Jackie Curtis (born John Curtis Holder Jr.; February 19, 1947 – May 15, 1985) was an American drag queen, playwright, actor, and singer. Curtis was associated with the Off-Off-Broadway theater movement and Andy Warhol's Factory scene of the 1960s and 1970s.
Known for performing in both masculine and feminine modes, Curtis developed a distinctive theatrical persona that challenged conventional gender labels. Curtis's drag style often combined deliberately haphazard makeup, chaotic wigs, vintage dresses, runs in stockings, and glitter, pioneering a blend of camp and trashy glamour. Curtis performed with the Play-House of the Ridiculous and wrote and directed plays including Glamour, Glory and Gold (1967), Vain Victory: Vicissitudes of the Damned (1971), and Amerika Cleopatra (1972). Curtis also appeared in the underground films Flesh (1968) and Women in Revolt (1971).
Early life and family Jackie Curtis was born John Curtis Holder Jr. in New York City on February 19, 1947. His father, John Holder, was a baritone singer in a gospel group that toured Tennessee. His parents separated when he was one year old, and Curtis moved with his mother to New York, where he was raised by his grandmother Ann Uglialoro and aunt Josephine Preston. After being widowed in 1950, Uglialoro became a taxi dancer at the Majestic Ballroom on Broadway, where she acquired the nickname "Slugger Ann." Curtis's mother and aunt also worked at the ballroom. Uglialoro later worked as a cook and, when Curtis was eight, purchased a bar on Second Avenue and 10th Street in the East Village, which she named Slugger Ann's. Curtis grew up in the rooms behind the bar.
After seeing Singin' in the Rain and The Wizard of Oz at age four, Curtis decided he wanted to become a movie star, recalling that he wanted to sing, dance, "and have more than four marriages." He later described feeling out of place among the neighborhood children and spent much of his childhood in movie theaters and Catholic churches with his grandmother. He intermittently attended the High School of Industrial Arts and worked as an usher at the Winter Garden Theatre, where he repeatedly watched Barbra Streisand in Funny Girl. He also frequented the stage door of Once Upon a Mattress to meet his comedic idol, Carol Burnett.
His father called him Jack and his family called him Curtis, while he introduced himself to friends as Jackie Curtis. The name combined his family identity with an androgynous stage name. His half-brother, Timothy Holder, later became an openly gay Episcopal priest.Interviews in Superstar in a Housedress Accessed 4/4/2015.About Timothy Holder Accessed 4/4/2015.
Career In 1965, Curtis appeared in Tom Eyen's play Miss Nefertiti Regrets at La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club along with fellow newcomer Bette Midler.La MaMa Archives Digital Collections. "Production: Miss Nefertiti Regrets (1965)". Accessed April 9, 2018. Curtis reprised the role as Ptolemy II.La MaMa Archives Digital Collections. "Production: Miss Nefertiti Regrets (1966a)". Accessed April 9, 2018.
Glamour, Glory, and Gold and Lucky Wonderful In the summer of 1967, Curtis met Pop artist Andy Warhol and invited him to the opening of his play Glamour, Glory, and Gold: The Life and Legend of Nola Noonan, Goddess and Star. The play, which chronicled the rise and decline of a female film star, opened in September 1967 at the Playwright's Workshop at Bastiano's Cellar Studio in Manhattan's East Village. The production was directed by Ron Link and starred Candy Darling and Melba LaRose Jr. Curtis also appeared in the production as a supporting chorus dancer. According to the program, Curtis was an emergency replacement after the actress originally cast in the role abruptly left the production. New York Daily News critic Ernest Leogrande described Curtis's performance as "strangely amorphous," neither masculine nor feminine, while emphasizing his comedic talent.
Curtis was also an energetic promoter of the production. Curtis would visit intermissions at established Broadway and Off-Broadway theaters with Darling and LaRose, approaching theatergoers and enthusiastically recommending the play and its performers. Curtis also contacted gossip columnists and theater critics to generate publicity for the production.
Glamour, Glory, and Gold received favorable notices from publications including the New York Post, New York Daily News, Back Stage, and Show Business, with particular praise directed toward LaRose's performance. In The New York Times, critic Dan Sullivan described the play as being "written and played with the outrageous broadness of a Gay Nineties melodrama, and in its heartless, campy, ramshackle way it is fun." Sullivan noted that Curtis "has perfect pitch when it comes to registering movie clichés ('I don't need you! I don't need anyone! I'm STAR!'), and a good silly time is had by all."
Curtis took the starring roles in his following plays. He followed up his theatrical debut with the musical Lucky Wonderful in March 1968. The production featured Candy Darling, Paul Serrato, Holly Woodlawn, and Melba LaRose. The playboy socialite Tommy Manville, who had a number of odd and exotic spouses, served as the inspiration for the play.
In July 1968, Glamour, Glory, and Gold was revived at the Playwright's Workshop. According writer Cynthia Carr, neither Curtis nor Darling took part, but both were involved when rehearsals began. Robert De Niro appeared in the production in his first stage role, playing several different male roles, while Paula Shaw portrayed Nola Noonan. De Niro received a favorable reviews for his performance.
