Superstar in a Housedress: The Life and Legend of Jackie Curtis by Craig B. Highberger
Authors: Craig B. Highberger
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paid my bail? It was the artist Larry Rivers. I called him right up to thank him and he said come on over, Jackie Curtis is here, she called me up and said “you gotta get Holly out of jail.” If it hadn’t been for Jackie I would have been in jail for god knows how long. Andy Warhol didn’t come to my rescue. My parents didn’t even come to my rescue. Jackie called up everyone and said you can’t let Holly rot in jail; her movie’s just opened.
Jackie said Larry and I are going to take you out to see Trash tonight and I have alerted the media, there are going to be photographers and reporters there. That sounded wonderful, but I was an absolute mess because I had been in jail for thirty days. So Larry, angel that he was took us to Bloomingdale’s and said, “girls, go shopping” and we did. I got my hair done and Jackie and I went through all the dresses and I got this fabulous dress and Jackie got a fabulous housedress. We go back to Larry’s to get ready for the limousine ride to the theater. What does Curtis do? She just rips the shit out of her brand new dress so it looks like a tattered rag! Then she takes her new stockings and just tears them to shreds. I said, “Jackie, what are you doing?” She goes, “It’s a look, isn’t it?”
Gretchen Berg
Jackie and I drifted apart for several years, I think because I had taken a job with the New York Free Press , and I became very involved with the Anti-Vietnam war movement, which wasn’t something Jackie was interested in. We met again in 1971 when I was working for Show magazine, a now defunct entertainment publication funded by Huntington Hartford. I went to do an interview and take photographs during the filming of Paul Morrissey’s Women in Revolt . Jackie was no longer the redheaded kid with the Beatle haircut. He was 23 and he had a new drag persona. He was very edgy, almost nervous. I found it very difficult to talk to Jackie. It was as if he had withdrawn behind the mirror, behind panes of glass – further and further away.
Jackie still loved to have his picture taken, but I could see that the person I had known was now submerged – not really there anymore. It’s like when you send a child to boarding school for the first time and you go to meet them, the child that comes across the grass to you is not the same child. The famous Fakir trick with the little boy or little girl inside the straw basket, into which swords are plunged and then the top is taken off and the child jumps out, that is not the same child. Jackie was not the same person. He was engrossed in becoming the person – the woman in that film and I watched him step into the mirror, into the camera and become that persona. Very, very seldom did I see even a glimmer of the old Jackie.
Jack Mitchell
In the fall of 1970 I went over to an apartment that Paul Morrissey and Andy Warhol were using to film a scene of their new movie Women in Revolt . I took photographs between camera setups. Jackie was performing in the scene with a baby. When she walked into the studio she was wearing kind of a suburban housewife outfit – just a simple housedress and very plain makeup. She costarred in that film with Holly Woodlawn and Candy Darling.
Of the three Warhol transvestite stars, Jackie, Holly and Candy, Jackie Curtis was by far the most cerebral. She was a no-nonsense and motivated person – sort of like Rosland Russell doing a Paddy Chayefsky play, one of those kitchen-sink dramas he was famous for in the 1950s. I could see Jackie doing the Marjorie Main role in The Women – what a pity they couldn’t have cast Jackie in that role for the Broadway stage version; they would have been a great success.
I photographed Jackie as a man with Candy Darling when he was doing Vain Victory . Candy looked very much like Glen Close at that time. Candy was the opposite of Jackie because she was very serious about her femininity, her makeup, her glamour and her clothes. Unfortunately Candy had very
Jackie said Larry and I are going to take you out to see Trash tonight and I have alerted the media, there are going to be photographers and reporters there. That sounded wonderful, but I was an absolute mess because I had been in jail for thirty days. So Larry, angel that he was took us to Bloomingdale’s and said, “girls, go shopping” and we did. I got my hair done and Jackie and I went through all the dresses and I got this fabulous dress and Jackie got a fabulous housedress. We go back to Larry’s to get ready for the limousine ride to the theater. What does Curtis do? She just rips the shit out of her brand new dress so it looks like a tattered rag! Then she takes her new stockings and just tears them to shreds. I said, “Jackie, what are you doing?” She goes, “It’s a look, isn’t it?”
Gretchen Berg
Jackie and I drifted apart for several years, I think because I had taken a job with the New York Free Press , and I became very involved with the Anti-Vietnam war movement, which wasn’t something Jackie was interested in. We met again in 1971 when I was working for Show magazine, a now defunct entertainment publication funded by Huntington Hartford. I went to do an interview and take photographs during the filming of Paul Morrissey’s Women in Revolt . Jackie was no longer the redheaded kid with the Beatle haircut. He was 23 and he had a new drag persona. He was very edgy, almost nervous. I found it very difficult to talk to Jackie. It was as if he had withdrawn behind the mirror, behind panes of glass – further and further away.
Jackie still loved to have his picture taken, but I could see that the person I had known was now submerged – not really there anymore. It’s like when you send a child to boarding school for the first time and you go to meet them, the child that comes across the grass to you is not the same child. The famous Fakir trick with the little boy or little girl inside the straw basket, into which swords are plunged and then the top is taken off and the child jumps out, that is not the same child. Jackie was not the same person. He was engrossed in becoming the person – the woman in that film and I watched him step into the mirror, into the camera and become that persona. Very, very seldom did I see even a glimmer of the old Jackie.
Jack Mitchell
In the fall of 1970 I went over to an apartment that Paul Morrissey and Andy Warhol were using to film a scene of their new movie Women in Revolt . I took photographs between camera setups. Jackie was performing in the scene with a baby. When she walked into the studio she was wearing kind of a suburban housewife outfit – just a simple housedress and very plain makeup. She costarred in that film with Holly Woodlawn and Candy Darling.
Of the three Warhol transvestite stars, Jackie, Holly and Candy, Jackie Curtis was by far the most cerebral. She was a no-nonsense and motivated person – sort of like Rosland Russell doing a Paddy Chayefsky play, one of those kitchen-sink dramas he was famous for in the 1950s. I could see Jackie doing the Marjorie Main role in The Women – what a pity they couldn’t have cast Jackie in that role for the Broadway stage version; they would have been a great success.
I photographed Jackie as a man with Candy Darling when he was doing Vain Victory . Candy looked very much like Glen Close at that time. Candy was the opposite of Jackie because she was very serious about her femininity, her makeup, her glamour and her clothes. Unfortunately Candy had very
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