Hotel Chelsea
Encyclopedia
The Hotel Chelsea, also known as the Chelsea Hotel, or simply the Chelsea, is a historic New York City
hotel and landmark, known primarily for its history of notable residents. Located at 222 West 23rd Street
, between Seventh
and Eighth Avenues
, in the Manhattan
neighborhood of Chelsea, the 250-unit hotel has been the home of numerous writer
s, musicians, artist
s, and actors, including Bob Dylan
, Virgil Thomson
, Charles Bukowski
, Janis Joplin
, Leonard Cohen
, Patti Smith
, Iggy Pop
, Jobriath
, and Larry Rivers
. Though the Hotel Chelsea no longer accepts new long-term residencies, the building is still home to many residents who lived there before the change of policy. As of August 1, 2011, the hotel has closed for renovations.
Arthur C. Clarke
wrote 2001: A Space Odyssey
while staying at the Chelsea, and poets Allen Ginsberg
, and Gregory Corso
chose it as a place for philosophical and intellectual exchange. It is also known as the place where the writer Dylan Thomas
was staying when he died of pneumonia
on November 9, 1953, and where Nancy Spungen
, girlfriend of Sid Vicious
of the Sex Pistols
, was found stabbed to death on October 12, 1978.
The building has been a designated New York City landmark since 1966, and on the National Register of Historic Places
since 1977.
s. It was designed by the firm of Hubert, Pirsson & Company in a style that has been described variously as Queen Anne Revival and Victorian Gothic. Among its distinctive features are the delicate, flower-ornamented iron balconies on its facade, which were constructed by J.B. and J.M Cornell and its grand staircase, which extends upward twelve floors. Generally, this staircase is only accessible to registered guests, although the hotel does offer monthly tours to others.
At the time of its construction, the building was the tallest in New York, and its surrounding neighborhood constituted the center of New York's theater district. However, within a few years the combination of economic stresses and the relocation of the theaters bankrupted the Chelsea cooperative. In 1905, the building reopened as a hotel, which was later managed by Knott Hotels and resident manager A. R. Walty. After the hotel went bankrupt, it was purchased in 1939 by Joseph Gross, Julius Krauss, and David Bard, and these partners managed the hotel together until the early 1970s. With the passing of Joseph Gross and Julius Krauss, the management fell to Stanley Bard, David Bard's son.
On June 18, 2007, the hotel's board of directors ousted Bard as the hotel's manager. Dr. Marlene Krauss, the daughter of Julius Krauss, and David Elder, the grandson of Joseph Gross and the son of playwright and screenwriter Lonne Elder III
, replaced Stanley Bard with the management company BD Hotels NY; that firm has since been terminated as well.
In May 2011, the hotel was sold to real estate developer Joseph Chetrit for US$80 million dollars.
As of August 1, 2011 the hotel stopped taking reservations for guests in order to begin renovations, but long-time residents remain in the building, some of them protected by state rent regulations. The renovations prompted complaints by the remaining tenants of health hazards caused by the construction. These were investigated by the city's Building Department, which found no major violations. In November 2011, the management ordered all of the hotel's many artworks taken off the walls, supposedly for their protection and cataloging, a move which some tenants interpreted as a step towards forcing them out as well.
s and thinkers
including Mark Twain
, O. Henry
, Herbert Huncke
, Dylan Thomas
, Arthur C. Clarke
, William S. Burroughs
, Gregory Corso
, Arnold Weinstein
, Leonard Cohen
, Sharmagne Leland-St. John
, Arthur Miller
, Quentin Crisp
, Gore Vidal
, Tennessee Williams
, Allen Ginsberg
, Jack Kerouac
(who wrote On the Road
there), Robert Hunter
, Jack Gantos
, Brendan Behan
, Simone de Beauvoir
, Jean-Paul Sartre
, Thomas Wolfe
, Charles Bukowski
, Raymond Kennedy
, Matthew Richardson
, and René Ricard
.
Charles R. Jackson
, author of The Lost Weekend
, committed suicide in his room on September 21, 1968.
s and film directors such as Stanley Kubrick
, Shirley Clarke
, Mitch Hedberg
, Dave Hill
, Miloš Forman
, Lillie Langtry
, Ethan Hawke
, Dennis Hopper
, Vincent Gallo
, Patricia Chica
, Eddie Izzard
, Hal MIller, Uma Thurman
, Elliot Gould, Elaine Stritch
, Michael Imperioli
, Jane Fonda
, Gaby Hoffmann
and her mother, the Warhol film star Viva
, and Edie Sedgwick
.
s who have resided or visited there. Some of the most prominent names include The Grateful Dead, Tom Waits
, Patti Smith
, Iggy Pop
, Bobby "Werner" Strete, Mod Fun
, Virgil Thomson
, Jeff Beck
, Chick Corea
, Dee Dee Ramone
, Johnny Thunders
, Phil Lynott
, Henri Chopin
, John Cale
, Édith Piaf
, Joni Mitchell
, Bob Dylan
, Alice Cooper
, Alejandro Escovedo
, Janis Joplin
, Jimi Hendrix
, Peter Walker
, Canned Heat
, Sid Vicious
, Vivian Stanshall
, Richard Hell
, Jobriath Boone, Little Annie
, Rufus Wainwright
, Lance Loud
, Abdullah Ibrahim
/Sathima Bea Benjamin
, Vasant Rai
, Jacques Labouchere
, and Leonard Cohen
. Madonna
lived at the Chelsea in the early eighties, returning in 1992 to shoot photographs for her book, Sex
, in room 822. Falco
, Ryan Adams
, The Libertines
, The Fuse (UK)
, Michael McDermott
, Melissa Auf der Maur
, Tim Freedman
, and Anthony Kiedis
have spent time at The Chelsea. Taylor Momsen
's Band, the Pretty Reckless, did a photo shoot in room 822 of the Chelsea. British pop band La Roux
shot at the second version of the music video for their song "In for the Kill
" at the Chelsea.
who have passed through. Larry Rivers
, Brett Whiteley
, Christo, Arman
, Francesco Clemente
, Julian Schnabel
, Ching Ho Cheng
, David Remfry
, Philip Taaffe
, Ralph Gibson
, Frida Kahlo
, Diego Rivera
, Robert Crumb
, Jasper Johns
, Edie Sedgwick
, Claes Oldenburg
, Vali Myers, Donald Baechler
, Herbert Gentry
, Willem De Kooning
, Robert Mapplethorpe
, Lynne Drexler
, Nora Sumberg
and Henri Cartier-Bresson
have all spent time at the hotel. Painter and ethnomusicologist Harry Everett Smith
lived and died in Room 328. The painter Alphaeus Philemon Cole
lived there for 35 years until his death in 1988 at age 112.
, credited with being America's first couturier
who influenced fashion in the 1940s and 1950s. In 1964 he moved into the Chelsea, dying there of pneumonia in 1978.
Superstars
, as he and Paul Morrisey directed Chelsea Girls
(1966), a film about his Factory
regulars and their lives at the hotel. Chelsea residents from the Warhol scene included Edie Sedgwick
, Viva
, Ultra Violet, Mary Woronov
, Holly Woodlawn
, Andrea Feldman
, Nico
, Paul America
, and Brigid Berlin
.
lived at the Chelsea Hotel. Several survivors of the stayed for some time in this hotel as it is a short distance from Pier 54, the White Star Line
dock where the Titanic was supposed to make landfall. The Chelsea was also home to many sailors returning from their duties in World War I. Ruth Harkness
, an adventurer/naturalist who brought the first live giant panda from China to the U.S. in the 1930s, stayed at the Chelsea Hotel after her return to the States.
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
hotel and landmark, known primarily for its history of notable residents. Located at 222 West 23rd Street
23rd Street (Manhattan)
23rd Street is a broad thoroughfare in the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is one of few two-way streets in the gridiron of the borough. As with Manhattan's other "crosstown" streets, it is divided at Fifth Avenue, in this case at Madison Square Park, into its east and west sections. Since...
, between Seventh
Seventh Avenue (Manhattan)
Seventh Avenue, known as Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard north of Central Park, is a thoroughfare on the West Side of the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It is southbound below Central Park and a two-way street north of the park....
and Eighth Avenues
Eighth Avenue (Manhattan)
Eighth Avenue is a north-south avenue on the West Side of Manhattan in New York City, carrying northbound traffic. Eighth Avenue begins in the West Village neighborhood at Abingdon Square and runs north for 44 blocks through Chelsea, the Garment District, Hell's Kitchen's east end, Midtown and the...
