Edie (67 page)

TERRY SOUTHERN:
 “His relationship to Edie has perhaps best been described as biblical. Born in Alvarado, Texas, he received his B.A. from Northwestern University in 1948, and then studied at the Sorbonne in France until 1950. His novels include
Flesh and Filigree; The Magic Christian; Candy,
and Blue
Movie.
Screenplays include
Dr. Strangelove; The Loved One; The Cincinnati Kid; The Magic Christian; Barbarella; Easy Rider
, and
End of the Road.
Mr. Southern has written many short stories and critical essays, an anthology of which appeared under the title
Red Dirt Marijuana And Other Tastes.
He is currently completing a novel,
Youngblood.”

HELEN BURROUGHS STERN:
 “After six years of playing house, Harry Sedgwick and I were divorced in 1956. . . . By the time I was twenty-four years old, I had given birth to three Sedgwick children. In 1957 I married Philip Stem, or he married me, however one sees it. Philip and I set up house in Washington, where we had two more offspring. I then spent most of the Sixties attempting to erase forever all memory of the Fifties. No purge was ever more unsuccessful . . . life was chaotic as Fibber McGee’s closet, into which I kept stuffing more and more awful mistakes. Gradually, things are sorting out. I am now a sculptor, artist, and songwriter and received an undergraduate degree in anthropology at the top of my class from George Washington University. Since 1978 I’ve been a teacher of Mexican orphaned children and recently I’ve organized a cottage industry: we are making beautiful greeting cards from designs that the orphans themselves make, which earned $15,000 this Christmas for the orphans.”

PATRICIA SULLIVAN:
 “I Knew Edie through Gillian and John Anthony Walker. Despite the Sixties I wore a lot of basic black and pearls, led a frivolous life by night in New York and purported to have a serious bank job by day. I stI’ll live in New York and now work for an environmental organization.”

SANDY TALLEY’S
 husband T died in 1973. she has since remarried and now works for the Department of Motor Vehicles in California.

JONATHAN T. TAPLIN:
 “I only met Edie twice. 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; Corny,
and am president of Lion’s Gate Films.”

RONALD TAVEL:
 “AS Andy Warhol’S scenarist from December 1964 through the summer of 1966, I wrote the first sound films in which Edie appeared: Vinyl,
Kitchen, Space.
I wrote mostly plays during the Sixties and named and founded the Theatre of the Ridiculous movement, July 29, 1965. I also published a novel (Olympia Press) and wrote some commercial screenplays and treatments. Published a number of cinematic essays and some poetry. Since 1975, when I taught at the Yale University Divinity School, I have been on and off connected with Ivy League universities. I have also been involved in regional theater in New England, central New York State, Washington, D.C., etc.”

VIRGIL THOMSON,
 composer, music critic, and conductor, was born in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1896. His works include Four
Saints
in
Three Acts
and
The Mother of Us All
(operas with Gertrude Stein);
Lord Byron
(with Jack Larson);
Fantasy in Homage to an Earlier England; Ode to the Wonders of Nature; The Plow that Broke the Plains
and
The River
(films with Pare Lorentz);
Louisiana Story
(with Robert Flaherty), and many works of orchestral and chamber music. In addition to serving as chief music critic for the New York
Herald-Tribune
from 1940 to 54, his writings have appeared in
Vanity Fair
and the
New York Review of Books.
There are also eight books, including
Virgil Thomson by Virgil Thomson A Virgil Thomson Reader.

WENDY VANDEN HEOVEL:
 “I am Jean Stein’S daughter and I’VE grown up with most of the people in this book. I am now a student at the New York University Experimental Theater School.”

CHERRY VANILLA:
 “My relationship to Edie was cosmically casual. in the Sixties my life-style was psychedelic, but I am now poetry in motion. Ah, the mystery of what makes history!”

“GORE VIDAL
 wrote his first novel, at nineteen,
Williwavi,
aboard an Army freight-supply ship in the Aleutian Islands during World War II. Among his novels are
The City and the Pillar; Washington, D.C.; Myra Breckinridge; Burr,
and
Creation.
Among his plays are Visit to
a Small Planet
and
The Best Man.
Politically, he is active—to say the least.”

VIVA:
 I’ve had two daughters, published two books, Superstar and the
Baby,
and a political novel is nearly completed. I’ve made roughly four hundred videotapes in collaboration with my ex-husband, done several video shows, and acted in seven or eight movies—in me last one, a film by Wim Wenders, my eldest daughter played my daughter. I’ve done a lot of TV and presently am obsessed by politics and economics, in particular the so-called Third World. I’m rather belatedly exploring Marxism but have come to realize that probably stripping the male sex of most of the privileges that have stealthily crept up on them may be necessary before we move on to the equally important Installation of a world Marxist economy. I know all you readers wI’ll say I’m entrapped by an outmoded nineteenth-century idea; nevertheless, I stick ferociously to my guns.”

