WEBVTT - The Chelsea Hotel 0:00:01.440 --> 0:00:07.720 Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:12.160 --> 0:00:14.640 Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh, and there's 0:00:14.760 --> 0:00:17.239 Chuck and Jerry's here too, and this is Stuff you 0:00:17.280 --> 0:00:25.040 Should Know. The Super Cool Edition another edition in our 0:00:25.239 --> 0:00:29.920 ongoing New York saga to explain every single building or 0:00:30.120 --> 0:00:34.240 theme or trend in the entire city of New York. 0:00:34.479 --> 0:00:36.360 I feel like these are always me, so I'm sorry 0:00:36.400 --> 0:00:37.680 if I'm foisting these. 0:00:37.960 --> 0:00:40.240 Well, you love New York, I do. 0:00:40.240 --> 0:00:41.599 Do you know the T shirt told me to. 0:00:43.920 --> 0:00:46.000 Oh, I thought it was I Heart New York. Is 0:00:46.040 --> 0:00:46.840 that what that means? 0:00:47.360 --> 0:00:51.680 Yeah? I get it now, but it's iHeart New York. 0:00:51.680 --> 0:00:53.159 I didn't say you heart New York. I took it 0:00:53.200 --> 0:00:55.920 all wrong. But now I love that city, so I 0:00:55.960 --> 0:00:57.640 want to know more about it. 0:00:57.640 --> 0:00:59.440 It is a very cool city, and this is a 0:00:59.560 --> 0:01:05.640 cool place in the city's history. For a long part 0:01:05.640 --> 0:01:09.360 of the city's history, actually the Chelsea Hotel, which little 0:01:09.400 --> 0:01:13.480 known fact, is actually supposed to be called the Hotel Chelsea. 0:01:13.560 --> 0:01:16.640 And I could not find where who first turned it around, 0:01:16.680 --> 0:01:18.920 because surely it was a poet or a singer or 0:01:18.920 --> 0:01:24.600 something writer. But at some point it got basically transversed 0:01:24.640 --> 0:01:27.319 even though the official name is and always has been 0:01:27.360 --> 0:01:30.360 since it was a hotel, that's the Hotel Chelsea. 0:01:30.959 --> 0:01:33.840 Yeah, it can be a little confusing. Same place, though, 0:01:33.959 --> 0:01:37.360 so don't sweat it. So you can say either one. 0:01:37.400 --> 0:01:41.199 But wait, wait, wait, you want to talk confusing. Okay, 0:01:41.200 --> 0:01:46.440 there's a Marriotte Renaissance Chelsea Hotel in the same neighborhood. 0:01:47.560 --> 0:01:50.560 I mean I could see myself accidentally booking that and 0:01:50.600 --> 0:01:52.880 being like, this place is a little more put together 0:01:52.960 --> 0:01:53.800 than I expected. 0:01:54.280 --> 0:01:57.120 Yeah, I mean, Chelsea is a neighborhood and every hotel 0:01:57.160 --> 0:02:01.160 in there is a Hotel Chelsea. Yeah, a Chelsea Hotel. Rather. 0:02:02.000 --> 0:02:03.800 I love Chelsea. I think that is one of my 0:02:03.800 --> 0:02:07.040 favorite neighborhoods in New York, if not my favorite. We 0:02:07.080 --> 0:02:09.440 stayed there a bunch of times when we went and 0:02:09.520 --> 0:02:11.280 visited New York and Chelsea. 0:02:11.400 --> 0:02:14.080 Yeah, I like it as well, and I have stayed 0:02:14.080 --> 0:02:16.560 at the Hotel Chelsea a couple of times. 0:02:17.040 --> 0:02:21.160 I have too. But yeah, yeah, but that actually answers 0:02:21.160 --> 0:02:23.440 a question that I had. I was trying to figure 0:02:23.480 --> 0:02:26.480 out where you came up with this as a topic. 0:02:27.240 --> 0:02:30.520 I would have guessed the Taylor Swift song The Tortured 0:02:30.560 --> 0:02:35.040 Poets department. Okay, because she mentions it in in there, 0:02:35.320 --> 0:02:37.840 that's I guess, not where. That's not what inspired you 0:02:37.880 --> 0:02:38.320 to do this. 0:02:38.760 --> 0:02:43.399 No club, Dylan. If anybody I got no, I mean 0:02:43.960 --> 0:02:47.760 from staying there semi recently, and that's the great thing 0:02:47.800 --> 0:02:49.240 about our job. I was like, Yeah, I wish I knew 0:02:49.240 --> 0:02:52.639 a little bit more about this place, and here we are. 0:02:52.880 --> 0:02:55.720 Yeah, what'd you think of it. 0:02:54.840 --> 0:02:58.120 At the hotel? Yeah, well, you know, as as you learn. 