Ed Wood's When the Topic is Sex: "Necrophilia: Love of the Dead" (1973)

A lovely logo for a not-very-lovely topic.

NOTE: This article continues my coverage of Ed Wood's When the Topic is Sex (BearManor Media, 2021).

The article: "Necrophilia: Love of the Dead." Originally published in Party Time (Gallery Press), vol. 2, no. 1, February/March 1973. Credited to "Dick Trent."

Excerpt: "Necrophilia can be a gruesome study. Variations in how the necrophiliac derives pleasure does much to increase the macabre circumstances. Most necrophiliacs take a more passive attitude and are content to simply commit intercourse, cunnilingus or onanism (masturbate) with the cadaver, or at least in the presence of the cadaver. Others are not content unless they also hack the body to pieces." 

Eddie's graphic book about the topic.

Reflections: How far are you willing to go in your pursuit of Edward D. Wood, Jr.? It's a question I've asked before, but I think it bears repeating today. Some fans stick to his better-known movies from the 1950s, preferring his more mainstream sci-fi/horror efforts such as Bride of the Monster (1955) and Plan 9 from Outer Space (1957). Others are willing to go a little further and explore Ed's adult film work from the '60s and '70s, just as long as the movies aren't too explicit or raunchy. 

I'd say, however, that the ultimate loyalty test for any Ed Wood fan is his writing—the novels, magazine articles, and nonfiction books Eddie penned during his darkest, drunkest years. Not only is most of this material pornographic in nature, often explicitly so, it's also Ed's most extreme in terms of subject matter. On the page, even more than on the screen, Ed Wood explored the dark side of sex. This includes detailed descriptions of various kinks, fetishes, and even violent crimes. It's understandable that some fans will not want to expose themselves to this kind of material.

No matter what your cutoff point for Ed Wood is, however, you've definitely seen evidence of Ed's career-long obsession with necrophilia, i.e. an erotic fixation on corpses. It's at the heart of Plan 9 from Outer Space, after all. It's woven throughout Orgy of the Dead (1965) and Necromania (1971), too. But, again, it's in his writing that Ed really runs wild with this topic. Under the pseudonym "V.N. Jensen," he wrote an entire, quite graphic book about necrophilia: The Love of the Dead (1968). He also discussed this unseemly topic in his other pseudo-educational paperbacks like Suburbia Confidential (1967) and Bloodiest Sex Crimes of History (1967).

The 1973 article "Necrophilia: The Love of the Dead" is in this same, disturbing vein—story after story of those who defile corpses for sexual pleasure and gratification. You'll notice the similarity to the title of his 1968 book. Eddie also manages to work in a plug for Necromania while he's at it. (This is one of the strangest examples of cross-promotion in showbiz history.)  He does not hold back when it comes to gruesome, unpleasant details. One of the victims described in this article, for instance, is a three-year-old girl. Another dies after having a "sharp stake" thrust "into her rectum and vagina." The necrophiles in this story engage in all sorts of disgusting acts, including drinking urine and ejaculating on dead bodies. Some are also cannibals.

Bob Blackburn, who compiled When the Topic is Sex, warned me about this article in advance:

The necrophilia article is/was to me the most challenging of all 80 in the book. I think you and folks who've read it or will read it will understand. Of course it's totally in Ed's bailiwick. When I was re-reading it for the final edit/proofreading, I was kinda shocked at the graphicness of it. But, hey, it's pure Ed Wood.

When he said that, I knew I had to revisit Ed's Love of the Dead book. When I read it a few months ago, I was steamrolling my way through as many of Ed's written works as possible, one after another in a short span of time. Under those circumstances, it didn't seem all that different from many of Ed's other adult paperbacks of the era—maybe a little kinkier, but not too outrageous. 

Returning to the book now, though, I was taken aback by the way Ed truly wallows (what other word is there?) in the stomach-churning details of these violent sex crimes. Given how often he revisits the topic throughout his career, I have to wonder what was happening in Ed Wood's mind. I mean, who thinks about necrophilia that much? Bob is right that this is "Ed's bailiwick," but what a weird goddamned bailiwick it is. The saving grace of an article like this is its brevity. Sure, it's an unpleasant topic, but it's over after a few pages. If you can survive "Necrophilia: The Love of the Dead," you can handle just about anything Ed writes.

