The “Lost” Alan Doshna Interview

Below is an interview by late Pastor/Journalist Neil Earle with Actor/Producer Alan Doshna. It had been intended for publication a few years back but “fell through the cracks” due to the busy schedules and projects in development of both men. Most of the information here is of that time period, with a present day summation at the end of the interview. Enjoy!

Screenshots of Neil Earle and Alan Doshna from A Second Look episode “The Plane People”.

Not Brad Pitt, But Hold on: A Film Buff’s Journey Through the Hollywood Grist Mill to Interviewer and Biographer of the industry’s great and near-great. A life in the times.

Article and interview by Neil Earle

From the moment he stepped off the Greyhound bus in Los Angeles California from Syracuse, NY it was clear to Alan Doshna that he had little to distinguish himself from the untold number of people who moved west to seek out a career in the entertainment world. After many fits and starts he would find the same millions-to-one ratio would reverse themselves in his favor as assistant to the man who produced Edward D. Wood, Jr.’s first directorial project, Crossroads of Loredo (1946), From that starting point he would become Associate Producer and Historian for the companion documentary to that film, The Haunted world of Edward D. Wood, Jr. (1995). Although involved with several Wood – related projects following that, he would later rub shoulders with and become involved with various works involving some of the most prominent figures in popular culture, including Beatles, Batman villains, comic book icons and more, including co-writing the memoir of Six Million Dollar Man co-star Richard Anderson. Alan Doshna here shares some of his fascinating experiences through those rough-and-tumble years with Filmfax readers.

Neil Earle: Tell us a little about your early movie and cultural influences.
Doshna: I grew up in a most fascinating time in terms of popular culture. It was like a small renaissance. It included and followed the Kennedy/Camelot era, but was swept up and into the beginnings of Marvel Comics, the Beatles, and Shock Theatre. This was the heyday of the horror movies of the 1930’s, 1940’s and 1950’s, the James Bond sensation and classic TV shows such as like The Munsters (1964-1966).

It may be hard to imagine now, but all these artifacts were separate and largely independent of each other with little of today’s promotional merchandising. But since then it has all merged into a loosely connected time frame, a sort of “crisis on infinite earths” but a in a good way. (Note: Crisis on Infinite Earths alludes to a twelve issue comic book series published by DC Comics in 1985. It was the first of a number of major attempts to put order into the varying timelines established over the previous decades involving their numerous super hero characters).

Earle: What inspired your interest in acting in particular?
Doshna: Growing up I had always enjoyed reenacting scenes from monster movies. These films would be played repeatedly in the New York City area on pre-cable TV. We kids would reenact the scenes in our backyards or with action figures on our living room floor. Stephen Speilberg got his start this way.

Earle: Was there a particular star or film role that inspired you?
Doshna: The first real thought towards serious acting was sparked by the film King Creole (1958), with Elvis Presley, with its repeated TV showings. In my fevered fan’s imagination, I conjured up a sequel where I would be Elvis’ sibling and that the lovely, pre-Addams Family (1964) star Carolyn Jones would end up choosing me over my iconic screen brother.

But the film performance that would have the most resonance for me over time was that of Bela Lugosi in Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman (1943). Lugosi’s performance has drawn criticism over the years in comparison to the emotional power of Boris Karloff’s performances, but in its own way, on a number of levels, Lugosi’s performance is arguably its equal. The monster in his film is the action hero version of the character. This included the monster being thawed from the ice, throwing over tables, kicking barrels off a wagon, bursting from his operating table, casting lab equipment about, fighting a character approximately his equal in the Wolf man, only to finally return to the ice via the burst dam flooding the castle. And, if one were asked to do an impromptu imitation of the monster, it would subconsciously be Lugosi’s lurching, arms outstretched movements. Memorable!

Most interesting was how Lugosi personified both the Frankenstein Monster and Dracula in the same character. It has been pointed out that the monster has a few standard vampire hissing close ups, particularly towards the end. It was this type of acting “magic” radiated over the TV set that drew me in.

https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/frankenstein-meets-the-wolfman-and-the-first-shared-cinematic-universe

Earle: what was your first appearance on-camera?
Doshna: My first appearance before the camera was on a local afternoon kiddie show in Syracuse, NY called “The Baron and His Buddies.” The host, “Baron Daemon” put on an exaggerated Dracula/Lugosi imitation. He would show things like cartoons and Three Stooges shorts and would allow kids to come in, whether in groups like The Boy Scouts or individually, and would interview them on camera. On the weekends he hosted a late night horror movie like Vampira did. I finally got on there. At the end of the show he shook my hand and told me “I like your ‘sveater!’”, which happened to be bright red. My mother was thrilled as she had just bought it for me, but then it dawned on her that it was only his “humor in a jugular vein” and she began laughing. He was a much loved local celebrity and he still appears at events from time to time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2Tagw4v_zQ
Mike Price, aka “Baron Daemon,” 1937 -2025
(Not a clip from the show referenced above)

