Day of the shooting
11:00 am
Andy Warhol and Fred Hughes talk on the phone. Fred tells him how he was mugged the night before on 16th Street coming home from Max’s.
2:30 pm
Valerie Solanas goes to the Factory (33 Union Square West) and is told Warhol is out. She thinks that he is conspiring against her with Maurice Girodias, publisher of Olympia Press. (UV170/171). She leaves and waits outside near 16th Street. (L&D296/7) She had once brought a script to the Factory for Andy to read called 'Up Your Ass'. Warhol “looked through it briefly and it was so dirty,” he .“thought she might be working for the police department and that this was some kind of entrapment.” When Warhol admitted to losing the script, Solanas started asking for money.
Andy Warhol (via Pat Hackett in POPism):
“One afternoon when she [Valerie Solanas] called, we were in the middle of shooting a sequence for 'I, A Man, so I said why didn’t she come over and be in the movie and earn twenty-five dollars instead of asking for a handout. She came right over and we filmed her in a short scene on a staircase and she was actually funny and that was that.” (POP271)
4:15 pm
Warhol arrives at the Factory in a cab, wearing a brown leather jacket over a black t-shirt , black jeans and black Beatle (Chelsea) boots. (L&D296) Previously, he had picked up a prescription for Obetrol, then browsed at Bloomingdales, and had also rung the bell of Miles White, the costume designer, who lived on East 55th Street, but he wasn’t home. (POP270/DD71)When Andy arrives outside the Factory, his boyfriend Jed Johnson approaches from 17th and Broadway carrying some fluorescent lights. Valerie Solanas joins them and all three enter the building. While waiting for the elevator, Warhol notices that Valerie is wearing a thick turtleneck sweater underneath a trenchcoat on a hot summer day. Even stranger, she has on mascara and lipstick even though as a die-hard feminist she never wears make-up. Warhol also notices that she is “bouncing slightly on the balls of her feet, twisting a brown paper bag in her hands."
Upstairs, Fred Hughes is sitting at his desk writing a memo, Paul Morrissey is talking to Viva on the phone who is ringing him from Kenneth’s Hair Salon where she is having her hair dyed in preparation for her role in John Schlesinger’s film Midnight Cowboy. Art critic and curator, Mario Amaya, is waiting for Andy in order to discuss an upcoming retrospective in London.
When Warhol, Jed and Valerie arrive, Paul leaves the office to go to the bathroom, leaving Andy to talk to Viva. (L&D) Jed goes into Warhol's private office in the rear corner of the room. Andy signals to Fred Hughes to take over the conversation with Viva.Valerie Solanas takes a .32 automatic from the paper bag and fires a shot. Viva hears the shot over the phone but thinks it is somebody cracking a whip left over from theVelvet Underground days. Andy screams "No! No! Valerie! Don’t do it!" She fires a second time. He falls to the floor and tries to crawl under a desk. She fires a third time. The bullet enters Andy’s right side and goes straight through him, coming out the left side of his back. Warhol later tells friends "It hurt so much, I wished I was dead."
Thinking that she has killed Warhol, Solanas turns to Mario Amaya who is crouching on the floor and fires a fourth shot at him. She misses so she shoots again, hitting him slightly above the hip. The bullet goes through him without damaging any organs, exiting from his back. He gets up and runs into the back room, using the weight of his bleeding body to hold the doors shut.
Valerie Solanas points the gun at Fred Hughes who begs her not to shoot him. “I’m innocent,” he protests. “Please, just leave.” She walks over to the elevator and presses the button then returns to him, aiming at his forehead with the gun. She pulls the trigger, but it jams. She grabs a back up gun, a .22 caliber from the paper bag but the elevator arrives and she leaves.
As soon as she leaves, Fred Hughes calls for an ambulance and the police. The phone rings. It is Viva, still at the hairdresser's, wondering what is going on. Fred tells her that Valerie just shot Andy and that there is blood everywhere, then hangs up the phone. Viva, thinking it is a joke, decides to have her hair trimmed before having it dyed. She tells the hairdresser to charge it to United Artists.
