Surrealism, Pop Art and Trader Vic's

I am reading a book about Andy Warhol and it says he was good friends with the artist Salvador Dali. When Dali would spend a few months in New York and hang out with Warhol, he (Dali) would insist that they go to his favorite restuarant, Trader Vic's. According to the book they went there all the time. I found this interesting.

Everone will be Tiki for 15 minutes.

great minds think alike.

Dali ate lunch there every day, when he was in New York, he lived at the Plaza Hotel above.

That space is now a spa for the hotel.

I have a Jackie Gleason album called 'Lonsome Echo' with cover art by our old pal Sal Dali. There is a totally bizarre photo of Gleason and Dali on the back. You can see it here: http://tralfaz-archives.com/coverart/G/gleason_lonesome.html

Perhaps there was a Dali, Warhol, Gleason summit in old TVs in the Plaza?
Wouldn't be surprised.

[ Edited by: donhonyc on 2004-02-11 12:49 ]

"In New York they always stay at the St. Regis Hotel on Fifth Avenue. Every Sunday afternoon they have people in for tea – champagne tea. Then Dalí takes everyone to dinner at Trader Vic’s. He’s very generous. There are never less than twenty people – all the starving young beauties and transvestites in town. I’m never sure whether Dalí copied transvestites from me or I copied transvestites from Dalí. Gala is always the last one to arrive at dinner. She makes a dramatic entrance on the arm of a teenage boy with long blond hair who played the lead in Jesus Christ Superstar somewhere, once. […] When Gala enters the room, Dalí stands up, snaps his fingers, calls for silence, waves his gold sceptre and announces ‘Gala! Y Jesús Cristu Superstar!’ Everybody claps. It’s like being with royalty or circus people. That’s why I like being with Dalí – because it’s not like being with an artist. "
Andy Warhol, Andy Warhol’s Exposures, 1979

"Shelly Fremont, wife of Vincent Fremont, Warhol’s video producer and business manager, used to collect Trader Vic’s tiki bar glassware and store it in her husband’s office at The Factory. One day, when Vincent asked her to thin out her collection to free up space, she started tossing items out. “Every time Shelly put something in the garbage, Warhol would pick it out and put it in a Time Capsule,” Wrbican says."
-Matt Wrbican, Archivist, The Andy Warhol Museum, from a Carnegie Magazine article Spring 2012