly mouths, "More! More!"

More close-ups come, indeed, for the literal climax.

Guy: LICK IT UP BITCH! 

Highly un-PC, I know, but this line has me wondering how many times the word "lick" has appeared in these subtitles.

The phenomenal ending sees the camera zoom in on the girl, ultimately into an extreme close-up right into her mouth, as she looks directly into the camera while the final subtitle appears in a larger font:

NOW YOU

The other Notorious Landlady.

And thus ends Notorious Landlady. Apart from the subtitles, this loop features other stylistic tropes in common with the Swedish Erotica films and other related series of the time. It's a one-camera setup, for instance. The editing, too, is similar. Dissolves are a signature of this family of loops, and the use of split-screens is waaaaay over the top for low-budget '70s porn. Seriously, when it comes to split-screens, Brian De Palma had nothing on Eddie Wood!

That is, of course, if Ed really had a hand in the editing. It seems plausible to me. Could he have been on set, in some directorial capacity? Maybe. He did oversee earlier loops for Noel Bloom's inaugural loop series Cinema Classics circa 1971. Without a doubt, he often wrote the box cover summaries.

After I processed the loop, which I had seen before and decided was worth further scrutiny, I punched in the title on Google and was happily surprised to discover that The Notorious Landlady was a 1962 comedy starring Jack Lemmon, Fred Astaire, and Kim Novak, with a supporting turn by dotty old Estelle Winwood (The Producers, Murder by Death). I was quite the old Hollywood movie buff as a teenager back in the '80s, but this film was unfamiliar to me. Despite some good notices and a reputation that has improved with time, the film was not a box office hit and fell into relative obscurity. Perhaps it was Eddie the movie buff who recollected it a little over a decade later when the Notorious Landlady loop was produced and distributed as part of the VIP Series circa 1974. 

The 1962 film, for the record, was a comedy thriller based upon a short story by Marjery Sharp, published in the February 3, 1956 issue of Collier's Weekly. The 8mm loop is the realization of the implicit male fantasy frustratingly embedded into the opening of that film, in which dapper Jack Lemmon rings sexy Kim Novak's doorbell in hopes of renting a room from her. Little does he know, his life is about to become a lot more complicated.

Hollywood, here we come!

Note: Various scans of the Notorious Landlady loop are extant, in both color and black-and-white. Some stills feature subtitles, others do not, and some have the subs falling out of the bottom of the frame. The film itself is the next to last entry in the Blue Vanities Peepshow Loops #295 compilation and also appears in the Something Weird Video compilation Bucky Beaver's Stags, Loops and Peeps #64. 

Ed Wood Wednesdays: The Wood Collaborator Odyssey, Part 13 by Greg Dziawer

The witching hour is now at hand, gentle reader!

Jack's studio/lab, Cinema 35.

"I have a sorrow streak for him," said late producer Jacques "Jack" Descent of Edward D. Wood, Jr. "I have always admired the outcast."

I first became friends with Jack about three years ago. In April 2016, six months into our friendship, I asked him to write a remembrance of Eddie, with whom he worked on several movie projects. Jack proved to be a valuable source of information about Ed Wood's years in the adult film industry.

Descent's name is one that devoted Wood fans should recognize. A French-Canadian transplant, Jack was running his own combination film studio and lab in the 1960s in North Hollywood, just as hardcore porn was achieving mainstream popularity. Into the 1970s, he printed 8mm adult loops for the under-the-counter/sex shop/home market, working for such interesting characters as Noel Bloom, son of Ed's loyal patron and publisher Bernie Bloom, and Mickey Zaffarano, the purported mob kingpin of '70s porn distribution. In fact, Jack unreservedly described Mickey as "a friend."

Meanwhile, Eddie was also toiling in the porno film business back then, writing subtitles and box cover summaries for those silent loops and likely directing and/or editing at least some of them. He even appeared on camera in an infamous loop called The Jailer, a fact that merited mention in Rudolph Grey's seminal 1992 text, Nightmare of Ecstasy: The Life and Art of Edward D. Wood, Jr. And an examination of the loop proves beyond doubt that Ed was there, a sombrero on his head and a dildo in his hand.

But I digress. 

The seeds of Eddie's association with Jack Descent go back to 1965. Born and raised in the rural outskirts of Montreal, Jack Descent arrived in Hollywood (via Detroit) and opened a camera shop on Santa Monica Blvd. that year. It was there he met a would-be actor and amateur geologist named Bill Morley. This would prove a crucial encounter in a number of ways.

