The Andy Warhol Diaries

by Andy Warhol

  Thursday, November 16, 1978

  At the T-shirt promotion thing for Viva/Penthouse at Tavern on the Green the blond Smothers Brother—they’re on Broadway in I Love My Wife—came over and said, “Hi Andy, how are ya.” And then later when I went to the phone and tried to call the office, he was waiting for the phone, too. He talked about himself and said he didn’t feel he was creative anymore and that it was probably because he was secure, and he asked me how I felt, and I said that I wasn’t creative since I was shot, because after that I stopped seeing creepy people. Then a kid said to him, “Don’t you remember me? I was so-and-so’s chauffeur and also the first houseboy to work in the Sharon Tate house after the murders.” Isn’t that a great line.

  There’s a rumor that Viva is about to fold.

  Saturday, November 18, 1978

  It was a beautiful day, in the seventies. I watched people on pogo sticks in the park.

  Sunday, November 19, 1978

  Stevie Rubell had called me earlier and asked if I wanted to go with Diana Ross to a midnight concert at the Palace that a couple who wrote songs for her were giving. Ashford and Simpson. We limoed to the Palace Theater and went to the dressing room. The husband is really good-looking and the wife is cute. When the audience saw Diana, the whole place mobbed her. There were four bodyguards with us, all the blacks just love her. The Wiz is a big hit, I didn’t know that. The concert was sensational, there were bravos.

  Then there was a Valentino party at 54. I guess Stevie was trying to make it a really bad party, because he had the waiters dressed up like Pilgrims and he was serving turkey. He said he had to explain to Valentino why he was doing it that way. He said he told him, “Well, you know America was discovered by an Italian,” and he said that they (laughs) understood. The front of Studio 54 was decorated like the front of a boat. I lost Halston but I found him a little later eating a turkey leg, and he made me have some. The last place you want to eat meat from is a discotheque, but later I saw Stevie eating the turkey, too, so I guess it was okay. Barbara Allen was there, going home to meet Bryan Ferry.

  Monday, November 20, 1978

  Truman’s going on The Stanley Siegel Show again, but only because it’s taped this time.

  Viva magazine did fold and now Catherine’s out in the cold.

  Tuesday, November 21, 1978

  Thomas Ammann had called and invited me to dinner with Cy Twombly. And then Bob got invited. Thomas asked me where we should go. I told him about the Palace—that restaurant on 59th Street in the Sovereign that’s been in the papers for a year or so, that’s supposed to be so expensive—I told him it was $300 per person and he laughed and said it couldn’t be that much, that that was fine and that’s where we’d go. And then Thomas called Barbara Allen and she was with Taki Theodoracopulos so they came.

  The Palace had a crocheted curtain in the window, it looked like a place that gave palm readings. We were the only ones in the place, but there were about eighteen people running around to serve. The look was like going to the tackiest person’s apartment who’s trying to put on the dog. Like going to Barbra Streisand’s house. West Side taste. Every table was under a chandelier, and the dishes had gold trim on them, that kind of thing. But the food was good. There were eight courses. The bill came to $914 and I think it shocked Thomas. I really think he was really shocked. Because after he saw the bill, he stopped making fun of the meal.

  Wednesday, November 22, 1978

  The big news for the past two days is the mass suicide in Guyana of a cult led by somebody named Jim Jones. It’s costing the U.S. government $8 million to remove all the bodies and bring them back. They’d put cyanide in grape-flavored Kool-Aid. (laughs) Just think, if they’d used Campbell’s Soup I’d be so famous, I’d be on every news show, everyone would be asking me about it. But Kool-Aid was always a hippie thing.

  Thursday, November 23, 1978

  I watched the Thanksgiving Day parade on TV. I guess New York really is booming—when you think that every member of every marching band has to stay in a hotel room overnight. I glued myself together and went down to work (cab $3.50). There was nobody around.

  I went over to Halston’s for Thanksgiving dinner.

