Talk:Ed Wood, Jr.

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Contents 1 Page-Related discussion 1.1 Featured Article? 1.2 Barnstar? 1.3 NPOV 1.3.1 Racism 1.3.2 NPOV in "Cult Status" 1.3.3 Critical Discourse on Wood 1.4 Titles and formatting 1.5 Re Baptist Funding and Name of Plan 9 from Outer Space 2 Ed Wood-related discussion 2.1 Question regarding Wood's funding 2.2 Question regarding early footage 3 Truth 4 Name

[edit] Page-Related discussion

[edit] Featured Article?

I think this qualifies for a nomination for Featured Article, no? --CancerOfJuly

[edit] Barnstar?

Someone award Angry Candy a barnstar for the work done on this article. Best Ed Wood content on the web.

I'm not going to argue with that. I'm great and I deserve it. :D --Angry Candy

[edit] NPOV

On the one hand, the article as it is doesn't really seem to be NPOV, blatantly calling his movies "awful" and his abilities "lousy". On the other hand, these opinions are almost universally held. But you can't take a POV expression and tack on a word or two before it to make it NPOV. What to do? --Furrykef 09:32, 18 Mar 2004 (UTC)

It'd probably be sufficiently fair to list what makes them thought of this way, and to note that they are generally considered so - David Gerard 11:30, Mar 18, 2004 (UTC)

I have been working on the NPOV problem, as have various bots and Wikipedians with an eye to NPOV errors. I think it's okay now, but peer review on this matter is very much encouraged. Angry Candy 13:21, July 28, 2005 (GMT)

[edit] Racism

I have a question/issue regarding the un-attributed statement, "Wood's dark side emerges in such sexual shockers as Raped in the Grass or The Perverts and in short stories such as "Toni: Black Tigress", which preyed on common racist fears. One might argue that Wood was writing for a specific market and that the content of these books are not personal opinion, but it is nonetheless true that most of his books did derive from Wood's own vices and views." (Emphasis mine.) This seems to be rather a bold thing to say, without any obvious evidence or attribution. In fact it seems to border on defamation, since it makes an absolutely factual claim: there's no uncertainty in how it's written, it flat-out calls Wood a racist. I think it should be toned down, or some sort of attribution should be added to justify the claim that he was, in fact, racist. I am going to comment out the above-bolded phrase in the article; if anyone can attribute the claim and wants to put it back in, it's fine with me. I have no love for the man, but I think the article is inappropriate currently. -- Kadin2048 18:40, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] NPOV in "Cult Status"

Re: section about pornography based on Wood's films. I believe there are word-choice problems with calling the porn films "paradoxical" (there is no paradox) and possibly with "ironic". The NPOV problem is with the phrase "sex scenes worked in around what little plot was in the original". Wood's films don't demonstrate a lack of plot in practice or reputation, and value judgment is implicit. In defense, it can easily be argued that Plan 9 and Bride of the Monster suffer from an excess of convoluted plot, and Glen or Glenda is as dense as any character study. These issues should be cleaned up, unless they can be defended. "Paradoxically", however, I am removing.--Chris Stangl

[edit] Critical Discourse on Wood

I understand this is a touchy page for NPOV, as Wood's reputation has been built on the popular belittlement of his films, and his place in history cemented by earning the Worst Director of All Time title by popular vote. An encyclopedia entry would be remiss not to acknowledge this, and I think the preamble amiably notes ("zeal and honest love of movies") other possible reactions to the films, but as early as Danny Peary's Cult Movies books, the films were being discussed as intentionally subversive, critical of government and social and gender constructs. Rudy Grey's biography is fairly impassive, but in interview has for years been exonerating Wood's talent. These minor anomalies don't need to be in the body of the article, but as it stands the article goes out of its way to say "his talent... so far not undergone any kind of critical re-appraisal", which is unequivocal. "Reappraisal", for that matter, needs no hyphen. Chris Stangl

[edit] Titles and formatting

Placing titles in two sets of single-quotes is wikimarkup for producing italics. Please stop switching titles to double quotes and/ or inserting punctuation into the marks. I know it looks proper on the editing screen, but it produces incorrect formatting in the article. Chris Stangl 18:06, 25 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Re Baptist Funding and Name of Plan 9 from Outer Space

Specifically: "They also changed the name of the movie from Grave Robbers from Outer Space... ". Both the Wiki entries for Plan 9 from Outer Space and Ed Wood (biopic) state that, unlike what is shown in the Tim Burton biopic, the Baptist funders did NOT force Eddie to change the title from Grave Robbers... to Plan 9. Which ever is correct it should at least be consistent across the various Wiki entries.

[edit] Ed Wood-related discussion

[edit] Question regarding Wood's funding

You know, what I have often wondered is just how he was able to make so many movies, since they were artistic and commercial flops right from the first. How did he get the money for the later ones?

His funding came from all manner of unconventional places. In Plan 9, for instance, he basically tricked money out of a bunch of Baptists and for other big films such as Bride he sweet-talked it out of various wealthy people who were naive to the ways of film production or were unfamiliar with his name and work. Much of his pornographic work was above board (since production companies weren't too bothered about quality in that sector) and people like George Weiss were able to produce things in the early days. Ed didn't have to drum up too much money don't forget - he was a master of economy! --Angry Candy 16:18, 16 Jul 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Question regarding early footage

Ed was given his first movie camera on his 17th birthday: a Kodak 'City Special'. One of the first pieces of footage he shot was of a German plane crashing to the ground in his neighborhood, a piece he was endlessly proud of.

There were German planes making it to New York during World War II? I thought the USA shores were never compromised?

(Guess this is a long-winded way of saying 'source?') Vodex 10:42, Jan 9, 2005 (UTC)

The source of the German plane nugget was actually Nightmare of Ecstasy by Rudolph Grey. Admittedly, the book is almost completely anecdotal and filled with personal subjectivities (being part of the book's beauty). Grey's researh is pretty comprehensive though and he'd have mentioned it in the book if he doubted the information's validity. He also has a lot of original and rare Wood footage so he may even have a copy of said Kodak footage. --Angry Candy

Know it's kinda late to chime in, but it wasn't a German Plane, Ed Wood (supposedly) caught footage of the Hindenburg crashing.70.242.12.23 02:34, 11 September 2005 (UTC)

Impossible, the Hindenburg crashed May 6, 1937. Ed Wood turned 17 October 10, 1941. If somebody has the actual text from Nightmare of Ecstasy, it would make more sense to use the words from the book. It's possible Ed Wood may have had a copy of the Hindenburg crash, but it's quite outlandish to suggest he was there with a camera at age twelve. --Barrel-rider 08:47, 3 July 2006 (UTC)

• • How does that make it impossible? If he was 17 in October of 1941, 17-4=13, and the Hindenburg crashed in May, the year of Wood's 13th birthday. The math adds up.209.169.114.213 04:32, 27 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Truth

For some reason or another, this biography seems tampered with. Several of the events just seem to unreal to be sure...could someone please put citation for this work? ViceroyInterus 23:04, 22 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Name

I think this article should go by either "Ed Wood" (no 'Jr.') or "Edward D. Wood, Jr.", as these are the names by which he is best known. "Ed Wood, Jr." is not commonly used and Ed himself mostly used it on novels.Rhindle The Red 01:31, 6 July 2006 (UTC)