A Walk On The Wild Side With Andy Warhol's Most Fabulous Superstar
Memoir / Biography
Date Published: 02-11-2025
Publisher: Feral House
A young, aspiring writer desperate for a break…and the legendary Andy Warhol superstar who gave him the story of a lifetime.
“Jeff's affection for Holly, even as she drunkenly claims, ‘You ruined my life!’ makes this romp worth the journey.” —Michael Musto
By the mid-1980s, Holly Woodlawn, once lauded by George Cukor for her performance in the 1970 Warhol production and Paul Morrissey directed Trash, was washed up. Over. Kaput. She was living in a squalid Hollywood apartment with her dog and bottles of Chardonnay. A chance meeting with starry-eyed corn-fed Missouri-born Jeff Copeland, who moved to Hollywood with dreams of ‘making it’ as a television writer, changed the course of BOTH of their lives forever.
Love You Madly, Holly Woodlawn is a story of how an unlikely friendship with a young gay writer and an, ahem, mature trans actress and performer created the bestselling autobiography of 1991, A Low Life in High Heels. This book about writing a book is a celebration of chutzpa and love as Holly, the embodiment of Auntie Mame, introduces Jeff to the glamorous (and sometimes larcenous) world of a Warhol Superstar. In turn, Jeff uses his writing (and typing) talent to give Holly the second chance at fame she craved.
In turns hilarious and heartwarming, Love You Madly, Holly Woodlawn is a portrait of the real Holly who loved deeply, laughed loudly, and left mayhem in her wake.
finally finished. We called it On the Wild Side, and it included one chapter, twenty chapter outlines, a synopsis, and a marketing proposal that had been written, rewritten, polished, and completed. Our agent, Robert, oversaw the entire process and served as our editor and proofreader, spotting typos and fixing sentence structure. He even punched up the humor. His contribution was immeasurable, and we were so fortunate to have him as our agent because he was smart, creative, and intuitive. He knew we were on to something special. He knew it when he spotted Holly’s photo in the trash, which is how this ball got rolling in the first place. It was all so serendipitous and odd, yet terribly exciting because I knew this whole experience was being driven by a bigger cosmic force.
While Holly played cashier at Wacko, I spent the holiday alone inside our agent’s heat-scorched office, stripped down to my underwear, typing the first chapter into the agency’s computer. The air conditioner wasn’t working, but I didn’t care. Not even a Los Angeles heatwave could keep me from one last opportunity to revise and revise. The one thing that bothered me was the way the first chapter ended. Holly gets out of jail . . . which was okay, but instinctively I knew it needed to pack more of a punch.
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Fuck the truth, I thought as I paced the floor. Just make up something! Paint a crazy-ass picture. Throw in some Judy Garland! She’s always a good time. And bring in the dancing monkeys. The ideas cracked and roared, and my brain sparked with a dopamine rush as a storm of inspiration took hold and the final line struck like a bolt of lightning.
“FREE PUSSY!”
Oh, Lordy! It might have been offensive, but it made sense to me. What else would she scream now that she was sprung from the clink? Holly thought it was a hoot.
Later that week, Holly and I celebrated the milestone in Robert’s apartment and finalized our formal collaboration agreement. If the book sold, Holly would get sixty percent of the proceeds and I would take forty, which (I was told) was the standard split for these types of partnerships. When it came to our byline, I liked “by Holly Woodlawn with Jeff Copeland.” I could have had “and” but preferred “with” because I thought it elevated Holly. I wanted her to look like she was more of a writer than she actually was because I wanted to prove that she wasn’t a mess like so many people had said. Also, I wasn’t aspiring to have a career as a book writer. I wanted to be a screenwriter, and because of that, I was holding out for something far more valuable than a byline on a book jacket.
be fabulous!”
About the Author
For nearly 30 years, Jeff Copeland worked as a show biz hobo, hopping from one gravy train to the next. He was nominated for an Emmy (yay!) and lost (boo!), and has enjoyed working on fun, interesting, and exciting content for a variety of TV networks and film studios, including ABC, FOX, and HGTV.
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