Ziegfeld Theatre appears in Andy Warhol’s diary as the venue for a screening of New York, New York, where he sat near the front with his companions. The brief account preserves the theater less as an architectural landmark than as a place where one audience shared a film but not a judgment of it: Warhol admired Liza Minnelli’s performance, while Catherine Guinness and Valentine found the movie boring.

The Screening

Warhol picked up Catherine Guinness and her brother before the group went to Ziegfeld Theatre by cab, a trip recorded as costing $2.75. They sat up front for the screening of New York, New York. The entry supplies no description of the theater itself; its concrete details are the journey, the seats, and the different responses gathered in the room.

Reactions to the Film

Catherine Guinness and Valentine thought the movie was boring, but Warhol liked it and considered it one of Liza Minnelli’s best films. His approval was not unqualified: he thought a song performed by Robert De Niro’s wife was visually beautiful, yet did not belong in the film because it had nothing to do with it. The diary thus makes the screening a compact record of contrasting taste, distinguishing admiration for a performer from criticism of how a musical number fits the movie.