For Andy Warhol, the prolific creator who coined the cultural observation we know today as one's '15 minutes of fame,' stardom was ephemeral.
And while his saying "In the future, everybody in the world will be famous for 15 minutes" may be true for some, nowadays, stars seem to be born just as frequently as they're made. But there was once a group of kids who ran in Warhol's circle who didn't need outside validation (see: social media, nepotism) because they had the ultimate arbiter of cool's seal of approval. Their fame may have been local, save for at least one muse, but popularity was an afterthought. Being cool wasn't just their brand (of which they were blissfully unaware of), but a state of mind: They were Warhol's superstars.
During the '60s and early '70s, Warhol's clique appeared in his work — throughout films and photographs — and accompanied his social life, suffusing any candid shots of the crew with downtown glamour, nudity, and killer style. Beyond the aforementioned Edie Sedgwick, there was Baby Jane Holzer, Ultra Violet, Richard Bernstein (who drew his magazine Interview 's covers for 15 years), Ingrid Superstar, Candy Darling, Joe Dallesandro, and over a dozen more. It's these vagabond types that added to Warhol's status, serving as loyal muses whom he could use to experiment with his art; they also helped him cultivate the concept of celebrity that we know today. In many ways, they were the original cast of the reality show that is pop culture.
And that's why, during an era in which the concept of being famous has never seemed less appealing (at least to someone who's, for lack of better words, a nobody), we're revisiting the figures who epitomised the art of being relevant. Beyond the makeup, the hair, and the attitude, they were more than just cool kids — they were superstars.
International Velvet
Susan Bottomly, or International Velvet, met Warhol when she was 16. She'd then begin her modelling career with a Mademoiselle cover. Her father, a successful lawyer who prosecuted the Boston Strangler, paid her rent at the Chelsea Hotel and peaked the eye of Warhol as someone who could potentially finance some of his projects. It's said that, because of this (and her drug use and alliance with Bob Dylan's circle), Edie Sedgwick was replaced by Bottomly as one of Warhol's closest confidants.
Jayne County
Jayne County is lauded as music's first transgender rock star. She's said to have inspired legends like Iggy Pop and The Ramones, but she's also legendary in her own right. County partook in the historic Stonewall Riots, starred in Les Girls by Warhol, and she's a galleried painter (her last exhibition, 'Paranoia Paradise,' featured 80 of her paintings).
But the best part about County — which also rendered her practically invisible in terms of the early days of the punk movement — was that she was unapologetic about her gender; songs like "Fuck You" and "Are You Man Enough To Be A Woman" are especially relevant today.
Photo: Ian Dickson/Redferns/Getty Images.
Ingrid Superstar
Before she mysteriously disappeared, Ingrid Superstar lived quite a funny life. Warhol considered her poems to be "half poetry, half comedy," and her affinity for mod prints helped her standout amidst Warhol's cohorts. But later, she struggled with a drug problem and eventually ending up settled in Kingston, New York, where she allegedly worked in a sweater factory. In December 1986, after leaving her apartment to buy cigarettes, she disappeared; local police announced there was a "clear possibility of foul play," but she was never found. She was 42 years old.
Mary Woronov
You may remember Mary Woronov as Hanoi Hannah in Chelsea Girls. But Wornov remembers herself as the young student who took a Cornell University field trip to The Factory and, essentially, never looked back. When Warhol asked her to sit on a stool and stare into a camera for Screen Tests, his collection of 15-minute clips in which randoms were asked to stare into the lens and say/do nothing, Wornov became one of Warhol's stars. She'd go on to star in dozens of films and become an accomplished author.
"Like a medieval inquisition, we proclaimed them tests of the soul and we rated everybody," she told The Guardian in 2001. "A lot of people failed. We could all see they didn't have any soul. But what appealed most of all to us — The Factory devotees, a group I quickly became a part of — was the game, the cruelty of trapping the ego in a little 15-minute cage for scrutiny. I saw Salvador Dali take too flamboyant a pose for his test, and when the arm holding his cane collapsed, the upper lip holding his moustache twitched and drooped. I liked him better that way."
Photo: Santi Visalli/Getty Images.
Jackie Curtis
Singer, poet, star of Warhol flicks Women In Revolt and Flesh, the nomadic Jackie Curtis had a signature style that couldn't be tamed. Of that look, which was believed to inspire David Bowie, Warhol once said, "Jackie Curtis is not a drag queen. Jackie is an artist. A pioneer without a frontier."
Holly Woodlawn
Ever heard the Lou Reed tune "Walk On The Wild Side "? Yeah, she was the Holly (her name taken from Holly Golightly of Breakfast at Tiffany's). After hitchhiking from Miami to New York at 16, the transgender Puerto Rican actress became one of Warhol's biggest stars.
