Living with Legends: Hotel Chelsea Blog

Chelsea Clinton Named After Lenoard Cohen's "Chelsea Hotel"

Well the New York Observer comes through with the truth about Chelsea Clinton's name:

"The wedding will take place in Rhinebeck, New York, which is part of Dutchess county, a dutchess being just what I would be if America had a proper class system. Also, Rhinebeck is the birthplace of Rufus Wainwright, which reminds me that I need to email him to get him to come and sing that Leonard Cohen song Dad likes so much. Oh no, Mom is the one who likes "Hallelujah." The one Dad likes is "Chelsea Hotel." He told me that's really how I got my name (not Joni Mitchell's "Chelsea Mornings," another of Mom's "convenient fictions"). He really likes the beds there. Maybe Rufus can sing that, too."  (Source: New York Observer)

Imperioli’s Ghost a Chelsea Hotel Regular?

On Sunday’s “Celebrity Ghost Sightings” program on the Bio Channel, Michael Imperioli revealed that he had been visited by a ghost named Mary while staying at the Chelsea 14 years ago.  This led us to wonder if anyone else had encountered Mary, apparently a rather old ghost, during their time at the Chelsea.  We asked one of our sources, a huge fan of the Chelsea who keeps up to date on all the happenings—past and present, natural and supernatural—at this deeply weird hotel, and it turns out she had already been contacted about the show.  She writes:

Hi, folks.

 Someone who saw the television show about Mary the Chelsea Hotel ghost sent me this question:

  "Do you know anything about the young woman named Mary that was living at the Chelsea? She lived on the 8th floor and hung herself when her husband died on the titanic. I guess she has been seen there."

  I forwarded it to the friend who visited the Chelsea -the
one who spoke with the spirits there--and asked her whether she recognized this one. Here's her response:

I think yes-
she was in front of a mirror-
checking out herself-
mirror was not in this world-
elaborate-
she in hat with plume-
hair large and gibson girlish-
she seeing if she was looking ok-
and acting like we were disturbing her boring self absorbed nature...
perhaps?

   I remember my friend describing this person at the time, on the 8th floor. Then, my friend said she was looking in the mirror forever--never stopping. She described her as very vain.

Upon further questioning, our source revealed the location of the ghost as being, “. . .at the west end of the building were the archway is in that hallway -- where the original large apartment's entryway would have been. Supposedly, she was checking her reflection in a mirror next to the original front door.”  Although a quick look back at our source’s original report in 2006 reveals that the mirror-gazing ghost was then haunting the fifth floor, like many Chelsea residents, Mary may simply change apartments periodically.

 

"Girl with Black Balloons" Wows ‘Em at Edinburgh

Well, we’re a bit late in announcing it, but a film about under appreciated Chelsea Hotel artist Bettina was recently shown at the Edinburgh International Film Festival.  The film, “Girl with the Black Balloons” by Dutch filmmaker Corinne van der Borch chronicles Bettina’s life and artwork, the latter reputedly rejected by the Museum of Modern Art because they said it couldn’t be the work of one   person.  Though I have yet to see van der Borch’s film, I do know that the title refers to a rather large bunch of black balloons that one morning appeared mysteriously floating above Bettina’s wheelchair.  It wasn’t mysterious that they were floating, of course, since they were filled with helium, but Bettina just didn’t know how they got there. Well, at last, the mystery has been solved: I put them there!

Sandra Weimar, a German photographer, was using them for a photo shoot in Madonna's sex room for a fashion spread for one of the international edition's of Vogue and when she was done she gave them to me.  I knew Bettina would like them. 
 

Girl With Black Balloons Trailer from wondertimefilms on Vimeo

Who Gets The Ashcan: The Chelsea Hotel or the Fedora?

Good news for 23^rd Street & West 4th St!  Noel Ashman, who was attempting to take over Star Lounge from Charles Ferri, only to be thwarted in his pursuit of a liquor license, was recently rumored to be ready to seize the venerable Fedora   Restaurant on W. 4th Street.  However, it appears that he didn't make the cut at that landmark institution either.  Has Ashcan given up on the Chelsea basement space (where work continues sporadically),  or on his bizarre Argentinian restaurant scheme? We here at Legends, as cynical as we are, refuse to believe that any one man could be heartless and soulless enough as to try to desecrate two landmark institutions—at least not at the same time.  Oh well, where will we throw our $5 Lard Lad doughnuts, if our Ashcan is gone?  (Source: Grubstreet)

Mobster Ghost Haunts Imperioli at Chelsea Hotel

The Chelsea is of course the scariest hotel on earth: if the ghosts
don’t get you the bugs will.  And soon we’ll have further documentary
 evidence of the powerful
 paranormal propensities of
 the Last Outpost of Beelzebub. 

On Saturday, July 17 at 10PM ET,
  the Bio Channel opens the second season
of “Celebrity Ghost Stories” with
an episode in which, “. . .Michael

Imperioli meets a tormented spirit
at the legendary Chelsea Hotel.” 
Hmm, must have been a ghost of
one of the guys he wacked.  Maybe it
was that Russian who ran away in the woods.  Did he ever turn up? 
Or am I confusing fact with fiction? 
You be the judge.

Click here for more Chelsea Hotel Ghost Stories  

 

Is there a Krauss in the House? Were comments of TMS praise written by Krauss herself?

 As you can see from the screen grab below, two comments by someone using the screen name "Olivia", which is the name of one of minority shareholder Dr. Marlene Krauss' daughters, and a comment praising TMS (the basis of Marlene's latest money-making scheme, the Sychordia Center), all came from the same IP address.  These are the only three comments ever submitted from this IP, which is owned by Road Runner, an Internet Service Provider.  When we received the first two comments, we had no reason to doubt that they were from Marlene's daughter, but now it rather looks as if Marlene may be writing them herself.  If she has taken to using her children and mental patients in a misplaced attempt to win sympathy for her ill-advised business ventures, then she has indeed sunk to a new low. 

I'll try to be more careful about my personal hygiene in the future. Marlene is resonsible for the bugs, since she's the owner of this fleabag hotel. 

Love Kills: The Sequel

Kelly Padrick, a NYC singer/songwriter recently filmed a video at the Chelsea Hotel entitled Hello My Love.  According to Padrick, " ..... it's a video based on sex and murder (naturally) :)"  Well, sounds like just another day at the Chelsea Hotel.