  And meanwhile all this holiday they’re still finding more and more bodies in Guyana. They must have known that there were 900. Why were they covering it up in the beginning? How come we didn’t hear about these people before?

  Sunday, November 26, 1978

  I called Bob and he was grouchy, he said he couldn’t talk because he was writing his “Out” column. I don’t know what he’s so grouchy for, it’s the only writing he does all month.

  I went to church, it was so beautiful and cold out. Then I worked. I drew earths and moons and watched TV.

  Monday, November 27, 1978

  The exciting news story was that the mayor of San Francisco was shot and it sounded at first like it was something to do with the Jim Jones cult, but then it wasn’t, it was by a good-looking guy who even looked like a newsman.

  Wednesday, November 29, 1978

  Went to the Coronet Theater to a screening. The Deer Hunter was the new kind of movie—three hours of watching torture. It took place in Clairton, Pennsylvania, where all my cousins are from, and in the movie they said it was Russian-Polish, but that was just to make it more something, because it was really Czechoslovakian. It had John Savage, and lots of good-looking kids.

  It starts off, it’s three buddies drinking. For a whole hour it’s the Polish wedding, and they could have cut it, but it was fun—so real and so beautiful. It shows a new kind of people in the movies that haven’t been shown before, so it’s really good. Then they go shooting some deer, so you know that from there it’s going to cut to Vietnam. In the end Chris Walken puts the gun to his head and shoots himself dead and Bobby De Niro grabs his hand and says, “Oh, darling, I love you, I love you,” holding his bleeding head, something like that.

  I saw the Daily News girl, Liz Smith. No photographers took pictures of me, so I guess I’m not so much now.

  Oh, and Arthur Miller was at the screening. It was interesting to see him. He’s very good-looking. I guess people like that work at it, the rich-kind-of-Jewish look. Like I saw on one of the morning shows this twenty-six-year-old kid named I think Schwartz who talked like a Kennedy, he was a councilman or something. Arthur Miller looked refined, and a straighter face than Richard Avedon, but like that. Like a Lehman. I guess they marry good-looking wives and get good-looking children.

  The news the night before showed pictures of all the houses that people had signed over to the People’s Temple when they joined. Oh God, that’s the hardest thing, how could people give away their things?

  Thursday, November 30, 1978

  I was invited to Valentino’s dinner for Marisa Berenson. Walked over to the Mayfair House to Le Cirque. Lee Radziwill and Peter Tufo were there and André Oliver and Baryshnikov. The card next to me said “Jessica” and it turned out to be Jessica Lange, who’s now going with Baryshnikov. And when she arrived I said, “I’ve heard so much about you,” and she said the same thing. She was good friends with Cory Tippin and Jay Johnson and Tom Cashin and Antonio Lopez. She said she’d stayed out in our Montauk house when Tom and Jay were out there painting and roofing. She said that Dino De Laurentiis didn’t even offer her another part for a year and a half after King Kong, so now she’s going to do a part in the new Bob Fosse film—it sounds like it’s just a small part, though.

  Friday, December 1, 1978

  Everyone was working, getting ready for the cocktail party Bob was giving at the office before his dinner for Elizinha Goncalves at 65 Irving. They were rearranging furniture and clearing things off and Vincent went out to stock up. Tommy Pashun came down with flowers.

  Stevie gave me a Quaalude and Halston said, “For the box, for the box.” Victor’s told him about my system, how I drop everything people give me or that I get in the mail into a box at the office. Victor used to bring me some of Ha
lston’s notes like from Jackie O., but then Halston realized he should start saving them himself. These ladies really do write notes—when do they find time? And I’m invited to Jackie O.’s Christmas party again. We must be on somebody else’s list, though, not hers. Because we weren’t invited to the party Jackie gave last week. Robert Kennedy, Jr. told Fred that they had a big question about whether to invite us and decided not to. Jackie really is awful, I guess. She invited Jann Wenner and Clay Felker. Them she invited.

