The Little Wins...

Sitting in my little cubby at the B level of the John's Hopkins University library with only sharp fluorescent lights to guide my thoughts I made a jack pot discovery. I uncovered a book detailing the history of Baltimore's movie theaters. The first movies appeared on The Block in the early 19th century. This book must logically be an excellent account of early Baltimore Street and if I am lucky the author threw in the scratch houses as well (scratch house -  nickname for an adult movie house on The Block / the lice and filth in the theater left men scratching themselves when they left- gross!) Robert Headley Jr. and his book Exit: A History of Movies in Baltimore self-published in 1974 now sells online for no less than 300 dollars and up to over 1,000 due to its rarity and academic value. While the book is available to buy on several websites JHU does not have a single copy in their world famous library. The kind Information Man told me that it isn't there because it doesn't fit into their specialty categories of Science and Engineering. My joy was not hidden as I proudly told tell him about Blaze Starr and her movie Blaze Starr Goes Nudist and her famous smoking couch routine. He laughed to cover the fact that he was blushing like a pretty pig pink.

Consider it awesome that this stuffy name dropping nervous breakdown factory overlooked the one subject I have dedicated to my historical future. I would feel dirty and broken down if Hopkins had already sent their research pit bulls on the topic because a girl like me wouldn't stand a chance.

Enoch Pratt Free Library and their stunning Maryland Room rule again as their online catalog reveals 3 copies. I intend to speed over and lovingly read each page of Headley's precious work. Underground history may produce more frustration than content on occasion, but today's silly win keeps me going. It's helpful to know that some ideas are yet to be taken.

The original movie theaters on The Block represented a source of great pride for the city. They established the rich history of entertainment Baltimore Street would be infamously known. Stay tuned for some amazing and fascinating history of The Block as I unfold these pieces. Please send pieces of your own to sininmobtown@gmail.com.

First Lady of Trash

The photo to the left and the polka dotted lady above are both Ms. Doris Wishman. She was the first lady of any type of movie ending with -plotation. Okay, blacksplotation excluded even this wild woman knew her limitations. The stupefying picture to your right is a frame from one of Wishman's movies starring Chesty Morgan. Chesty Morgan boasted stats of 73-32-36. In the movie she did with Wishman Chesty played a secret agent with a camera in her breast. Of course, every time she took a picture she had to release her set of 73's to the wind for a clear shot. Finally, no story in this blog is complete without an appearance by the beautiful and talented, not to mention, tough Ms. Blaze Starr. Besides playing a nudist Starr was also handy in a fight. When she spotted her ex-boyfriend pulling up across from her Two O'Clock club on The Block in the lavendar caddy she bought him with a new woman she sped across the street and pelted the woman with her fist gashing her eyebrow open with her large diamond ring. When the ex called to threaten a lawsuit of 10,000 dollars Blaze invited the ex, his lady friend and lawyer to the Two O'Clock Club. While waiting for the group to arrive she had worked herself into such fury that as the three entered she belted the woman again, but this time knocking her to the floor. The lawyer turned to flee, but before her ex could get away Blaze had grabbed a bottle and broken it over him on the way out. While violence doesn't solve many problems it did this particular disagreement. He sold his club across the street from hers and quickly and quietly moved to Florida. Entrepanuer, burlesque legend, writer, actress and prize fighter Ms. Starr is quite the renaissance woman. In fact, she is currently a jewlery maker and peddles her goods on her own website that also contains great photos for sale that she will personalize free of charge.

Blaze Starr certainly was a nudist, from the waist up, in the slowest, most unappealing bit of erotica I have ever seen. I was amazed to find out that Blaze Starr Goes Nudist was developed and directed by a woman. Doris Wishman, I later found out, was a queen of B (really D) movies all through the 60's and was still working on films into her late 80s and early 90s. Wishman just passed away in 2002. Gender bias allowed me to expect the film to be sensitive and erotic based solely on the assumption that it was how a female director would create a porn. Not Wishman. Her camera work and direction jabbed through each scene to highlight the sweat and melting makeup coating Starr's face. She had almost no use of artificial lighting or bounce boards or even a flag or two to protect the moist bodies from reflecting every nook and cranny visible in the uncovered cellulite fleshy bits. In fact, the blog Bloody Terror has an awesome description of Wishman's work that I will allow to speak for itself:

"I'd had the pleasure of discovering Wishman around the same time that
I discovered Andy Milligan ("The Body Beneath", "The Ghastly Ones").
These two filmmakers are very similar, and both photograph sex and
nudity in the most sexless manner possible; cold, disconnected bodies,
cellulite and pimples emphasized by harsh lighting. Where Milligan
had ambitions toward dysfunctional family costume melodrama though,
Wishman abandoned all pretense to create absurd, eye-popping trash
cinema. Her films appear so unencumbered by all but the most basic
film making skills that they approach the level of high art."

