Living with Legends

David Bard: September 14, 1965 – September 14, 2021

September 15, 2021

David Bard, beloved former general manager of the Chelsea Hotel, passed away on Tuesday, September 14, on the day of his 56^th birthday. David, together with his father Stanley, from whom he was set to assume the mantle of leadership, will always be remembered as the heart and soul of the Chelsea.

As Stanley’s only son, it had always appeared to be David’s destiny to manage the Chelsea Hotel. After all, it was no mistake that he was named after his grandfather, also David Bard, who bought an ownership stake in the Chelsea in the mid-forties. So it must’ve been quite a blow when the Bard family, which had owned and operated the hotel for over 60 years, was forced to step back from their management role in 2007, and, under pressure from minority shareholders, to subsequently sell the hotel in 2011.

It’s safe to assume that Stanley, a larger-than-life figure, must’ve been a hard example to live up to. But while the elder Bard was well known for his generosity, David also had a big heart, and residents would sometimes appeal to him when they feared Stanley wouldn’t listen. David would usually do his best to meet them half-way.

But David was no clone of his father and had his own ideas about how the hotel should be run. As quoted in the New York Times on 6/28/90: “My idea was not to change that bohemian feeling that the people we’ve always had here feel very comfortable with,” said David Bard, “but to cater to the patrons of artists, as well as producers and directors, and make them feel comfortable, too.”

Perhaps the following passage, provided to the blog by Sherill Tippins, author of Inside the Dream Palace: The Life and Times of New
York’s Legendary Chelsea Hotel, best captures the touching mix of respect and protectiveness in which David held his father:

The first time I approached Stanley to interview him, he took me to the room behind the front desk where several desks were set up at the time for employees. We sat down at one of the desks, and Stanley started giving me the standard spiel about the hotel’s history and his and his family’s role in it. But then, suddenly, he veered into a rant about how the board of directors had recently kicked him off the board, and how his only his son and daughter remained in a position to try to save the hotel from being destroyed by the other board members, who were interested only in profits and had no comprehension of what the hotel stood for or what it still meant to the city of New York. As he continued, his voice growing louder and his tone more distraught with every word, a young man behind us jumped up and put his arms on Stanley’s shoulders, trying to force him back into his chair, ordering him to be quiet, that I was “the press,” and that broadcasting their problems in front of me would only make matters worse. After some time, this young man—who, I learned, was David Bard—managed to settle Stanley down a little, at least to the point at which Stanley offered to show me the rooms they had renovated in an attempt to appease the board members. While we were upstairs, Stanley told me how proud he was of his son, whom he expected to take his place as manager of the hotel, and how perfect he would be for the role because David understood what made the Chelsea residents tick. I myself could see that Stanley’s children were playing crucial roles in getting him through that difficult time. Even if they were not successful in their attempt to keep the Chelsea, they stood by Stanley, giving him their full love and support all the way to the end—which is all that a father can wish for.

I hadn’t seen much of David in recent years, though while the hair salon was still in the building next door, he was in the habit of coming in once a month for a haircut and I often ran into him on the street. Inevitably, he would express a deep sadness over what was happening to the hotel in his absence, though also a boundless confidence that it would live on in some form or other. Most strikingly, he always made sure to inquire about the welfare of the residents of the hotel, for each one of whom he seemed to have a genuine affection. Usually, he couldn’t quite bring himself to venture inside, finding the prospect too heartbreaking to bear, but had to content himself with a furtive glance through the lobby doors.

David was torn from us too soon, but he’ll always live on, in the walls of the Chelsea as sure as he does in our hearts. We know David loved the Chelsea, and we can only hope his last memories of the hotel and its people were happy ones.

David is preceded in death by his father, Stanley Bard, and his mother, Alice Beer Bard. He is survived by his wife, Debbie Bard, their two children, Amanda and Myles, and his sister, Michele Bard Grabell, and her husband, Matthew Grabell.