The best way to sum up her time with Warhol is via a quote given to The Guardian in 2007: "I was very happy when I gradually became a Warhol superstar. I felt like Elizabeth Taylor! Little did I realise that not only would there be no money, but that your star would flicker for two seconds and that was it. But it was worth it, the drugs, the parties, it was fabulous. You live in a hovel, walk up five flights, scraping the rent. And then at night you go to Max’s Kansas City where Mick Jagger and Fellini and everyone’s there in the back room. And when you walked in that room, you were a star!"
Photo: Jack Mitchell/Getty Images.
Sylvia Miles
Apart from her acting credits, which span from Warhol's drama-comedy Heat to Sex and the City, perhaps the coolest thing about Sylvia Miles is, well, Sylvia Miles. Of her more 'bizartful ' moments: the fact that she keeps an Andy Warhol doll in her bathroom opposite her toilet and that one time she allegedly dumped a plate of food on a critic at a New York restaurant for writing a negative review about her.
Ultra Violet
Née Isabelle Collin Dufresne, Ultra Violet met Warhol when she was having tea at the St. Regis hotel with Salvador Dalí. Her French- ish look — she was born in La Tronche, France — was replete with frizzy, purple hair, and purple eyeshadow, lipstick, and blush. And though she was her own artist, and a Factory regular, Violet went on to denounce her old self as an "unleashed exhibitionist chasing headlines ". Before her death in 2014, she turned to religion and was a devout member of Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Jane Forth
The equivalent of Jane Forth today would be someone like Chloë Sevigny. If her face looks familiar, it's because you may have seen Dallas Buyers Club, in which the film's makeup artist drew from her signature look for Jared Leto's portrayal as a trans woman. Included in her legacy as one of New York's most notable renaissance women, Forth modelled Diane von Furstenberg's first line of wrap dresses in 1970 (the designer said some attributed her signature look to that of an "exotic bug") and featured regularly in Vogue and Harper's Bazaar.
Fun fact: Before starring in Warhol's films like Trash and L'amour, Forth worked as a receptionist at The Factory when she was a teenager.
Photo: Jack Mitchell/Getty Images.
Cyrinda Foxe
Most of Cyrinda Foxe's life is overshadowed by her relationships with rockstars. Her marriage to David Johansen of the New York Dolls was followed by a romance with Steven Tyler of Aerosmith, and she's the mother of Mia Tyler. Before becoming an actress and frequenting famous nightclubs in New York, she was an assistant to Greta Garbo. Warhol took a liking to Foxe when he met her in a nightclub; he admired her "farm girl clothes."
Benadetta Barzini
If you recognise this It-girl, it's because she's been covering Vogue Italia and walking in runway shows for over 50 years. After being discovered by editor Consuelo Crespi, model Benadetta Barzini signed a contract with Ford models and moved to New York. After becoming a wallflower in The Factory and experiencing a lull in her modelling career (at age 25), Barzini contemplated moving back to Italy when Eileen Ford told her start attending her parties and to marry a wealthy American instead. "You can divorce him after a couple of years if it all goes to hell." But she didn't.
She moved back to Milan and became a Marxist and a radical feminist organiser within the Italian Communist Party. Barzini is now a mother of four and a professor of fashion anthropology at the Polytechnic Institute of Milan and the University of Urbino.
Photo: Louis Faurer/Condé Nast/Getty Images.
Candy Darling
Another icon mentioned in Lou Reed's hit (Candy came from out on the island/In the backroom she was everybody's darling), Candy Darling left an impression on Warhol as she performed in a play she'd written, directed, and co-starred in alongside a young Robert de Niro. The transgender actress was also a muse of The Velvet Underground.
Viva
A frequent face at The Factory, Viva appeared in tons of his films. Her most controversial role, in Blue Movie, saw her become one of the faces of the 'porno chic' movement. When Warhol was shot by Valerie Solanas in 1968 while he was on the phone, it was Viva who was on the other line.
Pat Ast
After making her acting debut in Warhol's iconic Lonesome Cowboy(for which she got $112), model and actress Pat Ast went on to become the unlikely muse for Halston. She was one of the first (and only) plus-size models of her time.
Baby Jane Holzer
It's impossible to round up Warhol's Superstars without mentioning Baby Jane Holzer. "Do you want to be in the movies?" Warhol asked Holzer. "Well, it beats the shit out of shopping at Bloomingdales every day'," she replied. Holzer, a product of high-society London embraced the New York edge. She was the embodiment of Warhol's artistic sensibility, the product of turning high art upside down and roughing it up a little, which was wildly popular at the time.
In Holzer's screen test for Warhol, she brushed her teeth for three-and-a-half minutes; Warhol didn't want her to blink. She's now a real estate mogul and an avid art collector, namely of Warhol's early works.
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