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of them for maybe a few months. He also knew they couldn't party too hard with hard
drugstoolongbeforetheyflamedout.Inthosecases,thepoordegenerateswouldjustevict
themselves, dropping away from the Chelsea like leaves off a tree. Bard only had to wait.
PAUL VOLMER
Stanley basically gave everyone enough rope to hang themselves with. It gener-
ally worked.
ItsavedBardthetroubleoffilingcomplicatedevictionnotices,hiringsomeonetotosstheir
belongings into the street, or calling the city to haul them out in body bags.
Stanley could wait. But most residents fell somewhere in between the fabulous success
stories and the wastrels. Dealing with these in-between rent laggards was trickier and re-
quired finesse. It involved those more complicated cases, artists who had lived there for
five years, never managed to make it big, but never indulged so deeply in debauchery that
they flamed out on their own.
ItwasinthesesituationsthatBardwoulddevelopa“Dr.JekyllandMr.Hyde”strategy.
When the artist first moved in, the Chelsea was an artist's paradise provided by Bard's
kindly Dr. Jekyll figure wearing velvet gloves.
Until you got well behind on rent and showed little promise.
Then, out burst Mr. Hyde, swinging his steel fist. Bard would
hound
you mercilessly.
Atpreciselyeighto'clockinthemorning,he'drattleyouawakewithaphonecall,demand-
ingyoupayuporelse!He'dslipthreatening notesunderyourdoor.Everytimeyoupassed
the front desk, he'd call you over and give you a scolding. It was Chinese water torture.
Bard seemed to enjoy exercising his lordly right to swing between permissiveness and har-
assment. It energized him.
As a result of Bard's split personality, tenants developed their own divided psyches. It
was not unlike a dysfunctional family. Tenants loved him for loving artists, but after fend-
ing off his aggressive rent collection methods, they were deathly afraid of him.
PAUL VOLMER
Stanley Bard was always after everyone for rent like an annoying little dog that
would grab your pant leg and pull at you as you were heading out the door and
off to work. Sometimes, he'd just sit behind the desk and rush out into the lobby
togetyouasyouweregoingout.Butmostofthetime,hewouldcatchyouwhen
you were coming back later in the day.
Sometimes, if you were behind on your rent, you would try to look through
the window from outside and see if Stanley was behind the desk. If he was, say,
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