Season 4 · Episode 7
Artist and art director behind 80s Polaroids · Straight to Hell and Bad Boy party promoter · co-editor of the WOW Report
Released 14 Aug 2024 · 1:03:04 as a podcast · AFTERPARTY launched 9 Nov 2026
235 references · 581 mentions
Trey Speegle on his 80s Polaroids, Straight to Hell at the Pyramid, Bad Boy nights at Danceteria, Keith Haring, Quentin Crisp and the Andy Warhol memorial poster.
1 mention · in 1 AFTERPARTY · #32 of 32 guests
1 mentee · 12 mentions · #24 of 42 mentors
White linen shirt, tortoiseshell glasses
White linen shirt open at the collar, dark tortoiseshell glasses and a white goatee, in a warm bedroom with abstract paintings and a big lamp
Bad Boy logo T-shirt
The famous Bad Boy T-shirts everyone wore - Nina Hagen, Elvira, Keith Haring
Signing Interview on Madison Avenue, a crush on Philip Monaghan as Trey tells it, a Bad Boy shirt, a white leather jacket; Trey's memorial poster became the template for his grave
FashionWhite leather jacket - 'sprousified'
Heard as “Andy / Andy Warhol / Warhol / warhol”
Busboy at the first Danceteria, beach day at Far Rockaway, a night with Trey after it (Trey's story); later the Palladium mural, the Pop Shop and Uniqlo T-shirts
FashionBad Boy T-shirt in Tseng Kwong Chi's photo
Heard as “Keith Herring / Keith / key pairing / Keith Ehring”
Trey's club: in the show within five minutes of walking in, host of his Straight to Hell Sunday nights, 'the downtown weird gay drag Cheers of the East Village'
Heard as “pyramid / Pyramid / Pyram Club”
Trey's Sunday nights from about 1984: John Waters, Fran Lebowitz, Quentin Crisp, Cookie Mueller, Taylor Mead, Jackie Curtis and Kenneth Anger in the first six weeks, then wet underwear contests and porn swap meets
Heard as “Straight to Hell / straight to hell”
Guest: artist, art director and photographer (the 80s Polaroids books), promoter of Straight to Hell at the Pyramid and Bad Boy at Danceteria, and James's co-editor at the WOW Report
Heard as “Trace Beagle / Trey / Spiegel”
The best at bringing art into a nightclub and mixing uptown with downtown, Trey says
Heard as “Area / area / Ariel”
Trey's Polaroid of him ran in Vanity Fair; flew to LA with his snake in a pillowcase; their one kiss at Bond's ended between two sofas
FashionThe hair - 'king of downtown'
Heard as “John Sex / John”
Trey started there at 21; took its Polaroid film and borrowed from its fashion closet; later fired, he says
Heard as “Vogue”
Trey's first club in 1980 (the illegal first one on 37th Street, with Keith Haring as a busboy); later home of his monthly Bad Boy nights
Heard as “Danseteria / Dansetyria / dance chair / Dansiteria”
Peter sold drink tickets at the first Danceteria; the duo were Trey's best friends and brought the blank Italian memorial poster - Trey says he designed the Warhol poster they later claimed, which ended the friendship
Heard as “McGoff / McDermott / McGough”
Trey arrives from Houston in 1980; 'when you find your tribe'
Warhol's assistant in Andy's last years, as James and Trey tell it; in drag as Ming Vauze ('just off the boat'); helped with Quentin Crisp's birthday
FashionDrag as Ming Vauze
Heard as “Benjamin”
One of Trey's best friends in the 80s, 'like my great aunt'; spoke at Straight to Hell; Trey threw his 90th birthday party
Heard as “Quentin / quit in crisp”
Shown early at Fun Gallery; his Basquiats in the Palladium's Michael Todd Room; the double show with Warhol
Heard as “Jean-Michel Bascat / Jean-Michel / basket / John Michelle”
A thousand copies pasted up around the streets after Andy died; Trey says he designed it, though McDermott and McGough later put their names on it
Heard as “the poster / memorial poster / that poster”
Trey's first New York boyfriend: door legend ('if you ever spelled it H-O-W-I-E, you were out'), No Entiendes at Danceteria, an apartment on the Bowery