Earle: Fast forwarding a bit, tell us about your small role in the Steven Spielberg comedy spoof 1941 (1979).
Doshna: I’d just arrived in the Southland so I got work with Spielberg two overnights at $180, which was pretty good for that time. It was shot at Burbank Studios. I played a sailor caught up in a brawl in a USO that spilled out into the streets. Then Dan Ackroyd pulls up in a tank, fires a machine gun into the air to get our attention and gives a patriotic stir-to-action speech. Next we scatter in all directions at the sound of a possible sudden air attack. When Ackroyd first climbed up on the tank to get started, he appeared to barely know his lines. But he delivered them powerfully, convincing us street brawlers to up and do to battle with the enemy. In the editing room, however, they kept cutting away from the speech, which unfortunately minimized its onscreen impact.

Earle: You began getting some bigger roles. Tell us a little about those.
Doshna: My first “real” acting work was on several obscure cable shows for Z Channel that were done by independent filmmaker Steve Oakley. Much later he helmed such films as Waiting for Dracula (2012) amd Natural Born Filmmakers (2016). In 1974 I joined for the last month or two of an anachronistic, Blazing Saddles he was doing titled Sagebrush Saloon (c.1982). Earlier on in the series, he later told me he had used some well-known veteran western performers. One of them, as I recall, was Bill Williams who was the star of the Adventures of Kit Carson on TV(1951-5). One actor I met claimed to be Audie Murphy Jr., son of the most decorated G.I. of World War II and one guy in some scenes looked a lot like Bob Steele (a well-known B-list cowboy actor). But the high point of it all for me was to work with the lovely Melody Patterson who played Wrangler Jane on F Troop (1965-1967), and who was one of a number of crushes I had while growing up. After one mildly seductive scene she had with me, my head was spinning for about three days afterwards! I met up with her again years later at a convention and I was hoping to do an interview with her at some point, but sadly she passed on not too long ago.

Photo by Gary Glasford

Earle: Tell us now about your work involving The Haunted World of Edward D. Wood, Jr. (1995).
Doshna: I had been a member of a speech club patterned after Toastmaster’s in Southern California. A club member named Crawford John Thomas mentioned in his “icebreaker” speech that he had been an actor as a young man and had actually produced a 16-mm film back in the late 1940s.

I had mentioned in my own speech that I was an aspiring actor, so Crawford would occasionally ask me how things were going. One of those times, he casually mentioned that the director who worked on his 16-mm film in 1946 later directed Bela Lugosi’s last film. Being a film geek, and knowing full well that Plan 9 From Outer Space (1959) was Lugosi’s last film, bells started going off and lights started flashing in my mind: “Do you mean… the one and only Ed Wood, Jr.?!” (Note: Writer/Producer/Director Edward D. Wood, Jr. directed three of Bela Lugosi’s last films, Glen or Glenda (1953) Bride of the Monster (1956) and Plan 9 From Outer Space (1959)).

Crawford John’s film was titled Crossroads of Lorado (Note: Yes, that’s the way it was spelled on the script) but was also referred to, at least verbally as The Streets of Laredo, after the popular folksong at that time. It had been shot in 1946 but had never been completed and had no soundtrack, but was kept in Crawford’s safe for those many years.

There is a wonderful irony in all this that I love… I regularly interacted with Crawford at the Ambassador Auditorium in Pasadena, California, one of the most prestigious auditoriums in the world Southland. The relevance here was that Wood was considered by some to be “the worst director of all time” and Plan 9 From Outer Space as the worst movie ever. Yet it was here that a “seed” was planted that would eventually lead to the release of “Crossroads,” Ed Wood’s first actual film. It almost seemed to foreshadow that perhaps some actual respect was due for Crawford’s work.

Earle: Then you got in deeper?
Doshna: Yes. Shortly after his “revelation” to me that he had produced Ed Wood’s first film, Crawford had me begin putting out feelers to see what interest there might be in releasing “Laredo” once we had it redone somewhat. I began to come into contact with such luminaries as Michael Stein, Wade Williams, Rudolph Grey and Ed Wood stock company members such as Conrad Brooks and Paul Marco.

The problem, however, was that the film was “neither fish nor fowl.” Although it was Wood’s first film, the fact that it was under a half-hour long limited its marketability. We began to consider various options to bring it up to feature length.

