Melissa McCarthy and Ben Falcone have boarded “Relighting Candles: The Tim Sullivan Story” as executive producers.
The documentary short, co-directed by Zeberiah Newman (“Unexpected”) and Michiel Thomas (“Game Face”), is a portrait of West Hollywood candlemaker Tim Sullivan. It chronicles the 82-year-old Bronx native’s journey coming out as a gay man, how he got sober more than 40 years ago and his tradition of hiring homeless and newly sober people at his company, Timothy Jay Candles.
McCarthy and Falcone tell me in a statement, “once we heard the lovely story of Tim Sullivan and began to understand how many people he’s helped in his life through the making of beautiful candles, we realized these filmmakers were telling exactly the kind of story we want to help get out into the world.”
McCarthy and Falcone will be honored at Outfest next month with the James Schamus Ally Award. “Relighting Candles” will also screen during the annual Los Angeles LGBTQ festival.
I recently caught up with Sullivan to talk about meeting McCarthy at the WeHo Pride Parade, making candles for Diana Ross to give to Aretha Franklin and the moment he realized he needed to get sober.
What did you think when Zeb came to you and said they’d like to make a documentary about you?
I didn’t know what it could be about. Zeb said basically that he knows the story of the candle shop, but he’d love to get some more information from me as to how this all happened. So I said OK, and then they came to my house one Saturday morning and grilled me and filmed me for eight straight hours.
It was like a big interrogation.
[Laughs]. Yes! But you know, the best part about it was it was all so honest. I had no problem just saying it. That’s what fascinated me. I was amazed that it became so easy to answer these questions because they were all truthful and all that had really happened.
You started making candles more than 25 years ago. What did your friends and family think when you told them you were going to start a candle company?
They thought I was crazy. I started this because one of my [12-step recovery program] sponsees wanted to make a candle and I said, “Wait a minute. When I was in advertising in New York during the real ‘Mad Men’ era, I worked with Lancôme and I worked with Avon products.” I said, “If we’re going to do it, I want to make one that smells the same as the Rigaud green candle that Jackie Kennedy used to burn in her house. I called all my friends in New York and asked me to send me what I needed to make the fragrance. We made it using a double boiler in my kitchen. The fragrance turned out wonderful, but the only problem was I couldn’t get rid of the damn color, which is this light green because of the fragrance. So I renamed it Celadon.
But how did that turn into a business?
My friend had an antique shop in L.A. I had given him some candles. Mercedes Bass was shopping in the store one day and bought something, but they didn’t have a bag for it. She saw a bag with the candles and said, “What about that bag?” The next day, Mrs. Bass’ assistant called me and said she’d like to order 48 candles. I had never made more than about four at a time, but I said, “Can you hold on? I need to check my stock.” [Laughs] That was my first order and I served Mrs. Bass for many years.
When did you start hiring people who were newly in recovery at your shop?
I looked at this kid Brian and I said, “Have you ever done this kind of work?” He said, “No, but I could learn.” And then I just started bringing in other people who were looking for work. I would hear people say, “I need work.” I would just go up to them and ask, “Do you think you could do this?” And then word got around and I was mobbed by people looking for work. It was so wonderful for them. But I also knew I was building a business. These are high-end candles and the business became well known. When Diana Ross received her Kennedy Center Honor in 2007, she asked me to make baskets of candles to thank people who were there. I wrote her a note thanking her for her patronage. She sent back a note to her agent saying, “Please have Mr. Jay, in his lovely handwriting, do another basket and write the following message, ‘Dear Aretha.’” I’m sitting there going, “I don’t believe this. I am writing a note to Aretha Franklin and signing it, Miss Ross!”
What would you say to little Timmy growing up in the Bronx?
I’ve lived two lives. I lived one until my 40th birthday and then the second from 41 on when I got sober. Timmy from the Bronx was one of four boys and he was petrified. I look at the world now where people are living out and proud but we couldn’t tell who we were back then. But then when I finally got into Manhattan after the army and got a good job, I’d be getting off the subway and see all these guys following me. I was like, “Who are these guys?” I found out pretty quickly [laughs] and it wasn’t long before I was taken under their wings. But one morning, I woke up with a terrible hangover and I noticed there was a bench under the window. I knew then that I probably got close to trying to kill myself the night before by jumping out the window. I went to work that day with the hangover and thought, “I’ve got to figure this out.”
I saw on your Instagram that you met Melissa McCarthy at Pride because she was one of the parade’s icons.
I walked right out in the street and right in front of this guard who was watching her. All of a sudden, she caught my eye. Because she’s been looking at this documentary for six months now, she knew who I was. She grabbed my hand and we talked for a minute but then I said, “You can’t stay here. You have to keep going in the parade.” She gave me a big pat on my hand and off she went. It was such a wonderful thrill.
This Q&A has been edited and condensed.