Heard as “Howie / H-O-W-I-E / H-A-O-U-I”
Trey's next job; his Polaroid of John Sex ran there and he wrote up the Pyramid in about 1984
Co-host and co-founder of World of Wonder; as one of the Fabulous Pop Tarts he DJ'd Trey's nights and holds up the Straight to Hell covers on camera
Heard as “Fenton”
Trey's monthly men-only show with Gaiety go-go boys and porn on the monitors; later at Limelight with a boxing ring and a gym set
FashionThe Bad Boy T-shirt
Heard as “Bad Boy / bad boy”
The once-abandoned tower on Tompkins Square Park; Trey was one of the first to move in after the renovation, into a duplex with Venetian plaster and slate floors
Heard as “Cristadora / Christador / crystal door”
Trey's invention at the Pyramid, James says - now every club has go-go boys
Heard as “wet underwear / wet t-shirt / Wet underwear”
Video artist and briefly Trey's boyfriend: Made for TV with Ann Magnuson, Pickle Surprise, Strawberry Shortcut
Heard as “Rubnitz / Tom Russ / Tom”
One of the first guests at Straight to Hell; Trey made him Mexican food at home; he sat at Quentin Crisp's feet at the 90th birthday
Heard as “John Waters / Dom Waters”
Trey's home town; he worked at Houston City magazine there before New York, and Tina Brown planned a story there
Haoui Montaug had a great apartment there; Phoebe's diner
Played No Entiendes at Danceteria; her Sex book was partly shot at the Gaiety; Keith and Andy went to her wedding
Spoke at Straight to Hell and phoned in to Quentin Crisp's birthday
Heard as “Fran Lehman / Fran Leibowitz / Fran”
Boyd McDonald's magazine of true sex stories, later Victor Weaver's; a 19-year-old Trey was on a cover, shirtless in a photo booth
Heard as “Straight to Hell”
Times Square male burlesque that supplied the go-go boys for Bad Boy; part of Madonna's Sex was shot there
Heard as “gayety / Gaiety / Katie was famous / Gaety”
Guest editor at Vanity Fair; asked Trey to drive her around Texas, which his bosses vetoed - 'nobody knew who she was'
Heard as “Tina”
Some of the craziest performances ever: a 20-minute lip sync 'from crazy town', most recently at Howl! Happening
Heard as “Sister Dimension / Sister / sister”
Host; Trey's co-editor at the WOW Report for ten years. He first met Trey on a date with Andy Anderson
Heard as “James St. James / James”
Philip Monaghan was its art director; Trey says Andy Warhol came by with signed gifts for him
Heard as “Fioruchi”
Trey's neighbourhood; around 215 galleries at the art boom's height, James says
Pyramid drag queen; Whispers was one of James's favourite parties
Heard as “Happy Face / Happy face / happy face”
Took over Straight to Hell from Boyd McDonald; ran the Pyramid nights with Trey for almost a year until they fell out
Heard as “Victor”
Bad Boy moved there with bigger sets - a boxing ring, a gym with a working shower; Trey took his Polaroid of Andy there
Heard as “limelight / Limelight”
The famous Bad Boy T-shirts everyone wore - Nina Hagen, Elvira, Keith Haring
FashionBad Boy logo T-shirt
Heard as “bad boy t-shirts / blam / the shirt / bad boy shirt”
Andy preferred hanging out with him, James says; went to Madonna's wedding with Keith; the Pyramid benefit for him
Heard as “Martin / Burgoyne”
Trey's book of his Polaroids, many taken at the Pyramid
Heard as “80s Polaroids”
Trey lived on Avenue B between 8th and 9th Streets from 1982 to about 1986; Fenton and Randy were round the corner on 9th
Trey's Avenue B and Christodora windows looked over the park
Heard as “the park / Tompkins Square”
Bloomingdale's buyer and Trey's first roommate; her best friend at Vogue gave him his interview
Fashion editor who came to Texas with Paul Cavaco to meet the 19-year-old art director and told him to go to New York