0:02:58.160 --> 0:03:01.200 If you don't know that Chelsea Hotel was renovated over 0:03:01.240 --> 0:03:03.520 the course of many, many many years after being closed 0:03:04.120 --> 0:03:06.000 for those renovations, we'll get into all the ins and 0:03:06.000 --> 0:03:09.600 outs of that. But I thought that it was a 0:03:09.639 --> 0:03:13.600 top notch renovation that from what I've read, even though 0:03:13.880 --> 0:03:19.079 it's a fancy pants place now, everything I've read says 0:03:19.120 --> 0:03:22.240 that they did a very tasteful job. In fact, let 0:03:22.320 --> 0:03:25.760 me read in fact, so I'm not just talking out 0:03:25.760 --> 0:03:28.880 of my butt, but one of the people in the 0:03:28.919 --> 0:03:31.440 New Yorker or something that wrote about it said it 0:03:31.480 --> 0:03:35.960 presents itself subtly and doesn't scream. I've changed due largely 0:03:36.000 --> 0:03:38.040 to the fact that the building was landmarked in nineteen 0:03:38.040 --> 0:03:41.240 seventy seven, so many elements such as its facade and 0:03:41.240 --> 0:03:45.119 famous stairwell cannot be changed in accordance with this landmark status. 0:03:45.840 --> 0:03:49.400 Current owners instead have worked with it and around its 0:03:49.560 --> 0:03:54.520 physical history, and the enhancements are fitting one hundred and 0:03:54.560 --> 0:03:59.360 fifty eight rooms in fifteen room categories from two hundred 0:03:59.360 --> 0:04:04.120 square feet, who's seventeen hundred square feet and there you go. 0:04:04.760 --> 0:04:06.760 Well, yeah, and that's great that they did a good 0:04:06.840 --> 0:04:09.240 job with it, because people all the way back to 0:04:09.320 --> 0:04:14.200 the nineteen forties, with Edgar Lee Masters, the poet author 0:04:14.240 --> 0:04:16.880 of Spoon River Anthology, who lived there for a while, 0:04:17.279 --> 0:04:22.360 was worried about the gist of the Chelsea Hotel being 0:04:22.400 --> 0:04:26.200 stripped away by new owners. And it's changed hands a 0:04:26.240 --> 0:04:30.120 few times, but it's also stayed in really capable hands 0:04:30.160 --> 0:04:33.760 for decades. And those capable hands, as will see, helped 0:04:33.839 --> 0:04:39.080 give the Chelsea Hotel its own, like it's very famous vibe. 0:04:39.720 --> 0:04:42.039 Yeah, and I should also say too that a lot 0:04:42.080 --> 0:04:46.039 of people, I'm sure, think it's an abomination, and a 0:04:46.040 --> 0:04:48.080 lot of times used the same people that were like, 0:04:48.360 --> 0:04:50.440 you know, Times Square was better or New York was 0:04:50.480 --> 0:04:54.400 better when it was a dirt bag city crumbling and 0:04:54.920 --> 0:04:58.200 you were as likely to get mugged walking the streets, 0:04:58.279 --> 0:05:00.360 or spray painted on if you stood still for too long, 0:05:00.400 --> 0:05:01.160 as anything else. 0:05:01.800 --> 0:05:04.760 Yeah, So, based on what we'll learn about what went 0:05:04.839 --> 0:05:07.760 on in the Chelsea Hotel, I think it's very telling 0:05:08.320 --> 0:05:11.359 how dangerous New York was at the time. That almost 0:05:11.360 --> 0:05:15.600 to a person when they interviewed residents years later, they 0:05:15.680 --> 0:05:18.719 say they felt safe in the Chelsea Hotel, and the 0:05:18.760 --> 0:05:22.719 Chelsea Hotel was as crazy as a place could get. 0:05:23.120 --> 0:05:25.039 And yet it just goes to show you how much 0:05:25.080 --> 0:05:27.560 more dangerous it was outside of the Chelsea Hotel in 0:05:27.560 --> 0:05:28.520 New York at the time. 0:05:28.800 --> 0:05:32.080 Yeah, it seemed to have a very familial quality to it. Yea, 0:05:32.800 --> 0:05:34.800 and for good reason. So let's jump back to the 0:05:34.839 --> 0:05:37.560 beginning when it was built. First of all, it's right 0:05:37.560 --> 0:05:40.560 there at West twenty third Street in the Chelsea neighborhood, 0:05:41.080 --> 0:05:43.440 and it started in eighteen eighty four as the Chelsea 0:05:43.480 --> 0:05:47.839 Association Building, Nuts and Bolts. It is a twelve story building, 0:05:48.000 --> 0:05:50.000 was one of the taller buildings in New York at 0:05:50.000 --> 0:05:54.440 the time. It is a Victorian Gothic. It is a beautiful, 0:05:54.480 --> 0:05:57.720 gorgeous building. If you look at it from across the street. 