It can only be deemed ironic that a series of films that had been written, photographed, edited and directed by one person only, should, even today in this period’s search for directorial signatures, be routinely assigned either to their presenter, Andy Warhol, or with a newly invented credit to include celebrity name value for journalists as Warhol - Morrissey films. All of which only bears witness to the primacy of media mythology.
       Among the many myths Morrissey has tried to correct in repeated interviews are the following. Andy Warhol’s sole input consisted of paying the modest lab bills, seeing the finished results and attending the premiers. Warhol neither wanted nor had any say whatsoever in the casting of the films, in their stories or subject matter, nor did he ever have or take a director’s credit on any films including the experiments. Morrissey was not a member of any “Factory”, nor indeed was anyone as there was no such thing. The “Factory” was a name derived from shortening the term, “Factory Loft”, former sweat shop spaces just then becoming available for artists, one of which Andy used for the manufacturing of silk screens whenever they were ordered by his dealer. Nor was Morrissey ever any kind of “assistant”to Warhol, watching him make his films, absorbing his creativity and concepts, and then going on to make his own films under the influence of the master--another favorite assumption by people who are informed by vague generalized journalistic notions.
       Always the most entrenched fantasy of journalists has been that the “Factory” was a den of colorful losers and drug addicts who came there regularly, like to some kind of Santa Claus workshop, to produce all sorts of creative, fascinating, artistic works under the benign aegis of the Pop Artist Guru. Countless coffee table photo books of these oddities have been issued to make this look like a reality, never once suggesting that these people might have been called there by Morrissey for a prearranged photo op.
       Nor did Morrissey utilize any of these invented hangers on for his films. From a period long before the filming of Flesh the actors he chose were almost never, before filming, inside his office but only arrived there later to view their rushes or occasionally be called in for photographs. All this misinformation served only to make it look like the films just sprung up organically from the fertile creative atmosphere then existing, allowing anyone with a camera the opportunity to harvest this wonderful crop. What need was there for Warhol to bother with reaping this himself. Any "assistant" or "Factory member" could have done the same thing.
       The "Factory" was simply Morrissey’s business-like office as well as a very occasional silk screening location, to which Morrissey reported six days a week from 10 to 7 for an eight year period from 1965 to 1973, until going to Italy to film his Frankenstein and Dracula pictures. After amicably departing from his position in 1974 the "creative" output of the "Factory" seemed to disappear. From 1966 on he had a management contract with Warhol which called for him to receive 25% of all income derived from any activity other than art work which was then handled by Leo Castelli. It was Morrissey’s function to devise activity that would generate income. Warhol was available for anything that was possible that would get his name in the press but that didn’t require speech. But he himself did not have the vaguest idea of what exactly to do or how to do it. Realizing that the experimental films would get Warhol’s name in the paper but not generate any income, Morrissey put Warhol on the lecture circuit. The first year Morrissey was going back and forth across the country on tour with a Warhol impersonator, as Andy was too frightened of any public appearance where he might be expected to speak. Morrissey handled all public appearances (for a fee whenever possible), all endorsements, and thought of managing a rock'n roll group to really make money, to which end he discovered Nico and the Velvet Underground and signed them to a management agreement with him and Warhol allowing Andy to "Present" them. Morrissey invented the Plastic Inevitable light show to introduce them, went on a coast to coast tour for a year with them, produced their historic first record album (an album which has never gone out of release), and sold it to Verve Records. None of these things did Andy even think of doing and, like the lecture tour, was instead extremely frightened and reluctant to do. When someone suggested to Andy that if he started an "Underground" newspaper at the cost of a few hundred dollars an issue he could finally get invited to film screenings and opening night parties instead of crashing them, Morrissey became the original editor of Interview Magazine, managing its affairs until he discovered Bob Colacello and eventually turned it over to him.
       In all of these activities Warhol was an entrepreneur financing, at the smallest possible cost, a whole series of activities that were devised by someone else but for which he received the credit. It’s no surprise that Morrissey’s work in the invention, direction, casting and production of all the unsigned film experiments and even the fully credited theatrical releases should have similarly been overlooked, to put it mildly.
       The only factual report on all this (which is not found in any of the official Warhol biographies) appeared in an interview with Morrissey in a Swedish film catalog in 1997.

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