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The Holly Woodlawn Story: A Low Life in High Heels [Hardcover]

Holly Woodlawn (Author), Jeffrey Copeland (Collaborator)
4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews) |

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Effervescent, self-aggrandizing female impersonator Holly Woodlawn misses nary a chance to employ an exclamation point or drop a name in this tawdry, bittersweet memoir coauthored with freelancer Copland. In 1963, Woodlawn hitchhiked from his Miami home to New York City where, transformed by hormone treatments, makeup and the conviction that he was glamorous, he spent the '60s and '70s freeloading, substance-abusing, appearing in loosely scripted films (including Trash ) and worshipping Andy Warhol. The Manhattan written about here is of legendary bygone days when thriving bathhouses hosted cabaret acts and the Studio 54 disco achieved notoriety among a cocaine-addled crowd. Outrageous and bawdy, this is Woodlawn's celebration of licentiousness and his catty cohorts including ill-fated Warhol proteges Jackie Curtis and Candy Darling; the book is evasive in discussing the perils of drug use and the AIDS crisis, but its '90s perspective lends a wistful air to its account of a reckless past. Photos not seen by PW .
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Born in Puerto Rico, raised in New York and Miami, Harold Ajzenberg gained public fame as Holly Woodlawn in Andy Warhol's film Trash (1970) . Woodlawn's life as a "shopaholic," boozehound, drug abuser, and cross-dressing "glamourina" makes for picaresque nonfiction. Woodlawn's story is told exuberantly, humorously, and with no regrets. Regarding improvisation for Trash : "We didn't need scripts--we had faces then!" Concerning alcohol: "I was not a drunk, darling. I was a cocktail connoisseur." Appearing prominently are Warhol, Candy Darling, Jackie Curtis, Divine, and many other members of a psychedelic, disco-crazed New York generation. Recommended for tolerant audiences.
- Kim Holston, American Inst. for Property and Liability Underwriters, Malvern, Pa.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Product Details

  • Hardcover: 305 pages
  • Publisher: St.Martin's Press (October 1991)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0312064292
  • ISBN-13: 978-0312064297
  • Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.4 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #897,865 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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More About the Author

› Visit Amazon's Holly Woodlawn Page
Holly Woodlawn
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Customer Reviews

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This book is so funny you'll lay down and scream. I think it's a modern day classic and should be required reading for every literature class in America and beyond. And I'm not just saying that because I wrote it. I'm saying it because I need an increase in my royalty checks because I'm out of cocktail cash and who can function without that?
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5 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I have never seen one of Andy Warhol's films and that did not stop me from being able to understand this book. Andy Warhol is a peripheral figure here and that helps to dispel the idea that he sucked all of his Superstars dry. Though Holly has intense love-hate relationships with every drag queen she introduces, it is great seeing work on how trans women relate, or fail to relate, to each other. This book portrays George Cukor, the Golden Age film director, as supporting Holly, but in his own biography, the writer noted that Cukor hated feminine gay men intensely. I am not sure which book is telling the truth.

Holly shows how she has seen so much and been through so much. Though she never mentions being directly involved, she stated that she saw the Stonewall Riots as they happened and she remembered when gay men were first coming down with what would be called AIDS. She was there to see the rise of Studio 54. She even mentions being around before the B-52s and Blondie became famous.

Holly goes through the struggles that many transgendered people face. But she is never able to vocalize that or politicize the issue. In this book, she faces homelessness, job insecurity, poverty, and rampant drug and alcohol abuse. I wish she could have pointed to her life as a reason for gender conformists, of any sexuality, to support trans individuals. Then again, this book, and Holly herself, are highly apolitical. Further, her identification as a gay man, a woman, and a transvestite are blurred here. In fact, she goes into detail about her sexual contact with women but speaks quickly of her contact with men. I am not sure what explained the heterosexism behind that.

Though she has seen and done much, Holly is not a role model here. She is terribly irresponsible. She ruins romantic relationships that would have been life-sustaining for her. She lies to people. She runs away from problems, rather than facing them. She never mentions saving any money. She is obviously drug- and alcohol-addicted, but just laughs those issues off.

On the one hand, Holly admits that she is from Puerto Rico. However, her identification with Puerto Ricans, and other people of color, is close to nil. She portrays Puerto Ricans as aggressive and dangerous. She referred to Puerto Rican lesbians as "chili ch*ch*s." She equally says nasty things about African Americans. Though she stated that she supported the civil rights movement and has Black relatives, she pretty much abandons her ethnicity as she arrives on the Mainland. Though she had physical relationships with Latino and Black men, she only romances white men throughout this book. She seems like she can promote gays and feminine people, but she leaves people of color in the dust.

Additionally, though this book is sprinkled with French expressions, one would never think that Holly knew or remembered any Spanish. At one point, there is a headline written in Spanish that is so broken, even a freshman in high school-level Spanish could correct it. Whether this signifies that Holly is illiterate in Spanish or that her writing assistant Jeffrey Copeland doesn't know any Spanish, I am not sure, But it's pretty pathetic no matter what the cause.

The first two chapters of the book differ from the rest of the book. Obviously, they want to place campiness and the height of her fame first before they got into her childhood. Her epilogue says close to nothing. She obviously wasn't thinking hard about the conclusion.
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