The Dakota, New York, is recorded as the setting for an April 1977 cocktail-and-dinner gathering for Jean Stein at her sister Susan Shiva’s apartment. In the diary, the address becomes a compact social stage: late arrival, striking entrances, and conversations among guests reveal the connections and ambitions circulating through the room.

Setting and Gathering

On Wednesday, April 13, 1977, Andy Warhol went to the apartment for cocktails and dinner in Jean Stein’s honor. Expecting little from the evening, he arrived forty-five minutes late, noting the cab fare as three dollars. The first person he saw upon entering was Jackie O., whom he described as looking beautiful. Norman Mailer was also there, as was Delfina Rattazzi, who worked for Jackie at Viking; her curly hair and sexy dress had changed her appearance so much that Warhol did not recognize her at first.

The Apartment’s Social Scene

The gathering brought together people whose relationships extended beyond the room. Sue Mengers told Warhol that her knees were buckling and that she had never attended a party like it. Later, he saw her sitting with Babe Paley, the wife of CBS’s chairman, recalling Mengers’s earlier remark that Paley’s job was the only one she had ever wanted. The apartment scene also held brief exchanges with Mailer, who explained that Billy Friedkin had advised him to descend the Academy Awards ramp quickly, and with Renata Adler, who said she was studying law at Yale but might leave because the work was difficult and she could not remember anything. These passing conversations make the Dakota gathering legible through its guests: their appearances, professional ties, aspirations, and doubts.