Arnold Weinstein Throws Memorable Bash

Here’s an account of a dinner party thrown by Chelsea Hotel legend Arnold Weinstein (30-plus years in residence), Broadway librettist (“Red Eye of Love”) and famous Bon Vivant, known and loved by many at the hotel.  It seems Arnold’s dinner parties must have been quite memorable, because poet Jascha Kessler still recalls this one.  But then, it seems to have ruined Kessler’s life, as he feels he was rudely deprived of the Yale Younger Poets Award by a diabolical anti-Semitic, homosexual plot—or something of the sort—hatched between fellow diners W.H Auden and the eventual winner, John Ashbery (who if I’m not mistaken still lives in the Chelsea neighborhood).  Too bad Arnold is not around to comment on the controversy, as I’m sure he would have had something to say about it, but he passed away, sadly, in 2005, his friends celebrating his life with a memorial show at the Walter Kerr Theatre.  Well, no doubt a fine time (or at least an interesting time) was had by all! -- Ed Hamilton  (Photo: Opera News -- Bill Balcom, Arnold Weinstein and Arthur Miller at work in the Chelsea Hotel on the opera based on Miller's play, " View From the Bridge."