0:05:58.320 --> 0:06:00.799 It's just one of the one of New York's greatest 0:06:00.880 --> 0:06:05.279 landmarks designed by architect Philip Is it Hubert or Hubert? 0:06:05.760 --> 0:06:07.800 I'm going to say Hubert, that's what I would say. 0:06:08.120 --> 0:06:11.279 All right, we'll go with that. And Hubert designed it 0:06:11.520 --> 0:06:14.440 on the philosophy of a French philosopher that he was 0:06:14.440 --> 0:06:18.080 a fan of named Charles. What is it? I think 0:06:18.200 --> 0:06:23.320 fer Fourier, who was a utopian socialist and kind of 0:06:23.360 --> 0:06:26.280 thought this concept of a co op of a community 0:06:26.279 --> 0:06:30.400 should work in co ops called phalanxes, and that's what 0:06:30.440 --> 0:06:32.839 the Chelsea started out as, was one of the first 0:06:33.120 --> 0:06:36.599 housing co ops in New York City, where if you 0:06:36.640 --> 0:06:38.039 live in a co op, then you own a share 0:06:38.080 --> 0:06:40.520 of that building along with all the other owners, and 0:06:40.520 --> 0:06:43.320 you also are responsible for the monies that help maintain 0:06:43.360 --> 0:06:44.320 and keep up that building. 0:06:44.560 --> 0:06:46.880 Yeah, it's all fun and games until you need a 0:06:46.920 --> 0:06:52.560 new roof exactly. So Hubert actually followed Fourier's vision and 0:06:52.640 --> 0:06:55.320 turned the Chelsea into not just the co op but 0:06:55.760 --> 0:07:01.600 an attempted socialist utopian paradise where it wasn't just for 0:07:01.640 --> 0:07:04.400 the wealthy like that it was I think, I don't 0:07:04.400 --> 0:07:05.440 know if you said or not. It was one of 0:07:05.440 --> 0:07:07.159 the tallest buildings in New York at the time, so 0:07:07.200 --> 0:07:10.560 it was a very tony address when the building opened. 0:07:10.600 --> 0:07:14.480 And yet he set apartments aside for some of the 0:07:14.480 --> 0:07:17.200 people who had built the building, like some of the 0:07:17.240 --> 0:07:20.640 electricians if there was such thing at the time, some 0:07:20.680 --> 0:07:25.320 of the plumbers, some of the carpenters, like they had shares. 0:07:25.360 --> 0:07:27.680 They were able to live in this co op because 0:07:27.720 --> 0:07:30.720 there was room made for them, and there was also 0:07:30.840 --> 0:07:35.880 room made for artists and musicians and writers. And the 0:07:36.120 --> 0:07:39.640 point was for everybody to kind of rely on one another. 0:07:39.680 --> 0:07:42.120 So if you needed plumbing help, you could pay your 0:07:42.160 --> 0:07:45.840 plumber in you know, a painting or something like that, 0:07:45.880 --> 0:07:48.560 if your plumber would accept it. Everybody was meant to 0:07:48.600 --> 0:07:51.480 depend on everyone else and be kind of self sufficient 0:07:51.520 --> 0:07:52.160 as a unit. 0:07:52.800 --> 0:07:55.920 Yeah, uh, not so big into abstract, but yeah, sure, 0:07:56.360 --> 0:07:58.600 I guess are you going places. 