The Decker Building, the second location of the Factory
Warhol Superstar Mary Woronov
Warhol Superstar Ultra Violet

The Factory was Andy Warhol's studio in New York City, which had four locations between 1963 and 1987. The Factory became famed for its parties in the 1960s. It was the hip hangout spot for artists, musicians, celebrities and Warhol's superstars. The original Factory was often referred to as the Silver Factory.[1] In the studio, Warhol's workers would make silkscreens and lithographs under his direction.

History

Speaking in 2002, musician John Cale said, "It wasn't called the Factory for nothing. It was where the assembly line for the silkscreens happened. While one person was making a silkscreen, somebody else would be filming a screen test. Every day something new."[2]

1963–67, 159 East 87th Street

Due to the mess his work was causing at home, Warhol wanted to find a studio where he could paint.[3] A friend of his found an old unoccupied firehouse on 159 East 87th Street where Warhol began working in January 1963.[4] No one was eager to go there, so the rent was $150 a month.[4]

231 East 47th Street

A few months later, Warhol was informed that the building would have to be vacated soon, and in November he found another loft on the fifth floor at 231 East 47th Street in Midtown Manhattan, which would become the first Factory.[3]

In 1963, artist Ray Johnson took Warhol to a "haircutting party" at Billy Name's apartment, decorated with tin foil and silver paint, and Warhol asked him to do the same scheme for his recently leased loft. Silver, fractured mirrors, and tin foil were the basic decorating materials loved by early amphetamine users of the sixties. Name covered the whole factory in silver, even the elevator. Warhol's years at the Factory were known as the Silver Era. Aside from the prints and paintings, Warhol produced shoes, films, sculptures and commissioned work in various genres to brand and sell items with his name. His first commissions consisted of a single silkscreen portrait for $25,000, with additional canvases in other colors for $5,000 each. He later increased the price of alternative colors to $20,000 each. Warhol used a large portion of his income to finance the Factory.[1]

Billy Name brought in the red couch which became a prominent furnishing at the Factory, finding it on the sidewalk of 47th street during one of his "midnight outings." The sofa quickly became a favorite place for Factory guests to crash overnight, usually after coming down from speed. It was featured in many photographs and films from the Silver era, including Blow Job (1963) and Couch (1964). During the move in 1968, the couch was stolen while left unattended on the sidewalk for a short time.[5]

Many Warhol films, including those made at the Factory, were first (or later) shown at the New Andy Warhol Garrick Theatre or 55th Street Playhouse.[6][7][8][9]

Warhol left in 1967 when the building was scheduled to be torn down. The location is now the entrance to the parking garage of One Dag.

1967–73, 33 Union Square West

He then relocated his studio to the sixth floor of the Decker Building at 33 Union Square West near the corner of East 16th Street, near Max's Kansas City, a club which Warhol and his entourage frequently visited.[10] By the time Warhol had achieved a reputation, he was working day and night on his paintings. Warhol used silkscreens so that he could mass-produce images the way corporations mass-produced consumer goods. To increase production, he attracted a ménage of adult film performers, drag queens, socialites, drug addicts, musicians, and free-thinkers who became known as the Warhol Superstars, to help him. These "art-workers" helped him create his paintings, starred in his films, and created the atmosphere for which the Factory became legendary.

The same year Warhol created the business Factory Additions to handle the business of publishing and printmaking.[11]

In 1968, Warhol was shot by Valerie Solanas at the Factory.[12]

1973–84, 860 Broadway

The Factory was revamped and remained there until 1973. It moved to 860 Broadway at the north end of Union Square. Although this space was much larger, not much film-making took place there.

Underground[13] operated at 860 Broadway[14] 1980—1989, by co-owners Maurice Brahms,[15][16][17] a former partner of Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager, the original owners of Studio 54, and Jay Levy after Club 54 closed, due to jailing of Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager.[18][19][20] The club opened on February 28, 1980.[21]

John Blair[22] got his start there. Baird Jones[23][24][25][26] promoted Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night parties from 1983 to 1986.

Music videos for "I Want To Know What Love Is"[27] by Foreigner and "Word Up!"[28] by Cameo were filmed at the club.

