Paul Johnson (February 25, 1944 – October 19, 1982), better known as
Paul America, was a member of
Andy WarholAndrew Warhola , more commonly known as Andy Warhol, was an American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art...
's
FactoryThe Factory was Andy Warhol's original New York City studio from 1962 to 1968, although his later studios were known as The Factory as well. The Factory was located on the fifth floor at 231 East 47th Street, in Midtown Manhattan. The rent was "only about one hundred dollars a year"...
group who starred in one Warhol-directed film,
My Hustler. He also appeared in
Edie SedgwickEdith Minturn "Edie" Sedgwick was an American actress, socialite, model, and heiress. She is best known for being one of Andy Warhol's Muses. Sedgwick became known as "The Girl of the Year" in 1965 after starring in several of Andy Warhol's short films, in the 1960s...
's last film
Ciao! ManhattanCiao! Manhattan is a 1972 American drama film starring Edie Sedgwick, one of Andy Warhol's Superstars. The film centers around the life of an Edie Sedgwick-esque character, the lure of addiction, and the quest for stardom in keeping with the times....
and in the documentary
Superartist.
According to most stories, Warhol discovered America at a
discothequeA discothèque, , is an entertainment venue or club with recorded music played by Disc jockeys through a PA system, rather than an on-stage band.Prior to the discothèque, most bars and nightclubs used live bands as entertainment.- Etymology :...
called Ondine sometime in mid-1965, and soon invited him to visit The Factory.
Paul Johnson (February 25, 1944 – October 19, 1982), better known as
Paul America, was a member of
Andy WarholAndrew Warhola , more commonly known as Andy Warhol, was an American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art...
's
FactoryThe Factory was Andy Warhol's original New York City studio from 1962 to 1968, although his later studios were known as The Factory as well. The Factory was located on the fifth floor at 231 East 47th Street, in Midtown Manhattan. The rent was "only about one hundred dollars a year"...
group who starred in one Warhol-directed film,
My Hustler. He also appeared in
Edie SedgwickEdith Minturn "Edie" Sedgwick was an American actress, socialite, model, and heiress. She is best known for being one of Andy Warhol's Muses. Sedgwick became known as "The Girl of the Year" in 1965 after starring in several of Andy Warhol's short films, in the 1960s...
's last film
Ciao! ManhattanCiao! Manhattan is a 1972 American drama film starring Edie Sedgwick, one of Andy Warhol's Superstars. The film centers around the life of an Edie Sedgwick-esque character, the lure of addiction, and the quest for stardom in keeping with the times....
and in the documentary
Superartist.
Biography
According to most stories, Warhol discovered America at a
discothequeA discothèque, , is an entertainment venue or club with recorded music played by Disc jockeys through a PA system, rather than an on-stage band.Prior to the discothèque, most bars and nightclubs used live bands as entertainment.- Etymology :...
called Ondine sometime in mid-1965, and soon invited him to visit The Factory. At first he simply hung around making repairs to a motorcycle, eventually forming close relationships with the Warhol crowd; living briefly with
Chuck WeinChuck Wein was an American promoter and manager of entertainment acts whose celebrity stemmed from his five-year association with Andy Warhol and from his discovery of Edie Sedgwick who became Warhol Superstar of 1965.Wein graduated from Pittsburgh's Taylor Allderdice High School in 1957 and...
and engaging in a short-lived romance with Edie Sedgwick.
Warhol described America as "unbelievably good looking - like a comic strip drawing of Mr. America, clean cut, handsome, very symmetrical," and also suggested that perhaps he may have gotten his name because of an apartment in which he had lived at the Hotel America, "a super-funky midtown hotel that was the kind of place
Lenny BruceLenny Bruce , born Leonard Alfred Schneider, was an American stand-up comedian, writer, social critic and satirist of the 1950s and 1960s. His 1964 conviction in an obscenity trial led to the first posthumous pardon in New York history.-Early life:Bruce was born in Mineola, New York, grew up in...
, say, stayed in." He himself often had problems with the name given:
America has seemingly become a
gay iconA gay icon is a historical figure, celebrity or public figure who is embraced by many within lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities; Dykon, a portmanteau of "dyke" and "icon," has recently entered the lexicon to describe lesbian icons....
, mainly for his performance in the title role of Warhol's,
My Hustler. After
My Hustler, America appeared in several other Warhol films from 1965: the unreleased sequels,
My Hustler: In Apartment and
My Hustler: Ingrid, and also Dan Williams's silent film
Harold Stevenson, in which America,
Gerard MalangaGerard Joseph Malanga is an American poet, photographer, filmmaker, curator and archivist.- Biography :Born in the Bronx, New York, he graduated from the School of Industrial Art in Manhattan and attended Wagner College on Staten Island...
, Stevenson, Sedgwick, and others converse and drink wine while posing photogenically on a couch in a New York hotel suite. Another four-minute silent portrait of Paul America, shot on the beach during the making of
My Hustler, had been found in the "long version" of that film, in the edited montage by Dan Williams that was added to the sixty-six-minute film in 1967.
Also, that same year after a brief stint in the U.S. Army, America obtained legal assistance and convinced Warhol to reimburse him retroactively for his role in the by-then commercially-successful
My Hustler. He reportedly received around $1,000 in several installments. America also starred alongside Edie Sedgwick in John Palmer and David Weisman's film
Ciao! Manhattan, filmed in-and-through 1967 – 1971. His role was severely diminished when he was imprisoned on
MichiganMichigan is a Midwestern state of the United States of America. It was named after Lake Michigan, whose name is a French adaptation of the Ojibwe term mishigama, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
drug-related charges.
America tried to contact Warhol for the last time in 1982.
On October 19, 1982, Paul America was killed by a car while walking home from a dental appointment in
Ormond Beach, FloridaOrmond Beach is a city in Volusia County, Florida, United States. The population was 36,301 at the 2000 census. As of 2004, the population recorded by the U.S. Census Bureau is 37,929. Ormond Beach is the northern neighbor of Daytona Beach and is home to Tomoka State Park.-History:Ormond Beach was...
.
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