“A grief shared is half a grief, A joy shared is twice a joy.”
TRQ: Candy Darling, Born Nov. 24, 1944
Actress, model, Superstar of Andy Warhol’s Factory and transgender icon, Candy Darling was born on November 24, 1944. Raised on a diet of television and Hollywood movies as a child, Darling adopted actors Joan Bennett and Kim Novak as her role models. She lived her brief life teetering between glamour and artistic underground edge.
Darling was born in Forest Hills, Queens in New York. Her parents, James and Theresa Slattery, divorced while Darling was a child. Afterwards she moved to Long Island with her mother.
In high school Darling was bullied. After a group of male students tried to lynch her, Darling dropped out at age 16 and enrolled at the DeVern School of Cosmetology. Darling once shared that her first sexual experience happened at around this time, when she “learned about the mysteries of sex from a salesman in a local children’s shoe store.”
Darling started attracting attention when going to The Hayloft, a local gay bar, wearing feminine clothes. Neighborhood gossip and rumour eventually lead to a confrontation between Darling and Theresa. Darling confirmed the accusations by dressing up for her mother.
“I knew then… that I couldn’t stop Jimmy. Candy was just too beautiful and talented,” Theresa once said.
Even as Darling began often taking the train into Manhattan for work and socialising, she still attempted to avoid her neighbours by taking a cab ride to the Long Island Rail Road station. Darling would often make this train ride with actor and dancer Joey Heatherton, who appeared on television regularly at the time.
Commuting from her home Massapequa Park, which she described as her “country house,” Darling spent more and more of her time networking on the bohemian Bleecker Street in Greenwich Village.
In 1963, Darling began receiving hormone injections from a doctor on Fifth Avenue, and going by the name “Hope Slattery,” after actor Hope Stansbury. Holly Woodlawn, another Warhol Factory superstar, explained that the name mutated from “Hope Slattery,” to “Hope Dahl,” to “Candy Dahl” after her love of sweets, to “Candy Darling” after her friends’ term of affection stuck.
“I’m a thousand different people. Every one is real.”
— Candy Darling
In 1966, she met Jeremiah Newton, who later participated in the landmark Stonewall rebellion. Darling and Netwon became friends and roommates, and he is now the executor of her estate.
Warhol first spotted Darling in 1967 at the club, The Tenth of Always. Darling was then co-starring with Robert De Niro in Jackie Curtis’ play, Glamour, Glory and Gold. Warhol saw the play with Taylor Mead and met up with Darling and Curtis afterwards at the club Salvation.
By 1968, Darling was acting alongside Curtis and Joe Dallesandro in Warhol’s Flesh. She is featured in a central role as a socialite who becomes increasingly involved in PIGS (Politically Involved Girls), a woman’s liberation group, in Women in Revolt (1971).
Warhol premiered Women in Revolt at the Cine Malibu on February 16, 1972. Following the screening, Darling attended a dinner in her honour at Le Parc Périgord and attended a party hosted by Francesco Scavullo. Celebrity friends of Warhol, including Halston, George Plimpton, and Diane von Furstenberg, attended.
Unsurprisingly, the film received poor reviews in the press and something of backlash from women dressed in combat gear who protesting outside the theatre. Darling responded with characteristic wit when she asked, “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.”
Darling’s acting career extended beyond those films made by Warhol. In 1971, she appeared with Jane Fonda in Klute and Sophia Loren in Lady Liberty. Of her most notable stage performances, she appeared in Curtis’ Vain Victory: The Vicissitudes of the Damned (1971) with Warhol, Scavullo, Woodlawn, and Mario Montez. In 1972 Darling performed in the Tennessee Williams’ play Small Craft Warnings, at his request.
Through the 60s and 70s, Darling is mentioned in the lyrics of some of rock’s most classic songs. In the Velvet Underground song, “Candy Says” (1969), Lou Reed’s lyrics attempt to describe Darling’s complicated sense of self-acceptance:
Candy says, “I’ve come to hate my body
And all that it requires in this world”
Candy says, “I’d like to know completely
What others so discretely talk about”
I’m gonna watch the blue birds fly
Over my shoulder
I’m gonna watch them pass me by
In his song “Walk On The Wild Side” (1972) about the Factory Superstars, Lou Reed sings
Candy came from out on the Island
In the back room she was everybody’s darling ,
But she never lost her head
Even when she was giving head
She says, “Hey, babe
Take a walk on the wild side”
Said, “Hey, babe
Take a walk on the wild side”
The Rolling Stones also make a reference to Darling, in the song “Citadel” (1967), which was recorded after meeting her.
On March 21, 1974, just two years after taking the stage in Small Craft Warnings and the release of “Walk On The Wild Side,” Darling died of lymphoma.
In a letter to Warhol and the Factory, 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.”
Tony award-winning actor Julie Newmar delivered the eulogy and Gloria Swanson saluted the coffin at Darling’s funeral, during which her birth name went unmentioned.
In 2010, the documentary Beautiful Darling includes interviews with Williams, Valerie Solanas, Curtis, Woodlawn, Fran Lebowitz and John Waters. Chloë Sevigny narrates the film and voices Darling’s personal letters and diary entries.
“I was not meant for this world. I don’t know. All I know is, I love, and I am not
loved. I do not know happiness. I know despair, loneliness, and longing.”
— Candy Darling
About the Authors:
Troy Wise is currently a PhD student at UAL Central St Martins and teaches fashion and graphic design at London College of Contemporary Arts. His background is in marketing and he is founder and co-editor of Image Amplified. He lives in, and is continually fascinated by, the city of London.
Rick Guzman earned his most recent MA at UAL Central St Martins in Applied Imagination in the Creative Industries. He currently holds two MA’s and an MBA in the New Media, Journalism and International Business fields. Co-editor at Image Amplified since its start, he lives in London, is fascinated by history and is motivated by continuing to learn and explore.
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Sources:
Darling, Candy (2015). Candy Darling: Memoirs of an Andy Warhol Superstar. Open Road Media
