Valerie Solanas: The Defiant Life of the Woman Who Wrote SCUM (44 page)

notes

preface

1.
“She was paranoid, hostile, violent and so impossible to deal with that one person I talked to insisted on being shown a copy of her death certificate before he agreed to be interviewed.” Mary Harron, letter to British Broadcasting Company, September 26, 1992, Mary Harron personal collection, Brooklyn, NY.

2.
Valerie Solanas,
SCUM Manifesto
(San Francisco, 1996), 28. Unless otherwise noted, all quotes from the
SCUM Manifesto
are from this edition.

3.
Ti-Grace Atkinson, interview by Breanne Fahs, Cambridge, MA, February 1, 2008.

4.
Smith, “The History of Zines.”

5.
Valerie Solanas, letter to Ti-Grace Atkinson, June 16, 1968, Ti-Grace Atkinson personal collection, Cambridge, MA.

6.
Quote from Marmorstein, “SCUM Goddess,” 11.

Sounding Off

1.
Atkinson, interview by Fahs, February 1, 2008; the Field Boss, “15 Minutes Later”; Ti-Grace Atkinson, as quoted in Fahs, “Radical Possibilities”; Norman Mailer, as quoted in Mary Harron and Daniel Minahan,
I Shot Andy Warhol
, viii; Gaither, “Andy Warhol’s Feminist Nightmare”; Coburn, “Valerie’s Gang,” 9; Margo Feiden, interview by Breanne Fahs, New York, March 15, 2010.

2.
Jeremiah Newton, interview by Breanne Fahs, New York, March 14, 2010.

3.
Valerie Solanas, “Up Your Ass” (mimeograph), 1965, Andy Warhol Museum Archives, Pittsburgh, PA, 1. Other copies are currently in Margo Feiden personal collection, New York; and Ti-Grace Atkinson personal collection, Cambridge, MA.

4.
Valerie Solanas, letter to Ti-Grace Atkinson, July 5, 1968, Ti-Grace Atkinson personal collection, Cambridge, MA.

5.
Jo Freeman (aka Joreen), interview by Breanne Fahs, phone, October 14, 2010.

6.
Birth certificate, Valerie Jean Solanas. Valerie’s name was misspelled, as Valerie Jean Solanus, as was her father’s, as Louis Solanus.

7.
Quote from Harron and Minahan, introduction to
I Shot Andy Warhol
, xi.

8.
Judith Martinez, as quoted in Jobey, “Solanas and Son.”

9.
Martinez, as quoted in Jobey, “Solanas and Son.”

10.
Coburn, “Valerie’s Gang,” 9.

11.
Louis Zwiren, as quoted in Smith, “To Live with a Man,” 3.

12.
Marmorstein, “SCUM Goddess,” 9.

13.
Michaelson, “Valerie.”

14.
Harron and Minahan, introduction to
I Shot Andy Warhol
, xii.

15.
Jobey, “Solanas and Son.”

16.
Coburn, “Valerie’s Gang,” 9.

17.
Jobey, “Solanas and Son.”

18.
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, interview by Breanne Fahs, San Francisco, December 11, 2008.

19.
Robert Fustero, interview by Breanne Fahs, phone, September 20, 2008.

20.
Michaelson, “Valerie.”

21.
Peter Moritz Pickshaus, letter to Mary Harron, March 12, 1993, Mary Harron personal collection, Brooklyn, NY.

22.
Fustero, interview by Fahs, September 20, 2008.

23.
Michaelson, “Valerie.”

24.
Robert Fustero, interview by Breanne Fahs, Silver Spring, MD, May 25, 2012.

25.
Fustero, interview by Fahs, May 25, 2012.

26.
Fustero, interview by Fahs, May 25, 2012.

27.
Dr. Arthur Sternberg and Dr. Mannuccio Mannucci, psychological report, Elmhurst Hospital, June 26, 1968, Mary Harron personal collection, Brooklyn, NY.

28.
Martinez, as quoted in Coburn, “Valerie’s Gang,” 9.

29.
Fustero, interview, September 20, 2008; May 25, 2012.

30.
Martinez, as quoted in Michaelson, “Valerie,” 9.

31.
Martinez, as quoted in Michaelson, “Valerie,” 35.

32.
Jane Caputi, interview by Breanne Fahs, Atlanta, GA, November 15, 2009.

33.
Fustero, interview by Fahs, May 25, 2012.

34.
Michaelson, “Valerie.”

35.
Michaelson, “Valerie.”

36.
Linda Moran’s genealogical website (http://www.biondocella.com/showphoto.php?personID=I5&tree=Linda&ordernum=1) states that Moran was born April 8, 1951, to Edward Francis Moran and Dorothy Marie Biondo; these dates would confirm this time line.

