Nasty Checks Into The Chelsea Hotel
Iconic lodge now ‘nuttier than ever’—former manager Stanley Bard says he’s being spied on and another owner gets a Sicilian message by mail
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Tales of Retail
At 6:20 on Monday evening, Hawk Alfredson hauled one of his haunting portraits, wrapped in plastic, into the lobby of the Hotel Chelsea on West 23rd Street.
One of the hotel’s many artsy denizens, Mr. Alfredson, a seven-year resident, said he hoped to hang the six-by-five-foot painting alongside the hotel’s already sprawling collection of canvasses, sculptures and other installations, which adorn the halls and stairwells and lend the landmark 12-story Philip Hubert-designed brick building, erected in 1884, its distinctive gallery vibe.
But who’s curating?
For nearly 50 years, Stanley Bard was the guy in charge of fostering and maintaining the hotel’s reputation as, in the words of author Denise LeFrak Calicchio, “a cauldron of creativity.” Yet, one month after the legendary hotelier’s highly publicized ouster, residents and guests alike apparently still need reminding that Mr. Bard is no longer the go-to guy.
“TO PREVENT CONFUSION PLEASE BE ADVISED STANLEY BARD IS NO LONGER THE MANAGING AGENT OF THE CHELSEA HOTEL,” according to a large handwritten sign on an easel behind the check-in counter.
Throughout the evening, the signage served as a constant joke to passersby in the lobby. “We were completely confused until we saw the sign,” said one woman, sarcastically. “I’m still confused!” remarked another. “This place is nuttier than ever,” quipped one gentleman.
Part of the confusion stems from the fact that Mr. Bard, 73, still shows up for work every day. By 7:30 a.m. on Tuesday, he was already making the rounds, coffee cup in hand, mingling with people in the lobby. Meanwhile, his 41-year-old son, David Bard, manned a computer in the family’s office off the lobby. This, despite the fact that both men technically got fired weeks ago.
The new managers, residents have complained to The Observer, aren’t around all that much. At least not yet. The hotel staff, for the moment, remains the same.
“I don’t even know who the new management is,” noted one resident, who stubbornly refused to accept the recent regime change. “They’ve never introduced themselves to me. I’ve seen some strange faces around the lobby of the hotel, but until I receive an official notification and verification of who these people are, I’m opposed to having any dealings whatsoever with these alleged new managers.”
“I believe in hands-on management—they don’t,” Mr. Bard told The Observer. The hotel’s new management, spearheaded by BD Hotel moguls Richard Born and Ira Drukier, sends over a representative “about an hour and a half every day,” he said, to issue staff directives.
That doesn’t mean, however, that no one is looking over Mr. Bard’s shoulder. In fact, he claimed, he’s now being “spied on” by one of the hotel’s owners, David Elder, who recently moved onto the first floor.
“He follows me around,” Mr. Bard said of Mr. Elder. “If I go upstairs to help someone—say, the light’s broke—he gets upset. If I go and turn the circuit breakers on, he gets upset: ‘You were told to stay out!’”
Mr. Bard has good reason to be suspicious of Mr. Elder. After all, it was he who first challenged Mr. Bard’s controlling interest in the hotel via arbitration and thus triggered the process that ultimately led to the popular manager’s firing in June. Next Page >
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There's no question this place has needed cleaning up for as long as I've lived here - which is going on 8 years now. While Stanley's definitely charismatic you don't need an MBA from Harvard to see this place's been awfully managed. I even change my roach hotels weekly and I still have tons of them around. Can't even have a bowl of cereal without checking to make sure there aren't any little suckers running around in there....
The Hotel Chelsea is no more the Bard family than France was Louis XIV. L'etat is n'pas toi, Stanley. It is something so much bigger than that. Well managed or shoddily managed won't change that basic fact. Huge kudos to Krauss and Elder for taking the responsibility to clean this place up so that it will be that much more enjoyable to live in!!!
Long live the Hotel Chelsea!!
