{"id":1693,"date":"2011-05-01T00:33:17","date_gmt":"2011-05-01T05:33:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jjmurphyfilm.com\/blog\/?p=1693"},"modified":"2021-08-26T10:32:15","modified_gmt":"2021-08-26T15:32:15","slug":"beautiful-darling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jjmurphyfilm.com\/blog\/2011\/05\/01\/beautiful-darling\/","title":{"rendered":"Beautiful Darling"},"content":{"rendered":"

[Photo by Anton Perich]Candy Darling (1944-1974) was a later Warhol superstar from the period after the Pop artist was shot by Valerie Solanas and became the producer of Paul Morrissey\u2019s films. Born James L. Slattery, Candy appeared in Flesh<\/em> (1968-69) and starred in Women in Revolt <\/em>(1971), Morrissey\u2019s satire of the women\u2019s liberation movement \u2013 a film that parodied Solanas and the SCUM Manifesto<\/em> in every way imaginable. James Rasin\u2019s poignant documentary about the tragic life of Candy Darling, Beautiful Darling<\/em>, opened in Manhattan last week. It joins the growing list of documentaries about Warhol performers and associates, such as Nico Icon<\/em>, Pie in the Sky: The Brigid Berlin Story<\/em>, Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis<\/em><\/a>, and A Walk into the Sea: Danny Williams and the Warhol Factory<\/em><\/a>. For true Warhol fans, Beautiful Darling<\/em>, is not to be missed.<\/p>\n

In Women in Revolt,<\/em> Holly Woodlawn and Jackie Curtis decide that they need to enlist real beauty to their feminist cause. They manage to rope Candy Darling into the PIG (Politically Involved Girls) movement. After she decides to become a movie star, Candy gets taken advantage of by an agent (Michael Sklar). By the end of the film, she has managed to sleep her way to the top, only to be exposed by a tabloid reporter, who brings up the dirt about her \u2013 the suicide of her parents, her incestuous relationship with her brother, and her sleeping with various directors to get parts in foreign films where she does very little. Alluding to the title of her new film, the columnist concludes, \u201cI don\u2019t think you\u2019re a Blonde on a Bum Trip; I think you\u2019re a Bum on a Blonde Trip.\u201d<\/p>\n

The former might better describe Candy\u2019s actual life story. Beautiful Darling<\/em> begins with Jeremiah Newton, Candy\u2019s former roommate and the default executor of her estate, as he forges a certificate from the Garden State Crematory in North Bergen, New Jersey. After we watch her gravestone being transported, Candy appears in old footage and announces buoyantly: \u201cHi, I\u2019m Candy Darling. I\u2019m an actress here in New York. I\u2019ve been in eight pictures \u2013 small parts in big pictures, and big parts in small pictures.\u201d In the company of Jane Fonda, who hoped to land a part in a Warhol film, Candy, looking like some sort of fashion-crazed pirate, announces, \u201cI call myself Candy Warhol now,\u201d as everyone laughs uproariously.<\/p>\n

The actress Helen Hanft describes how Candy managed to \u201cfool\u201d her father and uncle, who acted \u201cvery courtly\u201d when they met her. We hear Lou Reed\u2019s song \u201cWalk on the Wild Side,\u201d in which she was immortalized, along with Holly Woodlawn, Jackie Curtis, Joe Dallesandro, and Joe Campbell, aka the \u201cSugar Plum Fairy,\u201d who appeared in My Hustler <\/em>(1965). Candy shared Warhol\u2019s love of movie stars. She sent a fan letter to Kim Novak, and was smitten by the missive she received back from the Hollywood actress. Fran Lebowitz views Candy as obsessed and living in the past, but Paul Morrissey claims that she was essentially a humorist, who was merely poking fun at stars.<\/p>\n

Bob Colacello points to the paradox of Candy within Warhol\u2019s more avant-garde circle, namely that she was a throwback to another era when the movie studios still existed. Gerard Malanga, however, claims that Candy was \u201cvery avant-garde in terms of who she was and how she invented herself.\u201d Despite the juxtaposition of the two contrasting views, in a sense, Colacello and Malanga are talking about two different things. Colacello is discussing Candy as a performer, whereas Malanga is referring to Candy\u2019s choice of sexual identity. To Glenn O\u2019Brien, Candy, like Warhol, was her own artwork. The film cuts to footage of Candy at Warhol\u2019s retrospective at the Whitney in 1971, where they both have great fun by putting on the press \u2013 a Warhol trademark.<\/p>\n

Clo\u00eb Sevigny\u2019s readings from Candy\u2019s diaries represent some of the most compelling material in Beautiful Darling<\/em>. The sense of gender difference that Candy felt early on led her to turn to the fantasy world of movies \u2013 James Slattery aspired to become a female movie star. Whereas Malanga indicates that \u201cthere was nothing fragile about Candy,\u201d underground film star Taylor Mead describes Candy as \u201ctoo gentle . . . too gentle for the bullies.\u201d Newton met Candy when he was only 15-year-old. A devoted fan, he began his own audio diary after Candy\u2019s death. Newton interviews a bigoted childhood friend. Once the person discovered Jimmy Slattery in drag on the Long Island train, she refused to have anything to do with him again and thought \u201che should be put away.\u201d It\u2019s a response indicative of the times.<\/p>\n