Heard as “Keisha / Keeble”
Did the SoHo Weekly News fashion pages with Kezia Keeble; called Trey about a GQ job - he didn't get it, but it got him to New York
Heard as “Cabaco / Cavaco / Paul”
Where Kezia Keeble and Paul Cavaco came to meet the teenage art director; Tina Brown's Texas trip
Fiorucci's art director and Trey's boyfriend; they met at the Peppermint Lounge. Trey says Andy had a crush on him and left him a cheeky napkin note
Heard as “Philip Monaghan / and Philip”
Andy signed copies on the street as gifts
Heard as “interview magazines / latest interview / still had an interview”
Trey went against the funky Pyramid grain: a borrowed $5,000 sequin Bill Blass dress, his own make-up, earrings and gold lizard shoes - Princess Stéphanie, or a young Bujold, James says
FashionSequin Bill Blass gown, gold lizard shoes, Chanel earring
Heard as “Princess Stephanie look / sequin / gold lizard”
Wanted the dance floor silenced for Scorpio Rising; they compromised with the film plus a DJ
Home of the Gaiety, and of Bond's in its giant old department store
Elvira wore the Bad Boy T-shirt too
FashionBad Boy T-shirt
Heard as “Cassandra Peterson / Elvira”
The Palladium's glam room with two Basquiats, Anita Sarko DJing and Lisa Edelstein at the bar
Heard as “Michael Todd / Toddroom / Mike Todd”
Trey flew there with John Sex and his snake; the Basquiat show started there
Heard as “LA”
DJ in the Palladium's Michael Todd Room under a Basquiat; on Oprah with James
Heard as “Anita”
Keith and Andy went with Martin Burgoyne; helicopters overhead
Came to the Warhol-Basquiat show dressed as a hippie; Andy stepped back, then she gave him bunny ears in Trey's photo. Starred in Tom Rubnitz's Made for TV
FashionDirty-hippie costume
Heard as “Magnusson / Ann”
Gave birth on stage at Wigstock; Trey has pictures of him naked on the dance floor
FashionFake merkin
Heard as “Lee Bowery”
Trey did the art for the first issue's giant fold-out and says he was employee number one
Heard as “Paper / a paper / paper”
Ran an oral history of Paper's beginnings
Heard as “the Times / New York Times”
Co-host and co-founder of World of Wonder; the other half of the Fabulous Pop Tarts
Heard as “Randy”
World of Wonder's news site, which Trey has co-edited with James for the last ten years; Trey says much of his memoir material started there
Heard as “WOW Report / WoW Report”
Fenton and Randy's duo; Trey gave them what Fenton calls their first and last DJ gig, at Straight to Hell at the Pyramid, around 1984
Heard as “Pop-Tarts / Hop charts”
Trey's duplex mezzanine over the park, redone with Venetian plaster and slate floors
Heard as “Venetian plaster / slate floors”
Paper's co-founder; moved into Trey's old Christodora apartment
Heard as “Hershkovitz / Hershkowitz”
Lived in Trey's building by Tompkins Square
Heard as “Jeanette Beckman / Jeanette”
Lived in Trey's building; one of the names on Walter Fleming's list
Heard as “Bridgewater / Bridgwater”
Lived in Trey's building (as heard)
Heard as “Ginger Ken / Jeanette Ginger”
The Menil-family millionaire who bought Houston City magazine; Trey says he fancied himself a Jann Wenner
Heard as “Demonil”
Roberta Wagner was a buyer there; Trey's first flat was round the corner
Heard as “Bloomingdales”
Haoui Montaug's cabaret night at Danceteria, where Madonna first performed there
Heard as “No Intiendes”
Haoui planned Trey's birthday party there; Ming Vauze was performing
Benjamin and his boyfriend Rags were always at his house when Andy was there
Where Andy, Benjamin and Philip had dinner the night of the napkin note, as Trey tells it; Andy's uptown dinners with Tina Chow
Had his first photo show on the first Danceteria's second floor - Trey's first night out in 1980
Heard as “Leatherdale”
In Trey's Polaroids; Andy in his white leather jacket got 'sprousified'
