The Andy Warhol Diaries

by Andy Warhol

Saturday, August 26, 1978

  Went over to the Plaza to interview Shaun Cassidy. The interview was terrible because he’s got to keep it really clean because his fans are young. He has dark circles under his eyes so we think he has a secret life. He’s very tall. He gave stock answers. We kept asking him how it felt to be an idol with thousands of girls screaming, and he was insisting that it didn’t change you, and then we walked through the lobby, through the screaming girls, and (laughs) he changed. He was so different. The limo came and he had a whole different personality.

  We went downtown because he was going to be photographed for Interview by Barry McKinley. Shaun just turns into something else when he’s being photographed, something just happens to him, he just falls in love with himself. And Barry has a different style of saying things when he’s photographing—instead of saying things like Scavullo and those people say, like, “Marvelous, marvelous,” Barry says (laughs), “Give it to me, motherfucker. Push it out. Push out all you can.” “What kind of drug are you on, motherfucker?” It was so unbelievable that I went and taped it.

  Later at Madison Square Garden in Shaun’s dressing room there was a beautiful girl there, his girlfriend, and he had on stretch pants with his big cock showing, and he brought the band in to give them a lecture on when to go slow and how to turn on the thirteen-year-olds. It was funny.

  When we went out to our seats Shaun’s mother Shirley Jones was there and I bent over to say hello where she was sitting and she looked scared, but then I said, “I’m Andy Warhol” and she grabbed my hand and was sweet and she introduced me to her husband Marty Ingels. Then Shaun came on. He jumped through a hoop like a lion and the girls went crazy. They took me on stage and it was the first time I was ever on stage at the Garden. Smart little girls were screaming: “Andy.” And he does sexy things with the microphone, he puts it between his legs and he touches his cock a little, and he’s like a Mick Jagger for the young kids.

  Monday, August 28, 1978—New York—Montauk

  Went to the dentist. Dr. Lyons gets sort of mad because I keep putting off the X-rays. I told him about the dentist on TV who said it was silly to take X-rays, but Dr. Lyons said he didn’t care, that if I wanted him to be my dentist, I had to do what he wanted.

  Oh, and Bob MacBride called and said that Truman says he’s been cured in Minnesota and that he’s coming back this week, but I can’t see how, he’ll just get out and do the same things. And Brigid and I are thinking all the time that maybe Truman never did write any of his own stuff, that maybe he always had some butch guy there to do it. To do rewrites. Because I mean, Truman showed me a script he did, and it was just awful, and when he shows you these things you can’t imagine that he could even think they’re any good, they’re so bad. And I mean, he went with Jack Dunphy for years, and these guys are all supposed to be “writers” but you don’t really know what they write, and now Bob MacBride gets his name on things, but he’s not good, so maybe that’s why Truman’s work has gotten so … because he hasn’t done anything in ten years, and that’s a long time. And I mean, the things Truman says are interesting, so somebody else could find clever ways to make them good on paper.

  The car picked me up at 3:50 and Catherine and I rode out to Montauk, it was a nice ride. We stopped at Burger King and picked up a couple of steak sandwiches for Mr. Winters ($5). When we got to Montauk I gave Mr. Winters and his wife Millie the sandwiches and a painting I brought him, an abstract—it was a Shadow. I also brought some Interviews and I think his wife liked the magazines better than the sandwich, and I think Mr. Winters liked the sandwich better than the painting. I thought he could put it away and keep it. I tried to get Mr. Winters to be in the movie, but he didn’t want to be in it. There are so many kids at the place. Twenty were out shooting and there were still so many. Said hello to Winnie, Tom’s Danish wife, who I see is actually beautiful, after all.

  Went over to the yacht club hotel and checked in. Tom brought his Betamax by. Ulli and his wife Sukey came. We had dinner at the yacht club and it was terrible, the place was rotten. Jack Palance who’s in Tom’s movie was staying there at first but he hated it, they were so rude.

