She was diagnosed with AIDS, then only a newly recognized disease. As her condition worsened, she was transferred to Philadelphia's Hahnemann University Hospital. Her mother stayed with her day and night, allowing barely anyone to see her. By this time, AIDS had taken a toll on her body, and her once beautiful face was vanishing. "She wanted to get the hell out of there, but I kept having to tell her, that even if we made it as far as the elevator, she would be dead," her mother recalled. "And that's when I knew. I knew she'd never be able to come home."On November 18, 1986 at 10 a.m., 26-year-old Gia Carangi died.Her funeral was held on November 23 at a small funeral home in Philadelphia. Some of her old friends from Philadelphia chose not to attend, David Crawford went to see her at Philadelphia's Hahnemann University Hospital alot late at night but did not attend also! Gia Friends was anger at her mother for not allowing anyone to see her! Nobody from the fashion world attended. However, weeks later, Francesco Scavullo sent a Mass card when he heard the news. "We were hysterically crying in the studio when we heard," he recalled. "I loved her. I could cry now, just talking about her." Dave Crawford will not talk about his life with Gia at all! David Crawford dose have a room pack with Gia's personal stuff, She left alot over the years at his home, its was so cool to hold and see Gia's state photo ID card, 40 dress, 60 pair of shoes, her make up, her Social Security card and more all own now by Dave! It was all Gia's and over the years Gia would always forget some idem at Daves Home in NJ or NY and over time Dave would just thow it in the room, When Gia Die Dave moved to NC to start over, at that time he had the room box up and all the idems went with him to NC.
In 1981, Carangi dropped from the face of the fashion world. She enrolled in a 21-day detox program, and reportedly started dating a college student named Rochelle (her real name was Elyssa Stewart — she used an alias when interviewed by Stephen Fried for Thing of Beauty). The Carangi family and Gia's mother had always suspected that Rochelle had a drug problem, and brother Michael even recalls being offered some by Rochelle. With Rochelle by her side, Carangi's recovery failed. In 1981, she moved out of her mother's house and in with David Crawford, But Gia once again entering a detox program a fue weeks later.Her attempt to quit drugs was shattered when news that good friend and fashion photographer Chris von Wangenheim had died in a car accident. It is said that Carangi locked herself in Dave Crawford bathroom for hours why she was shooting heroin. David now lives in Greensboro NC He was just one of her lovers from her pass, Dave was seen alot with Gia and more. In the fall of 1981, she looked far different from the top model she once had been. However, she was still determined to make a comeback in the fashion industry. She contacted Monique Pillard (who was largely responsible for Janice Dickinson's career), who was hesitant to sign her. “She was sitting in my chair and I said, ‘Gia, I want to represent you so badly and everything, but I hear a lot of negative stories about you.’ And I remember I asked her ‘well, why are you wearing such a long shirt? Can I see your arms?’ And she said ‘No!’ And she held on to her shirt and she said to me, ‘Do you want to represent me or not?’For her second time, Carangi received the harsh treatment she skipped last time. Nobody would book her. Desperate, she turned to good friend Scavullo. She landed a Cosmo cover, a gift from Scavullo. At that time, even he knew she had no career left. “It made me very sad, I had a tough time that day because I really wanted it to be her best cover and it wasn’t; it just couldn’t be. No matter how hard I tried it just couldn’t happen. That wonderful spirit she had was gone,†says Scavullo. Many believe that Carangi's arms were placed behind her back because of all the track marks, but Scavullo has denied the rumors. Shot in the winter of 1982, it would be her last cover.In West Germany, a budding fashion industry was being created. Although seen as tacky by the designers from New York, Paris and Milan, the Germans were willing to pay 10,000 marks a week to shoot Carangi abroad. However, no one in the states would book her. In the spring of 1983, she was caught with drugs in a shoot in Africa. Her career was over.Carangi moved back in with Rochelle, and after pressures from her family she entered a drug-rehabilitation program again at Eagleville Hospital. Another patient, Fay, became close to her. Although rumors among the other patients said that Fay was romantically interested with her, Fay claimed it was just a friendship. "She was really the only person I was real close to at the time." After six months, she was released from the program. She moved back to Philadelphia, and it seemed as if she was getting her life back on track. She started taking classes in photography and cinematography. But, three months later, she had vanished once again, and had returned to Atlantic City, and started shooting heroin again. She sexually prostituted herself and was raped on several occasions. She soon became sick with pneumonia, and her mother came and checked her into a hospital.
