The Andy Warhol Diaries

by Andy Warhol

  Friday, June 11, 1982

  Cabbed to “21.” I was meeting Richard Weisman who was having a party for the Cooney-Holmes fight. Then we walked over to Radio City to watch it (tickets $30). I guess they have a new screen, the image was so clear, you could see the pimples on the fighters’ faces. We’d made bets beforehand and I had “Holmes in the fourth” and that almost happened because he was knocked down in the second, but in the end Richard’s girlfriend won. I was the money-holder. At Radio City everybody was for Cooney, all the Irish. Holmes won by a TKO in the thirteenth round and everybody booed.

  Sunday, June 13, 1982

  Watched Dog Day Afternoon on TV and who was that playing the drag queen? That was good acting. He held his hand up a little too much to his neck, that was all. Otherwise, it was really perfect, and good lines, one was like a Candy Darling line.

  Tuesday, June 15, 1982

  Sent Agosto up to the Madison Avenue Bookshop for copies of Edie, and they told him, “It’s selling like crazy” ($60). And in the book is a photograph of this totally wrong birth certificate for me. I just don’t understand it. For Andrew Warhola, and it’s from a different city and it says October 29, 1930, I think. Where could they have gotten a thing like that? What is it? And with the mother’s name blocked out. I don’t get it.

  Was picked up at 6:00 by Chris and Peter for Grease II, I was seeing it again. Saw the movie on a smaller screen and it didn’t hold up. Without the blasting sound from the Ziegfeld, I could understand why the critics said it was boring.

  After it was over I went to Ashton Hawkins’s for dinner. Annette Reed and I sort of hit off a conversation. She said she saw Clint Eastwood’s movie Firefox at a benefit on Monday at the Museum of Modern Art, and that Clint was there, and so was his girlfriend, Sondra Locke. And after seeing the movie they all went to the Pierre for dinner and she said it would have been so much nicer, darling, to just have gone to “some Italian joint with friends.” She said Clint was “fascinating” and the movie was “interesting” but that she would rather have been with friends, darling, and let the movie end the experience.

  Wednesday, June 16, 1982

  I decided to see Grease II for the third time. Lorna Luft was having a screening at Paramount (cab $5.50). But Lorna wasn’t even there. Her husband, Jake Hooker, was, and he said that Lorna’s seen it too much. Sat in the back row and this third time it was better than when I sat up close in the screening room.

  Thursday, June 17, 1982

  Forgot to say that on Wednesday, Jay Johnson brought Marianne Faithfull to the office. He wasn’t drinking, but she was, and she had I guess a boyfriend with her. And when she got there she was sort of out of it, but then she had some wine and by the time they left she was bubbling. Tom Cashin’s signed a modeling contract with Pierre Cardin, so he travels a lot now.

  I went out with John Reinhold. We went to the Odeon and Henry Geldzahler was eating alone so we took him to dinner ($198.85). He told stories about Jean Stein and that’s when we got the idea that he should tell her I was doing a book on her.

  Friday, June 18, 1982

  Brigid made Jay Shriver go out drinking with her. I think the Edie Sedgwick book has been hitting her hard because I think she thinks it should have been a book on her. So she took Jay out drinking at lunch and told him her San Simeon stories from when she was a little girl visiting there when her father ran the Hearst Corporation. Then she came back to the office and wanted to be entertaining, so she was rolling on the floor but it was just a fat person rolling on the floor.

  Monday, June 21, 1982

  Met Sean McKeon and Chris and Peter at the Mayfair (drinks $20). Chris had his car and we went over to Couri Hay’s party for Cornelia Guest, a barbecue on West 81st Street. And Cornelia’s coming-out party the other night that I didn’t go to made The New York Times. I should have gone. And Cornelia’s gotten so fat she looks like the Pillsbury Dough Boy.

  As we were walking between Amsterdam and Broadway there was a woman walking with two dobermans and a man carrying a wrench.

