The Andy Warhol Diaries

by Andy Warhol

  Walter Stait from Philadelphia had called to ask if I wanted to have dinner with him and Ted Carey and I said yes. Ted Carey was having health problems and he went to Dr. Cox, and Doc Cox was a good doctor because he recognized the symptoms Ted had and said it was syphilis of the throat. The Doc must have other patients with that problem, probably. So he sent him for treatment, and the only problem left is that Ted keeps getting worms, they keep recurring. At dinner, Ted was very good to talk to for Popism, we reminisced about when we posed together for our Fairfield Porter portrait.

  Thursday, March 10, 1977

  Barbara Allen was bringing Princess Firyal of Jordan, who’s dating Stavros Niarchos, down to the Factory.

  The big drama was the Ronnie-Gigi-Spyro triangle. Ronnie called the Waldorf Towers late last night looking for Gigi and the desk wouldn’t put the call through to the Niarchos apartment so first he left a message saying that “Gigi’s husband called” and later he left a message saying that “Gigi’s brother died.”

  So this morning Spyro called Ronnie and asked if it was all right if he came to Firyal’s lunch, he said he hadn’t known that Gigi and Ronnie were “together,” etc. Ronnie said he could come, but that if Spyro said so much as hello to him, he would beat him up.

  Spyro told Bob that Gigi had just walked up to him at the de Menil party and said, “Remember me?” and he didn’t, so she refreshed his memory and then said she wasn’t with her boyfriend anymore and since they were both alone why didn’t they be together for the night. Spyro told Bob that now he thought Gigi was awful to involve him in her mess with Ronnie. So she blew it.

  Anyway at lunch everyone was sitting down and Ronnie came in and started filling his plate and then he said, “Where’s my seat?” And I got scared there’d be trouble because he was acting kind of hysterical, so I told him that somebody had to answer the phones and anyway, that if he sat down there’d be thirteen at the table. Worked until about 4:00. Barbara looked very very thin, she said that Peter Marino was doing a wonderful job designing her apartment. Cabbed up to pick up Victor to take him to Suzie Frankfurt’s open house—“Suzie Frankfurt at Home” (cab $5). Fred was there and so was Francesca Stanfill from Women’s Wear Daily. Mayor Lindsay was there. Suzie had good tea sandwiches, I ate around forty.

  Marvin Davis who was at I. Miller and gave me my first job was there, and when he saw my old shoe drawings that Suzie has he said it was like being in the time machine. Suzie got nervous because nobody bought anything—clothes, furniture, antiques. The idea was “Antiques in a Setting.” It’s a cute idea. She can probably deduct three-quarters of the house. Dropped Suzie’s ex-husband Steve Frankfurt off ($3). Went to the East Side antiques show ($2.50). Walked home.

  Bob and I picked up Elsa Martinelli at the St. Regis to take her to the Iranian embassy. It was a buffet, jammed. In honor of the new American ambassador to Italy, Mr. Gardner, and his wife Danielle.

  I got stuck talking to the Baroness de Bodisco. Hoveyda tried to rescue me and said to her, “I think there’s someone upstairs it would be nice if you came with me to meet,” and she said, “No.” And then Hoveyda said she wouldn’t be invited back again, and she said, “I don’t care.”

  Friday, March 11,1977

  I had a talk with Rick Li Brizzi at the office, told him he was selling my Maos and Soup Cans too cheap. Went home to change, picked up by Catherine, went to Nima Isham’s for a birthday party for Firooz and her husband Chris Isham ($3).

  The apartment was decorated with streamers and balloons. I was playing around, attaching some of the helium balloons to people who didn’t know it. Bob kept getting annoyed, brushing his balloon away, he didn’t know it was tied to him. After the dinner two cakes were brought out and somehow the whole table collapsed and both cakes went on the floor.

  And Ronnie and Gigi are back together.

  Saturday, March 12, 1977

  Up early, beautiful day. Went down to Subkoff’s Antiques to see ideas (cab $3). Walked over to the office. Bob was there, looking through pictures for the photo book Bob and I are doing. Vincent went out and got the paper, and that’s where the headline was: “MOVIE DIRECTOR CHARGED WITH RAPE.” Roman Polanski. With a thirteen-year-old girl he took to a party at Jack Nicholson’s house, and when the police went over to Jack’s the next day after the girl’s parents called them, they searched the house and Anjelica got arrested for coke.

