Once Upon a Time in Hollywood: Not a Movie But a Happening

Paul Morrissey, Andy Warhol, 

and The Garage Antique Flea Market

by Larry Baumhor

(Copyright 2022)

ANDY WARHOL WAS A DICK
By NewYorkMinute TV

Interview with Paul Morrissey, circa 2013 at Film Forum, NYC

 

Andy Warhol suffered from Sydenham’s chorea during his youth.
He was often sick as a child and thus developed into a hypochondriac.

Comments from the video: ANDY WARHOL WAS A DICK...

   “Andy Warhol was a publicity creation. Paul Morrissey is correct. His wording may have been a little caustic but he did know Andy Warhol better than most people. I don’t look for any deep meaning to Andy Warhol because there is none. People pay millions for a Warhol silk screen work in the 21st century. It would make a lot more sense to just employ an art student to do a silk screen. The art world is full of unscrupulous dealers and “celebrities” with too much money. No one wants to admit they paid millions for a work by Andy Warhol that he had little or nothing to do with. Andrew Warhola invented Andy Warhol. This was his best creative work. The art dealers love Andy Warhol because it reassures them that the world is full of gullible people.” @charlesdodgson3684

   “Paul is so bitter. It’s only because of Andy that he is being interviewed today. Andy gave him a job, helped his career and made him famous. Before Warhol, Paul was making movies but had not even gotten close to being known until Andy got involved with him. Some of those things he said ARE NOT true and so nasty. I don’t understand why he is so bitter...............Poor Paul.” @christopherfox7539

   “That’s messed up for Paul to say. Warhol was a true artist. Even though he didn’t have perfect social skills, he was still an interesting character and it’s awful to hear his ex-manager speak so poorly about him.” @iamthenoah777

  “What a terrible man to say all that trash about a dead man.” @hargoniyamaki5168

   “He’s feeding the myth that haters of Warhol love to hear. Don’t buy it. Who can’t see through this guy? There is some truth in his words but it’s a lot more complex and Warhol’s legacy speaks for itself. It’s always been crazy how people love to believe Warhol was a talentless idiot who just ‘got lucky’ over and over and over... Warhol’s film career could be called his true sham though.” @pauloquist6150

   Paul Morrissey was my customer when I sold vintage photography at the Garage Antique Flea Market from 1999 to 2014. Paul would buy movie photos and knew all the names of the B-actors. He was an eccentric character, to say the least.

   “I prefer the past to the present. It’s fun to look at stuff from the past. I buy vintage movie photos at the Garage.” - Paul Morrissey.

 

Paul Morrissey and Larry Baumhor at the Garage Antique Flea Market

   I’ve had conversations with Paul about his experiences at the Silver Factory with Andy Warhol. Paul created many of the films that appeared under Warhol’s name, and other Factory people often made the art. While speaking with Paul, I said there are similarities between the Garage and the Silver Factory, in that both are creative environments in which people share ideas about art. Paul did not agree.
   People affiliated with the Garage have read some of my manuscripts, offered suggestions, and collaborated in producing my books. Some of the photographs in this book have been taken by patrons of the Garage. Like Billy Name at the Factory, I was the photographer at the Garage documenting its history, interviewing its collectors, dealers, and patrons.
   There are dealers at the Garage who have backgrounds in art and interior design. They have the ability to design their booths with some ordinary objects that come alive like a painting or a photo that emotionally grabs hold of you. The dealers are knowledgeable about the art objects they sell, and conversations are sometimes a source of creative motivation and inspiration. Some patrons at the Garage, like the Silver Factory, express themselves through the exotic array of clothes they wear.  
   The filmmakers Lorca Shepperd and Cabot Philbrick produced a movie about snapshot collecting at the Garage. The film, titled Other People’s Pictures won three film festival prizes for best documentary. I spent many hours with Lorca and Cabot giving them information about the Garage, snapshots, collectors, and dealers.
   I would call Paul on the phone and he came to the Garage to buy movie photos. Paul sometimes would sit in my booth for a couple of hours. Paul was a movie aficionado and a friendly guy. But when we engaged in conversation about Barack Obama and the democrats, Paul would freak out; his voice became higher and angry. He began to quiver. I was scared. He was a staunch Republican and despised the Democrats with open contempt. I tried to stay off the subject of politics. His attitude shocked the shit out of me. With the avant-garde films and the artists at the Factory, you’d think he would be a liberal.
   “Without institutionalized religion as the basis a society can’t exist. In my lifetime, I’ve seen this terrible eradication of what makes sense and its replacement by absolute horror. All the sensible values of a solid education and a moral foundation have been flushed down the liberal toilet in order to sell sex, drugs, and rock and roll.” Paul Morrissey. http://www.warholstars.org/warhol/warhol1/andy/warhol/can/paul12.html
   If we spoke about Warhol the anger rose out of Paul and he began talking fast with wolf-like reactions. I felt like he was growling at me. Once I asked him if I can interview him about the Factory. He went off on a rambling tangent. But over and over again, Paul would tell me the same thing about Andy.
   “Andy had other people do the work for him. He didn’t have many original ideas. He couldn’t express himself and could not read well, write or speak. He was dyslexic and he had Aspergers. I was his manager and I made sure his name was in the paper so the gallery owners could charge more for his art. I did the films and often Andy took credit. He was not a bright person.” Paul Morrissey.

