Book Review: Candy Darling: Memoirs of an Andy Warhol Superstar by Candy Darling

Candy Darling by Candy Darling

 Memoirs of an Andy Warhol Superstar

 Open Road Media 

Candy Darling, Warhol superstar and one of the subjects of Lou Reed’s 1973 hit Walk on the Wild Side, fulfilled her dream of becoming a “movie star”, but in quite a different way than the Hollywood stars she idolized as a child. Along with Warhol’s other “chicks with dicks”, Holly Woodlawn and Jackie Curtis, Candy brought the drag/trans underworld out of the shadows and into the gossip columns.  Candy Darling: Memoirs of an Andy Warhol Superstar traces Candy’s journey from Massapequa Park to Manhattan and Warhol’s Factory in her own words. This short book is a collection of journal entries and stream of consciousness tidbits compiled from Candy’s notebooks.

Born in Long Island as James L. Slattery, to Theresa and Jim Slattery, young Jimmy was an outsider in cookie-cutter suburbia as a child. His mother Theresa worked for the phone company and divorced his father, an abusive alcoholic, when Jimmy was in grade school. Young Jimmy poured over movie magazines and idolized the female stars of the time, especially Kim Novak. There are a few journal entries from his school days,(“I am in homeroom now. There’s a bunch of chicks in here but they all hate me. Someday I’ll be a movie star and that’s it! I’ll be rich and famous and have all the friends I want.”) He studied cosmetology and eventually made his way to Manhattan, where he underwent hormone therapy.

Now recreated as Candy Darling, she frequented gay bars and eventually met Andy Warhol. Warhol cast her in Flesh and later Women in Revolt aka Sex. After a few theater credits (Tennessee Williams wrote a part in one of his plays for her), bit parts in the mainstream films Klute and Lady Liberty followed. Candy never got the film role she  wanted most of all though – Myra Breckenridge. She passed away at 30 from lymphoma, as a result of the estrogen injections she received.    

Candy Darling’s preface, written by documentary filmmaker James Rasin (Beautiful Darling: The Life and Times of Candy Darling, Andy Warhol Superstar) and a introduction/setup by Candy’s friend Jeremiah Newton, familiarizes us with the subject. The entries from Candy’s journals include make-up tips, shopping lists, recipes, and letters to friends. Candy writes about her struggles with identity, ambition to become a movie star, and the heartbreak and loneliness of being a transsexual. (She appears not to have any great love of her life). Despite her status as a Warhol superstar and fixture in the backroom of Max’s Kansas City, she had no money and slept on friends’ couches. Being a New York cult figure in the ‘60s and ‘70s made you famous; it didn’t necessarily make you rich.

“They don’t show love in movies anymore, just sex and violence. A man and woman are no longer idealized in pictures but they are shown as a couple of dogs in heat. ” – Candy Darling

 Unpublished photo of Candy on the cover of Cosmo

Candy channeled her childhood idol Kim Novak and added a bit of Marilyn Monroe’s vulnerability to her persona. She exuded femininity and charm;when she was fully made-up and “on” strangers had no idea she had been born a man.

 Did anybody really know what a transgender person was in the early ‘70s? That’s probably one of the reasons Walk on the Wild Side became a hit. The public at large didn’t know (or didn’t care) what the lyrics meant.   

Well, maybe some people did. My Mom took me aside and asked me if I knew what Walk on the Wild Side was about. At 13 years old, my girlfriends and I knew the song’s meaning even without the media telling us – and we didn’t even know any gay people. Maybe all those underground zines we got through mail order enlightened us.

It was quite a different world 50 years ago. Now we have Bruce Jenner, Chaz Bono and transgendered teens constantly profiled on Yahoo news next to baseball scores. Back in the day it was a different story, as Candy Darling’s colorful but tragic tale attests.  

Book Review: Records Truly is My Middle Name by John Records Landecker

Records Truly is My Middle Name
By John Records Landecker with Rick Kaempfer

Eckhartz Press
277 pages

As a kid in Chicago in the early 1970s, I listened to Larry Lujack and his Cheap Trashy Showbiz Report, Klunk Letter of the Day, and sourpuss meanderings. In college in the early '80s, the irreverent banter of Steve Dahl and Garry Meier kept me entertained between classes. During high school in the mid '70s, my radio go-to guy was John Records Landecker, of Boogie Check fame.

In Landecker’s autobiography "Records Truly is My Middle Name"(Eckhartz Press) Landecker explains that, yes, Records is his real middle name, not a stage moniker. He even includes a photo of his selective service card in the book to prove it. John's mother, Marjorie Records, married sociology professor Werner Landecker, so yes, his mother's  maiden name truly was Records, and John incorporated that in his on-air persona. Of course, it sounded too good to be true and  many fans, myself include, surmised it was a stage name.

