Death for Sale at the Chelsea Hotel

Lost our lease!  Everything must go!  Stanley was famous for renting the room where Madonna shot her Sex book to Material Girl-worshiping hipsters with stars in their eyes.  Lately, however, sex alone has not been paying the bills.  In response, general manager Arnold Tamasar has revealed a new marketing strategy: Celebrity Death Tourism.  (And maybe a little sex thrown in for good measure.)  
 For bargain basement prices, you can stay in the room where a drug-addled Sid Vicious killed a drug-befuddled Nancy Spungen—or at least a room with the couple’s infamous bathroom attached.  And if you can’t afford to go the whole hog, the hotel now sells Sid dolls at the front desk.  (Complete with tiny leather jacket, sure, but how about a tiny hypodermic needle?  You’ll have to ask the concierge.)  Wear your black fingernail polish and light a candle for the Romeo and Juliet of punk.

Substance-abusing punks not your cup of tea?  Ask to stay in the tiny room where Dylan Thomas collapsed after a night of hard drinking at the White Horse tavern.  Bet you can’t beat his record of 18 whiskeys!  Speaking of lovable alcoholics, Charles Jackson, author of The Lost Weekend bit the big one here as well—a suicide, double the fun!  (Don’t try this at home, kids!  Though really, don’t try it here either.)

If you don’t have time to spend the night (or simply fear for your safety and/or sanity), book a spot on the Big Apple Death tour, as the Chelsea Hotel is now on the itinerary.  You’ll travel in style, making the rounds of the city in a decommissioned (we hope) 1967 hearse.  The only problem with this option is, you’ll miss the famous ghosts of the Chelsea, who only come out at night!  -- Ed Hamilton

Read more about the Chelsea Hotel ghosts: The Severed Hand,  Thomas Wolfe ghost,  Floor-by-floor sightings,