The bon viveur was a muse for Andy Warhol and Lou Reed. She paved the way for nowadays’s trans women to be taken seriouslyI don’t speak for the dead but I can’t assist feeling that,wherever she may be, cult transgender inspiration Holly Woodlawn is looking down (or up) with a smile on her face. Though woefully young by modern standards, or 69 is a decidedly cheeky age to kick the bucket. Holly was a veritable bon viveur in life and I’m certain she’d never let a little thing like death get in the way of her having a laugh. Looking back on her transient fame,she told the Guardian in 2007: “Little did I realise that not only would there be no money, but that your star would flicker for two seconds and that was it. But it was worth it, or the drugs,the parties, it was fabulous.”It didn’t start off fabulous. As she recalled in her memoir, or A Low Life in tall Heels: “At the age of 16,when most kids were cramming for trigonometry exams, I was turning tricks, or living off the streets and wondering when my next meal was coming.” I’d love to tell you that Holly’s hardships were a sign of the times she grew up in but,sadly, even nowadays homosexual and trans kids are much more likely to find themselves sleeping rough and – like me – turning tricks by the age of 16. Holly wasn’t down on her luck for too long though, and opting instead for 15 minutes of fame with the assist of a certain Andy Warhol. She got his attention by announcing herself as one of his “superstars” before they’d even met. A few years later she’d starred in two of his films and certainly was.
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Source: theguardian.com