Andy Warhol wrote about her, and her departure with Bob Dylan, in his
book The Philosophy of Andy Warhol, From A to B and Back Again (amazon.com) -, but he
used a fake name for Edie, calling her Taxi.
Warhol, Andy, 1928-1987
The philosophy of Andy Warhol : from A to B and back again.
New York : Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1975
241 p. ; 22 cm.
ISBN: 0151890501; LCCN: 74-31107
Date: Fri, 8 Dec 1995 08:59:04 EST
From: David Florkow (FlorkoD_at_MET15MF1@CCMAIL.EDU.GOV.ON.CA)
Subject: From the Archives
The following clipping fell out of a book of essays about Bob. Given the recent references to Warhol and Edi, I've copied it completely, for the amusement of this list. It was headlined "Village '65 Revisited", from the Village Voice, July 27, 1982:
"Dear Editor:
"I first met Edie Sedgwick in 1965 when Andy Warhol was making a film of my play _The Bed_ which had been having a stage-run at Caffe Cino. After a successful screening at the Cinemateque on 41st Street, there followed a quarrel with FuFu Smith, the producer, about who owned the film. Andy put _The Bed_ into his sceret vault though he later spliced portions of it inot _Chelsea Girls_.
"During this period I conferred with Andy about writing _The Death of Lupe Velez_ for Edie who was anxious to play the role of the "Mexican Spitfire," found dead in her Hollywood hacienda with her head in a toilet bowl. I met Edie at the Kettle of Fish on MacDougal Street to talk over the project. When I got there Edie was at a table with a fuzzy-haired blond Bob Dylan whose shiny black limousine was parked outside. I mentioned the script I was working on and Edie said innocently, "Oh, we already filmed that this afternoon. It's in the can ... in Technicolor." Nothing more was said when Andy arrived, although he did astonish me that evening by asking, "When do you think Edie will commit suicide? I hope she lets me know so I can film it."
"Dylan turned up at the silver factory that same week for a filmed portrait by Andy -- a 15-minute sutdy in stillness, silence, and emptiness. Dylan decided his payment would be a giant Warhol silk-screened canvas of Elvis Presley in cowboy attire firing a revolver. Andy was livid when he saw Dylan taking his "payment" though he opted for cool silence. Mr. Tambourine Man did not sit for nothing."
-- Robert Heide
Christopher Street
there, for what it's worth.
David
(david.florkow@edu.gov.on.ca)
Edie: an American Biography
By Jean Stein; edited with George Plimpton
Dell Publishing, 1982
The book is an assembled document, consisting of compiled statements from all sorts of people, some well-known, many not, arranged roughly chronologically. Bob Neuwirth is in it quite a bit; Patti Smith, too. The chronology is hard to figure out (not many dates are given; you have to piece it together from events, etc., if you care that much); this may be a spin-off of the prominence of drugs in many accounts. The overall impression is one of lives wasted, extreme pettiness, and drugs, drugs, drugs. But some pretty crazy fun, too.
There are, of course, several references to Dylan. I've copied a couple of the more substantive ones.
Thanks to Andrew for reminding me of this book.
>From Edie:
Jonathan Taplin [self-described in the notes: "In the Sixties I was going to college and working as a road manager for Judy Collins, Bob Dylan, and The Band on the side. Moved to Woodstock, New York, in 1969 where Dylan and The Band were living. Now I am producing films: Mean Streets, The Last Waltz, Carny, and am president of Lion's Gate Films." (p. 376)]:
Dylan liked Edie because she was one of the few people who could stand up against his weird little numbers: she was much stronger than the sycophants who were hanging around him at the time. He was always in an adversary relationship with women. He tested people...perhaps to find out about himself. His transition from folk purity to the rock insanity was overwhelming him. He needed to know: who was he? Dylan respected Edie's spirit, and her strength in being able to deal with him, and that she didn't wither. You know that song of his, "Just Like a Woman"? They say he wrote it about Edie. (p. 228)
Bob Neuwirth: I know Bob Dylan expressed an interest in doing a film with Edie -- a non-Warholian film. At that time there was a lot of interest in Bob starring in a movie -- the great directors were after him. But Dylan has always had a need for the mystique of privacy -- the Garbo Trick. (p. 228)
Paul Morrissey: The Dylan relationship came up one night when we saw Edie at the Ginger Man. It was early in 1966. She told us that she didn't want Andy to show any of her films any more. By that time she'd made about eleven films with Andy in only four months. Then things started to go sour, and her last film before Chelsea Girls was called Lupe, about the acress Lupe Velez, who drowned with her head in a toilet after taking a huge dose of Seconal. Edie had a small role in Chelsea Girls, but she came in later to ask us to take out the section of the film she was in. She told us that she had signed a contract with Bob Dylan's manager, Albert Grossman.
