The 1994 film "Ed Wood" is a biography of 1950's low budget film producer, director, and writer Edward J. Wood, Jr., usually known as Ed Wood. Wood made his films with a core group of friends along with hired help. Edward Wood had a number of personal idiosyncrasies including dressing as a woman. He would wear women's clothing including angora sweaters while directing films. His best known film is "Plan 9 from Outer Space". Near the end of the film Wood, depressed over problems with filming "Plan 9", visits a local bar and pays for a drink by placing some US coins including a Washington quarter dollar onto the bar table.

Edward Wood, a World War II veteran, moves to Los Angeles and hopes to enter the motion picture business. He reads a newspaper article about the Christine Jorgensen sex change story in the early 1950's. He visits film producer Georgie Weiss and agrees to make a film about a male to female sex change. Georgie has a poster designed for the film.

The resulting film known as "Glen or Glenda" starred Wood and his girlfriend Dolores Fuller. Edward visits a local restaurant.

Edward holds some coins to purchase drinks. Edward meets Bela Lugosi, the Hungarian actor famous for portraying Dracula in films. Lugosi hasn't made a film for a while and has financial problems. He has also become a drug addict and is injecting morphine. Lugosi and Wood become friends.

The film they are watching is the 1932 film "White Zombie".

Bela longs for the old days in Hollywood when he was a star. Edward continues filming "Glen or Glenda" and shoots a scene where he tells his wife that he likes to wear women's clothes and especially angora sweaters.

The film fails to make money and Weiss drops Wood. Wood finds other sources of money and begins filming "Bride of the Atom" with Bela Lugosi as a mad scientist. He finds huge wrestler Tor Johnson and offers him a role in the film. Edward meets Loretta King whom he believes is rich. He offers Loretta a part in the film which had been assigned to Dolores. The two women do not get along and later Wood finds out that Loretta is broke. Wood's films had frequent title changes.

Tor Johnson goes out a door. Ed's crew needs a "monster" for their film and they visit a studio warehouse to steal a "prop".

They find a suitable prop.

Bela, the star, gets to wrestle with the octopus. Edward's girlfriend Dolores becomes tired of the relationship and leaves him Bela Lugosi decides to check into a drug rehabilition clinic and while visiting Bela, Edward meets Kathy O'Hara who has a relative at the clinic.

They begin seeing each other and Edward tells her about his interest in crossdressing. She loves him and does not object. They eventually marry. Bela is the first "movie star" to enter drug rehabilition and has become a celebrity again.

"Bride of the Monster" doesn't make money and Ed starts work on his most famous film, titled "Grave Robbers from Outer Space". When his landlord demands a rent payment, he shows the landlord the script.

The landlord is an official of a Baptist church and Ed manages to persuade the church board to finance his film. Kathy helps with the film but does not appear in it.

The film is about space aliens visiting Earth in flying saucers with a scheme, "Plan 9", to reanimate recently deceased people. Kathy helps to produce the flying saucers. Joining the church is a condition of financing the film and the crew joins a service.

The crew members also undergo a full-immersion baptism. The church officials persuade Edward to change the title of the film to "Plan 9 from Outer Space." Edward sees a news article which states that television personality Vampira has been fired for "having Communist associates" and Edward offers her a role in "Plan 9".

She and Tor Johnson become reanimated dead.

The scene is set in a graveyard where police chief Tor Johnson is investigating grave robbing. He is killed and then the aliens reanimate his corpse.

Ed gets into arguments with the church officals about his crossdressing. One night he walks off the set and heads for a local restaurant, Musso & Frank's Grill.

The coins are modern (1950's) US coins including cents, nickels, dimes, and on the top of the pile there appears a worn US Washington silver quarter obverse.

Silver, 24.3 mm, 6.22 gm
Washington quarters were minted starting in 1932 and continue to be made.

Filming continues with Ed's friend Bunny Brekinridge as the head alien and two professional actors as a bickering alien couple. Some low-budget special effects are worked into the film.

The film premiere takes place at a local theater.

The title and credits appear along with:

Johnny Depp as Ed Wood
Martin Landau as Bela Lugosi
Sarah Jessica Parker as Dolores Fuller
Patricia Arquette as Kathy O'Hara
Bill Murray as Bunny Breckinridge
Jeffrey Jones as Criswell
Lisa Marie as Vampira
George 'The Animal' Steele as Tor Johnson
G.D. Spradlin as Reverend Lemon
Vincent D'Onofrio as Orson Welles
Director: Tim Burton
Writers: Scott Alexander, Larry Karaszewski
Based on the 1992 book Nightmare of Ecstasy: The Life and Art of Edward D. Wood Jr. by Rudolph Grey