, in the Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
neighborhood of Chelsea, the 250-unit hotel has been the home of numerous writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
s, musicians, artist
Artist
An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...
s, and actors, including Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
, Virgil Thomson
Virgil Thomson
Virgil Thomson was an American composer and critic. He was instrumental in the development of the "American Sound" in classical music...
, Charles Bukowski
Charles Bukowski
Henry Charles Bukowski was an American poet, novelist and short story writer. His writing was influenced by the social, cultural and economic ambience of his home city of Los Angeles...
, Janis Joplin
Janis Joplin
Janis Lyn Joplin was an American singer, songwriter, painter, dancer and music arranger. She rose to prominence in the late 1960s as the lead singer of Big Brother and the Holding Company and later as a solo artist with her backing groups, The Kozmic Blues Band and The Full Tilt Boogie Band...
, Leonard Cohen
Leonard Cohen
Leonard Norman Cohen, is a Canadian singer-songwriter, musician, poet and novelist. Cohen published his first book of poetry in Montreal in 1956 and his first novel in 1963. His work often explores religion, isolation, sexuality and interpersonal relationships...
, Patti Smith
Patti Smith
Patricia Lee "Patti" Smith is an American singer-songwriter, poet and visual artist, who became a highly influential component of the New York City punk rock movement with her 1975 debut album Horses....
, Iggy Pop
Iggy Pop
Iggy Pop is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. Though considered an innovator of punk rock, Pop's music has encompassed a number of styles over the years, including pop, metal, jazz and blues...
, Jobriath
Jobriath
Jobriath , was an American folk and glam rock musician and actor...
, and Larry Rivers
Larry Rivers
Larry Rivers was an American artist, musician, filmmaker and occasional actor. Rivers resided and maintained studios in New York City, Southampton, New York and Zihuatanejo, Mexico.-Biography:...
. Though the Hotel Chelsea no longer accepts new long-term residencies, the building is still home to many residents who lived there before the change of policy. As of August 1, 2011, the hotel has closed for renovations.
Arthur C. Clarke
Arthur C. Clarke
Sir Arthur Charles Clarke, CBE, FRAS was a British science fiction author, inventor, and futurist, famous for his short stories and novels, among them 2001: A Space Odyssey, and as a host and commentator in the British television series Mysterious World. For many years, Robert A. Heinlein,...
wrote 2001: A Space Odyssey
2001: A Space Odyssey (novel)
2001: A Space Odyssey is a science fiction novel by Arthur C. Clarke. It was developed concurrently with Stanley Kubrick's film version and published after the release of the film...
while staying at the Chelsea, and poets Allen Ginsberg
Allen Ginsberg
Irwin Allen Ginsberg was an American poet and one of the leading figures of the Beat Generation in the 1950s. He vigorously opposed militarism, materialism and sexual repression...
, and Gregory Corso
Gregory Corso
Gregory Nunzio Corso was an American poet, youngest of the inner circle of Beat Generation writers...
chose it as a place for philosophical and intellectual exchange. It is also known as the place where the writer Dylan Thomas
Dylan Thomas
Dylan Marlais Thomas was a Welsh poet and writer, Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 11 January 2008. who wrote exclusively in English. In addition to poetry, he wrote short stories and scripts for film and radio, which he often performed himself...
was staying when he died of pneumonia
Pneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung—especially affecting the microscopic air sacs —associated with fever, chest symptoms, and a lack of air space on a chest X-ray. Pneumonia is typically caused by an infection but there are a number of other causes...
on November 9, 1953, and where Nancy Spungen
Nancy Spungen
Nancy Laura Spungen was the American girlfriend of Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious. Spungen has been the subject of controversy among music historians and fans of the Sex Pistols.-Early life:...
, girlfriend of Sid Vicious
Sid Vicious
Sid Vicious was an English musician best known as the bassist of the influential punk rock group Sex Pistols...
of the Sex Pistols
Sex Pistols
The Sex Pistols were an English punk rock band that formed in London in 1975. They were responsible for initiating the punk movement in the United Kingdom and inspiring many later punk and alternative rock musicians...
, was found stabbed to death on October 12, 1978.
The building has been a designated New York City landmark since 1966, and on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
since 1977.
History
Built between 1883 and 1885 and opened for initial occupation in 1884, the twelve-story red-brick building that is now the Hotel Chelsea was one of the city's first private apartment cooperativeHousing cooperative
A housing cooperative is a legal entity—usually a corporation—that owns real estate, consisting of one or more residential buildings. Each shareholder in the legal entity is granted the right to occupy one housing unit, sometimes subject to an occupancy agreement, which is similar to a lease. ...
s. It was designed by the firm of Hubert, Pirsson & Company in a style that has been described variously as Queen Anne Revival and Victorian Gothic. Among its distinctive features are the delicate, flower-ornamented iron balconies on its facade, which were constructed by J.B. and J.M Cornell and its grand staircase, which extends upward twelve floors. Generally, this staircase is only accessible to registered guests, although the hotel does offer monthly tours to others.
At the time of its construction, the building was the tallest in New York, and its surrounding neighborhood constituted the center of New York's theater district. However, within a few years the combination of economic stresses and the relocation of the theaters bankrupted the Chelsea cooperative. In 1905, the building reopened as a hotel, which was later managed by Knott Hotels and resident manager A. R. Walty. After the hotel went bankrupt, it was purchased in 1939 by Joseph Gross, Julius Krauss, and David Bard, and these partners managed the hotel together until the early 1970s. With the passing of Joseph Gross and Julius Krauss, the management fell to Stanley Bard, David Bard's son.
On June 18, 2007, the hotel's board of directors ousted Bard as the hotel's manager. Dr. Marlene Krauss, the daughter of Julius Krauss, and David Elder, the grandson of Joseph Gross and the son of playwright and screenwriter Lonne Elder III
Lonne Elder III
Lonne Elder III was an American actor, playwright and screenwriter. In 1973, he along with Suzanne de Passe became the first African Americans to be nominated for the Academy Award for writing...
, replaced Stanley Bard with the management company BD Hotels NY; that firm has since been terminated as well.
In May 2011, the hotel was sold to real estate developer Joseph Chetrit for US$80 million dollars.
As of August 1, 2011 the hotel stopped taking reservations for guests in order to begin renovations, but long-time residents remain in the building, some of them protected by state rent regulations. The renovations prompted complaints by the remaining tenants of health hazards caused by the construction. These were investigated by the city's Building Department, which found no major violations. In November 2011, the management ordered all of the hotel's many artworks taken off the walls, supposedly for their protection and cataloging, a move which some tenants interpreted as a step towards forcing them out as well.
Notable residents
Literary artists
During its lifetime Hotel Chelsea has provided a home to many great writerWriter
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
s and thinkers
Intellectual
An intellectual is a person who uses intelligence and critical or analytical reasoning in either a professional or a personal capacity.- Terminology and endeavours :"Intellectual" can denote four types of persons:...
including Mark Twain
Mark Twain
Samuel Langhorne Clemens , better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist...
, O. Henry
O. Henry
O. Henry was the pen name of the American writer William Sydney Porter . O. Henry's short stories are well known for their wit, wordplay, warm characterization and clever twist endings.-Early life:...
, Herbert Huncke
Herbert Huncke
Herbert Edwin Huncke was a writer and poet, and active participant in a number of emerging cultural, social and aesthetic movements of the 20th century in America...
, Dylan Thomas
Dylan Thomas
Dylan Marlais Thomas was a Welsh poet and writer, Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 11 January 2008. who wrote exclusively in English. In addition to poetry, he wrote short stories and scripts for film and radio, which he often performed himself...
, Arthur C. Clarke
Arthur C. Clarke
Sir Arthur Charles Clarke, CBE, FRAS was a British science fiction author, inventor, and futurist, famous for his short stories and novels, among them 2001: A Space Odyssey, and as a host and commentator in the British television series Mysterious World. For many years, Robert A. Heinlein,...