Ed tries to lend some credence to this article by quoting a few experts. One is Dr. James McCary, presumably the same one who wrote Sexual Myths and Fallacies (1971). Another is Austrian psychologist Wilhelm Stekel (1868-1940), a disciple of Sigmund Freud. (Freud himself is not mentioned in this article but is namechecked in the Love of the Dead book.) As for the "Dr. Zugmund Siegel" who relates the story of a female necrophile who claims to have been impregnated by her dead husband, I can't find any evidence that he ever existed.

Next: "Sorcery and Sex" (1970)

Ed Wood's When the Topic is Sex: "Use That Four Letter Word" (1971)

A charming cartoon credited to someone named Dial accompanies this article.

NOTE: This article continues my coverage of Ed Wood's When the Topic is Sex (BearManor Media, 2021).

The article: "Use That Four Letter Word." Originally published in One Plus One (Pendulum Publishing), vol. 3, no. 3, September/October 1971. No author credited.

Excerpt: "Words always have taken on different connotations in the way they are said and in many cases who says them. When it comes to sexual implications this becomes all too important. Most of us in our life time have seen one man greet another with, 'Why you old son of a bitch,' and they walk away happily laughing and slapping each other on the back. But at another time and said in another tone somebody is going to be laying flat on their back with a swollen lip or nose and perhaps be missing a few teeth."

Reflections: You might have a guess as to what this article is about, based on its title. It's Ed Wood's position paper on profanity, right? Eh, sort of. Despite its title, "Use That Four Letter Word" is surprisingly light on profanity. It's more about the significance that supposedly "dirty" words have in the sex lives of certain people. And then, this being an Ed Wood article, it wanders off into other territory.

Cartoonist Mort Walker coined the term "grawlix."

First and foremost, this is a vocabulary lesson. Ed wants us to learn three specific terms: coprolaliac, ecouterist, and erotographomaniac. My spellchecker only recognizes the first of these. "Erotographomaniac" is a fairly well-recognized term, but I could only find "ecouterist" in a very small handful of books and articles. Google kept thinking I meant "ecotourist," i.e. one who travels for environmental reasons.

Basically, a coprolaliac is someone who likes saying dirty words, an ecouterist is someone who likes hearing dirty words, and an erotographomaniac is someone who likes writing dirty words (or drawing dirty pictures) in public places like restrooms. Obviously, coprolaliacs and ecouterists can help each other out immensely, much like sadists and masochists, while the erotographomaniacs of the world are on their own. In this third group, Eddie also includes those who like taking polaroid pictures of their lovers. "He must necessarily have the pictures," Ed states, "or he will remain turned off." 

Eddie informs us that homosexuals are into saying and hearing dirty words, but only when they're having sex with "rough trade," i.e. straight male prostitutes who are strictly "gay for pay." But talking is a big part of the sexual experience for just about everyone, the article insists. "Even animals have been known to howl their delights at those times."

To me, the most interesting part of the article is when Ed Wood proposes an end to profanity—not by banning any words but by removing their stigma.

It is interesting, however, to think that coprolalia is one of the deviations which could be immediately stamped out throughout the world in the matter of a few seconds. All we would have to do is take the curse from all words, make them freely usable, put them in the dictionary and never again hold any taboo against them. For this all existing taboos on any kind of language must be removed.

I've often felt that the very concept of profanity is silly and counterproductive, verging on superstitious. Why should certain words—mere vowels and consonants, morphemes and phonemes—have any power over us? We're the ones in charge, after all, not the words. And yet, many people I know are greatly offended by profanities, and it's made me think more carefully about how I speak and write. I'll still use profanities, but I judge when and where to do so. Sometimes, depending on the audience you're addressing, using a "dirty" word may not be worth the trouble.

Next: "Necrophilia: Love of the Dead" (1973)

Ed Wood's When the Topic is Sex: "Indecent Exposure" (1971)

This gentleman is probably just getting some sun.

NOTE: This article continues my coverage of Ed Wood's When the Topic is Sex (BearManor Media, 1971).

The article: "Indecent Exposure." Originally published in Garter Girls (Pendulum Publishing), vol. 5, no. 2, June/July 1971.