On January 29 of 1960, the Carangis embraced their first baby girl; they named her Gia Marie Carangi and from the day she was born she was special. Gia's brother, Joe, remembers in an interview for the E! True Hollywood Story, "She had a special place being a girl. She had a little canopy bed with the dolls all over the place. She was an average little girl, that’s how I remember her."Gia Carangi grew up in the outskirts of Philadelphia, where her father, Joe, owned a string of hoagie shops. Her mother, Kathleen took care of the kids. Despite the normal family appearances, their home-life was turbulent. Gia’s parents argued constantly, "Gia and I used to sit on top of the steps every night and listen to them fight, and we hated it," said her brother Michael Carangi. By 1971, Kathleen moved out, leaving her husband and her children; Gia was only eleven.For Gia, who was extremely close to her mother, Kathleen's actions were heartbreaking. Though Gia wanted her parents back together, Kathleen remarried a year later, shattering any hopes that Gia would ever have a normal family life again. Gia's early teens were anything but ideal. She bounced between two households, and received very little attention from the people around her, which meant that – with no discipline - she was able to do whatever she wanted
Designers and cosmetic firms she represented Body Basics Christian Dior Cutex Diane von Fürstenberg Giorgio Armani Lancetti Levis Maybelline Perry Ellis Versace Vidal Sassoon Yves Saint Laurent
In April 1988, Kathleen Carangi appeared on the morning show AM Philadelphia, after they aired a segment about AIDS. It was a move that shocked the family. Gia's father called Rochelle to let her know about the show. "I had run into him in the casino before that," she recalled. "He just gave me a big hug and a kiss and he started crying. He knew Kathleen. He knew she'd do anything to get on TV. She wanted to be the model, the superstar. Now she was doing it through Gia's death In 1986, Cindy Crawford was brought to New York by Monique Pillard. She was a sensation, but she knew little about the people who had paved the way for her exotic looks. Had she never received the nickname Baby Gia, Crawford would have had no idea about either Dickinson or Carangi, who paved the way for exotic-looking models. "But [I'm] more wholesome" Crawford pointed out, "She was wild. Completely opposite me. She'd leave a booking in the clothes to buy cigarettes and not come back for hours." After a long pause, Crawford stated, "She's not living anymore A 1993 biography by Stephen Fried and a biographical film, Gia, which debuted on HBO in 1998, brought her back to the public's attention. Angelina Jolie played Carangi in the movie.In 1996, actress-screenwriter Zoë Tamerlis (a.k.a. Zoë Lund, Bad Lieutenant), herself a heroin addict who would die of drug-related causes in 1999, was commissioned to write a screenplay based upon Carangi's life. This version of Gia was not produced, but after Tamerlis' death, footage of her discussing Carangi's life was incorporated into a documentary entitled The Self-Destruction of Gia.
Magazine Listings American Vogue10/78 Vogue debut.11/78 Calvin Klein slip-dress with sunglasses.1/79 Infamous fence shot by Chris von Wangenheim.2/79 Desert shots by Von Wangenheim.5/79 Mexico shots with Janice Dickinson and Patti Hansen, shot by Mike Reinhardt.9/79 Studio 54 shots by Patrick Demarchelier.10/79 Paris Collection shots.11/79 Special Diane von Fürstenberg ads by Chris von Wangenheim.2/80 Shot of Gia watering a plant by Denis Piel.3/80 Editorial precursors to Versace ads by Richard Avedon.5/80 Francesco Scuvallo shots with Kim Alexis from St. Barts.7/80 Scavullo's favorite shot of Gia.8/80 Cover and editorial by Richard Avedon.11/80 Infamous track-mark editorial by Francesco Scavullo.9/82 Last Vogue Shot.Glamour6/798/79British Vogue4/79 Cover and editorial photographed by Alex Chatelain.French Vogue3/79 Famous cross-dressing editorial by Helmut Newton.4/79 Cover by Helmut Newton.9/79 Christian Dior Boutique ads by Denis Piel.8/80 Cover by Albert Watson.Italian Vogue3/79 Editorial by Francois Lamy.1, 2, 3/80 Armani ads by Fallai on the back covers.4/80 Gia in a group Armani ad by Fallai.5/80 Versace ads by Richard Avedon.2/81 Cover.German Vogue10/79 Piel collection shots, outakes from American Vogue.4/80 Florida Shots by John Stember.12/83, Leder+Pelz supplement Gia's last appearance in a fashion magazine. 2 pages by Albert Watson.American Harper's Bazaar8/799/7910/7911/79American Cosmopolitan4/79 Cover by Francesco Scavullo.7/79 Cover by Francesco Scavullo.1/80 Cover by Francesco Scavullo.7/80 Cover by Francesco Scavullo.4/82 Cover, the gift from Francesco Scuvallo.Italian Harpers Bazaar.7-8/78 (double issue) Citicorp building editorial by Chris von Wangenheim.