It was a very peculiar period. Andy was going through a transition. He was always triying to make more money to support his filmmaking, and he had gotten involved with a new discotheque and was managing a new band, the Velvet Underground. We let them rehearse at the Factory. Suddenly they were taking up more and more time. We started to make little movies with them. They needed a singer, and by accident we ran into this girl named Nico, who had known Dylan in Europe and had been brought over from London by Grossman. He used to come around the Factory with his assistants, supposedly to listen to Nico practice, but for some reason he had lost interest in her. It was Edie Sedgwick he wanted to put under contract. So he'd ask, "Do you have any of those old movies of Edie Sedgwick we've heard about? We'd love to see them." They wanted to wee what she looked like on the screen, but doing it very sneaky and behind our backs. Actually, Edie was all part of it, which we didn't know then. Dylan was calling her up and inviting her out and telling her not to tell Andy or anyone that she was seeing him. He invited her up to Woodstock and he told her that Grossman hoped to put her together with him. She could be his leading lady. So she said to herself, "Ah, this is my break."
She signed with Grossman at Dylan's urging. Apparently Grossman had said that he didn't think she should see Andy so much any more because the publicity that came out of it wasn't good. She said, "They're going to make a film, and I'm supposed to star in it with Bobby." Suddenly it was Bobby this and Bobby that, and we realized that she had a crush on him. We thought he'd been leading her on, because just that day Andy had heard in Sy Litvinoff's office -- our lawyer -- that Dylan had been secretly married for a few months -- he married Sara in Nobember,1965. Everything was secret in those days for some reason...al phony secrecy. So Andy couldn't resist asking, "Did you know Edie, that Bob Dylan has gotten married?"
She just went pale. "What? I don't believe it! What?" She was trembling. We realized that she really thought of herself as entering a relationship with Dylan...that maybe he hadn't been very truthful. Probably none of it was true -- Dylan never had any intention of making movie with Edie, or starring her.
So off she went, and we never really saw very much of her after that. Andy never showed her films any more. He took out her piece of Chelsea Girls and we substituted a little thing with Nico with colored lights going across her face -- an abstract kind of totally minimal film of Nico looking for a half-hour into the camera. It's got some Velvet Underground music with it. It's the last thing in Chelsea Girls, a very beautiful ending.
Viva: It must have had an effect on Andy -- Edie leaving him for Dylan, or whoever. He was probably in love with Edie, with all of us -- a sexless kind of love, but he would take up your whole life so that you had no time for any other man. When Edie left with Grossman and Dylan, that was betrayal, and he was furious ...a lover betrayed by his mistress.
Bob Neuwirth: Whe never made a film with Dylan. After Edie left Warhol, I was actually the first one to make a film with her. We made it on Easter Sunday in Eric Dolphy's old loft near the Fulton Fish Market -- a Chaplinesque, satircial movie of Edie making breakfast, and ending up with her wearing a nine-thousand dollar leopardskin coat and walking her huge rhinoceros, that big footstool of hers outfitted with four roller skates, up Fifth Avenue in the Easter Parade. (p. 230)
Nico: After Dino, Edie was very much in love with Patrick Tilden. He was Bob Dylan's best friend. Bob had been staying at the Castle before the Velvet Undergound moved there. Bob's song "Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat" is written about Edie. Everybody thought it was about Edie because she sometimes wore leopard. Dylan's a very sarcastic person...It is a very nasty song, whoever the person in it might be.