  And Bob Colacello has a life of his own now. I never see him after work anymore. Is he doing great things? Is he having fun?

  Talked to Jon in California and he was going to stay an extra day because he’s trying to move from media relations into production.

  Wednesday, June 23, 1982

  Jane Holzer picked me up and she looked pretty in a red Halston. We went to City Center for the Martha Graham thing. After the performance, Bianca lost Tricky Dicky Cavett and had to find him and then we went over to Halston’s. And Dick was telling me about this transsexual in New Orleans that was after him and asking me what he should do and I just kept saying he should fuck her, and I don’t know what he wanted to hear. And Dick was doing anagrams for a whole hour. And I went completely off my diet, I had potato chips and drank and I felt like Brigid.

  Left with Dick and Jane, and Dick was pawing Jane in the car and I asked him where his missus was. Was dropped by Dick at 2:00.

  Friday, June 25, 1982

  Rupert and all the kids told me they were going away for the weekend, so I decided not to go down to the office, I was afraid of getting stuck in the elevator.

  Talked to Jon and he was going to stay home after going to the doctor’s because he was rundown.

  I’d gotten tickets to the Feld Ballet in the old Elgin Theater which they now call the Joyce Theater. Met Chris and Peter there. Fun costumes and cute kids. There was one all-girl number and one all-boy number sort of like Grease and then one boys and girls together. The West Side Story number with all the boys was done sort of as if they were making out.

  But dance is so disillusioning for me. If you’re over twenty-five, you’re finished. Because after twenty you lose that sparkle, you get too stylized. And there’s always a sparkly fifteen-year-old coming along to wash you up.

  Then we went to Claire’s on Seventh Avenue on the West Side, it’s like one of those new, bright California places, all latticework, and jammed with fairies and Way Bandy came in and he looked like death, and he just drank coffee and I told him I still want him to do my makeup when I go out on the town.

  Saturday, June 26, 1982

  Went down to Heartbreak, the new discotheque near Vandam near the Paradise Ballroom. It’s a cafeteria in the daytime and then a disco at night, and the music is all fifties and some sixties and everybody dresses the way they want and everybody dances the way they want. If you did a movie of it, it would be so underplayed. And all the kids at Heartbreak were coming over and saying that I’d told them at Studio 54 I’d look at their work, and all I could say was, “Well, so when are you coming down?” and even the doorman at Heartbreak I think is coming to show me his work.

  Sunday, June 27, 1982

  Cabbed to 45th and Broadway ($6) to see Blade Runner (tickets $10) at the Criterion. The movie was dark. I don’t know if it’s really abstract or really simple. And there’s a narrative. It’s like Dick Powell playing Philip Marlowe. And if I ever saw this as a script, I wouldn’t know what to think. And they say these lines seriously, it’s all done like it’s real problems. And it’s like Ronnie Tavel’s plays in the sixties or Charles Ludlam’s. Dropped Jon (cab $8). Watched cable till 1:30.

  Tuesday, June 29, 1982

  Worked all afternoon.

  Went to the thing at the Plaza for Bill Blass Chocolates and a guy there told me that my sister-in-law, Ann, and his mother are religious fanatics together. And at first I pretended that I didn’t have a sister-in-law because I can’t stand her. But then I told him about my nephew Paul who left the priesthood and he told me about his sister who left the convent and now is fucking black guys. I had strawberries dipped in chocolate. And I left depressed after a sugar letdown.

  Wednesday, June 30, 1982

  Geraldine Smith came by with Liz Derringer who was interviewing me for the Southampton newspaper. Gary Lajeski is having a show of my prints or something out there, which I don’t even know anything about, in a couple
of weeks, and Fred thinks I should go because he says then you’re in people’s minds and they’ll buy later.

  Decided not to go to Lena Home’s goodbye party. Decided to go to Roy Cohn’s third annual birthday party in his house in Greenwich. Steve Rubell wasn’t driving his car because he’s been drinking too much, so Ian drove, and it was me and Steve and Ian and Bob. And Bob is so sour, he doesn’t talk to me anymore. I didn’t wear a tie. I was wearing an Interview T-shirt and he got mad at that. I don’t know what’s his problem.