Gerard Malanga arrives at the Factory with Angus Maclise two or three minutes after the shooting. Gerard was preparing a one man show at the Cinematheque and was picking up money from Andy to pay for a film announcement. The scene at the Factory was "total mayhem." (GM193)
Warhol lies bleeding on the floor with Billy Name leaning over him crying, while they wait for the ambulance to arrive. (POP273)
4:35 pm
The ambulance arrives at the Factory. Instead of bringing a stretcher, the attendants arrive with a wheelchair to carry Warhol out. Andy: "I thought that the pain I'd felt lying on the floor was the worst you could ever feel... but now that I was in a sitting position, I knew it wasn't." (DD75)
The ambulance takes away both Warhol and the wounded Mario Amaya. The driver tells
11:00 am
Andy Warhol and Fred Hughes talk on the phone. Fred tells him how he was mugged the night before on 16th Street coming home from Max’s.
2:30 pm
Valerie Solanas goes to the Factory (33 Union Square West) and is told Warhol is out. She thinks that he is conspiring against her with Maurice Girodias, publisher of Olympia Press. (UV170/171). She leaves and waits outside near 16th Street. (L&D296/7) She had once brought a script to the Factory for Andy to read called 'Up Your Ass'. Warhol “looked through it briefly and it was so dirty,” he .“thought she might be working for the police department and that this was some kind of entrapment.” When Warhol admitted to losing the script, Solanas started asking for money.
Andy Warhol (via Pat Hackett in POPism):
“One afternoon when she [Valerie Solanas] called, we were in the middle of shooting a sequence for 'I, A Man, so I said why didn’t she come over and be in the movie and earn twenty-five dollars instead of asking for a handout. She came right over and we filmed her in a short scene on a staircase and she was actually funny and that was that.” (POP271)
4:15 pm
Warhol arrives at the Factory in a cab, wearing a brown leather jacket over a black t-shirt , black jeans and black Beatle (Chelsea) boots. (L&D296) Previously, he had picked up a prescription for Obetrol, then browsed at Bloomingdales, and had also rung the bell of Miles White, the costume designer, who lived on East 55th Street, but he wasn’t home. (POP270/DD71)When Andy arrives outside the Factory, his boyfriend Jed Johnson approaches from 17th and Broadway carrying some fluorescent lights. Valerie Solanas joins them and all three enter the building. While waiting for the elevator, Warhol notices that Valerie is wearing a thick turtleneck sweater underneath a trenchcoat on a hot summer day. Even stranger, she has on mascara and lipstick even though as a die-hard feminist she never wears make-up. Warhol also notices that she is “bouncing slightly on the balls of her feet, twisting a brown paper bag in her hands."
Upstairs, Fred Hughes is sitting at his desk writing a memo, Paul Morrissey is talking to Viva on the phone who is ringing him from Kenneth’s Hair Salon where she is having her hair dyed in preparation for her role in John Schlesinger’s film Midnight Cowboy. Art critic and curator, Mario Amaya, is waiting for Andy in order to discuss an upcoming retrospective in London.
When Warhol, Jed and Valerie arrive, Paul leaves the office to go to the bathroom, leaving Andy to talk to Viva. (L&D) Jed goes into Warhol's private office in the rear corner of the room. Andy signals to Fred Hughes to take over the conversation with Viva.Valerie Solanas takes a .32 automatic from the paper bag and fires a shot. Viva hears the shot over the phone but thinks it is somebody cracking a whip left over from theVelvet Underground days. Andy screams "No! No! Valerie! Don’t do it!" She fires a second time. He falls to the floor and tries to crawl under a desk. She fires a third time. The bullet enters Andy’s right side and goes straight through him, coming out the left side of his back. Warhol later tells friends "It hurt so much, I wished I was dead."
Thinking that she has killed Warhol, Solanas turns to Mario Amaya who is crouching on the floor and fires a fourth shot at him. She misses so she shoots again, hitting him slightly above the hip. The bullet goes through him without damaging any organs, exiting from his back. He gets up and runs into the back room, using the weight of his bleeding body to hold the doors shut.
Valerie Solanas points the gun at Fred Hughes who begs her not to shoot him. “I’m innocent,” he protests. “Please, just leave.” She walks over to the elevator and presses the button then returns to him, aiming at his forehead with the gun. She pulls the trigger, but it jams. She grabs a back up gun, a .22 caliber from the paper bag but the elevator arrives and she leaves.
