The Andy Warhol Diaries

by Andy Warhol

  Catherine was asking Steve Rubell personal questions, like, “You mean you actually did take all that money?” but he didn’t seem to care. Now he’s saying he made a deal with the IRS where he’ll be going to jail for two days a week doing community service—teaching people how to make discotheques on army bases for the soldiers. What a brilliant idea. Next they’ll teach them how to be fairies and take drugs, right?

  Later we went over in a cab to Studio 54. Halloween was so big this year, people were really dressed up in the cars, outfits with lights blinking. At Studio 54 the place was done up just great. You walked in and there were ten doors on each side and you had to go through each one, and there were mice in plastic running under your feet. And another room had a hole and you looked in and there were eight midgets having dinner and you could talk to them. They were eating chicken bones. And then in the next room there were all these rubber gloves and some were real hands. It was better than an art opening, better than a gallery show. There were some other rooms I didn’t go into. It was all great. Jammed, wall-to-wall people, beautiful, I don’t know where they came from.

  And Esme the top model was there with Allen Finkelstein, but I wouldn’t have recognized them if Tommy Pashun the florist hadn’t told me, because they were dressed as Hasidic Jews, and they said that they were so amazed, that everyone was being so mean to them. A makeup guy at one of the Broadway plays had made them up. Dropped Catherine at 3:00 (cab $3.50).

  Thursday, November 1, 1979

  Cabbed downtown to Ronnie’s art opening ($3). I talked to Larry Rivers. His article on the fifties is on the cover of New York. All the sixties regulars were there, like René Ricard who doesn’t say anything, he just runs around saying things. And Roger Trudeau who said he was an interior decorator now. Then Fred and I had to go to the German embassy dinner for Beuys.

  At dinner I sat with a German girl who’d accosted me on the street earlier for an autograph, so that was funny. We got there a little late and we missed the speech. They said it’d been about excrement, and how Beuys uses it so well.

  We were in the papers for the Bobby Zarem thing, a lot of little mentions in Jack Martin and Liz Smith and “Suzy.”

  Monday, November 12, 1979

  Halston had invited me to dinner but then Catherine called and said that Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager wanted to take us to Pearl’s first. So I went there. Steve told me that Liza’s pregnant and she’s going to get married but that it was a big secret. We should have let Steve order because he gets cranky. We ordered while he was in the bathroom, and then nobody ate anything. Catherine had a slice of pork, she’s got her thin beautiful body back again. I’m down to 132.

  Then we left and we got into the car to Halston’s. Halston had dinner ready. He took me aside and told me that Liza was pregnant but not to tell anyone, that it was a big secret. Catherine was trying to make out with Ian. And she was drunk, asking Steve again how much he really stole.

  Tuesday, December 4, 1979

  So tired after three weeks on the road with Bob and Fred to promote the Exposures book. The tour began so chicly in Washington when I sat in President Carter’s box at Kennedy Center but it wound up in the gutter on Hollywood Boulevard in that B. Dalton’s bookstore that used to be Pickwick Books. While I was signing there a woman with a knife wound in her stomach came in screaming, “This isn’t Andy Warhol! I went to bed with Andy Warhol and he’s 7’8, he can’t fit through doors, and he wouldn’t be standing here like this in a bookshop because he’s too paranoid!” (laughs) And that may actually be an accurate quote. And at Neiman-Marcus in Dallas where they had a great party for us in their boiler room, all the kids there said the book was “neat” and “cool.” And the Texas people were all so gracious and considerate, they say things like, “It’s so kind of you to come all this way to see us.” I wish I could talk like that—I can’t think of those beautiful lines. Oh, and a big nice man in Dallas even insisted on personally taking us to the discotheque afterwards because, he said, “I’ll tell you what, you fellas will need some protection —it’s a pret-ty gay atmosphere. Of course, I guess you might be used to it, coming from New York City and all.” And we laughed and looked to make sure he was kidding and he wasn’t.

