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Articles by Joe Blevins
Ed Wood Wednesdays, week 179: The Perverts (1968) [PART 2 of 2]
Let's play a game. I'll give you a passage from The Perverts (1968), a sexual guidebook Ed Wood wrote for Viceroy under the assumed name "Jason Nichols," and you try to tell me what this chapter is actually about. Ready? Here goes: Time and the tide seldom changes. It only revamps itself to progress other thoughts. The river continues to run year after year and one might wonder why it never runs dry. The story is that the river is once more sucked up into the sun and redeposited at the head again.
Ed Wood Wednesdays, week 178: The Perverts (1968) [PART 1 OF 2]
Artificial intelligence has been on my mind a lot recently. I think that's true of many of us, since we're bombarded with AI-generated songs, images, videos, and articles on a daily basis. It's getting difficult to know what's real and what isn't. And then comes the flood of ethical questions. Is AI an incredible boon to humanity or the beginning of the end of civilization as we know it? We don't know yet. I guess we'll have to see how this plays out.
Ed Wood Wednesdays: Ed Wood and the Hollywood Business of "Fake News(papers)" (Guest Author: James Pontolillo)
Ed Wood's films are celebrated by fans and lambasted by critics alike for their makeshift props and low budget set dressing. But when it came to the use of reproduction newspapers for film inserts, Ed relied on the same industry-standard production house as the big Hollywood studios.
Ed Wood Wednesdays, week 177: The Erotic Spy (1968)
Ian Fleming could scarcely have known what he was unleashing on the world when he wrote Casino Royale (1953), the first of his twelve novels about suave British superspy James Bond. Though hardly fiction's first secret agent, it was 007 who established the template that so many after him would follow. The first big-screen Bond adaptation, Dr. No starring Sean Connery, appeared in 1962.
Ed Wood Wednesdays: The saga of Ed Wood's 1940 high school yearbook photo (Guest Author: James Pontolillo)
NOTE: Author James Pontolillo has been diligently researching the early, pre-Hollywood years of writer-director Edward D. Wood, Jr. His goal is to fill in some gaps in the timeline of Wood's life. The following article contains photographs and information that James has discovered while conducting this research. Enjoy. - J.B. Ed Wood attended Poughkeepsie High School [Figure 1] from September 1940 until early May 1942 when he paused his studies in order to join the U.S. Marine Corps.
And that'll do it for 2023! See you in 2024! (BONUS: Some comics!)
After a pretty busy 2023, this blog is going on a brief hiatus for a couple of weeks. I trust you can live without my super-niche Happy Days and Ed Wood content for the time being. Rest assured, These Days Are Ours and Ed Wood Wednesdays will both return in January. Boy, isn't it strange how this blog used to be about all kinds of stuff but is now just about those two topics? Hmmm.
Ed Wood Wednesdays: A roundup of Ed Wood news! (Fall 2023)
For a director who's been dead for 45 years this December, Ed Wood has maintained a surprisingly high profile in the 2020s. He never totally goes away, at least not for long. It seems like there's always some Wood-related project in the works, related to his films, his writings, or his life. Ed Wood tribute movies and documentaries are always in production or pre-production somewhere, though many of these may never be finished or released.
Podcast Tuesday: "And I Am Outta Here!"
In its waning months, with death looming overhead, Happy Days seemed determined to put its characters to the ultimate test. Would their comfortable, longstanding relationships survive major changes to the status quo? In "Welcome Home," for example, Richie (Ron Howard) decides to follow his dreams and move to California. He's also done being the nice, obedient doormat that his friends and family have come to know over the years.
Ed Wood Wednesdays: Ed Wood and the Legend of Big Nose Kate
Ed Wood sometimes drew inspiration from real-life historical figures for his work. We all know, for example, that his debut feature Glen or Glenda (1953) was partly based on the highly-publicized story of transgender woman Christine Jorgensen (1926-1989). Generally, though, Eddie's movies are profoundly fictional. Sorry, folks, but the events of Plan 9 from Outer Space (1957) and Bride of the Monster (1955) exist only in the world of imagination.
Ed Wood Wednesdays, week 170: 'The Art of Tatooage' and What I Look for When I'm Looking for Ed Wood
Ed Wood wrote a lot, you guys. No, you don't understand. I mean, he wrote a lot. Way more than you'd think a raging alcoholic with only a tenuous grasp on reality would be able to manage. In addition to his scripts, both produced and unproduced, Eddie penned novels and short stories, plus nonfiction books and magazine articles, all in massive quantities. For some projects, he used his real name, while at other times he wrote pseudonymously or even anonymously.
