Ted Turner

Ted Turner enters the diaries through two sharply different kinds of visibility: first as the subject of a proposed magazine cover, then as a television personality whom Andy Warhol says he dislikes. The record offers no sustained relationship between them; instead, it captures how a public figure could move from an image Warhol was asked to make to a name attached to a remembered social slight.

A Proposed Magazine Cover

Suren Ermoyan asked Warhol to do the cover of Madison Avenue magazine featuring Turner. Warhol agreed, recalling that Ermoyan had given him one of his first jobs as an art director at Hearst in the 1950s. Fred Hughes objected angrily, and Warhol felt bad about accepting after having once declined to make an American flag for the magazine. Turner is identified as the proposed cover subject, but the diary does not describe the cover’s execution or say that he met Warhol for the commission.

A Grudge Recalled on Television

Later, Warhol saw Turner on Donahue and called him smug, saying he hated him. He connected that dislike to an earlier encounter at the White House, where, according to Warhol, Turner had refused to say hello. The brief recollection turns a public broadcast into a reminder of a personal rebuff: Turner’s appearance on television renews, rather than resolves, Warhol’s grievance.

A Limited Presence in the Diaries

These episodes show Turner chiefly through Warhol’s working and social world—as a proposed subject for magazine publicity and as a familiar public figure whose conduct Warhol remembered. The contrast is telling: Warhol could agree to feature Turner in print while retaining a private resentment about being ignored. The diary supplies no further account of Turner’s response, the proposed cover, or any subsequent reconciliation.