DIANA VREELAND:
 “I was a friend of the family and, as editor of
Vogue,
where Edie posed for us—which she did beautifully—I was her employer. I am now special consultant to the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.”

“
GILLIAN WALKER
 is a family therapist at the Ackerman Institute for Family Therapy in New York City.”

JOHN ANTHONY WALKER lives in Auroville, Southern India.

ANDY WAHHOL
—artist, filmmaker, author, magazine publisher—attended Carnegie Institute of Technology before moving to New York City to pursue a career as an illustrator. One of the most famous of the Fop artists, Mr. Warhol has had one-man exhibitions at the Leo Castelli Gallery, Ferus Gallery, Stable Gallery, Morris Gallery, and the Sonnabend Gallery, as well as being exhibited in major museums around the- world. Mr. Warhol has also directed and produced numerous films and has received the Film Culture Award and the Los Angeles Film Festival Award for his work. He produced the rock group Velvet Underground, and continues to publish
Interview
magazine. His books Include
Andy Warhol’s Index; Andy Warhol’s Philosophy from A to B and Back Again; Popism: The Warhol Bo’s,
and
Andy Warhol’s Exposures,

CHUCK WIIN’:
 “Edie and I were mock elitists in fellowship based upon how fucked-up everyone else was. I was her roommate, shrink, astrologer, and Tarot instructor. I spent the sixties adventuring in the Far East, managing bizarre nightclub acts like Rosita the python lady, a French drag queen and two over-the-hI’ll Australian strippers. I spent ’62 in Copenhagen stoned on absinthe. In ’63 I sat at the Cafe
¹
de Paris in Tangier long enough to be asked to cover The Algerian/Moroccan border war for the English papers. I attended Harvard in the Leary acid-experiment days. Now I am too busy receiving ancient friends to describe my present trans-Amazon discoveries . . . besides, I’m sure to attract the most prurient of interest. Name of next film,
Lunar Cross,
about Nazis on the moon in 1946.”

DAVID WEISMAN:
 “I returned to California from Europe in 1974 and spent several years recovering from
Ciao!Manhattan.
I subsequently became involved with film advertising and marketing as well as developing new screen properties. In addition to co-producing
Shogun Assassin
in 1980,1 worked on the production and worldwide marketing of the docudrama,
The Killing of America.”

BRUCE WILLIAMSON:
 “Before joining Time magazine as a staff writer and film critic (1963-1966), then
Playboy
as movie critic-contributing editor (since 1967), I was writing freelance, clever sketches and songs for Julius Monk’s Upstairs-Downstairs and Plaza 9 revues—going straight after my early post-Columbia University years as a Beatnik, actor, usher (CBS-TV) and social misfit. I don’t remember how I looked in the Sixties. . . . I have bought up and destroyed the negatives of all photos known to exist.”

JANE WYATT’S
 husband, Edgar B. Ward, went to Cate School and Harvard College with Edie’S father. The Wards and the Sedgwicks have been close friends ever since. Jane Wyatt worked in TV and the theater, and her husband has been involved in investment management.

The listing of acknowledgments does not begin to suggest the support, the advice, and the many hours that thoughtful people gave George Plimpton and me for this book.

A profound appreciation to the following members of Edie’s family who gave generously of their time: John P. Marquand, Jr., Helen Stokes Merrill, Alexander Sedgwick, Fan Sedgwick, Harry Sedgwick, Jonathan Sedgwick, Saucie Sedgwick, Suky Sedgwick. I sadly regret that Minturn Sedgwick is not here to see the final form of the work which he encouraged and to which he contributed so much.

I would especially like to thank Edie Sedgwick’s husband, Michael Post, for the many hours he generously gave me.

I am deeply grateful to the following individuals: to Gillian Walker for her invaluable critiques, her assistance, and encouragement since the book’s Inception; to Christina Spilsbury, who for the past two years has worked with the greatest dedication and spirit on every aspect of the book from editing to typing the manuscript In Its many incarnations; to Walter Hopps who has worked tirelessly and with great sensitivity on editing the photographs for the book; to Dorothy Schmiderer for her fine work in designing the book; and to Guy Fery who created the book’s jacket.

I also wish to thank Robert Gottlieb, the publisher and editor, and Martha Kaplan, for their editorial advice and for their persistence and faith in this book.

I am deeply indebted to the following: Richard Avedon, Rainer Crone, Katrina vanden Heuvel, Wendy vanden Heuvel, William vanden Heuvel, Robert Margouleff, Jane Nisselson, John Palmer, Freddy Plimpton, Michael Post, Doris Stein, Dr. Torsten Wiesel, Chuck Wein, David Weisman, and Bruce Williamson.