  Tuesday, December 18, 1979

  Had a limo for the day. Picked up Paulette to go to Halston’s show. She was stunning, all in a white fur coat. At Halston’s I was next to Martha Graham who really looked old for the first time. I guess maybe it’s just that she always wears makeup and didn’t have any on. The Daily News took a lot of pictures of me with Liza. I told her that I didn’t know what to say about her miscarriage but she said she was okay.

  We had lunch at the office for a photographer friend of Alexander Guest’s who was going to take pictures of Bob and me afterwards for Penthouse. A girl made me and Bob up with black eyes and bleeding lips. It looked good, real. Then they took us down to Avenue C and 4th Street to a school. The whole area looks bombed out. And then the school let ten kids out (laughs) to pose as kids who just mugged us. It was so cold. And a kid yelled at me, “Don’t go to too many parties.” They said they were allowed out of their typing classes. I don’t know exactly what kind of school it was—they had karate classes there, too. The kids were cute. We posed against real graffiti. And I mean, I couldn’t believe a school was letting kids out to pose with pussy in Penthouse, and then I found out that they weren’t even getting paid! And I told the guy in charge he was horrible for not paying them and he got really funny about it but then they took down their names. Then we went back to the office.

  Wednesday, December 19, 1979

  The ABC 20/20 camera crew was coming to the office to film. I worked until 7:30. Then at home I glued myself together. Bob called and said he was exhausted but he really wanted to go to the Alice Mason dinner, so he picked me up and we walked to 72nd Street and Lexington. I was next to Norris Church Mailer. I told her we were still interested in doing something with her for Interview but she said she’d put on weight and that she really liked eating better than staying thin for modeling. Then we got a cab to El Morocco, Norris and Norman and Bob and me (cab $5). It was a party for Margaux Hemingway’s engagement. I ran into Jamie Blandford there and had a fight with him, I don’t know why, I just always do, I hope I didn’t (laughs) offend him. And Mimi Trujillo was there. She was married to the son of that dictator and she’s a fashion designer. Victor sees her stuff then tells Halston about it—I mean, she does stuff like Halston, but she does it sort of first.

  Millie and Bill Kaiserman were there. I introduced Norris to them, but I think I did it in a strange way, I guess I said, “This is Norris Church, she wants free clothes.” But they should have good-looking people walking around in their clothes for free. There were lots of funny young people, El Morocco’s back on its way again.

  Thursday, December 20, 1979

  Cabbed to 47th Street ($3). I walked around to the office for the office Christmas party. Then went home and got together. Went to Tom Armstrong’s at 72nd and Park, and Leo Castelli was there, and Iris Love and Robert Rosenblum who said he didn’t understand why everybody gave my show at the Whitney a bad review. Bobo Le Gendre was there, and I was mean to her because she’s so phoney baloney. She’s a friend of de Antonio’s. She’s a carpet heiress. They had shepherd’s pie but I’d eaten already.

  Then I took John to Richard Weisman’s at U.N. Plaza. Ron Duguay was there, and Rod Gilbert came without Judy, and Fred was there, and Whitney Tower, and Averil who was going back to miniskirts, wearing one of her mother’s, and she got a hole in it. Peter Beard was there, and Cheryl Tiegs, and I think Duguay finally got hot for Catherine after he was looking at her topless picture in the Exposures book. Vitas and the cute boy we photographed with him in Paris were there, and John McEnroe. And just when the party was getting good, John Reinhold dragged me into the closet and got so serious. He was just wacko, saying I was his favorite friend and that when I don’t call he goes crazy. I don’t know what he
meant, he was just wacko.

  Catherine Oxenberg was there, and lots of stewardess-looking girls and when girls get drunk they get obnoxious. I had a limo waiting, so Catherine and I and a couple of the stewardesses got in it and we dropped Catherine, and then me, and I tipped the driver ($40) and he took everyone else home. And I missed Fred Mueller’s party and Eleanor Ward’s party and Keller Donovan’s party and the Rolling Stone party.

  Friday, December 21, 1979—New York—Vail, Colorado

  We got to Denver at 5:30. Catherine and I got drunk on the plane and had fun with a lady who collects big jewelry who used to live in the Ritz Towers. She lost a silver ring on the plane but she didn’t care about it because it was just silver. She was on her way to Taos.