NICE TRY, Marlene. Nobody is falling for your planted comments which only show you've never spent any time at the Hotel Chelsea. There are as many roaches at the Pierre than there are here, and as many cobwebs in your crotch. But you'll be gone soon enough, both yourself and Elder, and things will return to normal. How ironic that you force Stanley to return 900K but now a court has ruled that Elder has withheld more than a million-two from his stepfather...we'll have plenty of cameras at the court hearing in LA on August 6th to capture Elder's surprise when the Judge decides he's unfit to administer the shares. What are you going to do then, Marlene?
I doubt you're a Chelsea Resident, ChelseaResident. I fear you are one of the functionaries in the PR war Krauss and Elder have launched. They came in with a big PR firm, Rubenstein, at heel. The Bards need no PR firm. They have their record and the loyalty of thousands of residents and guests to back them up. They also have a long list of luminaries in arts and literature to cite as evidence of what the hotel was about. Yes, ChelseaResident, the Chelsea Hotel IS Stanley Bard and vice versa. Everyone knows it except for you. He made it a human place thart spurred creativity and contributed an awe-inspiring list of people and art to the American culture.
What have David Elder and Marlene Krauss done for the culture?
I'm tired of hearing how "rundown" the hotel is. It has been cleaned up and renovated a lot.
I saw two cockroaches in my 12 years at the hotel.
I never saw a rat in my 12 years.
The minority shareholders who ousted Stanley keep talking about cleaning up the place and upgrading the infrastructure but they have done none of that so far. The first thing they did was to sent a terse letter demanding back rent, before they even introduced themselves to residents. They partitioned a legendary art studio. They instituted starchy new rules for staff.
I don't know what Marlene Krauss defines as an "exorbitant" salary, but Stanley Bard was working at that place six and sometimes seven days a week, 12 hours a day, for over 50 years. By contrast, the minority shareholders Krauss and Elder had rarely stepped into the place before this. You think Arthur Miller or Dylan Thomas would be staying in your corporatized version of the Chelsea hotel, Ms. Krauss?
And if I have to hear Marlene Krauss brag one more time about how her MBA from Harvard makes her more qualified to run the Chelsea hotel than Stanley Bard, majority shareholder and hands-on manager for half a century, I may vomit.
They have no understanding of the place, and never will.
The Chelsea Hotel is the canary in the mine. New York is over. It has become a suburb of White Plains with a prissy, middle american morality. History will remember this, and these people. There have been many songs sung in praise of Stanley Bard. There will be none sung for Marlene Krauss and David Elder.
Long Live Stanley Bard and his Chelsea Hotel!
Well, I wonder why there are so many lawsuits pending against Marlene's company if she is doing everything by the Harvard MBA rule book.
www.hotelchelseablog.com
Wow. I guess I see what Chris means by nasty checking in... You guys really take the cake esp. you chelseahotelresident.
No, fake ChelseaResident, you're wrong. When it comes to nasty Marlene Krauss and David Elder take the cake. Nobody else even comes close. Check out savepirithomas.blogspot.com for a taste of David Elder. He's withholding income on the Chelsea Trust meant for his elderly stepfather, the Hispanic writer Piri Thomas. Thomas, who is struggling as a result, has had to pay tax on this money which Elder has refused to turn over to him. The courts have ruled for Thomas, but Elder has appealed, and it appears he is trying to make the court cases outlast Thomas so he and his can inherit Thomas' money (without paying back the tax Thomas had to pay??) when Thomas dies. Nice, real nice.
You can read more about David Elder and the Piri Thomas case here:
http://tinyurl.com/28ama6
AHCB, Before you slander someone don't you think you should have some facts backing it up? I googled Dr. Krauss and there is nothing about any lawsuits pending against either her or her company. You're really taking NASTY to a whole new absurd and desperate level, aren't you?
And LP how does David Elder's case with his stepfather have anything to do with the integrity of the Hotel Chelsea?
