Bonus video! Holly Woodlawn, the Fake Ambassador's Wife
Hello there!
For this week's bonus video, I want to draw your attention to a figure who appeared ever so briefly on PBS back in 1973: Holly Woodlawn, an icon of queer theater, a Warhol superstar, and a magnificently weird storyteller. Holly was a trans woman who hitchhiked from Florida to New York and became famous simply because there was just something about her that made it clear she HAD to be famous. Among her adventures was posing as an ambassador's wife, which didn't go over well with the ambassador; and also smearing herself with glitter and Vaseline in a way that nearly won her an Academy Award. Like I said ... quite a lady.
Holly Woodlawn interview in the 70s. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5wuwngAXGA
Holly on The Joan Rivers Show: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=je9_7Mjs4IA
Meth story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yURc6-Tuc74
Stealing from Saks story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6asEu4UIF60
Holly on Fresh Air: https://www.npr.org/2015/12/09/459057674/remembering-holly-woodlawn-muse-to-lou-reeds-wild-side
Bonus video! Holly Woodlawn, the Fake Ambassador's Wife (YouTube)
Comments (5)
Great video. What an amazing cameo. The interview with Terry Gross is amazing. It is simultaneously respectful and exactly what you would no longer ask a trans woman in an interview. Definitely worth a listen.
Holly Woodland, is possibly the most famous transgender woman in recent history we know next to nothing about. She's like that story people tell, I know a guy who knows a guy. The best story I've her about her is this. I was told when the movie Tootsie came out that they had gotten a drag queer to teach Hoffman how to walk in heels and act like a woman. Only to late find out that it was a transgender woman and that woman was Holly Woodland. I know, late to that party, only wished that she had made it into the movie. Holly Woodlawn, the first real transgender woman i ever heard of. RIP,
It's funny how these people who are on the periphery of stardom, the ones that most would dismiss as "hanger-ons" tend to so much more interesting than the stars themselves. It's likely because they are tend to be people who will get knocked around by life, and yet, they push forward. There's a lot to admire about that. As it happens, i have a bit of a connection with this actress. She acted in the first movie I ever saw as part of the Inside Out Festival in Toronto all the way back in 1997, "Billy's Hollywood Screen Kiss" (starring a pre- Will & Grace Sean Hayes). it was my first time buying tickets for this festival (the oldest Queer movie festival in Canada), and given that I was actually underage, I had to get an older cousin to actually stand in line to buy the tickets for me (as this was pre-internet purchasing). It was a whole thing... but I remember it being very worth it. It was, after all, the first movie with a gay lead character that i ever saw in a theater, and it still stands as quite the 90s time capsule for anyone who wants to seek it out.
You mean Trash, not Flesh. She isn’t in Flesh.
Oh good catch, you're right!