Video Beaverhausen: Andy Warhol's Bad

Aging sex goddess Carroll Baker stars in Andy Warhol's Bad along with the late Susan Tyrell and Perry King.

Carroll famously portrayed Jean Harlow in the film, Harlow, and had a major role in The Carpetbaggers and a long career on the silver screen. In Bad, she's slumming but apparently game and having a grand time of it.

Bad was released in 1977 and directed with flash by Jed Johnson, wisely keeping the camp sensibility at simmer. It was only three years after John Waters' Female Trouble and, in this Warhol production, Ms Baker runs an all-girl crime ring. Shelley Winters was originally offered the Carroll Baker role but, strangely, it was probably the only thing she ever turned down in her life!

Just as well as Winters would have chewed up the scenery whereas Ms Baker gives a more mannered performance. She gets a lot of mileage when she shakes out a fur before hanging it back in her closet.

The girls in Bad are hit women so, of course, their murderous intent makes the crimes less light-hearted and more dark and violent.

I recently saw John Waters at City Winery. During the audience Q&A, Waters discussed the influence Warhol had on his work and the debt he owed him. In Bad, Warhol repays the debt and proves imitation is the highest form of flattery. This nearly forgotten trash classic is now available on dvd and available at Amazon.com

Buddy Beaverhausen Says Farewell to Holly Woodlawn

Holly Woodlawn left The Factory last night. She was 69. (Ahem!)

Ironically, perhaps, I was at John Waters' live show at City Winery around the time of her passing and he paid tribute, calling one of our early transgender stars a hero. Caitlyn Jenner owes a huge debt to Holly but probably doesn't know it.

Holly came from Miami F.L.A.
Hitch-hiked her way across the   U.S.A.Plucked her eyebrows on the wayShaved her legs and then he was a sheShe said, hey babe, take a walk on the wild side,Said, hey honey, take a walk on the wild side.
So sang Lou Reed as a tribute to Woodlawn.

I first saw Holly in Women in Revolt with Jackie Curtis and Candy Darling when I was going to University of Colorado in Boulder. I was impressed by all three Warhol "superstars," each with very distinct personalities. Then I caught up with Warhol's Trash, in which she easily upstaged lifeless co-star Joe Dallesandro. Home from school, I went with friends in NJ to see the camp cult classic Scarecrow in a Garden of Cucumbers. It was on a double bill with Mick Jagger in Performance. Ah, those were the days when cult cinema was truly alive with passion and innovation!

Holly had been ill for some time. Still, I am stunned and saddened by the Puerto Rican movie goddess' passing.

Read Holly's brilliant and funny A Low Life in High Heels, and celebrate her life! RIP, Holly Woodlawn.

Buddy B on Andy & Lucy

Today is the birthday of Andy Warhol and Lucille Ball, two American artists who strongly influenced world popular culture. Buddy Beaverhausen pays tribute to two idols.

I met Andy Warhol, briefly, only once in my life. It was at the Bette Midler Art or Bust concert at Radio City Music Hall in the 1980s. We shook hands during intermission near the bar in the lobby. I remember being a bit taken aback by how cold and limp his hand was. I told him how I admired his work and he gave me a perfunctory thank you. It was still a thrill for me.

Forever associated with the Campbell's soup can, Warhol radicalized pop culture with his artwork, movies and photography, marrying commerce with fine arts. I loved reading Andy Warhol's Interview magazine and his book, The Philosophy of Andy Warhol. I particularly loved his Q&A with Nancy Reagan. Warhol was a Republican, incidentally.

Warhol elevated drag queens to star status in the media. He revolutionized filmmaking and produced The Velvet Underground. Warhol's Factory was his studio for artists, drag queens, musicians, writers, hustlers and porn stars.

Warhol received severe injuries when shot by Valerie Solanas, a Factory hanger-on and stalker, in 1968. He died in 1987 due to complications from unrelated surgery. His creative influence is eternal.

Lucille Ball was an actress who became famous through her comic skills. She was the star of the classic I Love Lucy series with then-husband Desi Arnaz and became a television icon and mogul through Desilu productions. She also starred in The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour, The Lucy Show and Here's Lucy.

Lucy starred multiple times with Bob Hope, and with Abbott and Costello and The Marx Brothers, honing her comic skills. She was adept at both drama and comedy in films like Stage Door (1937),  Room Service (1938), Five Came Back ('39), The Big Street (with Henry Fonda in 1942), Yours, Mine & Ours (again with Fonda in '68), the misguided musical version of Mame in '74, and the great 1985 tv-movie, Stone Pillow.

Born in 1911, she died in 1989 at age 77. She was a multi-Emmy winner with a star on Sunset Boulevard.

Remember these two entertainment icon on their birthdays today. Their influence on pop culture can never be overrated.

R.I.P. Casey Kasem & Ultra Violet

Ultra Violet, the Andy Warhol Factory's Superstar, died this past Saturday at Beth Israel Hospital in Manhattan at age 78. Ultra Violet was the stage name of Isabelle Collin Dufresne. She grew up in an upper-middle-class family with strict religious beliefs.

In 1954, at age 19, she met Salvador Dali and became his "muse," after graduating art school in France. In the 1960s, after moving to New York City, she became involved with the Pop Art scene and, in '63, met Andy Warhol. Wikipedia explains that Ulra Violet "played multiple roles in over a dozen films between 1965 and 1974" for Warhol.

In 1988, she wrote her memoir, Famous for 15 Minutes: My Years with Andy Warhol. After a lengthy battle with cancer and a late conversion to Mormonism, Ultra Violet left us. But what a life and legacy she left in her wake.

Casey Kasem, born Kemal Amin Kasem, died Father's Day, Sunday, June 15, 2014. Radio and television personality and disc jockey, he is best known for his American Top 40 countdowns. Kasem also lent his voice to numerous television cartoons, most noticeably for the Shaggy Roberts character on 1969-71's Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? He was also the voice of Robin/Dick Grayson on the Batman/Superman Hour (1968-69).

Dj Buddy Beaverhausen mourns the loss of two great icons of our age who certainly left their marks on the map of pop culture. May they rest peacefully.