please Subscribe to my Blog! Gia Marie Carangi (January 29, 1960 – November 18, 1986) was a supermodel of the late 1970s and early 1980s. Carangi, who was of Italian, Welsh and Irish ancestry, was a prototype of the Cindy Crawford "Supermodel" era, who also appeared on the covers of several fashion publications of her time.Fashion magazines featuring covers of Carangi included Vogue, April 1, 1979; Vogue Paris, April 1979; American Vogue, August 1980; Vogue Paris, August 1980; Italian Vogue, January 1981; and several issues of Cosmopolitan between 1979 and 1982.After becoming addicted to drugs, Carangi's modelling career was ruined. She became infected with HIV and was among the first widely publicised cases of death from AIDS-related complications.Gia's Words: You know, I thank God that I'm good-looking, or that people think I'm good-looking. tht gia for you! gia was my sloe mate and I have learned from her,laughed with her, celebrated with her, made love to her and cried with her. She is not only a part of my pass but my life, she is a part of my heart and sole even to this day and will be till my death! GIA DEAR 20+ YEARS HAVE PASS AND I LOVE YOU AS I TOLD YOU THEN! till death and pass your my lover! VNV NATION SONG CHOME made to rember Miss Gia Marie Carangi! please play, the world sound so much like the out look she had on life total! all trueGia's Mother Breaks Her Silence In The National Enquirer 07/17/2001 Exclusive Enquirer Interview: Tragic Beauty's Mom Breaks Her Silence! Stunning beauty Gia attracted many lovers - both men and women. Party girl's 'love affair' with heroin ended her dreams, then AIDS ended her life at 26. Cover girl Gia, shown here in 1980 at age 20 with her mom Kathy, graced some of world's top magazines. Sexy Angelina Jolie's portrayal of Gia in TV movie made Gia's mom Kathy livid. "Gia wasn't the person Angelina played," she says. Signed modeling portrait shows Gia's love for her mom Kathy. "They called her a supermodel, but she was just a kid," says Kathy.* ..............."The Mother of Gia, the world's first supermodel, has finally broken her silence - to speak out about her daughter's tragic death. In a heartbreakingly frank exclusive Enquirer interview, Kathy Sperr detailed Gia's descent from the cover of Vogue and the fashion catwalks of New York and Europe to a career destroying addiction to heroin and a headline making death at just 26 - one of the first women ever to die of AIDS. "I was with her to the end", she said. "I was reading the 23rd Psalm to her, and as I got to the words, 'Yea, though I walk through the shadow of the valley of death,' suddenly out of the corner of my eye I saw one of the machines she was hooked up to going haywire - and I knew my baby was gone." "Gia's fast life and sad times were chronicled in a best selling book and an HBO TV movie. Superstar actress Angelina Jolie starred and received an Emmy nomination for her portrayal of the hottest cover girl of the 1970's. Even though she hated the movie, Kathy, 65, stayed silent about it. "It was torture," she told the Enquirer. "I was livid because Gia wasn't the person Angelina played and I certainly wasn't the horrible mother people wrote about. The hurt will never end - but now it's time to tell the truth." Kathy is also working with the producers of a new documentary, "The Self-Destruction Of Gia," released August 2001. Off the catwalk, where she made $10,000 a day, the popular young beauty glittered in the celebrity studded spotlight of Studio 54, New York's most glamorous nightclub and a hotbed of drugs and sex. She had a long procession of lovers - many of them women. "She partied with some of the most famous celebrities in the world," said Kathy. "She told me Jack Nicholson gave her the key to his hotel room one night - but she didn't use it." Gia had been the toast of New York for two years when Kathy first suspected that drugs had taken over her daughter's life. "She was missing work and was irritable," she explained. "I tried to get her help, but no one wanted to deal with heroin addicts. Addiction experts told me, 'You can't help her - just save yourself.' Kathy tried to counsel Gia herself - to no avail. By 1984 Gia hit bottom. Her career was in ruins .Kathy finally persuaded her to go into rehab. It was June 1986 and Gia had been diagnosed with AIDS. Within five months the once brightest flame in the fashion world would be extinguished forever. "AIDS had always been in the back of my mind because of her using