Paul Morrissey at the Garage Antique Flea Market on March 30, 2013, by Larry Baumhor

Paul Morrissey and Joe Franklin at the Garage Antique Flea Market by Larry Baumhor

 

 

1986: Andy Warhol Interview

   Biographer Wayne Koestenbaum found evidence of Warhol’s dyslexia from his unusual spelling patterns:
   Almost every sentence in his hand is full of bizarre spelling errors. Clearly, he was dyslexic, though undiagnosed (I assume dyslexia diagnoses were rare at the time). Some of his errors: “vedio” for “video,” “polorrod” and “poliaroid” for “Polaroid,” “tailand” for “Thailand,” “scrpit” for “script,” “pastic” for “plastic,” “herion” for “heroin,” and “Leory” for “Leroy.”
   Biographers have suggested that sympathetic female classmates in college helped Andy compose his papers. But these friendly collaborative efforts weren’t enough to see him through the required course in “Thought and Expression” at Carnegie Tech, and he failed his first year.”
 

Sex at the Factory and the Garage

   On the second floor, in the back of the Garage, there was a magical stairway. A source said there was a secret room upstairs, a passage that led to sexual and drug escapades, a paradise if you will, filled with pleasure and fantasy. I did walk down the stairway which led you outside on 24th Street. I never walked upstairs. Several sources informed me that there were prostitutes upstairs. And that if you wanted to get laid it could be arranged. I have witnessed, in the Garage, several women who were dressed provocatively like street hookers. If prostitutes weren’t your thing, again I was informed by several sources, that pot and other drugs were available in the magical stairway. I had the privilege of smelling the sweet scent of marijuana outside, on the ramp, and in the Garage.
 
   “I used to see needles in the bathroom. I assumed people were shooting up,” one source said. I once witnessed several unmarked cars speed up to the curb, and slam on their breaks in front of the Garage. Plainclothes detectives jumped out and threw a man against the outside wall of the Garage. He was handcuffed and taken away. This wasn’t the first-time drug busts occurred outside the Garage. But then again you were in the streets of New York.

The Factory had a shooting and so did the Garage

   Circa 2004 there were several nightclubs thriving in Chelsea—one in particular on 24th St near 6th Avenue owned by a famous rapper — in which the patrons spilled out onto the streets causing a raucous in the wee hours of the morning. Every Saturday morning when I arrived at the Garage there was a party in the streets with cops patrolling the area.
   I unloaded my merchandise in my booth. At about 3:45 a.m., I began to back down the ramp when out of my rearview mirror I saw a man running with his arm extended pulling the trigger of a gun, “pop, pop, pop,” I heard. It was dark with the street lights barely making a difference as I saw what looked like a lightning fire bullet vanish in the darkness. Though the speed of the bullet was a blur, the image penetrated me. I was stunned, frozen in time. I was scared. I backed the car up the ramp into the Garage and got out of my car shouting, “There’s a shooting outside, don’t go outside.” I called 911. I was frightened, my heart was racing. It couldn’t be real. Then I looked outside down the ramp — the opening to the street was only about 8 feet — and I saw more hoodlums running, “pop, pop, pop,” the gun sounded. “Take cover,” I yelled, as a car raced wildly out of control down the street. Dealers panicked. Where do I hide? Do I go under a car? What do I do? Was I in a film noir? It couldn’t be real.
   The police arrived with detectives and plainclothesmen. They shut down the Garage. It was a crime scene. Shell casings were scattered about. Yellow crime tape prevented anyone from entering or leaving the Garage. The guy in charge — I guess he was the head detective — had a slight arrogance. “Didn’t anybody fuckin’ see these guys?” asked the detective.
   “There’s only an 8-foot opening to view people. We were all upstairs in the Garage. One shooting I saw out of my rearview mirror. I saw an African-American man run by shooting, but it was within a split second, and therefore I cannot give you a description. Everybody heard shots, but it was too dark to see anybody. It happened too fast,” I said.  The police apprehended one person. Two people were shot, one in the leg.