, William S. Burroughs
William S. Burroughs
William Seward Burroughs II was an American novelist, poet, essayist and spoken word performer. A primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major postmodernist author, he is considered to be "one of the most politically trenchant, culturally influential, and innovative artists of the 20th...
, Gregory Corso
Gregory Corso
Gregory Nunzio Corso was an American poet, youngest of the inner circle of Beat Generation writers...
, Arnold Weinstein
Arnold Weinstein
Arnold Weinstein was an American poet, playwright and librettist, who referred to himself as a "theatre poet"....
, Leonard Cohen
Leonard Cohen
Leonard Norman Cohen, is a Canadian singer-songwriter, musician, poet and novelist. Cohen published his first book of poetry in Montreal in 1956 and his first novel in 1963. His work often explores religion, isolation, sexuality and interpersonal relationships...
, Sharmagne Leland-St. John
Sharmagne Leland-St. John
Sharmagne Leland-St. John is a 20th century Native American poet. Leland-St. John is best known for the poem "I Said Coffee," for which she was nominated for the Pushcart Prize in 2007...
, Arthur Miller
Arthur Miller
Arthur Asher Miller was an American playwright and essayist. He was a prominent figure in American theatre, writing dramas that include plays such as All My Sons , Death of a Salesman , The Crucible , and A View from the Bridge .Miller was often in the public eye,...
, Quentin Crisp
Quentin Crisp
Quentin Crisp , was an English writer and raconteur. He became a gay icon in the 1970s after publication of his memoir, The Naked Civil Servant.- Early life :...
, Gore Vidal
Gore Vidal
Gore Vidal is an American author, playwright, essayist, screenwriter, and political activist. His third novel, The City and the Pillar , outraged mainstream critics as one of the first major American novels to feature unambiguous homosexuality...
, Tennessee Williams
Tennessee Williams
Thomas Lanier "Tennessee" Williams III was an American writer who worked principally as a playwright in the American theater. He also wrote short stories, novels, poetry, essays, screenplays and a volume of memoirs...
, Allen Ginsberg
Allen Ginsberg
Irwin Allen Ginsberg was an American poet and one of the leading figures of the Beat Generation in the 1950s. He vigorously opposed militarism, materialism and sexual repression...
, Jack Kerouac
Jack Kerouac
Jean-Louis "Jack" Lebris de Kerouac was an American novelist and poet. He is considered a literary iconoclast and, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, a pioneer of the Beat Generation. Kerouac is recognized for his spontaneous method of writing, covering topics such as Catholic...
(who wrote On the Road
On the Road
On the Road is a novel by American writer Jack Kerouac, written in April 1951, and published by Viking Press in 1957. It is a largely autobiographical work that was based on the spontaneous road trips of Kerouac and his friends across mid-century America. It is often considered a defining work of...
there), Robert Hunter
Robert Hunter (lyricist)
Robert C. Hunter is an American lyricist, singer-songwriter, translator, and poet, best known for his association with Jerry Garcia and the Grateful Dead.-Biography:He was born Robert Burns in San Luis Obispo, California...
, Jack Gantos
Jack Gantos
John Bryan Gantos, Jr., better known as Jack Gantos is an American author of children's books renowned for his portrayal of fictional Joey Pigza, a boy with ADHD. Gantos has won a number of awards, including the Newbery Honor, the Printz Honor, and the Sibert Honor from the American Library...
, Brendan Behan
Brendan Behan
Brendan Francis Behan was an Irish poet, short story writer, novelist, and playwright who wrote in both Irish and English. He was also an Irish republican and a volunteer in the Irish Republican Army.-Early life:...
, Simone de Beauvoir
Simone de Beauvoir
Simone-Ernestine-Lucie-Marie Bertrand de Beauvoir, often shortened to Simone de Beauvoir , was a French existentialist philosopher, public intellectual, and social theorist. She wrote novels, essays, biographies, an autobiography in several volumes, and monographs on philosophy, politics, and...
, Jean-Paul Sartre
Jean-Paul Sartre
Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre was a French existentialist philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and literary critic. He was one of the leading figures in 20th century French philosophy, particularly Marxism, and was one of the key figures in literary...
, Thomas Wolfe
Thomas Wolfe
Thomas Clayton Wolfe was a major American novelist of the early 20th century.Wolfe wrote four lengthy novels, plus many short stories, dramatic works and novellas. He is known for mixing highly original, poetic, rhapsodic, and impressionistic prose with autobiographical writing...
, Charles Bukowski
Charles Bukowski
Henry Charles Bukowski was an American poet, novelist and short story writer. His writing was influenced by the social, cultural and economic ambience of his home city of Los Angeles...
, Raymond Kennedy
Raymond Kennedy
Raymond Kennedy was an American novelist. He was born in Wilbraham, Massachusetts to James Patrick Kennedy and Orise Belanger and was the youngest of three brothers. Kennedy spent his formative years in Belchertown and Holyoke...
, Matthew Richardson
Matthew Richardson (author)
Matthew Richardson is a Canadian author and primatologist. He is best known for his historical piece, The Royal Book of Lists: An Irreverent Romp Through British Royal History from Alfred the Great to Prince William ....
, and René Ricard
René Ricard
René Ricard is an American poet, art critic and painter.Ricard grew up in Acushnet, Massachusetts. As a young teenager he ran away to Boston and assimilated into the literary scene of the city. By age eighteen he’d moved to New York City, where he became a protege of Andy Warhol...
.
Charles R. Jackson
Charles R. Jackson
Charles Reginald Jackson was an American author, best known for his 1944 novel The Lost Weekend.-Career:Jackson's first published story, "Palm Sunday", appeared in the Partisan Review in 1939...
, author of The Lost Weekend
The Lost Weekend (novel)
The Lost Weekend is Charles R. Jackson's first novel, published by Farrar & Rinehart in 1944. It served as the basis for a film adaptation by the same name in 1945.-Synopsis:...
, committed suicide in his room on September 21, 1968.
Actors and film directors
The hotel has been a home to actorActor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
s and film directors such as Stanley Kubrick
Stanley Kubrick
Stanley Kubrick was an American film director, writer, producer, and photographer who lived in England during most of the last four decades of his career...
, Shirley Clarke
Shirley Clarke
Shirley Clarke was an American independent filmmaker.-Early life:Born Shirley Brimberg in New York City, Shirley Clarke was the daughter of a Polish-immigrant father who made his fortune in manufacturing. Her mother was the daughter of a multimillionaire Jewish manufacturer and inventor. Her...
, Mitch Hedberg
Mitch Hedberg
Mitchell Lee "Mitch" Hedberg was an American stand-up comedian known for his surreal humor and unconventional comedic delivery. His comedy typically featured short, sometimes one-line jokes, mixed with absurd elements and non sequiturs...
, Dave Hill
Dave Hill (comedian)
Dave Hill is a comedian, writer, musician and actor. He hosts the stage show The Dave Hill Explosion at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in New York and Hollywood and recently starred in the television show The King of Miami on the MOJO HD network. The show is now airing on Film24 in the UK....
, Miloš Forman
Miloš Forman
Jan Tomáš Forman , better known as Miloš Forman , is a Czech-American director, screenwriter, professor, and an emigrant from Czechoslovakia. Two of his films, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Amadeus, are among the most celebrated in the history of film, both gaining him the Academy Award for...
, Lillie Langtry
Lillie Langtry
Lillie Langtry , usually spelled Lily Langtry when she was in the U.S., born Emilie Charlotte Le Breton, was a British actress born on the island of Jersey...
, Ethan Hawke
Ethan Hawke
Ethan Green Hawke is an American actor, writer and director. He made his feature film debut in 1985 with the science fiction movie Explorers, before making a supporting appearance in the 1989 drama Dead Poets Society which is considered his breakthrough role...
, Dennis Hopper
Dennis Hopper
Dennis Lee Hopper was an American actor, filmmaker and artist. As a young man, Hopper became interested in acting and eventually became a student of the Actors' Studio. He made his first television appearance in 1954 and appeared in two films featuring James Dean, Rebel Without a Cause and Giant...
, Vincent Gallo
Vincent Gallo
Vincent Gallo is an Italian-American film director and actor. Though he has had minor roles in mainstream films such as Goodfellas, he is most associated with independent movies, including Buffalo '66, which he wrote, directed, did the music for and starred in; The Brown Bunny, which he also...
