A-List Andy

Sure, Andy Warhol was a groundbreaking Pop artist, but he was also a compulsive gadabout who would “attend the opening of an envelope,” according to one wag. On Warhol’s L.A. junkets, art and life went mano-a-mano as Andy trolled for famous faces like a Midwestern tourist with a map of the stars’ homes. To celebrate the Warhol retrospective at MOCA (running May 25-Aug. 18), we present a few highlights from Andy’s West Coast appearances.--From the Archive of Susan Pile and “The Andy Warhol Diaries”

1962

July 9: Andy’s first solo show opens at Irving Blum’s Ferus Gallery on La Cienega Boulevard. Campbell’s soup can paintings are priced at $100 each. Andy is a no-show.

1963

Andy travels to L.A. for his second Ferus show in a station wagon with Gerard Malanga, Taylor Mead and Wynn Chamberlain.

Sept. 29: Dennis Hopper and then-wife Brooke Hayward throw Andy a “Movie Star Party.” Guests include Troy Donahue, Sal Mineo and Suzanne Pleshette.

Sept. 30: Andy’s show opens, with Elvis Presley a dominant motif. Elizabeth Taylor is an 11th-hour addition after Blum insists on broadening the subject matter. October: Andy films “Tarzan and Jane Regained . . . Sort Of” at locations including the bathtub of agent Leland Hayward’s Beverly Hills Hotel suite and the homes of John Houseman and Wallace Berman. Andy throws a party on the Santa Monica Pier.

Oct. 8: Andy attends the Marcel Duchamp retrospective at the Pasadena Art Museum, where he meets the conceptualist instigator and his wife, Teeny.

1966

May: Andy arrives for his “Silver Pillows” show at the Ferus Gallery and a run of “The Exploding Plastic Inevitable,” his multimedia extravaganza featuring the Velvet Underground, at the Trip on the Sunset Strip. Sheriff’s deputies shut down “Plastic Inevitable,” but not before Jim Morrison, Cass Elliot, Sonny Bono and Cher experience “white noise.”

1967

Andy attends the West Coast premiere of his film “Chelsea Girls” at the Cinema Theatre in Los Angeles. He agrees to meet Tiny Tim at writer Gavin Lambert’s Santa Monica Canyon home.

1969

Andy takes meetings with Columbia for an attempted leap into mainstream film. A bash at West Hollywood club The Factory draws Andy, Ryan O’Neal, Jane Fonda, Oleg Cassini and others.

1970

May: Andy’s first retrospective opens at the Pasadena Art Museum.

1972

Dominick Dunne gives a cocktail party at his Beverly Hills apartment to introduce Andy to Hollywood.

Andy is at the premiere of the Factory crew’s “Sunset Boulevard” sendup, “Andy Warhol’s Heat,” (directed by Paul Morrissey) at the Directors Guild Theatre. Rona Barrett interviews red-carpet arrivals. Present are Lorne Greene, Jack Nicholson, Ann Miller, Nico and Joni Mitchell.

1974

FILMEX premiere of “Andy Warhol’s Frankenstein in 3-D” (directed by Paul Morrissey) on Hollywood Boulevard. The band Oingo Boingo opens. Rudolf Nureyev, Monique Van Vooren and Jack Nicholson attend. Andy stays home in New York City.

1977

Feb. 17: The Ace Gallery’s Doug Christmas throws a gala dinner for Andy at Mr. Chow’s to celebrate Andy’s “Indians” show at the Venice space. Guests include Roman Polanski, Tab Hunter and Russell Means. Bianca Jagger introduces Andy to Ringo Starr at Lou Adler’s ur-glam club On the Rox. Alice Cooper introduces himself.

March 25: Andy goes to a dinner party at the home of super-agent Sue Mengers. Writing about guest of honor Sidney Lumet, Andy tells his diary, “he hates me.”

March 28: Alana Hamilton takes Andy to Dani Janssen’s Academy Awards party in Century City. “Rocky” wins big. Andy misses Ronee Blakley’s call inviting him to the ceremony.

1978

September: Andy attends the opening of his “Torsos” show at the Ace Gallery in Venice. Along with 3,000 L.A. punks, he also hits the Fiorucci boutique opening in Beverly Hills.

1981

Nov. 15: Andy visits a special effects house in Valencia to be measured and a mold made for an Andy Warhol robot commissioned by a Broadway producer for “Overexposed: A No Man Show.” The project eventually falls by the wayside.

1985

March 25-April 4: Andy shoots a cameo appearance on the 200th episode of “The Love Boat.”

Aug. 15-18: Lacking his own invite, Andy attends the Malibu wedding of Madonna and Sean Penn with Madonna’s ex-roommate Martin Burgoyne.

1987

Andy Warhol dies unexpectedly following routine gall bladder surgery in New York City.

2002

Warhol robot remains in residence at AVG, now in Chatsworth.