  Roy’s house is right near the center of Greenwich. It’s a really little house. And when you go to these Roy Cohn things all everybody says is, “It’s so amusing, it’s so interesting, because you never know who you’ll find at these things.” They say you get everyone from the Mafia to the shoe repairman. Which is true, because this guy came over to me and said, “I’m the garage mechanic who worked on your car for years. I’ve always wanted to meet you.” C.Z. Guest was there, she’d put in the roses at Roy’s house, and Cornelia was with her. And I did something dumb. I guess wine is affecting me quicker now. The guy Combemale whose wife is Freddy Woolworth’s sister was telling me a joke and he tore a dollar bill in half. So I took out a hundred dollar bill and tore it in half and gave half to Mrs. Bassirio and half to Doris Lilly and told them that they’d have to be friends forever because they each had the other half.

  The food was really good, but the people were acting like such animals to get it. Everybody says Roy has seven boyfriends, one for each day of the week. And he must have gone to a butcher to have a facelift, because you could see the bloody scars from his latest one, they really were showing.

  Tuesday, July 6, 1982

  With the eclipse of the moon we got letters from the faithful nutty-letter writers, people like Joey Sutton and Crazy Rona. And Paul America called—I don’t know from where—but the office has a list of “Do Not Take Calls From” people so they didn’t put the call through. And they said he was saying that he was one of my superstars, but he was never even in one of my movies. Oh wait! My Hustlerl I forgot, (laughs) he was the star. He (laughs) was My Hustler.

  And Jean Stein’s going to be on the talk-show circuit probably with Viva. Oh, I’ve got to put the bug in Viva’s ear that Jean Stein is just using her.

  Friday, July 9, 1982

  I was invited to a surprise birthday lunch party at a restaurant on 48th Street for Phyllis Diller’s sixty-fifth birthday. So I decided to stay uptown until that at 1:30.

  When I walked in a lady with glasses said that she still had my mother’s book, and I was trying to think of which lady in my advertising days would I have given one to, and I just couldn’t place who this grandmother-looking woman was, and then someone said, “Kaye!” and it dawned on me—Kaye Ballard. And so I went running back and had to pretend as if I’d just been out of it. And she was fun, she’s in The Pirates of Penzance. It’s funny, these people were such big TV stars, and then when you lose your ratings, you’re just like a normal person.

  And at 2:00 Phyllis Diller arrived. She said that they told her it was a New York Times interview and that they wanted her to wear a bright-colored dress because it would photograph better, but she hadn’t known why, since the Times was black and white.

  Tommy Tune arrived and he’s all Southern charm, he said that he still reads the Philosophy book, that it’s made him what he is today, that he picks it up and rereads it for inspiration and he feels good again.

  The press was there and they took photographs. And it was embarrassing because I’d brought Phyllis a Cow print wrapped in an Interview and she thought the wrapping was the art and she was being so careful with it and she said [imitates], “Faaabulous.”

  Saturday, July 10, 1982

  Brigid was going through her old files, she has the whole seventies documented. She has what she did every minute written down and then on tapes. She did so much. If people found out all you could do on amphetamine, it would really get popular again.

  Wednesday, July 14, 1982

  Worked on the Endangered Species portfolios and talked on the phone to Ron Feldman and sent Chris down with them, and Ron was excited, really excited, and now we have to figure out how to market them. Dropped Rupert (cab $5.50).

  Saturday, July 17, 1982

  It was a scorcher. Went to the Whitney Museum (admission $4). Saw the Ed Ruscha show, which was interesting. Went to see Young Doctors in Love (tickets $10) and it was really good (cab $3). It was directed by Garry Marshall who I didn’t know was an old guy. And there was a funny scene where the guy in the Calvin Klein ad is wheeled into the operating room in his jeans in the same position he’s in in the ads, and so that’s funny if you get it. Not everybody gets it.

