Life and Career
She was born Janet Susan Mary Hoffmann in Syracuse, New York. Raised Catholic, she considered becoming a nun. She was given the name Viva by Andy Warhol before the release of her first film but later used her married last name (Auder). She appeared in several of Warhol's films and was a frequent guest at The Factory. Viva was on the phone with Warhol when he was shot by Valerie Solanas.
After she began making films for other directors she also began writing. Her first book, Superstar, was an insider's look at the Factory scene, a partly fictional autobiographical account of her time there. It was distinguished from other "tell-all" memoirs by virtue of her writing, which incorporated various stylistic effects, including the use of taped conversations, arguably one of the first times such a technique had been used in a novel. She also wrote for various publications, including The Village Voice and New York Woman.
Viva incorporated the use of video tapes into her second book The Baby. These tapes were later released by her former husband, video artist Michel Auder, as Chronicles: Family Diary in three parts.
She was the narrator for Carla Bley's 1971 experimental jazz composition Escalator over the Hill.
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