Wow, talk about an unrevealing interview (Hotel Chelsea by Brendon Lemon, Interview, 11/07). Though it’s good to hear from majority owner and former hotel manager Stanley Bard, and to see that he’s still upbeat and optimistic and hasn’t let his ouster get him down, he doesn’t say anything we haven’t heard before, and in fact when I first opened the magazine I thought I had mistakenly picked up an issue from 30 years ago. They trot out some of Anton Perich’s photos from the early 70s, as if no one has photographed the hotel since then. (In fact there have been three books of photos about the hotel, by Claudio Edinger, Rita Barros, and, most recently, by Linda Troeller; and another, by Julia Calfee, is on the way.) Bizarrely, there’s not even a photo of Stanley, probably because the only one Perich had was of Stanley in his 30s. About the only thing in the interview itself that tips you off that it’s current is Stanley’s startling revelation that his son (and planned successor) David Bard believes in the Internet!
For those of you new to the controversy, Stanley Bard, the majority shareholder of New York’s famed Chelsea Hotel, the man who created and nurtured the creative dynamic of the hotel, was ousted from his management role in June by the minority shareholders, represented by board members David Elder and Marlene Krauss, who accused Bard of financial improprieties. (Basically, in New York’s super-heated real-estate market, Bard simply wasn’t making what they considered a sufficient amount of money.) Krauss and Elder hired a corporation, BD Hotels, run by Richard Born and Ira Drukier, to make over the haven for writers and artists as a strictly money-making operation.
Admittedly, Stanley can be a bit secretive at times. But even the accompanying introduction doesn’t tell us anything, and seems to have been written at the end of June. It asks, “What would the change do. . . ?” as if it were all still up in the air. (Did it ever occur to the author that he might have asked someone who actually, presently, lives at the hotel?) Well, we now know what the change is doing: in accord with BD’s plan to remake the Chelsea as a transient hotel, long-term residents are being pressured to leave through exorbitant rent increases and other tactics, and no new permanent residents are being allowed into the hotel. (This is a virtual death sentence for the Chelsea’s creative community, as Bohemia needs new blood to survive.) Furthermore, although as stated in the Interview article, BD Hotels did indeed allow Stanley to hang around in the lobby (as a “Goodwill Ambassador”) for a few weeks after his ouster, he is now rarely to be seen around the Chelsea, and when he appears he is inevitably escorted by a board member who monitors his conversations.
The Interview article could have been a call to action for the artistic community. Instead, in effect it just pooh-poohs Stanley’s ouster and the subsequent corporatization of the hotel. Furthermore, showing old photos (and interviewing past residents like Betsey Johnson and Jean Claude and Christo) perpetuates the myth that the Chelsea had its heyday in the sixties and that nothing has happened here since. Quite the contrary, the hotel is still a vibrant place artistically. Among many films, music videos, and TV episodes that have been filmed here, in recent years The Interpreter was filmed here; former resident Ethan Hawke made Chelsea Walls; and director Abel Ferrera (The King of New York, Bad Lieutenant) is presently shooting a documentary about the hotel.
Musicians Ryan Adams and Rufus Wainwright both wrote albums while in residence; Patti Smith lived here in the late nineties and recently gave a concert in the basement club; and concert pianist Bruce Levingston, who frequently collaborates with composer Philip Glass, calls the Chelsea his home. Composer Gerald Busby lives here as well. As for the visual arts: Philip Taaffe continues to make great art in his tenth floor apartment, and recently had a show at the Gagosian; Julian Schnabel had a studio here until just recently; and well known painters such as Donald Bachler, Joe Andoe, David Remfry, and Michelle Zalopany, either lived here recently, or still do. Arthur Miller frequented the hotel up until his death in 2003, collaborating on a play with the late librettist Arnold Weinstein, who had lived here since the 60s.
Other residents of note include: fashion designer Zaldy; gallery owner Daniel Reich, who recently hosted a series of artistic events in the hotel’s grand ballroom; Warhol collaborator Victor Bockris, author of ten books on counter culture figures (and himself a recent casualty of the takeover); poet, art critic and Warhol figure Rene Ricard; party hostess Susanne Bartsch and her husband, fitness mogul David Barton; and Vogue editor Sally Singer, who lives here with her husband and three healthy children, one of whom, apparently, is planning a career as a rock-n-roll drummer. And that’s not to mention the scores of lesser-known, but no less photogenic and engaging, eccentrics, some of whom will no doubt be famous twenty years from now.
On the literary front, in addition to my own book, punk musician Dee Dee Ramone wrote a novel about the hotel, Chelsea Horror Hotel, Joe Ambrose is publishing a collection of interviews and essays, and a history by Sherrill Tippins is in the works.
My point is not to name drop, but to demonstrate the fact that, when Stanley Bard was thrown out and a corporation took over the operation of the Chelsea, it wasn’t just a musty museum of ancient history that was lost, but rather a living, breathing, artistic community like none other in the world. The Chelsea’s demise is only the latest chapter in the ongoing creative suicide of New York City. We need to pressure our politicians to strengthen rent protections and landmarking laws, and, in general, to stop favoring the profits of development corporations at the expense of community and diversity. As for the Chelsea Hotel itself, though it may be a long shot, we are still calling for the reinstatement of Stanley Bard. -- Ed Hamilton
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