, Patricia Chica
Patricia Chica
Patricia Chica also known as Chicatronica is a Canadian film and television director. She is one of the most internationally renowned filmmakers of Salvadorian descent. In 2007 and 2010, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of El Salvador gave her a diploma of recognition for her outstanding...
, Eddie Izzard
Eddie Izzard
Edward John "Eddie" Izzard is a British stand-up comedian and actor. His comedy style takes the form of rambling, whimsical monologue and self-referential pantomime...
, Hal MIller, Uma Thurman
Uma Thurman
Uma Karuna Thurman is an American actress and model. She has performed in leading roles in a variety of films, ranging from romantic comedies and dramas to science fiction and action movies. Among her best-known roles are those in the Quentin Tarantino films Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill...
, Elliot Gould, Elaine Stritch
Elaine Stritch
Elaine Stritch is an American actress and vocalist. She has appeared in numerous stage plays and musicals, feature films, and many television programs...
, Michael Imperioli
Michael Imperioli
James Michael Imperioli , commonly known as Michael Imperioli, is an American actor and television writer. He is perhaps best known for his role as Christopher Moltisanti on The Sopranos for which he won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series in 2004. He also...
, Jane Fonda
Jane Fonda
Jane Fonda is an American actress, writer, political activist, former fashion model, and fitness guru. She rose to fame in the 1960s with films such as Barbarella and Cat Ballou. She has won two Academy Awards and received several other movie awards and nominations during more than 50 years as an...
, Gaby Hoffmann
Gaby Hoffmann
Gabriella Mary "Gaby" Hoffmann is an American actress.-Birth:Hoffmann was born in New York City. Her mother, Viva , is an actress and writer and appeared in many of Andy Warhol's movies during the 1960s...
and her mother, the Warhol film star Viva
Viva (Warhol superstar)
Viva is an American actress, writer and a former Warhol superstar.-Career:She was born Janet Susan Mary Hoffmann in Syracuse, New York. She was given the name Viva by Andy Warhol before the release of her first film but later used her married last name . She appeared in several of Warhol's films...
, and Edie Sedgwick
Edie Sedgwick
Edith Minturn "Edie" Sedgwick was an American actress, socialite, model and heiress. She is best known for being one of Andy Warhol's superstars. Sedgwick became known as "The Girl of the Year" in 1965 after starring in several of Warhol's short films in the 1960s...
.
Musicians
Much of Hotel Chelsea's history has been colored by the musicianMusician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....
s who have resided or visited there. Some of the most prominent names include The Grateful Dead, Tom Waits
Tom Waits
Thomas Alan "Tom" Waits is an American singer-songwriter, composer, and actor. Waits has a distinctive voice, described by critic Daniel Durchholz as sounding "like it was soaked in a vat of bourbon, left hanging in the smokehouse for a few months, and then taken outside and run over with a car."...
, Patti Smith
Patti Smith
Patricia Lee "Patti" Smith is an American singer-songwriter, poet and visual artist, who became a highly influential component of the New York City punk rock movement with her 1975 debut album Horses....
, Iggy Pop
Iggy Pop
Iggy Pop is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. Though considered an innovator of punk rock, Pop's music has encompassed a number of styles over the years, including pop, metal, jazz and blues...
, Bobby "Werner" Strete, Mod Fun
Mod Fun
Mod Fun are an American power pop/garage punk band from the New York City area. Mod Fun were originally active in the early to mid 1980s, and played an integral part in New York City's burgeoning garage rock revival scene of the time. By mid 1986 they were widely regarded as one the best known...
, Virgil Thomson
Virgil Thomson
Virgil Thomson was an American composer and critic. He was instrumental in the development of the "American Sound" in classical music...
, Jeff Beck
Jeff Beck
Geoffrey Arnold "Jeff" Beck is an English rock guitarist. He is one of three noted guitarists to have played with The Yardbirds...
, Chick Corea
Chick Corea
Armando Anthony "Chick" Corea is an American jazz pianist, keyboardist, and composer.Many of his compositions are considered jazz standards. As a member of Miles Davis' band in the 1960s, he participated in the birth of the electric jazz fusion movement. In the 1970s he formed Return to Forever...
, Dee Dee Ramone
Dee Dee Ramone
Dee Dee Ramone was an American songwriter and musician, best known as founding member, bassist and main songwriter of the punk rock band the Ramones....
, Johnny Thunders
Johnny Thunders
Johnny Thunders, born John Anthony Genzale, Jr. , was an American protopunk guitarist, singer and songwriter.He came to prominence in the early '70s as a member of the New York Dolls...
, Phil Lynott
Phil Lynott
Philip Parris "Phil" Lynott was an Irish musician who first came to prominence as a founding member, principal songwriter, and frontman of the Irish rock band Thin Lizzy....
, Henri Chopin
Henri Chopin
Henri Chopin was an avant-garde poet and musician.-Life:Henri Chopin was a French practitioner of concrete and sound poet, well-known throughout the second half of the 20th century...
, John Cale
John Cale
John Davies Cale, OBE is a Welsh musician, composer, singer-songwriter and record producer who was a founding member of the experimental rock band The Velvet Underground....
, Édith Piaf
Édith Piaf
Édith Piaf , born Édith Giovanna Gassion, was a French singer and cultural icon who became widely regarded as France's greatest popular singer. Her singing reflected her life, with her specialty being ballads...
, Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell, CC is a Canadian musician, singer songwriter, and painter. Mitchell began singing in small nightclubs in her native Saskatchewan and Western Canada and then busking in the streets and dives of Toronto...
, Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
, Alice Cooper
Alice Cooper
Alice Cooper is an American rock singer, songwriter and musician whose career spans more than four decades...
, Alejandro Escovedo
Alejandro Escovedo
Alejandro Escovedo is an American singer-songwriter.-Biography:The son of Mexican immigrants to Texas, Escovedo is from a family that boasts several professional musicians, including brothers Coke Escovedo and Pete Escovedo, and Sheila E...
, Janis Joplin
Janis Joplin
Janis Lyn Joplin was an American singer, songwriter, painter, dancer and music arranger. She rose to prominence in the late 1960s as the lead singer of Big Brother and the Holding Company and later as a solo artist with her backing groups, The Kozmic Blues Band and The Full Tilt Boogie Band...
, Jimi Hendrix
Jimi Hendrix
James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix was an American guitarist and singer-songwriter...
, Peter Walker
Peter Walker
Peter Walker may refer to:* Peter Walker, Baron Walker of Worcester, British politician* Peter Walker , American landscape architect* Peter Walker , the name of two members of a Scottish brewing family, and their two companies...
, Canned Heat
Canned Heat
Canned Heat is a blues-rock/boogie rock band that formed in Los Angeles, California in 1965. The group has been noted for its own interpretations of blues material as well as for efforts to promote the interest in this type of music and its original artists...
, Sid Vicious
Sid Vicious
Sid Vicious was an English musician best known as the bassist of the influential punk rock group Sex Pistols...
, Vivian Stanshall
Vivian Stanshall
Vivian Stanshall was an English singer-songwriter, painter, musician, author, poet and wit, best known for his work with the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, for his surreal exploration of the British upper classes in Sir Henry at Rawlinson End, and for narrating Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells.-The great...
, Richard Hell
Richard Hell
Richard Hell is a singer, songwriter, bass guitarist, and writer.Richard Hell was an innovator of punk music and fashion. He was one of the first to spike his hair and wear torn, cut and drawn-on shirts, often held together with safety pins...
, Jobriath Boone, Little Annie
Little Annie
Little Annie Bandez is an American singer, songwriter, painter, and stage actor...
, Rufus Wainwright
Rufus Wainwright
Rufus McGarrigle Wainwright is an American-Canadian singer-songwriter. He has recorded six albums of original music, EPs, and tracks on compilations and film soundtracks.-Early years:...
, Lance Loud
Lance Loud
Alanson Russell "Lance" Loud was an American magazine columnist and new wave rock-n-roll performer. Loud is best known for his 1973 appearance in An American Family, a pioneer reality television series that featured his coming out, leading to his status as an icon in the gay community.-Early...
, Abdullah Ibrahim
Abdullah Ibrahim
Abdullah Ibrahim , born Adolph Johannes Brand, 9 October 1934 in Cape Town, South Africa, and formerly known as Dollar Brand, is a South African pianist and composer...
