Living with Legends: Hotel Chelsea Blog

Forget The Lack of AC: Naked Girls Return to the Chelsea

    With the management in disarray, having no clue as to how to run the hotel, and having to resort to half-assed attempts to intimidate residents by posting security guards in the lobby (and even having them roam the halls) it's nice to see some semblance of normalcy reasserting itself at the Chelsea.
     Problems getting AC, but who cares, since there's naked girls roaming the halls, just like the good ol days.  An art student writes in to Tripadvisor say he had a great time:

I was looking for a really cut-rate deal, since I was up there to take art classes on an art grant, and wanted to get the most I could from my money. I was able to get a rate of $119 a night, as long as I was willing to share a bath which I was. I wrote first to confirm (via e-mail) that my room would have air conditioning and got a positive affirmation that it would have AC, but when I checked in, my room did NOT have A/C- a big problem in July and during a heat wave.

Fortunately, I had a copy of my e-mail, and though they were not able to move me then, I was moved to a new room with AC the next morning.

The new room was spacious and was clean. The hotel was built in the 1880's, so if you are expecting pristine, perfectly painted newness, go somewhere else, but if you want a place with a kind of quirky ambiance and some real character- this is a good choice.

It was artsy, real, friendly (I met a few residents who were very nice), odd and free-spirited (yep, I actually saw a naked girl making her way back from the shared bath in the middle of the night)., None of this bugged me- I kind of liked the whole vibe there. Staff, especially the bellmen, were helpful and accommodating. For $119/night, I wasn't expecting the moon, but what I got was perfect for me.

More Ghosts In the Closet at the Chelsea

Yesterday's interview with "The Ghosts" has encouraged even more people to report ghost sightings. A blog reader writes:

I was living in a large apartment with another person for a few months. It was not a good relationship & it was constant fighting & arguing. In the room was a small walk in closet. It had a very high ceiling with a lightbulb at the top & a long string that hung down which you pulled to turn it on. Anyway, one night during one of our usual blowups, I had enough & claimed that I was going to pack my suitcase & leave. I yelled that I was tired of his abusive shit, couldn't stand him anymore, that I hated this fucking hotel & was going to leave. I stormed to the closet (where I kept my suitcase) pulled open the door, stormed in, reached my hand up to pull on the string for the light & as my hand was in mid air, the string moved itself all the way up to the top of the ceiling, on it's own. I froze, with my hand still in mid air. The closet got ice cold & I could feel a very strong presence in there with me. At that moment I knew, whatever it was, was angry that I had cursed the hotel & said that I hated it there. In whatever whisper I could get out I said "I'm sorry", and as soon as I said that, the string dropped & dangled in front of me. I slowly backed out of the closet & the person I was living with was shocked to see that in the matter of 15 seconds, I went from a total angry, fed-up rage to very somber & quiet. The whole thing really shook me up & I will always remember it. I told a few friends most of whom think that in my angry state I must have just imagined it, but I know it happened. A string just doesn't lift up to the ceiling on it's own.

And that's my story. It might not be the most exciting, but it did happen.

Blog Comments from Beyond the Crypt

Regular Legends readers have no doubt encountered the words of the ghosts who regularly leaves mysterious comments on our blog.  I'm sure you've all been wondering just who this being was in life, and what he's doing hanging around the hotel when by all right he should have long since passed on to his eternal reward.  Well, in this exclusive interview, conducted by an anonymous medium, you can finally get the answers firsthand.  What's more, our ghosts also tells us what he thinks of the new regime, and gives us the scoop on how he managers to tap into the Itnernet from his realm:

Q.  Who are you and what brought you to the Hotel Chelsea?

A.  My name isn't important and actually, I'd prefer to be anonymous.  Some of my loved ones are still alive and I don't wish to see them punished for my, or our, opinions.

I arrived at the Hotel Chelsea in 1960 when my wife H. and I separated.  I had one quickly packed suitcase and my typewriter case, and that's it.  Stanley gave me a room on 8, a tiny place but with a balcony on 23rd street.  I was there  three years until my death.

Before that I was in Hollywood, rewriting other people's scripts, trying to get my own produced.  Bad sci-fi movies all of them, full of big lizards and robots built out of boxes painted silver.  I was fed up with it, and decided to write a novel.

Q.  How did you die?

A.  It's funny, but I have no first hand memory of my own death.  What I know comes from eavesdropping on my former neighbors. Apparently, I was at Macy's shopping for a Christmas present for my estranged wife and I had a heart attack. Before that, I never shopped at Macy's, but there was something there I wanted to get for her apparently.   I wanted to get back with her.

Q.  But you left her?

A.  What else could I do when I found her being tied to a bed with pink scarves by a young male ballet dancer?  But I still loved her.  Go figure.