Ed Wood Wednesdays, week 169: The further adventures of Nona Carver
One of the most arresting images in Rudolph Grey's Nightmare of Ecstasy: The Life and Art of Edward D. Wood, Jr. (1992) is a snapshot of burlesque performer and actress Nona Carver, who played "old whore" Sleazy Maisie Rumpledinck in Ed's obscure adult film Take it Out in Trade (1970).
Ed Wood Wednesdays, week 168: Tales from the Hoffman Files
Remember trick-or-treating when you were a kid? You'd try to keep track of what candy you were collecting along the way, but you'd never get an accurate inventory until you got home and dumped out that pillow case or plastic pumpkin head and sorted through your treasure. There'd always be some weird candy in there that you'd never heard of, stuff you'd never see any other time of the year. Mexican Hats? Bottle Caps? Mary Janes? Tootsie Rolls in flavors other than chocolate?
Ed Wood Wednesdays, week 167: John "Bunny" Breckinridge and the sex change that wasn't
"Goodbye, penis!" That's a line of dialogue viewers of Tim Burton's Ed Wood (1994) will likely remember. It's uttered loudly and publicly by Bill Murray as John Cabell "Bunny" Breckinridge (1903-1996), the foppish millionaire who was an unlikely member of Ed Wood's coterie and even played a prominent role in Plan 9 from Outer Space (1957). Why Murray chose to say those words in the exact cadence of Bea Arthur, I do not know.
Ed Wood Wednesdays: The Other Ed Wood, Jrs. (Guest Author: James Pontolillo)
When searching for traces of our Eddie in archival records, the Wood-fan can be misled by published notices concerning more than a dozen other contemporaneous "Ed Wood, Jrs." that were roaming the American landscape. Three of these red herrings even had the unparalleled effrontery to be known as Edward D. Wood, Jr.! For the aid of fellow Wood researchers, I provide this abridged guide to the other juniors.
Ed Wood Wednesdays, week 166: The legal problems of John "Bunny" Breckinridge
John Cabell "Bunny" Breckinridge (1903-1996) only ever appeared in one movie, but sometimes, one is all it takes. As the haughty, aloof alien ruler in Ed Wood's Plan 9 from Outer Space (1957), Breckinridge is simply unforgettable, almost too good to be true. He is not just a flamboyantly gay man, but like the kind of over-the-top caricature of a gay man that you might see in a comedy sketch.
Ed Wood Wednesdays, week 165: The Big Book of Weirdos (1995)
"Weird" is one of the least desirable adjectives in the English language in 2023. File it alongside "problematic," "uncomfortable," and "toxic" among the labels you do not want placed on you. How did this happen? How did "weird" become such a pariah? Personally, I blame the downfall of that once-noble word on social media. The internet was supposed to expand our horizons, but it ended up doing the exact opposite. It narrowed them down to a little shiny black rectangle.
Ed Wood Wednesdays: Jean Stevens in White and Black (Guest Author: James Pontolillo)
In his magnum opus Plan 9 from Outer Space (1957), writer-director-producer Edward D. Wood, Jr. summoned an iconic femme fatale – TV horror hostess Vampira as the striking Vampire Girl – to haunt men for decades to come. Plan 9’s cult status and the fervor directed toward Vampira have caused Ed’s other femme fatales to be largely overlooked. Two of his lesser-regarded films – Final Curtain (1957) and Night of the Ghouls (1959) – feature a [White] Vampire and a Black Ghost, respectively.
Ed Wood Wednesdays, week 162: Who was Patricia?
For reasons known only to himself, Ed Wood formatted Glen or Glenda (1953)— his surprisingly bold exploration of transgender issues—as a Dragnet-style police procedural. The film's inciting incident occurs when a young crossdresser named Patrick aka Patricia commits suicide in his small apartment after being arrested repeatedly for dressing as a woman. On the soundtrack, we hear Patrick's suicide note, presumably read in the man's own voice: The records will tell the story.
Ed Wood Wednesdays: A 'Final Curtain' Call? (Guest Author: James Pontolillo)
Following a well-established trend of sci-fi, suspense and supernatural anthology series on television begun in the late-1940s (more than a dozen programs including The Clock [1949], Alfred Hitchcock Presents [1955], and Strange Stories [1956]), Ed Wood, Jr. proposed his own anthology series entitled Portraits of Terror. Only one episode was produced, a 22-minute pilot called Final Curtain that was shot silent with music, narration and sound effects added in post-production.