I came up with the idea of a spoof of Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), which brought Adolph Hitler into the mix. Hitler, hiding out in South America, becomes an Ed Wood through the Medved brothers who in the 1980s focused on the ‘worst movies of all time” geared around their “Golden Turkey Awards” of which Wood had won several. Anway, Hitler’s flunkies then came up with the plan that possession of Wood’s first film might somehow revitalize the elderly Fueher’s spirits and inspire him to fulfill his dream of world conquest. However, similar to the climax of Raiders of the Lost Ark (Spielberg again), the Crossroads film is seized by the Nazis and is unspooled in a dark ritual. To their shock and misfortune, the cowboys come to life off the screen and make short work of Hitler and his accomplices. Crawford, however, passed on this idea. Probably wise of him (laughs).

Earle: But didn’t you have an Academy Award winner interested in the project at one point?
Doshna: I had learned that producer/writer Philip Yordan—who won the Academy Award for Best Writing, Motion Picture Story for Broken Lance (1954) with Spencer Tracy and Robert Wagner—was involved with low budget films later in his career. One of his that appealed to me was Night Train to Terror (1985), which consisted of several unfinished films strung together by a story-framing device. This seemed to be along the lines of what we needed with the Ed Wood material, so I sent him a prospectus about what we were doing. Not long afterwards, I was delighted to hear a gruff but friendly voice come over my answering machine identifying himself as Philip Yordan. I immediately picked up the phone.

Yordan actually wanted to scrap the Crossroads footage and do an “Ed Wood goes to Hollywood” type story, including a scene at lunch where Wood accidentally sets a paper plate on fire and gets the idea for a flying saucer burning in mid-air. He wanted to do it in a Citizen Kane (1941)-type style in which an investigative reporter looks back into the life of Ed Wood. He liked a comedy tape I sent him and he wanted me to be the reporter. This was a number of years before the Tim Burton film starring Johnny Depp as the director (1995).

Unfortunately, Yordan’s and Thomas’ visions for the film did not mesh for budgetary and other reasons. Thomas was greatly impressed by the Civil War documentary series by Ken Burns and was insistent on going in that direction, so the proposed partnership eventually came to nothing.

But Yordan decided to try raising money to finance his own Ed Wood film, which he also wanted me to be involved with, but, unfortunately, he was not able to generate any interest. Imagine if he had: his biographical films would then have included Ed Wood with the films he was able to make on gangster John Dillinger, the world’s top magician Harry Houdini, Jesus Christ, and El Cid. In spite of all this, I would later cross Yordan’s path with greater success—keep on reading.

Earle: Describe for us how Ed Wood’s unfinished first film “Crossroads of Lorado” somehow morphed into the restoration/documentary double feature, (side by side with The Haunted World of Edward D. Wood, Jr.) that it eventually became?
Doshna: The actual project took more than ten years to marinate. During this time, we had a great many meetings and I was able to gather a great deal of research material, which we would later draw on for the film. At one point, the late Mark Carducci—who produced and directed 1993’s Fying Saucers Over Hollywood: The Plan 9 Companion (1992) documentary—was considered to helm the project.

Eventually, Crawford chose director Brett Thompson, who had directed a film called Adventures in Dinosaur City (1991). Crawford’s lawyer also had Brett as a client, so he hooked both of them up together.

I had been out of work and visited Conrad Brooks until late into the night and sometimes crashed at his place. One of those times, I called Crawford the next morning just to touch base with him. His wife answered the phone and excitedly told me: “Crawford said he wants you to call someone about the film and meet with him as soon as you can. His name is Brett Thompson and his number is…”

That afternoon, I met with Brett at The Salt Shaker restaurant in South Pasadena, where we discussed the project. He shared Crawford’s view about the documentary approach and proposed a double feature that would include a full-length documentary about Wood made up of interviews with his associates and a restoration of Crossroads of Loredo. He offered me an Associate Producer and Historian credit, but he could not guarantee me any actual screen time, which I was very much hoping for as an actor.

Almost immediately Brett began raising money and we started making calls to see who would be willing to step before the camera for an interview. Conrad Brooks and Paul Marco were fairly easy to get, but Gregory Walcott, Vampira and Lyle Talbot were more of a challenge. Brett, however, using his laudable charm and persuasiveness, not to mention a few notes with the color of green, was able to make arrangements with all three.

Earle: So you were off to the races.
Doshna: Oh yeah. Within a week or two, we were at Santa Monica Stage shooting the interviews on specially designed sets constructed for each performer. We even flew up to San Francisco to interview Lyle Talbot on what would be his last film credit. After a brief hiatus, we were able to get Loretta King, Ed’s leading lady in BRIDE OF THE MONSTER (1956) and Bela Lugosi, Jr.. Editing began. Crossroads was restored including songs written by Dolores Fuller and performed by Elvis Presley, Jr. (Yes, the court certified son of the “King of Rock and Roll”)!

Haunted World of Edward D. Wood, Jr. DVD box, personalized for actor/filmmaker Gustavo Perez.