Q.  Did you ever finish your novel?

A.  No.  It was a piece of crap.  It went out with the trash one day. I found a job writing ad copy.  You know, 99 out of 100 doctors recommend Bold Gold cigarettes.  Hated it.  Then I wrote a musical that was well-received and ran for two years.  Of course I cannot tell you the name of it, as that would reveal my identity.

Q.  You died. And then?

A.  I found myself in the back of a taxi with my wife, but she ignored me.  The cabdriver was ignoring me too. When the cab stopped a man got in, the ballet dancer, and he ignored me even though I was cursing very loudly at him.  When the cab passed the Chelsea I was sucked out of the window and the next thing I knew I was in my room, and Stanley was there, showing it to a young woman. They didn't hear me either.  I thought I was dreaming.

Q.  When did you realize you were dead?

A.  When Stanley told the young woman that the writer who had lived in the room -- and he used my name -- was vacationing in Italy  and wouldn't be coming back. As you know, nobody ever dies at the Chelsea Hotel. In Stanley's view of the universe, we haven't died, we've all just gone somewhere nice, like Italy or France for an extended vacation.   In a way, he's right.

Q.  And you've just hung around since then?

A.  Well, I've gone  to other places to visit, but I always return here.  My home is the Chelsea Hotel. I was at my best here.

Q.  You know, there are many people, mostly outside the hotel, who don't believe in ghosts. Explain yourself.

A.  Being a ghost doesn't give you omnipotence.  We don't know everything.  But from what I understand, it is a parallel universe sort of thing.  I do believe scientists at Oxford have mathematically proven the concept of  an infinite number of parallel universes formed by the infinite possibilities of our choices and the events of our lives.  These parallel universes may be just inches away.  Ours is the one formed by the act of death. Really, to understand fully you have to completely forget the limited human view of Space and Time and, for that matter,  Matter.  We consist of  emotional, creative and intellectual energy.   One day, perhaps, the scientists will prove us wholly, just like the scientist who proved the existence of the anomalon, (a particle which defies the known laws of physics), twenty years after it was first hypothesized.

Q.  Oh.  Okay.  Then how come you are sometimes seen in this universe?

A.  Sometimes sensitive people peer through the membrane to the next universe, and sometimes we are in yours.  Unlike you we do have the ability to move between realms under the right circumstances.  Double sided mirrors and televisions are excellent portals for instance.  Pianos, empty canvases and typewriters are also reliable entry points.  Also the east elevator is a portal as is the pyramid on the roof. And dogs and cats.  They're great channellers.

Q. You have said that ghostly conversation translates in the earthly realm as odor.  How are you communicating with me now?  I don't smell anything.

A.  That's because we are not communicating in physical space  but via the internet.  If you were here you would smell the scents of good cigars, lasagna in the oven,  and cold beer.  We used to rely on channeling by living people to express ourselves.  This is still the standard.  But some of us are able now to access the internet, ever since they put wifi in the lobby.  We just hover near the bust of Harry Truman and we are able to put our thoughts on the web.  Amazing! But far from perfect.

Q. Let's jump to the current situation.  You're the spokesperson for the ghost collective.  Were you elected?

A.  Yes.   It was unanimous.  Everyone had something to say about the ouster of the Bards, but nobody else wanted the job. So here I am.

Q. And --

A. And we're very upset about this new regime.  It's a travesty, and we do not like these two minority shareholders at all, especially David Elder.  It is astonishing that this young man felt he had a right to take over this beloved hotel despite no experience and a small percentage of the stock.  And after all the Bards  -- and the residents, and the ghosts -- put into this place, physically and spiritually!  Who is coming in with the new regime? We don't want to keep company with a bunch of tightass businessmen, excuse my French, or tourists who have never read a book and whose big goal is to shop where Carrie Bradshaw shops or get into some cheesy place like the Star Lounge in hopes of seeing a minor celebrity before getting fish-eyed drunk and vomiting in the gutters.  In other words, people who don't appreciate the great history of this hotel,  but complain about the lack of coffeemaker in the room.  Not our crowd at all. If this isn't resolved, we may all leave and with us goes the peculiar magic of this place.

Marlene Krauss Weighs in on the Page 6 Magazine Article

Legends has intercepted an e-mail letter-to-the-editor that minority shareholder Marlene Krauss sent to Page 6 Magazine.  Apparently she must have forgotten that we control the Internets:

To the Editor,

I wish I could thank you for your July 20 article on my property, the Chelsea Hotel, but I’m afraid it will only encourage the sort of undesirable “bohemian” tourism that my fellow board member David Elder and I have been working hard to bring to a well-deserved end.  Your writer, Annie Karni, has unfortunately been taken in by a bad lot, and has bought the party line of these trouble makers, parroting what can most charitably be called a bunch of bull malarkey.  Though I wish her well, I advise her to do as I do and avoid setting foot in that blighted building ever again.