Within a few years, Jack was making inroads into the film industry. As a producer and cinematographer, he shot a television pilot in 1967. Intended as a half-hour documentary series, The Rock Hound, as essayed by Bill Morley, was to explore the southwestern United States as an emissary of the then-popular fad of amateur geology. The pilot episode ultimately reached the airwaves, and the series was picked up, albeit by a rival network. But Rock Hound ended before it ever really got started. Tragically, a plane carrying the crew and footage for the series crashed.

News clippings about The Rock Hound. Click to see at full size.

Later, back in Hollywood, Bill Morley stopped by the Cinema 35 Center, Jack's then-newly-opened studio/lab, located in what had been a vast automotive repair complex, complete with two drive bays in front. This time, Bill brought a friend with him: Eddie Wood, by then a fortysomething writer of lurid paperbacks.

Jack's memory of Edward D. Wood, Jr. is one that differs substantially from the tragicomic, frankly derisive image that the cult filmmaker has maintained for decades. Gregarious, empathetic, and without judgment, Jack remembered Eddie as a friend and associate, terms of admiration and affection in an industry normally short on both.

It's easy enough to think of Eddie as merely a clownish drunk, stumbling around in a too-tight girdle and white vinyl boots, penning pornography, his Hollywood dreams dashed. But Jack Descent provided a different perspective on a man he knew over the course of nearly a decade. In all, Jack told me that he purchased five screenplays from Ed Wood. One of those scripts was turned into the still-missing Operation Redlight (1969). This film is something of a holy grail, since in addition to writing the screenplay, Ed also acted in the film—sometimes in drag, sometimes in a silk dressing gown—as Madame Bruce Hammerford (aka "Momma"), an on the-lam adult novelist who winds up running a brothel in Vietnam.

For a time, Jack told me, Ed Wood lived in an apartment not far from the Cinema 35 Center on Hollywood and Western. Ed and Bill Morley stopped by the place often, and Jack guessed them to be drinking buddies. For a time, the angora sweater Ed had donned in Operation Redlight hung in the front office at Cinema 35.

From April 2016, here are some of Jack's recollections of Ed:

Jacques Descent (1937-2018)

Finding, listing another book, story, film, does not make much difference nor does it change what we know about Ed Wood. Enough has been said, written and produced about Ed. We get the picture. 

I met and knew a different man than what is described in most all articles and bios about Ed. He was more subtle with me and was always trying to project himself in my presence as an honorable talent with achievement, as if he wanted to tell me that he had done great things and the seeming trash around him was merely a means of survival. Undoubtedly, he was a terrible businessman. 

Was he prolific in his writing? Of course! I have never met anyone like him, and he could not have fooled me by taking credit for work he had not genuinely done. When an idea for a story or a script evolved, or simply was talked over with Ed, and with the issuance of a $250 check as a 50% deposit for a 60 to 70 pages script, it would result in me receiving a well-prepared piece of writing within a week with Ed looking for the next $250. 

I feel I owe it to Ed to tell how I perceived him and how I really believe he was an incredibly talented person and had he received proper guidance and management he might have taken a much different course. I liked Ed and I liked his professionalism. Whatever we did, he was always punctual, well-mannered and always knew his stuff. That probably made it easier since he had written most of it. In productions he would listen to comments and suggestions, and he always wanted to please. I never heard him raise his voice at anyone. 

While he sometimes enjoyed the limelight in the trash business, he knew that he deserved and could do much better work if given the opportunity. He deserved more and better.

Jack and I spoke often of Ed in the years before he passed. He told me that Ed signed over the rights to Mama's Diary, the paperback novel upon which Operation Redlight was based, by signing an actual copy of the book. (Incidentally, that book is an exceedingly rare item these days. Try to find a copy yourself.) And Jack told me much more that I'll share with you in future installments of this series.

Ed Wood Wednesdays: The Wood Dziawer Odyssey, Part Six by Greg Dziawer

This week, a particular book caught Greg's eye.

The book as it appears in School Girl.

Last night, I was scanning through some 8mm silent loops from the early '70s, loops I had seen before and that had connections to Ed Wood if not his direct involvement. It seems like I've spent the better part of 2017 poring over loops in the target zone, trying to piece together Ed's possible contributions. 

It was while watching School Girl, the third loop in the long-running Swedish Erotica series—the first 19 believed to have been made by Ed, and certainly subtitled by his hand—that I had a flash of recognition as the onscreen couple sat in bed doing homework. Of course, the sitting and the homework didn't last long, a typically flimsy narrative conceit always immediately leading to sex.

What I noticed was the book on the bed. As they paged through it, it dawned on me that I had seen a similar book before in the loop Incest. Like School Girl, it carries a number of signatures shared by the larger family of loops produced by Noel Bloom. 