After about a decade, the club was reimagined by BlackBook Magazine columnist Steve Lewis & Co. as Le Palace de Beauté, where RuPaul often performed.

After the Underground closed, Petco opened, moving in 2022, to 44 Union Square, the former Tammany Hall.[29][30]

1983-1987, 158 Madison Ave and 22 East 33rd Street

In 1984 Warhol moved his remaining ventures, no longer including filming, to 22 East 33rd Street, a conventional office building.[31]

Regulars

Friends of Warhol and "superstars" associated with the Factory included:

Work

silver painted trunk within a Plexiglas vitrine
This trunk was used in Warhol's Silver Factory as a storage unit and film prop. Edie Sedgwick sits on this trunk in Vinyl. After Warhol's death in 1987, inside the trunk were found photographs, and photographic negatives by Billy Name, as well at the script of Up Your Ass by Valerie Solanas, which Warhol repeatedly told Solanas he had lost. This was one of the compounding reasons Solanas shot Warhol in 1968.

Music

The Factory became a meeting place of artists and musicians such as Lou Reed,[32] Bob Dylan, and Mick Jagger, as well as writer Truman Capote. Less frequent visitors included Salvador Dalí and Allen Ginsberg.[32] Warhol collaborated with Reed's influential New York rock band the Velvet Underground in 1965, and designed the noted cover for The Velvet Underground & Nico, the band's debut album. It featured a plastic image of a yellow banana, which users could peel off to reveal a flesh-hued version of the banana.[33] Warhol also designed the album cover for the Rolling Stones' album Sticky Fingers.[34]

Warhol included the Velvet Underground in the Exploding Plastic Inevitable, a spectacle that combined art, rock, Warhol films and dancers of all kinds, as well as live S&M enactments and imagery. The Velvet Underground and EPI used the Factory as a place to rehearse and hang out.[1]: 253–254 

"Walk on the Wild Side", Lou Reed's best-known song from his solo career, was released on his second, and first commercially successful, solo album, Transformer (1972). The song relates to the superstars and life of the Factory. He mentions Holly Woodlawn, Candy Darling, Joe Dallesandro, Jackie Curtis and Joe Campbell (referred to in the song by his Factory nickname Sugar Plum Fairy).[35]

Sexual radicals

Andy Warhol commented on mainstream America through his art while disregarding its conservative social views. Almost all his work filmed at the Factory featured nudity, graphic sexuality, drug use, same-sex relations and transgender characters in much greater proportion to what was being shown in mainstream cinema. By making the films, Warhol created a sexually lenient environment at the Factory for the "happenings" staged there, which included fake weddings between drag queens, porn film rentals, and vulgar plays. What was called free love took place in the studio, as sexuality in the 1960s was becoming more open and embraced as a high ideal. Warhol used footage of sexual acts between his friends in his work, such as in Blue Movie, a 1969 film directed, produced, written and cinematographed by Warhol. The film, starring Viva and Louis Waldon, was the first adult erotic film depicting explicit sex to receive wide theatrical release in the United States.[36][37][38]

Holly Woodlawn and Jackie Curtis were noted drag queens who were part of the Factory group, as was transgender woman Candy Darling. Andy Warhol frequently used these women and other sexual non-conformists in his films, plays, and events. Because of the constant drug use and the presence of sexually liberal artists and radicals, drugged orgies were a frequent happening at the Factory. Warhol met Ondine at an orgy in 1962:

I was at an orgy, and [Warhol] was, ah, this great presence in the back of the room. And this orgy was run by a friend of mine, and, so, I said to this person, "Would you please mind throwing that thing [Warhol] out of here?" And that thing was thrown out of there, and when he came up to me the next time, he said to me, "Nobody has ever thrown me out of a party." He said, "You know? Don't you know who I am?" And I said, "Well, I don't give a good flying fuck who you are. You just weren't there. You weren't involved..."[39]

— Ondine

Films

Warhol started shooting movies in the Factory around 1963, when he began work on Kiss. He screened his films at the Factory for his friends before they were released for public audiences. When traditional theaters refused to screen his more provocative films, Warhol sometimes turned to night-clubs or porn theaters, including the New Andy Warhol Garrick Theatre and the 55th Street Playhouse,[6][7][8][9] for their distribution.

