Staffers in the University of Utah Art Department raised suspicions that night that the man who’d just presented on campus was not, in fact, Andy Warhol, but an impersonator. As a result, event organizers withheld the $1,000 speaking fee while they conducted their quiet investigation.
The questions were not reported until several months later, when the student-run paper picked it up. For more than a week, the investigation was front-page news and provided the first inkling of the switch to other colleges where “Warhol” had appeared. Michelle Condrat, a UofU art history student researched the investigation and found the articles.
Here are excerpts from the Daily Utah Chronicle’s front page story from Friday, Feb. 2, 1968, “Warhol Comes In Pairs?” by Angelyn Nelson, Junior Editor-in-Chief :
Andy Warhol, the Campbell’s Soup man whose appearance at the University on OCt. 2 created controversy, fits the description of the person who appeared the same month at the University of Oregon, but a picture taken in New York in December doesn’t match a picture taken during his stay in Salt Lake.
The facial features in the Oct. 3 Issues of the Chronicle are different from the features shown in a December 21-27 issue of the Village Voice, a New York Greenwich Village newspaper. Prominent cheek bones, a bulbous nose, attached ear lobes, and much longer hair indicate the pictures are of two different individuals.
Letter to Editor
Dick Livingstone, a University student, brought the Voice’s picture to the Chronicle’s attention Thursday when he wrote a letter to the editor. “Since denying his appearance here is a “part of the pop art movement’ tehn I would guess we are to assume that he was here. However, such an adverse attitude is not at all convincing and we must take into account the fact that Andy Warhol tells no lies,” reads the letter.
Livingstone told the Chronicle Warhol’s action was in character, the dissimilarity of the pictures [not clear] on the matter.”
No Nose Job
Fred Cracroft, director of Lectures and Concerts, said Thursday that it is hard to tell from pictures because Warhol appears different in each, but he said Warhol’s “agent told me he had not had a nose job.”
Chris Hougham, entertainment editor of the University of Oregon’s Emerald, was contacted Thursday by Kay Israel, Chroonicle assistant editor, to confirm or deny Warhol’s appearance there.
Israel: “At the University, we’ve had quite a question whetehr Andy Warhol actually came or not. Has there been any question of the same nature there?”
Looked Like Pictures:
Hougham: “There hasn’t been too much question as to that, no. We had a number of photographs released to us from a number of channels before his arrival so that we could identify him assuming the did show up. When he did appear, he looked exactly like he did in his picture.”
Israel: “Did his pictures match?”
Hougham: “Yes, they did.”
Israel: “Might I ask was his hair rather long and shaggy, and did he wear sunglasses?”
Hougham: “That’s right. And I believe [pause], it looked as fi he had his hair tinted gray. I was sitting toward the back of the auditorium where he put on his film or whatever you’d call it. And it seemed he had it tinted much, and yes, he was wearing dark glasses.”
Morrissey Talked
Israel: “Next, did he do the talking or did his manager, Mr. Morrissey?”
Hougham: “Mr. Morrissey did pretty mucn of the talking. Generally, students were pretty much dissatisfied with Warhol’s remarks. Questions were directed to Warhol after the performance but fielded by Morrissey. WHen Warhol did [not clear] take note of them, he normally answered in one word, you know, ‘yes’ or ‘no’ and never went into specifics and seemed rather embarassed by some then, because he really didn’t sound very authoritative at all.”
Israel: “I see. What did Morrissey look like?”
Dr. Z Haircut
Hougham: “Let’s see. Well, he was dressed in a dark, double-breasted suit with six buttons. It really stood out […] well. It is […] something along the lines of a Dr. Z haircut. It stoo out to all sides. He had hadit buzzed, and it looked pretty wild; it stood up all over the place.”
Israel: “Did you have the illustrated lecture?”
Hougham: “No. It was a new thing. Originally he had an experimantal lecture scheduled, I believe. We did an advance sotry on it, but he changed his mind for some reason and ran something else instead. Really, our […] was […] from that standpoint. But this is a segment of a new 24-hour film he has done in 25 weeks. It didn’t seem to have any particular plot. It centered around some party and a young Negro man, I think, who was dressed in blue jeans and a T-shirt went running around through a crowd yelling, ‘I love ya, I love ya…’ That was it. It didn’t seem to make any sense, and we were rahter displeased with it. We expected something else, kind of edifying, and it didn’t make any sense, and Warhol made no effort to explain it. But this was Warhol, yes.”
Who Has The Money?
Israel: “I assume he was paid as far as you know.”
Hougham: “Yes, he was.”
Warhol was paid in advance by the American Program Bureau, but the University of Utah has not paid the bureau.
“We have excellent relations with the bureau, and we feel sure they knew nothing of the alleged masquerade,” said Mr. Cracroft earlier this week. “We think Warhol probably pulled a fast one on them and us.”
The Chronicle has been unable to reach either Warhol or Paul Morrissey, his manager, since the suspected hoax broke in the Chronicle on Wednesday.