Chief among the misconceptions in Karni’s article is the claim of one resident, reinforced by the tone of the whole piece, that the hotel is chaotic, and that since there is no manager no one knows who to pay rent to.  While I won’t deny that the hotel is somewhat less than orderly, this is the fault of the very people who are complaining about it, the residents, who habitually go around dressed as clowns and so-called “doppelgangers,” soiling their own nest with stink bombs, and is a holdover from the Stanley Bard years, when every sort of illegal and licentious behavior was celebrated and even encouraged.  As for the issue of rent, many of the hotel residents must not have thought Stanley Bard was the manager either, as they habitually went without paying for years at a time. 

            The plain truth of the matter is that the residents of the Chelsea Hotel belong to a sort of cult that idolizes and worships the former owner, Stanley Bard.  One of the sadly misguided residents even admits as much when he says, “You can’t have a religious movement without a religious leader,” and I don’t know what more proof you could ask for.  Stanley seems to have hoodwinked these people, all of admittedly sub-normal intellect, in much the same way that Madonna brainwashed A-Rab with the Kaballah.  I’m as tolerant as the next person, but I can’t help wondering: Why don’t they just move to Jonestown and drink the Kool-Aid and leave decent people to make their millions in New York in peace!

            Now I know what you’re saying, that I’m not an expert in these matters like the great Madonna.  But I know a thing or two about brainwashing myself, since, as CEO of Summer Infant, I devised a groundbreaking technique to beam X-rays from outer space into the cribs of unsuspecting children.  That hussy Madonna is not all she’s cracked up to be either.  I’ll bet she doesn’t have a Harvard MBA, now does she?  And I’m sure I could get a young basketball stud like A-Rab too if I cared to the take time out from my busy schedule to master the arts of seduction and love.  (I’m already a better dancer than her.)  Hillary has fallen, and so too will Madonna, while I continue to grow younger, stronger, and more beautiful, eventually to triumph over all my competitors, deathless and eternal.

            I have hired a crack security team to impose order on the hotel until such time as I see fit to gut the building and repopulate it with a better class of people.  Though I’m sure you and all good, upstanding citizens of this metropolis support me in this endeavor, irresponsible articles such as Karni’s do not make my job any easier.  Please watch it in the future.

Sincerely,

Marlene Krauss, MD, Pld., Harvard MBA

Wow, Marlene seems really angry.  Probably the best thing for us all to do is just pack our bags and move out quietly.   We just hope in the meantime she doesn’t go all Waco on our ass.

You Can't Go Home Again

Dear Ed,

I lived at the Chelsea Hotel about 4 years ago. It was a great place to be... I called the front desk today and asked if I could do a monthly rental again and the person who answered said that they do not 
take residents anymore. I know there are not such great things happening now but I'd still love to move back in if possible... I'm  wondering if you have any insider advice? Anyone I can talk to, etc?

Best,
(name redacted)

Yeah, you're right, things are lousy here lately.  We'd love to have you back, but I'm afraid I'm not too optimistic on that score.  Our only suggestion is to call board members Marlene Krauss and David Elder, and Manager Andrew Tilley, and have them explain their rental policy to you and ask them how this upholds the tradition of the Chelsea.

Back When the Chelsea Was Still The Chelsea

         With the Chelsea Hotel presently going to hell in a handcart, we thought that a glance back at a happier time might be a welcome relief.  Rummaging through used bookstores, Roger Wade came up with a 1961 edition of Frommer’s New York on 5 Dollars A Day, reminding us by its very title that there used to be ways to survive in New York on the cheap.  The book gives a list of budget hotels, foremost among them our beloved Chelsea, where:

In 1960, If you mentioned the book, you could get a spotlessly clean single room without a bath for $3 per night on a weekly basis [that’s $27 a week!], and double rooms with bath starting a $6 per night, even by the day.

     Yeah, and that means that if you brought in your art portfolio you could probably get one even cheaper.  And as an added bonus, a young Stanley Bard would convince you that your room was spotlessly clean even if you initially thought otherwise.

      The Chelsea is actually on the high end of the budget hotels Wade lists (and, sadly, one of the few remaining as a hotel).  The best deal to be had was at the Arlington on West 25 St. (as of 2005, a Comfort Inn), where you could get a single room without a bath for $1.75/night!

Nowadays, according to Wade, the Chelsea is, “still quirky and it’s still clean, and rooms start at around $220 per night.”  He probably didn’t read that Page 6 Magazine article about that guy who found Janis Joplin’s Maxipad!