37.
Fustero, interview by Fahs, September 20, 2008.

38.
Watson,
Factory Made
,
35; Valerie Solanas, letter to Louis Solanas, May 23, 1970; June 29, 1967, in Breanne Fahs personal collection, Phoenix, AZ.

39.
David Blackwell, letter to Mary Harron, June 5, 1996, Andy Warhol Museum Archive, Pittsburgh, PA.

40.
Martinez, as quoted in Coburn, “Valerie’s Gang,” 9.

41.
Michaelson, “Valerie.”

42.
Martinez, as quoted in Watson,
Factory Made
,
36.

43.
Blackwell, letter to Mary Harron, June 5, 1996.

44.
Blackwell, letter to Mary Harron, June 5, 1996.

45.
Jobey, “Solanas and Son.”

46.
Jobey, “Solanas and Son.”

47.
David Blackwell, interview by Breanne Fahs, phone, November 6, 2011.

48.
Fustero, interview by Fahs, September 20, 2008.

49.
Jobey, “Solanas and Son.”

50.
Blackwell, interview by Fahs, November 6, 2011.

51.
Michaelson, “Valerie.”

52.
Watson,
Factory Made
,
36.

53.
Michaelson, “Valerie.”

54.
Martinez, “University of Maryland.”

55.
Michaelson, “Valerie.”

56.
Church, Brush, and Solomon, “Traumatic Avoidance Learning.” See also Brush, “The Effects of Shock Intensity”; Brush, “On the Differences.”

57.
Solanas,
SCUM Manifesto
, 1.

58.
Harron and Minahan, introduction to
I Shot Andy Warhol
, xiii–xiv.

59.
Michaelson, “Valerie.”

60.
Michaelson, “Valerie.”

61.
Mary Harron, personal notes, circa 1992, Mary Harron personal collection, Brooklyn, NY. Harron believed that Brush was the first person she contacted who had expressed sympathy for Valerie.

62.
Harron and Minahan, introduction to
I Shot Andy Warhol
, xiv.

63.
Michaelson, “Valerie.”

64.
Michaelson, “Valerie.”

65.
Harron and Minahan, introduction to
I Shot Andy Warhol
, iv.

66.
Harron and Minahan, introduction to
I Shot Andy Warhol
,
xiii.

67.
Coburn, “Valerie’s Gang,” 9.

68.
Solanas,
Diamondback.

69.
Coburn, “Valerie’s Gang,” 9.

70.
Harron, personal notes, circa 1992.

71.
Harron and Minahan, introduction to
I Shot Andy Warhol
,
xv.

72.
Arthur Sternberg and Joseph E. Rubenstein, Elmhurst Hospital psychological report, May 28, 1969, Mary Harron personal collection, Brooklyn, NY.

73.
Dick Spottiswood, interview by Mary Harron, New York, circa 1992.

74.
Harron and Minahan, introduction to
I Shot Andy Warhol
,
xv. See also Spottiswood, interview by Harron, circa 1992.

75.
Spottiswood, interview by Harron, circa 1992.

76.
Fustero, interview by Fahs, September 20, 2008.

77.
Fustero, interview by Fahs, September 20, 2008.

78.
Coburn, “Valerie’s Gang,” 9.

79.
Jobey, “Solanas and Son.”

80.
Newton, interview by Fahs, March 14, 2010.

81.
Fustero, interview by Fahs, September 20, 2008.

82.
Ramon Martinez, as quoted in Coburn, “Valerie’s Gang,” 9.

83.
Watson,
Factory Made
,
241.

84.
Ultra Violet, notes about Valerie’s whereabouts, Ultra Violet personal collection, New York. The Library of Congress recorded that Valerie registered “Up Your Ass,”
giving 79 Washington Place as her address, on June 11, 1965.

85.
Valerie Solanas, “A Young Girl’s Primer” [“For 2c: Pain, The Survival Game Gets Pretty Ugly”],
Cavalier
, July 1966, 38–40, 76–77.

86.
Harron and Minahan, introduction to
I Shot Andy Warhol
, xvii.

87.
Solanas, “A Young Girl’s Primer,” 39. Further page numbers appear in the text.

88.
Jay,
Tales of a Lavender Menace
, 143.

89.
Coburn, “Valerie’s Gang,” 11.

90.
Solanas, “Up Your Ass,” 6
.

91.
Solomon, “Whose Soiree Now?”

92.
Solanas, “Up Your Ass,” 1–5. Further page numbers appear in the text.

93.
Billy Name was a photographer in Warhol’s inner circle. Warhol “adopted” him into the Factory. Billy hand-painted his large silver trunk, now on display at the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, after the Factory adopted the motif of the color silver.