I am sorry that the following individuals are no longer alive to be thanked for
their important contributions to the book: Roger Baldwin, Stanley Levison, Dr. John Millet, and my father, Dr. Jules Stein.

I am also extremely grateful to the few who gave invaluable critiques, but who wish to remain anonymous.

The following I would also like to thank for their generous contributions to the book: Bobby Andersen, Joyce Baronio, Eve Babitz, Richie Berlin, William vanden Bossche, Susan Wright Burden, Leo Castelli, Joseph Chaikin, Langdon Clay, Maude Schuyler Clay, Nita Colgate, Lady Diana Cooper, John Coplans, Sarah Cross, Johanna Mankiewicz Davis, Dorothy Dean, Adrian DeWind, Patty Dryden, Dennis Dwyer, Isabel Eberstadt, Robert A. Edwards, Poly Eustis, Preacher Ewing, Jane Friedman, Dr. James Gaston, Dr. Willard Gaylin, Henry Geldzahler, James Goodale, Richard Goodwin, John Gossage, Stephen Graham, Lily Guest, Ann Gyory, Shirley Haizlip, Amy Harrison, Randolph Harrison, Wesley Hayes, Melinda vanden Heuvel, Pamela Hill, Fayette Hickox, Debra Hodgson, Dr. Anne Houdek, Barbara Warner Howard, Cy Howard, Robert Hughes, Jay Iselin, Deborah Kahn, Doris Kearns, Adrienne Kennedy, Stephen Koch, Lesley Krauss, A. Fredric Leopold, Ellis Levine, Bea Levison, Sterling Lord, Rupert Lowenstein, John McCormick, Judith McNally, Gerard Malanga, Dr. Judd Marmor, Rebekah Maysles, Jessica Mitford, Joan de Mouchy, Lynn Nesbit, Ondine, Robert Oropall, Susan Pearce, Pauline Pierce, Donald Pennebaker, Eileen Prescott, Elaine Prince, Joe Pula, Irving Rudd, Charlotte Salisbury, Larry Schiller, Richard Schoolman, Alan Schwartz, Guillermina Seguel, Timothy Seldes, Betty Sheinbaum, Stanley Sheinbaum, John Silberman, Terry Southern, Paul Spike, Bert Stern, Dr. Daniel Stern, Elizabeth Stille, Sandee Talley, Marietta Tree, Myra Tweti, Viva, Charles De Vries, Lew Wasserman, Anthony West, Lally Weymouth, Tom Wicker, and Terry Young.

For assistance in research, transcribing, and typing, day and night, I am especially grateful to Barbara Shalvey, who worked tirelessly and with great dedication since the beginning of this book as a transcriber. Then I would like to thank the following for the hard work and energy which they gave to this book: Carol Atkinson, Cynthia Babak, Abbe Bates, Joe Babine, Kathy Babine, Robert Becker, Paul Bloom, James Collins, Wendy D’Lugin, Philip Heckscher, Alice Knick, Nancy Looker, Richard Macsherry, Luke Mattheissen, Ester Noidin, Susan Otte, Janine Robbins, Mary Louise Rubacky, Amy Schewel, Allison Silver, Kathy Slobogin, Shirley Sulat, and Hallie Gay Walden.

For reasons of structure, the following people who were interviewed do not appear in the book, but their influence on it was not small: Pamela Wilder Barnes, Peter Barnes, Stanley Bard, Toddy Callaway Belknapp, Nina Bernstein, Rosie Blake, Alan Blank, Franziska Boas, Susan Bottomry, Amanda Burden, John Cale, Christopher Cerf, Patrick Tilden Close, Rhett Dennis, Timothy Dickenson, Jim Dickson, Luiji Facciuto, Charles Henri Ford, Suzy Frankfurt, Ashton Hawkins, Brooke Hayward, Dr. Clinton Holllster, Jane Holzer, Dennis Hopper, Jackie Horner, Robert Hughes, Sophie Klarer, Billy Kluver, Greg Knell, Stefan Krayk, Ron Kuchta, Sique Kuchta, John Larsen, Dorothy Lichtenstein, Sy Litvinoff, S. Lockwood, Donald Lyons, Earl McGrath, Gene Moore, Christina Paolozzi, Francis Plimpton, Oakes Plimpton, Marcia Pressman, John Richardson, Larry Rivers, Robbie Robertson, Mickey Ruskin, Stephen Shore, Mart Sills, Steven Soles, Saul Steinberg, Bert Stem, Gloria Steinem, Dr. Ian Story, Dr. John
Talbott, Katrina Toland, Dennis Vaughn, Edgar B. Ward, Gwen Warner, Tennessee Williams, Bud Wirtschaftor.