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Notes on Naomi Levine
to 1961: ANDY WARHOL GOES TO UNDERGROUND SCREENINGS
Naomi Levine in
Tarzan and Jane Regained... Sort of
Andy Warhol referred to Naomi Levine as "my first female superstar". (POP32) He was first introduced to her in 1963 by Gerard Malanga and Wynn Chamberlain at a performance at the Living Theatre on Sixth Avenue and Fourteenth Street. Andy described her as "film studentish". At the time she was working at the toy store F.A.O Schwarz in addition to making her own films. (POP43-4) She had also been a painter before becoming involved in the underground film scene. (PS415)
Several segments of Warhol's Kiss film(s) were shot in Naomi's apartment on the southeast corner of Avenue B and 10th Street. The Naomi Levine Kiss films were originally known as the Andy Warhol Serial and included Naomi kissing Ed Sanders (lead singer of the Fugs), Rufus Collins (from the Living Theatre) and Gerard Malanga. The Kiss film with Gerard happened because Naomi didn't feel comfortable kissing another person so Warhol replaced him with Gerard, thereby "beginning his career as a Warhol superstar". (L&D190)
JACK SMITH
Underground filmmaker Jack Smith referred to Naomi as one of his "creatures" - people who were photographed or put into films "and that was their existence." (PS478) In addition to making his own films, Smith also acted in underground films and played the title role in Batman Dracula (1964), which also featured Naomi.
JONAS MEKAS
Naomi Levine was responsible for introducing Warhol to Jonas Mekas who would later show/distribute many of his films. She showed Andy's first film, Sleep, to Jonas in painter Wynn Chamberlain's loft at 222 Bowery. Jonas Mekas ran the Film Maker's Co-Operative, as well as publishing Film Culture magazine and writing a column called Movie Journal for the Village Voice. He had mentioned Naomi in one of his columns when a film she made was confiscated and destroyed by the lab for containing nudity, along with one of Jack Smith's films. (POP43)
From 1962 - 64, the Film Makers' Co-Operative was located at 414 Park Avenue South. Jonas Mekas lived in the back and the front was home to the Co-Operative. Projectors were set up in the front which a filmmaker could use any time he wanted to screen one of his films. (PS415) Warhol attended some of these screenings before he started to make his own films. He would also go to screenings at the Charles Theater on East 12th Street and midnight screenings at the Bleecker Street Cinema (POP30) Warhol first started showing his films to the general public in late 1963 at the Gramercy Arts Theatre on 62nd Street which was run by the Film Makers Co-Operative. (PS415)
TARZAN, JANE AND DENNIS HOPPER
Naomi Levine was also the first of Warhol's superstars to appear naked in one of his films. (L&D183) In October 63, Andy and entourage went to Los Angeles for his second show at the Ferus Gallery (Liz/Elvis). While in LA they shot some footage for Tarzan and Jane Regained... sort of at the home of John Houseman, arranged through a friend of a friend of Wynn Chamberlain who was part of Andy's entourage. When they went to the pool, Naomi stripped off completely and jumped in. (POP44)
During one scene, Dennis Hopper appeared as a "stunt double" for Taylor Mead. Taylor, unable to climb a tree to get a coconut as called for by the film, yelled for a stunt man. Dennis Hopper (who Andy had met a few months earlier in New York) ended up climbing the tree for Mead. Later, in 1969, after the release of Easy Rider, Taylor would comment to Andy: "I think that afternoon by the pool was a turning point for Dennis... It opened up new possibilities for him." (POP45)
Naomi had flown to LA separately in order (according to her) to raise funds for the Film Makers Co-Op. Gerard Malanga and Taylor Mead, who had driven there with Andy, claimed that Naomi was actually in love with Andy and she was disappointed that they hadn't asked her along. (POP43-4) During a trip they made to Disneyland while in LA, Naomi, who was "tired of Andy's evasiveness", tried to pull his wig off during one of the rides. He screamed at her angrily and she flew back to New York. (L&D184)
COUCH
Naomi later also appeared in one of the three minute silent scenes of Couch which Andy shot in the spring and summer of 1964. She was filmed "writhing around naked on the couch trying to attract a young man who appeared more interested in tinkering with his motorcycle than her big breasts." (L&D203)
EDIE
In 1965 Edie Sedgwick appeared on the scene. According to Victor Bockris in the Life and Death of Andy Warhol, "Edie's sudden rise to star status at the Factory delighted the gay boys... but her arrival was noted with chagrin by the other women... the temperamental, demanding Naomi freaked out, screaming at Andy that everything was his fault, and had to be hauled out onto the stairwell by Billy Linich [Name], slapped in the face and told to get the fuck out." (L&D222)
FILMS BY NAOMI LEVINE (16mm)
(available from the Filmmakers Cooperative)YES (1963) 22.45 min
JEREMELU (1964) 2 min
OPTURED FRAIKEN CHAITRE JOE (1968) 3.15 min
PRISMATIC (1968) 19 1/2 min
FROM ZERO TO 16 (1969) 7 min
LONDON BRIDGES FALLING DOWN (1969) 4.5 min
PREMOONPTSS (1969) 10/15 min
AT MY MOTHER'S HOUSE (1970) 6 min
ZEN, AND THE ART OF BASEBALL (1970) 5.5 min
ASPECTS OF A HILL, PART 1: THE PERIPHERY (1971) 11.15 min
STORY OF A DOT (London, 1971) 2 min
ASPECTS OF A HILL PART II: THE GRASS (1972) 16.5 min
Gary Comenas
Warholstars