Earle: Tell us about the film’s premiere.
Doshna: The film premiered at the Nuart Theatre in North Hollywood to a sold-out opening night crowd, which included John Landis, Carroll Baker and other notables. Strangely, Forrest Ackerman, who also attended, never responded to our requests for him to appear in the film, although he does appear in footage taken at the premiere, which is included in DVD extras. I was asked to be the MC at the premiere, at which time I would introduce many of the stars of the show such as Paul Marco, Dolores Fuller, Norma McCarty and more. It was the kind of an experience that I literally would dream about as a young person with very little hope that it would actually occur. I even got to share my childhood experience of fighting my bed covers like Lugosi did with the octopus in BRIDE OF THE MONSTER (and being disciplined by my mother for being too out of control). All the while Bela Jr. listened and smiled in the audience!

Full length Haunted World of Edward D. Wood, Jr
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dx2dn4bvuBE

Unfortunately we bumped up against the big problem of promotion! Although it played at the theatre for a week and the closing night was also full to capacity, the days in between left something to be desired and a hoped for distribution deal fell through.

This was devastating to Crawford as he felt the film would provide redemption for some bad decisions he made as a young man. He had asked for an advance on his inheritance money from his stepfather, which Ed Wood quickly relieved him of in order to produce Crossroads, which of course came to nothing. The film remained in his safe for about forty years, but his stepfather never let him forget it. Once again Crawford felt he had let him down, having raised his hopes so high these many years later.

Crawford’s already existing health problems greatly accelerated and fairly shortly, he was gone. Although there would be a VHS release (minus Crossroads) through Wade Williams’ distribution, it wasn’t until a few years later after Crawford had already passed away that the documentary began to hit its stride as a DVD release through Image Entertainment (including Crossroads and extras). Eventually it would become the “official” Ed Wood documentary, being released side-by-side in a box set with his best known films such as Plan 9 and Glen or Glenda (1953).

The film has now passed its twenty-year mark and we are currently working towards a re-release, including more extras. But there are no specifics I can announce with certainty at this time.

More info about AL and Haunted World of Ed Wood.
https://alandoshna.com/producer/

Earle: Then comes Gene Rodenberry into the picture. Were you once told by Gene Roddenberry that he might like to cast you as himself?
Doshna: A friend of mine who was in college had to do a mock interview for a class where he had someone portray some noted figure on camera. He is a big Star Trek fan and I was an actor, so… He had me memorize a script where I was Gene Roddenberry. We did it and it turned out very well so just as a lark I thought i would send it to the real Roddenberry. About a week or so later his secretary called and left a message for me to call her back: Gene wanted to talk with me! So I did call and set up a time where he and I spoke on the phone. He told me that if they ever did a show about his life they would have me play him! He also told me that he would have me come down to the set sometime, and to send a picture and a resume and to put a red dot on the envelope. Unfortunately the envelope was returned and even more unfortunately he passed away shortly after that, after a period of severe illness. So that was that.

AL as “Gene Roddenberry.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-KAzcJcgOo

Earle: You once had an Academy Award winning writer/producer write a five page treatment based on a character you co-created.
Doshna: This was another mock interview for cable TV where I played the fictitious author of a fictitious book about my supposed actual experiences having won a large amount of money in a lottery but ended up in even more debt, kind of as a little kid in a candy store. Entertainment writer David Gritten saw it and wrote positively about it and David Permut, who in more recent times produced Hacksaw Ridge (2016), also saw it through my manager and wanted to do a big budget version of it. Academy Award winning writer/producer Marshall Brickman was contacted about it and so liked it that he wrote up a five page treatment on spec. Marshall won the Award for Best Screenplay along with Woody Allen for Annie Hall (1977) and more recently wrote the Musical Books and Screenplay for Jersey Boys (2014). However there was some disagreement about the storyline and there were some other issues so it never got off the ground, although part of the original video is online. We still have hopes of doing a feature version some day.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/clarence-conly-interview-stephen-mitchell

Earle: Then there was Katherine Victor, Philip Yordan and Wild World of Batwoman (1966), a.k.a. She Was a Hippy Vampire.
Doshna: I had been networking at an autograph show in Burbank, California, as part of my involvement with the Haunted World project. The friend I was with had a table set up and right next to ours was Katherine Victor. She had appeared in a number of films for Jerry Warren such as Curse of the Stone Hand and Creature of the Walking Dead, both released in 1965. Victor is best known to cult movie fans as the title character in The Wild World of Batwoman (1966). I had been very interested in the film since reading about it in “Castle of Frankenstein” Magazine and Donald C. Willis’ Horror and Science Fiction Films: A Checklist, 1972. The film had gone unreleased for decades due toa DC/Fox lawsuit against Warren for Batman copyright infringement, but somehow things were worked out and it came out on video.

