Billy Name [William Linich, Jr.] (American, 1940 – 2016)
Andy Warhol Close-Up Filming “Girls in Prison” [Prison], 1965
gelatin silver print
Museums Collections, Gift of Billy Name
Andy Warhol was a prolific experimental filmmaker. Here, photographer and creative collaborator at Warhol’s Factory, Billy Name, captured Warhol making his 1965 film Prison. Warhol’s mid- 1960s “underground” phase was inspired directly by the Beats. Indeed, his 1964 film Couch featured Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Gregory Corso, and Peter Orlovsky. The four visited the Factory, ad-libbed and drank beer while crowding onto Warhol’s famous red velvet couch. This scene was a likely nod to Robert Frank and Alfred Leslie’s 1959 underground film Pull My Daisy, also featuring a couch scene with Ginsberg, Corso, and Orlovsky. Warhol subsequently produced other films and photographs depicting Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs, and envisioned an unrealized feature film about Walt Whitman starring Ginsberg in the lead role.
Andy Warhol, Couch, 1964, film still. Left to right: Ginsberg, Kerouac, Corso, and Orlovsky