I can guarantee that his reference to "high art" would cause even many of the most liberal art critics to clutch their ascots in terror while washing down the rising gag reflex by slugging gulps from large goblets of white zin. Doris Wishman, I'm almost positive, would think that was a hilarious as I do. There is no way these films weren't amazing fun to make. With no concern for lighting, costumes, diva stars or having any money Wishman created hilarious B movies of the simplest fashion. Nude on the Moon, while not having the beauty of Starr, did have a far superior plot line. Men in tiny shorts frolicked on the Moon, as acted out by the state of Florida, amidst Moon sprites in metallic bikini shorts that only covered half of their snowy white and often pimpled and cellulited behinds. Each Moon man and woman had headbands of glitter complete with bobbling star antenna that allowed telepathic communication. The plot basically called for the two male astronauts to wander around this lush Moon lagoon. The girls often jumped to shake their breasts for the camera and coyly gathered around the curious astronauts to rub themselves with leaves and flowers as the puzzled and delighted scientists took copious notes. Neither of the movies had a single bit of on site audio recorded. Every noise was added in post and all of the voices were ADR. Much of the time the actor would move their lips just a split second sooner than the dubbed voice or the scene called for a soft senous growl and the ADR voice turned the actress into a confused voice actor reading off of a script in a sound booth complete with the hiss and pop of a microphone set to record too loud. You know, the perfect pick for a quite love scene in the woods.

What importance does this fabulous film experience have to The Block in Baltimore? Part of this project and research about Baltimore and it's characters on Baltimore Street is to reveal the history and stories that exist in the wings that prop up the scene. Certainly these Wishman films were just the tip of the iceberg when it came to B movies and stag films. The films reveal what erotica of the time was. The girls could not be on camera without their crotch covered and men could not be filmed with full frontal nudity either. In the film with Blaze the nudist camp was filled with naked women all holding towels over their loins or laying with a strategic leg covering their lap. The men more often than not walked around the nudist camp in swim shorts so they could be on camera at all. Yet, it was this type of film that was considered dirty and inappropriate. It's almost laughable today. Considering both the nudity and violence visible on television for anyone to see nowadays it gives me a lot to think about when it comes to the ultimate downfall of The Block.

Blaze Starr would be considered modest as she walked around topless with her dubbed voice and plastered up bee hive. What created the difference between that erotica and the XXX porn that has infiltrated society via the Internet, television and print media? Is that loss of "modesty" in some way in part responsible for the drugs and violence that made their way into the clubs and bars on Baltimore Street. I continue to read quotes from club owners in the late 50's and early 60's as they spoke out about "Go Go dancing" and "taking off cheap bikinis without a show" as being a destructive force to the art and lifestyle of The Block.
While Blaze Starr didn't ooze much sexuality in her Wishman flick she was always treated like a "lady" by the men in surrounding her. Even man opened doors for her, allowed her to go first and most surprisingly the director of the nudist camp left the room so Starr could undress and waited for her to come outside "when she was ready."

I don't know how to reconcile this change with what we experience in today's post-women's lib porn but, Blaze Starr Goes Nudist did allow me to put her personal mystery aside and just watch as she emerged in her true profession. Every book about her, including the one she wrote states that she loved being a stripper more than anything else. She lost relationships and marriages as a result. Miss Starr was so dedicated to the art of the show that she went through training a leopard and a panther to remove her clothes onstage before she realized that putting wild cats near her breasts and the face of potential customers was never going to work. She was arrested in almost every city she preformed and even had an affair with the tough Captain of Vice in Philadelphia to reduce his raids in her club. I guess as far as The Block is concerned it is more than sufficient to know Blaze for her professional devotion and forgo the mystery for another research paper.