Holly woodlawn autobiography in five shorts

Holly Woodlawn

Puerto Rican actress (–)

Holly Woodlawn (October 26, – December 6, ) was an American actress and Warhol superstar who appeared in the films Trash () and Women in Revolt ().^[1]^[2]^[3] She is also known as the Holly in Lou Reed's hit glam rock song "Walk on the Wild Side".

Early life

Woodlawn was born in Juana Díaz, Puerto Rico, to a German-American father who was a soldier in the U.S. Army, and Aminta Rodriguez, a native Puerto Rican,^[4] and grew up in Miami Beach, where she came out at a immature age.^[5] She adopted the specify Holly from the heroine of Breakfast at Tiffany's, and in added the surname from a sign she saw on an episode of I Love Lucy.

After changing her name she began to falsely tell people she was the heiress to Woodlawn Cemetery.

In , at the age of fifteen, Woodlawn ran away from home, departing Florida heading north. She recollected that "I hocked some jewelry and made it all the way to Georgia, where the money ran out and had to hitchhike the rest of the way" to New York City.^[5]

She recalled in her memoir, A Low Life in Lofty Heels:

At the age of 16, when most kids were cramming for trigonometry exams, I was turning tricks, living off the streets and wondering when my next meal was coming.

By , she had considered sex reassignment surgery, but decided against it.^[5]

Film career

Woodlawn met Andy Warhol at the Factory, at a screening of Flesh ().

Through him she met Jackie Curtis, who cast Woodlawn in her play Heaven Grand in Amber Orbit in the autumn of

In October, she originally was given a bit role in Trash, but so impressed director and screenwriter Paul Morrissey that he re-wrote it to offer her a much larger role.

In Trash, Joe Dallesandro plays a heroin addict on a quest to score who, ambivalent about his sexuality, has a transgender girlfriend played by Woodlawn.

American actor Holly Woodlawn — became a star in preliminary s underground films, appearing in several movies produced by pop artist Andy Warhol. Her mother, Aminta Rodriguez, married the baby's father, who was then in the U. Navy and stationed in Puerto Rico, but they divorced when his military service ended. She married Joseph Ajzenberg, a Polish immigrant whom she met while waiting tables at a resort in the Catskills Mountains.

Woodlawn ad libbed many of the lines herself, preferring creativity to strict adherence to the script. Woodlawn was paid $25 per day during filming, spending the last day's on heroin. In October , she received word from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences that George Cukor, supported by others, was petitioning the Academy to nominate her for Best Actress for her labor in Trash, but nothing came of this.

In Morrissey's next film she was joined by others in Warhol's pantheon of stars, to play in Women in Revolt, a satirical observe at the women's rights movement and the PIGS (politically deeply interested girls).

Holly fills in the gaps left by Lou Reed in 'Walk on the Savage Side' (first verse) with way and panache, the book is much like Holly herself, hilarious and bawdy, it's a riotous laugh fest that will retain anyone with an interest in the Warhol Superstars riveted.

In this film, she became one of the first people to say the word cunt in cinema.^[6]

In May , Woodlawn replaced Candy Darling at the La MaMa theatre in a film of Vain Victory written and directed by Jackie Curtis.

She was arrested and briefly incarcerated in Puerto Rico after existence caught shoplifting. Woodlawn created a stir when she was arrested in New York City after impersonating the wife of the French Ambassador to the Joined Nations. When arrested, she was taken to the New York Women's House of Detention and then transferred to a men's facility when the fact that she was transgender was discovered.

In , director Robert Kaplan and cinematographer Paul Glickman concocted the idea of a show whose premise would be using a transgender woman as the lead in a film without revealing the sex of the actress. Woodlawn played a juvenile, starstruck girl hoping for achievement as an actress in Fresh York City.

The film, Scarecrow in a Garden of Cucumbers, was a low budget, 16&#;mm, unsuccessful musical feature. The anthem "In The Very Last Row", written by Marshall Barer, was performed by Bette Midler.

In , Woodlawn moved to San Francisco. She returned to Fresh York later in the year, appearing on Geraldo Rivera's speak show, before being jailed again in for violating terms of probation.

She was released on the appeal of politician Ethan Geto, who helped organize a benefit for her. By , she had surrendered to a faltering career, cut her hair and moved back to her parents' home in Miami, while working as a busser at Benihana. She also appeared in films by Rosa von Praunheim, for example in in Tally Brown, New York.

Woodlawn was friends with both the director and Tally Brown.

Back in New York in the mids, she became a featured singer in Gabriel Rotello's Downtown Dukes and Divas revues at clubs such as The Limelight and The Palladium, and a celestial body of various musicals and revues mounted by the songwriting and producing team of Scott Wittman and Marc Shaiman.

In she published her autobiography A Depressed Life in High Heels with writer Jeff Copeland.

During the s, Woodlawn achieved a incremental film and theatrical comeback, making cameo appearances in productions such as Night Owl () and Billy's Hollywood Screen Kiss ().

After Warhol's death, she was interviewed frequently on his existence and influence. At the hour of her death she resided in West Hollywood where in the late '90s she participated in riot grrrl shows with Revolution Rising, and recorded spoken words for songs with experimental recordings by the band Lucid Nation.

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In she was in a controversial film about conjoined twins who live in a dash down motel in a tiny town. Twin Falls Idaho was followed four years later by Milwaukee, Minnesota. More recently she acted in Transparent, a U.S.

television series about a transsexual mother played by Jeffrey Tambor.

