Federal Bureau of Investigation

The Federal Bureau of Investigation enters the diary through a brief but disruptive episode at Andy Warhol’s office in August 1979. Its agents called while Warhol and Fred Hughes were reading and laughing about news concerning Studio 54; the call abruptly shifted the room’s mood. Warhol declined to speak with them, and the account leaves the outcome of their planned visit unrecorded.

The August 1979 Call

On August 29, Warhol and Fred Hughes were at the office reading papers about Studio 54 when the telephone rang and the caller identified himself as being from the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Warhol did not take the call. Fred spoke with the agents, who said they were coming to see Warhol that day. The diary captures the contrast between the office’s laughter and the sudden interruption: the call stopped the joking, even as Warhol dismissed the agents’ attention as a waste of time.

Barry Landau and Halston

The entry links the Bureau’s interest to Barry Landau. A newspaper report had pictured Landau and said he had been seen at Studio 54 asking Hamilton Jordan where he could get cocaine. Warhol’s account says the agents were trying to find Landau, whom, he observed, other people were also trying not to find. The diary gives no further details about the Bureau’s inquiry, so the connection is limited to Warhol’s account of the call and its stated purpose.

Halston also called Warhol that day and said the Federal Bureau of Investigation had just visited him. He would not explain over the telephone what had happened. His report establishes that the agents’ contact extended beyond Warhol’s office, but the diary provides neither the substance of Halston’s encounter nor evidence that the two visits were resolved in the same way.

A Brief, Unresolved Presence

The episode presents the Bureau not through a formal account of its procedures but through the interruption it makes in a workday and the uncertainty surrounding its questions. Warhol refused the call, Fred handled it, and a visit was expected; Halston’s separate report suggested that agents were also approaching people in Warhol’s circle. No subsequent meeting, answer from Warhol, or conclusion to the search for Landau is recorded in this account. The Federal Bureau of Investigation therefore remains a passing but consequential presence: its arrival briefly unsettles the office, while the diary leaves the investigation itself beyond view.