That's all folks.
David
(david.florkow@edu.gov.on.ca)
Edie Sedgewick
(1943 - 1971)I don't know how she did it. Fire She was shaking all over. It took
her hours to put her make up on. But she did it. Even the false
eyelashes. She ordered gin with triple limes. Then a limosine.
Everyone knew she was the real heroine of 'Blonde on Blonde.'-patti smith, seventh heaven, 1972
(i am not patti smith)
On Fri, 23 Jan 1998 17:41:41 +1000, David Wong
(davidw@infotile.com.au) wrote:
>bott is unquestionably concerned with dylan,s relationship with >sara.most people seem to assosciate blonde with the same lady.however >the only lady specificallly mentioned on blonde is edie sedgwick.i >waited edie for you inside of the frozen traffic... .this does,ent >appear in lyric,s, but it,s on the album.is blonde an anthem to >edie.tony stock@@infotile.com.au
Patti Smith agreed with you - she wrote a poem about Edie which ended "She was the true heroine of Blonde On Blonde".
The songs on Blonde usually linked to Edie are Just Like A Woman and Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat. Other songs, such as Absolutely Sweet Marie as you mention, could have Edie connotations too. However, I see Visions as mostly about Joanie, and Sad Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands is unquestionably about Sara. Bob's love-life has always been Tangled Up In Blonde - or any other hair colour :-).
Alan
Blonde on Blonde cover pictures.
Feb 22, 2006: BOB DYLAN WHOÕS WHO SEDGWICK, EDIE BY: ROBERT HEIDE This is in response to the recently published letter that I originally wrote to the Village Voice and which was printed in that newspaper on July 27, 1982 under the banner ÔVillage Õ65 RevisitedÕ. The subject of this letter encompassed the relationships between myself, Andy Warhol, Edie Sedgwick, and Bob Dylan. This was brought to my attention by Sally Kirkland who called to let me know she spotted it on the Bob Dylan WhoÕs Who site on the internet. It turns out that Sally who was my upstairs neighbor on Christopher Street from 1961 to 1966 is in the forthcoming film ÒFactory GirlÓ playing Edie SedgewickÕs grandmother. During the 2005 Christmas holidays Sally showed up in New York; and friends John Gilman, Hoop, and myself took her to Donna KaranÕs fabulous Madison Avenue store for a party celebrating the publication of an illustrated Rizzoli book written by Jay Harris whose twin brother and business partner Jed perished in the 800 New York to Paris flight which crashed over Long Island. On the way uptown from the Village in one of HoopÕs ÔArt-CarsÕ Sally was frantically calling the hospital where her lifelong friend Shelley Winters lay dying hoping to check on her condition. (Subsequent to this Shelley died of a heart attack on January 14, 2006 with Sally, an ordained minister, performing the last rites.) When the four of us arrived at Donna KaranÕs the cameras began flashing as we entered the packed emporium where the partygoers included many Warholites including Sylvia Miles, Baby Jane Holzer, and Ultra Violet. I introduced Sally to Kevin Kushel the agent of factory photographer Billy Name who told us the ÒFactory GirlÓ film was looking for someone to play EdieÕs grandmother. Sally perked up at the news; and Kevin then offered to help set up a screen test for her. Kevin told me that she was just perfect in the test; and believed she actually somehow ÔchanneledÕ the grandmother adding, ÒIt was eerie!Ó When Sally made the recent call to me she was speaking from the set of the movie in Louisiana. On the phone Sally reminisced about the Warhol days and was feeling weird at the idea of being EdieÕs grandmother. ÒItÕs ironic that both Edie and myself came out of a kind of mainline Ð yet dysfunctional Ð society and that both of us wound up in mental hospitals.