0:08:01.800 --> 0:08:02.680 To die? 0:08:02.800 --> 0:08:06.880 Exactly? They're also in that very first iteration, and this 0:08:07.000 --> 0:08:09.160 is very key. You mentioned artists, but there were the 0:08:09.200 --> 0:08:13.040 top floor had fifteen artist studios up there, and that 0:08:13.160 --> 0:08:15.560 really kind of carried on throughout the history of the 0:08:15.640 --> 0:08:19.960 Chelsea until most recently. Yeah, that version of the Chelsea 0:08:20.360 --> 0:08:22.080 was about around for about twenty one years. It went 0:08:22.120 --> 0:08:25.880 bankrupt in nineteen oh five, some of those residents stuck around, 0:08:26.520 --> 0:08:29.520 and then the rest became a hotel, and the Chelsea 0:08:29.680 --> 0:08:35.120 for decades functioned as a place where you could stay 0:08:35.120 --> 0:08:37.280 there as a hotel, you could stay there for a month, 0:08:37.360 --> 0:08:39.880 you could stay there for a week, like weekly and 0:08:39.880 --> 0:08:42.240 monthly rates, where you could be a resident and live there. 0:08:42.280 --> 0:08:43.600 It's a very unique situation. 0:08:44.120 --> 0:08:48.080 Yeah, And so the rooms also apparently were fairly cheap, 0:08:48.160 --> 0:08:53.040 especially for a luxury place, a luxury building, so if 0:08:53.080 --> 0:08:57.160 you were up and coming or starving artists, you could 0:08:57.160 --> 0:09:00.320 still probably afford a place there. And because it was 0:09:00.360 --> 0:09:04.440 created to house artists and talent of all different kinds, 0:09:04.840 --> 0:09:09.000 it was automatically attractive. It just kind of became a 0:09:09.040 --> 0:09:13.000 place where art was created, not just a place where 0:09:13.080 --> 0:09:16.600 artists could live. There was a long time Chelsea resident 0:09:16.679 --> 0:09:19.920 named Harry Smith who I saw described as the archetypal 0:09:20.000 --> 0:09:24.760 Bohemian trickster figure, and he's just Chelsea Hotel through and 0:09:24.760 --> 0:09:26.679 through from what I could tell. He said that the 0:09:26.679 --> 0:09:32.080 hotel exuded atmospheric vibrations that attracted artists and also helped 0:09:32.080 --> 0:09:35.240 produce great art. So like the building itself and the 0:09:35.320 --> 0:09:39.320 vibe that was in it, led to better art than 0:09:39.480 --> 0:09:42.560 maybe would have otherwise been produced, at least according to 0:09:42.559 --> 0:09:45.839 Harry Smith, who was a trickster apparently, so he might 0:09:45.880 --> 0:09:46.400 have been lying. 0:09:47.440 --> 0:09:50.560 And also, you know, the human brain works in funny ways, 0:09:50.559 --> 0:09:52.360 and once a place in gets her reputation is at 0:09:52.440 --> 0:09:56.400 ego in there, and that in itself, you may think 0:09:56.440 --> 0:09:58.600 you're being inspired just by being there, and that ends 0:09:58.640 --> 0:09:59.880 up inspiring you. You know what I mean? 0:10:00.400 --> 0:10:03.840 Yeah, for sure, for sure. I think some people, though 0:10:03.880 --> 0:10:05.760 I'm not going to name names, but I think over 0:10:05.920 --> 0:10:09.200 time some artists who stayed there have wanted to kind 0:10:09.200 --> 0:10:13.240 of capture what that hotel does and maybe bit off 0:10:13.280 --> 0:10:14.600 a little more than they could chew. 0:10:14.880 --> 0:10:16.400 I think, I know you're talking about. 0:10:16.440 --> 0:10:19.240 I think you should second to have a second thought 0:10:19.320 --> 0:10:21.000 or too. If you're like, I'm going to make an 0:10:21.000 --> 0:10:23.600 ode to the Chelsea Hotel where there's a song, a movie, 0:10:23.800 --> 0:10:24.400 doesn't matter. 0:10:25.880 --> 0:10:27.600 I know exactly what you're talking about. We're not talking 0:10:27.640 --> 0:10:29.319 about Oh, Henry though, who stayed there a lot. For 0:10:29.480 --> 0:10:33.280 Mark Twain who stayed there a lot, or Sarah Bernhard 0:10:33.320 --> 0:10:37.240 who stayed there when she came to New York to perform. 0:10:37.280 --> 0:10:40.560 Those were all like frequent guests in those early years there, 0:10:41.080 --> 0:10:43.160 they were artists, you know, very famous artists at the time, 0:10:43.240 --> 0:10:47.920 occupying those artist studios on the top floor. From the 0:10:48.040 --> 0:10:53.160 very beginning. They even held some Titanic survivors in nineteen twelve. 