Doesn't it make sense to give the new management a chance to clean things up before making personal and slanderous attacks on the people who now have control? This place could end up being so wonderful and frankly I'm looking forward to it. And let's face it people, no major artists have come out of this place in the last thirty years, at least, and it's long over due for a revival.
Finally, some of the greatest parts of the history of the Hotel Chelsea happened long before the Bard's were in power - like O. Henry and Dylan Thomas - so let's not make the Bards into something they're not.
First, ChelseaResident, I don't believe you are or were a resident of the Chelsea hotel, unless you're the woman who came in with David Elder.
The David Elder-Piri Thomas case is very relevant. This is not the sort of person we want running the Chelsea hotel. To quote a comment from the unofficial hotel blog:
"It's wrong to take art for rent from struggling artists, but not to screw an old man out of his inheritance?"
Dylan Thomas was there when David Bard was running the hotel with the assistance of his hard-working son Stanley Bard. It's true that some artists were there predating the Bards, but come on, the numbers greatly increased under the Bards. The monumental list of those who were at the hotel during the Bards tenure is a list long and deep. To keep this sort of institution going, and vital, into the 21st century takes a particular kind of genius and humanity. It's appalling how these two minority shareholders try to diminish the Bards contribution, particularly since they did nothing to help these people. Shame on them.
Do your research. You are only demonstrating how little you know of the hotel and the residents, and this is true of the investors as well. There have been many major works of art created there in the last 30 some years. The 70s saw Patti Smith and Sam Shepherd, the punk movement, and in the 1990s, Patti came back when she was between apartments and worked there for about six months. She was a very down-to-earth person. Larry Rivers worked there off and on in the last thirty years, until his death a few years ago. Arthur Miller, Bill Bolcom and Arnold Weinstein worked together at the hotel in the late 1990s to create what one review (Washington Post if I recall correctly) called the "first great American opera" which was based on Miller's book, written at the Chelsea, View from the Bridge. Members of the Warhol gang were there until 2002. Robert Altman worked there in this century with Weinstein and Bolcom on a opera based on The Wedding. David Remfry is now acknowledged, at last, as a great artist by none other than the Queen of England among many others. Herbert Huncke worked there in the 1990s, in an apartment paid for by Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead. Gregory Corso hung out there often. Julian Schnabel was often there. Milos Forman lived there off and on into the 90s and in that time created many great movies. Woody Allen shot films there. Madonna lived and worked there. Arthur C. Clarke made a special trip back to America in the late 1990s to visit the Chelsea, and he was visited in turn there by Walter Cronkite, Buzz Aldrin and many others. Stanley put him in a beautiful room.
There is a great fashion designer living there now who only handles private clients. Her designs are brilliant. Can you even name her?
Ryan Adams lived there in this century. Ethan Hawke wrote a wonderful book there and made a movie. It was an important place for rising art stars Theresa Duncan and Jeremy Blake who died tragically this month.
There are many great artists who stayed there when they were in New York, lots of rock bands, actors, writers.
Then there are many others, hundreds in the last 30 years, who may not be great in your eyes, but who made an significant contribution with books, films, paintings, sculpture, art fundraising, charitable fundraising and other work that doesn't always yield the kind of rewards the investors seem to respect (i.e., fame and riches).
And there were yet others, nurses, secretaries, dentists, a very cool investment banker, a longshoreman and so on. It was never ever an elitist place.
The investors greatly exaggerate the state of the hotel. It has been renovated and this was an ongoing process. Stanley and his kids and the staff were much better equipped to do it than two investors who have contributed very very little to the place and have demonstrated no understanding of its special spirit or of the Bards contribution -- to the contrary -- in the last month.
Why wait for them to make even more atrocious changes than they already have?
Here are a few other comments from lovers of the Chelsea Hotel, Stanley's Chelsea, to give you some more things to respond to and put down, because they say it better than I could:
Sigh: "Stanley ran the hotel his way. Of course it's not the Harvard MBA model, which is fine if you're running a Hilton, but look at the results, on both sides of [the Living with Legends] website, and here http://www.hotelchelsea.com/bohemia.php"
Betty: "Will "those people" be having the dog's Birthday Party in September - Hey! I am invited to that party - every year forever and ever."
