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 Dugay and the other hockey guy came in and I was trying to introduce them to Marina Schiano, 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. 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.

Warhol, A. (1989). The Andy Warhol Diaries (P. Hackett, Ed.). Pg. 252-253. New York: Warner Books.

Wednesday, October 31, 1979

Bobby Zarem was having a lunch for the photo book -- Bob and I ended up calling it Exposures -- at 1:00 at Maxwell's Plum. So I stayed uptown in the morning and then met Elizinha Goncalves and Bob at the Mayfair House and we walked over to Maxwell's Plum and when we were half a block away Bobby Zarem ran toward us and screamed that we were late and how dare we and that people were waiting to see us. It was crowded, we had to work our way in. Karen Lerner was there filming for the segment she's doing on me for 20/20. She attached an invisible mike to me so I had to remember to watch what I said. It was a press party and it was basically everybody Bobby wanted to pay back for favors, I guess.
     They had big AW initials in ice, three feet high, but it was melting. I didn't eat anything. Everybody got a free book, at least 100 were given out. The waiters stole lots of books and then asked me to autograph them in the kitchen, bit I didn't mind because there were nice.
     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).

Warhol, A. (1989). The Andy Warhol Diaries (P. Hackett, Ed.). Pg. 247. New York: Warner Books.

Tuesday, October 30, 1979

I ran into Juan Hamilton who was coming down to the office later. He and Georgia O'Keeffe are at the Mayfair ($3.50). As I got to the office Joseph Beuys, the German artist, was getting out of a car with his children and Heiner Bastion -- about eight people. He kissed me on the mouth and I got nervous. I didn't know what to talk to him about. Heiner Friedrich and Philippa de Menil came by. And Robert Hayes had Sally Kellerman and Barry Diller and Barry McKinley there, and there was no room to sit down. And Heiner Bastion said I should photograph Beuys for a portrait. Then I was photographing Georgia and Juan in the back. It's too hard with famous people at the office all the same time because nobody can understand why anybody else is there. I worked until 4:00 with Georgia. Finally they all left.
     Later I went to the horse show at Madison Square Garden. I went over with a bunch of horse people to the Statler Hilton for scrambled eggs and bacon, I guess that's what horse people like to eat. It was good. I stole some silverware and then it was embarrassing because it fell out and everybody saw it. It was Statler Hilton silverware from the forties.
     At Studio 54 after that I ran into Steve Rubell who said that on Friday he was going to be sentenced to two months in jail, that he'd made a deal with the government -- they'd dropped the drug charges and he'd pleased guilty to income tax evasion. He asked if we'd come and visit him.

Warhol, A. (1989). The Andy Warhol Diaries (P. Hackett, Ed.). Pg. 246-247. New York: Warner Books.

Tuesday, August 7, 1979

Worked until 7:30. Halston was giving me a birthday party. He knew my birthday was the day before but I guess he just didn't want to have to do it on a Monday. It was nice, just for the kids from the office. Truman was there and D.D. Ryan told him that she liked the Siamese Twins interview he did with himself seven or eight years ago that was just like the one he did in this month's Interview, and he got very embarrassed and at first he denied he'd ever done one like it but then later he admitted that he had.
     Ronnie came with a girl dressed as a nurse who's a bartender at the Mudd Club. Then out came the birthday cake which was a huge baked cookie, like a famous Amos, only it looked like a big plop of shit, it was funny.
     Halston didn't give me the kind of expensive presents he did last year, I guess he though it was too hard to go through that and do it every year, so he broke the tradition and gave me twenty boxes. One had skates, another had a helmet, another had a radio, and then earphones, and then kneepads, and then gloves, and a How to Skate book. And Victor had his own skates, too, so we went outside and skated in front of the house. It was fun. Jane Holzer and Bob Denison came late. Then we ordered limos to go to Studio 54. Oh, and Steve game me a good present. A roll of 5,000 of the new free drink tickets he'd just had printed up for the new year.

Warhol, A. (1989). The Andy Warhol Diaries (P. Hackett, Ed.). Pg. 234. New York: Warner Books.