Lesbians and Homosexuals Traversed the Factory and the Garage

   On one occasion, I walked down the ramp at the Garage, and I saw police officers in front of the Garage helping a woman into an ambulance. One side of her face was heavily bandaged. She had been slashed with a knife, a really bad cut across her face, and needed something like 19 stitches. Her lesbian lover attacked her in a fit of rage after she found out she was having an affair with another woman.
 

Drugs at the Factory and the Garage
The Marijuana Office

   The sweet scent of marijuana sometimes lingered inside the Garage. Drug busts occurred when narcotic agents pulled up in unmarked cars and grabbed alleged defendants forcing them against the wall outside of the Garage, handcuffing them, and escorting them to jail.
   “There was a secret room inside the Garage (supposedly upstairs) known as the pharmaceutical room that the cops were unaware of. A certain antique dealer was known as the supplier of marijuana. Dealers would visit the room to smoke pot. A handful of dealers would take breaks during the day and visit the private drug den to get high. Members only,” anonymous dealer at the Garage.

Andy Warhol the day before college by brother John in the photo studio he operated with their cousin John Preksta September 1945, Warhol Museum Pittsburgh, PA

   In December of 1993, two levels of the Garage at 112 West 25th Street, NYC opened as an antique flea market on Saturdays and Sundays and remained a parking garage during the week. The Garage fed off of the 6 outdoor markets between 24th and 26th Streets, between Broadway & 7th Avenue. The outdoor markets opened in the 1960s.

Andy Warhol at the flea market on 6th Ave., by Sharon Baluta

   “Like most of the people who hung out at the Factory, Morrissey was considerably younger than Warhol - ten years younger. He was born in Manhattan on February 23, 1938. Paul differed from many of Warhol’s cohorts in one big way - he was against the use of recreational drugs.
   “Paul didn’t take drugs - in fact, he was against every single drug, right down to aspirin. He had a unique theory that the reason kids were taking so many drugs all of a sudden was because they were bored with having good health, that since medical science by now had eradicated most childhood diseases, they wanted to compensate for having missed out on being sick. ‘Why do they call it experimenting with drugs?’ he’d demand. ‘It’s just experimenting with ill health!’
   “Paul was also not as promiscuous as many of the people who hung out at the Factory. In fact, nobody knew if he was gay, straight or neutral.
   “When he’d introduced us, Gerard [Malanga] had said, ‘This is a friend of mine, Paul Morrissey, he’s very resourceful.’ And right away Paul began coming by the Factory while we were shooting, to see how we did things and if there was any way he could get involved. At first, he just swept the floor or looked through slides and photographs. He’d been wanting to start shooting sound movies himself, but he didn’t have the money to rent all the sound equipment. He was fascinated to see our setup and he asked Buddy Wirtschafter, who was then our sound man, a lot of questions. Gerard was right, Paul was very resourceful - eventually to the point where he came to seem magical to us.
   “Prior to his involvement with Warhol, Paul had made his own short films. One of the shorts he made while a senior at Fordham University starred his college friend Donald Lyons who would also become part of the Factory crowd.” Mark Lancaster. https://www.warholstars.org/warhol/warhol1/andy/warhol/can/paul12.html

   “Andy Warhol’s film-making partner Paul Morrissey is recovering in the hospital after he was hit by a truck on a New York Street.
   The 71-year-old Chelsea Girls and Trash director was struck by the rental U-Haul van as he crossed 86th street in Manhattan on June 8 (2009).
  A source tells the New York Post, “He’s in a Manhattan rehabilitation facility. He can walk and talk but he may have lost some short-term memory.” Friends claim Morrissey has been trying to keep his accident a secret to avoid worrying his 96-year-old mother.
  A pal tells The Post, “He instructed friends to tell her he hadn’t called her in five days because he had laryngitis.” By WENN on 23 June 2009. https://www.contactmusic.com/andy-warhol/news/director-morrissey-hit-by-truck_1107466

 
   “You know that Paul was hit by a truck and sustained injuries which accelerated his deterioration. The rage was an early symptom. He went from being conservative and reasonable to extreme and unhinged over the years following that disastrous event.” My friend from the Garage Antique Flea Market, Leonard Finger.
   