As soon as she leaves, Fred Hughes calls for an ambulance and the police. The phone rings. It is Viva, still at the hairdresser's, wondering what is going on. Fred tells her that Valerie just shot Andy and that there is blood everywhere, then hangs up the phone. Viva, thinking it is a joke, decides to have her hair trimmed before having it dyed. She tells the hairdresser to charge it to United Artists.
Gerard Malanga arrives at the Factory with Angus Maclise two or three minutes after the shooting. Gerard was preparing a one man show at the Cinematheque and was picking up money from Andy to pay for a film announcement. The scene at the Factory was "total mayhem." (GM193)
Warhol lies bleeding on the floor with Billy Name leaning over him crying, while they wait for the ambulance to arrive. (POP273)
4:35 pm
The ambulance arrives at the Factory. Instead of bringing a stretcher, the attendants arrive with a wheelchair to carry Warhol out. Andy: "I thought that the pain I'd felt lying on the floor was the worst you could ever feel... but now that I was in a sitting position, I knew it wasn't." (DD75)
The ambulance takes away both Warhol and the wounded Mario Amaya. The driver tells
I SHOT ANDY WARHOL
I Shot Andy Warhol is a 1996 independent film about the life of Valerie Solanas and her relationship with Andy Warhol. The movie marked the debut of Canadian director Mary Harron.
The film stars Lili Taylor as Valerie, Jared Harris as Andy Warhol and Martha Plimpton as Valerie's friend Stevie. Stephen Dorff plays Warhol superstar Candy Darling.
Lou Reed of the Velvet Underground, whose anger with Solanas was well known, stated publicly that he did not want any film about her to be made, and would not allow the filmmakers to use his music. Nevertheless, the film's music score was written by John Cale, a former member of the Velvet Underground. In the film, Yo La Tengo plays an anonymous band that is somewhat reminiscent of the group.
The film was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival.
The film stars Lili Taylor as Valerie, Jared Harris as Andy Warhol and Martha Plimpton as Valerie's friend Stevie. Stephen Dorff plays Warhol superstar Candy Darling.
Lou Reed of the Velvet Underground, whose anger with Solanas was well known, stated publicly that he did not want any film about her to be made, and would not allow the filmmakers to use his music. Nevertheless, the film's music score was written by John Cale, a former member of the Velvet Underground. In the film, Yo La Tengo plays an anonymous band that is somewhat reminiscent of the group.
The film was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival.
Plot
The film opens with a foreshadow to moments after the shooting. This is quickly followed by a scene with Solanas in custody for the shooting of Andy Warhol. The film then takes us back to a time when Solanas is living in New York and prostituting herself for a living. A series of further flashbacks point to her difficult childhood, and success in studying psychology at university. At university, Solanas discovers that she is a lesbian, that she can write and that she has a distinctive view of the world. This leads her to New York City and its downtown underworld. Through her friend Stevie, she meets Candy Darling, who in turn introduces her to Andy Warhol. Meanwhile she also meets Maurice Girodias, the publisher of Olympia Press. While Solanas wants Warhol to produce her play, Up Your Ass, Girodias wants her to write a pornographic novel for him. Once Solanas signs a contract with Girodias, she comes to suspect his offer is not a generous one and may not be in her interests. She comes to regret signing this contract. At this point, she starts to become seriously disturbed. She thinks Warhol, and or Girodias are controlling her. The film concludes, where it began, with Solanas' attempted murder of Warhol.
[edit] Background
This film is based on a true story and was thoroughly researched by the filmmaker, Mary Harron, who initially intended to make a documentary.
Many people who knew Solanas and Warhol tried to rationalize the shooting. Stephen Koch, who in 1973 wrote a study of Warhol's film, stated: "Valerie lives in terror of dependence: That is what the SCUM Manifesto is about, an absolute terror before the experience of need. Like Warhol, Solanas is obsessed with an image of autonomy, except that... she has played the obsession desperately, rather than with Warhol's famous cool."[3]
[edit] Background
This film is based on a true story and was thoroughly researched by the filmmaker, Mary Harron, who initially intended to make a documentary.
