The Factory
The Factory was Andy Warhol's original New York City studio from 1963 to 1968, although his later studios were known as The Factory as well. The Factory was located on the fifth floor at 231 East 47th Street, New York City. The rent was "only about one hundred dollars a year".
The Studio
Famed for its groundbreaking parties, the Factory was the hip hangout for artsy types, amphetamine users, and the Warhol superstars. This is where Warhol's workers would make silkscreens and lithographs. In 1968, Andy moved the Factory to the sixth floor of 33 Union Square West, near Max's Kansas City.
Speaking in 2002, 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." [1]
By the time Warhol had become famous, he was working day and night on his paintings. To create his art, Warhol used silkscreens so that he could mass-produce images the way capitalist corporations mass produce consumer goods. In order to continue working the way he did, he assembled a menagerie of porn stars, drag queens, drug addicts, musicians, and free-thinkers that became known as the Warhol superstars, to help him. These "art-workers" helped him create his paintings, starred in his films, and basically developed the atmosphere that the Factory has become legendary for.
The Silver Factory
The original Factory was often referred to by those who frequented it as the Silver Factory. Covered with tin foil and silver paint, the Factory was decorated by Warhol's friend Billy Name, who was also the in-house photographer at the Factory. Warhol would often bring in silver balloons to drift around the ceiling.
Upon visiting Billy Name's apartment, which had been decorated in a similar manner, Warhol fell in love with the idea and asked him to do the same for his recently purchased loft. The silver represented the decadence of the scene, as well as the proto-glam of the early seventies. By combining the industrial structure of the unfurnished studio with the glitter of silver and what it represented, Warhol was commenting on American values, as he did so often in his art. The years spent at the Factory were known as the Silver Era, not solely because of the design, but because of the decadent and carefree lifestyle full of money, parties, drugs and fame.
Aside from his two-dimensional art, Andy also used the Factory as a base to make shoes, films, commissions, sculptures and just about everything else that the Warhol name could be attached to and sold. His first commissions consisted of a single silkscreen of the person for $25,000, with additional canvases in other colors for $5,000 each. He later made that $20,000. Warhol used a large portion of his income to finance the lifestyle of his Factory friends, practically showering them with resources.
Music in the Factory
The Factory became a meeting place of artists and musicians such as Lou Reed, Bob Dylan, Truman Capote and Mick Jagger. Other, less frequent visitors included Salvador Dalí and Allen Ginsberg. Warhol became the manager of Reed's influential New York rock band The Velvet Underground in 1965, and designed the famous cover for The Velvet Underground & Nico, the band's debut album. The album cover consisted of a plastic yellow banana that the listener could actually peel off to reveal a pink-hued version of the banana.
Similarly for Jagger, Warhol designed the album cover for the Rolling Stones' album Sticky Fingers. The well endowed male crotch on the front was one of the Factory regulars. Warhol took shots of several friends and kept the identity of the chosen crotch a secret, although many speculate that it was either Joe Dallesandro or Corey Tippin. The photograph contained an unzippable fly. Both album covers are widely regarded as some of the greatest album art of all time.
Warhol included the Velvet Underground in the Exploding Plastic Inevitable, a mix of art rock, Warhol films and belly dancers. They used the Factory as a place to rehearse.
Walk on the Wild Side, Lou Reed's best known song from his solo career, was released on his first commercially successful solo album Transformer. The song is about the superstars he hung out with at 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).
Sexual Radicals
Andy Warhol commented on mainstream America through his art while disregarding its strict social views. Nudity, graphic sexuality, drug use, same-sex relations and transgender characters appear in some form in almost all of his work filmed at the Silver Factory. Considered socially unacceptable, even appalling at the time, theaters showing his underground films were sometimes raided and the staff arrested for obscenity.
However, by making the films, Warhol created a sexually lenient environment at the Factory for the happenings that they staged, such as fake drag weddings, porn theater rentals, and vulgar plays. A large amount of free love took place in the scene, as sexuality in the 1960's was becoming more open. The Factory is where Lou Reed had sex with Billy Name, as did Warhol and many others. Sex was practically a must for anyone hanging around, and was encouraged by Warhol, who used footage of sexual acts between his friends in his work.
Also part of 'the scene' at the factory were Holly Woodlawn, Jackie Curtis, and Candy Darling. As an artist, Andy Warhol frequently used these girls and other sexual non-conformists in his films, plays, and on-goings. While drag queens and transsexuals had previously been viewed by society as just freaks and depressing weirdos, Andy Warhol made them sexual radicals.