Excerpt: "As has been stated, this type of person does not get his sexual thrills through physical contact. It might be supposed the only way one might be hurt would be through an accident, such as the woman starting to scream too soon, and the exhibitionist attempting to halt that scream in order to give himself time to get away."

Reflections: In "Indecent Exposure," Ed Wood turns his attention to the flasher—that sexually-frustrated gentleman who gets his "kicks" by opening his overcoat and revealing his nudity to some unsuspecting woman. "No matter what the punishment which might be dealt out," Ed tells us, "little will deter these men from making their rounds and accomplishing their sexual purpose."

Admittedly, though flashers must really exist in this sick world of ours, my knowledge of them comes almost exclusively from pop culture, namely movies, sitcoms, and comedy sketches. On the 1970s soap opera parody Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, for instance, the title character's grandfather (Victor Kilian) was revealed to be the town flasher. In John Waters' Pink Flamingos (1972), the villainous Raymond Marble (David Lochary) flashes some young women in the park, then steals their purses when they run away. And the comedy troupe Monty Python did a few bits about flashers, like this scene from their 1971 movie And Now for Something Completely Different.

Come to think of it, all those examples are from the 1970s, as is this Ed Wood article. Maybe the flasher had his day in the sun, so to speak, during that particular decade. Anyway, "Indecent Exposure" is Ed's attempt at understanding the exhibitionist—how and why he does what he does. Basically, it's all about sexual inadequacy. These men are too riddled with self-doubt to pursue consensual sexual relationships, so they choose instead to expose their genitals to women, just to prove that those genitals still exist and are (theoretically) functional.

An issue of Sexology featuring Vernon W. Grant.

Ed Wood being Ed Wood, he cannot stay on one topic for an entire article. His mind inevitably wanders. About two-thirds of the way through "Indecent Exposure," Eddie starts talking about voyeurs (or peeping toms) instead. His logic is that the voyeur is the opposite of the exhibitionist. One needs to see, while the other needs to be seen. While the sadist and the masochist need each other, however, no such symbiotic relationship exists between the voyeur and the exhibitionist. As Eddie puts it: "The voyeur can very well go about this peeping without having any of the exhibitionist qualities."

Then, Eddie really goes far afield and starts talking about swingers and wife-swappers. What this has to do with anything, let alone flashers, is beyond me. Ed certainly doesn't make the connection clear, though the following passage sounds like it could have been taken directly from the script of The Young Marrieds (1972):

Sex being the motivating force of the Universe, man will have his affairs no matter what deviation might be involved. Thus many psychiatrists and sexologists and other medical and mental minds agree that these weekend groupings have a certain amount of therapy. However, since the swingers have only come out in the open during the recent few years these therapy pros and cons are still very much in the study stages. The men of letters, of course, have known about wife and husband swapping (former classic titles for the group sex and swinger affairs) for a great number of years.

It means almost nothing, but it has the cadence of a scholarly dissertation.

"Indecent Exposure" is another article in which Ed Wood quotes from a real-life sexologist rather than relying strictly on his own imagination and memory. In this case, the quoted expert is one Vernon W. Grant, Ph.D., and the material being cited comes from Sexology magazine. As it happens, Sexology was a real magazine that ran for fifty years (1933-1983), and Grant really did write for them in the 1960s. He also penned such books as The Psychology of Sexual Emotion (1957), This is Mental Illness: How it Feels and What it Means (1970), The Roots of Religious Doubt and the Search for Security (1974). and The Menacing Stranger: A Primer on Psychopathy (1977).

Next: "Use that Four Letter Word" (1971)

Ed Wood's When the Topic is Sex: "Problems and the Sex Change" (1972)

This is like a cubist version of the Glen or Glenda poster artwork.

NOTE: This article continues my coverage of Ed Wood's When the Topic is Sex (BearManor Media, 2021).

The article: "Problems and the Sex Change." Originally published in Ecstasy (Pendulum Publishing), vol. 4, no. 1, February/March 1972.

Excerpt: "The male nose has always been more prominent than most females. Therefore the transsexual who wishes to have the complete features of the female will also find that plastic surgery to the proboscis is all important. The ears follow a close second. The male has always had larger and stronger looking ears. We find that in nearly all of the transsexuals, no matter how effeminate he might be the ears are a stand out along with the Adams apple."

