Superstar in a Housedress: The Life and Legend of Jackie Curtis (2 page)

Timeline of Jackie Curtis’s Life

February 19, 1947 – John Holder, Jr. is born in New York City. His father, John Holder Sr., moves wife Jenevive (Jean) Uglialoro Holder and infant son to his hometown Stony Creek, Tennessee.

September 1947 – Jean cannot adjust to life in Tennessee and separates from John. She returns to New York with John Jr., moving in with her mother Anna Marino Uglialoro. She returns to work in the New York dance halls. Grandmother Uglialoro takes over primary responsibility for raising her grandson.

1948 – John Holder, Sr. and Jenevive Uglialoro are divorced.

Mid-1950s – Matriarch Anna Marino Uglialoro who had managed a speakeasy during prohibition, and worked in bars, dance halls, and strip clubs all her life opens Slugger Ann’s Bar on 2nd Avenue at 12th Street, New York City. She marries Joe Verra, whose nickname is “Chinky.”

January 30, 1955 – Timothy Scott Holder, Jackie’s half brother is born in Tennessee.

March 1, 1959 – Jackie’s aunt Josephine Preston gives birth to Joseph (Joey) Preston.

May 11, 1959 –
Once Upon a Mattress
opens at the Phoenix Theater with Carol Burnett playing the part of Princess Winnifred. Twelve-year-old John Holder, Jr. becomes a huge fan and waits at the stage door every evening just to see her. The star’s enthusiasm and friendliness are an inspiration. Decades later he will tell Michael Musto that Carol Burnett is his “spiritual godmother” and that her performance is what guided him to a life in the theater.

September 1959 – John Holder Jr. forms a Carol Burnett Fan Club and holds a nationally publicized picket to save her show,
Once Upon a Mattress
. Burnett is photographed thanking young John outside the theater.

1962 – John Holder, Jr. attends the High School of Art & Design in New York City.

1963 – Young Susana Ventura (Penny Arcade) and John Holder Jr. become inseparable friends and comb thrift shops for 1930’s dresses. Behind closed doors at her parent’s apartment Penny dresses John in drag for the first time.

1965 – John Holder, Jr. changes his name to Jackie Curtis. He meets director Ron Link and finishes writing his first play,
Glamour, Glory and Gold
, soon after graduating from high school.

December 1, 1965 – Jackie (age 17) appears on stage for the first time at La Mama Experimental Theater Club in Tom Eyen’s
Miss Neferititi Regrets
. He plays Tolomy, but was upset because his costar Bette Midler (who played Miss Neferititi) had the better role.

January 1966 – Jackie gets a job as an usher at the Winter Garden Theater, where Barbra Streisand is starring in
Funny Girl
. He purchases a wig cut and coiffed in the star’s distinctive style.

March 30, 1966 – Jackie Curtis meets Holly Woodlawn at Candy Darling’s friend Seymour’s house in the West Village to watch Barbara Streisand’s TV special
Color Me Barbara
on Semour’s color TV.

Spring 1966 – Candy and Holly have found a doctor who is providing them with oral and injectable female hormones. Both are thrilled with the changes – softer skin, higher voice, diminishing facial hair and breast development. Jackie experiments with female hormones for the first time. Candy will continue on the road towards sex change surgery, Holly ultimately stops before that point.

Halloween 1966 – Jackie Curtis attends a party in full drag for the first time in public with Candy Darling and Holly Woodlawn.

August 1967 – Jackie Curtis and Candy Darling meet Andy Warhol while walking through Greenwich Village. Jackie asks Warhol for his autograph on a paper bag and invites him to the opening of his play,
Glamour, Glory and Gold
.

September 1967 –
Glamour, Glory and Gold: the Life and Legend of Nola Noonan, Goddess and Star
premieres at Bastiano’s Theater on Waverly Place. Directed by Ron Link, the cast features Melba LaRose, Jr. as Nola Noonan. Jackie Curtis and Candy Darling play female roles. Andy Warhol attends and provides Jackie with a quote for publicity: “For the first time, I wasn’t bored.” The reviews are good and the play runs for six months.

1967 – Jackie Curtis meets Ultra Violet and takes her to Slugger Ann’s, his grandmother’s bar on 2nd Avenue where Candy Darling is working as a barmaid. Candy is wearing a black bra and shorts. Over her shoulder is a see-through plastic handbag in which a Tampax is prominently displayed.

March 28, 1968 –
Lucky Wonderful
, a musical loosely based on the escapades and loves of asbestos heir Tommy Manville premieres at the Playwright’s Workshop. The book is by Jackie Curtis, with music and lyrics by Paul Serrato. Jackie plays the starring role, and the cast includes Melba La Rose, Jr., Pamela Galloway, Mary Carter, Roz Kelly, Harry York, Ronald Towe and Rick Dolph. It receives mixed reviews (the review in Show Business was titled “Unlucky”).

