The Andy Warhol Diaries

by Andy Warhol

  Then over the speakers came “Happy Birthday,” so everyone thought it was Mr. Sackler’s birthday, but it turned out they piped it into the wrong room by mistake. I just couldn’t take another Taurus birthday, I hate them. A little dancing. Eugenia was so cute, she’s a Leo and she said, “My boyfriend is a Taurus,” so I guess she and Earl are a couple. I guess it’s like a mother. Well, I’m in that category, too.

  Then I called Jon and Barbara Allen and I went over to his apartment on the West Side and I spent an hour counting pennies with him—he was balancing his budget—and he was rereading Popish and asking serious meaningful questions about it and I couldn’t take it, it was too dumb. Left at 1:00.

  Tuesday, May 12, 1981

  Got up at 7:30 and called Chris Makos to discuss the evening before with Jon Gould. I’ve offered Chris a reward—this one gold watch he wants—if he can talk Jon into doing something with me, but even if nothing romantic happens now, I still want Jon to move in, because then we’d see what happens from there.

  I had a 10:00 appointment with Doc Cox and I decided to get exercise and walk to his office, but it wasn’t a good idea, I was overwalked and tired by the time I got there. And the Doc didn’t really care about me. His hair was dyed and he was pudgy and he just wanted to hear gossip. He gave me some salve, and then he said I had to get polio, tetanus, and pneumonia shots, and I didn’t want to, I said I’d do it some other day, but Rosemary grabbed me on the way out and gave them all to me and she said I wouldn’t have reactions, but I felt funny all day.

  Wednesday, May 13, 1981

  I had a lunch at 12:00, Charlie Cowles was coming with Sid and Anne Bass and when I got down there he was already there, and everybody was gathered around the TV and the pope had been shot. I started screaming, I got so mad—“We lost a portrait that day when Reagan was shot and I don’t want it to happen again! Turn that TV off!”

  So the Basses came and looked at their portraits, and I have to change some lips and do a whole bunch of new ones. I was down to 119 and I really got scared. My stomach’s shrunk.

  Ronnie came with me to Art Kane’s studio at 28th and Broadway to pose for a ten-page spread in Italian Vogue. There was a Zoli model there who was a stand-in for me, and he had a great body. The spread was that this guy was murdering a girl with black panties over his face. The model was the grandson of Goldwater and we’re doing him for Interview. Then the panties came off the face and it was actually me who was stabbing the girl in the pictures. So it only took an hour for me to do my part, and it was easy—she put her heel in me and it was really fun. Then we left and it was great to walk, it was really spring.

  Got a call from Jon in Hollywood. Then I tried to call Bill Copley all day to make an appointment when we could tape for the play I’m dying to do on his life.

  I had eight dinner invitations.

  Went to Halston’s and Liza Minnelli was there. They had a copy of the Post there that had “POPE SHOT” in red. It was great. And then we were talking about bulletproof vests. Liza said that she wasn’t afraid of blacks (laughs) because her father had given Lena Home a job.

  Thursday, May 14, 1981

  Chris Makos came up and we went up to the Trump building with Marc Balet to photograph the architectural model of the building to make the portrait from (cab $5). I was so thin I decided to have a Coke and that was such a heavy trip because my stomach had shrunk so much.

  Then cabbed to Bill Copley’s ($8) and Bill was sober and he’s lost weight. He said that in Key West he was smoking and set himself on fire, and he went to the hospital and they treated him and released him and then the wife served him with papers. But he’s still crazy about her—he’s decided to buy the two surplus portraits of her that I did, I don’t know what he’ll do with them. Remember, this is the wife who was the ex-madam.

  Sunday, May 17, 1981

  We went to the Savoy, Francois de Menil’s birthday party at his new club, and it was wall-to-wall people. There were supposed to be 600 people there and it looked like there were, and I think I knew every single person. Earl McGrath, Ahmet and Mica Ertegun, Debbie Harry who’s now got brown hair and looks so normal and ordinary, she was cute. Nobody really took pictures of Ina Ginsburg’s date, Godunov, I guess they just thought he was a long-haired blond hippie in a black leather jacket. Bob was with the Stassinopoulos lady, the one who wrote the Maria Callas book.