Wade also doesn’t mention (because he probably doesn’t know), that unlike in 1961, or the first half of 2007 for that matter, the hotel is no longer run by Stanley Bard, but instead by a witch’s coven of evil, greedy scumbags.  At least the Chelsea Hotel still looks basically the same physically—though we need to keep our eyes peeled as Marlene and her slaves seem to be gearing up to chop the place up in order to level out it’s quirkiness quotient.

Hey, you know what else, it would be nice to find one of these guides from, say, 1968 or ’69 or thereabouts.  If anyone has access to a copy, please let us know, as this could help Chelsea Hotel tenants embroiled in court battles to establish the rental history of their apartments. -- Ed Hamilton

(Sources: Gothamist, Boots N All )

Good News for Flophouse Denizens Everywhere

As reported in the NY Post Monday, Rosanne Carone, who owns the Sunshine Hotel on the Bowery, has had her unconscionable plot to throw the legal, rent stabilized tenants out of her building foiled.  The HPD has ruled that she harassed tenants to get them out, and so—Ha Ha Ha—she will have to wait three years to re-apply for a Certificate of Non Harassment (CONH), necessary to tear down the building. (Photo: Flickr)

There’s a lesson involved here, especially for Chelsea Hotel tenants: report every single instance of harassment by dialing 311 (they will connect you to the relevant agency).  Harassment is defined, basically, as anything that is intended to make you give up your rent stabilized apartment, or to destroy your quiet enjoyment of same.  In the Sunshine Hotel case, Carone was cited for, among other offenses, verbally abusing and threatening tenants, neglecting leaks, chipping plaster and paint, and roach infestations.  (And if these new security guards hassle you or make you feel uncomfortable in any way, that is harassment.)
            As you can see, failure to make repairs to you apartments in a timely manner can be considered harassment.  Anything that you would fix yourself if you owned the place is their responsibility to repair.

Marlene Krauss, David Elder and Andrew Tilley are of course not trying to tear down the building, but they do want to start some sort of construction project, and they need a CONH to do so.  What they want to do is to pass the cost of the “improvements” along to tenants, which would allow them to raise our rents, possibly even past the threshold where they would be legally decontrolled.  They might even be able to force some of us to move out while the work is going on.  Repairs, yes; new construction, no!

As an addendum, I also think it’s hilarious how biased the New York Post title is: calling the rent stabilized tenants of the Sunshine Hotel bums.  They may not fit a rich person’s definition of a “good citizen,” but hey, they’re not living on the street.  Not yet anyway.  And what’s more, they had the wherewithal to fight back and assert their rights.  At least it’s not as nutty as calling Dan Peckham a squatter—leave that to the Village Voice—but still. -- Ed Hamilton

Residents Outraged Over New Security Guards Installed in Chelsea Hotel

There are at least two new security guards in the building, apparently hired in retaliation to an ongoing harassment suit being brought by a resident against David Elder.  (It may also have had to do with Sunday’s Page Six Magazine article on the hotel in which many residents openly called for the return of the Bards.)  I saw one of the guards standing by the desk yesterday when I went out in the afternoon, and then Debbie and I saw him by the door when we went out last night.  Dressed in black pants and a white shirt, he’s medium height, slightly portly, with graying hair and a goatee.  When we came into the hotel later in the night, he was standing by the door again, and then when we went upstairs to our floor he seemed to follow us up, as he was in our hall not five minutes later, saying “There’s been a report of a gathering in the hall.”  There was no one in the hall except for Debbie who was taking out the trash. (And he said his name was “John”!  This seemed like a nasty inside joke, Ha Ha Ha.)

Well, since when are hallway gatherings prohibited in the Chelsea Hotel ?!  This seemed like borderline harassment itself.  And then when we went back downstairs to look into the matter, we noticed another security guard!  This guy, dressed the same, was a huge, 6’3” African American guy.  Two security guards!?  For a Monday night?!  At the Chelsea Hotel, of all places!?
            So what we, as legal, long-term, rent-paying residents of the hotel demand to know is: Who are these people?  Who hired them: Andrew Tilley or David Elder?  What company are they with, and are they bonded and insured?  Whoever is responsible for the hiring of these guards is deliberately creating an atmosphere of overt hostility toward the residents of this hotel, to let us know that we are being watched, and that we are not wanted here.

Did I mention that this is the Chelsea Hotel ?  Never in a million years would this have happened under Stanley.  I don’t even recognize this place anymore. -- Ed Hamilton

“We Are Here To Service People”

Finally, some good news for the Chelsea community!  The above quote comes from minority shareholder David Elder, and guests and residents alike will be lining up in the lobby starting at 8:00 AM on Monday morning to take him up on his generous offer.

