Friday, January 13, 2017

DOLORES FULLER "ON THE ROCKS", PHOTOGRAPHED BY ED WOOD JR.


Despite his groundbreaking transgender film, GLEN OR GLENDA (I CHANGED MY SEX!) and his own inclination towards himself wearing women's clothing (both in private and in public), Ed Wood, Jr. was a dyed in the angora heterosexual.  Married twice, his first wife, Kathy, claimed that his eccentric predilection was not sexual, but instead was a result of a "neomaternal comfort" that he developed after his mother had dressed him up in girl's clothes as a youngster (a model case of confusing a child with gender if there ever was one).

Actress Dolores Fuller (1923-2011) starred in GLEN OR GLENDA and, at the time was Wood's girlfriend. She claimed that she was unaware of Wood's cross-dressing and was "horrified" when she learned about it on the set of GoG. Wood "begged" Fuller to marry him, but then turned around and jilted her professionally by casting her in only a minor role in BRIDE OF THE MONSTER. Between that romantic blunder and no longer willing to put up with his alcoholism, Fuller pulled the plug on their relationship. Fuller went on to do a few more films and TV shows, and ended up writing songs for Elvis Presley (!).

Somewhere along the way, she and Wood went on a camping trip, during which he photographed her "on the rocks" and in the nude. The location is most likely California, at I'm guessing either Big Bear or Lake Arrowhead (or possibly, Lake Tahoe).

The shot is nicely composed (Wood was a competent photographer) and shows Fuller in a classic glamour pose, which more than successfully displays her lovely, ample body.


A restrike (copy from the original), printed in the late 1980s, the 8" X 10" photo is autographed by Fuller. There is a inscription on the margin, "Ed Wood took this photo on a camping trip", but it is unknown whether Fuller wrote this or not. In any event, a unique and curious object d' art from the eccentric odyssey of Ed Wood and Dolores Fuller!

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