0:10:53.200 --> 0:10:54.920 That's where they went when they were when they were 0:10:54.920 --> 0:10:57.000 brought in shivering in the cold. 0:10:57.360 --> 0:11:00.200 Yeah, which is pretty cool that they opened their door 0:11:00.280 --> 0:11:02.320 to them. I'm sure other hotels did too, but I 0:11:02.360 --> 0:11:04.959 thought that was neat. Yeah, and we should say these 0:11:05.040 --> 0:11:09.480 artists that were staying here, Oh, Henry was hiding from creditors. Yeah, 0:11:09.520 --> 0:11:12.920 when he stayed there, John French Sloan, he was a 0:11:12.920 --> 0:11:16.319 member of the Ashcan School of Art, which made its 0:11:16.400 --> 0:11:19.640 name by showing some of the grittier, more dismal side 0:11:19.679 --> 0:11:23.160 of New York life, which is totally contrary to the zeitgeist. 0:11:23.440 --> 0:11:28.400 And so the artists were avant garde. Basically throughout the 0:11:28.600 --> 0:11:34.040 entire history of the Chelsea Hotel, the artists working there 0:11:34.040 --> 0:11:36.800 were like the vanguard of the avant garde. 0:11:37.320 --> 0:11:39.920 Yeah, and like a bohemian. You'll hear those words throw 0:11:39.920 --> 0:11:43.480 out a lot when the Chelsea Hotel is described or 0:11:43.480 --> 0:11:44.679 its tendency over the years. 0:11:44.720 --> 0:11:47.520 They were Czechoslovakian to a person. 0:11:49.760 --> 0:11:53.280 During the Great Depression of the nineteen thirties. Thomas Wolfe 0:11:53.760 --> 0:11:58.760 I was a frequentor there. In fact, he died. He 0:11:58.840 --> 0:12:00.520 spent the last years of his life there in Room 0:12:00.520 --> 0:12:03.640 eight twenty nine, writing things like you Can't Go Home Again. 0:12:04.360 --> 0:12:07.400 And he died very young though, from tuberculosis, at the 0:12:07.440 --> 0:12:09.640 age of thirty seven, and was known to kind of, 0:12:09.920 --> 0:12:12.960 you know, paste the halls looking for inspiration or that 0:12:13.000 --> 0:12:14.320 next paragrapher sentence. 0:12:14.640 --> 0:12:17.400 Yeah, I saw that. Somebody said he ran out into 0:12:17.440 --> 0:12:20.439 the street one night at like three am and shouted 0:12:20.440 --> 0:12:24.200 that he'd written ten thousand words in one day. That's great, 0:12:24.280 --> 0:12:27.160 that's pretty substantial. And Thomas Wolf also not to be 0:12:27.200 --> 0:12:30.960 confused with Tom Wolf. No, No, he was an influence 0:12:31.160 --> 0:12:34.640 in his own right. He influenced the Beats, mainly through 0:12:34.720 --> 0:12:39.360 Jack Karawak. He influenced the new journalists, so ironically, Thomas 0:12:39.440 --> 0:12:41.160 Wolf influenced Tom Wolf. 0:12:41.440 --> 0:12:42.240 Yeah. 0:12:42.280 --> 0:12:45.679 And in fact, there's a story that Fear and Loathing 0:12:45.760 --> 0:12:47.719 from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and at the 0:12:47.760 --> 0:12:50.560 Kentucky Derby that Hunter Thompson took that from a Thomas 0:12:50.600 --> 0:12:51.400 Wolfe's story. 0:12:52.520 --> 0:12:55.959 Oh okay, yeah, that's pretty cool. We saw him. It 0:12:56.000 --> 0:12:57.320 done one on Hunter S. Thompson either. 0:12:58.559 --> 0:13:02.040 Now he might be undue. You know how remember the 0:13:02.080 --> 0:13:05.600 time we did that live shows the Worst Idea, where 0:13:05.640 --> 0:13:10.160 we did how humor works and we realized part way 0:13:10.200 --> 0:13:14.439 through in front of a live audience that explaining humor 0:13:14.800 --> 0:13:16.679 is like the least funny thing you can do. 0:13:17.080 --> 0:13:19.439 I don't remember that. Was that a like a tour 0:13:19.520 --> 0:13:21.320 show or was that like for a it. 0:13:21.400 --> 0:13:22.760 Was a podfest? 0:13:23.280 --> 0:13:23.839 Was it really? 0:13:24.040 --> 0:13:26.080 Yeah? In La Here's bad. 0:13:26.520 --> 0:13:27.520 I blocked that one out. 0:13:27.679 --> 0:13:29.160 Yeah, I don't remember. 