Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
CHAPTER 2
Chelsea Wildness
Furry people, too. Werewolves of Chelsea. Limited always to the 2nd Floor,
where the cleaning staff entered with caution, eyes down for glass, peering
through the door into the bath, the discipline of homicide detectives. 24 —JOHN
CALE
In the early 1960s, the Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Arthur Miller, still licking his
wounds after his failed marriage to Marilyn Monroe, moved into the Chelsea Hotel be-
causeattheluxuriousPlazaHotelwhereheusedtolive,hehatedfeelinghehadtowear
a tie just to go down and pick up his mail.
Some forty years later, long after he had left the Chelsea, Miller wrote an essay for
Granta called“TheChelseaEffect.”HistreatmentoftheChelseawasdroll,portrayingman-
agerStanleyBardasanobdurateoptimist,thekindofPollyannawho,tokeepuphispositive
front, must sink deep into denial about what actually went on between the walls. According
to Miller, Bard was “simply not interested in bad news of any kind.”
Miller appreciated that the hotel “was a house of infinite toleration,” but with some re-
servations. He had issues with the hotel's insular quality, its pervading atmosphere of un-
reality. Filmmaker James Rasin described the ambiance in a similar way.
JAMES RASIN
You just walked into the Chelsea and the world disappeared. It's like you were
walking into a whole different world, like a warp zone.
After a few years, Miller moved out, fearing that at any given moment he was in very real
danger of physical harm. The Chelsea offered both miracles and murder.
Where did Stanley Bard stand amidst the hotel's dreamy treachery? Was his airtight op-
timism just shrewd public relations? Was Bard a genuine idealist, or just a master of spin?
Real Chelsea dwellers haveattested thatthewildeventsyou'reabouttoreadarefactual,
actual, and accurate, even if they're not the sort of events Stanley Bard—salesman to the
core—liked to peddle.
JULIE EAKIN
I think anything was permitted, honestly. I don't remember any hotel people ever
coming into our room.
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