Carnival Sleaze and the Illusion of Completeness

 

 

After a series of Supreme Court decisions in the late 1960s freed up publishers to explore previously taboo subjects, the 1970s and 1980s saw explicitly pornographic novels flood across the American landscape. A New York City-based company, Star Distributors, quickly became the biggest porn dealer on the East Coast. With financial backing supplied by the DeCavalcante and Gambino crime families, Star developed into a multi-million-dollar conglomerate controlling bookstores, movie theaters, and publishing houses in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Ohio and Georgia. From 1969 – 2017 Star Distributors published at least 205 separate multi-title book series with a distinct focus on hard-edged content including anal sex, bestiality, fisting, homosexuality, incest, lesbianism, pedophilia, rape, sadomasochism, and watersports.

As part of its Transvestia series, in 1983 Star published Transvestite Seductress (TV-133) a 170-page pornographic novel penned by an anonymous author. As was the case with many other Star books, the cover art did not reflect its contents. The novel itself was classic “one-handed reader” material. There is virtually no plot, and the text is simply page after mind-numbing page of excruciatingly detailed sexual encounters. What makes Transvestite Seductress stand out from the pack, however, is that it is also an homage to writer-director Edward D. Wood, Jr.

 

           

Author's dedication to Chris, “a true bookman and smut hound.”

 

The novel’s protagonist – Glenn/Glenda Wood (a blonde-haired Staten Island, New York native) – is a well-regarded TV and movie director in Hollywood. As Glenda, she is a gorgeous pre-operative transexual who passes as a woman.

 

“The film industry had no idea that Glenda had been born a man. She didn’t want to be viewed as a freak by the public.”

 

“She… made heady films, more critically acclaimed than financially successful. Still, Glenda was doing well for herself. She lived in a plush flat off the main Boulevard – where all the action was… She had made many television appearances – most frequently on Public Television…”

 

The first 78 pages describe a sexual encounter between Glenda and Rocky Busto, a huge, dark-haired, muscular Italian friend who is aware that Glenda still possesses male genitalia. When Rocky has an orgasm, he all but turns into a werewolf:

 

“Rocky screamed.

He bellowed.

He didn’t sound human.

His cry was animalistic.

He was a wolf.

A werewolf.

He sounded as if he were paying homage to the full moon as he bellowed.

Glenda wouldn’t have been surprised if hair had sprouted from the handsome man’s forehead at that point.”

 

Glenda’s first orgasm bears the hallmarks seen in many of the sexual encounters written by Ed Wood: time distortion and kaleidoscopic visual effects.

 

“As the orgasmic pleasure scorched its way into Glenda’s brain, she could see colorful balls of light bouncing back and forth across the darkness of her tightly clenched eyelids… “

 

“Her sense of time was badly distorted. Elongated. A second felt like a minute. A minute felt like an hour. Glenda knew in the back of her head that he orgasm probably only lasted a matter of seconds. But, at the time… [she] thought it would go on for all eternity…”

 

“Glenda felt as if she were drifting upward… spiraling toward the ceiling of Rocky’s apartment. She felt as if she were levitating. Astral-projecting.”

 

“Then she felt as if she were straddling a rocketship heading for outerspace. She was into the stratosphere about to break on through to the other side.”

[A tribute to Jim Morrison and the Doors, too?]

 

Glenda’s later orgasms reached even more cosmic dimensions.

 

“She felt as if she were travelling in midair. She was not only travelling through outer space to other galaxies at this point, but she… could feel herself shooting off into the fifth dimension. This was a place where time and space did not exist.”

 

This opening sexual encounter is followed by a brief narrative interlude wherein we learn that Glenda’s latest directorial effort is a black and white movie titled The Last Kiss of Autumn.

 

“The movie was filled with rich symbolism and rich with aesthetics. The movie, as Glenda Wood, was making it, could be viewed on many levels. It could be seen as a simple tragedy… or it could be viewed as a descent into hell, one level at a time.”

 

“The concrete story told of a beautiful blonde girl in her early twenties who marries for money and then sinks lower and lower into the world of vice because of her newfound wealth. She has many extramarital affairs and before she is through, she is hooked on kinky sex and drugs. The film ends with her suicide.”

 

The lead actors in this production are Hollywood newcomers Candy Cummings (utterly ruthless and pushing for stardom at any cost) and Marvin Mummphrey (a curiously reticent and “wimpy” lead-man). After a morning of shooting love scenes and with Marvin unable to take a hint, Candy retreats to the ladies’ room for ten pages of masturbatory relief. At the end of the day’s shoot, Candy confronts Marvin about his seeming lack of sexual interest in her. Marvin admits to being a sexual submissive who usually pays a dominatrix for his pleasures. Candy assures Marvin that she can help him. They adjourn to Martin’s apartment in the Valley where Candy severely abuses during the course of a 32-page encounter.

 

Several days later, Glenda makes her own move on Candy who is willing to do anything to advance her career. Candy is initially shocked when Glenda exposes her male genitalia, but her thoughts soon turn to the blackmail possibilities of this secret. Candy never gets the chance to act on her scheme as Glenda takes her through 31 pages of sexual punishment, culminating in an enema session that leaves her broken and degraded. Candy is cast aside as soon as production on The Last Kiss of Autumn is complete.

 

Glenda and Rocky get together again for one last sexual encounter while Glenda still has male genitalia. Glenda undergoes a sex change operation and, after several months’ recovery, reunites with Rocky in order to break in her new female genitalia. Glenda then calls a press conference and tells the whole world about the journey she’s taken through life. The media goes wild and Glenda becomes the most famous woman in America. Reading all the news coverage makes Glenda horny to try something new: sex with three men at the same time. Rocky swings by Glenda’s place with two friends and they simultaneously fill all of her openings with synchronized thrusting. Glenda passes out with joy. The End.

 

So, that’s Transvestite Seductress in a nutshell – a threadbare sex novel with a minor Ed Wood homage providing an element of interest. Who is to say if any readers in the 1980s recognized this tribute.  I wish the best of luck to those Ed Wood completists that feel compelled to hunt down this exceedingly rare book for their collection. The only copy that I’ve ever seen is the one that I possess and there are no library holdings in Worldcat. As is true across the board for all of the fetish novels from this era, most copies of Transvestite Seductress were undoubtedly consigned to the local landfill many years ago.