0:13:31.480 --> 0:13:33.160 So you mentioned a lot of people have you know, 0:13:33.320 --> 0:13:35.880 done their odes to the hotel, whether it's movies or 0:13:36.000 --> 0:13:39.360 songs or whatever. Perhaps the first one was a guy 0:13:39.440 --> 0:13:41.960 named Edgar Lee Masters lived there from thirty one to 0:13:42.000 --> 0:13:46.240 forty four and wrote a poem called the Hotel Chelsea, 0:13:46.320 --> 0:13:47.880 So he kind of got the ball rolling. 0:13:48.160 --> 0:13:50.000 Yeah, and he's the guy I was saying earlier wrote 0:13:50.000 --> 0:13:53.920 Spoon River Anthology that was yeah, worried about it being 0:13:54.040 --> 0:13:56.240 about it losing its vibe. 0:13:56.760 --> 0:14:00.600 Well, let's read this first couple of lines. Then. Don't 0:14:00.600 --> 0:14:03.040 know who that is, but he's writing it to Anita. 0:14:03.520 --> 0:14:07.480 Soon this Chelsea Hotel will vanish before the city's merchant, greed, 0:14:07.920 --> 0:14:10.880 wreckers will wreck it and in its stead more lofty 0:14:10.920 --> 0:14:14.720 walls will swell. Yeah, there you have it. 0:14:15.080 --> 0:14:18.520 Yep. So this was the forties. I'm guessing this was 0:14:18.640 --> 0:14:24.760 nineteen forty three when it changed hands I think for 0:14:24.800 --> 0:14:27.760 the first or second time and was finally turned into 0:14:27.840 --> 0:14:31.520 the Hotel Chelsea. But he had very little to worry 0:14:31.520 --> 0:14:34.240 about because it got even more avant garde after that. 0:14:35.000 --> 0:14:36.760 Yeah, you know, it's kind of had its ups and 0:14:36.800 --> 0:14:39.880 downs as far as how I mean nice it was. 0:14:39.920 --> 0:14:42.400 I guess it fell in pretty hard times after World 0:14:42.480 --> 0:14:45.440 War Two, but it was always you know, Dave described 0:14:45.440 --> 0:14:47.520 it as gruff but lovable. I mean, it never lost 0:14:47.520 --> 0:14:50.400 that charm. It seems like yea, even at its divious. 0:14:51.360 --> 0:14:56.480 Dylan Thomas, the famous author, was a heavy drinker, as 0:14:56.520 --> 0:14:59.360 I think everyone knows. He drank himself to death. They're 0:14:59.360 --> 0:15:02.520 at the Chelsea and nineteen fifty three and they have 0:15:02.600 --> 0:15:04.760 a plaque. They all applaques for everybody, but there's a 0:15:05.000 --> 0:15:07.480 Dylan Thomas plaque. Dylan Thomas lived and wrote at the 0:15:07.520 --> 0:15:10.920 Chelsea Hotel, and from here he sailed out to die. 0:15:11.120 --> 0:15:14.880 Yeah. I read that on the day that he fell 0:15:14.880 --> 0:15:18.240 into a coma that eventually he died from he said, 0:15:18.280 --> 0:15:21.600 I've had eighteen straight whiskies. I think that's the record. 0:15:22.720 --> 0:15:23.400 It's gotta be. 0:15:24.560 --> 0:15:24.960 Yeah. 0:15:25.400 --> 0:15:28.160 So yeah, Dylan Thomas was one of the ones whose 0:15:28.240 --> 0:15:32.360 death really kind of I don't quite know how to 0:15:32.400 --> 0:15:35.360 put it, but there's there's certain aspects of the Chelsea 0:15:35.400 --> 0:15:40.480 Hotel and tragic figures dying in it is part of that. 0:15:40.480 --> 0:15:42.880 That's an aspect of it in and of itself, and 0:15:42.960 --> 0:15:45.880 Dylan Thomas kind of set the tone for that, right. 0:15:45.880 --> 0:15:47.760 Yeah, immortalized maybe. 0:15:47.600 --> 0:15:51.240 Sure, so he became he helped make the Chelsea Hotel 0:15:51.280 --> 0:15:54.600 famous in that respect by dying as a tragic figure there. 0:15:55.360 --> 0:15:58.880 Other people are just kind of famous, and because they 0:15:58.960 --> 0:16:00.960 stayed in the Chelsea Hotel it kind of gives it 0:16:01.000 --> 0:16:05.400 a little more props. Like Jackson Pollock, he lived there 0:16:05.400 --> 0:16:08.360 for a little while. Little known fact the CIA paid 0:16:08.360 --> 0:16:12.000 his rent. No really, virgin No, I'm kidding, Virgil. Have 0:16:12.080 --> 0:16:15.440 you ever heard the theory that the CIA was behind 0:16:15.520 --> 0:16:19.400 the abstract expressionist movements to make the United States seem 0:16:19.400 --> 0:16:20.960 more intellectual to the Soviets? 