Living with Legends

Hotel Chelsea Blog

recent posts

about

Snakes at the Chelsea

16 Currently on eBay, there are four bids on this print of a photo of mail artist Ray Johnson which was taken in George Kleinsinger’s room here at the Hotel Chelsea.  Kleinsinger was the composer who wrote the music for Tubby the Tuba, though he is perhaps more famous for the menagerie of exotic animals — including snakes, monkeys, skunks, doves and turtles — he kept in his apartment on the 10th floor.

We once met an elderly lady when we were drinking in El Quijote and upon hearing that we lived in the Chelsea the first thing she asked was, "Is that man with the snakes still there? I quite going to that place because of him!  Everytime I got on the elevator, there he was with a snake!"

The high bid on the photo is currently $22.50.

Posted in ,

One response to “Snakes at the Chelsea”

  1. bluehour Avatar
    bluehour

    Did you know the multiply-pierced club kids who lived in the apartment under the Chelsea sign? They kept all sorts of reptiles, had lots of snakes and a four-foot iguana that escaped one winter and made it as far as the trellis on Tim Moran’s terrace, where it froze to death. Poor thing. One of the white mice they kept to feed to the snakes escaped too, and also showed up on Tim’s terrace, as it happens when he was out sweeping it. He had a phobia about mice and his surprised reaction was to slapshot the mouse off the balcony with the broom. It hit a passing woman in the head, fell to the ground and ran into El Quijote.
    Does Kleinsinger’s widow still live in the hotel?

    Like

    Reply

Leave a comment