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I would soon realize that Paul Marco was one truly fucked-up individual who would do just about anything to keep one foot in the door of show business. The trouble with that concept was that Paul was doomed to encounter only deluded fans who used him as a threadbare connection to get next to that “Lugosi/Wood” vibe by dealing with someone who was there in 1956 watching Ed and Bela play with a rubber octopus in Griffith Park.

As soon as Paul arrived he treated the whole group of us as if we were sitting over at Paramount with the power to put this script and Kelton the Cop back on the screen as soon as the script could be fleshed out and a production deal hammered into a contract for Mr. Marco to sign. He did, however, advise all of us that day that the copyright involving Kelton for a proposed television series that was supposed to be around the corner was not negotiable, nor was his concept for Kelton to endorse Pepsi Cola, and last but far from least, Mr. Marco simply would not ever consider doing sex or nude scenes, as “It would go against what his fans all over the world expect from Kelton the cop.”
I walked out of that apartment utterly shell-shocked that there REALLY were demented guys like this hovering over Hollywood, and now I’d finally crossed the line into the “Outer Limits of Sunset Blvd.” by actually being a witness to what the late Criswell predicted (wrong as usual), “that Paul Marco would make it big in films”

Paul kind of reminded me of the “Chauncey Gardener” character in BEING THERE, because there was always some bullshit activity that seemed to crop involving the Ed Wood films that kept the fantasy of his stardom alive, and no one was ever going to get in the way of that reality. It took some time getting to know him, but Paul finally explained how he came upon the notion that he and his character of Kelton the cop were so important in the world of cult celebrity. You see a few years ago Paul was a prop master over at Paramount with benefits and even a pension; he had even managed to save a buck or two in his bank account.

Well all this went to Hell in a handbag during a wrap party on the Paramount lot one fateful afternoon. Paul had kept the flame going in his own way for Ed Wood and his part in all the craziness surrounding the ever-growing myth about Bela and Ed and all the rest of the crypt-kickers. It would take a misguided remark from fan-turned-director Joe Dante to forever change Paul Marco’s life.

Knowing that Joe openly admired grade z horror flicks (even writing about them for Famous Monsters of Filmland when he was just a lad in high school), Paul put together a decades-old head shot of himself in a frame, wrapping the whole thing up as a gift and handing it personally to the energetic Mr. Dante whereupon, when he unwrapped the package and got a load of what was inside, Joe exclaimed in what I am sure was genuine pleasure and surprise, “Oh wow, Paul, you are Kelton the cop! I’ve seen all of Ed Wood’s films. Paul Marco, you are a CULT STAR!” Those words hit Paul like the second coming; he went home that night high on believing that at last stardom was around the corner. The next day Paul Marco quit his job at Paramount and began his ascent to the Promised Land. He went to the bank, emptied out his savings account, and hit the photo labs with large orders for stills of himself from what would soon and forever be referred to as THE KELTON TRILOGY, meaning these three epics: BRIDE OF THE MONSTER followed by the most celebrated of the three PLAN NINE FROM OUTER SPACE, and lastly the totally forgotten NIGHT OF THE GHOULS, filmed in 1959, which spent decades collecting dust in a Hollywood lab where the tab was never paid. Once the VHS boom hit the industry, practically all the old grade z horror flicks hit the stores in special editions including, would you believe, “director cuts,” so NIGHT OF THE GHOULS created a respectable buzz when it was finally released in 1987, even though Wood did not direct the film, nor did it have a Bela Lugosi or Vampira to recommend it. In Paul’s mind this was insignificant, after all KELTON was there, so alert the media.

When the dust settled Paul Marco had spent well over half his savings on bumper stickers, balloons, and key chains, all extolling the image of this latest superstar on the horizon, KELTON THE COP… He began his own fan club which boasted himself as the president and, for the moment, the only card carrying member.

At some point in the mid-to-late 1980’s, way before the Tim Burton film would bring Ed Wood to the attention of, shall we say, a wider audience than the rabid fans of cult cinema, I found myself co-hosting a public access show called “HORROR TALK.” The other host was a chap named Jay Jennings who had been doing these kinds of tapings for a while from the audio/video dept at Beverly Hills High School, at that time rather well funded for projects like this one.

This experience was quite similar to the last time I saw Paul. As usual he arrived with the idea that this show was live and going out to millions of people. The only other place you could possibly find a character like Paul Marco would have to be a sketch on the Carol Burnett Show.

I will always remember sitting across from Paul once the cameras were rolling, watching him transform into what in his mind’s eye a cult star should be. He smiled at me, he smiled into the camera, he then explained, as if it were for the first, time how his fan club (which, as far I as know, was yet to have a meeting) operated. “Well, David, we all get together in front of the television and watch my films [all three of them] and then we have ice cream and cake, and exchange stories about Kelton and all my forthcoming projects.” Paul then unfolded three different styles of Kelton the cop tee-shirts (they came in three colors like the trilogy, get it?). On the back a strip of film contained the titles of the Ed Wood films just so anyone walking behind you got a load of it as well.

Paul did discuss his relationship with Lugosi, and his stories were touching, like the one about holding Lugosi’s cue cards during BRIDE OF THE MONSTER. My personal favorite was having a black Christmas tree just for Bela to enjoy at his yuletide party. Paul also claimed that he personally took the cape off Lugosi’s corpse that Hope had substituted for the real DRACULA cape, so that Bela would lie for all time in the proper cape the one he wore in 1931, not the cheap imitation he wore in his Vegas nightclub act.
He ended the interview by putting on his Kelton hat and then saying, as if rehearsed, “Goodnight everybody. Good luck and remember, this is Kelton saying ‘I’ll be seeing you.’”