I talked to Katherine—who turned out to be a really humble, sweet, friendly lady—about Jerry Warren in general and Batwoman in particular. I stayed in touch with her and sent her photocopies of articles with references to Batwoman and her other films. She was completely unaware of all of this, but was pleasantly surprised.

Earle: This led to a script-writing venture.
Doshna: Yes. At the time, I had a manager who was attempting to develop his own studio system through arranging financing for film projects built around his various clients, a number of which I was connected to. At some point, the idea occurred to me to have Katherine make an appearance in one of them. This eventually gave way to my approaching her about reprising her role as Batwoman in a sequel. Now as luck would have it, she was not fond of her only true starring role and even slightly changed her first name to disassociate herself from the film. However, if this one turned out to be a few notches above it in terms of quality and we could secure the rights, she would consider it.

To get started, my manager Stephen suggested that I write up a no-holds barred treatment for what I would do if I had an unlimited budget. From that point, we could reign it in if need be and/or draw from it according to whatever budget might become available. Stephen did hook me up with a potential investor/distributor. This guy had something on a much smaller scale in mind. (As a disclaimer, I had done numerous consultations as to the underlying rights of the property, which were unclear at the time, but I had been encouraged by those more qualified than I to proceed forward, but judiciously. I learned through this the exact path we would need to take to secure any such copyrighted material in the future).

Feeling a bit in over my head, I decided to use my inexperience to draw on the favorable contact that I had previously made with Philip Yordan. I contacted Philip to explain my situation and to see if he would be willing to help me sort things out. I sent him all the material I had prepared to that point and met with him at his office in San Diego at which time we worked on a script outline for a camcorder/micro budget/straight to video feature. I was to pay him half of an extremely reasonable fee, the balance of which I would pay, all else being equal, upon securing a distribution deal with the interested party with whom I had been in touch.

Yordan provided the overall storyline and dictated a few of the scenes. I filled in and completed the script on my own. In fairly short time. I came up with several pages of treatment which I sent off to him for his thoughts. I naively put his name above mine in the credits out of respect, and to avoid the idea that I was trying to hog all the credit for it.

A day or two later I got an angry call from him, telling me that putting his name there meant that he was “doing it for the state” and demanded that I pay him the balance that I owed him immediately, which I then sent off. I would like to think that he saw that it had turned out a lot better and more professional than he thought it would, but as a result it probably came across as if he was giving me an undue freebie which he resented.

Earle: But this wasn’t the end.
Doshna: No. Actress Sylvia Summers who had appeared in David DeCoteau’s Dreamaniac (1986), became interested in the project and wanted to play a second, younger Batwoman in the film. We were hoping her investor boyfriend who had been involved with Dirty Dancing (1987), starring Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey, could help finance the project. She loved to tell the story to potential participants at our meetings about Yordan chewing me out over the script arrangement and his wanting his money immediately.

It’s always preferable to be on good terms with an Academy Award winning writer/producer, but having one get mad at you because you inadvertently got the way better end of a business deal is better than nothing and certainly makes for interesting, colorful conversation.

Earle: Ok. Then tell is a little about the Batwoman prototype film.
Doshna: At a certain point, it seemed to me that promoting the Batwoman project would be better served on a number of levels by a visual presentation as opposed to screenplay form on the printed page. I had been in touch with a resourceful and prolific independent filmmaker named Jimmy Traynor who lives in Maryland and has a production company called JPNT Films. He was looking for ideas for feature films. I told him about my Batwoman project and asked him if he might be interested in collaborating on a “prototype” film based on my script to see if we could generate some momentum and interest one way or another, and to have something tangible to show to potential investors, as opposed to only being on paper.

In a fairly short time, he did a twenty minute version of it and, feeling he could improve on it, did a second one not long after that. He was surprised by the number of actors interested in auditioning for it, which was beyond that of his previous films. I shot a few scenes in California, which I sent out to him, making it a “bi-coastal production.” I later edited both films together with old commercials and quick edits with old movie footage, so it kind of looked like what an episode of Batman would be like if it was done by MTV.

Earle: Where was Katherine in all this?
Doshna: At first she agreed to appear in our film but later declined, due at least in part to a number of health problems (however we included a clip of her from the original film in ours, indicating the source of the material). At one point I had shown her the ground breaking graphic novel The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller to give her an idea of what I had in mind for the film, which impressed her greatly. She had been working as continuity coordinator over at Disney and there is no doubt in my mind that the back-breaking schedule they kept her on, which she had told me about, added to her poor health. On top of that she was physically affected by the Northridge earthquake in 1994. Sadly, Katherine, whom casting people used to tell to “come back when you look your age” passed away in 2004.

