From the edgy look of his movies—FLESH, TRASH, HEAT, to name a few--you would never think of Paul Morrissey as deeply religious. With his friend and partner Andy Warhol, a fellow Catholic, he made art, collaborating on many cinema-verite films and other ventures including the purchase of cliff-high acreage in Montauk overlooking the Atlantic.
The legendary Eothen had on it a number of cottages—more like rustic Catskill bungalows—where visitors could reside. Realtor Linda Stein who had brokered the deal stayed for a summer with Morrissey insisting that she shut lights when rooms were not in use. Not quite a conservationist, he was old school frugal and utilities out east are not cheap. Notables passed through: dutchesses, Kennedy’s and Radziwill’s, artists, musicians such as Lou Reed, the Rolling Stones. Curmudgeonly and loving, Paul Morrissey was the consummate host.
Friends and family celebrated him at his funeral this week hosted by his adoring nieces. Gerard Malanga, who had introduced Morrissey to Warhol in 1965, sent a poem. With speakers: the casting director Leonard Finger and music manager Danny Fields, much was made of Morrissey’s contradictions to a knowing crowd including Geraldine Smith and Susan Blond. A promoter of The Velvet Underground, Morrissey nevertheless cautioned against drug use. Compelled to sell the property long after Warhol died in 1987, he bought three units in the newly desirable trailer park nearby, just before the market surged for these waterfront residences now beached on cement foundations in rows. One for himself, the others for visiting family.
But back in the day, when Charles Henri Ford visited, and my documentary on Paul Bowles was fresh out of the lab, Paul Morrissey hosted a movie night in the main house. Charles, who billed himself “the first American Surrealist” and had published Bowles in View, wanted to see himself in the documentary. Everyone was pleased to have something to do on a random Saturday night. The guests included Morrissey’s neighbor Peter Beard, Indra Tamang, Ford’s “homme d’affaires,” a number of Julian Schnabel’s assistants, and Eiko Ishioka, who had just won an Academy Award for her costumes and makeup on Francis Ford Coppola’s DRACULA.
First up on the double feature was a homemade movie by Jonas Mekas filmed on the site. There was John John Kennedy as a baby cavorting over the rocks emerging from the sea, big sister Caroline frolicking with him. The hand-held style made me nervous. If this is what they are expecting, what will they make of the standard look of my work on the Queens-born American writer/ composer who lived in Tangier? I retreated to the toilet until I heard the first laughs at Bowles’ bold contradictory assertions. Though younger, Morrissey was cut from the same cloth as Bowles—both American originals.
As to Andy Warhol and his Factory, Paul Morrissey would deadpan, “That’s not a factory. That’s my office.”
Comments