Heard as “Sprouse / sprousified”
One of the Pyramid drag queens who met Trey's bag of Vogue make-up
Pyramid drag was funny and performance art - wigs on backwards, up on the bar
FashionWig on backwards
Heard as “It was not pretty / was not about looking pretty”
Ran the Pyramid; later put on its exhibition at Howl! Happening
Heard as “Butterick / Bederick”
On a date with James when he spotted the Straight to Hell cover boy across the room - which is how James met Trey
Heard as “Andy Anderson”
Kenneth Anger's 45-minute film at Straight to Hell
MC'd the wet underwear contests with Trey, accordion and all
Heard as “Eichelberger”
Partly shot at the Gaiety; its photos were up for auction
Heard as “sex book / the book there”
Swooped in backstage at Bad Boy with Marilyn, as James tells it
Heard as “boy George / George”
Boy George's friend, backstage at Bad Boy in James's story
SoHo gallery of the Warhol-Basquiat double show Trey went to with Ann Magnuson
Heard as “Shafrazzi”
His room at the Palladium; one of Andy's young friends
Heard as “Kenny Scharf / Kenny”
The family's show with the studio recreation and the Palladium paintings
Heard as “King of Pleasure / King of Something”
Walking up the lit glass staircase was glamorous - though nobody looked good lit that way
Heard as “glass steps / lit from underneath”
The mirrored Trump building by Grand Central, once the Commodore, where Trey and Tina Brown went for drinks
Heard as “the Commodore / the Hyatt”
Came up from Atlanta with RuPaul and the Now Explosion; performed at Area
Heard as “Bunny”
One of James's favourite parties; slogan 'Cute friends are sweet'
The Times Square club in the old Bond's store, with a dance floor the size of a football field and silver lamé sectionals
Heard as “Bonds”
Giant silver lamé sofas on a football-field dance floor; they parted under John Sex and Trey
Heard as “lame / LeMay”
Trey used to call in his contact sheets at the magazines; Trey's joke title for his next book
Heard as “Patrick”
Trey threw it at Cheryl Hardwick's townhouse: Benjamin helped, Amanda Lepore brought the cake, Rufus Wainwright played, John Waters at his feet
Heard as “90th birthday”
Quentin's tiny SRO room next to the Hells Angels, in a building owned by Trey's friend Adrian; Trey says the sheets were torn and Quentin slept in his chair
Heard as “Hells Angels / Third Street”
Trey's friend who still owns Quentin's old building on East Third Street
Heard as “Adrian”
Quentin Crisp died there on tour; Trey says he never wanted to
Paper's co-founder; Trey says he was employee number one, not just an early helper
Heard as “Kim Hofstrider / Kim”
On Oprah she said she woke at noon and read her press clippings to see where she'd been, as James tells it
Heard as “Saltzman / Saltman”
Trey turned a blank Italian memorial poster and the Post's 'dead at 58' cover into a street poster - which he says became the template for Andy's grave
Heard as “Andy died / Warhol dead”
Fenton and Randy's company, home of Night Fever and the WOW Report
Heard as “World of Wonder”
James lived two doors down from the Christodora in the Charlie Parker building, looking into its apartments
Heard as “Charlie Parker”
James's building was closer to 10th Street, two doors from the Christodora
Trey started there at 17 and was art director at 19
Heard as “Houston City”
Houston City was run by people from it
Houston City was Houston's version
Keeble and Cavaco were among the first to publish his photos, Trey says
Kezia Keeble told teenage Trey about working for Mrs. Vreeland at Vogue - and he got the bug
Heard as “Greland”
Trey's first New York flat, at 61st and Lexington round the corner from Bloomingdale's and Fiorucci
Heard as “Lexington”
Came from San Francisco with Benjamin; friends with Halston
