It’s impossible to discuss Candy Darling’s life and career without contemplating her relationship with Andy Warhol. Candy’s friendship and stage collaboration with the performer and playwright Jackie Curtis predated her association with the Warhol Factory, and she acted in many film and stage productions that were unrelated to Warhol, but the Factory provided her with her two best-known film roles, in Flesh (1968) and Women in Revolt (1971). Candy’s friend, fellow performer, and rival Holly Woodlawn writes in her autobiography that Candy “worshipped” Andy, and “put all her faith into his making her a star.” Warhol returned the admiration; the writer Bob Colacello recalls creating screenplays in the early days of his association with the Factory that featured starring roles for Candy, specifically in order to please Andy. (These unfortunately remained unproduced.)

And indeed Andy made Candy a star: as Holly puts it, after the premiere of Flesh, Jackie Curtis and Candy “were the toast of Max’s Kansas City. They were thrust into the spotlight of fame and became the social sweethearts of the underground. Their fame also transcended into

Based on a photo by Sir Cecil Beaton.

the mainstream, as they were fawned over by celebrities, artists, and socialites. And there I stood in their shadows, envious as hell."

Both Candy and Andy were fascinated by Hollywood from childhood onward. Warhol had collected autographed photos from Shirley Temple and other stars as a young child; some of his most famous multiple images from the Sixties are those of Marilyn Monroe and Liz Taylor; and of course, once his own fame permitted it, he associated with film stars and all kinds of other celebrities for the rest of his life.

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