/Sathima Bea Benjamin
Sathima Bea Benjamin
Sathima Bea Benjamin , is a South African vocalist and composer born in Johannesburg, raised in Cape Town, and now based in New York City.-Early life:...
, Vasant Rai
Vasant Rai
Vasant Rai was one of world's most acclaimed performers of Indian music and virtuoso of the Indo/Persian/Afghan instrument Sarod.-Personal life and education:Rai was born in Unjha, Kutch, Gujarat and studied music in India...
, Jacques Labouchere
Jacques Labouchere
Jacques Labouchere is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist living in Göteborg, Sweden.-Biography:Jacques is a singer-songwriter of the anti-folk, New Weird Sweden movement, who was born near the foot hills of the Appalachian Mountains in the northwest corner of Connecticut, USA but moved...
, and Leonard Cohen
Leonard Cohen
Leonard Norman Cohen, is a Canadian singer-songwriter, musician, poet and novelist. Cohen published his first book of poetry in Montreal in 1956 and his first novel in 1963. His work often explores religion, isolation, sexuality and interpersonal relationships...
. Madonna
Madonna (entertainer)
Madonna is an American singer-songwriter, actress and entrepreneur. Born in Bay City, Michigan, she moved to New York City in 1977 to pursue a career in modern dance. After performing in the music groups Breakfast Club and Emmy, she released her debut album in 1983...
lived at the Chelsea in the early eighties, returning in 1992 to shoot photographs for her book, Sex
Sex (book)
Sex is a coffee table book written by Madonna with photographs by Steven Meisel Studio and film frames taken from film shot by Fabien Baron. The book was edited by Glenn O'Brien. Sex was released on October 21, 1992 by Warner Books...
, in room 822. Falco
Falco (musician)
Johann Hölzel , better known by his stage name Falco, was an Austrian pop and rock musician and rapper. He had several international hits: "Der Kommissar", "Rock Me Amadeus", "Vienna Calling", "Jeanny", "The Sound of Musik", "Coming Home " and posthumously, "Out Of The Dark"...
, Ryan Adams
Ryan Adams
David Ryan Adams is an American alt-country/rock singer-songwriter, from Jacksonville, North Carolina. Initially part of the group Whiskeytown, Adams left the band and released his first solo album Heartbreaker in 2000...
, The Libertines
The Libertines
The Libertines were an English rock band, formed in London in 1997 by frontmen Carl Barât and Pete Doherty . The band, centred on the song-writing partnership of Barat and Doherty, also included John Hassall and Gary Powell for most of its recording career...
, The Fuse (UK)
The Fuse (UK)
- Biography :Their self release debut EP 'The Ballad of Charles Godfrey Stilton' created a buzz around northern Britain back in 2001.In March 2003 saw arrival of Ted Heagle and the release of the single 'High Society' which was recorded by Duncan Cameron, Teenage Fanclub, BMX Bandits, Travis and...
, Michael McDermott
Michael McDermott (musician)
-Biography:McDermott started performing in Chicago coffeehouses in the early 1990s, incorporating elements of Irish music into an American folk rock sound. His 1991 single "A Wall I Must Climb", from the album 620 W. Surf, reached #34 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock tracks chart...
, Melissa Auf der Maur
Melissa Auf der Maur
Melissa Auf der Maur is a Canadian rock musician from Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Her career has included 5 years as bassist with the band Hole and she later toured with The Smashing Pumpkins for their 2000 tour. Her second solo album, Out of Our Minds, was released on March 30, 2010. She is also a...
, Tim Freedman
Tim Freedman
Timothy "Tim" James Freedman is the mainstay lead singer and keyboardist of the Australian band The Whitlams formed in 1993...
, and Anthony Kiedis
Anthony Kiedis
Anthony Kiedis is an American vocalist/lyricist, and occasional actor best known as the lead vocalist of the Grammy-winning American rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers. Kiedis spent his youth in Grand Rapids, Michigan with his mother before moving, shortly before his 12th birthday, to Hollywood,...
have spent time at The Chelsea. Taylor Momsen
Taylor Momsen
Taylor Michel Momsen is an American actress, musician and model who portrays the character of Jenny Humphrey on the CW television series Gossip Girl and portrayed the role of Cindy Lou Who in How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and fronts the rock band The Pretty Reckless.-Early life and career:Taylor...
's Band, the Pretty Reckless, did a photo shoot in room 822 of the Chelsea. British pop band La Roux
La Roux
La Roux are an English electropop duo made up of singer, keyboardist, co-writer and co-producer Eleanor Kate Jackson, and co-writer and co-producer Ben Langmaid. Jackson describes their relationship as "very much a half and half sharing situation... not like a singer producer outfit", but also...
shot at the second version of the music video for their song "In for the Kill
In for the Kill
- Personnel :*Burke Shelley - bass guitar, vocals*Tony Bourge - guitar*Pete Boot - drums-Production:*Budgie - Producer*Rodger Bain - Producer for "Crash Course In Brain Surgery"*Kingsley Ward - Engineer*Pat Maran - Engineer...
" at the Chelsea.
Visual artists
The hotel has featured and collected the work of the many visual artistsVisual arts
The visual arts are art forms that create works which are primarily visual in nature, such as ceramics, drawing, painting, sculpture, printmaking, design, crafts, and often modern visual arts and architecture...
who have passed through. Larry Rivers
Larry Rivers
Larry Rivers was an American artist, musician, filmmaker and occasional actor. Rivers resided and maintained studios in New York City, Southampton, New York and Zihuatanejo, Mexico.-Biography:...
, Brett Whiteley
Brett Whiteley
Brett Whiteley, AO was an Australian artist. He is represented in the collections of all the large Australian galleries, and was twice winner of the Archibald Prize...
, Christo, Arman
Arman
Arman was a French-born American artist. Born Armand Pierre Fernandez in Nice, France, Arman is a painter who moved from using the objects as paintbrushes to using them as the painting itself...
, Francesco Clemente
Francesco Clemente
Francesco Clemente is an Italian and American contemporary artist. Influenced by thinkers as diverse as Gregory Bateson, William Blake, Allen Ginsberg, and J Krishnamurti, the art of Francesco Clemente is inclusive and nomadic, crossing many borders, intellectual and geographical.Dividing his time...
, Julian Schnabel
Julian Schnabel
Julian Schnabel is an American artist and filmmaker. In the 1980s, Schnabel received international media attention for his "plate paintings"—large-scale paintings set on broken ceramic plates....
, Ching Ho Cheng
Ching Ho Cheng
Ching Ho Cheng was an artist who lived and worked in New York City during the 1970s and 1980s.-Life and work:An American of Chinese descent, Ching Ho Cheng was born in Havana, Cuba, in 1946. Ching was the son of Chiang Kai-shek's last ambassador to Cuba...
, David Remfry
David Remfry
David Remfry, MBE RA is a British painter currently living in New York City. Best known for his life-size watercolors of urban scenes and nightclubs, his work is held by many museums in the United States of America and United Kingdom.-Exhibitions:Remfry's work is based on the figure...
, Philip Taaffe
Philip Taaffe
Philip Taaffe is an American artistTaaffe was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey and studied at the Cooper Union in New York, gaining a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1977....
, Ralph Gibson
Ralph Gibson
Ralph Gibson is an American art photographer best known for his photographic books. His images often incorporate fragments with erotic and mysterious undertones, building narrative meaning through contextualization and surreal juxtaposition.Ralph Gibson studied photography while in the US Navy and...
, Frida Kahlo
Frida Kahlo
Frida Kahlo de Rivera was a Mexican painter, born in Coyoacán, and perhaps best known for her self-portraits....
, Diego Rivera
Diego Rivera
Diego María de la Concepción Juan Nepomuceno Estanislao de la Rivera y Barrientos Acosta y Rodríguez was a prominent Mexican painter born in Guanajuato, Guanajuato, an active communist, and husband of Frida Kahlo . His large wall works in fresco helped establish the Mexican Mural Movement in...
, Robert Crumb
Robert Crumb
Robert Dennis Crumb —known as Robert Crumb and R. Crumb—is an American artist, illustrator, and musician recognized for the distinctive style of his drawings and his critical, satirical, subversive view of the American mainstream.Crumb was a founder of the underground comix movement and is regarded...
