UPDATE — According to a tipster, Jerry Weinstein has been told by NEW MANAGEMENT that he is no 
longer personally allowed to accept reservations. (Photo: AFP, Jerry a few days after the ouster.)
I thought I had stepped into the twilight zone on Wednesday when I got home from work and didn’t recognize a single face behind the front desk. Typically, when I get home, it’s either Robert and Robert, or 
Robert and Jerome. But on Wednesday there were three young people behind the desk: Juan, who has been around for a few weeks, and two young women whom I’ve never seen before. Then, on Thursday there was a new guy holding open the front door (a doorman?) and more new people behind the front desk. Oh well, I suppose we’ll find out their names when the holidays roll around and we get a little list in our boxes. (lobby photo – ecstatictyler)
This place is swiftly becoming corporatized, and it’s a damn shame on a number of levels. But allow me to digress for a moment and tell you a little story:
On Tuesday, while I was hanging around waiting for the elevator a well dressed older woman and her friend 
walked up to me and asked “Does anyone know who the sculptor was who did sculptures of presidents?” I said you’re probably thinking of long-time Chelsea Hotel resident Rene Shapshak. She immediately recognized the name. “Is he gone,” she asked. “He and his wife are both dead,” I replied. “That’s what I meant by ‘gone’,” she said. She then went on to tell me that when she was a young woman she had set for Shapshak and he had sculpted her. (Now she was wondering what ever happened to that sculpture.) I directed her to Shapshak’s bust of Truman on the lobby mantle and she was thrilled to see it. (Photo: Former President Truman poses for Rene Shapshak)
The point I’m trying to make is: who among all of these new people has the knowledge or cares to acquire the knowledge, to carry on the oral traditions and recount the legends of the hotel on a daily basis? A plaque on the wall is nice but what people really want is to talk to somebody (preferably Stanley and/or David) who knew the artists and can tell their stories. That’s what Bohemia is all about: it’s a living, ongoing tradition.
Besides that, we can’t help wondering where is all of this money coming from to pay all of this additional staff. On the other hand, it’s worth mentioning that none of them seem very old, so they probably aren’t making as much as the folks who are in a union and who have been around for a while. Could this be the gradual changing of the guard? –DM
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Living with Legends 
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