Holly Woodlawn & Jeff Copeland - A Low Life in High Heels

1991, English, Holly Woodlawn, Jeff Copeland, USA,

Full title: "A Low Life in High Heels: The Holly Woodlawn Story" by Holly Woodlawn and Jeff Copeland was published in 1991 and republished in 1992.

The book covers the story of Holly Woodlawn (1946-2015), a famous transgender Puerto Rican actress and Warhol muse, known for her appearances in the films Trash (1970) and Women in Revolt (1971), and known as the Holly in Lou Reed's song "Walk on the Wild Side".

She was born in Juana Díaz, Puerto Rico, to a German-American father and a native Puerto Rican, but she grew up in Miami Beach, where she came out as a child. She adopted the name Holly from the heroine of Breakfast at Tiffany's, and in 1969 added the surname from a sign she saw on an episode of I Love Lucy.

At the age of fifteen, she ran away from home, living off the streets, but meeting Andy Warhol at the Factory changed her life forever, allowing her to start her acting career. Thanks to Jackie Curtis, who cast Woodlawn in her play Heaven Grand in Amber Orbit in the autumn of 1969, she was given a role in Trash, a transgender girlfriend of one of the main characters.

In Women in Revolt, a satirical look at the women's rights movement and the PIGS (politically involved girls), she became one of the first people to say the word cunt in cinema. In the 70s, she was arrested in New York City after impersonating the wife of the French Ambassador to the United Nations, and taken to the New York Women's House of Detention where it was discovered that she was transgender. 

By 1979, she gave up her stage career, cut her hair, and moved back to her parents in Miami, while working as a busser at Benihana. She also appeared in films by Rosa von Praunheim. In 1991 she published her autobiography A Low Life in High Heels with writer Jeff Copeland. During the 1990s, Woodlawn was featured in a couple of low-budget movies.

In the 21 first century, she acted in "Transparent", a U.S. television series about a transgender mother played by Jeffrey Tambor. She died of brain and liver cancer in Los Angeles on December 6, 2015. Her name was immortalized forever by Lou Reed in the opening verse of his song "Walk on the Wild Side", in which he sings about her hitchhiking journey and gender transition.

Available via Amazon

and Wikipedia.