Because of the constant drug use and the presence of sexually liberal artists and radicals, drugged orgies were a frequent happening at the Factory. Andy met friend Ondine at an orgy in 1962.
Ondine "I was at an orgy, and he [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...'" [2]
Warhol would often arrange three or four friends on the red couch they had in the middle of the Factory, and film them having sex. Couch and Blow Job are two examples.
The Couch
Not only was Billy Name responsible for the silver look of the Factory, but he also found The Factory's beloved red couch. He discovered it on the sidewalk of 47th street during one of his "midnight outings." He dragged it back to the Factory, where it quickly became a favorite place for Factory guests to crash, usually after coming down from speed. During its stay at the Factory, the couch became a focal point for many photographs and films from the Silver era, including "Couch" and "Blowjob". Ironically, it was stolen in 1968 during the move when they left it on the sidewalk for a short while.
Regulars
Friends of Warhol and superstars who hung around the Factory include Gerard Malanga, Ondine, Ivy Nicholson, Ingrid Superstar, Anita Pallenberg, Nico, The Velvet Underground (Lou Reed, Sterling Morrison, Maureen Tucker, and John Cale), Candy Darling, Jeremiah Newton, Jackie Curtis, Frank Holliday, Holly Woodlawn, Viva, Billy Name, Jean-Michel Basquait, Freddie Herko, Mario Montez, Mick Jagger, Edie Sedgwick, Joe Dallesandro, Naomi Levine, Paul Morrisey, Truman Capote, Taylor Mead, Mary Woronov, Jane Forth, Baby Jane Holtzer, Ultra Violet, Valerie Solanas, Brigid Polk, Paul America, Penny Arcade, Bobby Driscoll, and John Giorno, although there were many, many other visitors.
Films
Warhol started shooting movies in the Factory around 1963, when work began on Kiss. Warhol would screen movies at the Factory for his friends before they were released for public audiences. When Warhol could not find traditional theaters to show some of his more provocative films, he would sometimes turn to night-clubs or porn theaters. Here is listed all movies filmed entirely or partly at The Factory. Warhol also shot other films not on this list, however many have been lost or were never completed.
1963
- Kiss
- Rollerskate
- Haircut no. 1
- Haircut no. 2
- Haircut no. 3
1964
- Handjob
- Blow Job
- Screen Tests (1964-1966)
- Jill Johnson Dancing
- Eat
- Couch
- Henry Geldzahler
- Shoulder
- Taylor Mead's Ass
- Mario Banana
- Harlot
- 13 Most Beautiful Women
- 13 Most beautiful Boys
- 50 Fantastics and 50 Personalities
1965
- John and Ivy
- Screen Test #1
- Screen Test #2
- Drink
- Suicide (Screen Test #3)
- Horse
- Vinyl
- Bitch
- Poor Little Rich Girl
- Face
- Afternoon
- Beauty No.1
- Beauty No.2
- Space
- Factory Diaries
- Outer and Inner Space
- Prison
- The Fugs and the Holy Modal Rounders
- My Hustler
- Camp
- More Milk, Yvette
- Lupe
1966
- Ari and Mario
- Eating Too fast
- The Velvet Underground & Nico: A Symphony of Sound
- Hedy
- The Beard
- Salvador Dalí
- Superboy
- The Chelsea Girls
- The Bob Dylan Story
- The Kennedy Assassination
- Mrs. Warhol
- Kiss the Booy
- The Andy Warhol Story
- A Christmas Carol
- **** (four stars)
1967
- Imitation of Christ
- I, a Man
- The Loves of Ondine
- Bikeboy
- Tub Girls
- Nude Restaurant
- Sunset
1968
- Lonesome Cowboys
- Flesh
- Blue Movie
- Trash (1968-1969)
- Women in Revolt (1968-1971)
Later movies were filmed away from the Factory, or in another one of Warhol's New York apartments.
Criminal intent
As the infamous studio and hangout of Warhol, the Factory drew a fair amount of attention from New Yorkers, and became a crime scene on several occasions. On June 3, 1968, Factory regular Valerie Solanas shot Warhol and his friend Mario Amaya, and attempted to shoot Fred Hughes before leaving, but the gun jammed. Warhol and Amaya survived. After the shooting, Warhol drastically reduced his public accessibility. However, in 1971, two junkies brandishing pistols broke in, grabbed Joe Dallesandro's baby, and demanded money and to see Warhol. Warhol had retreated into the editing room with Jed Johnson and Joe Dallesandro, who announced to the intruders that the police had already been called. There were no injuries.
Video
- 90' Uncut Exclusive interview: The Factory told by Billy Name (costs $4.99 USD to watch)