Customer Reviews

Superstar in a Housedress: The Life and Legend of Jackie Curtis

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Jackie Curtis rose to (cult) fame in the 1970s as one of Andy Warhol's innumerable "superstars." But Jackie - born John Holder Jr. in 1947 - stood out even from such curios as International Velvet and Penny Arcade. Jackie was a tall (6'2") charismatic writer and performer built like a linebacker whose crazy antics and complex drag persona transcended even the insanity of the Warhol crowd. She was a drag queen whose couture consisted mostly of shredded gowns, wigs sprayed with Raid, and a noticeable five o'clock shadow. She wrote camp-drenched plays with titles like Glamour, Glory, and Gold and Vain Victory: Vicissitudes of the Damned that garnered good reviews even from the New York Times. She shot amphetamine and heroin, blew firemen in New York's back alleys in exchange for cigarettes, and alternately enchanted and terrorized friends and acquaintances with her demented diva routines that included "rearranging" (trashing) their apartments and drinking all their wine. She's probably best remembered today as the most sophisticated member of that holy trinity of Warhol trannies featured in the 1971 Paul Morrissey film Women in Revolt. (The others were glamorous Candy Darling, who died of leukemia at 25, and snaggle-toothed queen Holly Woodlawn, last seen prancing through West Hollywood.)

Author and filmmaker Craig Highberger knew Curtis very well in her heyday and has cobbled together an intriguing biography entirely from interviews with her friends. Superstar in a Housedress, which comes bundled with a DVD of Highberger's excellent film of the same name, is a breezy, often hilarious look at a uniquely uncategorizable personality and the New York homo-art underground typified by the wacky Warholians of the 1960s and `70s.

Curtis, as she was usually called, was raised mostly by her granny, Slugger Annie, a bar owner who liked to "wear" seven yapping Chihuahuas in her cleavage. Curtis did her best to top that. According to witnesses like Penny Arcade and Lily Tomlin, she staged endless, very public weddings with grooms who might or might not appear. She faked suicides to friends who dutifully donned mourning veils even though they knew she was just dramatizing. Typically, she'd appear at a fundraiser for the Kidney Foundation and start screaming things like "Eddie, my kidneys are killing me!"

Curtis's flirtations with fame are well documented here - friendships with Tomlin and Harvey Fierstein, writing a play that would be Robert De Niro's first stage appearance, guest-starring on the sitcom Rhoda. But she never quite rose to the status of household word, which seemed to bother her less and less as she drifted into amphetamine-fueled fits and heroin fogs. Her actual death in 1985 at age 38 was almost anticlimactic, but Superstar in a Housedress, a phrase she used about herself, will make some readers (not all!) wish she were still here to liven things up.

That's a quote used in the movie. And now one of my top 3 favorite quotes to be used forever after.

There was so much to like about this person and movie. Jackie was a phenomenal character. She/he was iconic in the strongest sense of the word. Total belief in herself and her plan (mad though it was at times) and such charisma that all around her believed in her and themselves as much as she did. She altered paradigms.

This particular subculture fascinates me to no end and it is covered well in this DVD. It's classic David and Goliath except David's gotta push it by wearing a dress. I couldn't respect that in-your-faceness more if I tried. I wish I could better convey what I mean. And it's not a movie about sexual preferences. No agenda is forced on you in any way. It's just completely unique.

The fact that this is a documentary and these things really happened and these people really did exist as they did, simply adds to the magic of this movie. Of course, many of those people are still with us and told their tales within. And most of them are extremely interesting as well. It covers more than just Jackie. The world Jackie became famous in is explored in depth as well.

Just as a comparison, it is like the Grateful Dead shows. Nothing like this will ever happen in this way ever again - nothing this new, different, odd, and perfect just for what it was, and it's tragic if you think you may have wanted to be part of it in some way, witness it, but didn't. And if you did, you're breathing the rare air.

Today we take gay, lesbian and transgender people for granted. What we don't realize is that in the late 60's and 70's when people were focused on Vietnam that it was truly revolutionary for someone to throw all care about gender perception to the wind, go out into the world and be oneself. But Jackie Curtis was a groundbreaking performer who changed the world the same way Andy Warhol changed art. It is easy to understand why they were soul mates.

Yes fierce, fearless and fabulous! The dvd? What a buy!
Go back to that Warhol era in New York. Just wish I could have seen it with my own eyes. This book and dvd just about does that! I fell over with Jackie C.............

Who is Jackie Curtis? The question is not a simple one, not even to Curtis, an artist who used his own personality and body as an artistic media, reinventing them so often that it became extremely difficult to know exactly who, if indeed any one, existed under the various guises and facades.