Seriously, though, hello and a warm welcome to Page 6 Magazine readers.  (The artice will be available online Monday) You can find more about the Chelsea Hotel, its famous artists past and present, and about the recent conflict, on this blog—probably more than you ever wanted to know, in fact.  [Meet the Principles: humorous introductions to Marlene Krauss, David Elder, and Glennon Travis]

As Annie Karni reports in her perceptive article, we are supposed to have an actual manager now, but I’m skeptical because the place is still a Godforsaken nut house (and not in the good sense, like it was, for instance, in the sixties).  In his fifty years at the helm, Stanley was always at the front desk to address residents’ concerns.  Where on earth is this British bloke Andrew Tilley? 

Karni did a good job in reporting the basic story of the Chelsea’s recent troubles (and it’s a complex tale, to be sure), but I have a couple of corrections:

1. Stanley Bard is the majority shareholder, owning 68% of the hotel.  I know this sounds weird, but it was the minority shareholders, Krauss and Elder, who somehow got a judge to agree to let them manage the hotel

2. Also, BD Hotels was in charge for about 10 months (rather than they 2 months reported in Karni’s article), long enough to transform the vibe of the hotel from easygoing bohemian to paranoid schizophrenic.

     Basically, what happened here at the Chelsea is that longtime manager Stanley Bard was ousted in a hostile take over by the minority shareholders, Marlene Krauss and David Elder.  They alleged that Stanley was engaged in certain nebulous financial improprieties (such as accepting paintings in lieu of rent), but what it boils down to is a simple matter of greed: in New York’s super-heated real estate climate, they thought they could make a killing by running off the rent stabilized tenants of the Chelsea and converting the place into a boutique hotel where they could rent rooms for $500 a night.  (They were wrong about that.  They are unwilling to commit the money to fix the place up, and in any event they are having a devil of a time getting rid of the tenants who have decided to stand up for their rights.)  It’s the same basic thing that’s happening in building after building across New York City.
     Because we believe he was unjustly ousted, and in order to preserve an important cultural icon from destruction, the residents of the Chelsea Hotel call for the return of “Grumpy old man” Stanley and his son David.  Although we are willing to give Andrew Tilley a chance, we as yet have no indication that he is up for the job.  He has to stand up at the desk and actually run the hotel, and that includes talking to the press.  And why won’t Marlene Krauss give the press a comment?  She’s the one in charge.  (Elder is just a patsy.)  Tilley should also call a meeting of the Tenant’s Association to introduce himself and explain his plans for the hotel.  But how much you wanna bet he won’t do it?
            We have been getting a lot of e-mail lately from potential guests saying they’d rather not get into the middle of this messy conflict, but we say, come on down to the Chelsea!  You’re our kind of people—not like this guy in Karni’s article who complains about Janis Joplin’s wash rag.  We want people who share our dreams and visions about art and the creative life, not soulless yuppies.  Make a sign that says BRING BACK THE BARDS! and voice your opinion loud and clear when you check in at the front desk.  And don’t forget to get in the David Elder courtesy line first thing Monday morning.  -- Ed Hamilton

Opening Reception "Herbert Gentry & Friends"

"In his painting, {Herbert} Gentry interpreted inner and outer worlds, defining human experience with metaphors of confrontations, meetings, interactions, and participations.  Many of Gentry's titles refer to Friends and Friendship, Encounters and Relations, Reciprocity and Relatedness...." (excerpted from the program written by Mary Anne Rose)

HERBERT GENTRY and FRIENDS: Opening Reception
Friday, July 18, 2008 6:00 - 8:00 p.m.
Showing through August 30, 2008 

Parish Gallery
1054 31st Street, NW
Washington, DC

Another Authentic Tilley Sighting?

Our readers are still confused.  Here's the latest reader submitted Tilley sighting.

Arthur Weinstein RIP

Arthur Weinstein's many friends have thoughtfully added their "Arthur" stories to a growing online tribute.
The stories, filled with both humor and sadness, touch on three main themes: how Arthur was an unforgettable New York character, a brilliant night club operator, and, more importantly, a loving family man. 

In their obituary this week the New York Times had this to say about Arthur.

" In the glittery, manic, often ostentatiously naughty 1970s and ’80s, Arthur Weinstein was king of the night. His kingdom was a new breed of nightclubs that transcended disco balls, tired formulas and strobe lights to become ultrahip destinations for those deemed worthy of entering..." 

The obituary also quotes hotelier and former night club operator Ian Schrager who had this to say. "(Schrager) who operated Studio 54 with Steven Rubell, placed Mr. Weinstein and his clubs on a continuum of New York night life that extends back through the Stork Club and the Cotton Club.

