Living with Legends

I guess it should come as no surprise to fans of the Chelsea Hotel that the recently departed Eartha Kitt had close friends at the Chelsea Hotel.   Jazz.com writer Arnold Jay Smith recalls talking to Ms. Kitt at former resident George Kleinsinger’s memorial service at Judson Memorial Church.  Smith had earlier met Kitt at Kleinsinger’s apartment and they both fondly recalled Kleinsinger’s famous menagerie which Smith remembers included birds, monkeys, reptiles and a kola bear.  We’ve never heard the one about the kola bear before but it sounds like it would be right at home in the Chelsea.  We kinda doubt that Kleinsinger or Eartha Kitt for that matter would find the Chelsea Hotel so welcoming these days.