Chelsea Portraits - This Ain't no Holiday Inn: Down and Out at the Chelsea Hotel 1980-1995 - page 186

Victor Hugo: Maniacal Window Dresser
Victor Hugo was probably most famous for being the lover of Halston, 105 the first interna-
tional fashion superstar. According to Salon.com , Victor Hugo (not to be confused with the
19th Century author of Les Miserables) was “a bizarre, unintelligible and maniacal Colom-
bian window dresser… who liked to give window mannequins submachine guns and have
them act out The Patty Hearst bank robbery scene.” He was called Victor Hugo not in honor
of the great French novelist, but because of “his physical endowments, his literary ones be-
ing undoubtedly few.” 106
ELLIS DUNCAN
Victor Hugo was the last lover of Halston—fashion designer Roy Halston
Frowick. Victor lived with the painter Scott Covert off and on at the hotel.
When Halston died, Halston's family paid Victor a million bucks to shut
up—not to tell anyone about his relationship with Halston—and get out of every-
body's hair. After taxes and a tremendous amount of partying with a lot of
everything that could be purchased, that money was quickly running out.
Victor, at that point, was also sick with AIDS. In his desperation toward the
end,Victordecidedtowritethebookhehadbeenpaidnottowrite.Hehadspoken
to some publishers to try to figure out how he could write something, because he
had agreed in his payoff never to speak of his relationship with Halston. It had me
scared to death that if he'd put pen to paper, he would be sued.
I think Halston left a brother or sister as beneficiaries for any residuals from
Halston'slicensing deals. Sotheyhadtomake surethat Victor Hugodidn'tgoout
and queer the whole thing—no pun intended—by blabbing.
He didn't die while he was staying with Scott Covert, but it was shortly after
moving out of Scott's apartment, a week or two after having failed to find a pub-
lisher.
ROBERT CAMPBELL
Thefirsttime—andsubsequentlyeverytime—IdidcrackcocainewaswithVictor
Hugo. It was two or three in the morning, and I was looking for my friend Mario
togetsomemorecoke.Hedidn'tanswerthedoor,andthenallofasudden,Victor
was there. He said, “Come on—I want to show you something.” I think he lived
in Room 525 then, which later became Dee Dee Ramone's room. He loaded this
crack pipe and showed me how to smoke it. Then he gave me a hit, and it hit me