Ed Wood Wednesdays: More about Tommy Hood!

Let's explore the Tommy Hood case a little further.

Last week, James Pontolillo told us the saga of Harold Sprankle aka Tommy Hood, an aspiring actor who worked with Ed Wood before being brutally murdered in late 1950. I thought this was one of the most interesting articles that had appeared in this series in quite some time, and I was very grateful to James for bringing Tommy's sad, strange story to my attention. As it turns out, I wasn't even able to use all the material James sent me in last week's article. So let's fix that this week, huh?

(Note: Unless you've read last week's article, this one won't make much sense. So go do that if you haven't already.)

Ed Wood Wednesdays: Tommy Hood and the City of Broken Dreams (Guest Author: James Pontolillo)

Tommy Hood (lower right) met a tragic fate at the hands of James Francis Silva (upper left) in 1947.

April 4, 1947 in Hollywood was a dry, cloudy day. The temperature had struggled to reach a below average 60 degrees by dusk and the smog was particularly bad. For several years now, industrial smoke and fumes had been choking the Los Angeles basin on a near daily basis. 

Hidden beneath this hazy blanket of pollution, the Gateway Theater sat on the border between the neighborhoods of Silver Lake and East Hollywood. Twelve actors gathered that evening to tread the boards, entertain the crowd, and perhaps start their way down the fabled road to stardom. The cast of The Blackguard was a roll call of the unknown and little-known: Bob Baron, Skip Haynes, Tommy Hood, Don Nagel, Hazel Noe, Millie Phillips, Jack Ringler, Charles B. Smith, Wesley Steadman, Ted Withall, Elizabeth Wolfe, and Ed Wood, Jr. 

The cast of The Blackguard including Ed Wood (lower left) and Tommy Hood (starred).

None could guess what destiny the City of Broken Dreams had in store for them. Most would lapse back into prosaic lives of little to no significance by Hollywood standards. One would chase an ever-receding mirage of success down through the most disreputable sub-basements of the film and publishing industries only to end his days as an impoverished alcoholic. In an unlikely plot twist, he would be posthumously labelled "the World’s Worst Director" and his star permanently fixed in the lower reaches of the Hollywood firmament for all to see. For Tommy Hood, however, the Fates had a much crueler end in store.