, Jasper Johns
Jasper Johns
Jasper Johns, Jr. is an American contemporary artist who works primarily in painting and printmaking.-Life:Born in Augusta, Georgia, Jasper Johns spent his early life in Allendale, South Carolina with his paternal grandparents after his parents' marriage failed...
, Edie Sedgwick
Edie Sedgwick
Edith Minturn "Edie" Sedgwick was an American actress, socialite, model and heiress. She is best known for being one of Andy Warhol's superstars. Sedgwick became known as "The Girl of the Year" in 1965 after starring in several of Warhol's short films in the 1960s...
, Claes Oldenburg
Claes Oldenburg
Claes Oldenburg is a Swedish sculptor, best known for his public art installations typically featuring very large replicas of everyday objects...
, Vali Myers, Donald Baechler
Donald Baechler
Donald Baechler is an American artist. He attended the Maryland Institute College of Art from 1974–77, and Cooper Union from 1977-78. Dissatisfied with New York City, he proceeded to the Staatliche Hochschule fuer Bildende Künste Städelschule in Frankfurt am Main, Germany."At Cooper Union I met...
, Herbert Gentry
Herbert Gentry
Herbert Gentry was an African American Expressionist painter lived and worked in Paris, France, , Copenhagen, Denmark , In the Swedish cities of Gothenburg , Stockholm , and Malmo , and in New York City as a permanent resident of the Hotel Chelsea.-The art of Herbert Gentry:Gentry’s...
, Willem De Kooning
Willem de Kooning
Willem de Kooning was a Dutch American abstract expressionist artist who was born in Rotterdam, the Netherlands....
, Robert Mapplethorpe
Robert Mapplethorpe
Robert Mapplethorpe was an American photographer, known for his large-scale, highly stylized black and white portraits, photos of flowers and nude men...
, Lynne Drexler
Lynne Mapp Drexler
Lynne Drexler was born in Newport News, Virginia in 1928. She began painting as a child, and later took art classes at the College of William and Mary. In 1956, she moved to New York City in order to further her study. There, she became a devotee of Abstract Expressionism, and studied with two...
, Nora Sumberg
Nora Sumberg (artist)
Nora Sumberg is an Australian landscape painter whose work has over time become increasingly lyrical, abstract and atmospheric. Her art is characterized by intense, floating swathes of colour, impressionistic and ambiguous terrain and glowing, multi-directional light sources...
and Henri Cartier-Bresson
Henri Cartier-Bresson
Henri Cartier-Bresson was a French photographer considered to be the father of modern photojournalism. He was an early adopter of 35 mm format, and the master of candid photography...
have all spent time at the hotel. Painter and ethnomusicologist Harry Everett Smith
Harry Everett Smith
Harry Everett Smith was an American archivist, ethnomusicologist, student of anthropology, record collector, experimental filmmaker, artist, bohemian and mystic...
lived and died in Room 328. The painter Alphaeus Philemon Cole
Alphaeus Philemon Cole
Alphaeus Philemon Cole was an American artist, engraver and etcher. He was born in Jersey City, New Jersey and died in New York City. He was the son of noted engraver Timothy Cole...
lived there for 35 years until his death in 1988 at age 112.
Fashion designers
Charles JamesCharles James (designer)
Charles James was a fashion designer known as America's first couturier. He is considered a master of cutting and is known for his highly structured aesthetic.-Early life:...
, credited with being America's first couturier
Couturier
A couturier is an establishment or person involved in the clothing fashion industry who makes original garments to order for private clients. A couturier may make what is known as haute couture. Such a person usually hires patternmakers and machinists for garment production, and is either employed...
who influenced fashion in the 1940s and 1950s. In 1964 he moved into the Chelsea, dying there of pneumonia in 1978.
Warhol superstars
Hotel Chelsea is often associated with the Andy WarholAndy Warhol
Andrew Warhola , known as Andy Warhol, was an American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art...
Superstars
Warhol superstar
Warhol superstars were a clique of New York City personalities promoted by Andy Warhol during the 1960s and early 1970s. These personalities appeared in Warhol's artworks and accompanied him in his social life...
, as he and Paul Morrisey directed Chelsea Girls
Chelsea Girls
Chelsea Girls is a 1966 experimental underground film directed by Andy Warhol and Paul Morrissey. The film was Warhol's first major commercial success after a long line of avant-garde art films...
(1966), a film about his Factory
The Factory
The Factory was Andy Warhol's original New York City studio from 1962 to 1968, although his later studios were known as The Factory as well. The Factory was located on the fifth floor at 231 East 47th Street, in Midtown Manhattan. The rent was "only about one hundred dollars a year"...
regulars and their lives at the hotel. Chelsea residents from the Warhol scene included Edie Sedgwick
Edie Sedgwick
Edith Minturn "Edie" Sedgwick was an American actress, socialite, model and heiress. She is best known for being one of Andy Warhol's superstars. Sedgwick became known as "The Girl of the Year" in 1965 after starring in several of Warhol's short films in the 1960s...
, Viva
Viva (Warhol superstar)
Viva is an American actress, writer and a former Warhol superstar.-Career:She was born Janet Susan Mary Hoffmann in Syracuse, New York. She was given the name Viva by Andy Warhol before the release of her first film but later used her married last name . She appeared in several of Warhol's films...
, Ultra Violet, Mary Woronov
Mary Woronov
Mary Woronov is an American actress and writer. She is primarily known for her roles in independent and cult films. Woronov has appeared in over 80 movies, as well as numerous appearances in mainstream television series, such as Charlie's Angels and Knight Rider.-Early life:Woronov was born in the...
, Holly Woodlawn
Holly Woodlawn
Holly Woodlawn is a Puerto Rican-born transgendered actress and former Warhol superstar, who appeared in his movies Trash and Women in Revolt .-Early life:...
, Andrea Feldman
Andrea Feldman
Andrea Feldman was an American actress and Warhol Superstar. She committed suicide in 1972.-Career:Andrea Feldman was a native New Yorker. She attended Quintano's School for Young Professionals, a high school for the performing arts...
, Nico
Nico
Nico was a German singer, lyricist, composer, musician, fashion model, and actress, who initially rose to fame as a Warhol Superstar in the 1960s...
, Paul America
Paul America
Paul Johnson , better known as Paul America, was a member of Andy Warhol's Warhol Superstars group who starred in one Warhol-directed film, My Hustler...
, and Brigid Berlin
Brigid Berlin
Brigid Berlin is an American artist and former Warhol superstar.-Early years:Berlin was the eldest of three daughters born to socialite parents, Muriel Johnson "Honey" Berlin and Richard E. Berlin, into a world of Manhattan privilege. Her father was chairman of the Hearst media empire for 32 years...
.
Others
New York event promoter Susanne BartschSusanne Bartsch
Susanne Bartsch is an event producer whose outlandish over-the-top monthly parties at the Copacabana in the late 1980s united the haute and demi-monde and made her an icon of New York nightlife. "Ms...
lived at the Chelsea Hotel. Several survivors of the stayed for some time in this hotel as it is a short distance from Pier 54, the White Star Line
White Star Line
The Oceanic Steam Navigation Company or White Star Line of Boston Packets, more commonly known as the White Star Line, was a prominent British shipping company, today most famous for its ill-fated vessel, the RMS Titanic, and the World War I loss of Titanics sister ship Britannic...
dock where the Titanic was supposed to make landfall. The Chelsea was also home to many sailors returning from their duties in World War I. Ruth Harkness
Ruth Harkness
Ruth Elizabeth Harkness was an American fashion designer and socialite, who traveled to China in 1936 and brought back the first live giant panda to the United States - not in a cage, or on a leash, but wrapped in her arms.Harkness was born in Titusville, Pennsylvania...
, an adventurer/naturalist who brought the first live giant panda from China to the U.S. in the 1930s, stayed at the Chelsea Hotel after her return to the States.
Films and television
The hotel has been featured in:- Chelsea GirlsChelsea GirlsChelsea Girls is a 1966 experimental underground film directed by Andy Warhol and Paul Morrissey. The film was Warhol's first major commercial success after a long line of avant-garde art films...
(1966) by Andy WarholAndy WarholAndrew Warhola , known as Andy Warhol, was an American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art...