April 1968 – Alexis del Lago meets Jackie Curtis. They hold late-night drag shows in a loft over a Lower East Side movie house, featuring exquisite gowns made by Alexis. Black drag sensation Wilhelmina Ross joins the troupe.

May 1968 – The second production of Jackie’s
Glamour, Glory and Gold
opens with Paula Shaw playing Nola Noonan. In the cast is a young newcomer, Robert DeNiro playing four different men’s roles. He receives a rave review in the Village Voice. Candy Darling and Jackie play assorted female roles.

June 3, 1968 – Valerie Solanas shoots Andy Warhol. The bullet goes through Warhol’s left lung, spleen, stomach, liver, esophagus and right lung. He barely survives hours of emergency surgery. Later in the evening Valerie turns herself in to a rookie traffic officer in Time Square, taking a .32 automatic and a .22 pistol from her raincoat pockets and handing them to the officer. She states that she had shot Andy Warhol because “He controlled my life.”

Summer 1968 – Paul Morrissey directs
Flesh
on weekends while Andy recuperates from his gunshot wounds. The entire production costs approximately $1,500. Warhol never actually attends any of the filming. The story follows Joe Dallesandro’s character as he turns tricks in order to pay for his wife’s girlfriend’s abortion. It is the film debut of transvestite superstars Candy Darling and Jackie Curtis. They sit on a couch reading movie magazines while Geri Miller gives Joe Dallesandro a blowjob.

September 1968 –
Flesh
opens at the Garrick Theatre. It gets mixed reviews, but draws huge crowds and plays the Garrick for seven months before moving to the 55th Street Playhouse in May 1969. The average gross is $2,000 per week, and the film makes over $12,000 in the first six weeks.

October 1968 – Jackie Curtis and Candy Darling get a $200 bonus from Warhol and rent a room together at the Hotel Albert on 10th Street and University Place. They are both living in drag full time.

December 1968 – Jackie has “Andy” tattooed on his left shoulder as a tribute to Andy Warhol.

June 1969 – John Vaccaro casts Holly Woodlawn and Jackie Curtis in the chorus of
Cockstrong
. After two weeks in rehearsal Holly is thrown out of the company, with Vaccaro proclaiming, “There are no stars in the Play-House of the Ridiculous … I will not put up with psychotic drag queens!”

July 21, 1969 – Jackie Curtis (almost) marries Eric Emerson on the rooftop terrace of an apartment building at 211 E. 11th Street, inviting press and underground stars/artists. In attendance are Andy Warhol, Larry Ray, Melba LaRose, Anthony Ingrassia and Ruby Lynn Reiner. Eric Emerson does not show up. A porno producer turned self-ordained priest performs the ceremony anyway with a stand-in groom. At the reception at Max’s Kansas City bridesmaid Holly Woodlawn meets John Vaccaro, founder of the Play-House of the Ridiculous who offers her a role in
Heaven Grand in Amber Orbit
.

August 1969 – John Vaccaro begins rehearsals for
Heaven Grand in Amber Orbit
. Curtis and Vaccaro argue over his direction. Vaccaro has his way and turns the play into a musical.

September 1969 –
Heaven Grand in Amber Orbit
premieres at John Vaccaro’s Play-House of the Ridiculous, in a small funeral-home-turned-theater on 43rd Street. It is a huge hit and Vaccaro enjoys high praise for his direction. Curtis and Vaccaro’s conflicts escalate and Vaccaro fires Jackie. Ruby Lynn Reyner takes over the lead role.

October 1969 – as a publicity stunt, Jackie Curtis commits fake suicide late one night by throwing two suitcases of clothing from the Williamsburg Bridge into the East River and leaving a scattered pile of personalized items on the bridge. Jackie tells passersby in several cars to call the police because he has just witnessed someone jumping from the bridge. Curtis secludes himself at Leee Black Childer’s apartment, not going outside for a month. He writes
Femme Fatale
while enjoying all the rumors of his death.

February 24, 1970 –
Heaven Grand in Amber Orbit
opens at La Mama.

March 4, 1970 – Jackie records the song “Blood Red Roses” (from the Broadway musical of the same name) it is released on a 45rpm record but the show closes after a single performance and the record gets virtually no air play.

March 1970 – Paul Morrissey begins filming Jackie, Holly and Candy Darling in the film that would ultimately be titled
Women in Revolt
. Jackie Curtis refuses to perform unless Andy Warhol was actually doing the filming. Curtis and the other members of the cast are paid $25 each day they film.

