Lester Persky (July 6, 1925 – December 16, 2001) was an American film, television, and theatre producer.
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Lester Persky (July 6, 1925 – December 16, 2001) was an American film, television, and theatre producer.
Lester Persky was born in Manhattan, New York, and attended Brooklyn College before serving in the Merchant Navy during World War II. After the war, he worked at The New York Times and later as a copywriter at an advertising agency. Persky later opened his own successful ad agency.[1] In 1964, Andy Warhol used some of Persky's collection of old TV ads as part of Warhol's film Soap Opera (1964).[2] In January of 1965, Edie Sedgwick met Andy Warhol at Lester Persky's penthouse on East Fifty-ninth Street in Manhattan. Lester Persky said: "I'm a big party-giver. In those days I would invite six, and Andy would account for twenty uninvited. Andy would arrive with his crowd. He was busy having superstars, of course. He had Baby Jane Holzer, but she was sort of running out of speed. I told him: 'You've got to have a new superstar. You've got to meet this girl Edie Sedgwick. She will be your new superstar.' I arranged to have Edie at the party. She had a friend in tow, Chuck Wein and they wanted to be involved in film and in theater... And it was at my house, at this marble table, that I brought the two - Andy and Edie - together. Lester and Andy shared several interests - they were both gay, they both liked parties, and they both came from an advertising background. Persky had been president of his own PR company at the age of 24 (in 1949), before branching out into producing television commercials and eventually film. Warhol had edited commercials borrowed from Persky into Jane Holzer's first film Soap Opera in the previous year. (Lester Persky would also later appear as Sylvia Miles' ex- movie producer husband in Warhol's film, Heat.) It is unknown how Andy and Lester first met, but when later asked in the seventies and eighties how he had first met Persky, Warhol would respond that he had met him "in the gutter".
400 E 59th St, New York, NY 10022
In the Spring of 1965, Lester Persky gave a party at the Factory for "The Fifty Most Beautiful People" and although the guests included Judy Garland and Montgomery Clift, it was Edie Sedgwick that got much of the attention. Andy Warhol said: "Gerard always said that it was at "The Fifty Most Beautiful People" party that the stars went out and the superstars came in, that there were more people staring at Edie than at Judy. But to me, Edie and Judy had something in common - a way of getting everyone totally involved in their problems. When you were around them, you forgot you had problems of your own, you got so involved in theirs. They had dramas going right around the clock, and everybody loved to help them through it all. Their problems made them even more attractive"
The strained relationship between Warhol and Sedgwick may have been evidenced by the fact that when he went to Fire Island in in September 1965 to film My Hustler, Edie was not among his entourage. However, she did have an affair with the star of My Hustler - a young hustler that Lester Persky had "discovered" at a New York disco. Paul America was a six foot tall youth from New Jersey whose real name was Paul Johnson. According to Warhol, Lester Persky had discovered Paul America at the discotheque Ondine (not to be confused with the Warhol star, Ondine). Ondine said: "Paul America was another strange cup of tea. He was everybody's lover... he was marvelously satisfying to everyone. Imagine having that type of curse. People would go to sleep in his arms... Richie Berlin [Brigid Berlin's sister], me, just everyone! He was the personification of total sexual satisfaction. Without a brain in his head. Just beautifully vapid. He was a wonderful creature. Anybody who wanted anything from Paul could get it. He was there to satisfy. And he did."
As a producer, Persky won a Primetime Emmy Award for his work on the miniseries A Woman Named Jackie. Persky also attempted to produce a miniseries based on the life of Howard Hughes with Terry Moore serving as a consultant.[1]
On December 16, 2001, Persky died of complications following heart surgery in Los Angeles.[1]
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