Adapted excerpt fromThe Downtown Pop Undergroundby Kembrew McLeod published by Abrams Press.
2018 Kembrew McLeod
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Jackie Curtis loved the limelight.
You were supposed to keep your hands raised and you werent supposed to get fresh, performerAgosto Machadoremembers.
Slugger Anns was a dimly lit working class shots-and-beer joint with a few tables.
Slugger Ann was a great old babe, loudmouthed.
She obviously had been a beauty in her day, a sexy beauty.
Bleached hair, and a feisty personality, great fun.
But if any customers would have said anything about Jackie, Slugger Ann would have punched them out.
She was very protective of Jackie.
I never thought of him as a woman, LaRose said.
He went back and forth so many times.
When I met Jackie, he was a little boy with a shopping bag.
He was very cute.
She would look really good in a red wig or that kind of thing.
It was a defiant stance, which today we might call nonbinary.
Curtis was constantly broke, and even when she got something nice, it tended to get messed up.
Finally, they were just kind of rags on her legs.
They became works of art.
Jackie was blowing up the idea of gender, LaRose observed.
Bruce Eyster met Curtis at Maxs Kansas City, the Warhol hangout.
We did four cars to get across the street instead of just taking the crosswalk, Eyster said.
He was just so hilarious.
Jackie would walk into a room and you could feel the electricity.
He really did have a movie star quality about him.
Ill give you camp, Curtis shouted.
Born James Slattery, Darling grew up in Massapequa Park, Long Island, before moving to New York.
Candy looked beautiful, Jane Wagner recalled, like she just stepped out of a movie.
I would like you to meet this boy that just arrived in town, Curtis told him.
His name is James, but were going to call him Candy Candy Darling.
And Candy Darling is never going home again.
Candy was a boy who was being a star.
He recreated himself in the guise of Lana Turner or Kim Novak.
Candys life was performance art about stardom, more than anything.
We were attracted to the movies, but we were especially attracted to the stars.
(In fact, Holly took the bus to New York.)
Through Jackie, I would end up at Maxs with Jackie and Candy and Holly, Eyster recalled.
They were all very funny in different ways and had their own take on things.
Holly was kind of like the Martha Raye comedienne slapstick girl.
Wed switch off playing the roles.
Jackie and I would always fight over who would be Lucy and who would be Ethel.
Oh, and Holly and I had adventures together.
I couldnt believe it.
I always thought of Holly as my girlfriend.
Machado remembered Woodlawn as a very open, childlike, and loving friend.
One of the things people noted was her vulnerability, he said.
She didnt have that protective armor, but Holly was so much fun and so good-spirited.
Glamour, Glory, and Goldwas a send-up of Hollywood melodramas.
The play began with Noon working in a burlesque house.
LaRose walked onstage wearing nine feather boas and started throwing glitter.
It was everywhere, she said.
The set was covered with sparkles and glitter.
The story goes, she saw Curtis and exclaimed: Oh my.
Glamour, glory, and gold.
We were trying to make those movies our own.
It was the beginning of camp.
It was a style that we created.
It wasnt just clowning.
Curtis and her friends knowingly appropriated these products of the culture industry.
She also appropriated the clothes forGlamour, Glory, and Goldfrom the closets of Slugger Ann and Aunt Josie.
He had no idea Darling was in drag.
Paul Serrato composed the music.
The songs were fairly low-key, though the acting was wildly animated.
It was high, high octane energy.
So I just decided to take an escape and leave town.
Jackie Curtiss next play wasHeaven Grand in Amber Orbit.
Everybody went there, Vaccaro said.
Allen Ginsberg, we all went, and I did a show calledThe Life of Lady Godiva.
He got the names of the character from a racing form.
As for the plot, Reyner summed it up thus: The show was nonsensical.
She recalled that when Curtis brought the script to Vaccaro, it was nothing but gibberish.
It was a litany, a mishmash dialogue that was taken from old movies and transposed into a play.
Vaccaro also added original music.
I turned everything into musicals, he said.
I did a lot of changing.
I was very creative, but not everyone liked to have their plays fucked with.
It was all pretty extreme.
It was exceptional, and really spoke to the time.
Heaven Grandwas the most incredibly entertaining piece of theater Ive ever seen, Arian added.
It was total non sequitur and was as funny as funny could be.
And boy, I got to tell you, Arian said, it was really entertaining.
It was a sensory overload for real.
Adding to the surreal scene was the venue whereHeaven Grandpremiereda funeral home-turned-theater in the midtown district.
Jackie was a nice person, Vaccaro said, but she was very screwed up with drugs.
Im going to kick your ass!!!
Vaccaro would shout, until one day he fired the playwright from her own show.
Im gonna call Joey Gallo, he would scream.
Im gonna break Jackies legs!
It was totally insane, Arcade said.
I mean, Jackie was terrified of Vaccaro, but it was also kind of a joke.
Like it was both, a joke and it was real.
Reality, per se, didnt exist.