  Then at midnight we went to Southampton to one of those beautiful movie houses to see the rushes from the day before, and the movie looks sort of good, lots of airplane shots and Jack Palance, and Tom is sort of good, and the band plays in the movie, so I guess that’s what he’s actually making the movie for, to introduce his band. They drove me back to the yacht club and I fell asleep with my clothes on.

  Tuesday, August 29, 1978—Montauk—New York

  Catherine came to my room and Tom picked us up and drove us over to the house for breakfast. Then Jack Palance came in and he’d been out all night drinking. He’s fifty-five and looks thirty. He’s there with his dog, Patches, and his girlfriend. I think he’s half Russian and half Ukranian. I’d asked Tom how they thought to cast Jack Palance and he said they were thinking about Rod Steiger—they wanted somebody butch, an old butch actor—but Jack had a farm in Pennsylvania and they called him and he’ll do anything, he said he just likes to drink, so he takes any role.

  Jack played a character named Rof, who used to be Jayne Mansfield’s manager, and Tom plays one called Destin, who’s a singer with a band. We went outside to do my scene where I’m taking pictures without knowing it of the people who run off with the coke. They decided to put me in the beginning of the movie and gave me some lines, which I’m terrible at. I just don’t know how to be real.

  I interviewed Tom at dinner and his real life story was just like his character’s life story in the movie—how he burned his body in a plane crash in Colombia and some people found him and took him in a private plane to New York.

  I passed out in the limo on the way back in, and we got to the city around 2:30.

  Wednesday, August 30, 1978

  Talked to Brigid who was typing the interview we did with Shaun Cassidy and she said it was no good, that nobody said anything.

  Thursday, August 31, 1978

  Bob had a fight with Fran Lebowitz on the phone, she said she wasn’t going to write for Interview anymore because he changed some of her words, and I mean, why would Bob want to change words? Is it drugs?

  Friday, September 1, 1978

  Catherine’s leaving on Monday for her job at Viva. Her salary will be $30,000 and her new date is Stephen Graham. They went to his mother’s house on Martha’s Vineyard, so I guess she’ll be offered the editorship of the Washington Post, too. Wait till they find out she can’t do anything.

  Fred’s been invited to Avedon’s dinner before his show at the Met. He’s buttering up to Fred. He wants something. I still hate him. He wouldn’t give an interview to Interview because he said it wasn’t “right” for him. After he got Bob to do publicity on him in Interview, he turned around and said that. I mean, he’s just somebody who worked for Bazaar. He took those pictures of my scars and of all the Factory kids and we signed releases for him and everything and then he never even gave us prints. Viva’s in his new book, but at least she got some prints.

  Saturday, September 2, 1978

  Went out and bought props for drawings (fruit $23.80).

  Got a load of 1950s used shoes down on Canal Street for $2 a pair. It’s just the shoes I used to draw, all the Herbert Levine shoes with the creative lasts. Shoes first got really pointy in ‘54–55, and then they got round in ‘57.

  I went in the back and I tried to paint but my painting wasn’t too good. I was working on a German guy.

  Sunday, September 3, 1978

  I worked on the Fruit drawings and Diamond drawings and watched TV, and my painting had improved from the day before, I was back into it, it had been so bad on Saturday. And I got paint on my shoes and here I am trying to grow long fingernails and I get acrylic on them and I guess acrylic attracts acrylic because it gets more and more.

  Tuesday, September 5, 1978

  When I got to the office, Brigid was sitting there at her t
ypewriter looking her age which was going to be forty tomorrow. What can I give her? Some chocolate? I’ll give her another tape to type.

  Wednesday, September 6, 1978

  Went to the garment center with the girls from Interview to sell copies of the magazine there, even though I was nervous because on the news the night before there was a new outbreak of Legionnaires’ Disease on 35th Street between Sixth and Seventh, that now they think is caused by a bacteria that forms in air-conditioning systems.

  Blue Cross called to say that Ronnie sent them a doctor’s bill he wanted compensation for— when he was murdering the cats they struggled against him and he got scratched.

  Toni Brown came up and she wants me to do the cover of High Times. I told her she shouldn’t have told Carole that I said she was crazy, and then I had to call Carole and say, “I didn’t say you were crazy, I said you were crazy,” and then (laughs) she understood. It’s so funny when you just say the same word but in a heavier way and then people understand.