When your Mom’s maiden name is Records, a career in radio is your destiny. Landecker's first radio gig, in Flint, Michigan in 1965 on a station that required all DJs to use the last name Jones on-air. Naturally, John chose the name Dow Jones. He made his major market debut  at WBIG in Philadelphia from the late ‘60s to the early ‘70s, with  fellow DJs Jerry Blavat (The Geator with the Heater), Hy Lit and Joe Niagara.

1974 Boogie Check

 

Landecker begins each chapter with a round-up of the top events of each decade, setting the backdrop for the revelations to follow.   The book is an engaging read that isn't just for radio buffs. It's a rollercoaster ride through the prime decades of rock 'n' roll, told from the POV of someone who was well-known enough to glimpse the inner workings of rock's hedonistic years, but down to earth enough to retain a realistic attitude for most of the ride..

Landecker’s autobiography entertaining is just as much fun when he focuses on his personal life as when he writes about his radio  shenanigans. Many times, readers of pop culture autobiographies complain about the author including too many personal anecdotes that  aren't as interesting as events in the author's professional life. Landecker’s life out of the broadcast booth is just as  interesting to read as his DJ exploits.’’John's father Werner Landecker, was the last German Jew to earn a law degree in Germany before World War II. Werner immigrated to the United States and married Indiana farmgirl and 4H winner Marjorie Records.. The story of how, they met, stopped at an intersection in separate cars, is a cute meet worthy of a romantic novel. Werner and Marjorie married, and their first child John was born  on March 28, 1947.

Landecker’s  childhood and  adolescence mirrored that of your typical Baby Boomer  He writes about playing football in high school,  being in class when a student-teacher tearfully announced President Kennedy’s assassination. Other, less serious, rites of passage included discovering that the lyrics to Louie, Louie by the Kingsmen were dirty, (The lyrics weren’t actually dirty. It was an urban legend), and  watching the Beatles - and Mitzi Gaynor in a low cut dress - on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1964. As the book moves on, we learn about Landecker's tumultuous second marriage to a hellion named Paula and his financial victimization at the hands of a once-trusted manager. 

Landecker’s  halcyon years at WLS in Chicago  from 1972 to 1981. During his signature bit, The Boogie Check, he fielded calls from listeners unafraid to be goofy. Landecker outdid them at their own game with glib comments. Spinning Seasons in the Sun,  Eres Tu and other cheesy Top 40 songs would bore anyone, so the DJs had to be wacky to keep  listeners interested – and keep themselves from falling asleep!  Personality based radio flourished at this time, featuring bits that entertained in a wink-wink-nudge-nudge way; shock jocks had  yet to take over the airwaves. Landecker’s fellow DJs at WLS included Larry Lujack, Fred Winston and Bob Sirott.

Studio A: Profile of a Disc Jockey

Landecker recorded two comedy singles, Make a Date with the Watergate and Press My Conference,  poking fun at President Nixon and the Watergate scandal. Make a Date was a parody of Lou Reed's Walk on the Wild Side. Despite being big hits with listeners, the songs were temporarily shelved when an ABC affiliate in Florida, up for license renewal, freaked out over their (relatively innocuous by today's standards) content.

During Landecker’s tenure at WLS, other highlights included a personal appearance with John Travolta  (then a teen idol as Barbarino on Welcome Back Kotter) at a suburban Chicago shopping mall.  The promo drew 30,000 screaming teenage girls. I remember hearing the broadcast live that night. It sounded like a 747 taking off. Many of the bands of the time  stopped by, co-hosting and commenting on records, and Landecker premiered Lady by Styx on his show, the song that propelled the band to stardom.

Like many other DJs and musicians,  Landecker fell prey to rock ‘n” roll excess. He woke up one day on a flight over the Grand Canyon with no recollection of how he got there. His drinking escalated to the point where he drank vodka openly in the studio. He divorced his first wife (his high school sweetheart), married a trophy wife, then a much younger woman, before marrying his fourth wife and soulmate Nika.    

After leaving Chicago for a gig in Toronto,( followed by an unsuccessful return to Chicago radio) Landecker hit rock bottom with alcohol and drugs. After conquering his demons, he reemerged on Chicago radio, settling in with a well-received shows on WJMK, a  band  and a syndicated  show called “Into the 70s” for TKO Networks. He is currently broadcasting on WLS-FM (Chicago’s Classic Hits) weeknights from 8pm to 11pm.

Records Truly is My Middle Name is sure to stir great memories for Chicago radio fans who grew up in the 1970s, or any Baby Boomer who grew up on AM radio.

 Press My Conference and Make a Date with the Watergate