Many people who knew Solanas and Warhol tried to rationalize the shooting. Stephen Koch, who in 1973 wrote a study of Warhol's film, stated: "Valerie lives in terror of dependence: That is what the SCUM Manifesto is about, an absolute terror before the experience of need. Like Warhol, Solanas is obsessed with an image of autonomy, except that... she has played the obsession desperately, rather than with Warhol's famous cool."[3]
VALERIE SOLANAS
Early life
Solanas was born in Ventnor City, New Jersey to Louis Solanas and Dorothy Biondi. She claimed that she regularly suffered sexual abuse at the hands of her father. Her parents divorced when she was 11, and her mother remarried shortly afterwards. Solanas disliked her stepfather and began rebelling againsther mother and became a truant. Because of her rebellious behavior, her mother sent her to be raised by her grandfather in 1949. Solanas claimed that her grandfather was a violent alcoholic who often beat her. When she was 15, her grandfather kicked her out, rendering her homeless. In spite of this, she graduated from high school with her class and earned a degree in psychology from the University of Maryland, College Park.
She did nearly a year of graduate work in psychology at University of Minnesota. In 1953, she gave birth to a son, David. Other details of her life until 1966 are unclear, but it is believed she traveled the country as an itinerant, supporting herself by begging and prostitution.
[edit] New York City and The Factory
Solanas arrived in Greenwich Village in 1966, where she wrote a play titled Up Your Ass about a man-hating prostitute and a panhandler. In 1967, she encountered Andy Warhol outside his studio, The Factory, and asked him to produce her play. Intrigued by the title, he accepted the script for review. According to Factory lore, Warhol, whose films were often shut down by the police for obscenity, thought the script was so pornographic that it must be a police trap. He never returned it to Solanas. The script was then lost, not to be found until after Warhol's death, in the bottom of one of his lighting trunks.
Later that year, Solanas began to telephone Warhol, demanding he return the script of Up Your Ass. When Warhol admitted he had lost it, she began demanding money as payment. Warhol ignored these demands but offered her a role inI, a Man. In his book Popism: The Warhol Sixties, Warhol wrote that before she shot him, he thought Solanas was an interesting and funny person, but that her constant demands for attention made her difficult to deal with and ultimately drove him away.
Warhol did give Solanas a role in a scene in his film I, a Man (1968–1969). In that film, she and the film's title character (playedby Tom Baker) haggle in an apartment building hallway over whether they should go into her apartment. Solanas dominates the improvised conversation, leading Baker through a dialogue about everything from "squishy asses", "men's tits", and lesbian "instinct". Ultimately, she leaves him to fend for himself, explaining "I gotta go beat my meat" as she exits the scene.
During the late 1960s, Solanas wrote and self-published her best-known work, the SCUM Manifesto, a text which reads as a scathing, misandric attack on the male sex. SCUM is generally held to be an acronym of "Society for Cutting Up Men", although it does not appear in the manifesto itself, and is actually a backronym. The opening words of the Manifesto immediately refer to its directives:
“
Life in this society being, at best, an utter bore and no aspect of society being at all relevant to women, there remains to civic-minded, responsible, thrill-seeking females only to overthrow the government, eliminate the money system, institute complete automation and destroy the male sex. It is now technically feasible to reproduce without the aid of males (or, for that matter, females) and to produce only females. We must begin immediately to do so... The male is a biological accident.
Solanas was born in Ventnor City, New Jersey to Louis Solanas and Dorothy Biondi. She claimed that she regularly suffered sexual abuse at the hands of her father. Her parents divorced when she was 11, and her mother remarried shortly afterwards. Solanas disliked her stepfather and began rebelling againsther mother and became a truant. Because of her rebellious behavior, her mother sent her to be raised by her grandfather in 1949. Solanas claimed that her grandfather was a violent alcoholic who often beat her. When she was 15, her grandfather kicked her out, rendering her homeless. In spite of this, she graduated from high school with her class and earned a degree in psychology from the University of Maryland, College Park.
She did nearly a year of graduate work in psychology at University of Minnesota. In 1953, she gave birth to a son, David. Other details of her life until 1966 are unclear, but it is believed she traveled the country as an itinerant, supporting herself by begging and prostitution.