Though I don't know if there is any documented proof, I agree with the general consensus that Ed Wood made (or at least contributed to) the earliest Swedish Erotica loops. These short films can be identified by a number of stylistic signatures. But I've also seen these same signatures in hundreds of other non-Swedish loops, none of which to my knowledge has ever been definitively ascribed to Ed.

That's the larger, perhaps quixotic and even completely wrongheaded endeavor in this series: interrogating the larger of family of loops to find the telling intersections. And it's in those intersections, too many to suggest mere coincidence, that I've concluded Ed Wood worked on hundreds of loops in a variety of capacities.

I'll refer obsessive Woodologists to the details from my previous Odysseys and Orbits, all of which you can find here. Below are my basic findings in summa, some taken from the public record, some derived solely from my own inferences:

• Edward D. Wood, Jr. worked in some capacity for the notorious Swedish Erotica series for a period in the early 1970s.

• Wood wrote subtitles for numerous loop series that, like Swedish Erotica, were produced and distributed by Noel Bloom.

• He wrote various promotional texts for these loops, too, including box cover and catalog insert summaries.

• He appeared on camera in at least once in a loop that we know of. 

• The set decorations for these loops draw from the same common pool of bric a brac: wall hangings, pillows, blankets, lamps, nightstands, etc. Some of these same items turn up in the final two feature films Ed is known to have directed, Necromania and The Young Marrieds.

• I know more than a few experts who also feel strongly that Wood was involved in decorating the sets of these pornographic loops, and there's even the notion out there that he may have edited them, too.

The book as it appears in Incest.

Back to that book. When I checked the loop Incest, sure enough, the same book appeared immediately. It's obvious from the size of the book and also the view of the spine. In School Girl, you can see the finger-grips on the edge of it, as well as gilt edging, earmarking it as a dictionary or encyclopedia. Well, the actors in the movie must have been studying vocabulary, because in Incest, we see that it is indeed a dictionary. We get a close up of the page on which the word "incest" is defined, just before Rick Cassidy laughs and casually tosses the book to the corner of the couch.

While there are numerous other correspondences between these two loops and the larger family of loops, this was a nice little moment for me. The sort of moment that rewards patience and continues to spur me on. I'm sure I'll see that book again, now that my eyes are open to it, and when I do, you'll hear all about right here at Ed Wood Wednesdays.

Ed Wood Wednesdays: The Wood Loop Orbit, Part Eight by Greg Dziawer

John Holmes and a buddy in the 1974 loop Pier Passion.

The essential shape of Edward D. Wood Jr’s involvement in the murky world of 8mm porn loops of the 1970’s runs as follows:

- Ed wrote subtitles, per anecdote in Rudolph Grey’s Nightmare of Ecstasy, for 8mm porn loops produced by Noel Bloom, son of Ed’s boss in his work as a magazine staffer. For a variety of imprints run by Bernie Bloom from the late ‘60s through the mid-'70s and beyond, Ed wrote short stories, texts accompanying pictorials, articles, editorials, photo captions. Any and everything, and he wrote at a pace equaling the total output of the other three or four writers on staff at any given time.

Beyond subtitling the loops, I believe Ed also wrote box-cover summaries (aggregated into catalog inserts included with individual loops). The general consensus among Woodologists remains that Ed “made” the first 19 Swedish Erotica loops. Those quotes are mine, loosely Ed-tributing to him the status as creative principle (i.e. director/writer/editor/cinematographer?) of those loops, and by reasonable inference, hundreds of others across dozens of other loop series. 

- Ed worked for Bernie and Noel Bloom for the better part of the last decade of his life, right up until the summer before he passed, in December of 1978. He left behind a hand-written resume which listed over 700 “short picture subjects” from 1971 through 1973. Some pages list a total number of minutes in the upper corner, and those totals correspond to the number of loops listed for that year times eight, as in eight minutes (the approximate length of the typical loop). 

- Ed worked in the field of loops, in other words, without a doubt. But in what capacity? That remains uncertain. In the hopes that the truth will reveal itself to me, I continue transcribing the subtitles of Bloom-family loops. As the pair comes close on the heels of the fabled first 19 Swedish Erotica loops, we’re focusing this week on the two-parter Pier Passion, starring none other than John Holmes. 

PIER PASSION

Swedish Erotica Loop #20 circa 1974

Credits: 

Art Director: Hilary Louis

Set Decorator: Davis Marsh

Script Supervisor: Carl Albert

Technical Coordinator: Jamie Wright

Casting: Stephanie George

Produced and Directed by Don A. Sweet and M.P. Ronaldo 

Two blondes on the pier, walking into and away from the camera as the credits conclude.

