Over the weekend,
Undercover noticed that the cover of
The Smiths 1995 compilation album,
Singles, featuring a design made earlier by
Morrissey but previously unused, and stars singer and
actress Diana Dors in a still from the
1956 film Yield to the Night has a similar context to the way that
"Candy Darling on Her Deathbed" was used by the group
Antony and the Johnsons as cover for their album
I Am a Bird Now.
Candy Darling was born James Lawrence Slattery in
Forest Hills, New York, son of Theresa Phelan, a bookkeeper at Manhattan's Jockey Club, and James (Jim) Slattery, who was described as a violent alcoholic. There is some conjecture around Candy's year of birth. According to former Warhol associate,
Bob Colacello, Candy was born in 1946, her friend, roommate, and posthumous editor, Jeremiah Newton, states that she was born on November 24, 1944.
Early years - as a male - were spent in
Massapequa Park,
Long Island,
New York where she and her mother had moved after her parents divorced. Her half-brother Warren, a product of Theresa Slattery's first marriage, left home for the U.S. military, leaving Jimmy as the only child; Warren later denied his connection to Jimmy.
Jimmy spent much of her childhood absorbing the influences of US television and old
Hollywood movies, from which she learned to impersonate her favorite actresses, such as
Joan Bennett and
Kim Novak. She claimed to have "learned about the mysteries of sex from a salesman in a local children's shoe store" and finally revealed an inclination towards dressing as a female when her mother confronted her about local rumours which described her dressed as a girl frequenting a local gay bar called The Hayloft. In response Jimmy left the room and reappeared in full feminine attire. Her mother later said that, "I knew then... that I couldn't stop Jimmy. Candy was just too beautiful and talented."
Late at night Candy would often take a cab (thereby avoiding the attention of neighbors she would receive if she walked) a short distance to the Long Island Rail Road station for the train to Manhattan, frequently sitting across from Long Island starlet
Joey Heatherton. Once there, she referred to her modest Cape-Cod style home at 79 First Avenue in Massepequa Park as her "country house" and hung out in
Greenwich Village, meeting people through the circle of Seymour Levy on
Bleecker Street.
Before they actually met in 1967, Candy saw
Andy Warhol at the after-hours club called The Tenth of Always. 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 than 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.
Candy succumbed to
leukemia and
pneumonia on
March 21,
1974, aged about 29; she died at the
Columbus Hospital division of the Cabrini Health Center.
Like Candy, I too grew up in Massapequa Park. Also, like Candy, I have brother who joined the military. My brother Joseph is a Marine and a veteran of the Iraq War. Unlike Candy, I still live with my brother in Massapequa Park. He is my best friend. Every day I ride the Long Island Rail Road to work at Women. Every night, on my walk home from the train I pass by Candy's childhood home.
As of the census of 2000, there were 17,499 people living in Massapequa Park and the the racial makeup of the village was 97.37% White. As of 2004, they still ban books in Massapequa High School. "The Perks of Being a Wallflower", which has sold 300,000 copies, and is recommended for adolescents by the American Library Association, was banned from Massapequa High School in 2004.
The Perks of Being a Wallflower is an epistolary novel written in the 1990's by American novelist Stephen Chbosky. It was published on February 1, 1999. The story takes place over a series of letters to a friend written by the narrator, a teenager named Charlie. The story explores topics such as introversion, teenage sexuality, abuse, and the awkward times of adolescence. The book also touches strongly on drug use and Charlie's experiences with this.
One student felt the book was innapropriate and her parents complained to MHS. The response was quick. School officials declared that Perks hadn’t been approved as required reading, and told the teacher, Jennifer Pesato, to use a sociology textbook instead. A school letter went out to parents, offering refunds to anyone who had purchased the novel.
“I was a little disappointed the teacher took a little detour,” said Susan Woodbury, the Massapequa district’s executive curriculum director. “I think she did this in very good faith, in trying to get the kids hooked on an issue. But I’m not sure it was relevant for a sociology class.”
Elsewhere, Perks also has been pulled from classrooms and library shelves, in response to parent complaints. It’s happened in Massachusetts, Ohio and Virginia. Stephen Chbosky, a Brooklyn resident who wrote Perks as his first novel, thinks the book’s opponents miss the point.Perks, he said, is about teens who ultimately find their way in life. Chbosky gets lots of appreciative e-mail messages from adolescent readers, two of whom said the book saved them from suicide. “If that doesn’t send a positive message, I don’t know what does,” he said.