Podcast Tuesday: "Swimfan"
Season 10 of Happy Days might have had some viewers asking, "Who the hell are these people?" The long-running ABC sitcom added four new characters that year—Heather (Heather O'Rourke), Ashley (Linda Purl), Flip (Billy Warlock), and K.C. (Crystal Bernard). Additional real estate on the show was given to Roger (Ted McGinley) and Jenny (Cathy Silvers), both of whom joined Happy Days in Season 8 after the departure of Richie (Ron Howard) and Ralph (Don Most).
Ed Wood Wednesdays: More about Tommy Hood!
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?
Ed Wood Wednesdays, week 161: Contos & Delírios (2022)
You might think I have a treasure trove of Ed Wood rarities and memorabilia stashed away somewhere, but you'd be wrong. I live in a fairly small apartment, so I don't have room for much stuff, and I wouldn't have the money to pay for it anyway. Mail room clerks aren't exactly rolling in dough. Most of my Wood collection (Woodiana, if you will) exists only virtually—various videos, pictures, and documents saved to my hard drive. It doesn't take up any extra room in my place, which is nice.
Podcast Tuesday: "If You Knew Susie Like Fonz Apparently Knew Susie"
I edit the holy hell out of These Days Are Ours: A Happy Days Podcast. We record the shows on Saturdays at noon and talk for about 35-40 minutes. That recording then gets whittled down to about 20 minutes of usable audio, which I then augment with about five minutes worth of clips from Happy Days plus various other movies, songs, commercials, etc. This includes the closing music, which I try to keep under a minute. The end goal is a show that runs about 25 minutes total.
Ed Wood Wednesdays, week 159: "Gemeni" (1993)
Ed Wood has some of the best fans in the world. The man was either ignored or ridiculed during his own lifetime, but I think he'd be heartened to learn how his devotees have preserved his legacy in the decades following his death. They've saved as many of his films, books, and articles as possible, and they're always searching through the archives for more, keeping me supplied with things to review for this blog.
Ed Wood Wednesdays, week 157: I Watched Football Early the Day I Died (2023)
Francis William "Frank" Leahy. Now, where did I first run across that hallowed name from sports history? Probably in issue #11 of Cult Movies magazine, which reported that Ed Wood wrote an unproduced film about him in circa 1975 called The Frank Leahy Legend. After a tiny bit of digging, I soon learned that Ed's script was based on a book by Bernard J. Williams and that the unmade screenplay still existed and was languishing in an archive in Los Angeles somewhere.
Ed Wood Wednesdays, week 154: Another grab bag article
Because we're such good friends, I can tell you that my original idea for this week's article went bust-o, and I had to scramble for a replacement idea at the last minute. Oh well. These things happen in bloggerdom. So I decided to make this week's column another one of those "grab bag" affairs. Sometimes, they're a good way of covering little items that wouldn't quite merit an article on their own.
Ed Wood Wednesdays: The Ed Wood Summit Podcast #33 by Greg Dziawer
While there are a number of reasonably well-known Ed Wood books published during the last decade and half of his life—Killer in Drag (1963) and Death of a Transvestite (1967) jump immediately to mind—there also exist dozens of little-known titles. , I'm joined by Joe Blevins, James Pontolillo and W. Paul Apel to review one of the latter, perhaps the first review of an obscure 1971 paperback.
Ed Wood Wednesdays, week 152: 'Lugosi: The Forgotten King' (1986)
Ladies and gentlemen, I have a confession to make. Even though Bela Lugosi (1882-1956) is a major player in the Ed Wood saga—and a big part of why Eddie even has a cult following in the first place—I have never done a deep dive into the great man's life and career. It's just too big a subject. While I've seen many of Bela's films, perhaps two dozen or so, I've never even cracked the spine of a full-length Lugosi biography.
Ed Wood Wednesdays, week 151: Who were Ed Wood's Magnificent Seven?
There's a quote from the published screenplay of Ed Wood (1994) that's been bouncing around in my head for years. In their highly entertaining and informative introduction to the script, writers Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski talk about the difficulties of basing their screenplay on the one available biography of Ed Wood: The screenwriters are playfully referencing John Sturges' epic Western The Magnificent Seven (1960), which was famously adapted from Kurosawa's The Seven Samurai (1954).