“Arthur is part of that,” said Mr. Schrager, who now develops hotels and other properties. “He would be one of the important people around that world that you would have to talk about.”

Mr. Schrager praised Hurrah as the first ’70s nightclub with style, meaning that it wasn’t “merely painted black.” He continued, “It was the first one that upped the stakes a bit.”

Other tributes:

Former night club owner Steve Lewis' tribute will have you in tears before you finish reading. 

Tony Fletcher reports that he modeled one of the characters in his novel about nightclub culture (Hedonism) on Arthur. 

Lots of great photos, including one from the 1970s, on this Arthur Weinstein Myspace tribute page. 

Beauty Bar, Good Night Mr. Lewis

Luke Jorger & Indigo Toledo's Chelsea Movie features an interview with Arthur and other residents.

Guests Still Welcome—For Now

After reading about all the horrible things going on around here, such as Stanley’s ouster, tenants being forced out, and the squabbles between shareholders and management, Blog readers often write in to ask if they should still visit the hotel.  Their concerns are valid--ranging from not wanting to give their money to a band of scoundrels to a fear that they might get caught up in the political struggle--and no one would blame them if they chose to spend their money elsewhere.  At the present time, however, we are still urging friends of the hotel to come and be our guests while the place still retains a hint of its old edgy charm.  (Don’t forget to tell them at the desk to BRING BACK THE BARDS!)  Anyway, here are a couple of letters from concerned readers:

Hi Ed, I've been reading through your blog everyday for the past few weeks. I originally heard of the hotel while going through a Sid and Nancy obsession but have since flipped that to a Chelsea obsession. I saw the Chelsea in person for the first time in October while attending Rocky Horror but I was too nervous to go inside--probably, like many others, because I was afraid I wouldn't want to leave. I'd like to plan a weekend trip to the Chelsea to experience it first hand and I'm wondering your opinion on a few things. I'm kicking myself because I didn't get to visit while Stanley was in charge. It would be easy for me to stay in the Fall, but should I try to get out there ASAP in case more changes are planned? Also, how difficult/more expensive do you think it would be to get a room on the balcony side? I am, like most, afraid of getting screwed by new management.

Thanks for your help and all the great insider info on the Chelsea,
Renée

Your concerns about getting screwed by the new management are well founded, Renée, though I think when they do screw someone it’s less of a concerted campaign than merely the result of incompetence.  We’ve heard plenty of stories about guests being ripped off, but just as many stories about guests getting an unbelievably good deal.  So perhaps if you don’t hear what you like the first time you call, you should just wait and talk to somebody else.  (This was the way it was under BD anyway; we must confess we don’t yet know what to expect from the new manager.)  But I think you can safely wait until fall to visit.  Although the minority shareholders would like to renovate the place and throw us all out, they don’t seem to want to spend any money to do it.

Because I plan another visit to NYC I took a look at the Chelsea Hotel website. Oh man, things have changed since I stayed there in 1992 for three weeks. And immediately I discovered the 'loss' of Mister Stanley Bard, whom I met and had such a wonderful time with (he asked me a couple of times per week about my stay), when I read about the hotel's history. I couldn't believe my eyes. He was/is a landmark of his own and so linked to the hotel. It's such a shame, it really is, that the new management did not mention him and his family. This is not just an omission by accident, it's meant to be this way. It makes me feel sad. Somewhere else on this great blog (I subscribed today) I read about people wondering whether they would come or not to the hotel since the new management. Me too, I'm seriously in doubt. So BD management (I'm pretty sure you'll read this blog), come on and act properly! Don't throw history away, don't rewrite history and do not forget his story!

Frank, The Netherlands.

      Yeah, Stanley definitely was a large part of the Chelsea experience, and we apologize to everyone that he is no longer here to compare this place to the Plaza or to assure you—in case you were silly enough to doubt it--that the Chelsea Hotel is the most famous building in the world.  (It’s not our fault, but the minority shareholders sure aren’t going to apologize.  And you’re right: it’s definitely not an accident that there’s no mention of the Bard family on the hotel’s web site.)  BD, by the way, is now history, the victim of Richard Born’s greed and ambition running head on into Marlene Krauss’s greed and irrational-vendetta-against-Stanley, and so we have a new manager, a guy named Andrew Tilley, whom few residents have ever actually seen, and whom at least one blog reader seemed to confuse with a dog.
          Oh, by the way, when you do come, be sure to put on an old sweatshirt and head downstairs for a beer at the Star Lounge!  (Just kidding: Chelsea Hotel guests and residents aren’t welcome there.) -- Ed Hamilton

I Am The Lizard King

Star Lounge owner Charles Ferri will mix you up a stiff one if his dreams come true and he's able to open up his proposed "Legends Cafe" in the lobby of the Chelsea Hotel.  Our advice: don't order the Pina Colada.
(Photo: Celinna von Mannstein, Park Avenue)
 

Reported Tilley Spottings

Our readers are so confused as to the identity of this Tilley fellow that they have started to send us bizzare tips such as the following:

watching cbs sunday morning and theres a dog who paints pictures whose name is "tilley"

More Bad Behavior by BD Comes to Light!