Reflections: In Tim Burton's Ed Wood (1994), there's a scene in which producer George Weiss (Mike Starr) complains to Eddie (Johnny Depp) that the much-touted sex change operation in Glen or Glenda only occurs "five pages before it ends." He adds, huffily: "The rest is about some schmuck who likes angora sweaters!" Ed's weak rejoinder: "I don't think he's a schmuck!"

I've never actually seen the Glen or Glenda screenplay, so I can't do an exact page count. By my calculations, however, the sequence involving Alan/Ann ("Tommy" Haynes), the male-to-female transsexual, occurs about 80% of the way through the movie. This is significant, since Glen or Glenda's entire reason for existing was to cash in on the Christine Jorgensen sex change story. Audiences had to wait for nearly an hour to get to this part of the film.

When this sequence finally arrives, it focuses with grim intensity on the ordeal that Alan went through to become Ann. Dr. Alton (Timothy Farrell) tells us about the emotional agony Alan suffered as a child, shunned by both his classmates and his own father (Captain DeZita). Once Alan was drafted, he had to hide his cross-dressing from his fellow soldiers. Eventually, he learned about sex change operations and decided to have one himself. But this is no easy way out, as Dr. Alton explains:

During the following two years, he was to go through the tortures of the damned, but never was there a whimper from him because he knew that at the end of it all, he would at last be that which he had always dreamed. Hundreds of hormone shots were injected into various parts of his body. Alan's face was worked on with plastic surgery to smooth out the female elements... long, tedious hours of work. The big day... or the starting of many big days, for it was to take many. The series of operations are performed, slowly and at intervals, to prevent any unnecessary shock to the nervous system. Still, the hormone shots continue... day after day, week after week, month after month, and even then, when the operation is over, the sex is changed, the shots must continue as long as Alan lives.

And that's just the medical part of it! Ann had to learn how to do her own makeup and hair. She also had to learn "the duty of a woman in her sex life." It sounds grueling, but Dr. Alton insists that Ann "loved every minute of it." Okay, doc, if you say so.

Reading material for Ed Wood.

Ed Wood's 1972 article "Problems and the Sex Change" is very much in this same vein. Twenty years had elapsed since George William Jorgensen, Jr. became Christine Jorgensen, but male-to-female transsexuals still faced a series of medical, emotional, societal, and even legal hurdles. Eddie wants us to know—really wants us to know—that it's not all "peaches and cream" for the Christines of the world. 

In this story, Ed revisits many of the same tribulations he'd mentioned in Glen or Glenda, including those hormone injections and the need for plastic surgery, but he adds a few more. Silicone, for instance, may cause cancer. Surgically-constructed vaginas may grow together "which would mean another very painful operation." Then, there is the legal hassle of being recognized by the government as a female. Even once you get past all those hurdles, there is the possibility that orgasms will either be nonexistent or extremely uncomfortable. Ed further alleges that transsexuals are not supportive of one another. "So many are jealous of their sisters under the knife ever becoming their equal," he writes. Doesn't exactly make you want to run to your surgeon, does it?

Throughout "Problems and the Sex Change," Eddie repeatedly cites the 1966 book Sex-Driven People by R.E.L. Masters. I was not familiar with this book or its author, so I knew I had to find out more. As it turns out, Robert E.L. Masters (1927-2008) was a prolific sexologist of the 1960s and 1970s whose books include The Homosexual Revolution (1962), Patterns of Incest (1963), Sexual Self-Stimulation (1967), and Eros and Evil: The Sexual Psychopathology of Witchcraft (1974). He is not to be confused with gynecologist William H. Masters (1915-2001), though both Masters were influences on Ed Wood.

Here's another obituary for Robert Masters. It doesn't mention Sex-Driven People specifically, but it does say he "published eight books in the field of sexology and natural history which became classics in their field." It also mentions his friendship with Elvis Presley and the fact that one of his books inspired a John Lennon song. (And this story checks out!)

Ed Wood concludes this article on what I guess could be called a note of hope:

So many who have had the operation have looked to the hopeful in the angora sweater and skirt and said, "What makes you really think you want to be a girl? You've got to be sure you know. I mean. Not everyone that I've met really want to go through with the operation like I did. After all. The psychiatrists told me for sure that I was the right type. That's the key word you know girl, you've got to be the right type." Then she might flip her own skirt and sip her martini. She'd made the scene.

