Welcome to the Silver Factory

Book excerpt: The first in a three-part oral history introducing the members of Andy Warhol’s inner circle and their world of art, parties, drugs, and drama. In the first volume of this fascinating oral history based on her documentary Andy Warhol’s Factory People—now available from libraries via the Kanopy streaming service—Catherine O’Sullivan Shorr illuminates the early years of Andy Warhol’s Factory scene through interviews with the artist’s collaborators, close friends, and many associates who became superstars. Frustrated with advertising work, Warhol set up his legendary studio in 1962 in an abandoned hat factory on Manhattan’s 47th Street. Rechristened and redecorated as the “Silver Factory,” it quickly became the hub of Warhol’s creative endeavors—the place where he constantly worked while an ever-changing cast of characters and muses passed through with their own contributions. Photos by the Factory’s in-house photographer, Billy Name; candid interviews with Factory veterans like Ultra Violet, Mary Woronov, Taylor Mead, and Gerard Malanga; and discussions with chroniclers of the scene such as Victor Bockris and Henry Geldzahler provide revealing glimpses into life with Warhol. Working with silk-screen images of Marilyn Monroe, Campbell’s soup cans, and Brillo boxes, Warhol pioneered Pop Art during the early 1960s, and O’Sullivan’s assemblage of firsthand accounts expose the eccentric, elusive, and obsessive man behind the iconic art.