0:16:21.440 --> 0:16:23.800 No, but that makes that joke a very deep cut. 0:16:23.840 --> 0:16:26.120 So I don't even feel bad this time. Okay for 0:16:26.240 --> 0:16:26.800 falling for it. 0:16:27.440 --> 0:16:29.400 So there are other people too that you may not 0:16:29.440 --> 0:16:31.800 have heard of that I hadn't heard of, that were 0:16:32.000 --> 0:16:36.600 longtime residents that really kind of gave it like legitimacy. 0:16:36.960 --> 0:16:40.040 There was a music critic and composer named Virgil Thompson 0:16:40.840 --> 0:16:45.760 who was apparently just incredibly prolific. He lived there for 0:16:45.800 --> 0:16:49.400 fifty years and died in Room nine twenty. Larry Rivers, 0:16:49.440 --> 0:16:52.560 he's considered the godfather of pop art. He lived there 0:16:52.560 --> 0:16:57.200 for about a decade. And when you put all this 0:16:57.280 --> 0:16:59.480 together and then also bring in tours, because don't forget, 0:16:59.480 --> 0:17:01.600 this is a hotel hell that some people are living 0:17:01.600 --> 0:17:04.600 in for decades, but there's also people coming and going. 0:17:05.840 --> 0:17:08.760 And then you also throw in rich people who are 0:17:08.840 --> 0:17:11.680 basically just trying to hang out with artists, even though 0:17:11.680 --> 0:17:14.800 they have no artistic talent themselves. It's just the crowd 0:17:14.800 --> 0:17:17.199 they want to hang with. You put all these people together, 0:17:17.520 --> 0:17:20.119 and you've got like who you would see if you 0:17:20.200 --> 0:17:21.639 went into the Chelsea Hotel. 0:17:22.200 --> 0:17:26.119 Yeah, exactly, all right, we should take a break and 0:17:26.320 --> 0:17:29.080 we'll come back and talk about David and Stanley Bard 0:17:29.240 --> 0:17:29.760 right after this. 0:17:53.560 --> 0:17:56.960 Okay, So I said earlier that the Chelsea Hotel was 0:17:56.960 --> 0:18:00.960 in capable hands for decades, and those hands were initially 0:18:01.720 --> 0:18:05.240 David Bard and then after that his son Stanley Bard, 0:18:05.760 --> 0:18:08.960 and between the two of them they took Philip Hubert's 0:18:09.040 --> 0:18:12.760 vision of this socialist utopia but really the really artsy 0:18:12.840 --> 0:18:16.600 part of it, and just went to town. I saw 0:18:16.600 --> 0:18:22.280 it described as Stanley curated who lived in the Chelsea Hotel. 0:18:22.720 --> 0:18:24.920 It wasn't like, Hey, I've got some money, I want 0:18:24.960 --> 0:18:29.920 to live here. You basically had to be vouched for 0:18:30.240 --> 0:18:33.600 by another avant garde artist that probably already lived there. 0:18:33.720 --> 0:18:35.040 That was a good way to get in. 0:18:35.840 --> 0:18:38.159 Yeah, and this I found this funny little fact that 0:18:38.240 --> 0:18:41.840 you know, how little things can change history. David in 0:18:41.920 --> 0:18:45.600 nineteen forty three, the elder Bard, he got together with 0:18:45.640 --> 0:18:50.560 some other investors to buy the hotel out of foreclosure. 0:18:51.320 --> 0:18:54.040 And the reason he did that is because he was 0:18:54.040 --> 0:18:58.000 a furrier who was allergic to fur and couldn't take 0:18:58.040 --> 0:19:02.600 it anymore. So the reason the Chelsea Hotel, one of 0:19:02.640 --> 0:19:04.600 the reasons that it kind of stayed that thing, is 0:19:04.640 --> 0:19:07.680 because when David Bard took the reins in nineteen forty three, 0:19:08.359 --> 0:19:11.080 he kept that spirit alive with the artist and like 0:19:11.160 --> 0:19:13.560 taking a painting in lieu of rent. Had it gone 0:19:13.640 --> 0:19:17.840 to just some money hungry, greedy people, it made have 0:19:17.960 --> 0:19:20.440 completely changed in nineteen forty three, and we wouldn't even 0:19:20.520 --> 0:19:23.120 be talking about it today. So had he not been 0:19:23.160 --> 0:19:26.040 a fur or allergic to fur, it may have been 0:19:26.080 --> 0:19:28.440 a completely different scene there. But he ran the hotel 0:19:28.520 --> 0:19:31.640 until he died in sixty four, and like you said, Stanley, 0:19:31.640 --> 0:19:37.080 his son took over. And Stanley Bard was great. He 0:19:37.280 --> 0:19:41.320 was I've got a pretty fun like Apparently there was 0:19:41.440 --> 0:19:44.840 never any like problem he couldn't handle. He was known 0:19:44.880 --> 0:19:47.880 for being able to handle like whatever weirdness was going 0:19:47.880 --> 0:19:50.239 on there at the time. And Arthur Miller, when he 0:19:50.280 --> 0:19:52.600 was divorced from Marilyn Monroe, lived there for a period 0:19:52.640 --> 0:19:55.600 of years and wrote a lot about the Chelsea Hotel. 0:19:55.640 --> 0:20:00.640 And here's one good example about Stanley Bard called down 0:20:00.680 --> 0:20:05.280 after being so frustrated with how disgusting his carpet was. Said, 0:20:05.280 --> 0:20:07.600 for Christ's sake, Stanley, don't you have a vacuum cleaner 0:20:07.600 --> 0:20:10.120 in the house? He said, of course, we have lots 0:20:10.119 --> 0:20:12.000 of them. He said, well, why aren't they ever used? 0:20:12.119 --> 0:20:14.919 He said, they're not used. Stanley, You know g d 0:20:15.040 --> 0:20:17.760 Welly that you don't use them. I have never heard 0:20:17.760 --> 0:20:19.560 such a thing. Why don't they use them? Or you're 0:20:19.560 --> 0:20:21.680 asking me why they don't use them, Well, you're the 0:20:21.720 --> 0:20:24.240 one who brought it up. Look, Stanley, just get a 0:20:24.320 --> 0:20:27.760 vacuum cleaner up here, and let's just forget this conversation. Please, fine, 0:20:27.800 --> 0:20:30.600 how are you otherwise? Truthfully, there is no otherwise. All 0:20:30.640 --> 0:20:33.280 I am is a man waiting desperately for a vacuum cleaner. 0:20:33.800 --> 0:20:35.800 And then Arthur Miller said, and then he would laugh, 0:20:35.840 --> 0:20:40.000 grateful for another happy tenant. And that was like nothing 0:20:40.119 --> 0:20:44.040 was like ever wrong. Right at the Chelsea people were 0:20:44.119 --> 0:20:46.760 dying and being wheeled out of there in overdoses, and 0:20:46.800 --> 0:20:48.639 he would make jokes at like, no, the cops were 0:20:48.640 --> 0:20:52.440 here because they lived there, and the body bags and 0:20:52.800 --> 0:20:54.160 the gurneys are just props. 0:20:55.359 --> 0:20:59.800 Yeah. So apparently Milosh Foreman a true bohemian. He lived 0:20:59.800 --> 0:21:03.760 at Chelsea from I think for the early seventies, about 0:21:03.760 --> 0:21:06.240 the first half of the seventies, and he asked Stanley 0:21:06.240 --> 0:21:10.560 once if anyone had ever died, I believe, to basically 0:21:10.640 --> 0:21:13.600 get him to admit yeah, yeah, because there were a 0:21:13.760 --> 0:21:19.000 lot of deaths, whether it was by suicide, murder, mattress 0:21:19.000 --> 0:21:24.760 fires overdoses. Yeah, and it was just well known that 0:21:24.760 --> 0:21:26.320 there were a lot of deaths that happened in the 0:21:26.400 --> 0:21:30.760 Chelsea Hotel. So Milos Foreman asked Stanley once if he 0:21:30.800 --> 0:21:33.359 could think of anybody who ever died there, and he 0:21:33.359 --> 0:21:36.480 could only come up with one person, and he was 0:21:36.520 --> 0:21:38.879 a painter named al Fais Cole. 0:21:39.560 --> 0:21:40.080 That's funny. 0:21:40.080 --> 0:21:42.840 He died in nineteen eighty eight, the oldest man in 0:21:42.920 --> 0:21:46.000 the world at one hundred and twelve. He died at 0:21:46.040 --> 0:21:48.680 the Chelsea Hotel. And that's the one person that Stanley 0:21:48.720 --> 0:21:50.920 could think of. And the entire time that he was 0:21:51.000 --> 0:21:52.800 running the Chelsea Hotel. 0:21:53.280 --> 0:21:55.280 Yeah, and Stanley ran it for forty years after his 0:21:55.400 --> 0:21:57.600