Thing of Beauty
“Gia’s story has everything—glamor, glitz, squalor and tragedy.”
—Liz Smith, syndicated columnist
A
t age seventeen, Gia Carangi was working the counter at her father’s Philadelphia luncheonette, Hoagie City. Within a year, Gia was one of the top models of the late 1970s, gracing the covers of
Cosmopolitan
and
Vogue,
partying at New York’s Studio 54 and the Mudd Club, and redefining the industry’s standard of beauty. She was the darling of moguls and movie stars, royalty and rockers. Gia was also a girl in pain, desperate for her mother’s approval—and a drug addict on a tragic slide toward oblivion, who started going directly from $ 10,000-a-day fashion shoots to the heroin shooting galleries on New York’s Lower East Side. Finally blackballed from modeling, Gia entered a vastly different world on the streets of New York and Atlantic City, and later in a rehab clinic. At twenty-six, she became one of the first women in America to die of AIDS, a hospital welfare case visited only by rehab friends and what remained of her family.
Drawing on hundreds of interviews with Gia’s family, lovers, friends, and colleagues, THING OF BFAUTY creates a poignant portrait of an unforgettable character—and a powerful narrative about beauty and sexuality, fame and objectification, mothers and daughters, love and death.
“Vivid…. The story of Gia Carangi…should be set out among the fashion magazines in modeling agency waiting rooms and any other place where teen-age girls who’ve been called pretty a little too often hang out…. Stephen Fried’s exhaustive account of Gia’s brief life seems to have an important unanswered question on every page: why didn’t anyone help Gia?”
—The New York Times Book Review
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“Gia was…cooler than cool, tough and macho before Madonna, Cindy Crawford before there was a Cindy C. But then there was Cindy, who was initially dubbed ‘Baby Gia,’ and soon, no one remembered the original. Without Fried…Gia would have been more than dead; she would have been forgotten….”
—The Philadelphia Inquirer
“Faces come and go, but few cover girls are expelled from Planet Beauty as dramatically as Gia Carangi…. Fried’s nimble reporting loosens every pin and tuck.”
—
Glamour
“Fried’s portrait of the early days of the AIDS epidemic within the fashion world is compelling. His uncompromising look at how homophobia infected Gia’s life is dramatic…”
—
Lambda Book Report
“Stephen Fried has done an admirable job reconstructing Gia’s frenzied life…. Fried makes a convincing case, through recording Gia’s travails, that fetching eyes and a killer body are not enough. This is a chilling tale that every pretty, stupid young thing should read.”
—Boston Globe
“…A CHILLING PARABLE FOR OUR TIMES.”
—Playboy
We have endeavored to trace the ownership of all copyrighted material and to secure permission from copyright holders when required. In the event of any question arising as to the use of any material, we will be pleased to make the necessary corrections in future printings.
 | POCKET BOOKS, a division of Simon & Schuster, Inc. 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020 www.SimonandSchuster.com |
Copyright © 1993 by Stephen Marc Fried
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information address Pocket Books, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020
ISBN 13: 978-0-671-70105-5
ISBN 13: 978-1-451-67640-2 (eBook)
ISBN 10: 0-671-70105-3
First Pocket Books Paperback printing June 1994
20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12
POCKET and colophon are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
Cover photo by Lance Staedler
Photo inserts conceived, researched, and edited by Vincent Virga; designed by Stanley S. Drate/Folio Graphics, Inc.
8-page insert credit: Gia’s modeling portfolios courtesy of Elite and the collection of Kathleen Sperr, courtesy of
Philadelphia Magazine
—page two, poster from Helmut Newton show
Private Property;
page three, American
Cosmopolitan
tearsheet of Francesco Scavullo cover from Gia’s portfolio; page four, Italian
Vogue
tearsheet of Renato Grignachi cover from Gia’s portfolio; page five, tearsheet of Dior ad by Chris von Wangenheim, courtesy of Gene Federico; page six, tearsheet of Armani ad by Aldo Fallai from Gia’s portfolio; page seven, American
Vogue
tearsheet of Richard Avedon cover from Gia’s portfolio; page eight, American
Vogue
tearsheet of Denis Piel photo from Gia’s portfolio
16-page insert credits (*asterisks indicate pseudonyms): 1. Jim Graham; 2. from the collection of Rochelle Rosen*; 3. Jim Graham; 4. from the collection of Alice Kensil; 5. from Lincoln High Yearbook, from the collection of Elaine Moon*; 6. Urban Archives, Temple University; 7. from the collection of Nancy Adams; 8. from the collection of Karen Karuza; 9-10. Joe Petrellis; 11. Maurice Tannenbaum; 12.
