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, in Midtown Manhattan. The rent was "only about one hundred dollars a year".

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."

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 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.
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]


Still from CouchWarhol 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.


List of Films created in the The Factory
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
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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
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.

Video about Edie

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