In a factual sense, Jackie Curtis was John Curtis Holder Jr. (1947-1985.) Raised in a tough area of New York, his father was a sailor, his mother a b-girl, and his grandmother a somewhat notorious bar-owner. Although there is no certainty, it seems very likely that he suffered from several mental issues, most particularly ADD and bi-polar syndrome; whatever the case, he fueled his personality with a mixture of drugs and alcohol and somehow managed to crack the Andy Warhol circle. Warhol had a knack for surrounding himself with extreme personalities, and the hot-house atmosphere suited Holder: in a burst of creativity, he assumed the persona of Jackie Curtis, poet, playwright, singer, actor, and drag queen from absolute hell.

SUPERSTAR IN A HOUSEDRESS, a combination of book and DVD, is Craig Highberger's attempt to peel back the various layers of Holder's personality both as a human being and an artist. What he finds is often very unattractive, for both Holder's art and life are reflective of a remarkably extreme lifestyle: the simple truth is that Holder scraped along on a mixture of personal charm, theft, and what might be called disposable sex, never terribly concerned about the damage he caused to others, much less to himself, and prompting a mixture of outrage, pity, and amusement at almost every turn. But while he broke up the contents of friends' homes, he also broke up notions about what art could be. I don't use the comparison lightly, and I do not believe Holder possessed the same degree of talent, but in many respects he calls to mind the French poet Arthur Rimbaud, whose extreme gifts and behavior provoked similar reactions in Europe in the late 1800s.

Curiously, the only way to obtain the documentary on DVD is by purchasing the companion book. Both are quite fine--Highberger knows his subject and is remarkably successful in arranging interviews and comments to create a thorough and in-depth overview--but of the two it is really the DVD you want; the book is essentially a supplement. Recommended.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer

If, like me, you ran across the book 'Superstar in a Housedress' while looking for the documentary of the same name, it may have taken you a few minutes to figure out that buying the book is, apparently, the only way to get the DVD.

Yes, this is the full, ninety-plus minute release of the DVD available for rent from Netflix and other rental venues. How the choice was made to market the film as a "companion piece" to the book, without (as far as I can tell) releasing it as a stand-alone purchase, I dunno. I hope it will be released separately in the future, since the current marketing format, I'd think, would tend to lessen its circulation to a wider audience.

Not that there's anything wrong with the book: it's a compendium of reminiscences by people who were close to Jackie. Some of the material repeats what's in the film, and some fills in gaps in backstory that 90 minutes can't provide, such as details on the life and death of the remarkable (and remarkably messed-up) Andrea Feldman. Still, a nice chunky paperback book of commentary in a boxed DVD set might have been a better way to sell the package, which is truly a good one. It's just that the DVD overrides the book in its excellence. There's no good reason why the book needed to be published in hardcover; it's really liner notes for the DVD.

And then there's the strange, spooky, *sealed* envelope that the DVD itself comes in. Glued furtively into the back of the book, there's a lengthy disclaimer proclaiming in no uncertain terms that you MUST NOT OPEN THE PACKAGE ("Simply return the sealed package.") if you think that the DVD might in any number of (enumerated) ways ruin your life. Talk about user-friendly!

But the good news is -- once you get over the fear, and open the potentially-deadly "package", you find that after all it's just an ordinary DVD, and a great one, at that. Densely packed with interviews, historical stills, film clips, and even a fair amount of very early videotape, this documentary is a detailed and very loving portrait of one of the most defiant gender-bending artists in the history of gender-bending and the stage itself.

The past several years have seen the release of the Paul Morrisey/Andy Warhol films on DVD, and that's brought these previously hard-to-get-at movies to a new audience. This in turn has increased curiosity about the Warhol scene in the 60's, 70's, and later; and that period is increasingly interesting, as civilization lurches inexorably (or so it seems) toward a dessicated, triple-filtered, don't-drink, don't-smoke cultural puritanism.

What was going on in New York in the 50's, 60's, and 70's transformed the American culture. A whole lot of the sexual freedom that we have today, whether it's embraced or bemoaned by whatever faction, comes from the crazy explosion that was the 60's and 70's. There's no shortage of information on the cultural revolution that happened then, but there's also no end to what can be added to it. This story about Jackie Curtis is no small addition.

