Dell Williams

Dell Williams (née Zetlin; August 5, 1922 – March 11, 2015) was an American businesswoman and advocate of women’s liberation, sexuality, and sexual health.[1][2][3] She was the founder (in 1974) of the first feminist sex toy business in the U.S., Eve's Garden, in New York City.[1][2][4] It was the first woman-owned and woman-operated sex toy business in America.[5]

Career

In 1945, she enlisted in the Women's Army Corps. In 1974, she founded the first feminist sex toy business in the U.S., Eve's Garden, in New York City.[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 a nosy question about it.[1][7][8] Williams also attributed the founding of the store to having read Wilhelm Reich's The Function of the Orgasm in her early twenties.[9]

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]

Personal life

She was the daughter of Isaac and Sarah (née Bronstein) Zetlin. She was briefly married once, to Ted Willms, a variation of whose surname she retained professionally although the marriage was annulled. She had no children.[1]

Williams died in Manhattan on March 11, 2015, age 92.[1]

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 Human Sexuality Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections at the Cornell University Library.[10]

References
  1. Fox, Margalit (March 14, 2015). "Dell Williams, 92, Founder of Sex Boutique". The New York Times.
  2. Dell Williams & Lynn Vannucci (2005). Revolution in the Garden (9781596370388). ISBN 1596370386.
  3. Williams, Dell. "United States Public Records Index". familysearch.org. Retrieved December 11, 2013.
  4. Janet K. Boles & Diane Long Hoeveler (2004). Hd Feminism 2ed(52). ISBN 9780810849464. 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. "Good Vibes: Eve's Garden Founder Appears in West Side Benefit for Women". NYPress.com. 2011-04-13. Archived from the original on 2013-12-14. Retrieved 2012-11-24.
  9. Williams, Dell (August 1990). "The Roots of the Garden". The Journal of Sex Research. 27 (3, Feminist Perspectives on Sexuality. Part 2): 461–466. doi:10.1080/00224499009551572. JSTOR 3812814.
  10. "Guide to the Dell Williams Papers,1922-2008". Rmc.library.cornell.edu. Retrieved 2012-11-24.

Further reading
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