Doris Wishman was born on June 1, 1912, in New York City. She was still a child when her mother died. Her father was a hay and grain salesmen who raised her and her five other siblings. Wishman studied for a while at Hunter College where she studied several subjects including acting. She worked as a secretary and a movie booker until she met and married a man by the name of Jack Abrahms. After Abrahms died, Wishman wanted to do something in her life that would keep her busy instead of being a grieving widow.
Early film career
Despite being the cousin of Max Rosenberg, one of the founders of the British Horror production company Amicus Productions, Wishman decided to go into the film business on her own. Recent legislation had allowed nudity to be seen in film if it was in the context of documentary footage. Wishman borrowed $10,000 from her sister, Pearl Kushner. Her first nudie feature was Hideout in the Sun in 1959, a nudist camp documentary. Her next film Nude on the Moon released in 1960, was a science fiction nudie. The film was banned in New York State, as the censor board stated that films featuring nudity in a nudist colony setting was fine, but showing nudity in a science fiction-themed film about a nudist colony on the moon was not fine. [2]One of her next films, Blaze Starr Goes Nudist (1962), included a starring role for the legendary burlesque performer, Blaze Starr. Wishman continued to make films that featured nude women, releasing one or two a year. After countless nudie features, she decided to leave the genre when its popularity started to fade.
Rise in the Sexploitation genre
When beginning her work in the sexploitation genre, she decided to use a pseudonym, “Louis Silverman”. One of her first films for the genre Bad Girls Go to Hell (1965), would be considered one of her earliest successes of the genre. This film was her first collaboration with her long-time cinematographer C. Davis Smith, who would work with Wishman until her death. Most of these films were shot in black and white. In 1968 with her film Love Toy she began shooting in color as she went on to do soft-core films. Her biggest claim to fame was when she went on to direct two films with the sexploitation starlet, Chesty Morgan. The films Deadly Weapons and Double Agent 73 featured Morgan with her massive 73-inch bust, in the vein of fellow sexploitation works of filmmakers like Russ Meyer. The Chesty Morgan films had a high camp factor with scenes that featured Morgan taking off her top with sound effects accompanying it to convey the massiveness of her breasts.
Later on in her career after her long period of sexploitation work, Wishman went on to do a couple of hardcore pornographic films like Satan Was a Lady (1975) and Come With Me, My Love (1976) both of which starred porn star Annie Sprinkle. Wishman was not fond of working on these films and continually denied working on them. She was known to have left the room on the set of these film during the sex scenes as she deemed them too inappropriate. As her biographer and long time admirer, Michael Bowen stated in her New York Times obituary, “She was actually rather sexually naive.” He also stated that “She personally thought that someone’s hand caressing your face was more erotic than sex itself.” Although the project started in 1971, the 1978 release of her documentary on transsexuality titled Let Me Die A Woman, featured many interviews with actual transgendered subjects. The film also featured dramatized scenes about daily struggles of transgendered people featuring Deep Throat star Harry Reems. She later became quite interested in joining in the slasher film craze started with films like Halloween (1978), Friday The 13th (1980) Maniac (1981) and Prom Night (1980). Wishman decided to make her own film in the genre titled A Night to Dismember (1983), but the project was a commercial failure.
Later life and death
After the failure of A Night to Dismember, she moved to Florida in the mid-80s where she worked at a lingerie store. During this time people readily started to become very interested again in her work as much of it came to home video. Cult followings started to form and Wishman was honored at the New York Underground Film Festival. Cult Filmmakers like John Waters featured her Chesty Morgan work in his film Serial Mom. Joe Bob Briggs, The Drive-In Movie Critic, described Wishman as, “The greatest female exploitation film director in history.” Wishman died on August 10, 2002 at her home in Coral Gables, Florida after a long battle with lymphoma.