  There was a kind of van waiting to take us to Vail. A beautiful Redcap girl carried our heavy bags (tip $10).

  Got to Jed’s house at 7:40. The altitude really got to me, I got terrible chest pains. I think it’s because of when I was shot. It wasn’t bad in Denver because Denver’s lower, and when I was in Mexico City once I felt it but not this bad. The whole house looks like a big sauna. This is the house Jed bought with Peter and Sandy Brant. It’s by Venturi. It’s all wood and simple and clean. The second floor is bedrooms. The kitchen is on the third floor, the living room on the fourth. The furniture is all Stickley.

  We walked into town to the Left Bank restaurant (drinks $30, dinner $200). Fran and Ray Stark were there, and Bob knows they’re Republican so he told Kennedy jokes and he invited them over for cocktails Monday. Ray’s high on Paul Morrissey, Paul’s writing a script for him. I signed the restaurant guest book, and Betty and Gerald Ford were in it and Bob Hope, and then we walked up the hill and it was just horrible, the walk, I felt so light-headed and really really horrible.

  Monday, December 24, 1979—Vail

  Aurora cooked a ham and a turkey but nobody came to our cocktail party. Mercedes Kellogg called and said she had a cold, and the Starks just didn’t show.

  Tuesday, December 25, 1979—Vail

  The Fords shake hands with absolutely everybody. Betty Ford doesn’t look as good as she did in the photos after her facelift, she just looks sort of the same. But now she’s a blonde. Before she had brown hair, didn’t she? It’s a sort of honey-blonde now. At first I thought it was Mrs. Nixon. Bob wanted to meet them so badly, but he would shove me out first and I would shrink back, so it never happened.

  Passed out Interviews, there really were great places to do it. Three people asked for my autograph. Everybody stares at me because I’m wearing my wolf parka by Halston.

  We went to a bar that shows ski movies, you drink beer and watch skiers. Nobody came over and asked for our drink orders, so we didn’t drink anything and just watched the movie and then left. We were having dinner with Nan Kempner. I began reading Dress Gray and it had the right names that sounded real. Like the main guy is called Ry.

  Wednesday, December 26, 1979—Vail—New York

  Got home just in time to catch Vincent still at the office, at 6:00. Rupert had gone away for Christmas so he didn’t get much done. Talked to John Reinhold and he suggested Trader Vic’s to discuss jewelry ideas. Got a cab, thought it would be easier, but then the driver didn’t move, he said he was stunned to have me, and he missed the light and I said, “Do you know where you’re going?” and he said yes, to the Plaza on 59th and Fifth, but then he missed 59th Street and at 57th Street I gave him $3 and got out quick.

  John was already there and then Curley arrived, above the weather, and he wanted to go to Studio 54 around midnight, sort of early (cab $4). Then I got nervous, he said there was a picture of me and Steve Rubell on a couch in New York. At Studio 54 Bianca arrived with John Samuels who was home from Harvard for the holidays. He seemed so in love—he’s taking her to the sun for a few days.

  Thursday, December 27, 1979

  Oh, I’m trying to lose weight, and we’ve got a lot of cheese everywhere. Gael Malkenson’s boyfriend imports it so she gets it for us half-price.

  Ronnie and Gigi had had a big fight and she packed and left so he was in a bad mood. They fought because he was buying her presents and she didn’t have the money to buy him some and she got mad. She’s like a bad forties movie.

  We got sent a copy of Steven Gaines’s book, The Club, the “novel” about Studio 54. And it has a chic Seventh Avenue designer named (laughs) “Ellison” who works in the Olympic Tower and who has a Peruvian boyfriend named “Raoul.” The names are so bad.

  Friday, December 28, 1979

  I walked around passing out Interviews and then I cabbed ($3) to 245 Park Avenue for my meeting with Bob Denison to talk about investments. I walked into the building and got the elevator to the twenty-seventh floor, the door opened and I smelled something burning. I walked into Bob’s office and he was running around trying to find out if what was burning was one of his machines. Then the secretary came running in and said the building was on fire, that we should leave.

