Candy Darling

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Candy Darling
Candy Darling on her Deathbed by Peter Hujar
Born(1944-11-24)November 24, 1944[1]
Queens, New York City, U.S.
DiedMarch 21, 1974(1974-03-21) (aged 29)
Manhattan, New York City, U.S.
Resting placeCherry Valley Cemetery, Cherry Valley, New York, U.S.
OccupationActress

Candy Darling (November 24, 1944 – March 21, 1974) was an American actress, best known as a Warhol superstar.[2][3]

She was a pioneer for transgender visibility, inspiring songs by the Rolling Stones and Lou Reed. Her performances Andy Warhol's films Flesh (1968) and Women in Revolt (1971), brought her fame. She also appeared in theatrical productions by Jackie Curtis and Tennessee Williams.

Early life and education

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Candy Darling was born James Lawrence Slattery in Forest Hills, Queens, as the child of Theresa (née Phelan) Slattery, a bookkeeper at Manhattan's Jockey Club,[4] and John F. Slattery, a racetrack worker[5] whom she described as a violent alcoholic.[6]

Darling's early years were spent in Massapequa Park, Long Island, where she and her mother moved after her parents' divorce. She spent much of her childhood watching television and old Hollywood movies, from which she learned to impersonate her favorite actresses such as Joan Bennett and Kim Novak. Darling took a strong interest in the Million Dollar Movie broadcast on television, which she would often watch several times a day. Inspired in part by Novak, Darling began to model her life around "Hollywood glamour-queen prettiness."[7] She had one half-brother, Warren Law II, from her mother's first marriage, to Warren Law. Warren Law II left to serve in the United States military and left Darling as the only child. Law would later deny his connection to Darling.

In 1961, she signed up for a course at the DeVern School of Cosmetology in Baldwin, Long Island.[8] Darling later said that she "learned about the mysteries of sex from a salesman in a local children's shoe store" and finally revealed an inclination towards cross-dressing when her mother confronted her about local rumors, which described Darling as "dressing as a girl" and frequenting a local gay bar called The Hayloft. In response, Darling left the room and returned in feminine clothing. Darling's mother would later say that, "I knew then... that I couldn't stop [her]. Candy was just too beautiful and talented."[9]

After coming out publicly, Darling would take a short cab ride to the Long Island Rail Road station, avoiding the attention of neighbors she would receive by walking to the train. From there, she would take the train to Manhattan, often sitting across from Long Island starlet Joey Heatherton.[2] In Manhattan, she would refer to her family home at 79 First Avenue in Massapequa Park as her "country house", and spent time in Greenwich Village, meeting people through Seymour Levy on Bleecker Street.

Career

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Darling first took the name Hope Slattery. According to Bob Colacello, Darling took this name in 1963/1964 after she started going to gay bars in Manhattan and visiting a doctor on Fifth Avenue for hormone injections. Jackie Curtis said that Darling adopted the name from a well-known Off Broadway actress named Hope Stansbury, with whom she lived for a few months in an apartment behind the Caffe Cino. Holly Woodlawn remembers that Darling's name evolved from Hope Dahl to Candy Dahl, then to Candy Cane. Jeremiah Newton said she took the name "Candy" out of a love for sweets. In her autobiography, Woodlawn recalled that Darling had adopted the name because a friend of hers called her "darling" so often that it stuck.

Darling met Jeremiah Newton in the summer of 1966, when Newton was on his first trip to Greenwich Village from his home in Flushing, Queens. The two became friends and roommates, living together in Manhattan and Brooklyn until the time of Darling's death in 1974.[8]

Before they met, in 1967, Darling saw Andy Warhol at The Tenth of Always, an after-hours club. Darling was with Jackie Curtis, who invited Warhol to a play that she had written and directed, called Glamour, Glory and Gold, starring Darling as "Nona Noonan." Jackie Curtis often claimed that she and Darling starred alongside a young Robert De Niro, who played all the male roles, but De Niro was in a later version of the play that Curtis and Darling only participated in early rehearsals of.[10]

Darling worked for a short time as a barmaid at Slugger Ann's, the bar owned by Jackie Curtis's grandmother.[11][12]

Warhol was enamored by Darling's beauty and cast her in a short comedic scene in Flesh (1968) with Jackie Curtis and Joe Dallesandro. After Flesh, Darling was cast in a central role in Women in Revolt (1971). Women in Revolt was first shown at the first Los Angeles Filmex as Sex. It was later shown as Andy Warhol's Women.