Earle: What happened to the Batwoman “prototype” video.
Doshna: It is currently in storage in California. Of course due to rights issues we are unable to release it at present. At a certain point, however, I came into contact with Jerry Warren’s widow Gloria who was not all that impressed by it after having seen it. However other people seem to have had a more favorable opinion of it

Earle: What is the current status of the project in general?
Doshna: It is currently on hold but at such a point that we can position other factors into place, I think it would be a compelling work to move forward on, even with the passing of its star. To this day there has been no other super hero movie co-written by an Academy Award winning screenwriter.

“Batwomen” now on YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXIE1HB8TgY

Earle: Speaking of Super Heroes, describe your early attraction to an Iron Man idea—Tony Stark/Iron Man in terms of how an actor would see Hamlet.
Doshna: In growing up, it was always my desire to combine my two loves, comic books (Marvel in particular) and acting and movies. While attending acting school in Hollywood, I designed my own Iron Man costume and did one of his great monologues he did from one of the comic books. When I got to the front of the room, the teacher was trying not to laugh at my outfit (which was intimidating, as she was very beautiful). After I was done, she was so impressed that asked me “Where did you get that monologue??!!?” and said that it was a “wonderful piece”. Yes!! So there was actually a time when no one had a clue as to who Iron Man was.

AL as Iron Man – Photo by Gary Glasford

Earle: Enter Stan Lee:
Doshna: Many years later, when I was actually doing some acting I had a manager who was also an independent producer who was trying to line up financing to do projects starring his clients. So, of course, I brought up the idea of doing an Iron Man movie, and I even wrote up a treatment that was far, far closer to the source material than any of the live actions films had been to that time. Also around then, I met Stan Lee at a convention and told him about that possibility. He was very friendly and positive, and gave me his business card. I also told him about an off-the-wall cable show monologue where I wore a partial Iron Man costume, and told him that I would send him a copy. It was one of the best received pieces of work that I had done up to that time.

Earle: What was his response?
Doshna: He had his assistant send me a polite, but rather distant letter, including the tape. I saw the piece as something similar to what you would see in Marvel’s Not Brand Ecch! Or Crazy satire magazines. I’m sure he has no memory of it, even if he did see it. Unfortunately, the project financing didn’t come through, either.

“Lobster Man”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvhGnUUMVnM

Earle: That wasn’t the end of it tho…
Doshna: I later printed up my treatment and sent it to Marvel Entertainment. They returned the manuscript with a very nice letter saying that they could not read it unless it was submitted by an agent or an attorney. I couldn’t afford this at the time. AS A DISCLAIMER, just as I was told by them, I have no reason to believe that they read the treatment. In due time, however, things began to move closer to an actual Iron Man film being made, and I decided to take more positive action as far as at least auditioning for the role.

Earle: What was that?
Doshna: I decided to put together a “package” that I would shop around in various places. I was hoping that fans would create a groundswell of support and that I might at least get a shot at the role of Iron Man.

Earle: Tell us about your “audition” video?
Doshna: I produced a short “fan” video using the monologue that I performed before class years before and hired Ken Mader, who did the cult film CARNIVORE (1992), to direct it.

Earle: How did that turn out?
Doshna: Visually, I thought it was awesome, with the blue lighting and shadows(It seemed like a scene out of CARNIVORE). I also later had a model agent take some photos of me in an IM costume and posted the “money” shot, to borrow a phrase from Jon Favreau, on various social media. Most importantly I posted the treatment I did, along with graphics, on my personal website. I realized that my chances of getting the part were a million to one, but I decided to do things this way: I wrote a disclaimer saying that the producers were free to use any or all of the material on the site as it was theirs to begin with.

Iron Man “Tribute” Monologue
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sd-CqWQ4kkw

Earle: Why in the world would you presume to come up with a treatment based on material they already owned?
Doshna: If you recall up to that time it seemed that the Marvel adaptions were trying to “‘reinvent” the characters to where they were unrecognizable in terms of their true origins. I would derive great satisfaction from seeing them use my faithful adaption even if I wasn’t cast or paid for my efforts.

Earle: You have clearly stated that they would not be beholden to you in any way if they used your treatment. Having gotten that out of the way, do you think there are any similarities, let’s say to the subsequent Iron Man films?
Doshna: Of course there is no way to determine whether they used my treatment unless the writers admitted it. But whether it is or not, it is a validation to me. It looks like my treatment could well have been used as the broad framework for the first three films. Recall that even the Incredible Hulk TV series had huge differences from the comic books, seemingly to distance themselves from the cartoony Batman TV series. Later on the Frank Miller/Tim Burton adaptions seemed to almost arbitrarily diverge from even the comic books. My treatment dove headfirst into the comic book source material, basing it on actual stories, the same characters that appeared in the films: Rhodey, Happy Hogan, Pepper Potts, The Mandarin, War Machine, the same character arc, etc. It was almost a given up to that point as far as superhero movies went, that the hero’s name would be used and much of everything else would be dispensed with to attract a “modern” audience. But even if they never saw my treatment, it was by drawing from the original source material that the Marvel tent pole franchises were established. So I was accurate in terms of what fans actually wanted to see.