  Bob wanted to take the elevator, but I said no, to take the stairs. The exit door was locked. Just like in Towering Inferno. But we found another exit that wasn’t locked and went into the staircase. People said the fire was on the thirty-fifth floor. At the twenty-sixth floor more people got on the stairway and on the twenty-fifth more got on and the twenty-fourth and every floor was the same story. So it was getting slower and slower because there were so many people being added. But nobody panicked because we knew the fire was above us. A couple of people almost fainted, though. When we reached the bottom there were hundreds of people on the street. Bob Denison and I went over to have our meeting at the Trattoria. And I just couldn’t believe the way I’d walked into the building and the elevator people just let me go up there when they already knew there was a fire! They must have known by then! And I could have walked onto the blazing floor. Those elevator people just stand around like morons.

  The man at the Trattoria came over and said that I always used to come there a lot, and what happened to me. I was too nervous to really eat. I just had coffee.

  Saturday, December 29, 1979

  Bianca called and Suzie Frankfurt called, but I couldn’t remember their numbers so I didn’t call them back. I should really keep an address book. And then I had a glass of wine or so, and I watched a little TV, and I was tired so I fell asleep.

  Monday, December 31, 1979

  I decided to make it easy and just go to Halston’s for New Year’s Eve. I wrapped gifts for Jade. Went over at 10:00. It was small there, black tie. Bob Denison and Jane Holzer were there, so I guess they’ve made up. Nancy North and Bill Dugan. Victor called from California and said he was having a good time out there. When the New Year came in we did kisses and ate. Dr. Giller was there. It was just so nice. Jade loved all the presents I brought her. Steve Rubell was there. Then at 3:00 Bianca wanted to go to Woody Allen’s party at Harkness House on 75th. John Samuels had a car and double-parked.

  Woody’s was the best party, wall-to-wall famous people, we should have gone earlier. Mia Farrow is so charming and such a beauty. Bobby De Niro was there and he’s so fat. Really really fat. I know he gained weight for the boxing movie, but wouldn’t it be funny if he could never lose it? He looks so ugly. He must be crazy, because he’s really fat.

  Mick came in with Jerry, and Bianca ran over and was charming. I don’t know how she did it but she got it over with, she broke the ice, they talked for about half an hour. She wanted to get Jerry nervous, which she did. Mick shaved off his beard so he looks really good.

  We went over to Studio 54 and the look was “ice.” Ice wall-to-wall and dripping down the walls. Then Steve said, “Let’s go down to the basement,” so we did. He just about said, “Anybody have any cocaine?” He wanted it to be like the good old days. It was so filthy down there, with the garbage and everything. Winnie was there, without Tom Sullivan—she said he’s in Hawaii.

  Then upstairs Duguay and the other hockey guy came in and I was trying to introduce them to Marina S
chiano, but they said their real girlfriends were there, from Minnesota or Indianapolis or something, so they couldn’t do anything. Then it was 6 A.M. and Marina and I left, and there was a riot outside, people still wanting to get in. Jack Hofsiss who directed Elephant Man went by in a limo and gave us a ride, there were about twenty boys in it. And I got out at Marina’s, because I knew if I stayed in it they’d invite me to go with them, and I wanted to get up and go to work.

  Marina invited me up for pizza and I went. I always hear that she gets the best food from all over the city, that she has the people who work for her bring salami from Brooklyn and pizza from Queens and things like that, so I wanted to try it out. It was sort of good, a really cheap kind of pizza, all dough and a little ketchup and a little cheese. Like the cheese doesn’t come away when you eat it, there’s not much. And when I was there I noticed that she had a pile of food on the stove, and she said it was for good luck, you’re supposed to have it piled on the stove on New Year’s. So I was there and we talked, and she was asking me about my house, and I told her how much it cost to run it, and she felt that I was being “real” and that she’d really gotten something out of me and that this meant we were friends or something, I don’t know. I was waiting for it to get light out, and it never did. I mean, it was 6:30 and it was still dark, and I thought the sun came up at 6:00, but I guess that last year when I left and it was light out it was 7:00, not 6:00.