Andes Hruby

SYNOPSIS

           Born in 1969, Andes Hruby became witness to the exotic, dark, and humorous decade of the 1970s until she attended boarding school in the 1980s. Her mother, Eva, struggled as an actress, dancer, painter, artist, and drug dealer. This is not the story of an angry child but a reflection of the magical moments that embraced a decade of decadence. This is a memoir of how love and truth create the infinite ability to heal. 

           Andes was exposed to drug deals in Woodstock, life at the Chelsea Hotel, and stoop parties across the street from CBGB’s. She attended off-off Broadway plays starring Pat Ast and Devine. She spent evenings under the bleachers at rehearsals of Saturday Night Live and slept on banquets at Bearsville Studios and The Joyous Lake. Andes loitered at art openings of then-unknown painters (Brice Marden and Jamie Dalglish), sculptors (Jeff Koons and Richer Serra), and photographers (Robert Mapplethorpe and Marcus Letherdale). 

            At four, Andes became a Ford child model and soared with her freckled face and blonde hair into a new way to alter reality. Her smile was on the campaign billboard from Allied Van Lines to Pepsi. During her modeling years, she played alongside Brooke Shields and Ricky Schroder. Her life was filled with bizarre and comical episodes, shadowed by financial instability and fear. Paintings lined the walls, but meals were uncertain, rent was late, electricity was often terminated, and the phone line disconnected. 

           This memoir covers ten years from the perspective of a child. Andes, the protagonist, believed that her life was a magical and spontaneous journey. The story features eccentric characters and icons from the 1970s and early 1980s. Michael O’Donoghue, one of the creators of National Lampoon and Saturday Night Live, became her godfather. At one point, he gave Andes a green tinsel gown to wear to an event at the Rainbow Room. When she asked where he found it, he replied:

            “A midget was dancing in the middle of a Mardi Gras parade, and it reminded me of your sad, pathetic life. I had to have it for you.”

           Andes shares how the hedonistic era had gifts of charm and innocence. While she was embraced and allowed to witness this bacchanal decade, she was also abused, molested, and prostituted before the regulations of child pornography were instigated after Gary Gross and Brooke Shields's “Little Women” judgment. It was only later in life when Andes tried to integrate socially with her peer group that she was called a pathological liar. Her sanity was questioned, and she realized how dysfunctional her childhood was. 

            

PUBLICATIONS

• Los Angeles Times

          Hruby wrote an article about her relations with Robert Mapplethorpe, published by the Los Angeles Times on May 29, 2017.

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• Iowa Review

           Hruby won an Iowa Review Non-Fiction Award for the first chapter of her memoir “The Kitty," Winter 2020

           Judged by Roxane Gay (https://roxanegay.com). As of 2021, “Ro, Roxane Gay Books” is now an imprint of Grove Atlantic.

 

CAST OF CHARACTERS:

  

• Eva (my mother with a back story of being a Himmler Nazi offspring experiment)

• Derek (my deceased father)

• Reginald  Every (my bisexual stepfather (deceased), a former caretaker for Devine)

• The Joyous Lake & Tinker Street Café & Bearsville Studios (Woodstock)

• Tom Eyen (playwright and musical director- Women Behind Bars)

• Devine (Actor)

• Pat Ast (Actor)

• Marvin Hamlisch (Composer)

• Sid & Nancy Vicious (Rockers)

• Eileen Ford (Agent)

• Lauren Hutton (Model who lived below us)

• Brooke Shields (Model)

• Terri Shields (Mother’s best friend)

• Marguerite Ramee (Model-One of the Virginia Slims Models)

• Ricky Schroder (Model)

• Jennifer Connelly (Model-now Academy Award-winning actress)

• Michael O Donoghue (Head writer of Saturday Night Live)

• Blondie (Musician)

• Paul Schaffer (Musician)

• Hugh McCracken (Musician)

• Will Lee (Musician)

• Jim Belushi (Actor)

• Bill Murray (Actor)

• Frank Oz (puppeteer)

• Jim Henson (puppeteer)

• Gary Gross (Photographer)

• Francis Scavullo (Photographer)

• Robert Mapplethorpe (Photographer)

• Marcus Letherdale (Photographer)

• Brice Marden (Artist)

• Jeff Koons (Artists)

• Jamie Dalglish (Multi Media Artist)

• Joan Snitzer (now head of Barnard Art Department)

• Tommy La Morte (Italian Mafia)

• The Captain (Irish Mafia)