  Sunday, December 3, 1978

  Taki had told me that Barbara Allen made him so jealous on the phone implying that there was somebody there with her, that he went over to her house in the middle of the night and knocked her door down, and there was nobody in there. She did that to somebody else, too, that nice English guy who came all the way over here because he saw her picture and he beat her door down and there was nobody there then, either.

  Halston and Stevie Rubell gave Bianca a beautiful fur coat. Dr. Giller paid for the collar, and Halston and Steve paid for the rest of the coat. It cost $30,000 or $40,000. I’m surprised they didn’t ask me to give her an arm. (laughs) And Halston said, “I think everyone should have furs, jewels, and Andy Warhol paintings.”

  Tuesday, December 5, 1978

  Doug Christmas came to the office with a rich lady named Connie from Texas. He’d flown in just for the day to take her back because he feels real money there. Cabbed to meet them ($4).

  She wants a life-size portrait. Her girlfriend is the lady with the Kimbell Museum that I did, I can’t remember her name, and she says she doesn’t want a big head like I usually paint—she wants something different, a life-size portrait. She said she turned down Jackie O.’s portrait guy —what’s his name? Is it Shickler? And she said that if I’m going to do her portrait we have to “get to know each other.” OH GOD, OH GOD! She invited me to the $3 million house she’s building in Fort Worth. When she kept talking about getting to know us, I finally ran away. Then Fred ran away. But then we came back.

  Victor called and said he was on his way to Caracas and I told him, “Don’t do it, Victor, don’t do it.” I think he might get stopped at the border, it’s too dangerous. I’m afraid he’s going to try something.

  I was invited over to William F. Buckley’s for music at 6:00, they have things like that.

  Wednesday, December 6, 1978

  These kids we hire at the office are just hopeless. For the first four weeks Robyn’s worked there he was depositing his paycheck by mistake back into the office’s account! He has his checking account in the same bank, and instead of writing his own account number on the deposit slips, he was writing the account number off the check he was depositing onto his deposit slip! Vincent had to explain it to him.

  Friday, December 8, 1978

  Jackie Curtis came up. He made this point of calling a week in advance to make an appointment to come up and see me, and he was supposed to bring one other person. Well, it was like old times. Jackie arrived with fifteen people. Two were photographers and he had David Dalton who’s writing a book on him, and Jackie had no teeth and he’s fat, and he’s on amphetamines again. But he’s still so clever. Somebody clever has to do something with him, figure out how to use his talent. I thought maybe now that we have Ivan Karp and Truman writing for Interview that we could serialize Jackie’s book, but I brought them in to see Bob, and Bob was so cranky, he’d been up all night thinking about his liver, and he said, “Give the book to one of my assistants.” So we gave it to Brigid and she read it later and called me and said it was sort of boring, that it was just tapes, and she had no suggestions, she was just being negative.

  Monday, December 11, 1978

  There was a party at Xenon for the Superman opening. At the office in the afternoon I saw Bob in a corner moping, looking blue. I mean, he can’t be that unhappy, and he can’t be overworked. I mean, all he does is go to parties (cab $3). Tinkerbelle and I started talking shop. She just did an interview with David Warner for us. Tinkerbelle is so great, I don’t understand why she hasn’t made it to the big time.

  Wednesday, December 13, 1978

  Chris Makos called and said that Donahue had a show on about singles over (laughs) fifty. He was calling because we were supposed to go out looking for a new camera. Cabbed to meet him at the camera store on 44th and Madison ($5). Then we walked around Grand Central Station and I got nostalgic—it was like twenty years ago when Grand Central used to be the central point for me when I worked for Vogue and Glamour, which are right around there, and my bank was right there, too.

  Thursday, December 14, 1978

  We went down to the office and the traffic was bad (cab $4). The Daily News had just called wanting a quote from me, they said that fifty agents had gone in and raided Studio 54 for income tax and that they’d busted Ian Schrager for two ounces of coke.

  A cute guy was in the office, a friend of Averil’s, and he didn’t know he’d walked across the painting I’d just done, it was still wet. It was funny.