The Ghosts: "Marle says, 'Our feeling is it could be the most interesting, respected hotel in New York.'
"Darling, it already is! My God, you just don't get it, girlfriend. It is far and away the most interesting and respected hotel in the WORLD! Just look at the notes to Stanley, or the worldwide press who are still picking up and running with this story six weeks after those Terrible Events of mid-June. How do you define interesting, or respected? By the snap of the bed linens and the cowed obedience of the staff, or by the unbelievable number of great minds and souls who passed through those doors, no thanks to you, dear, and Mr. Elder."
Chelsea Lover: "Someone mentioned 'sense of entitlement' on this blog before? Man oh man, do Krauss and Elder display a sense of entitlement in this newspaper piece. Born with silver spoons in their mouths. Did someone say 'free ride' for them all these years while Stanley worked himself to the bone for the Chelsea? They ought to thank their fortunate circumstances that they get something from the hard work of Stanley and the tenants all these years while contributing nothing worthwhile themselves. What a couple of whiny know-nothings."
I forgot to mention that Piri Thomas is a former resident of the hotel Chelsea.
LP -
David Elder's private family affairs have absolutely nothing to do with those of the Hotel Chelsea. You can pretend that they do but it seems kind of arrogant to think you know who's right and who's wrong without even knowing all the facts. It also seems extremely *nasty* to use someone's private life as a means to try to turn public opinion against them.
The more this change in management is purported to be about Stanley, the less it is about the things that really matter: the spirit and legacy of the artists who've created great art here. I'll repeat what I said below: There have been no major artists that have come out of here in the last thirty years. Stanley's been managing the place for 50 years. Coincidence? I. Don't. Think. So.
The more that Stanley's made the hotel about him, which he's obviously successfully done over the last thirty years, the less the hotel has come to represent the artists and the spirit of creation intrinsic to the Hotel Chelsea.
LP, you can continue believing that somehow cleaning the place up and renovating the plumbing, heating, etc. is a bad thing but that won't change the fact that the Chelsea will ALWAYS be the Chelsea. With or without some ego case like Stanley at the helm.
Piri Thomas is a former resident of the Chelsea hotel, and an artist, and that makes it a hotel chelsea family affair. His stepson is running the Chelsea hotel in a highly controversial takeover, to say the least. When you talk about the facts, are you referring to the court documents which are public, and pretty damning?
Milos Forman is not a great artist? Patti Smith is not a great artist? Arthur Miller... and every other person I mentioned ... not great artists? Really.
I'm not clear on how a Harvard MBA will help inspire new great artists. I imagine they'll have to purchase them ready-made, just like furniture, for the hotel.
I'm afraid to ask who you think is a great artist. You haven't answered my question about the contribution of the takeover two to the culture and how that measures up to the Bard contribution.
Enough NASTY things about Stanley from you. Stanley Bard, who gave his life to the Chelsea hotel is the ego case here? It takes a hell of an ego to think you can just step into Stanley's shoes in a complicated, rare place like the Hotel Chelsea and not just maintain it but "improve" it?
Fixing up the place, well, when are the electricians coming?
I wanted to give the takeover two the benefit of the doubt in the beginning. I waited for their charming childhood stories of visiting the hotel, taking tea with eccentric lady explorers after helping Stanley sort the mail or running errands for Josephine, learning about the bellman's job, exploring the nooks and crannies and the secret room below the hotel, to show their attachment for and appreciation of the hotel and Stanley. Instead we got a talk about the "street-front retail program" and "activating the historic spaces." (Already very active.)
That's not the Chelsea Hotel. I can't imagine someone living there for eight years and not understanding that. Don't you see the differences in philosophy and hotel knowledge here? They can't help but make changes that will harm, possibly destroy, what is the only thing of its kind on this planet. It's a great experiment that has been sustained for decades, and produced mind-boggling artists and work.
