The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • Page 40

2002:08:20:23:02:46 Obituaries By MYRNA OLIVER TIMES STAFF WRITER Her films were crass, coarse and camp, and fell into such ex- ploitationcategories fodder for a cult following. But nobody was more surprised at suchfilm-festival idolatry thatdeveloped over the last 20 years than the woman at its filmmaker Doris Wishman. The best of her 30 films with the bargain-basement budgets and racy titles is generally acknowledged to be Girls Go to Wishman, whose final movie, Time I is expected to be released later this year, died Aug. 10 in a Miami hospital of complications from lymphoma. Refusing to divulge her age, she was estimated to be from 77 to 90 and had lived in Coral Gables, Fla.

Born in Manhattan, Wishman attended Hunter College and studied acting, hoping to become an actress. But the only role she could land was as a secretary in a film distribution business. She married adman Jack Abrahmsand moved to Florida. When he died of a heart attack at 31 in 1958, Wishman looked for an all-consuming to fill my hours she told The Times in 1988 when Los Four Star Theater was preparing to show her 1962 film on the When Wishman decided to direct and produce films and took a crash course in filmmaking, she said, got the challenge I was looking Operating on typical budgets of $70,000 to $100,000, Wishman quickly found a salable pseudo-documentaries of nudist camps, the only films allowed by courts in the 1960s to depict nudity. on the in which astronauts were greeted by naked beauties with makeshift antenna poking from their bouffant hairstyles, was banned in New York state, among others.

But much of in passed legal muster. Her personal favorites were the moon flick and Starr Goes the only feature film made by thenotoriousBaltimore stripper. Wishman not only produced and directed but wrote, cast and edited most of her films. Her nudies were innovative because she added plots and stories to the usual fare of nature boys and girls frolicking in the altogether. By the late 1960s, she had switched from simple nudies to grittier film-noir ploitation melodramas with lots of gratuitous nudity and violence in which innocent girls are corrupted by the big city and the men they meet there.

Those movies featured quirky style that utilized bizarre cutaways to ashtrays, lamps and squirrels and suggestive lesbian subplots. Among her roughies were Sex Perils of Girls Go to Day, Another and third phase may have become the most her more openly pornographic (court strictures continued to ease) featuring Chesty Morgan, the Polish stripper with a 73-inch bust. Morgan made two features for Wishman: in 1973, in which the heroine seeks revenge for the death of her gangster boyfriend and smothers the killers; and Agent in which she is a spy with a camera implanted in one breast. What the director really wanted to dowas make horror Despite a lack of money and expertise, Wishman started in that genre with Night to in the 1980s. She followed that years later with Was a and Time I film-credit pseudonyms were almost as colorful as her Chasnik, Dee Ess, Luigi Manicottale, O.O.

Miller, Lazarus Volkyl, Doris Wisher. really like my Wishman said in an interview earlier this year. of those actors were so felt if I had the she told another interviewer, could have done Nevertheless, those who flock to art houses and film that they did like her films. Los Nuart invited the director to attend its 1998 offering titled Wishman: Queen of The selective retrospective included Girls Go to Agent and graphic documentary about transsexuals, Me Die a which she made in 1978. A Times reviewer evaluating films at that showing praised her as instinctive, dynamic storyteller with a whose style times recalls Sam Fuller and Russ The transsexual film, the reviewer added, was with graphic surgical details and dramatized scenes in which tastelessness vies with compassion and even Joe Bob Briggs, the self-styled Drive-In Movie Critic of Grapevine, Texas, has called Wishman greatest female exploitation director in Michael Bowen, a Brown University graduate student in visual culture, is preparing a biography of Wishman titled Better Than referring to attitude about filmmaking.

Seattle-based Something Weird Video last year produced a Double DVD containing two Wishman films, Girls Go to and Day, Another Something Weird founder and owner Mike Vrany told The Times last year, actually the epitome of what fascinates me about ultra-low- budget fact that they were ever is a perfect example of anarchy Wishman, whose second brief marriage ended in divorce, had no children. She is survived by a sister, Pearl Kushner, of Coral Gables, Fla. DORIS WISHMAN The filmmaker produced, directed, wrote and edited 30 films, including on the Agent and Day, Another Doris Wishman; Exploitation Film Director, Cult Favorite is a perfect example of anarchy Mike Vrany, owner of Something Weird Video B12 parks. South County has some of the biggest parks, including Aliso Wood Canyons Wilderness Park at 4,000 acres and Regional Park at 3,100 acres. Though officials acknowledge the funding plan approved Tuesday balance the scales, they hope it will help provide more recreational facilities in North County.