I'm not exactly sure what any of that means, but I'd like to congratulate Eddie on managing to work two of his loves, angora sweaters and martinis, into this article at the last possible opportunity. A buzzer-beater, so to speak.
 

Next: "Indecent Exposure" (1971)

Ed Wood's When the Topic is Sex: "From Birthday Suit to Shrouds" (1971)

This gentleman is neither in his birthday suit nor a shroud.

NOTE: This article continues my coverage of Ed Wood's When the Topic is Sex (BearManor Media, 2021).

The article: "From Birthday Suit to Shrouds." Originally published in Flesh & Fantasy (Pendulum Publishing), vol. 4, no. 4, November/December 1971. Credited to Edward D. Wood, Jr.

Excerpt: "The broad minded employer knows he can get tremendously more work and more proficient work from such employees if they are happy in what they wear. The transvestite is a depressed creature when he is denied his expressions through dress. Of course the employers who are this broad minded are few and far between, but as time goes by and the sexual revolution really takes hold, there will be many more. One might be surprised at how many bankers, lawyers, doctors, etc., who are transvestites themselves."

Remember the heyday of fur coats?

Reflections: Drag performer RuPaul has famously declared, "We're born naked, and the rest is drag." I think Ed Wood would have agreed heartily with that statement. In the 1971 article "From Birthday Suit to Shrouds," he phrases it just slightly differently: "All of us to a man or woman are born into this world NAKED . . . yet when most of us die we are put to rest in clothes." Eddie might have thought more about clothing than any writer of his generation, male or female, and this article is basically his master's thesis on the topic.

A wide-ranging essay about the historical and sexual importance of clothing, "From Birthday Suit to Shrouds" is similar to many of Ed Wood's articles from the early 1970s. Once again, Eddie talks about the "sweater girls" of the 1940s and how the censors of the Hays office tried to ban them from movies so that American servicemen would not be overstimulated. Once again, Ed alludes to fetishists having certain "love objects," often items of clothing such as panties. Once again, Ed talks about how the "true transvestite" is likely to be heterosexual. Once again, he emphasizes how masturbation is integral to transvestism. This one article is like a roll call of his greatest hits.

So what stands out here? What makes "From Birthday Suit to Shrouds" different from the articles around it? Well, for one thing, Eddie somehow manages to incorporate one of his other major obsessions: death. The gloomy tone is set by the article's very title, which is strikingly similar to that of Ed's 1968 book Sex Shrouds and Caskets. Before Eddie even begins to discuss the sexual aspects of clothing—which he eventually does at great length—he goes off on a strange tangent about people being buried in their best clothes and how men used to have only one good suit that they wore on Sundays to church. Did the readers of Flesh & Fantasy want to consider their own mortality while reading a porno mag? If they read this article, they had no choice.

Another factor that distinguishes "From Birthday Suit to Shrouds" is its emphasis on fur fetishism. We're all familiar with Eddie's penchant for angora sweaters, but this time, he talks more about fur coats. He writes: "About the first thing a young girl thinks of once she becomes oriented that she is a girl and she must do things in girlish ways, is about acquiring a fur coat." This may be an odd statement from our modern point of view, since fur coats have long since fallen out of favor, especially among the young. However, I can still remember when these garments were coveted status symbols. For decades, it seemed like every wife on every TV sitcom was goading her husband into buying her a fur coat. Maybe the 1998 Seinfeld episode "The Reverse Peephole" finally killed the fur coat plot for good.

My own mother never owned a fur coat, but I remember other moms in our neighborhood getting them for anniversaries, birthdays, etc. And no Michigander who grew up in the 1970s and '80s can forget those ubiquitous ads for Dittrich Furs out of Detroit. Wonder what Eddie would have thought of them? I'm sure he'd have been utterly transfixed.

 

One last note, Eddie uses the term "osthresiolagnia" to describe a fetish in which "the odor [of leather or rubber] becomes important to the sex act." This term was unfamiliar to me, but it turns out to be a very real thing. Ed has slightly misspelled it, though. It's osphresiolagnia. Don't say Eddie never taught you anything. 