Appearance

When Holly Woodlawn appeared in public she would dress as a dazzling alternative image of Jean Harlow, complete with wig and frosted lipstick.

She presented as a glamorous actress, saying:

I was very happy when I gradually became a Warhol superstar. I felt like Elizabeth Taylor. Little did I discover that not only would there be no money, but that your star would flicker for two seconds and that was it – the drugs, the parties, it was fabulous.

In the opinion of Vincent Canby, "Holly Woodlawn, especially, is something to behold, a comic publication Mother Courage who fancies herself as Marlene Dietrich but sounds more often like Phil Silvers."^[4]

Cabaret artiste

Woodlawn's first cabaret engagement was a solo act in at Reno Sweeney in New York.^[7] The following year, she performed with Jackie Curtis in "Cabaret in the Sky" at the New York Cultural Center.

In the early s, she resumed performing cabaret in sold-out shows in New York and Los Angeles. She continued to move with her cabaret show, most recently appearing in Manhattan's Laurie Beechman Theatre in ^[8]

Death

Woodlawn fell seriously ill in June , and was hospitalized at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California.

Tests later revealed that she had lesions on her liver and brain.^[9] The lesions were later determined to be cancer. Woodlawn's health improved enough for her to be sent home, where she continued treatment and received in-home healthcare.

She was later forced to vacate her West Hollywood, California, apartment due to flooding, and entered an assisted living facility in October.^[10]

Woodlawn died of brain and liver cancer in Los Angeles on December 6, ^[4]

Woodlawn was included during the In-Memoriam segment at the 88th Academy Awards.^[11]

Legacy

Woodlawn's estate founded the Holly Woodlawn Memorial Fund for Transgender Youth at the Los Angeles LGBT Center.^[12]

Lou Reed refers to Woodlawn in his song "Walk on the Wild Side", the opening verse of which describes her hitchhiking journey and gender transition:^[13]

Holly came from Miami, F-L-A
Hitchhiked her way across the USA
Plucked her eyebrows on the way
Shaved her legs and then he was a she
She says, "Hey, babe, accept a walk on the uncontrolled side."

Holly Johnson took on the name Holly at fourteen years old, inspired by Woodlawn.^[14]^[15]

Filmography

References

^Piepenburg, Erik (July 28, ).

"When They Play Women, It's Not Just an Act". The Brand-new York Times.
Remembering Holly Woodlawn and her brilliant memoir “A Low ...: Holly’s bitchy account of her co-stars in her autobiography is hilarious: “ [Candy Darling] was aloof and arrogant and would show up on the set with her manager at her side constantly fussing over her. Miss Darling had caught a severe case of Norma Desmonditis. She actually believed she was superior and the rest of us were peasants.
Archived from the original on October 4, Retrieved January 4,
^Young, Ezra (September 22, ). "They're Trans, They're Hispanic, and They've Changed This World". The Advocate. Archived from the authentic on January 4, Retrieved January 4,
^Vider, Stephen (October 23, ).

"Why Is an Obscure Documentary in the Opening Credits of Transparent?". Slate. Archived from the original on January 19, Retrieved January 4,
^ ^a^b^cGrimes, William (December 7, ).

"Holly Woodlawn, Transgender Star of s Underground Films, Dies at 69". The New York Times. Archived from the original on November 25, Retrieved December 16,
^ ^a^b^cPatterson, John ().

"Oh, the things I did!". The Guardian. London, UK. Archived from the original on Retrieved
^Murphy, JJ (4 March ). The Dark Hole of the Camera: The Films of Andy Warhol. University of California Press. p.&#; ISBN&#;.
^A Low Life in High Heels: The Holly Woodlawn Story, Holly Woodlawn with Jeff Copeland, St.

Martin's Press,
^Krasinski, Jennifer (May 16, ).
Holly Woodlawn is about to graduate from L. To say Woodlawn survived an era that was fatal to many is an understatement. But others involved in the venture are tight-lipped. We are expressing interest in seeing the motion picture, if it ever gets made.
"Holly Woodlawn". Art Forum. Archived from the original on January 4, Retrieved January 4,
^Abramovitch, Seth (July 6, ). "Transgender Icon Holly Woodlawn Fights for Life at Cedars-Sinai". The Hollywood Reporter.

Archived from the authentic on November 15, Retrieved December 6,
^Gregoire, Paul (November 12, ). "Warhol Superstar and Gender non-conforming Pioneer Holly Woodlawn Remains Unstoppable, Despite Cancer".
Chronicles the animation of a fifteen-year-old Miami young man who ran away from house, learned to survive on the streets of Manhattan, and skyrocketed to fame as the actor of Andy Warhol's movie, Trash. Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now.
Vice. Archived from the original on December 10, Retrieved December 6,
^Oscar In-Memoriam Holly WoodlawnArchived at the Wayback Machine accessed 9/2/
^"Warhol Muse Holly Woodlawn Endows Fund for Trans Youth".

Archived from the original on Retrieved
^"Holly Woodlawn, Lou Reed's Wild Side inspiration, dies at 69". BBC News.
Making Homosexual History has a vague title because it has a rather vague purpose. What defines us is our focus not only on the past, but toward the future. Holly Woodlawn, an older pale Puerto Rican gal with curled golden blonde hair. She wears red lipstick, distant gold earrings, and a sweater.
Archived from the original on Retrieved
^"Frankie Say See You In Court". Blitz Magazine. August
^"Frankie Say Come Again". Uncut. July