Apparently it wasn't enough for BD Hotels to rewrite history and leave out the Bards when they launched the new Chelsea Hotel website -- they also stole photos and used them on the site!  According to photograher Raymond Haddad the new site features his photo which he originally posted on flickr. The site doesn't credit him as the photographer!  Additionally, the site features photos from Claudio Edinger's Chelsea Hotel book.  Wonder if BD bothered to get Claudio's permission? 

Remembering Arthur Weinstein

UPDATE:  Blog BrooklynVegan has posted a very nice tribute to Arthur.

Yesterday (7/9/08) the Chelsea Hotel lost a dear friend in Arthur Weinstein.  In keeping with tradition, his life and artistry will be celebrated today, Thursday July 10, at noon at the Temple just to the west of the Chelsea Hotel.  Please join his family and friends to remember Arthur. 

Expressions of sympathy can be left for his family courtesy of Room #210.

(Photo: Arthur in his studio, Jan 2007)

Rocketman Tilley's Old Hotel Panned On TripAdvisor

     Before he came here, new manager Andrew Tilley ran the Paramount Hotel in Times Square.  Here are a few quotes (posted on Trip Advisor), from people who have stayed there:

     "Don't go there!!!!!'
     "Trust me you do not want to stay here...it will ruin your trip."
     "Worst experience of my life."
     "I wouldn't stay here again if it was free."
     "...nasty hotel."
    "The worst hotel."
    "The room looked like a backpacker's hostel"

And best of all:
     "... even once I'd showered and walked into the bedroom I felt dirty again."

     Of course, as we mentioned in an earlier post, Tilley was trying to transform the place into a Hard Rock Hotel, (he failed) and so the complaints about construction noise relate to that.  There's a lot of complaints about lack of services and rundown dirty rooms that -- though less obviously -- probably have something to do with this as well:  Perhaps the staff was too preoccupied with the transition to help guests, make sure rooms were clean, and of course there's no sense in repairing anything.  But these are some of the issues we are going to have to deal with here if the minoirty shareholders ever kick in any money for the renovation.  -- Ed Hamilton

   

Tilley's Fireworks Not the First for the Chelsea

According to historian Sherill Tippins, presently at work on a history of the Chelsea Hotel, the recent pyrotechnics of Andrew Tilley are part of a glorious tradition at the Chelsea.  Well, sort of anyway! 

While there is no written testimony of former inappropriate behavior with fireworks exploded out of Chelsea managers' body cavities, there was an unexplained fire in 1878, in which the building that preceded the Chelsea, the Excelsior, burned to the ground. The building was owned by James Ingersoll, ambitious furniture maker and partner of William Tweed, who had recently gotten of out prison after having stolen at least $45 million from New York City as Tweed's partner. The Excelsior housed a city armory, among other things, full of firearms and other explosive devices.

The fire started at the east end of the basement on a Sunday evening when only the watchman and his family were there. A passer-by saw flames in a window and ran to the corner drugstore to call the fire companies. The fire engines arrived minutes later, but too late:

The fire “burst through the roof with astonishing violence, and the churches on either side caught fire,” wrote a New York Times reporter. “The congregation gazed in awe at the crimson flames shone through their church’s Gothic windows and lined its closed entrances with a beautiful light. The flames burst through the top of the steeple, licking at the foot of the cross at the steeple’s apex and shooting green sparks from the copper lining high into the sky.”

The Excelsior’s rear wall fell, carrying with it the rear portions of several adjoining houses. “There goes the explosion! Look out!” A volley of blasts from the Eighth Regiment’s rifle cartridges filled the air. The east and west walls collapsed in a cloud of sparks. The flames leaped to an immense height, revealing the building’s skeleton in flames."

The “mammoth relic of the Tweed Ring” was now nothing more than a pile of burning rubble surrounded on all sides by fire. Suddenly, someone gasped, and pointed. The fallen bricks had opened a gap revealing the church next door. “In the midst of the flames stood a marble slab, imbedded in the side of a ruined wall,” wrote the Times reporter, “bearing the inscription, 'Suffer little children to come unto me.' It stood out in bold relief from a glowing background of flame, and was noticed by hundreds of spectators.”

No evidence of illicit basement fireworks play was never uncovered, but remnants of a burnt pair of trousers were found in the street around the collapsed building. And James Ingersoll was never seen again.