94.
Warner, “‘Scummy’ Acts,
’
” 52–55. For a thorough treatment of the specifics of the chronology of the “Up Your Ass” copies, and for an exposition of why Andy’s losing Valerie’s copy did not result in the shooting per se, see 50–64. The following institutions possess or have possessed copies of “Up Your Ass”: Hofstra University (copy acquired in 1971), the University of Virginia (acquired between 1964 and 1977), Indiana University (acquisition date unknown), and the University of Arizona (acquired in 2003 but now lost).

95.
Valerie Solanas, letter to Andy Warhol, February 9, 1966, Andy Warhol Museum Archives, Pittsburgh, PA.

96.
Up Your Ass
ran at the George Coates Theater in San Francisco, January 12–April 8, 2000, and then traveled to PS 122 in New York, February 7–25, 2001, returning to San Francisco, January 18–21, 2001.

97.
Solomon, “Whose Soiree Now?” 64.

98.
Solanas, “A Young Girl’s Primer,” 38–39.

99.
Harron and Minahan, introduction to
I Shot Andy Warhol
,
xvii.

100.
Newton, interview by Fahs, March 14, 2010.

101.
Fustero, interview by Fahs, September 20, 2008.

102.
Marmorstein, “SCUM Goddess,” 9.

103.
Marmorstein, “SCUM Goddess,” 9.

Shooting

1.
Fahs, “Radical Possibilities,” 591–92.

2.
Smith, “The Shot That Shattered the Velvet Underground.”

3.
Rowe, “Just Read My Manifesto.” See also Fahs, “Radical Possibilities,” 591.

4.
Mary Harron, notes for
I Shot Andy Warhol
, Mary Harron personal collection, Brooklyn, NY.

5.
Valerie Solanas, “SCUM flier meeting announcement,” May 23, 1967, Andy Warhol Museum Archive, Pittsburgh, PA.

6.
Solanas,
SCUM Manifesto
, 1. (Further page numbers appear in the text.)

7.
Ronell, “Deviant Payback,” 16–17.

8.
Newton, interview by Fahs, March 14, 2010.

9.
Solanas, “SCUM flier meeting announcement.”

10.
Solanas,
SCUM Manifesto
, 39.

11.
Anne Koedt, interview by Mary Harron, New York, circa 1992.

12.
Michaelson, “Valerie.”

13.
Archibald, “Inventory/How to Join the Men’s Auxiliary.” The ad was reproduced in
Fictional States
, no. 18 (Summer 2005).

14.
Atkinson, interview by Fahs, February 1, 2008.

15.
Chase, “The Twig Benders,” 3.

16.
Atkinson, interview by Fahs, February 1, 2008.

17.
Newton, interview by Fahs, March 14, 2010.

18.
Dominic,
Queen of Peace Room
, 56.

19.
Newton, script notes for Mary Harron, 1994. Later, when Candy was asked about the Andy Warhol shooting, she said, “Valerie shouldn’t be judged by us for what she did.” She adamantly refused to criticize Valerie’s attack against Warhol, even though Candy herself loved him. See Newton, interview by Fahs, March 14, 2010.

20.
“English” Pat may also have gone by the name Ingrid Phorn. When Mary Harron’s research and film assistants tried to find her in the early 1990s, no one had seen or heard from her in quite some time. See Newton, interview by Fahs, March 14, 2010.

21.
Unidentified acquaintance, as quoted in Smith, “The Shot That Shattered the Velvet Underground.”

22.
Guiles,
Loner at the Ball
, 301.

23.
Jeremiah Newton, letter to Mary Harron, June 25, 1993, Mary Harron personal collection, Brooklyn, NY.

24.
Newton, letter to Mary Harron, June 25, 1993.

25.
Newton, interview by Fahs, March 14, 2010.

26.
Newton, interview by Fahs, March 14, 2010.

27.
Newton, letter to Mary Harron, June 25, 1993.

28.
Newton, interview by Fahs, March 14, 2010.

29.
Warner, “‘Scummy Acts,
’
” 208.

30.
Watson,
Factory Made
, 352. See also Newton, interview by Fahs, March 14, 2010.

31.
Newton, letter to Harron, June 25, 1993.

32.
Jeremiah Newton, letter to Mary Harron, undated, Mary Harron personal collection, Brooklyn, NY. Daniel Burke, Alan Burke’s son, relayed to Diane Tucker, a researcher at the British Broadcasting Corporation, that no tape of this show exists any longer: “I could find nothing else that I felt was what you were looking for. Most video from the 60’s and early 70’s was on two inch tape. The cost of keeping tapes from that period was apparently so expensive that it was the practice of many broadcasters to reuse the tapes if there was no plan to rebroadcast them.” Daniel Burke, letter to Diane Tucker, September 9, 1993, Mary Harron personal collection, Brooklyn, NY.