Dell Williams

Dell Williams (née Zetlin; August 5, 1922 – March 11, 2015) was an American businesswoman.[1][2][3]

In 1945, she enlisted in the Women’s Army Corps. Decades later, she founded the first feminist sex toy business in the United States, Eve's Garden, in New York City in 1974.[1][2][4] Eve's Garden was the first woman-owned and woman-operated sex toy business in America.[5] As Williams put it, "Eve represented all women and the Garden was symbolic of women taking responsibility for their 'own' sexuality."[6]

She was inspired to found the business after she took a “Body/Sex Workshop” by Betty Dodson in New York and afterwards went to buy a Hitachi Magic Wand for use as a vibrator, but found that the salesboy at Macy's asked her nosy questions about it.[1][7][8]

Williams was an actress for a time, and appeared in productions of The Vagina Monologues.[8] Her most notable role may have been in a 1962 film, The Cliff Dwellers, a film which was nominated for an Academy Award. In addition to this, she was a singer, artists’ model, and writer during the 1930s and 1940s, and was later one of the first successful female advertising executives in New York City.[2]

Legacy

In 2005, her memoir, Revolution in the Garden, was published.[2] Some of her papers are held as the Dell Williams Papers in the Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections at the Cornell University Library.[9]

Death

Williams died in Manhattan on March 11, 2015, aged 92. The daughter of Isaac and Sarah (née Bronstein) Zetlin, Williams had been briefly married once, to Ted Willms, a variation of whose surname she retained professionally, although the marriage was annulled. She had no children and left no immediate survivors.[1]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Fox, Margalit (March 14, 2015). "Dell Williams, 92, Founder of Sex Boutique". The New York Times. p. D8. Archived from the original on March 15, 2015. Retrieved March 16, 2015.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Dell Williams & Lynn Vannucci. "Revolution in the Garden (9781596370388)". Amazon.com. Retrieved 2012-11-24.
  3. ↑ Williams, Dell. "United States Public Records Index". familysearch.org. Retrieved December 11, 2013.
  4. ↑ Janet K. Boles & Diane Long Hoeveler. Hd Feminism 2ed(52). Books.google.com. Retrieved 2012-11-24.
  5. ↑ "Official Eve's Garden Website". Retrieved 2014-10-30.
  6. ↑ "Dell Williams profile". Vfa.us. Retrieved 2012-11-24.
  7. ↑ "Dell Williams A Sexual Pioneer for Women". Bitch Lifestyle. 2010-09-28. Retrieved 2012-11-24.
  8. 1 2 "Good Vibes: Eve’s Garden Founder Appears in West Side Benefit for Women". NYPress.com. 2011-04-13. Retrieved 2012-11-24.
  9. ↑ "Guide to the Dell Williams Papers,1922-2008". Rmc.library.cornell.edu. Retrieved 2012-11-24.

Further reading

External links

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