Blonde 1 (in tight black shorts and top): LET’S PLAY SOME GAMES…

John Holmes happens to be walking the pier, with his buddy. 

John: HEY, LOOK AT THAT!

He’s referring to the girls, who are playing a game, and they know it. 

Blonde 1: THESE TWO GUYS ARE WATCHING US. 

The girls approach the guys. 

John: HI, THERE!

The couples immediately pair off, John’s buddy walking off with Blonde 1, the two never to be seen again in this pair of loops. It’s a shame, as she’s played by the awesome Saundra/Brigitte, who appeared in a small number of Bloom-family loops for a short period of time circa 1973-1974.  

John: SEE YOU LATER.

John and his girl walk into the camera, as we dissolve to an overhead shot of a mattress lying right on the floor, on a shag rug. The foot of the bed is adorned with a fuzzy red blanket, and the back wall of the room behind the bed is entirely curtained. No, we are not watching Twin Peaks. We’re on a highly characteristic set, familiar in its essentials from hundreds of other Bloom-family loops. 

John and Blonde 2 enter the set.

John: WILD BODY!

John undresses her down to a white bra and black panties, stockings and garter. Once again, John Holmes seems to be in possession of some sort of magical power. In this case, we don’t even get a sinlge line of dialogue devoted to a come-on. It’s not needed, of course, in the purest sense of this sort of male porn fantasy. 

Blonde 2: OHH!!!!

Blonde 2: AHHH!!!!

Foreplay. John goes down, and she returns the favor. 

Blonde 2: UMMM!!!

Dissolve edits as she services John orally, in close-ups. She wears an elaborate necklace. We have not yet arrived at the colored chiffon neckscarf, perhaps the signature of the endless Swedish Erotica series. 

John: Let’s do 69!

And so they do, now five minutes into the loop and still engaged in foreplay. 

Blonde 2: UMMM!!!

John: I’M BIG. LET ME GREASE YOU UP!

A ubiquitous prop in the Bloom-family of loops, John breaks out a large jar of Vaseline and scoops his fingers into it. (See also Swedish Erotica loop #7 Park Lovers for same.)

Blonde 2: OH, THAT FEELS SOO WARM!

Guess what happens next?

Blonde 2: PUT IT IN, BUT BE GENTLE!

Blonde 2: OH!!!!

Blonde 2: AHHH! FUCK ME! FUCK ME!

The first part of Pier Passion ends without a climax (in the version reviewed here), the sex entirely vaginal, setting the stage for the follow-up all-anal finale. 

The onscreen title, as with other Holmes two-parters early on in the Swedish Erotica series:

PIER PASSION (CONTINUED FROM PART I)

Swedish Erotica loop #21 circa 1974

Although there are no credits on the version I reviewed, being a continuation of the sex scene from the first ensures it was made by the same folks. Unlike the first loop, which has an inordinate amount of narrative and sexual buildup, we begin here with a quick montage derived from the first loop, and then immediately fall into anal sex. 

Blonde 2: BE CAREFUL, IT IS GOING TO HURT.

Blonde 2: AHHH! TAKE IT OUT. 

Blonde 2: IT HURTS! IT HURTS!

This is very characteristic territory in the larger realm of Bloom-family loops. (See again Park Lovers, for near verbatim lines.)

Blonde 2: OHH!!!  

The inevitable - and in this case near-immediate - turnabout (i.e. the warped male rape-fantasy, a staple of porn then, before and since).

Blonde 2: OH, IT HURTS SOOO GOOD!

Blonde 2: PUT IT IN!

Dissolve edits…graphic anal sex close-ups. 

Blonde 2: OH, DEEPER! DEEPER!

John: ON YOUR KNEES.

Blonde 2: FUCK MY ASS!!!!

Blonde 2: AHHHH!!!

Blonde 2: OH, THAT’S GOOD!!!

The remainder consists of anal sex, John coaxing his massive tool deeper into Blonde’s 2’s ass, as she claws at the blanket in cutaways. 

Blonde 2: FUCK MY MOUTH.

John: EAT IT UP.

We finally get the money shot we were denied in part one. 

John: LET ME WASH IT OFF.

Holmes. Always the gentleman….

Don A. Sweet and M.P. Ronaldo are credited as the producer/director of numerous Swedish Erotica loops of this era (including another two-parter, Horny Dreams, Swedish Erotica loops #30 and #31). 