[edit] New York City and The Factory
Solanas arrived in Greenwich Village in 1966, where she wrote a play titled Up Your Ass about a man-hating prostitute and a panhandler. In 1967, she encountered Andy Warhol outside his studio, The Factory, and asked him to produce her play. Intrigued by the title, he accepted the script for review. According to Factory lore, Warhol, whose films were often shut down by the police for obscenity, thought the script was so pornographic that it must be a police trap. He never returned it to Solanas. The script was then lost, not to be found until after Warhol's death, in the bottom of one of his lighting trunks.
Later that year, Solanas began to telephone Warhol, demanding he return the script of Up Your Ass. When Warhol admitted he had lost it, she began demanding money as payment. Warhol ignored these demands but offered her a role inI, a Man. In his book Popism: The Warhol Sixties, Warhol wrote that before she shot him, he thought Solanas was an interesting and funny person, but that her constant demands for attention made her difficult to deal with and ultimately drove him away.
Warhol did give Solanas a role in a scene in his film I, a Man (1968–1969). In that film, she and the film's title character (playedby Tom Baker) haggle in an apartment building hallway over whether they should go into her apartment. Solanas dominates the improvised conversation, leading Baker through a dialogue about everything from "squishy asses", "men's tits", and lesbian "instinct". Ultimately, she leaves him to fend for himself, explaining "I gotta go beat my meat" as she exits the scene.
During the late 1960s, Solanas wrote and self-published her best-known work, the SCUM Manifesto, a text which reads as a scathing, misandric attack on the male sex. SCUM is generally held to be an acronym of "Society for Cutting Up Men", although it does not appear in the manifesto itself, and is actually a backronym. The opening words of the Manifesto immediately refer to its directives:
“
Life in this society being, at best, an utter bore and no aspect of society being at all relevant to women, there remains to civic-minded, responsible, thrill-seeking females only to overthrow the government, eliminate the money system, institute complete automation and destroy the male sex. It is now technically feasible to reproduce without the aid of males (or, for that matter, females) and to produce only females. We must begin immediately to do so... The male is a biological accident.
Attempted assassination of Andy Warhol
On June 3, 1968, she arrived at The Factory and waited for Warhol in the lobby area. When he arrived with a couple of friends, she produced a handgun and shot at Warhol three times, hitting him once. She then shot art critic Mario Amaya and also tried to shoot Warhol's manager, Fred Hughes, but her gun jammed as the elevator arrived. Hughes suggested she take it and she did, leaving the Factory. Warhol barely survived; he never fully recovered and for the rest of his life wore a corset to prevent his injuries from worsening.
That evening, Solanas turned herself in to the police and was charged with attempted murder and other offenses. Solanas made statements to the arresting officer and at the arraignment hearing that Warhol had "too much control" over her and that Warhol was planning to steal her work. Pleading guilty, she received a three-year sentence. Warhol refused to testify against her.
The attack had a profound impact on Warhol and his art, and The Factory scene became much more tightly controlled afterward. For the rest of his life, Warhol lived in fear that Solanas would attack him again. "It was the Cardboard Andy, not the Andy I could love and play with," said close friend and collaborator Billy Name. "He was so sensitized you couldn't put your hand on him without him jumping. I couldn't even love him anymore, because it hurt him to touch him."[1] While his friends were actively hostile towards Solanas, Warhol himself preferred not to discuss her.
One of the few public pronouncements in her favor was distributed by Ben Morea, of Up Against the Wall Motherfuckers/Black Mask fame. It was later re-printed as an appendix in the Olympia Press edition of her manifesto.
It is widely believed that Solanas suffered from paranoid schizophrenia at the time of the shooting.[2][3] A psychiatrist who evaluated her shortly thereafter concluded that she was "a Schizophrenic Reaction, paranoid type with marked depression and potential for acting out."[4] As a result, many of her detractors derided her as a "crazed lesbian".[5]
In 2009, Margo Feiden, a former Broadway producer and playwright, claimed that she had been visited by Solanas on the morning of the shooting. According to interviews with The New York Times and Interview magazine, Feiden received a manuscript from Solanas but refused to stage it.[6] Feiden believes that Solanas "did that shooting as a publicity stunt to be famous, so that I would produce her play."[7] Feiden said that she tried to avert the shooting by calling a relative of Warhol and authorities and that nobody took her calls seriously.[8]
On June 3, 1968, she arrived at The Factory and waited for Warhol in the lobby area. When he arrived with a couple of friends, she produced a handgun and shot at Warhol three times, hitting him once. She then shot art critic Mario Amaya and also tried to shoot Warhol's manager, Fred Hughes, but her gun jammed as the elevator arrived. Hughes suggested she take it and she did, leaving the Factory. Warhol barely survived; he never fully recovered and for the rest of his life wore a corset to prevent his injuries from worsening.
