Elizabeth Eden
{{short description|American transgender woman (1946–1987)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=November 2022}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Elizabeth Eden
| image = ElizabethDebbieEden.jpg
| image_size =
| caption = Elizabeth Debbie Eden
| birth_name = Ernest Aron
| birth_date = {{birth date|1946|8|19|mf=yes}}
| birth_place = New York City, U.S.
| death_date = {{death date and age|1987|9|29|1946|8|19|mf=yes}}
| death_place = Rochester, New York, U.S.
}}
Elizabeth Debbie Eden (born August 19, 1946 – September 29, 1987) was an American transgender woman whose husband, John Wojtowicz, attempted a bank robbery, allegedly to pay for her gender-affirming surgery. The incident was adapted into the crime drama film Dog Day Afternoon (1975), directed by Sidney Lumet.{{cite news
|title=Elizabeth Eden, Transsexual Who Figured in Movie
|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/10/01/obituaries/elizabeth-eden-transsexual-who-figured-in-1975-movie.html
|work=The New York Times
|date=October 1, 1987
|url-access=subscription
|url-status=live
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090514052511/https://www.nytimes.com/1987/10/01/obituaries/elizabeth-eden-transsexual-who-figured-in-1975-movie.html
|archive-date=May 14, 2009
|access-date=May 4, 2018}} The character Leon Shermer, played by Chris Sarandon, is loosely based on Eden.{{Cite journal| last1 = Photos | first1 = Lisa| title = The Dog and the Last Real Man| journal = Journal of Bisexuality| volume = 3| issue = 2| pages = 43–68| year = 2003 | doi = 10.1300/J159v03n02_04| s2cid = 146591289}}
Biography
= Early life =
Eden was born on August 19, 1946, in Ozone Park, Queens.{{cite news
|title=Ernest Aron Became Elizabeth Eden: AIDS Kills Woman Behind 'Dog Day'
|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1987-09-30-mn-7384-story.html
|work=Los Angeles Times
|date=September 30, 1987
|agency=Associated Press
|url-access=subscription
|url-status=live
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190331142556/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1987-09-30-mn-7384-story.html
|archive-date=March 31, 2019
|access-date=December 21, 2013}} She was Jewish.
= Relationship with Wojtowicz =
In 1971, she and Wojtowicz met at the Feast of San Gennaro in New York City. The two, Elizabeth in a bridal gown and John in military attire, wed in a public ceremony that year. The wedding received widespread attention in local media, even being featured on a segment of Walter Cronkite's news show, CBS Evening News.{{cite magazine |date=April 2, 2022 |title=Who Was Elizabeth Eden? |url=https://tribunemag.co.uk/2022/04/dog-day-afternoon-liz-eden-littlejohn-basso-al-pacino-trans-history |last=Hoad| first=J. N. |access-date=April 9, 2022 |magazine=Tribune |language=en-GB}}
Following a series of suicide attempts, which Wojtowicz attributed to Eden's despondency over her inability to afford gender-reassignment surgery, Eden was admitted to a psychiatric institution.
The following year, on August 22, 1972, Wojtowicz attempted to rob a Chase Manhattan bank branch in Gravesend, Brooklyn. He claimed that he attempted the robbery in order to obtain funds so that Eden could have surgery. However, the claim was disputed by some, with Arthur Bell, a respected Village Voice columnist and investigative journalist who knew Wojtowicz, stating that the robbery was due to Wojtowicz's debts to the Mafia. Wojtowicz had also previously expressed opposition to Eden's desire to undergo surgery. Eden was not aware of the plan. Wojtowicz was sentenced to 20 years, but released in 1978. Wojtowicz did two more stretches in prison for parole violations in 1984 and 1986–87. He said he was released in April 1987, and Eden visited him in New York about once a month.
The film Dog Day Afternoon shows Sonny (the Wojtowicz character) making out a will to give Leon (Eden's character) his life insurance so that even if he were killed, "Leon" could pay for the operation. The real-life Wojtowicz was paid $7500, plus 1% of the film's net profits, for the rights to his story, from which he gave Eden enough money to pay for the surgery.
= Later life =
Following her gender-affirming surgery, Eden legally married someone else, then divorced.
Eden died of AIDS-related pneumonia on September 29, 1987, aged 41, at Genesee Hospital in Rochester, New York.
Legacy
Her personal papers and photographs were donated posthumously to the National Archive of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender History at the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center in New York, on June 14, 1990.{{cite web | archive-date=December 17, 2003 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20031217003529/http://www.gaycenter.org/resources/archive/collection/006 | url=http://www.gaycenter.org/resources/archive/collection/006 | title=Liz Eden Papers | publisher=Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Center |date=1986 | access-date=August 8, 2009}}
After her death, she was adapted as a character in the Drunk History episode "Love," telling the story of her romance with Wojtowicz and the robbery that followed it. She was portrayed by trans actress Trace Lysette.{{cite web |last=Hogan|first=Heather|date=13 February 2019|title="Pop Culture Fix: Alison Brie and Sugar Lyn Beard are Edie Windsor and Thea Spyer on 'Drunk History'|url=https://www.autostraddle.com/pop-culture-fix-alison-brie-and-sugar-lyn-beard-are-edie-windsor-and-thea-spyer-on-drunk-history|website=Autostraddle|location=|publisher=|access-date=19 April 2025}}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [http://www.gaycenter.org/community/archive/collection/006 Liz Eden (Ernest Aron) Papers] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080918022227/http://www.gaycenter.org/community/archive/collection/006 |date=September 18, 2008 }} via LGBT Community Center New York
- {{IMDb name|6683406|Liz Debbie Eden}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Eden, Elizabeth}}
Category:AIDS-related deaths in New York (state)
Category:LGBTQ people from New York (state)
Category:American transgender women
Category:People from Ozone Park, Queens
Category:Deaths from pneumonia in New York (state)
Category:20th-century American LGBTQ people