The day after the celebrity preview, a group of women carrying protest signs demonstrated outside the cinema against the film, which they thought was anti-women's liberation. When Darling heard about this, she said, "Who do these dykes think they are anyway? Well, I just hope they all read Vincent Canby's review in today's Times. He said I look like a cross between Kim Novak and Pat Nixon. It's true – I do have Pat Nixon's nose."[13]

Reflecting on Darling in his memoir Popism (1980), Warhol said:

Candy didn't want to be a perfect woman—that would be too simple, and besides it would give her away. What she wanted was to be a woman with all the little problems that a woman has to deal with—runs in her stocking, runny mascara, men that left her. She would even ask to borrow Tampaxes, explaining that she had a terrible emergency. It was as if the more real she could make the little problems, the less real the big one—her cock—would be.[11]

Darling's attempt at breaking into mainstream movies, by campaigning for the leading role in Myra Breckinridge (1970), led to rejection and bitterness.[14]

Candy Darling, as seen in the film Silent Night, Bloody Night (1972)

Darling went on to appear in other independent films, including Silent Night, Bloody Night, Wynn Chamberlain's Brand X, and a co-starring role in Some of My Best Friends Are...[15] She appeared in Klute with Jane Fonda and Lady Liberty with Sophia Loren. In 1971, she went to Vienna to make two films with director Werner Schroeter: The Death of Maria Malibran, and another film that was never released.

Darling appeared in Vain Victory: The Vicissitudes of the Damned (1971) directed by Jackie Curtis at La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club in May/June 1971. The production featured many other performers from Warhol's Factory, including Curtis, Ondine, Tally Brown, Mario Montez, Samuel Adams Green, Mary Woronov, Francesco Scavullo, Jay Johnson, Holly Woodlawn, Steina and Woody Vasulka, Eric Emerson, and Warhol himself.[16]

Darling was in the original 1972 production of Tennessee Williams' play Small Craft Warnings, cast at Williams' request. She starred in the 1973 revival of The White Whore and the Bit Player, a 1964 play by Tom Eyen, at La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club. The production was bilingual, called The White Whore and the Bit Player/La Estrelle y La Monja, and directed by Manuel Martin Jr. Darling's character, a Hollywood actress known only as "the Whore", was based on Marilyn Monroe. She performed in the English version opposite Hortensia Colorado, and the Spanish version was performed by Magaly Alabau and Graciela Mas.[17] As a review of the play stated, "With her teased platinum hair and practiced pouts, Miss Darling looks like her character and resolutely keeps her acting little-girl-lost. The role-playing aspect works to her advantage. She could, after all, be a male lunatic pretending to be the White Whore."[18]

Illness and death

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Darling died of lymphoma on March 21, 1974, aged 29, at the Columbus Hospital division of the Cabrini Health Care Center.[8][19][20] In a letter written on her deathbed and intended for her friends at the Factory, including Warhol, Darling wrote, "Unfortunately before my death I had no desire left for life ... I am just so bored by everything. You might say bored to death. Did you know I couldn't last. I always knew it. I wish I could meet you all again."[21]

Her funeral, held at the Frank E. Campbell Funeral Chapel, was attended by many admirers.[22] Warhol did not attend, but he paid for the funeral service.[23][24] R. Couri Hay and Julie Newmar read the eulogies.[25] Darling's birth name was never spoken by the minister or any of the eulogizers, but her family still thought of her as "Jimmy."[22][26] Faith Dane played a piano piece, and Gloria Swanson saluted Darling's coffin.[27]

Darling was cremated, and her ashes were interred by Jeremiah Newton in the Cherry Valley Cemetery in Cherry Valley, New York, a village at the foot of the Catskill Mountains.

