THE BEARD BY MICHAEL MCCLURE
to MAY 26, 1966: THE EPI PLAYS SAN FRANCISCO
According to Victor Bockris, Andy Warhol made a film of Michael McClure's play The Beard - about Billy The Kid going down on Jean Harlow. In May 1966, while in San Francisco for the EPI concert at the Fillmore, Warhol attended a cocktail party for the screening of the film. Although Michael McClure had originally agreed to the film and planned to sign a contract giving Warhol permission to make a film of it, McClure withdrew his permission on the advice of his lawyers and the play's director. Warhol made the film anyway - starring Gerard Malanga and Mary Woronov.
The cocktail party was intended to mend Warhol and McClure's relationship. Andy never showed the film and gave the print to McClure as a gift.
At the party Warhol met "an attractive young man", called "Richard Green" in Victor Bockris' biography of Warhol, which, according to Bockris led to an "erotic correspondence" between the two when Warhol returned to New York. In October, 1966, Warhol flew Green to New York and he moved into Andy's townhouse on Lexington Avenue.
to 2ND WEEK OF DEC. 1966: ANDY WARHOL SPLITS UP WITH RICHARD GREEN
According to Bockris, "Green came from an upper-class well-off San Francisco family. He was tall, gangly, and slightly pudgy, still carrying his baby fat, but good-looking with it... Sometimes he took a small part in a movie but his personality did not lend itself to the kind of dramatic self-expression Andy's movies required." (LD263)
Richard Green was most likely Richard Rheem who appeared in the film Mrs. Warhol. There are letters from Rheem to Warhol in the archives of The Warhol museum. Rheem was a young fan who wanted to be in the movies. (W8/8/07)
During the second week of December, Warhol and Gerard Malanga were returning to Warhol's townhouse at around midnight when they encounted Green (Rheem) with Randy Bourscheit who had starred in The Closet. When he saw them together, Warhol turned "bright red" and "blurted out" to Green, "What are you doing with him if you're my boyfriend". The next day Richard moved out and the locks to Warhol's home were changed. (Ibid)
to MAY 26, 1966: THE EPI PLAYS SAN FRANCISCO