  Victor had told me that I absolutely had to watch the Dinner with Halston show on channel 5 —Metromedia.

  This is the idea that we submitted to Larry Freeberg at Metromedia and they turned down, and now they’re doing with other people. Halston’s guests were Bianca, Joe Eula, the acupuncture doctor—Giller, Jane Holzer, Victor. It was very boring. They’d asked me to go on this show and I said no because they’d ripped off my idea.

  It was a live dinner with a seven-second delay. Joe Eula said “bullshit” once and it was cut. The only real-life thing missing at the table was coke, and no runs to the bathroom. Victor was the life of the dinner, he took his fake mustache off. He used to have a real one but he’d shaved it off probably because he hates the acupuncture doctor who has one, but he put one on for the show. He also had a plastic chicken with him and kept talking to it, telling it to “say hello to Andy.” Joe Eula and Victor had a tiff at the table, something about me. Joe told Victor, “Let Andy speak for himself, why he’s not here,” and that’s when Victor—on Metromedia—said that Metromedia had ripped me off. So he was great.

  Jane didn’t have the right makeup on so she didn’t look good, and they kept referring to her as “the renowned fashion model.” The dinner degenerated into throwing drinks. Maybe they’d decided on that because they’re supposed to be the “wild set.” Jane threw champagne in the air and then everybody started but it looked so lame, and so Victor poured his in her lap. Victor and Halston were having a quarrel—you could tell because Victor announced that he wasn’t going to do Halston’s windows anymore, that he was now “an artist for hire,” and the camera went close on Halston’s hard face. At one point Halston or Bianca or somebody actually said, “Let’s take this hour and a half and just go with it!” And that’s when most people probably shut their TVs off, the thought of something like that dragging on for an hour and a half must’ve made them gag.

  And meanwhile who should Fred be at dinner with but Larry Freeberg, who’d stolen the idea from me in the first place. They were all at the Hermitage, at a dinner for Nureyev, and Freeberg was with Lee Radziwill—they’re planning to do a channel 5 dinner with her, too.

  Halston was having a “cast party” at his place after the show. When I got there, Mick had come by. He was cute—he told Bianca how good she was on the show, but around 4:00 he wanted to leave and she didn’t so she stayed. Everyone was mad at Victor, saying he’d ruined the show, so he’d already left to go barring.

  Sunday, March 13, 1977

  Fred says I should stop telling people the TV dinner show was our idea because the show they came out with is really awful. He thought Halston and everybody made fools of themselves. He said Mick actually had hated Bianca in it.

  It was raining hard all day long. Went to church (newspapers and magazines $14). Paulette called and we talked about Dinner with Halston and I told her it was ripped off from me and she also said better not tell anybody, it was so bad. The thing is, I guess, in that long amount of time, everybody’s real personality just comes out and it’s too revealing of how boring they are.

  Jane Holzer called and wanted me to pick her up for the Gilmans but I begged off. It was raining and I had to bring up a painting to Sondra Gilman. Barbara Allen called and invited me to dinner with Stavros Niarchos. Richard Turley called twice to say he had both of my unlisted phone numbers, he said he was going out with Tennessee Williams and wanted me to come along.

  It was a party the Gilmans were giving for some horse people from France. They had a new Lichtenstein, the tough ones, the still-life of the bathroom door. Everyone loved
the portrait of Sondra, they seemed to be saying that I really flattered her. They had caviar going around out of a big tin. Sondra introduced me right away to Adela Holzer and she was wonderful, she has a hit now with two one-acters, one is James Coco eating himself to death and the other is Siamese twins, it’s called Monsters. She invited me to lunch next week. She said she’s going into the TV business so I was after her.

  Monday, March 14, 1977

  Brigid called yesterday, says she’s down to 161. She’s coming by tomorrow to pick up her Christmas present and her birthday present from last September which she said she didn’t want to pick up at that time. The reviews came from England and they were bad for Bad. Stupid people like Frank Rich can write four pages on some nothing movie, but about Bad they just describe what it is and leave it at that. Don’t they know what their job is? To say what something means? I read the reviews and it sounds like the censors didn’t take out the baby being thrown out the window the way they threatened they were going to.

