Malcolm Forbes

Malcolm Forbes enters the diary through three linked forms of visibility: a party aboard his boat, an expansive television appearance, and a gift exchanged at a museum-like reception in his company’s building. Warhol records little about Forbes’s private life; instead, these encounters show how his public name and possessions register in Warhol’s social and imaginative world.

Social Setting

Warhol planned to attend a party for Imelda Marcos aboard Forbes’s boat. He arrived thinking he was late, only to find he was early. Many of the guests were older people from East 66th Street, which Warhol described as perhaps the richest street in the world; Imelda lived there between Fifth and Madison. She acted as hostess and, after dinner, sang about twelve songs, including Feelings and Mares Eat Oats. Guests said she was always the last to leave once she began partying, and Warhol observed that she was still going strong. The entry places Forbes’s boat within an affluent social circle, though it does not describe his role at the party itself.

A Name on Television

At home, Warhol turned on the Letterman show and saw Forbes talking about everything. The television appearance prompted him to notice the force of Forbes’s name: he imagined that Forbes was a great name for a magazine because the publishers had simply named it after themselves. The thought turned back on Warhol. He considered a magazine called Warhol, then recalled that as a child he had wanted to change his own name to Andy Morningstar, a name he had liked so much that he had nearly used it professionally. Forbes’s appearance thus became a prompt for Warhol to consider how a public name could function as both identity and brand, and how differently he felt about his own.

The Gift at the Forbes Opening

At an opening in the Forbes building at 13th Street and Fifth Avenue, where the lobby had been turned into a museum, Warhol brought Benjamin Liu and gave Forbes a Dollar Sign painting. Forbes was there and was thrilled by the gift. The exchange joined Forbes’s public identity to Warhol’s art: a painting of a dollar sign was presented to a figure whose name had just led Warhol to reflect on the value of names and their commercial reach.

The reception also gave Warhol an opportunity to ask a young employee for Forbes’s junk mail as a Christmas present. The employee said he would get some. Warhol recalled that Truman Capote had promised him his junk mail too, but had not given it to him. In the diary, Forbes’s correspondence is not merely rubbish: it is a personal trace of a prominent public identity, and an unusual keepsake Warhol hoped to possess.