Heard as “Rags”
Where Benjamin Liu and his boyfriend Rags came from
Benjamin Liu and Andy Warhol walked down it from the townhouse, Andy signing copies of Interview for whoever they met
Also on Andy's Christmas-present list
Heard as “Makos”
What everybody played at the first Danceteria
After a night at Danceteria the gang took the train out to the beach in their nightclub clothes, Keith Haring among them
The Pyramid was rehearsing a Family Feud show the Sunday Trey walked in
Heard as “family feud”
In Trey's Pyramid Polaroids, looking so young, James says
Trey jokingly thanks him for the Polaroid film he took from Vogue's art department as part of his salary
Heard as “Cy Newhouse”
The look Trey was going for in his Pyramid drag
Heard as “Princess Stephanie”
Single Chanel earrings were among the Vogue closet giveaways Trey took to the Pyramid dressing room
Trey borrowed a $5,000 sequin Bill Blass dress from the Vogue closet for drag
Heard as “bill blast”
Who young Trey in drag looks like, James says
Heard as “Jean-Vieve Bourgeois”
Ran the Pyramid with Brian Butterick
Founder of Straight to Hell, the magazine of readers' true sex stories
Booked in the first weeks of Straight to Hell
Booked in the first weeks of Straight to Hell
Bring your porn and trade it, MC'd by Trey at Straight to Hell
Heard as “Swap meets”
The HBO executive who won a wet underwear contest one night, as Trey tells it
Heard as “John Hoffman”
John Hoffmann was an executive there
Gave Trey a monthly Bad Boy night at Danceteria
Heard as “Rudolph”
The Gaiety's second-floor walk-up was next door
Heard as “Howard Johnson”
Porn star at Bad Boy; James recalls being dragged on stage by him - and then losing him backstage to Boy George and Marilyn
Fenton thinks they met him at Bad Boy; Trey remembers him coming over from Limelight to promote his own parties
Heard as “Michael A.”
In a famous picture wearing the Bad Boy T-shirt
FashionBad Boy T-shirt
Heard as “Nina Haggin”
Shot Keith Haring in the Bad Boy shirt drawing on glass, photographing through the drawing
Heard as “Kwang Chi”
One of the East Village galleries Trey designed catalogues and invitations for
Heard as “Massama Aduello”
Another gallery Trey worked for after Vogue and Vanity Fair
Heard as “Pat Hearn”
Where the East Village painters moved on to, Shafrazi among the galleries
Heard as “Soho”
The East Village gallery that showed Basquiat, Keith Haring and Futura early on
Trey's first gallery job, after she moved uptown to Fifth Avenue and 57th Street
Heard as “Holly Solomon”
Holly Solomon's gallery moved uptown to Fifth Avenue and 57th Street
Part of the later, more nightclubby, less dancey turn
Took art in clubs to the nth degree: Basquiats in the Michael Todd Room, Keith Haring's giant mural, the Kenny Scharf room
The Palladium building is NYU now, which Trey calls a shame
Heard as “NYU”
Working the bar in the Michael Todd Room
Part of the Mike Todd Room crowd at the Palladium with Anita Sarko and Lisa Edelstein, James recalls
Heard as “Polly Peretti”
Trey went with Ann Magnuson; his photo of her giving Andy bunny ears
Heard as “double show”
Andy 'sprousified' in a white leather jacket, a model hanging out with the kids
FashionWhite leather jacket
Heard as “white leather jacket”
Editor of the revived Vanity Fair when Trey arrived
Next door to the Hyatt bar where Trey met Tina Brown for drinks
One of Trey's bosses in the Vanity Fair art department ('Ruth and Charles')
Heard as “Ruth and Charles”
Where RuPaul, Lady Bunny and the Now Explosion kids came from
Arrived at the Pyramid with Bunny and the Now Explosion - an inflection point, Trey says
Heard as “Rue”
Pyramid drag: Dean Johnson and the Weenies when they started
East Village gallery where Brian Butterick put on a Pyramid exhibition and Sister Dimension performed