Ed Wood Wednesdays: The Ed Wood Summit Podcast #32 by Greg Dziawer
By 1969, Ed Wood had spent the better part of the previous decade writing adult paperbacks. He was then transitioning into an incredibly prolific stint writing short stories and articles for various Pendulum/Calga magazines, published by Bernie Bloom. Pendulum would ultimately publish many of Ed Wood's full-length books as well, including both novels and nonfiction works.
Ed Wood Wednesdays, week 150: The Dead Never Die (1957)
Prolific as he was, Ed Wood could not possibly bring all of his film projects to fruition. He simply had too many of them and not nearly enough money and time. Eddie left behind a veritable graveyard of unfinished, unmade, or otherwise abandoned movies. I've written in depth about some of them, including Trial by Terror, The Basketballers, and Hellborn.
Podcast Tuesday: "The Petralunga Imbroglio"
One of the neat things about a sitcom being on the air for over a decade is that it builds up lots of lore: in-jokes, catchphrases, recurring characters, etc. In the later years of a series, the writers can draw upon the earlier seasons for inspiration. The writers of The Simpsons admit that they watch old episodes of that super-long-lived show when they need ideas. ("Hey, whatever happened to that character? We should bring him back!") Happy Days did this, too.
Ed Wood Wednesdays, week 147: Leonard Maltin on Ed Wood's movies
Most of us judge movie critics on how often we agree with them. "This guy likes (or hates) the same movies I do," we think, "so he must be okay." I try not to judge critics that way, since taste is so subjective. Who's to say what's interesting or scary or moving or funny to someone else? I can't think with your brain, see with your eyes, or hear with your ears. I can only report as honestly as possible what my experience was. After that, you're on your own. Caveat emptor.
Ed Wood Wednesdays: The Ed Wood Summit Podcast #30 by Greg Dziawer
When Ed Wood passed away on December 10, 1978, he couldn't have known that his largely-unseen 1959 film Revenge of the Dead, a loose sequel to Bride of the Monster (1955), would shortly thereafter see the light of day under the title Night of the Ghouls. A group of early Ed adopters were already then on the case, including James Brummel, who as a mere teen was in pursuit of the film.
Ed Wood Wednesdays, week 146: Is there such a thing as TOO MUCH Ed Wood?
Ladies and gentleman, I might need to take a month off from work just to catch up on all the Ed Wood-related chores I have to do. I am so far behind on my Ed Wood homework, it's ridiculous. The trouble is, my day job actually pays me money and this blog doesn't, so the blog inevitably loses. And, believe me, I've tried to monetize my misadventures in Woodology numerous times, but it's never been a success. It's not that I'm burned out on Eddie. Far from it.
Podcast Tuesday: "Post Spinoff Depression"
Remember when Steve Carell left The Office and just about everyone said the show should've ended right there? But it continued for two more seasons without him, and I was weirdly glad that it did. Carell's character, blundering paper company manager Michael Scott, was obviously the heart of the show—the catalyst for most of the stories and the reason most people were tuning in. Doing The Office without him made as much sense as doing Gilligan's Island without Gilligan or Cheers without Sam Malone.
Ed Wood Wednesdays, week 143: Cult Movies 3 (1988)
Over the course of his three highly influential Cult Movies books, originally published between 1981 and 1988, critic Danny Peary covers a wide variety of offbeat films with devoted fan followings. This makes sense, since "cult" is more of a mindset than a narrowly-defined category.
Ed Wood Wednesdays: The Wood Collaborator Odyssey, Part 25 by Greg Dziawer
(from left) Rob Huffman, Greg Dziawer, Jean Marie Stine. This week on their podcast, Sin & Sci-Fi in the '60s , Rob Huffman and Greg Dziawer talk with Jean Marie Stine, the author of Ed Wood: The Early Years (2001) and a colleague of Ed's when he was writing adult paperbacks in the 1970s. Join them for this interesting and far-ranging discussion! VIDEO You can find more Sin & Sci-Fi content right here .
Podcast Tuesday: "Sleeveless in Milwaukee"
Beauty standards change from decade to decade and not just for women. It applies to men, too. Take Happy Days, for example. The popular sitcom happened to come along during the 1970s when a new kind of male sex symbol was dominating pop culture.
Ed Wood Wednesdays, week 141: The strange journey of the 'Glen or Glenda' theme
Ed Wood never had the luxury of working with a composer on his films. From one end of his directing career to the other, he had to rely on so-called stock or library music, occasionally to great effect. Who can forget Trevor Duncan's bombastic "Grip of the Law," which plays during the opening credits of Plan 9 from Outer Space (1957)? Or Hoyt Curtin's queasy, discordant music heard throughout Jail Bait (1954)?