  Then I kept running into strange-looking people who said they were “co-owners” of the club and I started getting worried about Francois.

  Philippa de Menil was introducing Heiner as her husband, so I guess maybe they got married. I got drunk and got up to dance and people took pictures. Me with the girlfriend of Stephen Graham. Then the Pointer Sisters came on and sang “Happy Birthday.” It was fun to see my boss, Zoli, there—I felt like a working girl. And I went up to John Belushi and said, “You never remember me,” because that’s what he said to me twice when I didn’t know who he was. And then we danced together, that was fun.

  Got home at 2:00 and Christopher called and said he was just at the Baths. I called Jon at the Beverly Wilshire.

  Thursday, May 21, 1981

  There was a message for me when I got home that Jon Gould had called and said he was getting the red-eye and would be in New York at 7 A.M. and waiting at 8:00 for Christopher to pick him up to go to Cape Cod. I had so much to pack—costumes, film, cameras, radios, TV—that I didn’t get it all done.

  Friday, May 22, 1981 — New York—East Falmouth, Massachusetts

  Peter Wise was waiting for Jon and Chris and me when we landed. The plane cost about $800, but I paid by check. Peter took us to his house and gave us a tour of the place all the way back to his greenhouse. And we got room assignments, and Vincent and Shelly were planning to come up after work and we spent all day and all night waiting for them.

  I saw this big boat on the water that was half painted and it was so pretty and such a nutty boat and it looked like we could have a party on it. Then Peter and Christopher took us around to show us the town. Peter bought chowder at Mildred’s Chowder House in Hyannis, which they say is the best chowder place in really all of New England. Vincent and Shelly finally arrived, it took them eight hours to drive up and it should have only taken five.

  Saturday, May 23, 1981— East Falmouth

  We got up around 11:00 and Peter made apple pancakes, applejacks, for breakfast and we had real maple syrup and bacon. Then we got in the car and went to the flea market in Mashpee. Went to the Thornton Burgess Museum—he wrote Peter Cottontail—and fed the swans and ducks with Wonder Bread that Christopher bought. Then we went and had lunch at the fried-clam place at Sandy Neck, and we all had fried clams and fried fish and lots of ketchup and milkshakes and frappes ($35 including tip). Then we drove home.

  Peter and I went into another room to talk and while we were doing that we heard all this commotion in the back room and when we went in, there was a big water-pistol fight. Nobody wanted to give up until finally Christopher did give up because he was cornered in the bathroom. Shelly and Jon were winning and they were sneaks. Then Christopher went up to Jon and slapped him right in the face, and it was so dramatic, we just couldn’t believe it, and he just stood there taking it, but he said it didn’t hurt, that he thought it was all in fun. And he told me that he has to win at everything, that he has to decide what’s right and what’s not right, and that if he wants it he gets it and if he doesn’t want it he doesn’t care, but he has to decide he wants it and that’s all he wants. When Chris slapped him I think he really liked it. I think he really does want to get slapped. And then it all calmed down.

  Sunday, May 24, 1981—East Falmouth

  We went to Falmouth Harbor where we chartered that 70’ boat I liked. It took an hour to get over to Martha’s Vineyard. And Jon was wearing the set of pearls I gave him that go down to the ground and it looked sort of beautiful on him, he looked like a deep-sea fisherman. We arrived at Oak Bluff where all the gingerbread houses are, an
d we photographed a wedding. The girl was Irish marrying a guy from South America. Then we drove to Edgartown. We were very hungry. We went across the street to the Colonial Inn and the people there went and got their copies of Popisw and Interview for autographs and I signed them. And one kid even came up with the Tate Gallery poster of my Marilyn (lunch $120). And then we took the ferry over to Chappaquiddick with the car ($5). And we photographed a guy giving us his whole story on where it happened and how it happened and why he didn’t believe it. We retraced all the steps to see if Ted Kennedy was really guilty of this accident and we came to the conclusion that he was.