, in which the SuperstarsWarhol superstarWarhol superstars were a clique of New York City personalities promoted by Andy Warhol during the 1960s and early 1970s. These personalities appeared in Warhol's artworks and accompanied him in his social life...
have roles - An American FamilyAn American FamilyAn American Family is an American television documentary filmed from May 30 through December 31, 1971 and first aired in the United States on the Public Broadcasting Service in early 1973. After being edited down from about 300 hours of raw footage, the series ran 12 episodes and one season...
(1973, PBS) Much of an episode of the reality TVReality televisionReality television is a genre of television programming that presents purportedly unscripted dramatic or humorous situations, documents actual events, and usually features ordinary people instead of professional actors, sometimes in a contest or other situation where a prize is awarded...
series An American Family was filmed at the Hotel Chelsea while family member Lance LoudLance LoudAlanson Russell "Lance" Loud was an American magazine columnist and new wave rock-n-roll performer. Loud is best known for his 1973 appearance in An American Family, a pioneer reality television series that featured his coming out, leading to his status as an icon in the gay community.-Early...
lived there after moving to New York. - Arena (TV series)Arena (TV series)Arena is a British television documentary series, made and broadcast by the BBC. It has run since 1 October 1975, and over five hundred episodes have been made. Arena covers all manner of subjects, from profiles of notable people such as Bob Dylan to the Ford Cortina car...
(1981) The program's episode, Chelsea HotelChelsea HotelChelsea Hotel can refer to:*Hotel Chelsea in New York City*"Chelsea Hotel #2", a song from the 1974 Leonard Cohen album New Skin for the Old Ceremony*Chelsea Hotel, a book of photographs by Claudio Edinger, published in 1983See also...
was featured on the popular BBCBBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
arts documentary series. - Nine 1/2 Weeks (1986) by Adrian LyneAdrian LyneAdrian Lyne is an English filmmaker and producer. He is best known for directing films that focus on sexually charged characters and often uses natural light, a fog machine and other effects to create eroticized atmospheres...
- Sid & Nancy (1986) by Alex CoxAlex CoxAlexander Cox is a British film director, screenwriter, nonfiction author and sometime actor, notable for his idiosyncratic style and approach to scripts...
- Part of Léon: The ProfessionalLéon (film)Léon is a 1994 French thriller film written and directed by Luc Besson...
(1994), by Luc BessonLuc BessonLuc Besson is a French film director, writer, and producer. He is the creator of EuropaCorp film company. He has been involved with over 50 films, spanning 26 years, as writer, director, and/or producer.-Early life:...
, was shot there, although it was set in an appartment block. - Midnight In Chelsea (1997) directed by Mark Pellington, a videoMusic videoA music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
to a trackMidnight in Chelsea"Midnight in Chelsea" is a song by American Rock singer Jon Bon Jovi, released as the first single from his second solo album Destination Anywhere in 1997. The song was Bon Jovi's highest-charting solo single in the UK, reaching #4 on the UK Singles Chart...
from the 1997 Jon Bon JoviJon Bon JoviJon Bon Jovi is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and actor, best known as the founder, occasional rhythm guitarist, and lead singer of rock band Bon Jovi, which was named after him...
solo album Destination AnywhereDestination Anywhere-Limited Edition:* Tracks 1-8 recorded live at The Forum, London, England, on June 12, 1997.* Track 9 recorded live at MTV, London, England on August 13, 1997.-Personnel:* Jon Bon Jovi – vocals, acoustic & electric guitar, harmonica, piano... - Pie in the Sky the Brigid BerlinBrigid BerlinBrigid Berlin is an American artist and former Warhol superstar.-Early years:Berlin was the eldest of three daughters born to socialite parents, Muriel Johnson "Honey" Berlin and Richard E. Berlin, into a world of Manhattan privilege. Her father was chairman of the Hearst media empire for 32 years...
Story (2002) features a reunion between former resident Brigid BerlinBrigid BerlinBrigid Berlin is an American artist and former Warhol superstar.-Early years:Berlin was the eldest of three daughters born to socialite parents, Muriel Johnson "Honey" Berlin and Richard E. Berlin, into a world of Manhattan privilege. Her father was chairman of the Hearst media empire for 32 years...
and the artist Richard BernsteinRichard BernsteinRichard Bernstein is an American journalist, columnist, and author. He writes the Letter from America column for The International Herald Tribune...
at the Hotel. - The InterpreterThe InterpreterThe Interpreter is a 2005 political thriller film starring Nicole Kidman, Sean Penn, and Catherine Keener. It was the final film to be directed by Sydney Pollack.-Plot:...
(2005) - Party Monster: The ShockumentaryParty Monster: The ShockumentaryParty Monster: The Shockumentary is a 1998 documentary film detailing the rise of the club kid phenomenon in New York City, the life of club kid and party promoter Michael Alig and Alig's murder of fellow club kid and drug dealer Angel Melendez. Produced by World of Wonder and based in part on the...
(1996) various people are mentioned to have lived in the hotel. - Chelsea WallsChelsea WallsChelsea Walls is an American independent film directed by Ethan Hawke and released by Lions Gate Entertainment. It stars Kris Kristofferson, Uma Thurman, Rosario Dawson, and Robert Sean Leonard among others, with original score by Jeff Tweedy of Wilco. The story takes place in the historic Chelsea...
(2001) A movie about a new generation of artists living at the hotel. - Hotel ChelseaHotel Chelsea (film)Hotel Chelsea is a thriller of 2009. The production traveled to New York for filming on the classic Hotel Chelsea, a place regularly visited by celebrities, and gives name to the film.- Plot :...
(2009) A horror film about a Japanese couple staying at the hotel. - Chelsea on the RocksChelsea on the RocksChelsea on the Rocks is a documentary film directed by Abel Ferrara about the Hotel Chelsea. It premiered out of competition at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival. The film features Ferrara interviewing people who have and had lived at the hotel and intercutting that dramatized footage of some famous...
(2008) A documentary film directed by Abel FerraraAbel FerraraAbel Ferrara is an American film screenwriter and director. He is best known as an independent filmmaker of such films as The Driller Killer , Ms. 45 , King of New York , Bad Lieutenant and The Funeral .-Early life:Ferrara was born in the Bronx of Italian and Irish descent... - 2424 (TV series)24 is an American television series produced for the Fox Network and syndicated worldwide, starring Kiefer Sutherland as Counter Terrorist Unit agent Jack Bauer. Each 24-episode season covers 24 hours in the life of Bauer, using the real time method of narration...
(2010) In episode 13 of the eighth season24 (season 8)Season Eight, also known as Day 8, is the final season of the American serial television series 24. Filming for the season began on May 27, 2009, and it premiered on January 17, 2010 with a four-hour two-day premiere...
of the serial action/drama television series, former FBI special agentSpecial agentSpecial agent is usually the title for a detective or investigator for a state, county, municipal, federal or tribal government. An agent is a worker for any federal agency, and a secret agent is one who works for an intelligence agency....
Renee WalkerRenee WalkerRenee Walker was a fictional character on the TV series 24, portrayed by Annie Wersching. She was a former FBI special agent, and appeared in both season 7 and season 8.-Concept and creation:...
is shown to stay in the hotel. - Cinema Verite (2011, HBO) The family's eldest son, Lance LoudLance LoudAlanson Russell "Lance" Loud was an American magazine columnist and new wave rock-n-roll performer. Loud is best known for his 1973 appearance in An American Family, a pioneer reality television series that featured his coming out, leading to his status as an icon in the gay community.-Early...
, (played by Thomas DekkerThomas DekkerThomas Dekker was an English Elizabethan dramatist and pamphleteer, a versatile and prolific writer whose career spanned several decades and brought him into contact with many of the period's most famous dramatists.-Life:...
) lives in the Hotel Chelsea.
Music
The hotel is also featured in numerous songs, including:- "Sara" by Bob DylanBob DylanBob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
, which refers to "Staying up for days in the Chelsea Hotel, writing Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands for you". - "Chelsea Hotel" by Dan BernDan BernDan Bern is an American guitarist, singer, songwriter, novelist and painter. His music is often compared to that of Bob Dylan, Woody Guthrie, Bruce Springsteen, Phil Ochs and Elvis Costello....