  Cabbed to the Waldorf ($3). There was a party in honor of me because this was the day we were supposed to leave for Iran, but then the civil war broke out. The Hoveydas looked really suntanned and healthy. Mrs. Hoveyda said she didn’t know anything about what was going on in Iran because her husband wouldn’t tell her, and he just said, “If things were really bad, would I be sitting here tonight?”

  Thursday, September 7, 1978

  Called Truman’s apartment and Bob MacBride answered and said Truman had just gotten back from Minnesota an hour ago, that they’d practically just walked in the door, and Truman was going over to Dr. Orentreich’s to get his face scraped or sandpapered.

  Met Catherine at La Folie for the Joan Fontaine book party (cab $4). I introduced her as the new senior Viva editor, and what a difference that made. Everybody was suddenly, “Oh right this way—oh here you go,” and they really hustled. She was Miss Big.

  I dropped Catherine off and near 63rd Street we ran into her new editor, the girl who hired her, and (laughs) she’s so thrilled to be getting Catherine.

  Bob got a car and we picked up Fred and went out to Alex Guest’s party for his sister Cornelia who’s going off to Foxcroft. There was a girl there named Lisa Rance who’s after Robyn Geddes, but she’s chubby and I told her. She was wearing a white Valentino and some kid came and threw “invisible ink” on it, and it did disappear but I’ll bet it’s not really gone, that in a different light you can still see it. I think the dress is finished.

  Friday, September 8, 1978

  Had lunch with Truman. He wasn’t drinking so he was boring. I paid for lunch because he looked like he was out of money ($60). I taped, took pictures, and then we went over to his bank, the Midland Bank. Bob MacBride went home, he had an allergy. As we were walking together, someone said, “Look! Living Legends!” And at the bank Truman was getting $5,000 in cash in fifty-dollar bills and the bank guy asked him was he sure he wanted it like that since he’d taken out $25,000 eight months ago in hundreds and lost it. Truman’s checking account had $16,000 in it and his savings $11,000 and he took $10,000 out of the savings to transfer so that made $36,000 in his checking. So he does have money, the money does come in. And then we walked and it was starting to rain and this girl from Radcliffe came up to us, she said she was working on the Brian DePalma movie and that she would be so honored if she could let us use her umbrella so we walked with her for a little while.

  Sunday, September 10, 1978

  Picked up Bob and we walked over to U.N. Plaza and the dogs actually made it walking the whole way, I was surprised, they loved it.

  Truman wasn’t drinking so he was boring again. He had a guy there from California who wore bluejeans, and I can’t stand people with 38” waists who still wear bluejeans.

  Truman had told me we’d be having caviar and potatoes, but instead he had bad quiche. Truman was listening to records, Donna Summer, I think.

  The guy from California had joints and he and Bob and Truman smoked them, and Truman said that after the joint he would be really exciting and interesting but he wasn’t. I was talking about the Gay Bob doll. Robert Hayes had one at the Factory, it’s a doll that comes out of a closet and it’s wearing an earring and a necklace and a plaid shirt and bluejeans and a handbag and a big cock, and I guess I said the wrong thing because everybody there was named Bob, but if you ever want to get anybody anything, get them that, it’s so funny.

  Monday, September 11, 1978

  Rupert came over. Worked on some Fruits and “landscapes” and Jewelry. Catherine called from over at Viva, she’s nervous, she was having lunch with Delfina Rattazzi who still works at Viking to try to pick her brain. Catherine was trying to find out how you find new writers. And today she’s having lunch with Victor Bockris to try to pick his brain. So she’s scraping the bottom of every barrel.

  Oh, and I forgot to say that on Saturday my house shook. They bombed the Cuban embassy on 67th between Fifth and Madison and when I looked out the window, across the street where the girl with the crewcut who works for YSL lives, her boyfriend was leaning out the window and he was naked and good-looking.