Philadelphia Magazine;
13. collection of Kathleen Sperr, courtesy of
Philadelphia Magazine;
14. Joan Ruggles; 15. from the collection of Nancy Adams; 16. collection of Kathleen Sperr, courtesy of
Philadelphia Magazine;
17-18. Lance Staedler; 19. Italian
Bazaar
tearsheet from Gia’s portfolio; 20. from the collection of Lizzette Kattan; 21. Lizzette Kattan; 22. Ralph Gibson; 23-25. Lizzette Kattan; 26.
New York Magazine;
28. Arthur Gordon, from
Disco Beauty
, published by Simon & Schuster; 29. American
Vogue
tearsheet; 30. Chris von Wangenheim, from
Fashion: Theory
, published by Lustrum Press; 31. Lizzette Kattan; 32. Joan Ruggles; 33. collection of Kathleen Sperr, courtesy of
Philadelphia Magazine;
34.
Philadelphia Magazine;
35. David King; 36.
WWD;
37. David King; 38-40.
WWD;
41. collection of Kathleen Sperr, courtesy of
Philadelphia Magazine;
42. American
Vogue
tearsheet from Gia’s portfolio; 43. collection of Kathleen Sperr, courtesy of
Philadelphia Magazine;
46. from the collection of Rochelle Rosen*; 47. from the collection of Monique Pillard/Elite; 48. American
Cosmopolitan;
49. Francesco Scavullo, from
Scavullo: Women
, published by Simon & Schuster; 50. collection of Kathleen Sperr, courtesy of
Philadelphia Magazine;
52-53. from the collection of Dawn Phillips; 54. from the collection of Rochelle Rosen*; 55. from the collection of Dawn Phillips; 56. painting by Joe Eula, from the collection of Lizzette Kattan; 57. Alice Kensil; 58. American
Harper’s Bazaar
tearsheet
To my wife, Diane Ayres
A thing of beauty is a joy forever:
Its loveliness increases; it will never
Pass into nothingness; but still will keep
A bower quiet for us, and a sleep
Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.
John Keats,
from
Endymion
2. The Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys
4. Mr. Maurice Reinvents Himself
17. Beyond Your Wildest Dreams
T
he newsmagazine anchorman thanks a correspondent for his report on “this fascinating subject of near-death experience,” turns to face another camera, and reads the teaser for the upcoming segment of the January 6, 1983, edition of ABC’s
20/20
.
“Next,” he says, “inside the world of the fashion model … a world that is not always as it appears. Right after this.”
After the commercial, the anchorman introduces reporter Tom Hoving, who presents a report meant to detail “the dark and anxious side” of the modeling business but manages somehow to make the whole enterprise seem extremely glamorous anyway. There’s top model Christie Brinkley being coaxed by a photographer. “Make me chase you,” he’s saying. “Tease, tease. Look at me like you’re naked. That’s it.
Fabulous
.” After the shooting, Brinkley—the industry’s quintessential blond-haired, blue-eyed California girl—says that she’ll never have to worry about money again.
“Models can earn two million dollars a year,” Hoving explains in his booming TV-overvoice. “Once you make it, you become a member of an exclusive international club, where the sun always shines, the parties are glowing. A land where there’s no ugliness, no sickness, no poverty. A land where dreams come true and everyone is certified beautiful. The club has special fringe benefits. Top model Apollonia knows them all.”
“Rolls-Royce, flowers, dresses, limousines, tickets,” lists
the Dutch-born Apollonia von Ravenstein, a long-reigning queen of the more specialized, dark-haired, European-exotic look. “I mean, anything you want, anything a woman would want, really, just ask.”
Flamboyant hairdresser-turned-fashion-photographer Ara Gallant appears, wearing a leather Jeff cap, Mr. Spock sideburns and nearly as much makeup as any of the girls. (In modeling, women are always called “girls.”) He is asked to reflect on why the fashion model has such appeal. “They’ve become a glorified version of what ladies imagine themselves to look like in their fantasy,” Gallant explains. “And they set a kind of standard. Without models, women in general would have no guideline with which to identify. So they’ve become icons, the modern icons.”