Friday, July 27, 1979

I'd just gone to bed at 6:00 but at 7:30 Halston was knocking on my door. He hates being away from New York and he wanted to get back, but it was a horror trip getting up. And the hotel was just so beautiful, it had the geraniums in the window and red awnings. And Steve didn't want to get up and go, either, but after a half-hour of coaxing he did get up. We had to sit and eat breakfast but it was torture. Victor had his own room upstairs that he'd gotten after having an agitation, and he was cranky.
     Halston really enjoys screaming. When he's paying he gets so grand and yells and tells everybody off about how rotten the service is for what he's paying, and when he pays the bill he makes you feel--well, he's like me, only worse.  He tells you how he has to go back to New York to slave so hard so he can make money so you can go on spending it all, and oh, God!--he makes you feel so funny about it. But then it is just incredible what hotels cost now.
     Finally Victor and everybody was in the car and we got to the Concorde on time, and Steve wasn't tipping the driver who hadn't even slept, he'd been out with us all night, so I gave him a fifty.
     As soon as we got on the plane everyone fell asleep. The stewardess woke Halston up and he screamed at her that she better not wake him up again.
     I wanted to get the Concorde silverware, and I wanted to wake Victor up and ask him to ask for food so I could get more settings--I'm working up to a twelve-piece setting--but I didn't wake him up so I only got one set. It was an easy flight. Then we went through customs and the customs guy used to be a cabdriver who had me in his cab once, so he sailed me right through. Got home and went to the office. Cab fares had gone up ($4).
     It was a hot day and when I got to the office nobody was doing a thing. Brigid was waiting for the cake lady from New Jersey to deliver a cake for her mother's birthday, she was taking it out to the country for her later on.
     David Whitney called and said I had to get some of the portraits to Paris, and I called Fred but I couldn't get him. Worked till about 7:30 with Rupert. Read my mail.


Warhol, A. (1989). The Andy Warhol Diaries (P. Hackett, Ed.). Pg. 231. New York: Warner Books.

Monday, July 23, 1979--London

Went to some punk stores with Victor and Catherine, one was called Seditionaires. We got shirts that were made out of Nazi symbols and that you could tie yourself together with, And a T-shirt of two cocks pissing on Marilyn Monroe's photograph saying the word "Piss." Catherine knew a little Italian restaurant where her family goes on Sunday. Nice Italian lunch ($100), and after that we got some flowers for Catherine's mother ($20) and Catherine took us to see her stepfather's mansion on Cheyne Walk. Whistler lived there once.
     Victor and I went back to the hotel (cab $7). It was Martha Graham's opening at Covent Garden. We all got ready and met in Halston's room--John Bowes-Lyon, Dr. Giller and me, Randy, Steve, Victor--Fred went off with his date, Sabrina Guinness. Liza went on before us. We all had front-row-balcony seats.
     They did three numbers and then Liza came on with "The Owl and the Pussycat." Then Martha gave a long speech, about half an hour. They were all wearing beautiful Halstons. Lynn Wyatt was next to Fred, then moved up next to John Bowes-Lyon.
     Then backstage, hello to Liza and Martha, and then a little cocktail party in the bar part of Covent Garden. Covent Garden was very beautiful, it looked like the old Met. Then drinks, and then we all walked to the Savoy--Halston was giving a private party. We were upstairs and we didn't know the party was upstairs and downstairs. The downstairs party had Princess Margaret and Halston, Liza, and everybody, and when we finally realized we were missing it, we went downstairs. Halston was nervous but his party was terrific, had the best time.
     Victor wanted me to meet Princess Margaret, and I didn't but I got two pictures. Victor got two photos of Princess Margaret and Roddy Llewellyn. They didn't want to be seen together and they wanted to take his film away, but then Fred said not to, that Victor was with Halston.
     Left the party about 4:00, went to Liza's room. She was wearing a really beautiful see-through fabric dress with her hair brushed back like her mother used to wear it--that's the way she wears it in "The Owl and the Pussycat." It was a wig but I couldn't tell.
     Then Halston and I left Liza's room and we began taking everybody's shoes from in front of their doors and moving them to other places. The funniest thing I ever did. Then to bed and read a little bit more of the Martha Mitchell book.

Warhol, A. (1989). The Andy Warhol Diaries (P. Hackett, Ed.). Pg 229-230. New York: Warner Books.

Saturday, March 31, 1979

"Went to Studio 54 with Catherine and Stephen Graham. Catherine had also invited Jamie Blandford, the good-looking marquis who'll be the next Duke of Marlborogh. Jamie introduced me to Gunther Sachs son--it must have been from before Brigitte Bardot, he looked in his twenties. The place was crowded, it was like a subway. Stevie came over and told me a couple of stars that were there, but I can't remember who they were. One was "the new Shaun Cassidy," a blond kid, Leif something, he's making millions, they say. Garrett. Then I had John Scribner talking in one ear about John Samuels, IV, and in the other ear Cindy the Hustler from Columbus talking about John Samuels IV. And she was jealous because he'd dropped her for Larissa.
     Studio 54 was a lot of fun. I went up in the balcony and Halston was there with Lester, and if you say, "This is Lester Persky the producer of Hair," these boys just get down on their knees. They absolutely get down on their knees. And then Halston invited me to the next night's birthday party for Victor. Jamie wanted to go to the basement, but Catherine and I didn't go with him."

