Getting By - This Ain't no Holiday Inn: Down and Out at the Chelsea Hotel 1980-1995 - page 136

sold a lot of work, obviously. We couldn't have lived on it otherwise. But we
lived by it, so when we had money, we would buy a good bottle of wine or go to
Puerto Rico, and we paid attention and lived quite meagerly, except for expens-
ive paints. I don't know how we did it! I still do it.
The less successful artists, or those just setting off down the path to find their creative
voices, had it at least as hard.
PAUL VOLMER
Wewereallbasically poorandhustlingmoneyforourhotelrooms.Itwasalittle
hard to make the rent, so we were always broke. Some days we would be living
on only a few dollars. Your friends would help you out with a few dollars if they
had it. Everyone was on the edge.
DIMITRI MUGIANIS
The Chelsea was sort of a fallback place. You could still come here and grab
a room. It wasn't cheap, but it wasn't expensive, either, and you didn't need a
downpayment.Youdidn'tneedamonth'ssecuritydeposit!Andallthereference
checks—you didn't need any of that.
Prior to being hired as the Chelsea's bellman and night watchman, Paul Volmer had taken
a job as a waiter.
TIM SULLIVAN
Paul couldn't keep his waiter clothes clean. He'd wait until just before he had to
go to work, and he would wash his shirt in the sink, and then iron it right away,
soaking wet.
“You can't do that!” I said. “You'll burn the shirt!”
He'd get the shirt all brown in spots from burning it with the iron!
PAUL VOLMER
During the first few years I lived there, I was always just slightly behind on the
rent, and Stanley Bard was totally on my case. I liken living there to being in a
littleboat,adinghy,andthere'saholeinthedinghy,andyouhavetokeepbailing
water to keep yourself afloat.
Even after Stanley Bard had hired Paul Volmer as bellman/watchman, Volmer managed to
bring a dollar in now and then with little projects on the side.