That evening, Solanas turned herself in to the police and was charged with attempted murder and other offenses. Solanas made statements to the arresting officer and at the arraignment hearing that Warhol had "too much control" over her and that Warhol was planning to steal her work. Pleading guilty, she received a three-year sentence. Warhol refused to testify against her.
The attack had a profound impact on Warhol and his art, and The Factory scene became much more tightly controlled afterward. For the rest of his life, Warhol lived in fear that Solanas would attack him again. "It was the Cardboard Andy, not the Andy I could love and play with," said close friend and collaborator Billy Name. "He was so sensitized you couldn't put your hand on him without him jumping. I couldn't even love him anymore, because it hurt him to touch him."[1] While his friends were actively hostile towards Solanas, Warhol himself preferred not to discuss her.
One of the few public pronouncements in her favor was distributed by Ben Morea, of Up Against the Wall Motherfuckers/Black Mask fame. It was later re-printed as an appendix in the Olympia Press edition of her manifesto.
It is widely believed that Solanas suffered from paranoid schizophrenia at the time of the shooting.[2][3] A psychiatrist who evaluated her shortly thereafter concluded that she was "a Schizophrenic Reaction, paranoid type with marked depression and potential for acting out."[4] As a result, many of her detractors derided her as a "crazed lesbian".[5]
In 2009, Margo Feiden, a former Broadway producer and playwright, claimed that she had been visited by Solanas on the morning of the shooting. According to interviews with The New York Times and Interview magazine, Feiden received a manuscript from Solanas but refused to stage it.[6] Feiden believes that Solanas "did that shooting as a publicity stunt to be famous, so that I would produce her play."[7] Feiden said that she tried to avert the shooting by calling a relative of Warhol and authorities and that nobody took her calls seriously.[8]
On June 3, 1968, Valerie Solanas, author of the "shock-feminism" classic SCUM Manifesto and a regular of the Factory (Warhol's studio), entered the studio and fired three shots at Warhol, nearly killing him. Although the first two rounds missed, the third passed through Warhol's left lung, spleen, stomach, liver, esophagus, and right lung. Solanas then turned the gun on a companion of Warhol, Mario Amaya, injuring his thigh. Although Warhol (barely) survived these injuries, he never fully recovered. Solanas turned herself in to the police, and was charged with numerous offences, including attempted murder. After pleading guilty she received a three year sentence. Warhol refused to testify against her.Solanas later explained that "Warhol had too much control over my life." In 1966, Solanas wrote a play entitled 'Up Your Ass', about a man-hating prostitute and a panhandler. In 1967 she asked Warhol to produce her play, and he was fascinated enough by the title of the play to accept the script for review. He was unimpressed by the content, however, and did not bother to contact her again. Later in 1967 Solanas began to telephone Warhol demanding he return the script of Up Your Ass. Warhol admitted he had lost it, at which point she began demanding money as payment. Warhol ignored these demands. However, he did employ her for minor roles in two of his movies of the time, but Solanas began to believe that her difficulties achieving financial success were exclusively due to Warhol. The story of Valerie Solanas was made into the 1996 movie I Shot Andy Warhol starring Lili Taylor and directed by Mary Harron.Warhol's friend Lou Reed never forgave Solanas for the attack. In 1990 he recorded the album Songs for Drella with fellow Velvet Underground alumnus John Cale, which contained the song "I Believe". In it, Reed sang "I believe/I would've pulled the switch on her myself." In other songs on the album, Reed expresses his regrets about not having paid a lot of attention to Warhol in the time before his death.Warhol himself ultimately forgave Valerie for shooting him and later satirized the whole event in a subsequent movie of his, calling a group similar to Solanas' S.C.U.M. (Society for Cutting Up Men), P.I.G. - Politically Involved Girlies.
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fascinating.
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