LP-
Once again, this isn't about Stanley Bard, David Elder's private life or about how much time people have or have not spent here. This is about the artists and the artistic spirit this hotel embodies.
No question that Milos Forman, Patti Smith and Arthur Miller are all great artists. However *all* of their most significant work was done more than 30 years ago. Miller in the fourties and fifties, Smith in the late sixties and early seventies and Milos Forman directed One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest in the '75 - by far his most significant work. All of this happened over 30 years ago. I stand by my statement.
The new management has been in place for only a couple of months now. I've yet to see them "get the benefit of the doubt" and have instead seen personal smear campaigns and outright lies about who these people are. To reiterate what I've said above and below - this isn't about Stanley and the notorious Bard ego - this is about the Chelsea. The fact remains that we have new management and the question now becomes whether we're going to work with them and *actually* give them the benefit of the doubt or instead try to undermine them and show that we who live here in the Hotel Chelsea are despicable and nasty people.
Again, you fail to respond to most of the points I raised.
Someone must have died and made you the ultimate arbiter of great art, over legions of critics and fans. I missed the obituary.
Milos Forman made Amadeus in 1984, Larry Flynt in 1996, and Man on the Moon in 1999. These are all great, and offbeat, movies, and much of his conceptualizing and pre-production work was done for the first two at the Chelsea Hotel where he found "150% privacy."
How are the minority shareholders going to inspire great artists at the hotel? Work on the "street-front retail program?"
It's NASTY the way the minority partners and you keep denigrating what Stanley and HIS tenants created, and this after spending so very little time in the hotel.
In one month and ten days, they've issued a rent demand letter (immediately!!), partitioned the legendary art studio and ballroom, and brought starchy new rules for the staff.
I stand by my list of great artists and say again, because it's important:
Stanley Bard, who gave his life to the Chelsea hotel is the ego case here? It takes a hell of an ego to think you can just step into Stanley's shoes in a complicated, rare place like the Hotel Chelsea and not just maintain it but "improve" it?
Fixing up the place, well, when are the electricians coming?
I wanted to give the takeover two the benefit of the doubt in the beginning. I waited for their charming childhood stories of visiting the hotel, taking tea with eccentric lady explorers after helping Stanley sort the mail or running errands for Josephine, learning about the bellman's job, exploring the nooks and crannies and the secret room below the hotel, to show their attachment for and appreciation of the hotel and Stanley. Instead we got a talk about the "street-front retail program" and "activating the historic spaces." (Already very active.)
That's not the Chelsea Hotel. I can't imagine someone living there for eight years and not understanding that. Don't you see the differences in philosophy and hotel knowledge here? They can't help but make changes that will harm, possibly destroy, what is the only thing of its kind on this planet. It's a great experiment that has been sustained for decades, and produced mind-boggling artists and work.
By the way, what you keep referring to as David Elder's private life is a matter of public record, and concerns a former resident of the hotel Chelsea, Piri Thomas. We're not talking about Elder's sex life here, of no interest to me, we're talking about court papers easily available on the internet that directly relate to his fitness as an overseer of the Hotel Chelsea and steward of its unusual population, for which you evidently have no appreciation.
Wow! Colorful commentary around here. Long live the Hotel Chelsea!
There were big problems with old management/owners - the TRIAL PROVED IT UNEQUIVOCALLY. As for elder, I have known him for over twenty years. He is one of the most honest, gentle, creative, caring people i have known. Anyone saying otherwise really does not know him or unfairly characterize a smart, thoughtful business person with a legitimate economic interest in his asset and a definitive ruling in his favor on the matters in question.
Since when did a shareholder become a spy in America? elder and company are not the enemies, they are the shareholders. typically people listen some to them since they are owners.
change sounds like it will be really good for the chelsea and the whining sound i hear is the scraping of the wheels on the track as the train leaves the station. sounds to me like the chelsea is on the move again.