Earle: Are you taking credit, then?
Doshna: No, I am choosing my words carefully for accuracy in what had actually occurred.

Earle: OK. Now we come to something that flew and is still flying—in Russia no less. Tell us about Kelton’s Dark Corner
Doshna: Kelton’s Dark Corner is a series of four short films starring the late Paul Marco in his signature role of Kelton the Cop whom he portrayed in three of cult movie director Edward D. Wood, Jr.’s films including Plan 9 From Outer Space. It is an authorized series produced and directed by prominent Russian Rock musician and video artist Vasily Shumov. To this point they have been shown in a number of Russian venues, such as MySpace Russia, and at a number of concert and media presentations Vasily has produced.

While working on “The Haunted World of Ed Wood,” I struck up a friendship with a number of the people we interviewed, to one degree or another, one of whom was Paul Marco. I visited Paul from time to time over the years, particularly towards the end of his life when he had been experiencing poor health. Even with that, he had expressed to me a desire to do more film work.

Earle: The Russian connection enters in force.
Doshna: Yes indeed. Somewhere around that time I was cast by Vasily Shumov in one of his music videos. I stayed in touch with him and later auditioned for another video he was doing which he entitled “The Dark Corner,” as an homage to Film Noir which he is a big fan of. We had noticed that although he had cast an abundance of lowlife-type characters, no police presence had been established. I put Vasily in touch with Paul who became interested in the project as so “The Dark Corner” transitioned to “Kelton’s Dark Corner.”

Paul was an eccentric, rambunctious kind of character which unfortunately overshadowed the fact that he was a very knowledgeable person. Some in the media have made it a point to zero in on his foibles. He did very well for himself as a prop-master at Paramount studios for many years. Had “Night of the Ghouls” (1959) actually been released at the time rather than being seized by the lab, he may have gotten more acting work as early audiences judged it most favorably. He improvised the narration for the first installment of Kelton’s Dark Corner, which is the only one he lived to see. I think his talent was displayed there in a way that it never had anywhere else. He was actually planning for future episodes of the series at the time of his passing. In fact we were planning to bring him to the set one day when we were notified that he had passed.

Earle: So where is the project now?
Doshna: Although we have had varying degrees of interest in a commercial release of the films, nothing has been committed to yet, but we hope at some point to have a general release through a venue which has an appropriate appreciation for the quality of the series and of its potential. Hopefully by the time this is published it will have been released and sold a million DVDs!

“KDC” Now on YouTube!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfMtPMhU2cQ&list=PL0YdIHppE40NHlStYFPi2GdiFLWY8Iej2

Earle: Then the writing world beckoned.
Doshna: My first magazine article, sadly, was an obituary for Ed Wood’s producer Crawford John Thomas in an issue of “Cult Movies Magazine.” The editors admired our “Haunted World of Ed Wood” doc and I was asked to do a feature for the magazine by them. My first thought was to do one about Philip Yordan whom I was back on good terms with, as I thought his various ups and downs and ins and outs in his producer/screenwriting work would make for a fascinating article. He seemed to be happy with it and provided me with a photo to accompany the piece. I should mention that I sent him a copy of out Batwoman “prototype” film. One day I checked my messages and found that he had left me one, in a somewhat strained voice, as though he may have been recovering from a stroke. He said that he had received the video and that he was willing to help me with it. I didn’t have a chance to get together with him as he passed away soon after but I still have a copy of the message which has special meaning for me.

Earle: This led to other things.
Doshna: Yes indeed. My first “real” celebrity interview was with model/actress/producer June Wilkinson. June had the patience of a saint in working with me on it as I hardly knew what I was doing but somehow I muddled my way through. It started as an article but Filmfax editor Jim Wilson asked if I might be able to interview her to “spice it up.” Yes indeed! She graciously agreed and that article was the first domino that led to a whole string of articles including Jack Kirby’s daughter Lisa, “Shane” star Ewing “Lucky” Brown, Richard Kiel (“jaws”), and even the Richard Anderson (“The Six Million Dollar Man’s” creator) bio.

