With the publication of Love You Madly, Holly Woodlawn: A Walk On The Wild Side With Andy Warhol’s Most Fabulous Superstar (Feral House), Copeland looks back at their adventures with a loving glint, much like Patrick Dennis writing Auntie Mame, with Woodlawn’s voice leaping off the page. Returning to his massive archive of audio recordings, videotapes, personal ephemera, and reams of notes, he pulls back the curtain for an unvarnished look at Woodlawn’s return to the public eye.
“I wanted to be a screenwriter; I was all about character and dialogue, so creating a voice for Holly Woodlawn was something I really wanted to do,” Copeland says. “I have such vivid memories, things I didn’t write in the book like changing the brakes on Holly’s car. God knows how I even did that.”
But Copeland persisted, and he paved the path that would make A Lowlife in High Heels an LGBTQ+ literary classic, defying all the naysayers he had met along the way. Woodlawn resisted labels and spoke her mind, but what played as catnip in the factory was an anathema to Hollywood. By asserting her voice at the height of the AIDS epidemic, Copeland enshrined Woodlawn as equal parts elder, survivor, and bon vivant.
Acting as her de facto manager and publicist, Copeland was determined to make his longtime dream of the Holly Woodlawn biopic come true. But it was too late; their friendship came to an end after her issues with alcohol abuse and it would never see the screen. But with Love You Madly, Holly Woodlawn, the come together for one last madcap adventure on the page.
