bio
It wasn't long before Warhol invited Candy to appear in one of his movies. She was given a short comedic scene in Flesh (1968) with Jackie Curtis and Joe Dallesandro. After Flesh, Candy was cast in a central role in Women In Revolt (1971). She played a Long Island socialite drawn into a woman's liberation group called PIGS (Politically Involved Girls) by a character played by Jackie Curtis. Interrupted by cast disputes encouraged by Warhol, Women in Revolt took longer to film that its predecessor and went through several title changes before a consensus was reached. Candy wanted it called Blonde on a Bum Trip since she was the blonde, while Jackie and Holly told her it was more like Bum on a Blonde Trip - titles which were both used in the film during Candy's interview scene.
Women in Revolt was first shown at the first Los Angeles Filmex as Sex. Later it was shown as Andy Warhol's Women, an homage to George Cukor. Unable to get a distributor for the film, Warhol rented out the Cine Malibu on East 59th Street, New York and launched the film with a celebrity preview on February 16, 1972. After the screening there was a dinner in Candy's honor at the restaurant, Le Parc Perigord on Park Avenue at 63rd Street, followed by a party at Scavullo's townhouse round the corner, where they watched TV reviews of the movie. They watched it being called "a rip-off", that it "looked as if it were filmed underwater," and "proves once again that Andy Warhol has no talent. But we knew that since the Campbell's Soup cans."
Among the guests at Candy's party were D.D. Ryan, Sylvia Miles, George Plimpton, Halston, Giorgio di Sant 'Angelo and Diane and Egon von Furstenberg. Jackie Curtis stood out in the cold, along with other gate crashers. When a security guard asked "My God, what are they giving away in there?" one of the guests responded, "Would you believe, a transvestite?"
The day after the celebrity preview a group of women wearing army jackets, pea coats, jeans and boots and carrying protest signs demonstrated outside the cinema against the film which they thought was anti-woman's liberation. When Candy 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."
After Warhol
Candy Darling went on to appear in other independent films, including Brand X, Silent Night, Bloody Night, as well as a co-starring role as a victim of gay bashing in Some of My Best Friends Are... She also appeared in Klute (as an extra in the disco scene) with Jane Fonda and Lady Liberty with Sophia Loren. In 1971 she went to Vienna to make two films with director Werner Schroeder - The Death of Maria Malibran and another one that was never released.
Theatre credits include two Jackie Curtis plays - Glamour, Glory and Gold (1967) and Vain Victory: The Vicissitudes of the Damned (1971) and Tennessee Williams' play Small Craft Warnings, on the invitation of Williams himself.
Her attempt at cracking the mainstream movie circuit by campaigning for the leading role in Myra Breckinridge led to rejection and bitterness.
She finally succumbed to leukemia on March 21, 1974. She developed the disease as a result of the hormones she had been taking, the long-term results of which had not been sufficiently studied.
Her funeral was attended by huge crowds, including friends Pat Ast and Julie Newmar, many of whom remembered a passing Gloria Swanson who saluted Candy Darling's coffin.
She is remembered in The Velvet Underground's song "Candy Says" and in Lou Reed's Walk On The Wild Side.
Candy by Peter HujarA photograph by Peter Hujar of Candy Darling on her deathbed has been used by Antony and the Johnsons for the cover of their 2005 Mercury Music Prize winning album I Am A Bird Now.
( bio by Wikipedia )
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