As a smart kid escaping the wilds of Connecticut who started hustling the streets in NY at 16, I knew a number of the people in this film peripherally, and for the most part they were the people who informed my perception of what life was all about. There was a communality, and a total lack of hierarchy (but for a few bitchfests) and everyone was welcome; I think, in retrospect, that this was what the hippieness of the 60's led to: a kind of a hybrid of the rejection of popular culture with the co-opting of it. At the time, the most visible manifestation of pre-packaged pop culture that could be harvested was the Hollywood star system of the 30's and 40's. Jackie Curtis was hip to this, but also added a Dada-style twist to it. Warhol became the catalyst, but what 'Superstar in a Housedress' demonstrates is that he couldn't have done the things that he (or rather, Paul Morrisey, working under his aegis) did without girls like Jackie, Candy Darling, or Holly Woodlawn (whom, I have to say, is looking absolutely GREAT in this doc, and QUITE the polished lady.)

This is an absolutely essential documentary for those interested in the period, its quirks, and its consequences. But moreso, it's a great tribute to the unbridled, mad creativity of Jackie Curtis, who should never be forgotten. Hopefully, this DVD (and its companion piece, the book) will help assure that.

Also -- at the time of this writing, the book and DVD are pretty consistently available from housing_works_bookstore @ Amazon at a cheap price. Housing Works supports homeless people affected by HIV/AIDS in New York City, so purchasing from them is a win-win thing. They got my order to me very quickly and in perfect condition, so what could I do? I ordered another one from them right away. Somebody's getting it for Christmas. Don't know who yet. Somebody who will have been REAL good this year!

Seriously, though -- if you're interested in the history of the NY art scene in the period, this is very much worth buying.

A fascinating remembrance of a unique artist who could seemingly change sex on a whim. Andy Warhol's quote early in the film: "Jackie Curtis is not a drag queen. Jackie Curtis is an artist , a pioneer without a frontier." says it best.

Recalls the Warhol era in New York City which saw wide artistic experimentation in art, underground theater, and experimental film. The film includes archival film and video shot in the late sixties and early seventies and hundreds of photographs. Most interesting is the look inside the apartments of about two dozen interviewees in New York and Hollywood, including surviving superstars Holly Woodlawn and Joe Dallesandro, many obscure artists and famous people like Lily Tomlin and Harvey Fierstein.

The book has a lot of material not in the film including scenes from all of Curtis's plays, and interviews with many more colleages and friends of Curtis. The stories they tell are just priceless! Bravo to Highberger for capturing and sharing them all with us in this terrific book/DVD combo.

I finished: Superstar in a Housedress, as well as watching the DVD. Thank you Mr. Highberger for providing a most interesting and sincere look into Jackie Curtis.


The format was so nice, to hear from so many people who were close to this incredible person really gave me a better idea of who Jackie was and how she lived. I have had the opportunity, as a transsexual entertainer, to travel the country and meet many transgendered performers. They obviously do not get the press or opportunity they deserve. This book is a fitting tribute to a person who helped shape todays theater and bring attention to gender expression.

Jackie was obviously a genius who in many ways helped to shape the character of what we know Broadway play to be, and from the off off Broadway level. He/she lived the street life and was a very real person, on a real level facing the challenges life on that level brings regardless of the day to day persona she would take on.

The book/CD focuses on commentary from her friends and aqauintences and whether from a gay/trans or straight perspective, Jackie Curtis was the epitome of living life as one's own self and creating from the most sincere inner feelings in the face of great odds. Many exerpts of her plays, notes and writings are included to give the reader a more intimate view of Jackie and the person within the personna, whether that be Jackie, James Dean or some other form of self expression.

Obviously she can be an inspiration to those who strive for individuality and to leave a positive mark through their works regardless of her tragic finality.
I would highly recommend viewing this documentary and reading the book as well for anyone interested in life, humor, love, tragedy and the very real Star that Jackie Curtis was.

Into the pantheon of well-documented overtly demented gay lives goes that of Jackie Curtis, thanks to the adept and thorough Craig Highberger. This sumptuous book-and-film combo platter will surely inspire a new generation of uninhibited flaming creatures. (I hope.) There is enough glamour, glory, and graphic debauchery in this story to make anyone in a housedress want to take Gotham by storm.

Jackie Curtis was a close friend of the guy who ran the James Dean Gallery. It was through him and my interest in James Dean and the link to Jackie Curtis through the line in 'Walk On The Wild Side, that I decided to find out more about him and the lifestyle of those around him, Andy Warhol and the era. I wasn't disappointed. The five stars rating is based on me getting what I wanted. It is an easy read. A series of short anecdotal interviews with those who knew this person well. It is open and honest. The accompanying DVD is well-produced and brings to life the book itself. Fascinating.