Ó SallyÕs mother Ð Sally Kirkland, Sr. Ð was the fashion editor at Life Magazine who first put a Milton Green photo of Edie into Life; and this along with Andy WarholÕs help put Edie over in the media as the ÔnewÕ girl of the moment following fast in the footsteps of Baby Jane Holzer. Sally also recalled in our telephone conversation that I was witness to her many manic-depression suicide attempts when she was living on Christopher Street. I recalled her rehearsing scenes for the Actors Studio upstairs and the occasions when scene partners like Rip Torn or Keir Dullea would ÔaccidentallyÕ wander into my apartment. In those days no one ever locked their door Ð at least not in Greenwich Village. Once I heard Sally scream out ÒBob..help..helpÉIÕm not acting!Ó When I ran upstairs I found Sally hysterical and bleeding. One finger was almost blown off by a tear gas gun sent to her in the mail by her ÔfriendlyÕ aunt who was worried about crime in the VillageÉwhen she had opened the package it exploded in her hand. We rushed to St. VincentÕs Hospital where doctors worked to re-attach the finger. Sally recalls this episode as a near death experience and tells me I saved her life that day. In the mid to late sixties as kind of a brother-sister duo Sally and I started to hang out at WarholÕs silver factory along with regulars like Billy Name, Edie, Baby Jane, Ingrid Superstar, Gerara Malanga, Pope Ondine, and others. Bob Dylan showed up from time to time to check out things with Edie. Andy filmed my play ÒThe BedÓ which was his first split-screen movie and I also acted opposite Jack Smith in WarholÕs ÒDracula /BatmanÓ and ÒCamp.Ó A young and vibrant Sally Kirkland was cast in AndyÕs ÒScreen Test Ð 13 Most Beautiful Women.Ó At this time which was around 1965 I remembered Sally and Gerard Malanga emerging out of a seven-foot high cake in celebration of AndyÕs birthday to everyoneÕs surprise. Enid Nemy at the New York Times called it a great happening. Andy had asked me to write a screenplay for Edie which became the film ÒLupeÓ in which Edie as Lupe Velez commits suicide. At the time I was riding around all over town in a limousine that made pit-stops at various bars like The Ginger Man where Edie would gulp down Bloody Marys. She never seemed to pay for anything; always signing her name to the check. No one ever questioned EdieÕs methods as they were always seemingly dumbstruck and in awe of her great little girl charm and beauty. I later learned that the limousine Edie was using belonged to Bob Dylan. Dylan and his manager Albert Grossman it seems were conspiring to take Edie away from Andy and somehow turn her into a bonafide movie star. Some say Dylan wrote ÒJust Like A WomanÓ after Edie Sedgwick and that the Stones Ò19th Nervous BreakdownÓ was all about Edie. Sally tells me that ÔBobbyÕ may have slept with Edie; but she would not call it an affair, adding ÒWhen I joined him and Sam Shepard in the country-wide tour of ÔThe Rolling Thunder RevueÕ I fell in love with Bob and IÕve loved him all my life.Ó Kevin Kushel who has seen rushes of Sally Kirkland as Grandma Sedgwick in ÒFactory GirlÓ thinks Sally could be nominated for a best supporting actress nomination in 2007 for her performance. When I mention this to Sally who was nominated for a best-actress Oscar for ÒAnnaÓ in 1987 she sighs, ÒOh, that would be great!Ó Meanwhile viewers will be able to catch the Reverend Sally in the movie ÒAdam and SteveÓ to be released on a national basis soon. Oh, yes Ð in the end she presides over the wedding of the guys in this very funny gay film. For further reading on this subject see chapter entitled ÔThe Way We Were Ð Albee, Warhol, Edie, Dylan, and Cino in the VillageÕin the book ÒGreenwich Village Ð A Primo Guide to True BohemiaÓ by myself and John Gilman, published by St. MartinÕs Press, New York. -- Robert Heide
Swinging Chicks: Edie Sedgwick