[The funeral will be on Friday, September 17, at 11:30 at Cedar Hill Cemetery, 735 Forest Avenue, Mount Paramus, New Jersey.]

Photo of Stanley and David Bard by Rita Barros.
Mayor DeBlasio: Return Born and Drukier’s Money!

August 5, 2019

Dear Mayor DeBlasio,

We are calling on you to return Richard Born’s and Ira Drukier’s campaign contributions and the $90,000 that was raised at the March fundraiser. With the presidential primaries underway and your reputation for standing up for tenants on the line, you must make it crystal clear to them that they cannot buy a Certificate of No Harassment!

As you know, Born and Drukier are the principals of BD Hotels, and they are principals in an LLC that presently owns the famed Chelsea Hotel, where, since 2007, dozens of residents, most of them in the arts, have been evicted to make way for luxury accommodations. Since August 2011, the remaining residents have endured years of seemingly never-ending demolition and construction (often involving demolishing new construction and rebuilding over again).

The Certificate of No Harassment (COHN), issued by the city’s HPD, is intended to protect tenants from exactly this sort of abuse. Though Born and Drukier well knew of the requirement for a CONH, as they have applied for CONHs at other buildings they own. Additionally, they were fired from the Chelsea Hotel once before, in 2008, for their refusal to apply for a CONH. They have been doing construction without one for 3 years while tenants continue to experience interruptions of basic services, leaks, exposure to toxic dust, and constant ear-splitting noise.

Mr. Mayor, we invite you to visit the Chelsea Hotel and experience for yourself the conditions of the building, such as Gothamist did in
October 2018. Currently, a portion of the tenants in the building have been without cooking gas for a month and the entire building has been without hot water for over 24 hours.

In any event, you must not allow your reputation as a tenant’s advocate to be besmirched by this appearance of impropriety. That’s why we are asking you to return the $57,000 donated to your campaign by Richard Born, Ira Drukier, and their associates. Return the $90,000 raised at the March 4 fundraiser. Only then can the public be assured that the HPD’s ongoing investigation into the harassment of the tenants of the Chelsea Hotel will be allowed to continue without undue interference. We hope you will do the right thing.

Sincerely,

Chelsea Hotel Bloggers
Chelsea Hotel Renovation: Seven Year and Two Month Update

October 4, 2018

Seven years and two months later and this is what we've got! A concrete landing that blocks more than half of the beautiful skylight.
Chelsea Hotel Renovation: Seven Year Update

August 1, 2018

It’s been seven long years and here’s what we’ve got at the Chelsea Hotel! This, and a projected early 2019 opening.

Anniversary Lowlights:

June 20, 2007 – The Bard Family was ousted and BD Hotels steps in to manage the Hotel for the minority shareholders. " Ira Drukier of BD thinks that with a little work the Chelsea "can once again become a crown jewel of New York City."
May 5, 2008 – It took less than a year for the minority shareholders to oust BD from their management role.

July 30, 2011 – Guests were told via email that the Hotel would be closed for one year for renovations. Tenants were told nothing.
July 31, 2011 – The deal goes down to the wire.

August 1, 2012 – Hotel Chetrit: A Brief Journal of the Plague Year

March 12, 2013 – Chetrit sues the original owners.
August 27, 2013 – Ed Scheetz's King & Groves buys out the Chetrit's interest in the Hotel.
December 9, 2013 – Troubled Times at the Hotel Chelsea: The Recent Past and Plans for the Future

March 12, 2016 – Ed Scheetz leaves and BD Hotels step in again.
Secret Societies from Bohemians to Bullies

