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Category: Art and Photography
Met at the airport by Susan Pile with a limousine and a lot of promo material and she said she was giving a big screening and a party on Thursday for Bad and we told her she should have told us before, that we were already booked for Thursday.
Checked into the Beverly Hills Hotel and they gave us the most horrible rooms. We all sat around Suzie Frankfurt’s room while Susan Pile was doing some business with Fred in his room on another floor. Suzie’s friend Joan Quinn came by, she invited us to dinner at a Mexican restaurant, picked us up in two cars. Really great food. Met Joan’s husband, Jack the lawyer.
Went to bed around 1:00.
[Wiggy’s notes]
Susan Pile was a friend of Gerard Malanga’s who worked for Andy in the 1960s while she attended Barnard College, which is part of Columbia University. She mostly transcribed audio tapes for Andy, typewriting hours and hours of material, some of which ended up in Andy’s conceptual "novel" A. She would also babysit Nico’s son, Ari, taking him to Exploding Plastic Inevitable performances, but leaving with him after the first, early show, and then sit with him in Paul Morrissey’s apartment The Exploding Plastic Inevitable consisted of the Velvet Underground playing, while Gerard Malanga and Mary Woronov (and sometimes others- Ronnie Cutrone, Ingrid Superstar, Eric Emerson, and even Susan Pile herself) danced onstage, while psychedelic films and slideshows were projected over the entire performance. These performances happened in 1966 and 1967.
Here is a fascinating letter from Gerard Malanga to Andy expressing dissatisfaction with certain aspects of the Exploding Plastic Inevitable shows. Gerard never gave the letter to Andy.
"Dear Andy,
It seems I’m always writing you letters to explain myself, my feelings, what’s bothering me as you find it easy to say nothing, sometimes, when you know what you’re thinking you shouldn’t say or it is explained without words or without vibrations.
I thought the Provincetown show got off to a rough but very good start, until you were so kind enough as to let Susan and everyone else not directly connected with the show to get involved with Mary and I on stage. Also, it was unfortunate that Mary had to be dancing above me and not with me.
I want to make it clear to you that (1) I was dancing with The Velvets long before you signed them into a corporation empire, and even before you knew them; (2) that my dancing is an integral part of the music and the show as is your movies; (3) I do not represent a ’go go’ dancer in the show but an interpretative-visual happening. You are slowly taking this away from me by allowing outside elements to interfere with my dance routines. Also Larry was supposed to have the spotlight on me when not projected on The Velvets. Instead, that spotlight wandered away from what was supposed to be seen happening on stage. On more than one occasion I found my flashlight missing and then discovered that Roger was dancing with it somewhere near the end of the show.
On more than one occasion I also discovered other people handling the strobes which were inconveniently placed on the stage. All this led up to Mary and me dancing in total darkness, at times. The only way this can be rectified for future shows is not to have troupe dancing but two people at a time. I am willing to take turns. From my vantage point on stage to have more than two dancers the show becomes a Mothers of Invention freak-out. I feel that you will do nothing in your almost absolute power to correct the mess you are responsible for, in which case I will if you won’t.
Faithfully, Gerard"
An Exploding Plastic Inevitable performance
An Exploding Plastic Inevitable performance
  
The Beverly Hills Hotel on the cover of the Eagles’ landmark 1976 album Hotel California.
Joan Quinn eventually became the West Coast editor of Andy’s Interview magazine.
8:23 AM
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