  Tuesday, September 12, 1978

  I discovered that Archie and Amos both are covered with fleas and what I thought were mosquito bites on me turned out to be flea bites, so now they’re wearing flea collars and I should be wearing a flea collar, too.

  Thursday, September 14, 1978

  Ran into Barry Landau. It’s so great to have him not calling me. Bob told him I was mad at him and amazingly that made him stop. I think that’s the bee that sticks in his bonnet, when someone tells him, “You have to cool it.” Then he does. Like Stevie told him that once. I guess so many people have told him.

  We went to Halston’s and got into limos to go over to Studio 54 for Dr. Giller’s birthday. There was a cake with a syringe (laughs) that said “Dr. Feelgood.” I ran into Barbara Allen and she was laughing. She said that she’d just been up in the balcony with one of the Robert Kennedy sons—the one with buck teeth who looks really like his father—and he took out a joint so they could smoke it and when he lit the match he paused and looked into Barbara’s eyes and said, “When I look into a flame, I see the face of my uncle.” You know, the Eternal Flame. I left, and the bouncer got me a cab and I tried to give him $10 but he wouldn’t take it (cab $2.50).

  Saturday, September 16, 1978

  Walked over to meet Bob and Joanne du Pont and Paul Jenkins on the corner. Drove out to New Rochelle where there was a birthday party for Mr. Kluge who is chairman of Metromedia. Everybody there was really, really rich. The house was on the beach and painted yellow. They had a tent for food and a tent for dancing, and lots of security people. I sat next to a lady who said she had a sore thumb and I asked her if it was a “murderer’s thumb.” She was awful. She said she was “Mrs. Goldenson” and I asked her who she was and she said, “If you don’t know, I’m not going to tell you,” and I’d ask her another way and she’d say, “You should know, so why should I tell you.” Later on I found out her husband is a chairman at ABC, Leonard Goldenson. But she was so rotten, I didn’t talk to her for the rest of the night.

  Then Bob found me and said that Mrs. Potamkin—Luba—who does the TV ads for Potamkin Cadillac was dying to meet me so we went and found her. And Bert Parks was there and I was so excited, Bob and I had been sitting at his table, and I started talking to Mrs. Bert Parks and she got a little fresh, she pushed her tits against me. And then Bob saw I was getting into trouble and came over and put his arm around her to distract her and she squeezed his ass, and then Bert saw that she was getting fresh and said, “Let’s go dance, darling.”

  I think everybody must have been somebody. Everybody was rich and straight, a new crowd. All rich old people and attractive young girls for the old fogies. They started serving breakfast at 1:00. They had huge seashells made out of ice. Bob was telling me that everybody wanted portraits, but I was so drunk I didn’t care.

  Monday, September 18
, 1978

  Got up early. Slept with my clothes on so I wouldn’t get bitten by fleas. I have about forty bites all over me and they came on different days, you can tell by when they disappear.

  We haven’t heard from Doug Christmas and if he doesn’t pay us I’m not going to California tomorrow.

  Tuesday, September 19, 1978

  Passed out Interviews in the morning. Called Vincent and asked if Doug Christmas sent us the check. He didn’t. Called Fred and threatened not to go to California. So here it is now Wednesday morning and I still don’t know if I’m going, the plane’s at 12:00. I can’t decide.

  Wednesday, September 20, 1978—New York—Los Angeles

  In the morning we were waiting for the check to arrive from Doug Christmas to see if we were going to California or not. It didn’t come in the morning so we didn’t get on the flight at noon. But right after 12:00 it arrived, so the driver picked me up at 860 and then we picked up Fred and drove out to Newark to get a plane. The driver was nice (tip $10).

  The plane left on time. What we were really having to go out there for was a dinner that Marcia Weisman was giving. That meant we’d be missing the big glamorous YSL Opium party in New York on the Chinese boat downtown at the South Street pier.

  Checked into our hotel, L’Ermitage. It’s for people who don’t want to be discovered—if you’re having an affair, that’s the place to go. There’s no lobby, and it’s chic in a funky way. It was very elegant. When you pick up your key you get to pick a four-number combination, so I was 1111 and Fred was 2222.