The following list includes all movies filmed entirely or partly at the Factory.[40][41]

1963

  • Kiss
  • Rollerskate
  • Haircut no. 1
  • Haircut no. 2
  • Haircut no. 3

1964

1965

1966

1967

1968

1969

Locations

  • Studio: 159 East 87th Street
  • Factory: 231 East 47th Street, 1963–67 (the building no longer exists)
  • Factory: 33 Union Square, 1967–73 (Decker Building)
  • Factory: 860 Broadway, 1973–84 (the building has now been completely remodeled)
  • Factory: 158 Madison Ave, Manhattan NY, Feb 2, 1983[42] to 1987. This building extended 27 feet along Madison Ave, 96 feet along 33rd St. AKA 22nd 33rd St. (the building no longer exists)
  • Home: 1342 Lexington Avenue
  • Home: 57 East 66th Street (Warhol's last home)

References

  1. 1 2 3 Watson, Steven (2003). Factory Made: Warhol and the Sixties. Pantheon Books. ISBN 0-679-42372-9.
  2. ↑ "My 15 minutes". The Guardian. 12 February 2002. Retrieved October 5, 2014.
  3. 1 2 Warhol, Andy (2006). POPism : the Warhol sixties. Internet Archive. Orlando : Harcourt. pp. 31–32, 78. ISBN 978-0-15-603111-0.
  4. 1 2 Elbaor, Caroline (2016-11-21). "Andy Warhol's First New York Studio Sells for $9.98 Million". Artnet News. Archived from the original on 2022-05-20. Retrieved 2022-05-02.
  5. ↑ "Billy Name". warholstars.org. Archived from the original on 2007-06-22. Retrieved 2007-06-25.
  6. 1 2 "Garrick Cinema – 152 Bleecker Street, New York, NY 10012". Cinema Treasures. Archived from the original on March 24, 2018. Retrieved March 27, 2018. Previous Names: New Andy Warhol Garrick Theatre, Andy Warhol's Garrick Cinema, Nickelodeon
  7. 1 2 Garcia, Alfredo (October 11, 2017). "1968". Andy Warhol Films: Newspaper Adverts 1964–1974. Archived from the original on March 24, 2018. Retrieved March 27, 2018.
  8. 1 2 Staff (2010). Fodor's See It New York City (4th ed.). Fodor's Travel Publications. ISBN 978-1-4000-0498-0. Retrieved March 27, 2018 – via Google Books.
  9. 1 2 Ferguson, Michael (2015). Joe Dallesandro: Warhol Superstar, Underground Film Icon, Actor. Open Road Media. ISBN 978-1-5040-0654-5. Retrieved March 27, 2018 – via Google Books.
  10. ↑ "Warhol Automobile Paintings To Finally See Daylight". Max's Kansas City. March 25, 2010. Archived from the original on January 7, 2009. Retrieved October 16, 2008.
  11. ↑ "2019: 50 Works for 50 Years". South Dakota State University. Archived from the original on 12 May 2023. Retrieved 11 April 2023.
  12. ↑ Solomon, Tessa (2020-06-18). "Who Was Valerie Solanas, the Feminist Revolutionary Who Shot Andy Warhol?". ARTnews.com. Archived from the original on 2022-05-02. Retrieved 2022-05-02.
  13. ↑ Farrell v. Lautob Realty Corp., 238 A.D.2d 304, 656 N.Y.S.2d 912 (N.Y. App. Div. 1997)
  14. ↑ Foderaro, Lisa W. (11 November 1988). "Plush Discos Offer Rock, Rap and Romanticism". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 2 June 2023. Retrieved 2 June 2023.
  15. ↑ Nieves, Evelyn (August 20, 1990). "Noisy Discos Are Targets Of Crackdown". The New York Times. Archived from the original on May 25, 2015. Retrieved June 2, 2023.
  16. ↑ Freitag, Michael (8 January 1990). "Violence at Discotheque Mobilizes Neighborhood". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 6 February 2018. Retrieved 2 June 2023.
  17. ↑ "Maurice Brahms". Disco-Disco.com. Archived from the original on 8 December 2022. Retrieved 2 June 2023.
  18. ↑ "Other Legendary Clubs". Disco-Disco.com. Archived from the original on 10 April 2023. Retrieved 2 June 2023.