Legacy

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Greer Lankton made a bust of Darling that was displayed at the 1995 Whitney Biennial.[28]

In 2009, C☆NDY, which calls itself "the first transversal style magazine", debuted. It is named after Darling.[29]

Byredo created a candle scent named after Darling.[30]

A feature-length documentary film on Darling, titled Beautiful Darling, premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival (or Berlinale) in February 2010. The documentary features archival film and video footage, photographs, personal papers, archival audio interviews with Tennessee Williams, Valerie Solanas, Jackie Curtis and Darling's mother, as well as contemporary interviews with Holly Woodlawn, Ruby Lynn Reyner, Fran Lebowitz, John Waters, Julie Newmar, Peter Beard, and Taylor Mead. Chloë Sevigny narrates the film, voicing Darling's private diary entries and personal letters. The film was directed by James Rasin and produced by Jeremiah Newton and Elisabeth Bentley.[31]

In 2017, Kay Gabriel published a book of sonnet-based poetry, Elegy Department Spring, about Darling[32]

In January 2019, a biopic about Candy was announced. It will be written by Stephanie Kornick and executive produced by Zackary Drucker. The film is being produced by Christian D. Bruun, Katrina Wolfe, and Louis Spiegler.[33] Hari Nef has been cast in the role of Darling.[34]

In 2024, Cynthia Carr released Candy Darling: Dreamer, Icon, Superstar, a biographical portrait of Darling.[35]

Portrayals

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Music

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Works

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Filmography

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Year Title Role Notes
1968 Flesh Candy
1970 Brand X Marlene D-Train
1970 The Magic Garden of Stanley Sweetheart
1971 La Mortadella Transvestite Alternative title: Lady Liberty
1971 Klute Discothèque Patron Uncredited
1971 Some of My Best Friends Are... Karen / Harry
1971 Women in Revolt Candy
1972 The Death of Maria Malibran [fr] Directed by Werner Schroeter
1972 Silent Night, Bloody Night Guest (final film role)
1973 An American Family Herself
1975 Johannas Traum[42] Directed by Werner Schroeter
2002 The Cockettes Herself Archive footage
2004 Superstar in a Housedress Herself Archive footage
2006 Andy Warhol: A Documentary Film Herself Archive footage
2010 Beautiful Darling Herself Archive footage
2020 Disclosure: Trans lives on Screen Herself Archive footage