Ed Wood Wednesdays, week 140: Some Woodian curiosities, nothing more...
How did he do it? How did Edward D. Wood, Jr., a man with an out-of-control drinking problem, remain so prolific during the most chaotic years of his life? Even in the 1970s, when he was spiraling toward oblivion at an alarming pace, Eddie was still dependably churning out short stories, articles, novels, film scripts, and more -- all written in his unique style. Meanwhile, I, a total non-drinker, can barely find the time or energy to compose even a single blog post a week about dear Eddie.
The 2022 Ed-Vent Calendar, Day 25: Seinfeld, "The Postponement" (1995)
Some advent calendars last 24 days, others 25. Technically, the season of advent ends on Christmas Eve, so my obligation to this verkakte series ended yesterday. However, as it happens, the weather this Christmas weekend has stranded me in my apartment with little to do, so you're getting a 25th day of Ed-Vent. Lucky you.
Podcast Tuesday: "A Truly Pointless Episode"
Henry Winkler (at left, holding exclamation point sign) on Happy Days. Did your hometown have a place where teenagers would go to make out on dates? Maybe a scenic spot with a spectacular view? I don't think mine (Flushing, Michigan) did, but I would have had no need of such a place even if it had existed. A social pariah then as now, I went on just one passionless date during my high school years. But my classmates had dates, so did they have a place to go?
A ton of classic Late Night With Conan O’Brien episodes are now on YouTube
Late Night With Conan O'Brien (Screenshot: YouTube) Today, Conan O’Brien is an elder statesman of late night television, with over two decades in the game. But when his NBC gabfest, Late Night With Conan O’Brien, debuted back in September 1993, the lanky redhead was a decidedly untested commodity. Apart from some brief appearances on Saturday Night Live, O’Brien had little experience as an on-air performer. But he soon developed a quirky persona all his own.
Ed Wood Wednesdays: The Wood Collaborator Odyssey, Part 21 by Greg Dziawer (with Joe Blevins)
Of all the performers to work with Ed Wood during his 1950s heyday, few are more intriguing than Theodora "Tedi" Thurman (1923-2012). She appears in just one of Eddie's movies, playing sultry gun moll Loretta opposite Timothy Farrell's grouchy gangster Vic Brady in 1954's Jail Bait. This eye-catching supporting role was Tedi's lone feature film credit, but it's not her only claim to fame by any means.
Hobbes & Me brings a beloved comic strip to stylish life
Famously, cartoonist Bill Watterson never authorized any adaptations, animated or live action, of his much-loved, much-missed 1985-95 comic strip Calvin & Hobbes. No computer-animated 3D Blue Studios movies for this rambunctious boy and his loyal stuffed tiger. But that hasn’t stopped Calvin fans from doing their own interpretations of the strip over the years.
Horror genres and sub-genres, arranged in convenient flow chart form
There is more to horror movies than mere blood, viscera, and severed limbs stacked like kindling. In fact, cinematic terror comes in a whole rainbow of permutations, each with its own peculiarities and delights to offer the thrill-hungry viewer. To the non-Fangoria-reading outsider, this may all seem a little baffling and disorienting. So many strange, sick, little sub-categories! Where does one even begin?
Celebrate Earth Day by watching this insane all-star TV special from 1990
On April 22, 1990, the 20th anniversary of the original Earth Day, ABC marked the occasion the best way it knew how: with a two-hour, star-studded primetime special featuring Robin Williams, the Muppets, Bette Midler, several Looney Tunes characters, and an absolutely flabbergasting lineup of guest stars from the worlds of film, television, music, and comedy.
Commemorate the Titanic disaster by watching the doomed ship sink in real time
Almost exactly 104 years ago today, the RMS Titanic, a British passenger liner, struck an iceberg and sank into the frigid waters of the North Atlantic, dooming over 1,500 passengers and crew out of 2,224 total people aboard. The adjective “titanic” was also ruined forever that day. It took James Cameron three hours and change to tell this story in his 1997 film Titanic.
A reminder: John Oliver hates April Fools’ Day too, and wants to end it
There are few annual observances as distinctly non-amusing as April Fools’ Day, a dreadful 24-hour period in which it is somehow acceptable to betray the trust of friends, relatives, and coworkers, all supposedly in the name of comedy. But fear not. John Oliver of Last Week Tonight shares a healthy contempt for April Fools’ Day and thoroughly debunked the tradition in a 2015 web-exclusive video that should still be compulsory viewing for every would-be office prankster in the world.
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