needles - but she was a woman and back then AIDS didn't happen to women," said Kathy. "We sat in the park and talked. We both knew she wasn't long for this world. Gia suddenly blurted out, 'I overdosed three times - why did God save me then, only to have me go like this?' After that, with every breath you could see her slipping away." "Gia's face was beautiful to the end. She'd gotten a renewed faith in God. She had a portrait of Jesus pinned to her bedroom door. Just before she was hooked up to life support four weeks before her death, Gia turned to her mother and spoke her last words. "She said, 'I think I'm going to see HIM tonight,' said Kathy. I said, No, no, stay here for Mommy. But I knew she was leaving me." .......................................... WE NEVER DIE! NEVER FORGET IT, WE ARE JUST TRAP IN PASS OF OUR FILE TIME! NOW THE ANCER IS HOW DO YOU GO BACK IN TIME TO SAVE US OUT OF THE PASS SO WE CAN LIFE AGAIN?NOTE FROM THE PRIVATE LOG BOOK OF ALBERT EINSTEIN MAY 10 1969 .......................NOTE: If you are feeling suicidal now, please stop long enough to read this. It will only take about five minutes. I do not want to talk you out of your bad feelings. I am not a therapist or other mental health professional - only someone who knows what it is like to be in pain.I don’t know who you are, or why you are reading this page. I only know that for the moment, you’re reading it, and that is good. I can assume that you are here because you are troubled and considering ending your life. If it were possible, I would prefer to be there with you at this moment, to sit with you and talk, face to face and heart to heart. But since that is not possible, we will have to make do with this.I have known a lot of people who have wanted to kill themselves, so I have some small idea of what you might be feeling. I know that you might not be up to reading a long book, so I am going to keep this short. While we are together here for the next five minutes, I have five simple, practical things I would like to share with you. I won’t argue with you about whether you should kill yourself. But I assume that if you are thinking about it, you feel pretty bad.Well, you’re still reading, and that’s very good. I’d like to ask you to stay with me for the rest of this page. I hope it means that you’re at least a tiny bit unsure, somewhere deep inside, about whether or not you really will end your life. Often people feel that, even in the deepest darkness of despair. Being unsure about dying is okay and normal. The fact that you are still alive at this minute means you are still a little bit unsure. It means that even while you want to die, at the same time some part of you still wants to live. So let’s hang on to that, and keep going for a few more minutes.You are not a bad person, or crazy, or weak, or flawed, because you feel suicidal. It doesn’t even mean that you really want to die - it only means that you have more pain than you can cope with right now. If I start piling weights on your shoulders, you will eventually collapse if I add enough weights... no matter how much you want to remain standing. Willpower has nothing to do with it. Of course you would cheer yourself up, if you could Don’t accept it if someone tells you, “that’s not enough to be suicidal about.†There are many kinds of pain that may lead to suicide. Whether or not the pain is bearable may differ from person to person. What might be bearable to someone else, may not be bearable to you. The point at which the pain becomes unbearable depends on what kinds of coping resources you have. Individuals vary greatly in their capacity to withstand pain. WHAT WAS Studio 54 ??????????? well Studio 54 was a legendary New York City disco located at 254 West 54th Street in Manhattan. It opened on April 26, 1977 and closed in March 1986.Early years The theater originated as the Gallo Opera House in 1927, and over the course of the next decade changed its name several times. It became known as the New Yorker Theatre in 1930, the Casino de Paris in 1933, the Palladium Theater in 1936 and the Federal Music Theater in 1937. Later in 1937, the name was changed back to the New Yorker Theater. This name would remain until CBS purchased the facility in the 1950s, renaming it Studio 52.From the 1950s to the mid-1970s, CBS used the location as a radio and TV stage that housed such shows as What's My Line?, The $64,000 Question, Password, Beat the Clock, The Jack Benny Show, I've Got a Secret, and Captain