Now to the import of this post.
The other day, I was in a "what ever happened to?" mood, so I began googling an old roommate of mine from the late 60s, when I was heavily into drugs (for me that mainly meant amphetamines, poppers, lots of booze, and the occasional joint). She was one of my glamour heroines, and, yes, in her way she was a diva.
Well, imagine my surprise when I found out that she was someone rather famous in the world of punk rock. Her husband (they married shortly after she and I lost contact) was named Willy DeVille and was apparently a famous rock musician. I am actually surprised I had never heard of him, because although I spent most of my life listening to predominately classical music or Broadway show tunes, I nonetheless hadn't totally lost touch with the world of rock and pop until the mid 90s. (Did I ever mention that Madonna, before she became famous, was my upstairs neighbor in 1981 or thereabouts?) In any event, she apparently went by the name Toots. For more on her real name and persona, much of which is fabricated or surmised, see this interesting blog post.
When I knew her she was Susan Berle (she's dead, so I see no reason to use a pseudonym) and had been the classmate of a girl I was rooming with, whom I had gone to acting classes with. (I say "girl" deliberately, as we were all 18 and none college bound.) Susan/Toots was quite shocking to me. Not because she used drugs or even because she had brought a pregnancy to term at 18 (having sex as a teenager was commonplace in middle class circles, illegal abortions were not uncommon, but having babies was extremely rare), but because she didn't really do anything except shop at high end mod stores like Paraphernalia and go clubbing at night leaving the baby with her parents. She had not finished high school, and had a stint as a junkie (and a stint in rehab) behind her. From all the reading I did the other day, I see that when she was with Willie she went back to using heroin. When I knew her she was not (even in those days, I would have considered shooting up beyond the pale) but only took amphetamines. She never ate, and was contemptuous of anyone who did. She got me to start taking amphetamines and I went from my natural state of a size 12 (I am using today's sizes) down to what would today be a size 6 but compared to her I was still fat. I eventually lost touch with her after she got married (this was to her first husband, who BTW was not the father of her baby) but her influence on my idea of style remained for some time, and I continued to use amphetamines for another year.
Yesterday in a fit of boredom I sent an email to the woman who had authored the above referenced blog post and still haven't heard back. I wanted to clarify a few things, about Susan's ethnicity, for example. Her parents were Jewish, but she was adopted and was indeed Native American (or part Native American). Unless that was a story she made up. But it rings true. I know people who adopted female babies (of all races and ethnicities) and even if the adoptive families are upper middle class, a lot of these girls get pregnant and have babies when they are still in their teens.
What I am most interested in is Susan's later life., She stayed with Willie for several decades, apparently, and was deemed in some ways a bad influence on him. He is alleged to have used her family's money and when he became successful they apparently broke up. She is alleged to have cleaned up her act afterwards and went to become a nurse's aide (?) upstate (odd, considering her family's money) and died in her mid 50s, I'm not sure from what, but not from drugs. FWIW, here's are two photos:
which in some ways don't look that afield from
So my idols do have things in common, at least on the surface.
Needed to write this post. If nothing else, people apparently have been googling "Toots DeVille" so it may get me more hits.
Very interesting, thank you! Please share some more memories of Toots with us!
ReplyDeleteDebby, I will try to add to what I wrote here. I knew her during the Summer and Fall of 1969. That was really it. Her high school classmate was my roommate in the early part of that time. She introduced Susan to me by saying that Susan had dropped out of their senior class at the exclusive prep school they attended because she had become pregnant by a drag queen. I met this drag queen and in fact, although he was predominately gay, he did sleep with women from time to time, mostly so that he could manipulate them. He basically lived by his wits. He had nothing to do with the child and when I met Susan she was living with her parents (older, rich Jews who had adopted her as a baby) and it was mostly the parents who took care of the baby, whom they always threatened to take away from her. That would be Sean. I was actually surprised that he was raised by Susan and Willy, as the rumor I had heard was that he had been taken away from her. A few months after I met Susan she married the drag queen's lover, Robert Martin. He lay around all day stoned. She at that time was only taking amphetamines and spent all her time in and out of stores buying clothes and makeup. After the apartment deal I had with the roommate was ended, Susan let me move in with her and Robert and Sean (I was working so I paid half the rent and her parents paid the other half). She eventually threw me out when I had a boyfriend sleep overnight, which was odd, given that she certainly was not a prude. She and her social circle were a source of amphetamines, which for me were a tool in my (un)successful attempt to stay thin. Susan never ate, which amazed me. Even taking amphetamines I would eventually get hungry although I was thinner taking them than not.
ReplyDeleteThe last time I saw her was in November of 1969. It must have been after that that she met and married Willie. Interestingly, I lived in the East Village, probably at the time that she and Willie were a big thing, but as I said, once I got sober I really only was interested in classical music and had nothing to do with the "scene" there. Well, Susan always was a diva and a fashionista so I'm not surprised she became a minor celebrity. I am interested in learning anything anyone knows about her later life. Did she get sober? I have been sober in AA since 1975. Why did she go work as a health aide, if that is even true? What did she die of? I understand she was sober when she died, but she still died young.
Well, she certainly got herself (and her parents for that matter) into trouble! What a story, thank you for sharing. At least she found some stability when she married Willy.
ReplyDeleteI don't know the answers to your questions but on the "whatever happened to Toots Devilleblog" it says she died of either cancer or lupus.
The last time I saw Sue Berle had to be around 1965. I went to grade school (Belltown) and junior high (Dolan) with her and the man she eventually married. (Bill Borsey) I remember Sue as a quite girl who suddenly grew up fast. She left junior high in 8th grade, and the rumor was that she had a baby by Bill and the baby was taken in and raised by her adopted parents.
ReplyDeleteMike, I think she left junior high because she ran away to NYC and became a junkie. Then she was in a mental hospital. The father of the baby (which she had when she was 18) was not Borsey (although he became the boy's custodial parent) but a drag queen named Brian who eventually threw himself out a window. At the time I knew her she was living with her (adoptive) parents and sort of taking care of the baby, but they were always there as sitters so she could go clubbing at night.
ReplyDelete