The chelsea has a storied history and lots of potential. take a cue from the rest of the universe and accept that change is healthy and good. it seems obvious that there is lots of room for improvement. if there were not, none of this would have happened.
The whining you hear is from Elder and Krauss, complaining about the lack of a street front retail program and the lack of a Harvard MBA business plan for the legendary Chelsea Hotel, za universe unto itself.
Your outlook can be summed up by this remark of yours:
"a legitimate economic interest in his asset."
His asset?
Try speaking like a human being. We're all sick of the SHALLOW, slippery corporatese and the spinning and dissembling from you folks. Change is not always healthy and good and to believe so is to be completely ignorant of human history. Some things are worth preserving, and that includes Stanley Bard's chelsea hotel. The way you folks disinform and diminish the contribution of the Bards and the many, many artists, famous and otherwise, who lived and worked in this hotel is disgusting, shameful and ignorant.
The trial proved nothing meaningful outside of legal corporate issues. A court gave them the legal right. As many people have now pointed out, they have no MORAL right, NONE. Long live Stanley Bard's Chelsea hotel. Elder inherited his "economic interest" and has done nothing for the hotel nor its residents nor its artistic legacy. He and Krauss doesn't know a damned meaningful thing about the place. What absolute master race arrogance to pretend they do. Just because you have money doesn't mean you automatically have soul or knowledge or understanding.
David Elder is thoughtful? Thoughtful enough to keep his elderly stepfather from getting the income he is entitled to on the Chelsea trust.
Thoughtful enough to make the first directive to tenants a terse letter demanding rent from the building's most vulnerable residents. Not an introduction, let alone a handshake, but a rent demand. Very nice, very human.
Thoughtful enough to fire Stanley, reportedly with a phone call, and one day's notice after over fifty years of devoted service to the hotel and its residents.
Thoughtful enough to sign off on a press release about the "street front retail program," evidently, a priority for he and Krauss. No mention of artists at all, until the public and media outcry forced them to backtrack.
Take a cue from the rest of the universe, you say? Oh, such banal and conformist talk. You mean the universe that says profit is the highest value and anything done in pursuit of that profit is okay as long as you have a team of sharp lawyers and a big PR firm on retainer?
Take your wall street 101 jargon of here. You are destroying a precious thing to feed your own vanity. It's disgusting.
LP-
First of all, there is simply no comparison between Milos Forman’s “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” in 1975 and either “Amadeus” in ‘84 or “People vs. Larry Flynt” in ‘96. The first is an American movie classic, one of the all-time greats, and the other two are merely *good* movies. There’s not even a debate here. It’s sort of like comparing Mario Puzo’s “The Godfather” to “The Last Don”. It’s a no contest. And again, it’s been over thirty years now….
You also say: "Long live Stanley Bard's Chelsea hotel."
And from the article Chris quotes the great Stanley Bard himself:
“You go speak to any tenant, they’ll say that the Bards are the Chelsea Hotel, they’re the heart and soul of the hotel, they created the hotel,” he said, pulling out a stack of letters from supporters, including a note on Mr. Bard’s current situation—“this sucks,” signed by one Marisa Tomei.
Umm. Wait. No. He. Didn’t.
So then I guess that means that Mark Twain, O.Henry, Dylan Thomas, Simone de Beauvoir, Arthur Miller, Brendan Behan, Arthur C. Clarke, William S. Burroughs, de Kooning, Thomas Wolfe and countless other great artists have nothing to do with the heart and soul of the hotel? Interesting. To say the least. Again, LP, both you and Stanley just don't seem to get that the Hotel Chelsea is *not* about Stanley or the Bard Family, at all. It's about the artists and the art that were inspired by this great hotel long before the Bards were kind enough to grace its presence.
On a separate note, Marisa Tomei may have been pretty good in “My Cousin Vinny” but what’s she really done since? I make a motion that any further comments by Marisa Tomei be struck from the record.
