Brigid Berlin: superstar, Andy's closest confidante, and an artist in her own right "B" talks to Warhol's friend and business manager about factory days

Interview, June-July, 2008 by Vincent Fremont

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Vincent Fremont and Brigid Berlin were probably the people closest to Andy for the longest time. Brigid was "B" to Andy's "A," in books and in real life--his favorite phone friend. She started out as Brigid "Polk"--the amphetamine-shooting superstar in Andy's movies who was the black sheep of the Berlin family. (Her dad ran the Hearst empire.) She was an artist in her own right, and when she grew up she continued to make art--and a lot of crafts, like needlepoint, much of it while working as a receptionist for the Warhol Studio. Vincent also put in some time as receptionist. (He would answer the phone while reading biographies of Hollywood moguls--the early clue as to how he would end up.) The Factory was a place where you could go from sweeping the floor or answering the phone to running the business. He began supervising the Factory's video and TV projects and then became Andy's business manager. Today he is the exclusive agent for Andy Warhol's paintings and drawings, and he manages the career of Brigid, about whom he made the delightful documentary Pie in the Sky (2000). The following conversation is reminiscent of the interviews Brigid "redacted" for Interview in the '80s.

VINCENT FREMONT: If he were alive, he'd be 80 this August 6. I wonder what he would be doing.

BRIGID BERLIN: Well, I don't think that Andy would be using a computer. And I don't know if he could deal with one of these little digital recorders.

VF: I know. It is freaking us both out.

BB: I don't think he could have dealt with a digital camera that's the size of a matchbook. But if he had any of this equipment, he'd really have us busy transcribing. It would be insane. The main thing wasn't really the context of the interview. It was about how big it was.

VF: It was about volume.

BB: Volume and nothing else. One of my most exciting experiences with Andy was when we got our first Xerox machine. We put it in the kitchen, and Andy really thought it was magic. I had my tits down in it with the lid halfway down. One of Andy's favorite expressions was, "Gee, Brig, isn't this so great? It's so John modern."

VF: I think he would be saying that. He would have people around him able to use the equipment.

BB: It was exciting the first day we got the Polaroid movie camera.

VF: The Polavision, which was useless because it had no audio.

BB: I think that wound up in a time capsule.

VF: Andy liked getting a present, but he'd want to keep it as a collectable immediately.

BB: He didn't want to open anything that he got because he thought there was a bomb in it, so he'd give it to us to open. He always thought he was going to get poisoned or shot or blown up.

VF: After he died, we went up to his house, and the guest room that used to be empty was floor-to-ceiling with stuff. He was the proverbial pack rat.

BB: His whole dining room was nothing but a bunch of shopping bags filled with batteries for tape recorders.

VF: Time capsules were growing there, too.

BB: They were fucking alive, those time capsules.

VF: Andy's been gone more than 20 years. Can you imagine 20 more years of time capsules? We had already filled the basement of the Factory to the top, about 15 feet high. It would have been insane.

BB: I had a full-time job at the Factory at 860 Broadway. I couldn't wait to get there every morning, and every day I couldn't wait to leave. I looked at the clock on Union Square, and every year I left five minutes earlier. But at 8:30 A.M. when you would arrive, I'd be standing in the lobby waiting for you because I couldn't stand being home anymore.

VF: Five of nine was my usual time.

BB: We'd go upstairs, and you would unlock. Then the phone would ring and it would be, [as Andy] "Hi, Brig. What's new?" And then he'd say, "Is Vincent there?" And I'd say, "He's in the back." [as Andy] "Well you're not throwing out anything are you?" God help us if we threw out a coffee can. Then he'd come in around 12:30 P.M. and sit behind me reading the Post. He'd say, "Well, isn't this a great story. Why can't Pat [Hackett] make a script out of this?" I'd say, "What are you talking about?" I didn't have the Post in front of me. "Well, this is a great murder. Why can't we do this?"

VF: Or, "They're so peculiar."

BB: Or, 'All these young kids, they're doing such great things, and we're doing nothing."

VF: He liked youth and he liked the news. I think that Andy would have been with the kids at 80. He would have appreciated anybody creative who was young, and helped them go forward.

BB: We'd be walking around shopping, and we'd carry Interview, and these young kids would stop and want his autograph. And Andy would find somebody cute on the street who asked him for his autograph and say, "Oh, well, come on up for lunch at the Factory." VF and BB [in unison]: "We'll put you on the cover." [both laugh]

BB: 860 was the most fun of all the Factories because we seemed to be all together, even though Interview was separated by glass doors. I'll never forget the first day that Andre Leon Talley came to work. He walks in, in khaki Bermuda shorts and a Panama hat with a madras band, and starts answering the phone. And then Bob [Colacello] started his thing about owning part of Interview and Andy would say, "Well, who does he think he is?" And Bob would say, "Well, look at all the portrait commissions I get him." Bob did maintain better relationships with the ladies who mattered than Fred [Hughes].