Billy Name by Stephen Shore
Billy Linich was working as a waiter in a popular dessert café in Manhattan called Serendipity 3 (Marilyn Monroe and Jackie Kennedy were regulars) when he met Andy Warhol for the first time in 1959. A few years later they met again when Warhol turned up at one of Billy’s “Hairdressing Parties” (his father was a barber by trade and he’d cut hair for free to anyone who turned up). Billy had trained as a set-designer and had decorated his flat completely silver using foil and paint (“I even painted the silverware silver”). Warhol loved it and invited Linich to do something similar to the old hat factory he had acquired on East 47th Street. It was a big job so he asked to move in and he and Andy became lovers.
Sean O’Hagen in the Guardian wrote:
Linich was overseeing the everyday running of the Factory. “I was the foreman and I made things operate. I took photographs and I kept my eye on Andy.” Linich happened on his Warholian pseudonym while filling out the first line of an official form and simply reversing the instruction “Name: Billy”.
Detail of ‘Edie Sedgwick, screen test’, 1965. © Billy Name
Andy Warhol in his diary wrote:
[Billy] had a manner that inspired confidence. He gave the impression of being generally creative, he dabbled in lights and papers and artists materials…I picked up a lot from Billy.
Andy Warhol carrying a Brillo Box sculpture with Billy Name’s cat at the Factory, 1964. Photograph: Billy Name
Andy Warhol once wrote:
Why he loved silver so much I don’t know. But it was great. It was the perfect time to think silver. It was the future, the space age, and also the past, the silver screen and old Hollywood. Maybe more than anything, silver was narcissism — mirrors were backed with silver.
Edie Sedgwick and Bibbe Hansen at The Factory by Billy Name, 1965
Benedetta Barzini at the Factory awaiting “Screen Tests” in 1966
Edie
Susan Bottomly in 1966 at Factory
Edie Sedgwick with Ondine on the set of Andy Warhol’s “Vinyl.” Photographed, 1965.
Andy Warhol’s Silver Factory
Edie Sedgwick 1965
Andy Warhol
Nico during the filming of Andy Warhol’s **** (25-Hour Movie) 1967
Lou Reed
Andy Warhold Brillo silver Factory, photo by Billy Name 1964
Edie Sedgwick does Gerard Malanga’s hair in the movie Haircut by Billy Name
Lou Reed by Billy Name
Nico by Billy Name, 1966
Steve Schapiro Andy Warhol Edie Sedgwick New York, 1965. Photo by Billy Name
Susan Bottomley, International Velvet #1, 1966
Andy Warhol with silver Liz Taylor, silver Elvis, and Electric Chair paintings, 1964
Andy Warhol with giant Baby Ruth bars, 1966.
David Dalton, Chuck Wein, Edie Sedgwick, Gerard Malanga , Billy Name (ground) , and Larry Latreille watching Andy spray painting the image of a flower, The Factory, New York, March 1965 © Photo David Mc Cabe
Billy Name, Untitled 1964
Billy Name self-portrait
NEW YORK – NOVEMBER 6: American photographer, filmmaker and lighting designer Billy Name (born William Linich) at the opening reception of the exhibit “The Warhol Look: Glamour, Style, Fashion” at the Whitney Museum of American Art on November 6, 1997 in New York City, New York. (Photo by Catherine McGann/Getty Images)
Thats the story of my life
Thats the difference between wrong and right
But, billy said, both those words are dead
Thats the story of my lifeThe Story of My Life MORRISON, STERLING / TUCKER, MAUREEN / CALE, JOHN / REED, LOU
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