Around this time, Curtis began taking female hormones and developed an unconventional style of drag, sometimes wearing torn dresses held together with safety pins, runs in her stockings, and lipstick and foundation applied over an unshaven face. Woodlawn recalled Curtis's deliberately disheveled appearance, while Harvey Fierstein, who appeared in one of Curtis'ss plays, remembered a night when Curtis wore a wig that had melted under the dressing-room lights and smelled of burning rubber. Fierstein recalled that Curtis's attitude was: "I don't want to look like anybody else."
Emergence as a Warhol superstar and Play-House of the Ridiculous While Warhol was recovering from a near-fatal shooting in the summer of 1968, filmmaker Paul Morrissey wanted to cast Candy Darling in Flesh. Unable to reach Darling, Morrissey contacted Curtis and asked him to relay the filming schedule. Curtis recalled that Morrissey then added, "Why don't you come along too and be in it?" The performers Morrissey cast in his Warhol-produced films became the last of the Warhol superstars. The film follows a day in the life of a hustler, played by Joe Dallesandro. Curtis appears in a scene with Darling and Geri Miller.
In 1969, Curtis became associated with the Play-House of the Ridiculous. After the troupe was invited to perform at a University of Notre Dame conference on pornography, Curtis traveled with the company to Indiana, appearing in Ronald Tavel's The Life of Lady Godiva, directed by John Vaccaro. Vacarro later recalled that Curtis wore a dress in public for the first time on the trip, following an epiphany after taking LSD on New Year's Eve 1968.
On the return journey, Curtis wrote Heaven Grand in Amber Orbit, his second play, after deriving its title from two horses listed in a racing form. The original version was set in a Forty-second Street Bickford's, with its characters named after racehorses. Vaccaro directed a substantially reworked production, transforming Curtis's comedy into a grotesque, musical antiwar play set among sideshow performers, reflecting the political climate of the Vietnam War.
Curtis also performed in Tom Murrin's Cock-Strong in 1969, singing "Talking Dirty to the One You Love." The production ended with a giant phallus falling toward the audience and spraying glitter. In 1970, Curtis's Heaven Grand in Amber Orbit, starring Ruby Lynn Reyner and Holly Woodlawn, was staged by the Play-House. That year, Curtis also wrote Femme Fatale, which starred Patti Smith, Jayne County, and Penny Arcade.
Curtis then starred in Women in Revolt (1971) with fellow Warhol superstars Candy Darling and Holly Woodlawn, which satirizes the Women's Liberation Movement and alludes to Valerie Solanas and her SCUM Manifesto. Richard Avedon photographed Curtis with Woodlawn and Darling for the June 1972 issue of Vogue magazine.
Vain Victory and Amerika Cleopatra Curtis wrote Vain Victory: The Vicissitudes Of The Damned and co-directed a production of the play in 1971. The play starred Candy Darling and Mario Montez, amongst others. After six months of rehearsals, Vain Victory opened at the La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club on May 26, 1971, to heavy demand. The 99-seat theater was filled beyond capacity, and the 10:00 p.m. curtain was held for an hour and a half at Warhol's request while he finished dinner with John Lennon and Yoko Ono, who were also planning to attend. The opening-night audience also included Tally Brown and Peter Allen, all of whom had been advertised as members of the cast. Warhol, billed as the "Winged Avenger," took Polaroids from the audience but did not perform. Allen accompanied Darling on "Butt Blues," a song he had written, while Brown performed a song. Lennon called it "the best play I've ever seen."After Vain Victory closed at La MaMa, Curtis immediately reworked it as a musical. She collaborated with composer and musician Paul Serrato, who had written music for Lucky Wonderful. Serrato recalled that Curtis had "a musical ear" and good pitch and rhythm. For the new Vain Victory, they incorporated "My Place Tonight," a song from Lucky Wonderful that Darling particularly liked, and added "White Shoulders Black and Blue," which Curtis wrote for Darling.
The reprised Vain Victory opened at the WPA Theatre on August 11, 1971. The 65-seat theater regularly accommodated about 75 people, and the production became regarded as the definitive version of Vain Victory. Darling played Donna Bella Beads, a mermaid confined to a wheelchair who falls in love with a rock star played by Curtis. The production also featured dancer Larry Ree, who performed a version of The Dying Swan. Curtis's production was later featured in the second episode of the PBS documentary series An American Family, which followed Pat Loud during a visit to her son Lance at the Chelsea Hotel; footage showed Curtis descending a staircase while singing "The Beige Hair Dryer Song."
The WPA Theatre production of Vain Victory closed on September 5, 1971, but Curtis continued developing the play. A third version opened on September 23 at the Village Arena Theatre. Neither Darling nor Ambrose appeared in the production; Ambrose had left after requesting a pay increase from $25 to $65 a week, matching Darling’s salary. Despite the ticket price rising from $3 to $4, Curtis declined his request.
In 1972, Amerika Cleopatra, written by Curtis under the direction of Harvey Tavel, ran at the WPA Theatre. The play featured Alexis Del Lago as Charmn Gale and Agosto Machado as Lady Iras. Dick Brukenfeld of The Village Voice gave Americka Cleopatra a mixed review, describing parts of the first act as "diverting" but arguing that the play "had nowhere to go." He criticized the work for presenting transsexual fantasies as "nothing more than an exhibit" and contended that the material required "further elaboration and shaping" to make it compelling.
Later career