Residents urged the board to use funds to buy parkland in Coyote Hills in Brea and help cities like Santa Ana convert grass soccer fields into synthetic so they will last longer. One-Time Cash Infusion The $16 million in park funds was made available as a one-time grant through Proposition 12, a state park bond act approved by voters in March 2000. South County open-space advocates saw it as an opportunity to pay for $8 million in sewer projects at Irvine and regional parks. Friends of Harbors, Beaches and Parks, a volunteer organization, and the Sierra Club recommended the funds be used for the South County regional park projects. But Supervisor Chuck Smith, who represents some of the most densely populated areas in Santa Ana and Westminster, argued that the money should be distributed more equally.

proposition said the bond money was for neighborhood Smith said. say parks sewer Board Chairwoman Cynthia P. Coad, who represents portions of Fullerton and Anaheim, agreed: constituents are begging for more green Two Supervisors Dissent Supervisor Jim Silva, however, argued that the county has a responsibility to maintain the regional parks it has established, even if many are in South County. They attract park users from throughout the county. In addition, he said, if residents in northerncit- ies want more parks, they should lobby their city councils.

Orange County cities received nearly $39 million, about of Proposition 12 funds received in the county, compared with only received by the county, Silva noted. Silva, who dissented along with Supervisor Tom Wilson, said he believed the vote by the board symbolized a stake into the regional park The park system was hard-hit by the 1994 bankruptcy, which has prevented officials from making needed repairs and renovations. About $4 million annually is drained from the Harbors, Beaches and Parks budget to pay interest on more than $900 million in bankruptcy debt. Mary Fegraus, Laguna Canyon Foundation executive director, had urged the board to funnel the funds to South County, which would have added about $900,000 for an interpretive center at Laguna Coast Wilderness Park. The park is visited by residents from throughout the County, she said.

The park parity issue is not a new one. Irvine is seeking to convert a large portion of the former El Toro Marine base into a Coad this year sought to have Irvine provide some money to boost North County parks, but her effort failed. IRFAN KHAN Los Angeles Times Hikers and mountain bikers use Aliso Wood Canyons Wilderness Park, one of several large parks in south Orange County. PARK: Funding Plan Favors North Continued fromB1 PAUL DUGINSKI Los Angeles Times Irvine Lake 5 5 405 57 55 22 SAN DIEGO COUNTY 241 133 261 241 73 LOS ANGELES COUNTY Where the Parks Are County regional and wilderness parks and Orange supervisorial districts. Map does not include state and municipal parks.

Source: Orange County ClarkCraig Carbon Canyon YorbaFeatherly Santiago Oaks Irvine Mile Square Peters Canyon Centennial Whiting Ranch Riley Caspers Salt Creek Corridor Laguna Niguel Aliso Wood Canyons Laguna Coast Upper Newport Bay Mason Weir Canyon post. a great location because traffic is always jammed on this gorgeous stretch of South Coast Highway by Ocean Avenue, which makes for a captive audience. just feel like our country is way too eager to jump in with a violent resolution to just about any said Bernstein. we would dedicate just a small percentage of what we spend on arms to eradicating hunger, poverty, disease, homelessness and all of those bad things, it would go a long way toward advancing the cause of For holding such principles, Bernstein has been cursed, flipped off and told to get a life. So has the rest of her gang of retirees and middle-aged reformers, which last week included Shirley McGovern, Anita Dobbs, Maxine Quirk, Chuck Anderson and Elizabeth Erger, who goes all the way back to the Vietnam days with Bernstein.

called us a bunch of old said Anderson. told him not used to have a sign that said, for but someone complained about all the Bernstein said. said Anderson. inconvenienced by horn honking, but not by thousands of people being murdered and maimed. We should have a sign that says honk for Then honk for sure, the gang agreed.

A gargantuan gas-guzzler roared by, and yet another patriot raised a clenched fist at the peaceniks. he bellowed. Jeanie, who hauls the protest signs around in the back of her Toyota Prius gasoline-electric hybrid (48 mpg), doubt that Saddam Hussein is a menace. But we seem to have a problem dealing with the oil-rich Saudi devils who provided home and hearth to many of the Sept. 11 terrorists.

And not much of a stretch to view war on Iraq as a bombing-for-oil mission that would conveniently divert attention from our own economic woes and fatten the energy barons and military contractors who dictate public policy. people are outraged because they think if opposed to war, somehow on the side of said Bernstein. shout out, were you on Sept. And, you care about all the people who Of course we do, but we feel that our grief is not assuaged by causing more death to innocent people in other parts of the The jeers bother Bernstein, who says she hears even more cheers. What gets under her skin is that the majority of people have no reaction at all.

The war even register with them until the bombing is carried live on CNN. is bliss. They really would prefer not to have to think about The more apathetic the public, the more determined Bernstein becomes. pull an extra shift at Dana Point appearance on Friday. And then be back at her regular spot Saturday, a protest sign in her hand, an American flag flying from her lawn chair.

Steve Lopez writes Sunday, Wednesday and Friday. Reach him at steve.lopez@latimes.com LOPEZ: Peace Posse Is Out in Full Force in O.C. Continued fromB1 latimes.com/readingby9 To donate time or 1-877-READBY9. 01RB9031 02BK001 (includes sales tax, shipping and handling) Order at 1-800-246-4042 or latimes.com/bookstore Take a first-class cruise down L.A.’s most-storied street..