Chris goes on to write that:
“Indeed, publicly, residents profess nothing but love and admiration for the man behind New York’s most eccentric hotel. Privately, however, many confess complaints, including preferential treatment for certain residents and high rents for others, as well as alleged housing violations.”
This paints a slightly different picture from Stanley's portrayal above of what’s actually been going on here. I can’t tell you how many housing violations and instances of preferential treatment I’ve witnessed in my short time living here. Frankly, Stanley’s ensured that a degree of sleaze or “funk”, if you will, has consistently pervaded this place under his tenure. If you talked to any resident privately and honestly I think, to the one, you’d find that they’d agree that it’s long overdue that the Hotel Chelsea was cleaned up, properly renovated and run properly and fairly for *all* of its residents. Bring on the revival and bring back great art and artists to the hotel.
*
I consider Piri Thomas a great artist and so do many many other people. You?
Once again, you fail to address most of the issues I raise.
What has David Elder contributed to the culture?
WHAT has DAVID ELDER contributed to the culture?
You are most certainly not a resident, but a spokesperson for the clueless minority shareholders who is slandering Stanley to further her own agenda, perhaps as David's girlfriend, and seemingly sole supporter. Shameful.
Please tell me about David Elder's commensurate contribution to the culture, then we can talk about your slurs against Stanley. What great artists has Elder helped out all these years? What has he done in any field that qualifies him to come in to the Chelsea, take it over? How is he going to lure new great artists, in a culture that seem bereft of them, into the hotel? How will you know they are great artists, and not just flashes-in-the pan cadging free drinks with flattery at the hotel mercer bar?
Your absolute arrogance here is astonishing. You clearly don't recognize the Punk movement, the Beats, the Factory the great operas written there, and HUNDREDS, perhaps thousands of other significant works. And you Stanley no credit at all for the people who were here creating wonderful work in his 50 years. You just want to take everything from him, don't you. The greed and vanity demonstrated by you folks is shocking.
What has Elder created? Give me some examples to justify a pisher whose trust has 16% of the stock, who has no real knowledge of the hotel, who marches in to usurp a beloved man who has helped thousands of artists, great and small.
Stanley IS the heart and soul of that place - of course not alone, along the help of the residents. But he's the guy who has been there for over fifty years running the most humane and unusual hostelry. Stanley is the FIRST one to cite the many, many illustrious residents who live and lived there, but he's the guy who has been there day in and day out, sometimes 20 hours a day, for a half a century. You would know that if you really lived there.
Last Don? Give me a break. You're comparing Milos Forman's movies to the Last Don?
IIRC, Forman was living at the Chelsea around the time he did Cuckoo's nest, though obviously not when he was on location. For a while, he was rooming with Ivan Passer and Vladimir Valenta there. Cuckoo's Nest is his greatest movie, but his other movies are better than most director's masterpieces. Who else could make Larry Flynt a sympathetic character?
Please name the great artists of the last thirty years in your opinion.
And please tell me what credentials you have that entitle you to make such lofty judgments and such slanderous statements about Stanley.
What have YOU done, pretending-to-be a Chelsea Resident? Based on your criteria, I move that your comments be struck from the record.
We love the Hotel Chelsea.
We will be organinzing a benefit event for emerging artists at the Hotel Chelsea on September 27, 2007 see the website www.poolartfair.com
Yup. Hotel Chelsea is on its way to becoming a poor little rich stepsister of the Gershwin. So long, Stanley. History will treat you right even if these moronic pretenders who fired you do not.
“Most were happy to be famous among 1,000 people in Manhattan, but they were still great stars.” Glenn O’Brien
Yes there is a certain "plastic" sound to
ChelseaResident's comments. They don't ring true.
You are wise to see the wolf behind the sheepskin.
It is sad that greed has been extoled to a virtue while
humanity and art the flower of humanity devalued.
But that will not always be so, because the sterility of
greed even when it acheives it's goals leads to
meaninglessness and from there to self destruction.