Warhol, A. (1989). The Andy Warhol Diaries (P. Hackett, Ed.). New York: Warner Books.

[NOTE: Gunther Sachs owned Halston's former house at 101 East. 63rd Street]

Wednesday, March 14, 1979

The BBC was at the office doing a story on Fran Lebowitz and then on us interviewing Jessica Lang (pastry $17, $2.77).
     Jessica wants to be a serious actress. She's thirty and she's pretty but she has caps on her teeth, I think. They asked me where I found Fran and I said, "In the gutter." And then they asked me if I'd read her book, and I said no. I hope it came out right. What they were actually saying was that since she's so good, how come she writes for you. I asked Fran to help us interview Jessica, and she said she didn't do interviews. And then she didn't have her column for us, so were were upset. She actually did give funny lines, though, this time. She told Jessica she loved King Kong, and Jessica said she hadn't seen it. And Jessica said to Fran, "I loved your book," and Fran said, "I haven't read it."
     Picked up Jed and Paulette Goddard and we limoed to the armory for the Cartier party that Ralph Destino was giving to celebrate the anniversary of the Santos Dumont wristwatch that he got Bob to help get celebrities for. Truman was there in his sailor's cap--he looks like he's lost a lot of weight. It's strange. It's as if they took his face and chiseled off some of it. It's not like he looks younger. It's just thinner. And his scars are all gone. The only one left is the one from the fold on his nose. And Monique Van Vooren was there, she said that Nureyev was coming And I said are you sure, and she said, "Don't worry, if he's getting a free watch he'll be here." And right then he walked in. He really looks so old.
     Mr. Destino spent so much money to get the airplanes into the armory-- the wristwatch was invented for a pilot--and the whole party probably cost about $100,000, but it just didn't work.
     Robyn Geddes's mother, Caroline Amory, was there, and Lynn Wyatt, and Joanne Herring. And Catherine was there, she's very fat but she looks beautiful. Like a sexy English fatso, a beautiful body, but all filled in. Like a jelly jar.
     Paulette was wearing so much jewelry it must have been $3 million worth of rubies, and she was saying she wants to sell off her paintings, and she was saying how much money she had. She decided she didn't want the woman's watch that she wanted the man's watch, and she told Mr. Destino and he said fine. The watches they were giving were $1,300 watches, and they gave either of them, and I guess they cost them $600 apiece. Marion Javits didn't know who Mr. Destino was and she said to him, "These watches are crap," and he said, "I'm the president of Cartier." And so she was going crazy because she couldn't get out of it--literally going crazy. Finally I told her, "Well look, Marion, it'll be a memorable evening for him--he'll never forget it."
     Bob and I took Paulette home. And Bob was gushing and sentimental and telling Paulette he loves her, and so just to make things lighter I said, "Gee, Bob, you never tell me you love me." And so I go home and fall asleep and the phone rings and it's Bob saying that he's never said so but that he does love me, and I mean, what's wrong with him? Is he flipping out?

Warhol, A. (1989). The Andy Warhol Diaries (P. Hackett, Ed.). Pg. 211-212. New York: Warner Books.

Saturday, February 17, 1979


I told Susan Blond I'd meet her at the Palladium Theater down on 14th Street to see an English group called the Clash (Cab $5). Ron Delsner took us to a little room. We sat around there and then a couple came in who I didn't recognize but it turned out to be Carrie Fisher and Paul Simon. I never recognize him. Bruce Springsteen came in and I didn't recognize him, either. He was sweet, he said, "Hello, remember me?" and he took off his glove to shake hands. I met him at Madison Square Garden when I took a picture of him that I wasn't supposed to.
     Blondie -- Debbie Harry -- was there and when we got backstage there was Nico! With John Cale! And she looks beautiful again, absolutely beautiful, she's finally thin in the face. her hair's dark brown, but John's having her dye it bright red. They're opening at CBGB and she's going to sing "Femme Fatale" from the first Velvet Underground album and John's going to play his violin. She's staying at the Chelsea.
     The Clash are cute but they all have bad teeth, sticks and stumps. And they scream about getting rid of the rich. One of them said he didn't want to go anywhere downtown -- that he wanted to be shown uptown. So I said okay, we'd go to Xenon and Studio 54.

Warhol, A. (1989). The Andy Warhol Diaries (P. Hackett, Ed.). Pg. 206. New York: Warner Books.