June Wilkinson and Friends

One of my favorite interview was the one I did with Julie Newmar. She was also very patient with me but in a different way. She didn’t like the questions I sent her originally so I sent her a few sets before I struck gold with the My Living Doll centered questions. That is pretty much her favorite role so finally I say to myself “D’uh, interview her about that.” And here is an anecdote for you: when we did the interview over the phone, she complained about a buzzing that must have been a problem between my cell and her phone. I tried to fix it and she said it was okay then. But later with another call I made, I had the same problem and I did the same thing but that didn’t fix it. So she probably did that twenty minute interview with me with that annoying buzzing in her ear but just let it go. Wonderful lady.

Julie Newmar and AL at The Hollywood Show in Burbank, CA.
Click here for more

Earle: Ringo Starr?
Doshna: Ringo was scheduled to perform with his All-Starr Band in Syracuse, NY which I planned to attend. Having nothing to lose, I decided to contact the venue to see if I could do an interview with him for Filmfax and about an hour before his afternoon press conference I received an email from them. Although they couldn’t arrange a full interview, I was invited to attend the conference. I dropped everything and gathered up my equipment, and was able to interact with him briefly and gather up enough material for a full article. There you have one of the top achievements of my life which will be a hard one to beat.

https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B010OBI1Y6

Earle: Richard Anderson memoir
Doshna: Although I had seen Richard in other shows before what really brought him to my attention was Curse of the Faceless Man (1959) which I saw on one of the late night horror programs. Although I couldn’t explain it at that time, it’s low budget skillfully created an almost surreal minimalist universe which fascinated me. Many years later I had the chance to meet Richard at a convention and took advantage of the opportunity to approach him about doing an interview. After doing the interview it seemed as though it formed the outline for the full story of his life, which he had told me people were after him to do for a long time. His response: “I’m still living it!” But he was willing to give it a shot and almost immediately we had a publisher, sight unseen, on the basis of his involvement. It took a good deal more time than I had anticipated. But I feel I learned some important lessons. I was used to dashing off interviews and submitting them for publication, but Richard wanted to go over the material again and again and again until we had it right.

Earle: Why you?
Doshna: He had said that a number of people had approached him about doing his memoir with him but he turned them down. Over time I believe that he chose me because I was willing to listen to him and reserve judgment on him, not that there was anything that should have aroused any major criticism. He had experienced a lot of jealousy from others regarding his success and his marriages which left him somewhat guarded, which saddened me. It also made me aware that the fan perspective often does not include the fact that the celebrity is also a vulnerable human being, subject to the ups and downs and the whole spectrum of life experience. This often goes unacknowledged by fans who are focused on their own needs and desires. So that bit of wisdom went a long way for me.

Richard Anderson and AL at a Los Angeles autograph show

The book

Earle: Future projects?
Doshna: As I speak, I am planning to visit veteran “Ed Wood Stock Company member” Conrad Brooks in West Virginia to help him finish his memoir. In a sense Conrad’s book will be the closest thing to an Ed Wood memoir that we will ever get, with his having appeared in his six major films as well as several short films.

Conrad Brooks memoir excerpt first page.
For BearManor Media.

Another of my projects is a collaboration with actor/producer/director Ewing “Lucky” Brown, who is the last remaining cast member of the classic western Shane (1953). he took a number of photos himself behind the scenes of the shoot and, being a master storyteller, will give the background of those photos and much more. Lucky has his own studio called Movie Tech in Van Nuys, CA and was also a friend and associate of Ed Wood. He even claims to have done some photography on Plan 9, which only till fairly recently he had no idea what it was.

Earle: How is your acting career going?
DOSHNA: I relocated to Syracuse a number of years back and have been involved with the local film community. (Note: AL has since relocated back to the Los Angeles area as of early 2024). I appeared as an actor in director Matt Peters’ “Slade Collins: In and Out of Time” (2016) and also worked on a couple of films with filmmaker/distributor Ron Bonk. Ron has had good success recently with his films She Kills and Empire State of the Dead (Both 2016). I appear in the latter film as a zombie (actually three of them) and have a role in his upcoming Jaws spoof, House Shark (2016).

Earle: How is your being a Producer going?
Doshna: Most recently, I was drafted by musician/filmmaker Richard Rossi to become Associate Producer on his upcoming film Canaan Land: The Saga of Sister Sara and Brother Billy. Richard is a musician/filmmaker/pastor (not necesarily in that order) who has produced and directed a number of films and who also happens to be a big Ed Wood fan. He contacted me regarding Haunted World of Ed Wood some time back and we have been friends since. He also has a role in Kelton’s Dark Corner Episode #4. The Canaan Land film is a dramatization of some of his own observations and experiences as a faith healer at one time. He exposes the dark side of the practice. We are planning for a release later this year.

Canaan Land the movie

Earle: Any closing thoughts for the future?
Doshna: Just that I am thankful for all the opportunities that have come my way, which, to a significant extent, were the result of the blessing of “being in the right place at the right time.”