But obviously his spirit lives on! 

Rocketman Tilley Set to Pull a Bernstein?

I’m sure by now Marlene Krauss has called Andrew Tilley at home to ask him if he’s been putting fireworks up his ass.  But hey, how are we supposed to know whether or not that’s him?  Though Tilley has been manager for a week, he’s been hiding himself away and virtually nobody has seen him.

So what we’d like to know is, is Tilley going to pull a Bernstein (named in honor of our most recent general manager) and just never come in to work and try to run the hotel by remote control?  That’s one of the reasons nobody would accept BD: they just swept in here and set up shop without introducing themselves to anybody.  It was very disrespectful, and even though of course we’re just a bunch of stupid artists here, most of us couldn’t help but feel a little bit offended.  And certainly this bad blood that BD created contributed to their untimely demise. 

Tilley doesn’t seem to have done his homework on this place.  He probably thinks he can just lay back and pull a few dirty tricks to get rid of the pesky permanent tenets, and then he can run a nice, tidy boutique hotel like he’s always dreamed of doing.  Well, think again, Rocketman Tilley: we ain’t going nowhere.  If you want to be manager you’re going to have to stand up there at the front desk and take the good with the bad: the tourists who come in and rave about how great this place is, what a unique New York institution, and, conversely, the insane who will bug the shit out of you for every little thing that goes wrong around here.  Also if your going to be manager you have to deal with the press and right now they're being sent to Glennon Travis' voice mail: inquiring minds want to know.

It’s a dirty job, but it has to be done.  And so, once again, we suggest that you call a meeting of the Chelsea Hotel Tenants Association so you can introduce yourself and tell us all about your plans for the building.  To do otherwise is to breed further distrust and suspicion.  (And you’re already starting off with a buttload, brother!)

Marlene, you’d better get down here right away and get to the bottom of this, or else Tilley is not even going to last as long as BD! -- Ed Hamilton

Andrew Tilley's Classy Fireworks Demo

You have to click here to watch the shocking video!  Enjoy the fireworks!

via (Mirror.uk.com), The Florida Masochist, BBC, Daily Mail

Chelsea Hotel LOL Cat

 

Inspired by curbed.com and hotelchatter.com

Chelsea Healing Moves Out Leaving Only Dan's Chelsea Guitars on East Side of Building

Well, we just lost another member of our family due to escalating rents. Chelsea Healing, the acupuncture shop in the eastern most storefront of the hotel follows Capitol Fishing Tackle and Balabanis Tailor in being the latest casualty in the minority shareholders plan to remake the Chelsea Hotel in their own sickily image. Monday was apparently Chelsea Healings last day of operations; yesterday I saw workers packing boxes inside the storefront and moving them out to waiting vans. Luckily, they've found a place nearby, at 321 West 24th Street, so be sure to stop in and give them some business as a show of support. 

One of the reasons Marlene Krauss fired BD (as revealed in the court papers) was because she didn't think they were moving quickly enough to force out the low-paying retail customers and replace them with, probably, a big box store. And Marlene certainly didn't waste much time: BD has only been gone for two months, and already she has emptied two storefronts.

   Capitol Fishing Tackle Space, the largest storefront on the east side, has stood vacant for nearly two years. Now Dan's Guitars stands as the last holdout on the east side of the building. And there it should remain, as hopefully even the otherwise clueless Marlene has caught on to the appeal of Dan's Guitars. Situated in a storefront which has been a music shop of some kind since Stanley Bard's childhood.
(photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ursaminormd/2511701363/)

Tilley to Unveil Glorious New Rehabilitation Plans For Chelsea

We don’t have all of the details yet, but David Elder’s New Assistant, Andrew Tilley, is apparently all set to unveil his new plan to “rehabilitate” the Chelsea. As a teaser, he has posted the schematics for the plan in the hotel lobby (no more dueling photo-books thank you very much). As you can see, he plans to renovate the façade significantly – landmarking be damned – and to get rid of that pesky El Quixote, despite their 75-year-lease. Though we had been hoping for a Starbucks, it seems Tilley has come up with an even better idea: an M & Ms Store! Tilley is used to working in Times Square, you see, when he could just pop around the corner at any time for a sugar fix. We’re hoping to get a big, strapping M & M Man Straddling the Chelsea sign, but plans may not have been finalized yet and I certainly don’t want to jinx it. I also hear that the WWF is looking at the former Capitol Fishing storefront.

Though undeniably a visionary of the first rank, you’ll notice that Tilley’s schematic also features crazy people screaming out the windows and threatening to jump from the roof. This reflects Tilley’s dawning realization that, while some things can be changed, others will always remain the same. -- Ed Hamilton