  19. ↑ Peter Rappit (1983). "Underground: The Slow Show, A Hip Hop Rap Attak (Event Flyers)". Library. Cornell University. Retrieved 2 June 2023.
  20. ↑ "Pop Artist Steve kaufman". amourdart.com. Archived from the original on 20 March 2023. Retrieved 2 June 2023.
  21. ↑ Musto, Michael (3 November 2017). "Ex-Club God John Contini: "Everyone Assumed I Was High As a Kite!"". papermag.com. Archived from the original on 7 October 2022. Retrieved 2 June 2023.
  22. ↑ Murphy, Tim (January 26, 2012). "A Highly Rated Body of Work". The New York Times. Archived from the original on June 2, 2023. Retrieved June 2, 2023.
  23. ↑ Duka, John (March 4, 1984). "The New Party Givers". The New York Times. Archived from the original on October 8, 2022. Retrieved June 2, 2023.
  24. ↑ "Columbia Spectator 29 November 1983 — Columbia Spectator". spectatorarchive.library.columbia.edu. Archived from the original on 2 June 2023. Retrieved 2 June 2023.
  25. ↑ "Baird Jones, Mark Kostabi, East Village Art, 1980s". Gallery 98. Archived from the original on 2023-05-24. Retrieved 2023-06-02.
  26. ↑ Steinhauer, Jennifer (12 February 1995). "After Fabulousness, An Age of Intimacy". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 17 November 2021. Retrieved 2 June 2023.
  27. ↑ "Foreigner - I Want To Know What Love Is (Official Music Video)". Archived from the original on 2023-05-31. Retrieved 2023-06-02 – via TouTube.
  28. ↑ "Cameo - Word Up (Official Video)". Archived from the original on 2023-06-02. Retrieved 2023-06-02 – via YouTube.
  29. ↑ Rebong, Kevin (3 February 2022). "Petco to Open New Union Square Location". The Real Deal. Archived from the original on 2 June 2023. Retrieved 2 June 2023.
  30. ↑ alexinnyc. "Back to 860 B'way: O'Brien Over Union Square". Flaming Pablum. Archived from the original on 17 August 2022. Retrieved 2 June 2023.
  31. ↑ Alleman, Richard (1988), The Movie Lover's Guide to New York, New York: Harper & Row, ISBN 0060960809, pp.150–152
  32. 1 2 Willett, Edward (2010). Andy Warhol: Everyone Will Be Famous for 15 Minutes. Enslow Publishers. p. 68. ISBN 978-0-766-03385-6.
  33. ↑ Chapman, Peter (2009). Bananas: How the United Fruit Company Shaped the World. Canongate U.S. p. 166. ISBN 978-1-847-67194-3.
  34. ↑ Gair, Christopher (2007). The American Counterculture. Edinburgh University Press. p. 185. ISBN 978-0-748-61989-4.
  35. ↑ Roberts, Chris (2004). Lou Reed: Walk on the Wild Side : the Stories Behind the Songs. Hal Leonard Corporation. p. 44. ISBN 0-634-08032-6.
  36. ↑ Canby, Vincent (July 22, 1969). "Screen: Andy Warhol's 'Blue Movie'". The New York Times. Archived from the original on December 31, 2015. Retrieved December 29, 2015.
  37. ↑ Comenas, Gary (2005). "Blue Movie (1968)". warholstars.org. Archived from the original on December 30, 2015. Retrieved December 29, 2015.
  38. ↑ Canby, Vincent (August 10, 1969). "Warhol's Red Hot and 'Blue' Movie". The New York Times. Archived from the original on December 31, 2015. Retrieved December 29, 2015.
  39. ↑ "Warholstars Timeline". warholstars.org. Archived from the original on 2009-03-02. Retrieved 2009-02-23.
  40. ↑ Crimp, Douglas (2014). Our Kind of Movie: The Films of Andy Warhol. MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-2625-2607-4.
  41. ↑ "Andy Warhol Filmography". The Internet Movie Database. Archived from the original on May 27, 2010. Retrieved September 29, 2009.
  42. ↑ Deed of Trust Doc ID FT-190000023196, 2 Feb 1983 – via Office of the Registrar, Manhattan, NY
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