References

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Citations

  1. ^ Watson, Steven (2003). Factory Made: Warhol and the Sixties. Pantheon Books. p. 20. ISBN 978-0-679-42372-0.
  2. ^ a b Darling, Candy (2015). Candy Darling: Memoirs of an Andy Warhol Superstar. New York City: Open Road Media. p. 201. ISBN 978-1-4804-0775-6.
  3. ^ Plaza, Cristina (July 1, 2017). "Candy Darling, el reverso de la primera figura transexual de la cultura pop". Vanity Fair (in Spanish). Retrieved June 29, 2018.
  4. ^ "Theresa Catherine P. McLean". Glens Falls Post-Star. Retrieved April 4, 2018.
  5. ^ "John F. Slattery". Glens Falls Post-Star. Retrieved September 30, 2024.
  6. ^ Darling, Candy (1992). Newton, Jeremiah (ed.). My Face for the World to See: the Diaries, letters and drawings. Hardy Marks Publications. ISBN 0-945367-21-X.
  7. ^ Anderson, Melissa (January 1, 2002). "Candied Glam: The Cultural Cachet of Candy Darling". Quarterly Review of Film and Video. 19 (1): 59–69. doi:10.1080/10509200214826. ISSN 1050-9208. S2CID 191455116.
  8. ^ a b c Moynihan, Colin (February 24, 2009). "From the Archives, a Portrait of a Pop-Art Muse". The New York Times. Retrieved November 8, 2010.
  9. ^ Comenas, Gary. "Candy Darling". Warholstars.org. Archived from the original on February 3, 2011. Retrieved November 8, 2010.
  10. ^ Carr, Cynthia (2024). Candy Darling; Dreamer, Icon, Superstar (1st ed.). New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. p. 118.
  11. ^ a b Warhol 1980, p. 285.
  12. ^ Palladini, Giulia (May 26, 2011). "Queer Kinship in the New York Underground: On the 'Life and Legend' of Jackie Curtis". Contemporary Theatre Review. 21 (2). Routledge: 126–153. doi:10.1080/10486801.2011.561841. S2CID 194047860. Retrieved April 8, 2015.
  13. ^ Bob, Colacello (2014). Holy terror : Andy Warhol close up (First Vintage books ed.). New York. ISBN 978-0-8041-6986-8. OCLC 855581110.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  14. ^ Warhol 1980, p. 370.
  15. ^ a b c Candy Darling at IMDb
  16. ^ La MaMa Archives Digital Collections. "Production: Vain Victory, The Vicissitudes of the Damned (1971)". Accessed April 4, 2018.
  17. ^ La MaMa Archives Digital Collections. "Production: The White Whore and the Bit Player/La Estrella y La Monja (1973a)". Accessed April 4, 2018.
  18. ^ Gussow, Mel (February 6, 1973). "Eyen's 'The White Whore and Bit Player' Arrives". The New York Times.
  19. ^ "Candy Darling Dies; Warhol 'Superstar'". The New York Times. March 22, 1974. Retrieved December 20, 2019.
  20. ^ Turvey, Lisa (2015). Miller, Dana (ed.). Whitney Museum of American Art: Handbook of the Collection. Whitney Museum of American Art; Yale University Press (New Haven, London). p. 186. ISBN 9780300211832.
  21. ^ Wiegand, David (July 28, 1997). "Candy's Fairy-Tale 'Face'; Diaries Reveal Longing For Identity". SFGate.com. San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved November 4, 2014.
  22. ^ a b "The Glittery Life of Candy Darling". Next Avenue. March 19, 2024. Retrieved May 17, 2025.
  23. ^ Highberger, Craig B. (2005). Superstar in a Housedress: The Life and Legend of Jackie Curtis. New York: Chamberlain Bros. p. 10. ISBN 978-1-59609-079-8.
  24. ^ Kiedrowski, Thomas (2011). Andy Warhol's New York City: Four Walks Uptown to Downtown. New York: The Little Bookroom. p. 22. ISBN 978-1-892145-93-2.
  25. ^ Norby, Mark William (April 16, 2024). "Cynthia Carr's 'Candy Darling: Dreamer, Icon, Superstar'". Bay Area Reporter. Retrieved May 17, 2025.
  26. ^ Lopez, Alfred J., ed. (2012). Postcolonial Whiteness: A Critical Reader on Race and Empire. SUNY Press. p. 64. ISBN 978-0-7914-8372-5.
  27. ^ Donovan, Janet (May 23, 2011). ""Beautiful Darling" Candy, Born as James". NBCWashington.com. Retrieved June 9, 2014.
  28. ^ Morton, Julia (January 26, 2007). "Greer Lankton, A Memoir". artnet. Artnet Worldwide Corporation. Retrieved March 13, 2012.
  29. ^ Blanks, Tim. "Exclusive: The World's Biggest Transgender Stars Cover C☆NDY". style.com.
  30. ^ "Zac Posen – 15 favourite things". Vogue UK. Archived from the original on April 12, 2015. Retrieved April 8, 2015.
  31. ^ Beautiful Darling, retrieved October 20, 2018
  32. ^ Crandall, Maxe (June 24, 2017). "'Elegy Department Spring' by Kay Gabriel". Lambda Literary. Retrieved July 20, 2023.
  33. ^ Ramos, Dino-Ray (January 29, 2019). "'Transparent's Stephanie Kornick And Zackary Drucker Board Candy Darling Biopic". Deadline Hollywood.
  34. ^ "Hari Nef cast as Warhol superstar Candy Darling in new biopic". The A.V. Club. August 2, 2022. Retrieved August 2, 2022.
  35. ^ Noble, Barnes &. "Candy Darling: Dreamer, Icon, Superstar|Hardcover". Barnes & Noble. Retrieved July 20, 2023.
  36. ^ Bacalzo, Dan (October 15, 2009). "Doug Kreeger, Randy Harrison, Leslie Kritzer, Brian Charles Rooney, et al. Set for Yale Rep's Pop!". TheaterMania.com. Retrieved November 4, 2014.
  37. ^ Simonson, Robert (April 27, 2006). "The Drowsy Chaperone Leads 2006 Drama Desk Nominations". Playbill.com. Archived from the original on April 28, 2014. Retrieved July 30, 2014.
  38. ^ Paytress, Mark (2009). Rolling Stones: Off the Record. London: Omnibus Press. ISBN 978-0-85712-113-4.
  39. ^ DeCurtis 2017[page needed]
  40. ^ DeCurtis 2017, p. 123
  41. ^ I Am a Bird Now – Credits, Allmusic.com; retrieved July 3, 2011.
  42. ^ Johannas Dream, retrieved December 29, 2020

Works cited

Further reading

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