Kangaroo. The soap opera Love of Life was produced there until 1975. In 1976, CBS concentrated most of its New York broadcast functions around the corner to its storied Ed Sullivan Theater (CBS-TV Studio 50) or west to the CBS Broadcast Center, and sold Studio 52. The Ed Sullivan Theater once had access to Studio 54 through an access door which was cinder-blocked during the Theater's Letterman Renovation [1]. The building was purchased and renamed for its street address, 254 West 54th Street, a location already noted for another tenant in the building, famed disco record label West End Records.Studio 54 was operated by the flamboyant, publicly visible Steve Rubell and retiring silent partner Ian Schrager. Hedonistic Rubell was known for hand selecting guests from the always huge crowds outside, mixing beautiful "nobodies" with glamorous celebrities in the same venue. "Studio", as it came to be called, was notorious for the hedonism that went on within; the balconies were known for sexual encounters, and drug use was rampant. Its dance floor was decorated with a depiction of a Man in the Moon that included an animated coke spoon.In 1979, Rubell and Schrager were arrested for skimming $2.5 million, and the club was closed with one final party called "The End of Modern-day Gomorrah," on February 4, 1980. New York lawyer Gary Naftalis successfully represented Schrager in the ensuing tax evasion prosecution. After the club's closing, cocaine and money were found in its walls.The club reopened on September 12, 1981, when it was bought for $5 million by restaurant and nightclub owner Mark Fleischman. Celebrities continued to frequent the club, though the level of sensationalism was far toned down from its original levels. This second incarnation closed down in March, 1986, due to changing tastes.In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the venue was known as The Ritz, and hosted rock concerts. In 1994, after becoming a strip club for a few years, the club finally reopened with much fanfare with a live concert by disco stars Gloria Gaynor, Vicki Sue Robinson, and Sister Sledge. The club again went into bankruptcy the following year until 1998, when it was acquired by the Roundabout Theater Company and renamed The Roundabout Theater at Studio 54 In 1998, Roundabout staged a revival of the Broadway musical Cabaret, which played at the theater until 2004. Later, the theater hosted revivals of the Stephen Sondheim musicals Assassins and Pacific Overtures. In 2005, the Roundabout housed a revival of Tennessee Williams immortal drama A Streetcar Named Desire starring John C. Reilly and Natasha Richardson. 2006 welcomed revival of Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht's Threepenny Opera starring Alan Cumming and Cyndi Lauper.The second floor of the theater is still used as a nightclub on weeks when plays are not being staged; when it does so it operates under the name Upstairs at Studio 54. In recent years, singers such as Gloria Estefan have performed there as a tour stop. There have also been huge, and very popular, "disco parties" held there. The most notable of these well attended nights were held in 2004 and 2005.After the New York club closed down in 1995, Studio 54 moved to Las Vegas, located at the MGM Grand. Designed to be a replica of the original club, it has most of the original elements and equipment, including the "Man in the Moon" and the spoon - however the two are never displayed together. The club was visited on opening night by Elton John, one of the most frequent guests at the original location.It has since become one of Las Vegas' most popular dance clubs, with a reputation for a strict door policy, but not as strict as the original's. However, the newer site is cause for contention amongst fans of the original location, who have charged that the Las Vegas venue is nothing more than Studio 54 in name only.The venue is mentioned in the Welsh band Stereophonics' song "Vegas Two Times", from the 2001 record Just Enough Education To Perform.In January 2005, MGM announced that they were scouting for the proper location in Berlin, Germany to open Studio 54 Berlin. The project is lead by Joseph Jackson, father of Michael and Janet.The plans for a second continuously-operating Studio 54 has caused fans of the original to charge that MGM is only interested in the commercialization and franchising of the Studio 54 name, and that these clubs will be nothing more than regular discotheques with the Studio 54 name