Andy Warhol was definitely in the famous for being famous phase of his career when he published his memoir, Popism: The Warhol Sixties in 1980. Popism was based on audio tapes Warhol recorded during the 60s and co-written with Pat Hackett who, of course, was also recording reports Andy made to her on the phone each morning to document the previous day's activities and expenses. After the artist's unexpected death in 1987, Hackett published these as The Warhol Diaries. And they are indispensably awesome.
Like Andy's account of traveling to Washington, DC for a Popism reading and book signing 35 years ago at Kramerbooks, which is a landmark now, but at the time was a mere hotspot:
Well, it was St. Paddy's day. Bob [Colacello, Interview magazine editor] ordered breakfast up. I didn't have a good sleep. We watched the Match Game and it was a fast round where the answer was "Andy Warhol" and one person was guessing "Peter Max" and then "Soup Can" and then "Pop Artist."So you see why I've called you all here. We must find this baby, and the overachieving DC parent who got it signed by Andy Warhol. At a drunken Dupont Circle book party on St Patrick's Day.Our breakfast was cancelled at the White House. I guess the Carter administration doesn't want to see us anymore because I did the Ted Kennedy poster...
A girl came and took us to Kramerbooks, it's a bookshop coffee house, and so everybody was drinking. Bob loves the place because it's where he picked kids up when he was at Georgetown. People were shoving everything at me to sign and I signed it all--underwear, a knife. Oh, (laughs) and I signed a baby.
We had to get to the shuttle at 9:00 (tickets $153). Bought some newspapers and a Newsweek ($2). And Newsweek had a great review of Popism
So we are looking for a 35-6yo person, born in the DC area, who may have Andy Warhol's signature tattooed across his or her forehead. Please step forward to claim your next fifteen minutes of fame. Stay tuned. [via @warhollives]
