Candy darling

Candy Darling (born November 24, 1944 in Brooklyn , New York City , † March 21, 1974 in New York City; born James ("Jimmy") Lawrence Slattery) was a transsexual American film actress and was part of the Andy Warhol - Superstars and the Factory scene.

Life

Candy Darling's parents were accountant Theresa Phelan and alcoholic and gambler Jim Slattery, she grew up in Brooklyn and had a half-brother named Warren. The family lived in a small house in Massapequa Park on Long Island , New York. Darling wore women's clothes as a teenager. When her mother found out about this, she confronted her with what she knew. She left the room and came back in dressed as a drag queen . "Then I knew that there was nothing I could do about it," said the mother. Darling called himself "Hope" by now, frequented gay bars in Manhattan, and sought female hormones from doctors on Fifth Avenue. She saw the pop artist and underground filmmaker Andy Warhol for the first time in The Tenth of Always nightclub . Soon afterwards she took part in her first Andy Warhol film: Flesh from 1968. It was not directed by Warhol himself, but by his assistant Paul Morrissey . Warhol was recovering from a gun attack that Valerie Solanas , the founder and only member of the radical feminist SCUM (Society for cutting up men), had carried out on him.

Andy Warhol about this time:

“In '67 drag queens weren't an accepted part of mainstream freak circles. They were still hanging where they had always been - on the fringes of society. They kept to their own circles - outcasts with bad teeth [a side effect of hormone treatments] and body odor, cheap makeup, and creepy clothes. But then, much like the drugs that had become established among the average person, people began to identify a little more with the drag queens, seeing them as daring sexual avant-garde rather than losers. So it was that in the 1968s people began to accept drag queens, even flirted with them and invited them everywhere. "

Warhol was referring, mind you, to the “in” circles of the New York subculture , not to the ordinary citizen from town or country.

Warhol was outraged at this time about the film Midnight Cowboy (Midnight Cowboy) , which was about a prostitute. As an underground filmmaker, he had brought up this topic in 1965. Flesh was supposed to be a better, and above all, more authentic version of the Midnight Cowboy party scene . "Candy had her big scene in Flesh when she was sitting extremely ladylike with Jackie Curtis on the couch and reading from old film magazines, while Geri, the topless GoGo dancer, got Joe ..." (Andy Warhol)

Candy Darling got her first leading role in 1970/71 in the Andy Warhol film Women in Revolt . She played an upper-class lady who got into a women's liberation group called PIGS (Politically Involved Girls).

The TV criticism of the film, at the premiere of which Diane von Fürstenberg was present among others , was devastating: “Another proof of Andy Warhol's lack of talent. We have known about it since his painted soup cans. ”On the day after the premiere, martially dressed women protested in front of the cinema: the film would denigrate feminism . "Who do these lesbians think they are?" Said Candy. “I hope you read the reviews. The New York Times wrote that I looked like a cross between Kim Novak and Pat Nixon . And it's true, I have Pat Nixon's nose! "

Candy Darling was heavily based on the glamorous Hollywood image of women of the 1940s, an image that the emancipated women of the late 1960s were about to shake off.

Candy Darling was still involved in various films outside the Warhol clan, even in "serious" productions such as Klute from 1971, with Jane Fonda and Donald Sutherland directed by Alan J. Pakula, or the work The Death of Maria Malibran, shot in Vienna by Werner Schroeter from 1972.

In March 1974, Candy Darling probably died of leukemia at the age of 29 . From her will: “Even my many friends and my career, which has got going, do not hide the emptiness in me that this unreal life leaves behind. I'm bored of everything, you could say I'm bored to death. I've already organized my own funeral, including the guest list and payment. I could have been a star, but I'm no longer interested. "

Stephen Dorff played Candy Darling in the 1996 film I Shot Andy Warhol .

Filmography

• 1968: Flesh - Director: Paul Morrissey , Production: Andy Warhol
• 1970: Brand X - Directed by Win Chamberlain
• 1971: Some of my best friends are - Directed by Mervyn Nelson
• 1971: Andy Warhol's Women in Revolt - Director: Paul Morrissey
• 1971: La Mortadella (US title Lady Liberty ) - Director: Mario Monicelli; with Sophia Loren ; uncredited supporting role
• 1971: Klute - directed by Alan J. Pakula ; Candy plays in the disco scene; uncredited supporting role
• 1972: The Death of Maria Malibran - Director: Werner Schroeter
• 1974: Silent Night, Bloody Night - Director: Theodore Gershuny

Trivia

The second verse of Lou Reed's song Walk on the Wild Side refers to Candy Darling, as does Candy Says from The Velvet Underground .

literature

• Candy Darling, Jeremiah Newton (Ed.): My Face for the World to See: The Diaries, Letters, and Drawings of Candy Darling, Andy Warhol Superstar . Hardy Marks Publications 1992, ISBN 0-945367-21-X
• Holly Woodlawn , Jeff Copeland (Eds.): A Low Life in High Heels . St Martin's Press 1991, ISBN 0-312-06429-2
• Andy Warhol, Pat Hackett: Popism. The Warhol '60s , Harcourt Brace Javonovich, New York, London 1980, ISBN 0-15-173095-4

Web links

• Candy Darling in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Andy Warhol Superstars: Candy Darling at warholstars.org
• Candy Darling at findagrave.com

Individual evidence

1. ↑ According to IMDb . Different sources name 1946 or 1948
2. ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from September 7, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.