P.S. This is yet another article that I had already reviewed on my blog. I realize now that I got the title slightly wrong when I examined this story back in January 2020. In his infinite wisdom, Ed Wood chose to pluralize "shrouds" but not "birthday suit." Go figure.

Next: "Problems and the Sex Change" (1972)

Ed Wood's When the Topic is Sex: "Drag it Out" (1971)

You'd never guess this is a man in drag. Very convincing cleavage.

NOTE: This article continues my coverage of Ed Wood's When the Topic is Sex (BearManor Media, 2021).

The article: "Drag it Out." Originally published in Hit & Fun (Calga Publishing), vol. 2, no. 2, June/July 1971. 

Excerpt: "I have a high voice when I want to use it, and I make up pretty damn well and I certainly have the figure for the dresses and other clothes like this angora sweater and mini-skirt I have on. But occasionally the more seasoned veteran saleslady will see through the deception. I've never met one who went off screaming rape, or murder. They giggle a lot, but that's about all there is to it."

This is where Shirley shops!

Reflections: For at least the third time in this book, Ed Wood interviews himself for the aptly-titled "Drag it Out." In this article, he plays two roles: an investigative reporter for Hit & Fun and a "true transvestite" named Shirley. Do I really need to keep pointing out that Shirley was Ed Wood's own drag name and that he gave this moniker to numerous characters in his short stories, novels, and films? Ed's fans should already know this. 

What's important is that some of the Shirleys in the Wood canon are women (like the characters in Necromania and Orgy of the Dead), while others are men in drag (like the one in this article). Either way, to Ed Wood, Shirley is the epitome of femininity and sex appeal. The one Eddie interviews here boasts that he never wears men's clothing and is almost never detected.

I referred earlier to this particular Shirley as a "true transvestite." That's a term Ed Wood had been using since at least 1953, when he had Timothy Farrell say it in Glen or Glenda. It means a man who dresses as a woman habitually but is exclusively heterosexual. The Shirley in this article is married, and he proudly tells the interviewer that his wife "buys all [his] nighties and negligees." But don't think that this marriage is 100% perfect: "If she's had a few too many shots of whiskey she hates me and attempts tossing snide remarks." One has to wonder if this is Ed's portrait of his own wife, Kathy.

"Drag it Out" happens to be one of the articles in When the Topic is Sex that I've already reviewed on my blog. When I discussed this story back in November 2019, I talked about the article's "positive, optimistic tone." Revisiting it in January 2022, I realize I may have oversold the sunniness of this story just a little. After all, Shirley does refer to homosexuality as a "sexual deviation," which sounds vaguely disreputable. But our "true transvestite" does not shun gay men. "We associate," he says, "but we don't associate if you get what I mean."

Was there anything new that jumped out at me this time? Well, Shirley mentions going to a clothing store called Robert Hall, which I hadn't heard of. One of the first "big box" retail chains, it started with a single store in Waterbury, Connecticut in 1937 before expanding to 350 locations in 36 states. The Robert Hall chain produced all its clothes domestically, including a factory near Ed Wood's hometown of Poughkeepsie. Unfortunately, this was what killed the business in 1977. Other clothing manufacturers outsourced their labor to foreign countries and were thus able to charge less than Robert Hall. (It seems like we as consumers should have learned a lesson from this. We didn't.)

All that's left of the once-mighty Robert Hall chain are some fading memories and a few catchy jingles. "You better buy clothes down at Robert Hall! There's real economy for all the family!" Shirley might agree.

Next: "From Birthday Suit to Shrouds" (1971)

Ed Wood Wednesdays: The Wood Collaborator Odyssey, Part 24 by Greg Dziawer with Mike Hickey

A headshot of Casey Larrain.

Casey Larrain strikes a pose circa 1981.

This week, we turn our attention to Casey Larrain, the winsome brunette actress who memorably appeared with Ed Wood in several films in the late 1960s and early 1970s. I will let my friend Mike Hickey introduce Ms. Larrain:

I'd first noticed Casey Larrain acting opposite Ed Wood in the notorious Love Feast (1969) and Nympho Cycler (1971). The more I saw of her in other movies, the more curious I became about her. Curious enough that when I heard she lived less than an hour from me, I looked her up and gave her a call. After some communication she agreed to meet with me for an interview. Wow!