- "Chelsea Morning" by Joni MitchellJoni MitchellJoni Mitchell, CC is a Canadian musician, singer songwriter, and painter. Mitchell began singing in small nightclubs in her native Saskatchewan and Western Canada and then busking in the streets and dives of Toronto...
- "Dear Abbey" by Kinky FriedmanKinky FriedmanRichard S. "Kinky" Friedman is an American Texas Country singer, songwriter, novelist, humorist, politician and former columnist for Texas Monthly who styles himself in the mold of popular American satirists Will Rogers and Mark Twain. He was one of two independent candidates in the 2006 election...
- "Chelsea GirlChelsea Girl (album)Chelsea Girl is the debut solo album by Nico. It was released in October 1967 by Verve Records, also home to The Velvet Underground. The name of the album is a reference to Andy Warhol's 1966 film Chelsea Girls, which Nico starred in...
" by NicoNicoNico was a German singer, lyricist, composer, musician, fashion model, and actress, who initially rose to fame as a Warhol Superstar in the 1960s... - "Hi-Fi Popcorn" by The RevsThe RevsThe Revs were an indie rock band from Kilcar, Donegal, Ireland. The group consists of three childhood friends: Rory Gallagher on bass guitar and vocals, John McIntyre and Michael O' Donnell...
- "Chelsea Lovers" by Dave StewartDavid A. StewartDavid Allan Stewart , often known as Dave Stewart, is an English musician, songwriter and record producer, best known for his work with Eurythmics. He is usually credited as David A. Stewart, to avoid confusion with other musicians named "Dave Stewart".-Early life:Stewart was born in Sunderland,...
- "Third Week in the Chelsea" by Jefferson AirplaneJefferson AirplaneJefferson Airplane was an American rock band formed in San Francisco in 1965. A pioneer of the psychedelic rock movement, Jefferson Airplane was the first band from the San Francisco scene to achieve mainstream commercial and critical success....
, in which guitarist Jorma KaukonenJorma KaukonenJorma Ludwik Kaukonen Jr. is an American blues, folk, and rock guitarist, best known for his work with Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna.-Biography:...
details the thoughts he is having about leaving the band. - "We Will Fall" by The StoogesThe StoogesThe Stooges are an American rock band from Ann Arbor, Michigan first active from 1967 to 1974, and later reformed in 2003...
- "Edie (Ciao Baby)" by The CultThe CultThe Cult are a British rock band that was formed in 1983. They gained a dedicated following in Britain in the mid 1980s as a post-punk band with singles such as "She Sells Sanctuary", before breaking mainstream in the United States in the late 1980s as a hard rock band with singles such as "Love...
- "Crow" by Jim CarrollJim CarrollJames Dennis "Jim" Carroll was an author, poet, autobiographer, and punk musician. Carroll was best known for his 1978 autobiographical work The Basketball Diaries, which was made into the 1995 film of the same name, starring Leonardo DiCaprio as Carroll.-Biography:Carroll was born to a...
Band - "Like a Drug I Never Did Before" by Joey RamoneJoey RamoneJoey Ramone was an American vocalist and songwriter, best known as the lead vocalist in the punk rock band the Ramones. Joey Ramone's image, voice and tenure as frontman of the Ramones made him a countercultural icon.-Early life:Joey Ramone was born Jeffry Hyman to parents Noel and Charlotte Hyman...
- "Twenty-third Street" by Bill MorrisseyBill MorrisseyBill Morrissey was an American folk singer/songwriter from New Hampshire. Many of his songs reflect the harsh realities of life in crumbling New England mill towns.-Career:Morrissey was born in Hartford, Connecticut...
- "The Chelsea Hotel" by Graham NashGraham NashGraham William Nash, OBE is an English singer-songwriter known for his light tenor vocals and for his songwriting contributions with the British pop group The Hollies, and with the folk-rock band Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. Nash is a photography collector and a published photographer...
- "Chelsea Avenue" by Patti ScialfaPatti ScialfaVivienne Patricia "Patti" Scialfa is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist. She is married to Bruce Springsteen and they have three children.- Early life :...
, on her album 23rd Street Lullaby - "Chelsea Hotel #2" by Leonard CohenLeonard CohenLeonard Norman Cohen, is a Canadian singer-songwriter, musician, poet and novelist. Cohen published his first book of poetry in Montreal in 1956 and his first novel in 1963. His work often explores religion, isolation, sexuality and interpersonal relationships...
, in which the singer remembers a former lover, implying it was Janis JoplinJanis JoplinJanis Lyn Joplin was an American singer, songwriter, painter, dancer and music arranger. She rose to prominence in the late 1960s as the lead singer of Big Brother and the Holding Company and later as a solo artist with her backing groups, The Kozmic Blues Band and The Full Tilt Boogie Band...
. In a 1994 broadcast on the BBC, Cohen said it was "an indiscretion for which I'm very sorry, and if there is some way of apologising to the ghost, I want to apologise now, for having committed that indiscretion." - "Hotel Chelsea Nights" by Ryan AdamsRyan AdamsDavid Ryan Adams is an American alt-country/rock singer-songwriter, from Jacksonville, North Carolina. Initially part of the group Whiskeytown, Adams left the band and released his first solo album Heartbreaker in 2000...
- "Chelsea Hotel '78" by Alejandro EscovedoAlejandro EscovedoAlejandro Escovedo is an American singer-songwriter.-Biography:The son of Mexican immigrants to Texas, Escovedo is from a family that boasts several professional musicians, including brothers Coke Escovedo and Pete Escovedo, and Sheila E...
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Books
- Chelsea Horror Hotel: A NovelChelsea Horror HotelChelsea Horror Hotel: A Novel is a 2001 novel by Dee Dee Ramone, a member of the punk band The Ramones. The book follows Dee Dee as he moves into the Chelsea Hotel in New York City with his wife Barbra and dog Banfield. Dee Dee becomes convinced that the room he is staying in is the one where his...
by Dee Dee RamoneDee Dee RamoneDee Dee Ramone was an American songwriter and musician, best known as founding member, bassist and main songwriter of the punk rock band the Ramones....
ISBN 1-56025-304-5 - Take the Cannoli: Stories From the New WorldTake the Cannoli: Stories From the New WorldTake the Cannoli: Stories From the New World is a collection of essays by Sarah Vowell, that were originally published in 2000...
by Sarah VowellSarah VowellSarah Jane Vowell is an American author, journalist, essayist and social commentator. Often referred to as a "social observer," Vowell has written five nonfiction books on American history and culture, and was a contributing editor for the radio program This American Life on Public Radio...
ISBN 0-7432-0540-5 - SexSex (book)Sex is a coffee table book written by Madonna with photographs by Steven Meisel Studio and film frames taken from film shot by Fabien Baron. The book was edited by Glenn O'Brien. Sex was released on October 21, 1992 by Warner Books...
by MadonnaMadonna (entertainer)Madonna is an American singer-songwriter, actress and entrepreneur. Born in Bay City, Michigan, she moved to New York City in 1977 to pursue a career in modern dance. After performing in the music groups Breakfast Club and Emmy, she released her debut album in 1983...
ISBN 0-446-51732-1 - Legends of the Chelsea Hotel: Living with the Artists and Outlaws at New York's Rebel Mecca by Ed Hamilton ISBN 978-1-56858-379-2
- Netherland by Joseph O'Neill ISBN 978-0-307-37704-3
- The Chelsea Girl Murders by Sparkle Hayter ISBN 978-0-14-200010-6
- Chelsea Hotel, een Biografie van een Hotel, by Jeroen Wielaert ISBN 90 76927 02 2
- Just Kids by Patti SmithPatti SmithPatricia Lee "Patti" Smith is an American singer-songwriter, poet and visual artist, who became a highly influential component of the New York City punk rock movement with her 1975 debut album Horses....
ISBN 978-0060936228
External links
- Hotel Chelsea official website
- Hotel Chelsea official Twitter
- Hotel Chelsea Blog (unofficial)
- Inside: The Chelsea Hotel - short movie based on photographs by Julia Calfee
- Chelsea Hotel - New York Architecture Images
- http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704281504576325331831600542.html?mod=googlenews_wsj "Chelsea's New Proprietor" - Wall Street Journal
- http://roomkeymag.com/post/8340403752 - Guests Are Gone From The Chelsea Hotel - Roomkey via New York Times