John Holmes’ hair is starting to get frizzy, and his body starting to mature past it’s gawky stage. This is circa 1974, Pier Passion running concurrent to series including Blazing Films and John’s Girls. The artistic tropes, the set decorations, the editing, the performers…all of it is highly consistent across these and many other series, and the credits here (though likely pseudonyms) are clues to the creative principles responsible for the larger body of loops produced by Noel Bloom.  

It is evident though – in both Holmes’ appearance and the set decorations in those loops that correspond with decorations in the Wood-directed-and-written features Necromania and The Young Marrieds – that the first 19 Swedish Erotica loops were made perhaps a year or so prior to Pier Passion. (A fellow Woodologolist has an 8mm copy of the first loop in the series, The Virgin Next Door, carrying a 1973 copyright.)

Saundra/Brigitte, although she quickly disappears from Pier Passion at the outset of the first loop, connects together a clutch of loops. She is listed on box-cover summaries or in loop subtitles under these two names, but beyond her handful of appearances in the Bloom-family loops, nothing seems to be known of her. Although they are dressed differently, and it is in no way meant to be a continuation from Pier Passion, Saundra/Brigitte does feature in a loop with the same man as here playing John’s buddy. In BLAZING FILMS loop #8 Turning Him On (also released overseas by Color Climax as Exciting Film No 936, Housewife Pranks). Saundra/Brigitte makes a glass of orange juice, and her boyfriend comes over. They retire briefly to the same curtained room as the one in Pier Passion, although the rest of the set is entirely redressed, before heading back downstairs to have sex. Subtitled sex, repeating verbatim lines from scads of other Bloom-family loops. The Color Climax version from 1977 has no subs, and is dubbed into German. 

Back to Pier Passion. It, too, would turn up in 1977 in an interesting variant. Color Climax of Copenhagen was one of the world’s largest distributors of loops, and Noel Bloom would often release Color Climax films in stateside versions (yes, Ed subtitled silent Color Climax loops). On their Expo Films label, Color Climax released Pier Passion in a re-edit, and possibly containing some new footage. The re-editing consists of paring the meeting at the pier at the start down to bare essentials, then cutting right into the sex scene. The second part of Pier Passion as released by Swedish Erotica kicks in less than halfway thru Big Backdoor Boy (Expo Film No. 82), fitting (or perhaps barely or not), given the title.  

It has been shorn of subtitles, and the audio consists of dubbed German. It’s fascinating to see a film shot silent turn dubbed into another language, especially one released silent with subtitles in its original tongue. Most intriguing, the final subtitle of the second part of Pier Passion in the 8mm subtitled Swedish Erotica release version takes on a very different meaning. The version I reviewed of part two of the Swedish Erotica loop ends with John pulling his partner up off of the bed and we fade to black. In the foreign release-version, we cut to a shower, the girl on her knees in front of John, who pees into her mouth. The camera cuts close in on her, over the course of a mere twelve seconds, and THE END graphic appears (in a characteristic font for the US Swedish Erotica loops) as we fade to black, John “washing it off” per the subtitled version. 

So what’s going on here? This kinky twist at the end would not have been all that shocking circa 1974 in a hardcore loop. In all likelihood, I surmise (especially given the style of THE END graphic) that the version of part two that I reviewed was cut somewhere along the way. (Source: Blue Vanities Peepshow Loops 1970’s Vol 15, released on VHS in 1988.) 

The credits of Pier Passion remain a mystery. I have numerous speculations about a few of the creative principles likely involved, but it would run against my loathing of reckless mis-Ed-tributions to start making claims of collaboration without at least a reasonable inference. Allow me, though, this one stretch: I know more than a few devoted Woodologists who feel strongly that Ed Wood was involved in the set decoration of Necromania and The Young Marrieds, and by reasonable inference, the myriad Bloom-family loops across dozens of series. I increasingly agree with this viewpoint. The set decorator credited on Pier Passion is Davis Marsh. Davis, of course, is Ed’s middle name. I told you it was a stretch. 

By 1974, the Bloom-family of loops were beginning to crystallize into what would remain the flagship label of the Caballero Control Corp enterprise, one of the first and most durable porn behemoths. It’s intriguing to know Ed was there, working prolifically in various capacities, but the exact nature of his work in loops still remains elusive. 

We will overview the mysterious Saundra in a future Ed Wood Wednesday, a collaborator of Ed’s in that every line of dialogue she ever “spoke” on screen may very well have been written by Ed. We’ll delve deeper into the Bloom/Color Climax collaboration. And we’ll return to the Swedish Erotica series of loops. Subtitled 8mm versions of the loops continued past the first hundred and fifty loops, all betraying the same hand of authorship. 

Edward D. Wood, Jr.