Hotel Chelsea

Encyclopedia : H : HO : HOT : Hotel Chelsea

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The Hotel Chelsea is a well-known residence for artists, musicians, and writers in the neighborhood of Chelsea in Manhattan, New York City. The building is located on 23rd Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues.

The hotel welcomes guests, but is primarily known for its long-term residents, past and present. The hotel has always been a center of artistic and bohemian activity and it houses artwork created by many of the artists who have visited. The hotel was the first building to be listed by New York City as a cultural preservation site and historic building of note.

The building that now houses the Hotel Chelsea was built in 1883 as a private apartment cooperative that opened in 1884. It was the tallest building in New York until 1902. At the time Chelsea, and particularly the street on which the hotel was located, was the center of New York's Theater District. However, within a few years the combination of economic worries and the relocation of the theaters bankrupted the Chelsea cooperative. In 1905, the building was purchased and opened as a hotel.

It is perhaps most well known as the hotel where Sid Vicious of the Sex Pistols allegedly stabbed his girlfriend Nancy Spungen to death on October 12, 1978.

People who live/have lived at the Hotel Chelsea

Writers and thinkers

During its lifetime Hotel Chelsea has provided a home to many great writers and thinkers including Mark Twain, O. Henry, Dylan Thomas, Arthur C. Clarke, William S. Burroughs, Gregory Corso, Leonard Cohen, Arthur Miller, Quentin Crisp, Gore Vidal, Tennessee Williams, Allen Ginsberg, Jack Gantos, Brendan Behan, Robert Oppenheimer, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Simone de Beauvoir.

Actors and film directors

The hotel has been a home to actors and film directors such as Stanley Kubrick, Miloš Forman, Lillie Langtry, Ethan Hawke, Dennis Hopper, Uma Thurman, Jane Fonda and Gaby Hoffmann.

Musicians

Much of Hotel Chelsea's history has been colored by the musicians who have resided there. Some of the most prominent names include Patti Smith, Virgil Thomson, Dee Dee Ramone of The Ramones, Henri Chopin, John Cale, Édith Piaf, Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Sid Vicious, Ryan Adams, Jobriath, Rufus Wainwright, Leonard Cohen and Anthony Kiedis. In April 2003 Pete Doherty and Carl Barat of The Libertines recorded the original "Babyshambles" sessions at Hotel Chelsea.

Visual artists

The hotel has featured and collected the work of the many visual artists who have passed through. Brett Whiteley, Christo, Richard Bernstein, Robert Mapplethorpe, Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, Robert Crumb, Jasper Johns, Claes Oldenburg, Vali Myers (artist) and Henri Cartier-Bresson have all spent time at Hotel Chelsea.

Warhol superstars

Hotel Chelsea is often associated with the Warhol superstars, as he directed The Chelsea Girls, a film about his Factory regulars and their lives at the hotel. Chelsea residents from the Warhol scene included Viva, Ultra Violet, Holly Woodlawn, Edie Sedgwick, Andrea Feldman, Nico, Paul America, and Brigid Berlin.

Hotel Chelsea in culture

Films

The hotel was used for location shooting on

• The Chelsea Girls (1966) by Andy Warhol, in which the Superstars have roles
• Sid & Nancy (1986) by Alex Cox
• The Professional (1994) by Luc Besson
• Midnight In Chelsea (1997) directed by Mark Pellington, a video to a track from the 1997 Jon Bon Jovi solo album Destination Anywhere
• Chelsea Walls (2001) by Ethan Hawke
• Pie in the Sky the Brigid Berlin Story (2002) features a reunion between former resident Brigid Berlin and the artist Richard Bernstein at the Hotel.
• The Interpreter (2005)

Most notably, the hotel provided the thematic link for the Andy Warhol film opus [Chelsea Girls].

Several survivors of the Titanic stayed for some time in this hotel as it is a short distance from Pier 54 where the Titanic was supposed to dock.

The novel and film were written by Arthur C. Clarke and Stanley Kubrick during their stay at the hotel.

Much of an episode of the 1973 PBS reality-television series An American Family was filmed at the Hotel Chelsea, as family member Lance Loud was staying there at the time.

Music

The hotel is also featured in numerous songs, including:

• "Chelsea Morning" by Joni Mitchell (Chelsea Clinton is named after the song and, vicariously, the hotel)
• "Hotel Chelsea Nights" by Ryan Adams from Love Is Hell pt. 2 and Love Is Hell
• "Chelsea Hotel #2" by Leonard Cohen from New Skin for the Old Ceremony
• "Sara" by Bob Dylan (as the location where Dylan wrote his epic "Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands")
• "Sex with Sun-RA" by Coil
• "Chelsea Hotel" by Dan Bern
• "Dear Abbey" by Kinky Friedman
• "Chelsea Burns" and "Song to Alice" by Keren Ann
• "Chelsea Girl" by Nico
• "Midnight in Chelsea" by Jon Bon Jovi (the hotel is featured in the song's video, but the song itself is about the London neighborhood of the same name)
• "Ghosts" by Lisa Bastoni
• "Hi-Fi Popcorn" by The Revs
• "The Chelsea Hotel Oral Sex Song" by Jeffrey Lewis (references Cohen's "Chelsea Hotel #2")
• "Third Week in the Chelsea" by Jefferson Airplane
• "We Will Fall" by The Stooges
• "Crow" by Jim Carroll Band

Books

• by Dee Dee Ramone ISBN 1-560-25304-5
• by Sarah Vowell ISBN 0-743-20540-5
• Chelsea Hotel Manhattan by Joe Ambrose ISBN 1-900-48660-1

Gallery

Image:Hotel-Chelsea.gif|Hotel Chelsea''

External links

• [Chelsea Hotel, Beat Generation, William Burroughs. Site of Chelsea Hotel author Joe Ambrose]
• [Hotel Chelsea official website]
• [Living with Legends: Hotel Chelsea Blog]
• [Chelsea Hotel] - New York Architecture Images
• [Hotel Chelsea group on Flickr. Pictures in and around and related to the hotel]

 

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