  Sunday, July 18, 1982—New York—Fire Island—New York

  Chris called and said we were getting a 10:00 plane to go to Fire Island to take photographs. Picked up Jon and went to 23rd Street (cab $8). Got to Fire Island and had lunch at an outdoor spot. We decided to call Calvin’s and he said to come right over (phone $.20). And Calvin’s house is right off Ocean Walk and there’s 8,000 boys around it, and a lot of girls, too, and they’re all walking around wanting to be discovered for a jeans ad.

  When we went home we had the same pilot and as we got to the water we heard a noise and I think something broke, and when we finally made it to Manhattan we had a very hard landing. I don’t think he was a good pilot, and when we got out we saw gas leaking (round-trip $360 plus $40 tip). Calvin had said you don’t have to tip them, but the pilot didn’t give me my change back either time, so I guess you do.

  Tuesday, July 20, 1982

  Got up early. It was a hot day. Went to Bloomingdale’s just to get cool. Went to Janet Sartin and John Duka the fashion guy from the Times was there, he looked over my face, and he’s probably going to write about it, and when I was done I told him I felt like a new woman. I think my face is getting better. I’m not sure. Janet (laughs) was blaming it on the weather.

  Friday, July 23, 1982—New York—Montauk

  Landed in Montauk in forty-five minutes and got into Halston’s new car. Victor was there with “Ming Vauze,” who is really his friend Benjamin in drag. Bianca was out there but she was pretending not to be, because later Jon saw her on the beach and she made him swear to God that he wouldn’t tell he saw her because she was with Chris Dodd who’s a senator from Connecticut who’s getting divorced from his wife.

  Saturday, July 24, 1982—Montauk

  It was a really beautiful day. Jon had brought Indecent Exposure out, the David Begelman book. And everybody was reading Edie. It was funny to look and see everybody with that cover. And I think that as he read the Edie book Jon started to turn on me. But Ian Schrager as he read it got more interested, but the thing he kept asking questions about was Paraphernalia. Dozens of questions about Paraphernalia—who owned it, who designed it, who really owned it. And it’s the most unimportant thing in the book. I guess he was sort of interested because of Norma Kamali, although I don’t think they’re still seeing each other.

  The kids with beautiful bodies were playing the pinball machines in town. It looked like all the movies I’ve been seeing, like Porky s, they were just beautiful. Gosman’s was too crowded with old people so we went to a local place where there were kids and models, and that was $40. Got a toothbrush ($2) at White’s, the drugstore. Went back and watched TV and talked intellectual. Read the good art books that Victor always has around.

  Steve Rubell and Ian had gone to East Hampton to play tennis with Steve’s brother and they brought back corn and came just in time for dinner and all Steve could rave about was the corn because he brought it. Steve and Ian’s deal to buy a hotel went through.

  Sunday, July 25, 1982—Montauk—New York

  When I woke up and went to the kitchen, Steve was having his morning Coca-Cola and reading the book on the Annenbergs, he’s fascinated by crooks.

  Christopher called and said he’d gone to Fire Island for the day. Nena w
ent to the hospital for an operation. I asked Doc Cox to check out her doctor and he did and said that she was in good hands. I asked him to keep a close eye on her situation.

  Monday, July 26, 1982

  Got up at 9:00. Called Nena at the hospital, talked to her doctor, they said the operation is in the morning and it’ll be intensive care for two days afterwards.

  This girl from Santa Fe came by the office, she used to work at Interview. I can’t remember her name. One of those girls like from Aspen who look deep inside you and want to know your real true meaning. She reminded me of the kind of girl that would always be visiting Jed from California, that type. And she was after Agosto and I got dead serious and told him to go in the back and not come to the front until she was gone. I mean, I’m not going to let her ruin his life by looking for meaning in it! She left a note for him with her number on it, and I destroyed it, I didn’t tell him about it. I’m not going to let her start trouble.