  Ahmet and Mica Ertegun called to invite me to dinner at Gallagher’s that night for the Traamps, a thirteen-member black group on Atlantic that was going to be playing at Roseland. So we went there and the best thing at Roseland was a girl with real gold—like 14K—fingernails that you buy and she got my number so she’s going to call to get interviewed in Interview. She’s a famous singer.

  Tuesday, March 15, 1977

  The girl singer with the gold nails from last night called, Esther Phillips. I just know she’s a good singer, I can tell. She said she was going out to California and we’re going to try to get together out there.

  Victor came down with a nude pose-er. I’m having boys come and model nude for photos for the new paintings I’m doing. But I shouldn’t call them nudes. It should be something more artistic. Like “Landscapes.” Landscapes.

  Dropped Catherine and Fred ($4). Changed, got ready for Carrie Donovan’s black-tie dinner at “21.” Joseph Brooks, the president of Lord and Taylor, invited me (cab to “21” $2.50). Diana Vreeland was Fred’s date for the evening, and they stopped at “21” and then went over to the Iranian embassy where I had to go later, too. The “21” thing was fun (cab $2.60). The Iranian thing was a dinner for Paulette Goddard and Bob had done the list and the seating, but it was everybody and everything the way Paulette wanted, and I was bored because she hadn’t invited any interesting people or any beauties, just her friends. But there was lots of fresh caviar. I was next to Carroll Portago and Gisela Hoveyda, the ambassador’s wife.

  Bob never wanted the Lumets in the first place, and then they pulled out an hour before the dinner and he had to do the seating all over again.

  Diana Vreeland was having a great time talking to a man named Dr. Lucky, the head of New York Hospital. Anita Loos was there and I told her she had a beautiful dress on. She’s so tiny I asked her if she went to the children’s departments to get the long dresses and she said that they didn’t have any evening dresses in the children’s department, that this was a Madame Grès, and I asked her if it was half-price because it was so small and she said, “No. I get a fur coat and Kate Smith gets one and we pay the same amount of money.”

  I asked Anita how the really glamorous women went to bed with men, what did they do, and she said that the only one she really knew about was somebody out in Hollywood who, when the moment would come, would kneel down on the floor and pray to God to forgive her and then the guys would get turned off and ashamed of themselves and they’d give her jewels.

  Anita told me that she’s managed to stay friends with Paulette by never asking her a direct question. I said I made my big mistake saying, “What was your sex life like with Chaplin?”

  Wednesday, March 16,1977

  Had to leave the office early to go home and change because I had to be at Aly Kaiser’s place at U.N. Plaza. She’s about sixty years old, but looks younger. She was the nurse and he was Kaiser Aluminum and he married her. She had a limo, and the big French poodle sat up front with the chauffeur’s cap on. We went over to Bergdorf Goodman’s. Halston was giving a fashion show/ benefit for Martha Graham. It was everybody that you always see at Martha Graham benefits. I didn’t have to buy the $100 ticket, Aly did. Met Andrew and Mrs. Goodman, the owners of Bergdorf’s, and they live upstairs over the store. She’s Cuban. Saw Pat Cleveland with Esther Phillips. Mrs. Kaiser fell in love with Esther.

  Then we all went over to Regine’s. Mrs. Kaiser, Esther, and her hairdresser boyfriend. Fred came in with Suzie Frankfurt in a Grès. C.Z. Guest was there with Prince Rupert Loewenstein. Everybody was impressed with Esther. For the first time, I danced. It was the first time in public. Esther took me on the floor and taught me how to disco, she thought it was funny and I did, too.

  Then the kids wanted to smoke and Aly brought them back to her apartment which was being painted so it was a little messy. She brought out a bag of marijuana. They started smoking. I really like Esther.

  Friday, March 18, 1977

  Sent Ronnie for photo supplies ($19.31, $12.78, $7.94). Lester Persky called and invited me to dinner at his place for Baryshnikov but I was going to be with Nureyev at the Iranian embassy for his birthday party. Cabbed with Vincent down to Frank Stella’s studio ($2.75), a party for Leo Castelli’s twenty years in the art business. Fred said I’d have to go—just the kind of party I hate because they’re all like me, so similar, and so peculiar, but they’re being so artistic and I’m being so commercial that I feel funny. I guess if I thought I were really good I wouldn’t feel funny seeing them all. All the artists I’ve known for years are with their second wives or girlfriends—Claes Oldenburg had a new girlfriend, so did Rosenquist. Roy was with Dorothy, Ed Ruscha was with Diane Keaton, Leo had his ex-wife Ileana Sonnabend there and his wife Toiny and Barbara Jakobson—all the girls fall in love with him for some reason. David Whitney was cute, helping. I borrowed film from one of Leo’s secretaries.