  Friday, December 15, 1978

  Bought two Daily Newses because Steve Rubell was all over them. Bianca was on the cover (cab $4). Went home to glue, then over to Halston’s. He was having a dinner because it was decided that Steve had to eat because he hadn’t in three days—I (laughs) don’t know who decides these things. It was “Stevie has to eat, he needs his nourishment.” Does that mean Dr. Giller whispered in Halston’s ear, “Stevie needs nourishment?” Who starts these things? So Halston was cooking short-order himself. Steak, french fries, and salad. It was the first time I’ve ever seen everybody at Halston’s eat. He’s had so many dinners where nobody eats anything, but this time everybody was eating because (laughs) “Stevie” needed his nourishment. [NOTE: After the bust at Studio 54, Andy began referring to Rubell as Steve, not Stevie.]

  This was about 9:30. And it was just family so Bianca wasn’t allowed to invite her new Martha Graham dancer-boyfriend. Steve told us all about the bust. He told eighteen different stories. He’s not going to have Roy Cohn be the lawyer because he’s too conspicuous. They didn’t go there to arrest anybody, just thirty-six IRS guys with guns to seize the books, but when they found the coke on Ian they arrested him. Now Steve says it was just a little, that it was just a Christmas gift, and he was blabbing all these comments about “unwashed money.” I was surprised.

  Saturday, December 16, 1978

  Halston said I was invited up to Dr. Giller’s and that he’d pick me up. Put my contacts in and Halston arrived in a cab. I told him it was the first time I ever saw him in a cab, and then he got embarrassed, and then I was embarrassed, I said that I always take them, that cabs are great, but then he explained for the rest of the ride how he takes cabs a lot but that I just don’t see him, because having the car sit around all day is expensive, and then I was even more embarrassed. And he told me that any time I see his car outside 54 when it’s late, to just take it home. Dr. Giller’s place is an exact miniature copy of Halston’s. The same paintings, the same layout, the same colors.

  What Halston’s been most upset about in the Studio 54 bust is that the IRS agents discovered another little room that nobody knew about, and Halston is hurt because he’s such a close friend and Steve hadn’t told him about it. Steve says it was an inside tipoff because nobody knew about the room except the people who work there. But Steve and Ian are kind of mean when they fire people, so it could have been anybody.

  At Studio 54 later, I asked Potassa if she’d ever had sex with Dali, and she said, “No, he just picked my cock up once and kissed it.” She said Dali was coming back to town and that we had to resume our friendship. And Potassa only drinks champagne. “Schom-pon-ye.” She said when Dali kissed her cock he said, “Magnifico!”

  Monday, December 18, 1978

  Brigid’s down to 140 and looks good. Charles Rydell is staying at her apartment and she’s so mean to him. She really is mean. He can’t watch her TV, he can’t put his feet up, he can’t go to the bathroom. After eve
rything he’s done for her—I mean, he gave her handouts for years.

  Truman called. He’s going to do some long slice-of-life pieces for Interview. We’re going to tape him, and then Brigid will transcribe the tapes, and then Truman will turn them into articles.

  Tuesday, December 19, 1978

  I’m watching Calvin Klein on The Phil Donahue Show. Halston said that “Halston” perfume is the number-one seller in America. Can that be true? The last time I was in Macy’s I didn’t see anybody at his counter. Oh, but maybe I didn’t really look.

  And Barbara Allen said Halston told her how much fun I am without Bob and Fred around, that when I’m with them I don’t say anything and let them take over, but that when I’m alone I talk and have fun. Halston has such an odd idea of me. I should have called him yesterday. It’s so hard being completely involved, though.

  We went to Irving Blum’s gallery on East 75th Street to see the show of my early stuff, and one of the Soup Cans was a fake. Irving was embarrassed when I told him.

  Victor called, he’s back from San Francisco. You really can’t kid with him, because you say a word and that word goes deep into his brain and he keeps thinking about it and he gets crazy. I called him “paranoid” and then he started brooding over it.