“While I will soon be posting (after an agonizing delay) on the harder-to-find films directed by Paul Morrissey, it would be negligent not to first address a conundrum that a museum’s worth of researchers, hundreds of well-detailed books and even direct witnesses have failed to answer effectively. Was it Paul Morrissey or Andy Warhol that “directed” the bulk of the films both are credited with, if the verb “direct” can even be applied to such loose, improvised cinematic exercises?
   “The debate about Morrissey’s exact imprint on the films designated as “Andy Warhol films” (particularly the feature-lengths shot between 1965, when Morrissey officially entered the Warhol Factory, and Warhol’s near-fatal shooting in 1968, after which Warhol ceded most filmmaking duties to Morrissey) will probably never be resolved.” Sam Weisberg.

Andy Warhol shows his bullet wounds & surgical scars over a year after being shot by Valerie Solanas.

Photo by Richard Avedon

   “In my interview with Morrissey for Hidden Films (later reprinted in Bright Lights Film Journal), he yelled at me for quite some time after I casually referred to films he is credited as co-director on as “Warhol films.” According to him, Andy Warhol was an incompetent, who knew nothing about camerawork or “editing or direction.”
   “In almost every interview with Morrissey since he permanently parted ways with Warhol in the late 1970s, he has regarded Warhol with, at best, gentle pity and at worst, outright contempt. One story he has held firm on is that he cast and directed all the films, then “let” Warhol operate the camera and put his name on (and his money towards) the finished product, to keep up Warhol’s celebrated status as a filmmaker (which no doubt helped bankroll Morrissey’s own career).
   “To take Morrissey’s account at face value would be grossly unethical. So, I talked to several people who knew both Morrissey and Warhol at various stages of their alliance, and their descriptions vary wildly, with a few exceptions. Most agreed that Andy Warhol was a taciturn sort who scarcely if ever gave direction to his cast; that Morrissey, with or without Warhol’s collaboration, is a talented filmmaker; and that nonetheless Morrissey tends to exaggerate his creative input on these films and downplay Warhol’s.
   “One thing is self-evident: regardless of Morrissey’s stronger camerawork skills, Warhol certainly didn’t need Morrissey to make a movie. He shot scores of films starting in 1963, years before Morrissey entered the scene. Some of the more famous ones included Blow Job, a single shot of the title act’s recipient’s face, and Empire, the eight-hour static shot of the Empire State Building. Warhol clearly had a vision, a need to convey his fascination with people that struck him as beautiful, and fill the frame with their presence for perhaps longer than an audience desired. Even though Morrissey added new visual elements to later Warhol Factory releases, the camera’s obsession with performers that could be defined as “fabulous” – fabulously gorgeous, or fabulously epicene, or fabulously grotesque – remained intact.
   “What is considerably harder to prove is how much influence Morrissey had over these projects. Did Warhol allow certain edits and camera angles and object to others? Did he himself want more dialogue, or was that all Morrissey’s suggestion? Who came up with whatever scant plot structure there was? Who was the true “visionary”? By Sam Weisberg. https://hidden-films.com/2013/02/11/a-word-on-the-paul-morrissey-vs-andy-warhol-debate/

Paul Morrissey with cat by Jack Mitchell

David Bowie as Andy Warhol in Basquiat (1996)

 

   Andy Warhol Drella was Andy’s alter-ego every time he dressed up as a drag queen. According to him it was the combination of Dracula and Cinderella. Andy Warhol, Self-Portrait in Drag, 1981. Solomon R Guggenheim Museum, New York. © 2018 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

   Was Andy Warhol a trailblazing genius or a scam artist who suffered from mental and emotional disorders? Perhaps all of the above? What is your opinion? Let me know in the comment section of this blog.