60 Summers Throwback: Andy Warhol Painted Dan's First Glossy Cover

As hard as it is to believe, the cover of Dan’s Papers was not always a gorgeous, glossy work of art. It was not until 1988 that Dan Rattiner started putting artwork on the cover, and this week we celebrate the anniversary of that very first glossy cover—our Memorial Day weekend issue 30 years ago!—with a toast to Andy Warhol and Marilyn Monroe.

Dan Remembers…

Andy Warhol had a home on the ocean in Montauk, east of town, out towards the lighthouse, for many years, about 20 altogether. It wasn’t a house so much as a series of cabins that were arranged in a semicircle to face a green and the ocean beyond. He had many well-known guests there, many you might know, who all come out for the summer—the Rolling Stones stayed there, Jackie Kennedy was there when she was Jacqueline Onassis, Lee Radziwill was there.

During that time he was perhaps the most celebrated pop art artist of the generation, painting soup cans and any other ordinary object that would stand still long enough for him to paint it and call it art, which many people thought was remarkable, and still do. This painting was one of the many he did in Montauk, it is believed, although his main studio was at Union Square in New York City. He passed away in 1987, and two years later there was a retrospective of his paintings at the Guild Hall in East Hampton, and they managed to arrange for us to have this painting of Marilyn Monroe, which he did back in 1967, featured for this week’s cover.

Get your copy of the limited edition Dan’s Papers coffee table book “60 Summers: Celebrating Six Iconic Decades on the East End.” On sale now for $60 at FriendsOfDans.com.