The Chelsea Hotel by Larry Baumhor

 

THE CHELSEA HOTEL

by Larry Baumhor

Dedicated To Stanley Bard

(All photos and interviews by Larry Baumhor unless otherwise noted.)

 

   I got fucked-up at the Chelsea Hotel while on a tour with William Benton, the hotel bellman and tour guide. I’m walking through the hotel recording William’s tour and simultaneously shooting photos. But I didn’t feel conscious, more like a dream state, a euphoric high, an out-of-body experience, floating through the Chelsea halls.

 

The History of the Chelsea Hotel

   Stanley Bard, part owner of the hotel was a patron, to a who’s who in the art world. Mr. Bard allowed many artists free rooms in exchange for their art.  Stanley was like an impresario. It was not just painters whom Sir Bard accepted; there were musicians, actors, dancers, poets, writers, composers, sculptors, rebels, the avant-garde, and an extraordinary collection of misfits.

 

   Stanley Bard worked in the hotel in 1957 as a plumber’s assistant. When Stanley’s father died in 1964, he began managing the hotel. The hotel’s board of directors ousted Stanley in June of 2007, claiming that Bard allowed tenants to stay even if they had fallen behind in their rent. Duh! The hotel was known for the arts but Stanley took it to another level.

   “I don’t know what someone else will be able to contribute to that wonderful difference that took me a whole lifetime to create. I never wanted The Chelsea to be a conformist community... This community is so beautiful and different, and yes, strange, and kooky. But all these things are highlights and something I consider very important to the total picture of the establishment,” by Stanley Bard.

   Stanley’s in heaven now managing the Arts with Janis, Dylan, Jimi, Jack, Allen, Andy, Edie, Nancy, Robert, and the rest of the gang. And the rent is free!

 

 

   Jack Kerouac typed On the Road at the Chelsea Hotel. The door to his room sold at auction for $30,000.00. Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke worked on 2001: A Space Odyssey, and Milos Forman penned the screenplay for One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest at the Chelsea Hotel. Jimi Hendrix and Madonna’s doors sold at auction for $13,000.00 each.
   Believe me when I tell you there are ghosts in these halls and the rooms of the hotel. I physically felt their energy and I was emotionally jolted into a fairytale. I had no control over how I was feeling. How the hell could I be lifted into the air and fly through the halls of The Chelsea Hotel? Damn if I know?

Ghosts of The Chelsea Hotel:

Bob Marley, Patti Smith, Dee Dee Ramone, Andy Warhol,

Virgil Thomson, Stanley Bard, Larry Rivers and Bernard Lias

   In Room 204 I was smoking Afghan black hash with Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe. In Room 80 (it was Room 822) I was making out with Madonna. 

Patti and Robert inside the Chelsea Hotel, by Norman Seeff


Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe’s room, by Larry Baumhor

   In Janis Joplin’s Room 415 I was watching Leonard Cohen having intercourse with Janis. The door sold for $85,000.00 at auction.

 

Janis Joplin outside the Hotel Chelsea, 1969. Photo by David Gahr.

 

by Larry Baumhor

Leonard Cohen’s room, by Larry Baumhor

 

Inside the Chelsea Hotel, by Larry Baumhor


In Room 80 (formerly Room 822) Madonna wrote her book Sex.

Madonna’s room, by Larry Baumhor

 

 Leonard Cohen sings Chelsea Hotel about Janis Joplin

   In Edie Sedgwick’s Room 442, I witnessed the creation of the Warhol film The Chelsea Girls. The door sold at auction for $52,000.00. The song Chelsea Girls by Lou Reed was the title track to Nico’s debut album in 1967. The song describes dominatrixes and people overdosing in Rooms 506 and 115. After Reed’s death fans left flowers at the hotel entrance in 2013.

 

Andy Warhol filming Chelsea Girls, 1966. Photo by Santi Visalli. 

The door to Room 105, Edie Sedgwick’s room, which was used to shoot scenes for Andy Warhol’s Chelsea Girls.

 

Lou Reed, Take A Walk On The Wild Side.

   In Room 2A (formerly Room 211) Bob Dylan was writing and rehearsing Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands. His door sold for $100,000.00 at auction.

Bob Dylan’s room, by Larry Baumhor

   In Room 2C (originally Room 205), I gave mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to Dylan Thomas, shouting at him, “Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”

by Larry Baumhor

Dylan Thomas’ room, by Larry Baumhor

   Nancy Spungen was being escorted out of Room 100 in a gurney while heroin-induced Sid Vicious was carted away in handcuffs. In Room 105 I put the fire out that Edie Sedgwick started.

Nancy Spungen, Chelsea Hotel, by Allan Tannenbaum

 

 

Chelsea Girls, by Nico

 

   Leonard Cohen lived in Room 4Q (then Room 424) during the sixties. In Room 614 Arthur Miller was at his typewriter pounding at the keyboard, but Marilyn was not to be seen.

Playwright Arthur Miller holed up in Hotel Chelsea following his divorce from Marilyn Monroe.

Kobal Shutterstock

By Larry Baumhor

   I visited Hiroya who performed Kabuki. The Japanese artist committed suicide by jumping off a stairwell in the hotel. 

 

Hiroya at the Chelsea Hotel

   My final destination was Room 430 where Jimi Hendrix played The Star-Spangled Banner. The door at auction sold for thirteen thousand dollars.

Dreaming Walls: Inside The Chelsea Hotel

   In 1883 construction began for the Chelsea Hotel. The area in Chelsea was named after the hotel. The hotel was the center of the theater district and at the corner was an opera house. Within ten years the theaters moved to Broadway. Tenants began moving to midtown and uptown. In 1904 the hotel was in bankruptcy. In 1905 it became the Chelsea Hotel and it changed units from apartments to hotel rooms.
   In the 1930s after the depression, David Bard (Stanley’s dad) and two other owners bought the hotel. The board of directors was created in the 1930s of people like Stanley Bard’s descendants, who had a connection to the hotel. 

 

Stanley Bard interview about the changes in The Chelsea Hotel:

 

 

   The 10th floor is the highest, however, there is one hotel room on the 11th floor. The majestic wrought iron on the inside staircases and outside of the hotel are original from the 19th century.

by Larry Baumhor

   There are about forty permanent tenants, several living at the hotel since the late 1960s. There are about 150 rooms for rent. Studios were units built for artists; however, no studios remain today. Of course, artists still live in the hotel and have makeshift studios.
There is a cache of original artwork in the hotel with paintings that are still being hung today. There is currently a gallery exhibit of art from the Chelsea Hotel in NYC.
   In 2011 the hotel was sold and renovation began. The Chelsea closed and reopened in February of 2022. Most of the permanent residents stayed through the renovation.

George Kleinsinger, Quentin Crisp, Stanley Bard

 

Heart of Glass single release 1979 and a photo at the Chelsea Hotel by Norman Seeff

by Larry Baumhor

by Larry Baumhor
 

Inside The Chelsea Hotel, by Larry Baumhor
 

Inside The Chelsea Hotel, by Larry Baumhor