  The artists did a “you sign mine and I’ll sign yours” thing and I got a couple of signatures— Claes, and then Keith Sonnier, who I like. Nancy the checkpayer from Leo’s was there. The place is on Jones Street, and it reminded me of when I used to live there and my roommate, Lila Davies, picked up a Chinese guy and brought him home thinking he was nice and he pulled out a knife.

  Went home, slept a little, then crawled out of bed to go pick up Andrea Portago to go to the Iranian embassy. Andrea looked lovely, she’s back to wanting to be a movie star, her mind lapses for a while and then she picks it up again. Paulette was there, she sold the rights to the novel Remarque wrote about Andrea’s father, Heaven Has No Favorites—an awful title, Paulette said. She got $100,000 plus 10 percent of the movie from Paramount. It’s called Bobby Deerfield now and stars Al Pacino as Andrea’s father, Fon de Portago, the race-car driver.

  After dinner Andrea wanted to be taken to Baryshnikov’s party at Lester Persky’s but as we were leaving, Bianca and François Catroux came in and said they’d just been there and not to go that it was awful, so we went back to Nureyev’s party and then had to go through the “you’re backs” for a while. But then Andrea decided Bianca was only telling us that Lester’s was bad to stunt her career, that it was probably a great party and that Milos Forman would be there so it would be good for her, so we went after all.

  Cab to the Hampshire House ($3). Lester is high up, and as we sat there talking the chandelier kept moving, a big one. I was nervous about it. Baryshnikov was so sweet. Milos was cute, telling me we had the same kind of shoes. Brooke Hayward was there and threw her arms around me and said, “I’m so successful, I don’t know what to do.” I think she’s nutty.

  Lester had works by Rosenquist and Rauschenberg, but just one Cow I gave him and a Marilyn. He should have bought my stuff early on. I’m trying to get some Dollars on his wall, though. Lester’s is cozy. Dropped off Andrea (cab $3).

  Monday, March 21, 1977

  Fred was having trouble with Ileana Sonnabend who was being rotten, not wanting to give some drawings of mi
ne back.

  Bianca came to lunch at the office and Jamie asked her if she was (laughs) from Uganda— because she was talking about loss of human rights and secret police killings in “my country”— and she nearly killed him. She said, “Nicaragua, Nicaragua.”

  Worked in the afternoon. At 6:00 left to go to Adela Holzer’s (cab $3.50). Bob was being crazy and didn’t want to go, said she had no money. But she has a whole house, 216 East 72nd Street, and I liked the way it looked. She was entertaining James Coco and his boyfriend.

  When I got home the phone rang and it was Philip Niarchos and he wanted to come over to see my house but I didn’t want him to so I said I was already in bed.

  Tuesday, March 22, 1977

  As I went out the door the phone rang and it was Brigid after all these weeks saying that she wanted me to come over to her mother’s right away and see her. So I walked over to 834 Fifth Avenue to Honey and Dick’s and Brigid came down the staircase looking gorgeous, like a version of Honey. I offered her a job at the office. We talked for twenty minutes about what happened to her ass, it just isn’t there anymore. I told her she should never see Bad because if she did and saw herself that fat and with the farting sounds, she’d be furious at us.

  Went to Mortimer’s for a party for Edie Vonnegut’s picture-drawing that she did of “Mortimer.” Is there really a Mortimer? And I couldn’t believe the drawings would be that bad. Kurt Vonnegut was there, gave a little speech about how talented his daughter was. Remember she was married to Geraldo Rivera?

  Ruth Kligman kissed me and I didn’t know what she was doing, she started talking all about a love affair she said we had together, apologizing for breaking it off, kissing me, and it was all a fantasy, so I thought that if she could do that with me, then she’d probably never had a love affair with Pollock. She looked good, she was in a velvet Halston. Fred’s date was Edna O’Brien. Barbara Allen was there. She said that she’d wanted to wear the diamond earrings Philip had just given her but that he made her put them in the vault.