Heard as “Howl Happening”
Performed at Area as a suburban housewife with an ironing board, or in S&M gear with a ball gag
Heard as “Zet”
Where Leigh Bowery gave birth on stage
John Sex's unicorn photos when the circus came to town
Heard as “Ringley brothers”
Trey ran into Patrick McMullan at her show
Tom Rubnitz's TV-style video with Ann Magnuson in all her characters; on a loop at MoMA's Club 57 show
Presented Quentin Crisp's birthday cake with purple feathers
Heard as “Amanda Lapour”
Hosted Quentin Crisp's 90th birthday at her townhouse
Cheryl Hardwick's late husband, an original Saturday Night Live writer
Heard as “Michael O'Donnell”
Michael O'Donoghue helped start it
Fenton and Randy interviewed Quentin Crisp for it in 1991
The Bowery diner where Fenton and Randy interviewed Quentin Crisp for Manhattan Cable in 1991; Trey sat there with Quentin in silence
Heard as “Phoebe”
At a fashion show, Trey recalls, she sat on Quentin's chair, drank his champagne and handed back the glass
In his book, James recalls, Quentin was flown to a party there that turned into an orgy
Quentin at his birthday, holding court as if Wilde had come back
Art director of the first Paper with Lucy Sisman
Heard as “Wigand”
Art director of the first Paper with Richard Weigand
Heard as “Sissman”
Where Paper's art directors worked by day
Heard as “Times Magazine”
Where Kim Hastreiter posted about the Paper oral history
One of the downtown-era magazines James lists
One of the downtown-era magazines
On Oprah with James
On Oprah with James
Heard as “Musto”
James went on with Sally Randall, Michael Musto, Anita Sarko and Elizabeth Saltzman
Heard as “Oprah”
Trey's second book; it has his Polaroid of Andy at Limelight
Heard as “More 80s Polaroids”
Its 'Andy Warhol dead at 58' cover went into Trey's memorial poster
Where, about a year after Andy died, Trey spotted Scott Covert's rubbing of Andy's grave - and recognised his own poster
Heard as “33 Bleeker”
His rubbing of Andy's grave, on Bill Stelling's wall, showed Trey's poster design
Fun Gallery co-founder; Trey saw the grave rubbing at his gallery
Heard as “Stelling”
Trey later learned Cortez gave posters to Andy's brother, who gave one to the gravestone maker
Trey's Chelsea show, where part of it became an exhibition of people from Thank You, Andy Warhol
In the Thank You, Andy Warhol exhibition at Trey's Chelsea show
Made the book Thank You, Andy Warhol that Trey is in (as heard)
Catherine Johnson's book of Warhol memories, with many contributors; Trey told his poster story in it
Peter McGough's 80s memoir; Trey says he isn't in it
Heard as “Peter's book”
Andy's right-hand man; in his estate auction the poster was credited to McDermott and McGough, Trey says
On Walter Fleming's list of people to meet (as heard)
On Walter Fleming's list of people to meet (as heard)
Where Walter Fleming had just started working in Houston
Heard as “All That Glitters”
Keith Haring on every Uniqlo T-shirt
White linen shirt open at the collar, dark tortoiseshell glasses and a white goatee, in a warm bedroom with abstract paintings and a big lamp
FashionWhite linen shirt, tortoiseshell glasses
Heard as “On camera”
Magenta silk blouse with a black neck scarf and black rectangular glasses, in front of his bookcase and a Buster Crabbe poster
FashionMagenta blouse, black scarf, black glasses
Heard as “On camera”
Grey T-shirt with orange and red stripes and rimless glasses, in front of sunflower wallpaper and a pink cap on the shelf
FashionGrey striped tee, rimless glasses
Heard as “On camera”
Black baseball cap, black square glasses and a navy plaid shirt, in front of a Holy Terror poster and shelves of photos
FashionBlack cap, navy plaid shirt
Heard as “On camera”
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