The Watergate Hotel was a brief way station in Andy Warhol’s September 16, 1982, trip to Washington for a White House state dinner honoring the Marcoses. His diary records the hotel as the place where he paused, made calls, ate, and arranged his onward ride before the evening’s formal obligations.

The Washington stop

Warhol arrived in Washington at 4:00 p.m. and went to the Watergate Hotel, recording tips of two, four, and two dollars. Jerry Zipkin and Oscar de la Renta were there. Warhol made calls, ordered lunch, took more Valium, and arranged a limousine before leaving for the White House.

A pause before the state dinner

The hotel visit fell within a day Warhol described as nervous: he dreaded going to Washington and its television lights, and had taken Valium earlier as well. From the hotel he proceeded to the dinner, where he went with Bob and their dates. The diary thus presents the Watergate Hotel not as the destination of the trip but as its practical pause between arrival in the city and the formal event.