Cherry Vanilla

Actress, author, poetess, and rock star, Cherry Vanilla arguably ranks high among the most influential figures on the Anglo-American rock scene. As a cast member of Andy Warhol's taboo-shattering Pork stageshow, she figured in the formulation of David Bowie's flamboyant breakthrough during 1971-1972. As a lasciviously uninhibited rocker at Max's Kansas City, her performances had an unquestionable impact upon waitress Debbie Harry. And as author of the libidinous artbook Pop Tarts, she published the blueprint for Madonna's later Sex. Add to that her time spent fronting a then little-known band called the Police and two albums at the end of the 1970s which are still regarded in hushed tones of reverence and Vanilla's role in recent rock history isn't simply secured, it is sacred. Born Kathy Dorritie, and also performing as Party Favor, Vanilla was a complete unknown when she was recruited to the cast of Pork, where she played a necrophiliac nurse alongside Lee Black Childers and Wayne County. Initially buoyed by the cachet of Warhol's name, but swiftly taking on a life of its own, Pork was one of the underground hits of 1971, both in New York and in London, where it ran for six months during 1971 and attracted notices from across the media spectrum. David Bowie was an especially rapt observer, all the more so after Vanilla and County bestowed their own patronage on him, adopting the hippy-haired folkie singer and projecting their own peculiar sense of glamor upon him. Within months of first catching sight of them, Bowie was Ziggy Stardust, and the Pork crew were working behind him; Vanilla was employed as his publicist, a role in which her own personal taste for outrage and controversy found acres of room for manouever. Both Bowie and his wife Angie actively championed...