Andy Warhol and Bob Colacello

Andy Warhol and Bob Colacello built a working partnership that joined editorial direction, publishing, social access, and record-keeping. Their collaboration helped make Interview a continuing source of activity and new contacts for Warhol after filmmaking became harder to sustain commercially; it also produced two book projects and, after Colacello left the office, a new method for recording Warhol’s daily life. The partnership was substantial, but it had limits: Colacello could initiate opportunities, while Fred Hughes retained clearance over business deals, and Warhol distinguished the magazine’s staff from the people he regarded as his personal circle.

From magazine writer to executive editor

Colacello came to the Factory after writing a review of Trash for The Village Voice. By 1974, he was working mainly for Interview, writing articles and the column OUT, which chronicled his around-the-clock social life and brought a steady stream of names into the magazine. That year he officially became executive editor. He helped shape Interview’s image as politically conservative and sexually androgynous, an editorial identity presented alongside the magazine’s celebrity culture and its cultivation of glamour. Colacello’s work was not simply a matter of filling pages: his column made his own social world part of the publication’s material, while his editorial role helped define how the magazine presented itself.

The magazine’s origins were closely tied to Warhol’s interests. When he started it in 1969, he wanted it to focus on movies and to let stars speak in their own words, preferably interviewing one another. Its low-budget beginnings reflected Warhol’s preference for financing ventures himself and building them gradually, rather than surrendering a larger share to a backer. The partnership with Colacello grew out of this existing project, but in the mid-1970s the magazine became more central to Warhol’s daily work and public identity.

Business, commissions, and social access

From 1975, Colacello began initiating many social occasions and some business deals. His growing circle of wealthy acquaintances brought Warhol portrait commissions, and Colacello secured publishing contracts. His initiative, however, did not amount to independent control of Warhol’s business: every deal still had to be cleared with Hughes. The arrangement placed Colacello in an important connecting role—bringing people and prospects toward Warhol—while leaving a separate authority responsible for approving transactions.

The change in ownership made Warhol’s involvement with Interview more immediate. In 1975, he bought out Peter Brant and became the magazine’s full owner and publisher, while Hughes took the title of president. Until then, Warhol had remained fairly distant from the magazine’s day-to-day operation. Afterward he came into the office to inspect art director Marc Balet’s layouts and arranged lunches in the conference room to pitch the magazine to prospective advertisers. Colacello’s editorial and social activity thus coincided with a period when Warhol himself began to take a more hands-on role in the publication.

Interview also gave Warhol a new way to attract people to his orbit. In the 1960s, aspiring participants came to the Factory in part for the chance to appear in his films. By the 1970s, the rising cost of making commercially exhibitable movies meant that he had fewer roles to offer, and no certainty that a proposed film would be made. The magazine filled that gap. Its growing circulation and cultivated cachet made celebrities want to appear in it, and each issue required a supply of people and fresh faces. The prospect of being featured in Interview increasingly took the place of the promise of a movie role. Colacello’s work helped sustain the publication that kept Warhol connected to new people and renewed attention.

Books and shared authorship

The first major project Warhol and Colacello worked on together was The Philosophy of Andy Warhol (From A to B and Back Again), published in 1975. Colacello conducted eight separate interviews with Warhol and used them to write chapters 1 through 8 and chapter 10. For the introductory chapter and chapters 9 and 11 through 14, he drew on material from conversations Warhol had taped with Colacello and Brigid Berlin. The book therefore took shape through more than one kind of collaboration: directed interviews supplied much of its central sequence, while recorded conversations provided the material for other sections.

After its publication, Warhol asked Colacello to co-author another book, a memoir of the 1960s that they decided to call Popism. That invitation extended their working relationship beyond the magazine and made Colacello a collaborator in shaping Warhol’s account of an earlier period. The projects also show how the partnership moved between Warhol’s spoken material and Colacello’s editorial labor: Warhol supplied interviews and taped conversations, while Colacello organized and wrote substantial portions of the resulting book.

From office log to personal diary

Colacello’s role in documenting Warhol’s life changed in 1976. Before then, he had kept a general, sketchy Factory log that listed business visitors and the main events of the preceding night. He gathered different accounts from people who had attended dinners or art openings, even when he had been present himself. The purpose was practical: to establish what had happened, who was there, and how much the events had cost Warhol, rather than to record Warhol’s personal perspective.

After the filming of Bad, Colacello told Warhol that he no longer wanted to work at the office, although he would continue writing Popism with him. Warhol asked him to keep the log and itemize personal expenses, estimating that the task would take five minutes a day. Colacello objected that continuing to call people around the office for the previous day’s information would effectively mean continuing his office job. They agreed instead that Warhol himself would supply the daily accounts. The log thereby changed from an externally assembled record into Warhol’s own personal narrative.

In the fall of 1976, Colacello and Warhol established a weekday morning routine of speaking by telephone. The stated business was to record what Warhol had done and where he had gone the day and night before, along with cash expenses. The routine became a diary, while retaining its practical connection to accounting and tax documentation. The shift depended on their established working relationship: Colacello had maintained the record, but once he stepped away from office work, Warhol became the source of its daily material.

Public representation and the limits of closeness

A December 1976 lunch at the Biltmore Hotel showed another aspect of their partnership. Colacello had arranged for Warhol to attend an Overseas Press Corps lunch and had told the organizers that he would be present while Colacello gave a talk about Interview. After the speech, the questions were directed to Warhol instead. He answered briefly and afterward regretted falling back on his habitual shyness, saying he wanted to practice speaking and giving short speeches. Colacello had secured the occasion and represented the magazine, but the exchange also exposed Warhol’s difficulty in using a public platform even when it had been arranged for him.

Their closeness remained primarily professional and social rather than an uncomplicated personal intimacy. At the office, Warhol regarded Interview employees as part of his business life but generally not his emotional life, distinguishing them from the people he considered family. Colacello and Catherine Guinness were exceptions in that they worked for Interview while also being Warhol’s personal friends and social companions. This boundary did not diminish Colacello’s importance; rather, it clarifies the form of the partnership. He helped shape the magazine, bring commissions and contracts to Warhol, collaborate on books, and maintain the daily record. The relationship joined editorial work to access and documentation, while Warhol’s own distinctions and Hughes’s approval role kept its authority divided.