On the day I drove to Chatsworth to meet with her, I became increasingly nervous. It can be awkward meeting new people under usual circumstances, let alone with me asking her the kinds of questions I was going to ask.

We ended up speaking for a couple of hours and had a really nice talk. She was very open to talking about anything I asked her about. I, of course, asked her about working with Ed Wood and Joe Robertson. She told me stories about doing scenes with John Holmes, which I had no idea had ever happened. I was also glad I got to tell her how great I thought she was playing a British snob in Joe Robertson's Lord Farthingay's Holiday (1972).

Since meeting Casey that day, we've kept in touch quite often. I've visited a few times to have items from my Casey collection signed by her. My wife and I have even attended a few of her annual Boxing Day parties! She's very cool, very with it, and just a great person. I'm glad to know her.

I had known for a while that Mike Hickey had connected with Casey. Then, late last summer, my friend Rob Huffman—who had previously interviewed Casey—introduced me to her. We finally talked in September and have had many exchanges since. A special thanks to Casey for supplying heretofore unknown details about her life and work.

Ed Wood's When the Topic is Sex: "Commentary: Article by 'T'" (1971)

Is that supposed to be Ronald Reagan?

NOTE: This article continues my coverage of Ed Wood's When the Topic is Sex (BearManor Media, 2021).

The article: "Commentary: Article by 'T.'" Originally published in Belly Button (Calga Publishing), vol. 2, no. 3, November/December 1971.

Excerpt: "I've got this thing about nylon stockings. I just love to feel nylon stockings on my legs. And sometimes I slip them over my arm, you know, like just before I put them on my legs. And that way I can really enjoy the feel of that cool mesh closing all around my soft flesh. Why, that gets me so turned on sometimes that I can feel the icy fingers running up and down my spine. Oh, not that I freak out, or anything like that. But it does turn me on, and as George Washington would say, that's no lie!"

T's not-so-secret fetish.

Reflections: Just as Ed Wood's short stories can be broken down into subgenres or sub-categories, so can his nonfiction articles. He likes to change things up occasionally, so he'll have different modes or styles as a writer. The particular subgenre we're talking about today is the fake interview. That's when Eddie pretends to talk to some nonexistent person about a potentially touchy subject. He'll do this in his full-length nonfiction books, too. The Oralists (1969), for instance, purports to include case studies of real people, but they're all just products of Eddie's imagination. 

Earlier in When the Topic is Sex, we read Ed's purported interview with actress Sherry Wine. And now, he's talking to a woman he identifies only as T about the subject of fetishes. You know what? I wish T were a real person. She seems like she'd be a lot of fun—a plain-spoken, somewhat vulgar lady with a healthy attitude about her own sex life and the sex lives of others. I don't know exactly why, but I get the feeling T drinks a bit and may have even imbibed a little right before this interview.

Anyway, T tells us that fetishists are everywhere, but there are two kinds: those who "swing right out in the open" and those who "keep things a secret." It's obvious that T prefers the former, since they're being more honest. "I don't hold no truck with people who can't admit themselves to themselves, if you follow my train of thought," she opines.

As for specific fetishes, she mentions a gentleman who goes out in public with a woman's shoe over his genitals. (Illustrator El Warpo has brilliantly captured this in the artwork that originally accompanied the story.) There's another man she knows who is really into rings, though she makes sure to point out that this jewelry-lover is strictly heterosexual. (Shades of Glen or Glenda.) When it comes to her own fetishes, T admits her love of nylon stockings but refuses to divulge more.

I know I just did this yesterday, but I was again reminded of an SNL sketch while reading this article. I could not help but think of T as looking and talking like Cecily Strong's outspoken, somewhat incoherent "Cathy Anne"  character. I debated whether or not to include that detail in my review, but I figured I owed it to you (and T) to be honest. When I read this article, I imagined Cecily Strong saying it on Weekend Update as one of her rambling editorials.

By the way, T also feels that not every fetish is sexual. Do you like apple pie? That's a fetish. Do you listen to classical music? Another fetish. And don't even get her started about baseball fanatics! They're the biggest fetishists of all! She may have a point with that last one, at least based on the 1977 novelty record "Baseball Card Lover" by Rockin' Richie Ray.

Next: "Drag it Out" (1971)