Holly Woodlawn explains the dangers that cross dressers experienced in the 1960s before Stonewall, where men could be arrested for wearing woman\u2019s clothes in public. Through Jackie Curtis, Candy, who went by the name \u201cHope\u201d at the time, became involved in theater, which is where Warhol first saw her in Glamour, Glory and Gold<\/em>. Holly describes Candy as attracting a coterie of groupies. She includes Newton among them, whereas Sam Green<\/a>, who curated Warhol\u2019s infamous early show at the ICA in Philadelphia, describes him as kind of her \u201cyounger brother\u201d \u2013 someone who was merely star struck by her incredible beauty. Newton doesn\u2019t deny that hanging around with Candy brought him acceptance with the hipsters at the Factory and eventually at Max\u2019s Kansas City, where Candy, Jackie, and Holly held court in the back room.<\/p>\n

Colacello discusses the early 1970s as a period when \u201ca surge of Hollywood nostalgia came in.\u201d He adds, \u201cAnd Candy was right in there, somewhere between the past and the future.\u201d John Waters comments, \u201cShe was like a real movie star from MGM . . . only in a world that was filled with LSD, and speed really.\u201d Warhol mentions that Candy and the others weren\u2019t really drag queens because they actually believed they were women. Jayne County insists on the fact that Candy was a transgender person. Friends seem unclear about her actual romantic relationships. Melba LaRose, Jr. mentions that Candy was in love with Gerard Malanga, who responds with surprise: \u201cI\u2019m flattered. I didn\u2019t know that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Candy claims that she never had to pay for anything, but the truth is that Candy lived hand-to-mouth, as her diaries clearly indicate. When it\u2019s suggested that she had to do certain things to get money, Jeremiah becomes indignant, even if his own interviews provide contrary evidence. We see rehearsal footage for Women in Revolt <\/em>(so much for Morrissey\u2019s claims about improvisation), along with the trailer, with praise of her highly theatrical performance from both John Waters and Paul Morrissey. Candy eventually appeared as Violet in Tennessee Williams\u2019s Small Craft Warnings<\/em> at the time when the playwright\u2019s own career was in free fall.<\/p>\n

Along with starring in Women in Revolt<\/em>, this marked a highpoint in Candy\u2019s career. Her success proved short lived. Penny Arcade explains, \u201cAnd then all of a sudden, it turned out to be this ephemeral thing, and the carnival had moved on.\u201d Shortly after this, while staying at the Diplomat Hotel, in June 1973, Candy felt abandoned and alone. She writes: \u201cAll I know is: I love, and I am not loved. I do not know happiness. I know despair, loneliness, and longing. My biggest problem is I have no man to love me. So nothing else matters or makes much of a difference.\u201d<\/p>\n

More and more, Candy\u2019s gender issues made her feel as if she were \u201cliving in a veritable prison.\u201d There\u2019s no question that Candy Darling was gorgeous, but beauty didn\u2019t translate into love (especially for a transgender individual), just as her limited fame as performer didn\u2019t translate into enough money to eat properly or pay the rent. Rasin\u2019s documentary makes the most of its archival material, even if, structurally, Newton\u2019s burial of Candy\u2019s ashes in Cherry Valley, New York seems a contrivance for the sake of the film.<\/p>\n

After Candy discovered she had a cancerous tumor, most people felt she accepted her fate as a final role to play. Lebowitz discusses Peter Hujar\u2019s famous picture of Candy on her death bed. Candy staged the way she wanted to appear in the photo \u2013 a beautiful actress dying in her prime. Over the final photographs of Jimmy Slattery as a young boy, including a very sweet one of him wearing a woman\u2019s wig, which reminded me of Jonathan Caouette\u2019s Tarnation<\/em> (2003), Sevigny reads from Candy\u2019s diary: \u201cI will not cease to be myself for foolish people. For foolish people make harsh judgments on me. You must always be yourself, no matter what the price. It is the highest form of morality.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[Photo by Anton Perich]Candy Darling (1944-1974) was a later Warhol superstar from the period after the Pop artist was shot by Valerie Solanas and became the producer of Paul Morrissey\u2019s films. Born James L. Slattery, Candy appeared in Flesh (1968-69)Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1692,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12,10,8],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jjmurphyfilm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1693"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jjmurphyfilm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jjmurphyfilm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jjmurphyfilm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jjmurphyfilm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1693"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/www.jjmurphyfilm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1693\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4346,"href":"https:\/\/www.jjmurphyfilm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1693\/revisions\/4346"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jjmurphyfilm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jjmurphyfilm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jjmurphyfilm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jjmurphyfilm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}