![]() The point of any story is to relate a message - one that could, in the end, help others feel less alone. “May this account of one life make a difference,” Carr writes in the book’s dedication. “Candy Darling” is dedicated to the trans community. There’s an overall goal to erase transgender rights.” Much of that’s aimed at young people, but it won’t end there. Bans on gender-affirming care, on participation in school sports, on using a bathroom that aligns with your identity and so on. There’s so much anti-trans legislation out there it’s hard to even keep track of it - literally hundreds of bills coming up around the country. “They’ve also become big targets for far-right politicians, and I can’t overstate how alarming this is. “I started work on this book in 2013, and transgender people have become much more visible in mainstream culture since then,” Carr says. Though hormone therapy and gender-affirming healthcare have improved, the conditions in which trans people live in this country, and the violence they face, both from individuals and their own government, are still dire. But, yes, it was the consensus at the time that hormones had caused her cancer.” “What hormones were people taking in the early ’70s? Which one (or more) were taken off the market? I read a book on trans medicine, talked to a couple of doctors and combed through the internet, but we’re talking about a drug that would have been recalled almost 50 years ago. I spent probably too much time trying to corroborate that,” Carr says. Jeremiah also said that she’d been taking hormones that were later found to be carcinogenic and were taken off the market. According to Jeremiah, the doctor said it was lymphoma. “I wish I could have seen a death certificate. It was the hormones that most likely resulted in Candy’s cancer diagnosis and, ultimately, her death. ![]() “She would have had to live for quite a while - till now, say - to be accepted.” Would Candy have had a future in Hollywood, had she lived longer? “Candy definitely wanted to make it in Hollywood but had more than a glass ceiling to deal with,” Carr says. It reveals a talented actress with whom directors were keen to work - more than “up-and-coming,” they describe Candy as brilliant. At that time, the Voice was the most essential and sometimes the only publication covering early Off Off Broadway, early gay liberation and the beginnings of second-wave feminism.” Carr’s research on Candy’s theater career is thrilling. I went through old Village Voices, page by page, starting in 1967, when Candy appeared in her first play, until her death early in 1974. I had the 48 tapes (and two transcripts) Jeremiah had done and the 98 people I interviewed myself - some of them multiple times. “But I start making a chronology immediately and keep filling it in as I do my research. “I confess that I have never worked from an outline on any of my projects,” Carr admits. “He did me an enormous service by interviewing some 50 people back in the 1970s and giving me the tapes.” Newton died in 2023.įor someone who lived such a tragically short life, Candy’s schedule was packed, and the worlds in which she traveled were diverse. “He never told me why he stopped working on it,” Cynthia Carr, the author of “Candy Darling: Dreamer, Icon, Superstar,” tells The Times via email. Her friend Jeremiah Newton set out to write her story right after her death. She was 29.Ĭandy, who was trans, lived a life ripe for biography. Candy Darling died of lymphoma in that hospital room in 1974. ![]() But that picture, taken by Peter Hujar, is as staged as it is real. The image of her laid up in the hospital, looking ready for her close-up in full makeup with one black rose on the pillow beside her, looks like a staged photo for a fashion magazine. Warhol superstar Candy Darling is synonymous with doomed glamour - a gorgeous woman playing a dying gorgeous woman. If you buy books linked on our site, The Times may earn a commission from, whose fees support independent bookstores.
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