During filming, Holly Woodlawn is intimidated by both Candy Darling and Jackie Curtis and begins drinking heavily. Candy criticizes Holly’s behavior one day during the shoot and they argue. Candy’s manager is present and tells Woodlawn to quit harassing his client. Holly physically attacks both Candy Darling and her manager. Rita Redd and Jackie Curtis stop the altercation by dragging Holly away.

May 6, 1970 – Jackie’s play
Femme Fatale: The Three Faces Of Gloria
premieres at La Mama. Scripted by Jackie Curtis, and directed by Anthony J. Ingrassia, the cast includes Penny Arcade, Patti Smith, Mary Waronov and Wayne County. It receives mixed reviews. The Soho Weekly News reviewer writes: “Miss Curtis is no transvestite; she is no drag queen. She is an actor who has assumed a role and plays it in life as well as on stage to stimulate and enrich her art. Her play is an uneven, amusing, boring, hilarious, weird, simplistic study of lots of old movies, gangster riffs and the Sharon Tate murder. It may amuse or irritate you, thrill you or bore you, but it is robust and it is alive.” The review singled out Penny Arcade’s performance, calling her: “… angel-faced and tough as nails. She is like one of those Our Gang kids on speed – an enduring and brilliant comedienne.”

June 1970 – Holly Woodlawn obtains the passport and checkbook of the French Ambassador’s wife and cashes a forged check for $2000 at a UN Plaza bank. When she tries the ruse again a week later at the same bank she is caught and jailed – missing the premiere of her film debut in Warhol’s
Trash
. Jackie Curtis mounts a telephone campaign to raise bail money, which is ultimately provided by artist Larry Rivers.

June 6, 1970 – Jackie divorces Eric Emerson.

July 1970 – Yugoslavian director Dusan Makavejev shoots scenes with Jackie Curtis for his
WR: Mysteries of the Organism
. The X-rated film explores Reich’s theories of sexuality and Orgone energy and argues that Stalinism is a form of Freudian sexual repression. It features scenes of Jackie walking in Times Square with Rita Redd and riding in a taxicab talking about his first sexual experience with a man.

September 1970 – Portraitist Alice Neel paints Jackie Curtis and Rita Redd. The oil painting is one of her earliest of a gay couple. Jackie is posed close to Rita, with flaming red hair and one big toe peeking out of torn stockings.

October 1970 – Jackie Curtis, Candy Darling and Paul Ambrose audition in drag for the Broadway musical revival of
No, No Nanette
but none of them make the cast.

October 28, 1970 – Jackie marries Archie Dukeshire.

December 1970 – Rehearsals begin for Jackie Curtis’s
Vain Victory
at La Mama. Ellen Stewart provides rehearsal space for 6 months preceding the premiere, creating considerable buzz. Many celebrities drop by to watch the proceedings, including Jane Wagner and Lily Tomlin.

March 1971 – Jackie casts dancer Clarice Rivers, wife of artist Larry Rivers in
Vain Victory
. Larry comes to the rehearsals at La Mama and spends several days painting and hanging a beautiful series of floating cloud paintings as part of the stage set.

April 5, 1971 – Andy Warhol presents Jackie with one of his silk-screened cow paintings for the set of
Vain Victory
. (Jackie sells the painting to a friend in early 1972 when he is low on cash.)

April 17, 1971 – Jackie divorces Archie Dukeshire.

May 26, 1971 – Jackie Curtis
Vain Victory: The Vicissitudes of the Damned
premieres at La Mama in the East Village. Jackie Curtis directs the production. Candy Darling, who plays a mermaid in a wheelchair, drops out of the play after several weeks and is replaced by Holly Woodlawn. Other cast members included: Paul Ambrose, Eric Emerson, Agosto Machado, Styles Caldwell, Ondine, Dorrian Gray, Clarice Rivers and Mario Montez.

June 1971 – Jackie Curtis and Candy Darling are guests on Joe Franklin’s
Down Memory Lane
TV show to promote
Vain Victory
. Jackie (in James Dean mode) sits with his arm around Candy throughout the interview. Joe Franklin does not know that Candy Darling is not a woman, and plays up the romance between the two.

August 1971 –
Vain Victory
moves to the Workshop of the Player’s Art (WPA) at 333 Bowery.

November 7, 1971 –
Vain Victory
closes (after a successful run of 66 performances) on the night the Cockettes
Pearls over Shanghai
opens (and bombs) at the Anderson Theatre on the Lower East Side.

November 12, 1971 –
Women in Revolt
premieres under its first title
SEX
at the first Los Angeles Filmex film festival.

November 27, 1971 – Jackie marries Hunter Cayce.

December 17, 1971 –
Women in Revolt
opens theatrically at the Cinema Theater in Los Angeles, re-titled
Andy Warhol’s Women
.