Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The Master of Malapropisms
If Volmer was collecting friends from the demimonde, North Carolinian Robert Campbell
was acquainting himself with the Chelsea in his own way. In his paint closet of a room,
Campbell was applying his gregarious manner and his Southern-style talents for conversa-
tion and storytelling to start a noisy little scene of his own.
PAUL VOLMER
Robert was working at Atlantic Records and met a lot of people there. His room
was a very amusing place. It was a very small, very skinny room that basically
only had a bed pushed over on one side. Robert would invite people over to jam,
people from inside or from Atlantic or wherever. Musicians would be jamming in
his tiny room and it was really lively.
STEVE HOUSE
You'dgotoRobert'sroom,andit'dbepackedwithpeople.He'dbeoutonthebal-
cony,standingoverhislittleHibachigrill,andsay,“Comeon
in,
man!I'mmaking
freaking quesadillas!”
NANCY ROGERS
Within an hour or so there'd be half a dozen people there. Or more. That would
create its own party. And of course you can't talk about the Chelsea without ac-
knowledging the ever-present drug scene. I remember a person coming to my
party once and saying they'd been offered five different drugs in the half block
between the subway and my apartment. But that was nothing compared to the
Chelsea Hotel! People smoked weed like cigarettes. People were drinking. But
there were also cocaine, heroin, and acid.
Maybe it was because I was in my twenties and early thirties, but I don't re-
member it as a negative thing. I remember it being a lot of fun!
ROBERT CAMPBELL
I had two rules for anyone who came into my room. The first rule was you could
neversaythe“N-word.”Ijustdidn'tgoforthatstuff.Mysecondruleforpeoplein
myroomwasyoucouldn'tsmokecigarettes.Youcouldsmokeotherthings,butno
tobacco. I never physically kicked anyone out of my room for breaking either one
of those rules. I would just turn off the music and say “Hey, you know what? We
gotta go somewhere. I've got this errand I forgot all about.” But I made my rules
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