  When we got home Jon called his family in Amesbury and then he said his grandfather had had a stroke and his dog had had a relapse so that instead of going back with us to New York, he wanted us to drop him off in Amesbury.

  Monday, May 25, 1981—East Falmouth—New York

  Took the plane ride back from Hyannis to LaGuardia. Everyone was eating peanuts and popcorn, and all of a sudden the plane actually really flipped over and I didn’t care if we would have killed ourselves, because I was so unhappy. I’d thought that this trip would bring some progress with Jon, but it didn’t. He’d left us to go see his family who really adore him. Oh, but from now on I can’t talk personally about Jon to the Diary because when I told him I did, he got mad and told me not to ever do it again, that if I ever put anything personal about him in the Diary he’d stop seeing me. So from now on, it’ll just be the business angle in the Diary—he’ll just be a person who works for Paramount Pictures who I’m trying to do scripts and movies with.

  I gave a tip to the airplane driver ($100). And tipped the limousine driver ($20).

  Got a call from Tina Chow inviting me to a party for David Bailey and his wife Marie. It turned out it was actually a big party. Marie is really beautiful, she had on one of those slit dresses. Eric Boman and Peter Schlesinger were there. I told everybody how I was a male model now, I was trying to hustle work. Jerry Hall came over and told how to suck cock and lick pussy and she told some jokes and it was fun, and then David started telling jokes. Paloma Picasso was there and she gave me a big kiss.

  Tuesday, May 26, 1981

  Doria Reagan was typing letters for Bob and I didn’t even recognize her, I was walking by. She was in a T-shirt and shorts, and she looked cute. I invited her in for the lunch but she said she had too much work to do, she’s working four hours a day—she gets things done very quickly.

  I went over to 927 Fifth Avenue to the Zilkhas’ dinner for the people who own Dior. It was sweet of Cecile Zilkha to invite me because it was really a heavy-duty dinner. Happy Rockefeller was happy to see me. I should have talked to her a lot. Annette Reed had a fifty-carat sapphire on a diamond necklace that was about two inches wide. She was dressed beautifully. She’s a sister of the Sophie Englehard girl who’s Jane Holzer’s friend, the one who’s with the black football player who I met in Washington. The ladies were all statuesque. Dina Merrill was with her husband Cliff Robertson. Alex Liberman was there with his wife, Tatiana. Carolina Herrera was there, and I’d brought the new issue of Interview and she stole it because her picture was in it.

  All the fairies were there. And it was old-fashioned kind of living. If this style of living goes on, it will be incredible. How can it last? The first course was crab meat in tomato aspic and you don’t see things like that anymore. And then the chicken with fresh cranberries and rice with nuts, and chocolate mousse with hard crumbled cake, and good wine all served so beautifully. And flower arrangements up to the ceiling. Bill Blass was there and Pat Buckley in Bill Blass. But everybody looked so old. But then, I guess, I fit in. But it’s funny they would think to invite me. I’m looking very good now, I could have any of these old bags. I should go after Yoko Ono but I’d probably do it at the wrong time—just when she’d just found somebody I’d call her.

  I got home to no phone call from California.

  Wednesday, May 27, 1981

  I worked on some Lynn Revson portraits.

  I finally got a call from Jon in California. I didn’t think I’d ever get another one, but I decided we might as well be friendly, it’s easier, so we talked about the weather.

  Zoli told me how when he first came to New York he actually lived on the roof of Chris Makos’s building on Waverly and 11th all one summer because he didn’t have any money. There was a way to get onto the roof and there was a good sleeping chair up there.

  Friday, May 29, 1981

  I called Halston and told him that I’d like to save my invitation out to Montauk for another time because I had to work on paintings this weekend.

  Maura Moynihan called and said she loved her Interview cover, that it didn’t look anything like her. It’s one of the best covers Richard Bernstein’s ever done. Maura said that she has two boys she likes—one is straight and one is bi, and they’re both in her band that she’s just left, and she wants them both and they’re both fighting over her and they’re best friends.

