Valerie Jean Solanas was an American radical feminist known for the SCUM Manifesto, which she self-published in 1967, and for her attempt to murder artist Andy Warhol in 1968.
47 Facts About Valerie Solanas
2.
Valerie Solanas came out as a lesbian in the 1950s.
3.
In New York City, Valerie Solanas asked Warhol to produce her play Up Your Ass, but he claimed to have lost her script, and hired her to perform in his film, I, a Man, by way of compensation.
4.
On June 3,1968, Valerie Solanas went to The Factory, shot Warhol and art critic Mario Amaya, and attempted to shoot Warhol's manager, Fred Hughes.
5.
Valerie Solanas was charged with attempted murder, assault, and illegal possession of a firearm.
6.
Valerie Solanas died in 1988 of pneumonia in San Francisco.
7.
Valerie Solanas' views have been described by Alice Echols as "unabashed misandry".
8.
Valerie Solanas was born in 1936 in Ventnor City, New Jersey, to Louis Solanas and Dorothy Marie Biondo.
9.
Valerie Solanas's father was a bartender and her mother a dental assistant.
10.
Valerie Solanas had a younger sister, Judith Arlene Solanas Martinez.
11.
Valerie Solanas's father was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, to parents who immigrated from Spain.
12.
Valerie Solanas's mother was an Italian-American of Genoan and Sicilian descent born in Philadelphia.
13.
Valerie Solanas's parents divorced when she was young, and her mother remarried shortly afterwards.
14.
Valerie Solanas disliked her stepfather and began rebelling against her mother, becoming a truant.
15.
Valerie Solanas beat up a girl in high school who was bothering a younger boy, and hit a nun.
16.
Valerie Solanas reported that her grandfather was a violent alcoholic who often beat her.
17.
In 1953, Valerie Solanas gave birth to a son, fathered by a married sailor.
18.
Valerie Solanas was an open lesbian, despite the conservative cultural climate of the 1950s.
19.
Valerie Solanas attended the University of Minnesota's Graduate School of Psychology, where she worked in the animal research laboratory, before dropping out and moving to attend Berkeley for a few courses.
20.
In 1967, Valerie Solanas encountered pop artist Andy Warhol outside his studio, The Factory, and asked him to produce Up Your Ass.
21.
Valerie Solanas accepted the manuscript for review, told Solanas it was "well typed", and promised to read it.
22.
Valerie Solanas contacted Warhol about the script and was told that he had lost it.
23.
Valerie Solanas jokingly offered her a job at the Factory as a typist.
24.
Valerie Solanas was satisfied with her experience working with Warhol and her performance in the film, and brought Maurice Girodias, the founder of Olympia Press, to see it.
25.
In 1967, Valerie Solanas self-published her best-known work, the SCUM Manifesto, a scathing critique of patriarchal culture.
26.
Valerie Solanas took this to mean that Girodias would own her work.
27.
Valerie Solanas suspected that he was coordinating with Girodias to steal her work.
28.
Valerie Solanas remained at the hotel for three hours before heading to the Grove Press, where she asked for Barney Rosset, who was not available.
29.
Fahs records that Valerie Solanas then traveled to producer Margo Feiden's residence in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, as she believed that Feiden would be willing to produce Up Your Ass.
30.
Valerie Solanas left but rode the elevator up and down until Warhol finally boarded it.
31.
Valerie Solanas entered The Factory with Warhol, who complimented her on her appearance as she was uncharacteristically wearing makeup.
32.
Valerie Solanas further tried to shoot Fred Hughes, Warhol's manager, but her gun jammed.
33.
Valerie Solanas was going to do something to me which would have ruined me.
34.
Valerie Solanas appeared at New York Supreme Court on June 13,1968.
35.
Florynce Kennedy represented her and asked for a writ of habeas corpus, arguing that Valerie Solanas was being held inappropriately at Elmhurst.
36.
The judge denied the motion and Valerie Solanas returned to Elmhurst.
37.
In January 1969, Valerie Solanas underwent psychiatric evaluation and was diagnosed with chronic paranoid schizophrenia.
38.
Valerie Solanas was institutionalized several times and then drifted into obscurity.
39.
Valerie Solanas said that until she was informed by Violet, she was unaware of Warhol's death in 1987.
40.
Valerie Solanas wished to be supported for her own creative work.
41.
The film's director, Mary Harron, requested permission to use songs by The Velvet Underground but was denied by Lou Reed, who feared that Valerie Solanas would be glorified in the film.
42.
Six years before the film's release, Reed and John Cale included a song about Valerie Solanas, "I Believe," on their concept album about Warhol, Songs for Drella.
43.
Rachel Zampelli played Valerie Solanas and sang "Big Gun," described as the "evening's strongest number" by The Washington Post.
44.
Swedish author Sara Stridsberg wrote a semi-fictional novel about Valerie Solanas called Dromfakulteten, published in 2006.
45.
Ronell believed that Valerie Solanas was threatened by the hyper-feminine women of the Factory that Warhol liked and felt lonely because of the rejection she felt due to her own butch androgyny.
46.
Valerie Solanas believed Solanas was ahead of her time, living in a period before feminist and lesbian activists such as the Guerrilla Girls and the Lesbian Avengers.
47.
Fahs believes that Valerie Solanas embraced these contradictions as a key part of her identity.