Horror Talk on VHS is still available on the internet, I am told, and Paul has a personal website befitting a dead cult star. However the best encounter of the third kind I ever had with Paul had to be around 1983 when his long-suffering lady friend and agent Marge Usher passed away. Marge lived in a modest but nice one-story Spanish style home in the area directly behind Century City on Kelton Avenue. It seems Marge gave Paul his character’s name based on her address. Paul was living in Hollywood in a small one bedroom upstairs apartment under rent control. Paul was at Marge’s side when she died, and virtually moved into her home immediately afterwards, claiming she had left the house to him in her will.

Now the very next thing Paul decided to do was to throw a Kelton house-warming party, somewhat in honor of his late benefactor, for all his friends and acquaintances. The guest list included Dr. Donald A Reed, the deranged president of the Count Dracula Society, not to mention an asshole of epic proportions, Peter Coe and his good looking son, and a number of other Hollywood Blvd types I just can’t seem to remember. The important thing to know is that Malia Nurmi was not in attendance, as she always had taste and style.

Peter Coe had been under contract to Universal during WWII and as such appeared in HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN and the Maria Montez classic GYPSY WILDCAT.
It was in Peter’s apt that Ed Wood and his wife Kathy would take refuge when Ed was evicted with nowhere else to go. During the party Peter told me with great emotion about the day his friend passed away, how Eddie begged for a Vodka and Orange juice at 8am, and literally crawled from the bedroom into the kitchen refrigerator to get one. During this ordeal Ed caught sight of himself in the hall mirror, and the image of a man so in the grip of addiction shook him up enough to agree to check himself into the hospital. Peter then demanded he go to hospital immediately, but gave in to waiting one more day.

Ed Wood died later that afternoon by simply going into the bedroom and lying down on the bed, never to get up again. Peter said the look of horror on his face when they found him was so terrifying that it would haunt Coe for the rest of his life. He then told me that they put Ed Wood’s body out in the hall to await the coroner’s arrival, and how shocked they were to discover it missing when they finally turned up. So many tales have been circulated since then, who can be sure which one to believe. I wish now I had put Peter Coe’s story on tape as he was an eye-witness to Ed Wood’s final day on earth.

Most of us present that night advised Paul to see a lawyer about his rights regarding Marge Usher’s will and his right to live in that house so soon after her death. Paul could not be reasoned with, having already moved in and told everybody, “Possession is nine tenths of the law.” I remember telling Paul that it really depends on who is being possessed, if you follow my drift, not that he ever did…

Now the oddest thing of all regarding this episode in the Paul Marco saga was the son from out of left field that just seemed to turned up one day, living with Paul (who was never married as far as anyone can tell), and this was just one more “Kelton” myths to be taken on faith. Paul had lived at one time with the openly gay actor John (Bunny) Breckenridge (who also appeared in Plan Nine as the alien leader) way back in the fifties. Breckenridge was from a wealthy family and lived life mostly on his own terms. In 1959 he was convicted on ten counts of sexual perversion and spent a year in jail. He would survive all this and live to the age of 94, dying peacefully in a nursing home on the California coast. Bill Murray would play him in the Tim Burton film ED WOOD.

All everyone can seem to remember is that the kid was living at Paul’s apt in Hollywood. One just accepted the fact, and both men were cool with it – at least that is what it looked like to outsiders… The story turns very Joe Orton at this point as, a few weeks after Paul and his “son” moved into Marge Usher’s house, the boy, who had been seen riding around the neighborhood on a motorcycle, peeled out of the driveway one morning and promptly fell off the bike, hitting his head on a rock and dying. Poor Paul not only had this freak accident to deal with, but Marge Usher’s family stepped in and demanded he vacant the property ASAP. Paul was understandably upset, and finally packed up and moved back into Hollywood, this time alone. Late one night, not long after he was back in his old place, I got this weird call from Paul. I think he had been drinking, as he had at one time been a pretty heavy drinker, as all the Ed Wood stock company had been. Paul was desperate for some male companionship and wanted to know if I could find him a hustler who would just be there for him to talk to if nothing else. When I began to prove less than helpful, he blurted out “Listen David just get me a trick!” I was more than surprised to hear this from Paul Marco, since he always struck me as being so closeted about being gay, which was obvious to anyone who cared to think about it at all.

I did not like the way Paul sounded on the phone, so after he vented for another 45 minutes I promised to help him locate a shoulder to lean on or whatever, but I insisted on seeing him beforehand just to make sure he was really up to company, or more likely the hospital ER. The most interesting thing about that phone conversation was Paul freely admitting that the kid whom he called his “son” was really a boyfriend. He was just always too up-tight to acknowledge such a thing to himself, or more importantly, to his alter ego, Kelton the cop.

If I had given it any thought at all I would have remembered that Paul ceased to deal with Ed Wood the more the alcoholic director descended into soft core porn. Paul Marco had his standards and remained true to them for the rest of his life.

Not long after Paul Marco’s passing, his friends and fans gathered at the well known Hollywood landmark bar and grill known as THE FORMOSA for a memorial party, giving the bereaved the opportunity to compare weird stories of what Paul had done to each and every one of us at one time or another. One rather touching moment occurred as one entered the banquet room: set aside for the occasion was an empty table, and placed on the table lay Paul Marco’s policeman’s hat and flashlight, a fitting tribute to a fallen Cop.

If fellow PLAN NINE performer Criswell had lived to attend the tribute that day he might have been inspired to draw material for his eulogy from one of Kelton’s trilogy of films, the mind boggling NIGHT OF THE GHOULS.

‘This is a story of those in the twilight time, once human, now monsters in a void between the living and the dead.

Monsters to be pitied, monsters to be despised.”

When all was said and done, Paul Marco did it his way…..

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