  Saturday, May 30, 1981

  I had a long philosophy talk with Brigid and we both decided that maybe time had passed us by. When I saw myself in those home movies we took on the Cape last weekend I hated myself so much. Every simple thing I do looks strange. I have such a strange walk and a strange look. If I could only have been a peculiar comic in the movies, I would have looked like a puppet. But it’s too late. What’s wrong with me? I look at Vincent and Shelly and they look normal. And I don’t look good in cowboy boots anymore, I don’t think. I think I’ll get sneakers. I’ll have Jay take me over to Paragon to get some.

  Monday, June 1, 1981

  Met with Marc Balet to show him the portrait of Trump Tower that I’m doing. Marc’s arranged it so that the catalogue cover he’s designing will be my painting and then the Trumps would wind up with this painting of their building. It’s a great idea, isn’t it?

  Ronnie’s going off to Basel to show his work at an art fair with Lucio Amelio.

  I was taping Maura for dialogue for a Broadway show I want to do called Runaway so we went to the building where her two boyfriends live, and it’s the most incredible place, it gave me ideas. It’s unbelievable—sixty different rock bands are all in this one building and some nutty guy owns it. We went up three floors and I asked the boys to show me some other rooms in the building, and so they’d knock on a door and say something like, “What do you groove in?” and they’d say, “We’re the Spikes,” and then another door and it’d be “Bongo and the Bears.” They all pay $480 a month for a really small place. I’m going to go back there and really study the building. Runaway can be in this building and it’ll be the story of who the girl chooses, a love story. It’s such a crazy place, you’re in the hallway and there’s nothing but noise. The bi boyfriend said that he would dump Maura if I could get him David Bowie, and I said I would try.

  Maura lives at Louise Westergaard’s, who produces with Sondra Gilman—she takes care of the kids, and in return she gets to live there. And she had to get up early in the morning to get them off to school, so we went home. The straight boyfriend asked Maura if it was okay to go home with her, and she said yes. They kiss every minute and they kiss beautifully, with their hands.

  Tuesday, June 2, 1981

  Got up early. Chris was picking me up to go to the Whitney show of that artist who we’ve known for a while, the one influenced by me who does the billboardlike Polaroids of faces—I can’t think of his name … Chuck Close.

  And then we also went to look at the Guglielmi thing downstairs. His wife could never sell his paintings, and now here he is, at the Whitney with a big show. I wanted to know if she was still alive, and I was going to ask somebody who worked there and I ended up giving out Interviews instead. She used to have me to dinner in the fifties, she was kind of generous. She lived in the Café des Artistes.

  And then we looked at the forties show and then you think how much better Chuck Close is than the painters in that show.

  Then we went over
to the Port Authority Bus Terminal (cab $6). They’re still renovating over there. We went into Walgreen’s to photograph some of the real people and then we asked the waitress if we could take pictures and she went to ask the manager and he said yes, if we didn’t show the name “Walgreen’s.” But all we wanted to photograph was this waitress and she had Walgreen’s written all over her (Walgreen’s $7).

  Thursday, June 4, 1981

  I think I got a cold from drinking a really cold daiquiri. I can feel it, it pierced me.

  I called California and was told he was too busy to talk.

  Got ready to go right in the neighborhood to the party at Bob Guccione’s house for Roy Cohn. Roy was great, I took pictures. I want to be friends with him, but distant friends. And there was a Bunny—a Pet—there, and I didn’t know what to say to her so I told her she had a great body. Then LeRoy Neiman came over and he was thrilled that we’re going to have a (laughs) one-man show together and I just—I mean—well, Philip Morris gave this guy some money to do a show of Neiman and me together. Anyway, I won’t go to it. I talked to LeRoy about why does Bob Guccione dress like such a fairy with all the jewelry. He had Rembrandts and Mr. Newhouse, Clyde, told me they were reproductions, and he also had Chagalls and Picassos so I don’t know if they were reproductions, too. The house has a swimming pool.