Which is why the "lovers of money" from which all evil
comes, always are pointing the finger at others, because
to stop and look at themselves would reveal the vacutity
of their beliefs and how could they continue then?
So they must never admit any wrongdoing, at all, ever!
Only a human being can do that.
That the Spirit of the Chelsea Hotel is being attacked is
symbolic of the conflict between materialism,
utilitarinanism vs: humanism and creativity.
I do hope that the control of the Hotel is
returned Stanley Bard, that would be a victory for humanity
that we all need to see.
Life itself has it's own laws. They just can't be made up.
By anyone on either side.
"In nature, nothing is good or bad, there are consequences"
The sterile mind-set hates the creative and if it cannot
control it then it will attempt to destroy it. For it
cannot stand to see its own emptiness revealed to itself,
for then it would have to bow before the creative and
learn from it.
And this is the struggle of our age and perhaps all ages.
May the LA judge see what is really going on and act to
preserve the spirit of the Chelsea a living thing and
prevent those who would turn it into a stuffed and
lifeless trophy!
Yes there is a certain "plastic" sound to
ChelseaResident's comments. They don't ring true.
You are wise to see the wolf behind the sheepskin.
It is sad that greed has been extoled to a virtue while
humanity and art, the flower of humanity, devalued.
But that will not always be so, because the sterility of
greed even when it acheives it's goals leads to
meaninglessness and from there to self destruction.
Which is why the "lovers of money" from which all evil
comes, always are pointing the finger at others, because
to stop and look at themselves would reveal the vacuity
of their beliefs and how could they continue then?
So they must never admit any wrongdoing, at all, ever!
Only a human being can do that.
That the Spirit of the Chelsea Hotel is being attacked is
symbolic of the conflict between materialism,
utilitarinanism vs: humanism and creativity.
I do hope that the control of the Hotel is
returned Stanley Bard, that would be a victory for humanity
that we all need to see.
Life itself has it's own laws. They just can't be made up.
By anyone on either side.
"In nature, nothing is good or bad, there are consequences"
The sterile mind-set hates the creative and if it cannot
control it then it will attempt to destroy it. For it
cannot stand to see its own emptiness revealed to itself,
for then it would have to bow before the creative and
learn from it.
And this is the struggle of our age and perhaps all ages.
May the LA judge see what is really going on and act to
preserve the spirit of the Chelsea, a living thing, and
prevent those who would turn it into a stuffed and
lifeless trophy!
Marisa Tomei does a lot of theater in addition to films. She also gives a great deal of time and money to good causes. You can see her next in Sidney Lumet's film Before The Devil Knows You're Dead, which sure has the French excited judging by their press. Not that the French know anything about art. :D
There is a great writer living at the hotel, along with two great artists, and several in both categories with tremendous potential for Greatness with a capital G-.
But art and artists are not the whole story. The hotel is about people. In a million years, these minority "partners" can never create what Stanley and his residents created in that place. There was a spirit, and a magic there, that began with the Bards. These people might make more money than Stanley, by packing it conventioneers or yuppies, they might put a veneer of art on the place, but they'll never capture its soul, and they'll never be able to create the mix of residents Stanley brought in naturally. Where else could one live with a retired bullfighter, a Brazilian opera singer hiding out from the Russian mafia, a rock star, a movie star, a secretary, great painters, a great librettist, a Beat writer doing the best work of his life, a Ramone, a witch, a family of artists, a great director, a great theater artist, Venus the Goddess of love, a descendant of Vlad the Impaler and a giant white rabbit named demetrious who lived on the third floor balcony. Where else might one ride up in the elevator with a transsexual, Ron Jeremy, and a three-foot statue of Jesus? Where else would an heiress fall in love with and marry a bellman? Where else would one drop in on an impromptu party and find oneself having a conversation with Arthur Miller, Arnold Weinstein and Rita Fecher? Stanley's unorthodox methods facilitated and nurtured it all. It was the naturalness, the spontaneity, the spirit, the democracy, the endless possibilities of the place that will be lost forever if the Bards don't get the hotel back.