October 18, 2017

As for Lords of the Schoolyards relation to my first two books: the Chelsea Hotel of Legends of the Chelsea Hotel is a world unto itself, a secret society for sure—or a whole bunch of them, for who knows what’s hidden behind that weirdly painted door at the end of that dark, forbidding corridor? It’s a place where different rules apply and where deviance is a badge of honor. Creativity is valued above all, as artists, writers and musicians are the stars. And even junkies and schizophrenics rank higher than lawyers and business men —though anybody with money is certainly tolerated by the starving artists, that’s for sure! And regarding the characters in The Chintz Age, their comfortable subcultures are collapsing as the city gentrifies, they’re being evicted from their apartments and shops, and they’re struggling to carve out a niche for themselves where they can remain relevant (or at least remain in New York) as they ride out the onrushing societal juggernaut. Read the full interview here.
Stanley Bard, Former Owner and Manager of The Chelsea Hotel, Dies at 82

February 14, 2017

Famed hotelier Stanley Bard, the guiding spirit of the greatest experiment in bohemian living in the history of New York, if not the world, passed away this morning in Boca Raton, Florida, surrounded by his loved ones. Bard, 82, who had been ill for the last few years, succumbed to a massive stroke.

Known affectionately to all by his first name, Stanley was the majority owner and managing director of New York’s famed Chelsea Hotel. Built in 1883, the Chelsea was purchased by Stanley’s father, David, together with two other investors, in 1940. Upon his father’s death in 1957, Stanley took over as manager of the hotel, continuing in that post for 50 years, up until his departure in 2007. Though Stanley inherited a building that was already known as a haven for the arts, he presided over the greatest artistic flowering in the history of the hotel, playing host to the Beats of the 50s, the Warhol superstars of the 60s, and the punks of the seventies.

A list of Stanley’s guests, most of whom he came to know personally, reads like a Who’s Who of the New York art world: Dylan Thomas, Arthur Miller, Bob Dylan, Arthur C. Clarke, Stanley Kubrick, Virgil Thompson, Charles James, Leonard Cohen, Christo, Larry Rivers, Dee Dee Ramone, Nico, Dennis Hopper, Brendan Behan, Shirley Clark, Derek Walcott, Madonna, Robert Mapplethorpe, and the Warhol Superstars Edie Sedgwick, Viva, Nico, Holly Woodlawn, and Candy Darling, and on and on and on. A stay at the Chelsea has long been regarded as a right of passage for almost everyone who was anyone in the world of art, music, literature and the theater during the fifty years of Stanley’s brilliant tenure.

Born in 1934 to David and Fanny Bard, Jewish immigrants from Hungary, Stanley was just a boy when his family took over management of the hotel. He immediately fell in love with the old building, and soon knew it inside and out, crawling around in the crawl spaces and secret nooks and crannies as he worked as an assistant for Julius Krauss, the plumber and part owner of the Chelsea. In college, Stanley studied psychology, which he always claimed, half-jokingly, helped him to understand and deal with the odd and unusual collection of bohemians who passed through the hotel. (Photo: Arthur Miller, Arnold Weinstein and Stanley Bard by Rita Barros.)

Stanley’s final years brought new challenges. Despite the supercharged climate of gentrification and the pressure of investors to cash in on the hotel’s good name, he did his best to keep the rents affordable for the hundreds of artists, musicians, writers, and actors who called the hotel their home in the new millennium. Over the years, Stanley was well known for helping artists in any way he could, financially, emotionally, and by providing a nurturing environment that fostered creativity, and he would continue to fight for their well being up until the very end of his tenure. Stanley himself said it best: “Over the years people here have created some really beautiful, meaningful things, and they just needed that little bit of help to be able to do it. This hotel has heart and soul and it’s not all about the bottom line!”

Stanley was a genuine New York character, one of the people who make the city the great place it is. A tireless cheerleader for the Chelsea, Stanley’s love for the venerable hotel was such that he often said that the Chelsea was the most famous hotel in the world,
sometimes going even further to claim that it was the most famous building in the world. And while he was understandably reluctant to discuss a certain notorious slaying in 1979, it was also quite difficult to get him to admit that anything bad had ever happened at the Chelsea. Director Milos Forman, jokingly attempting to get him to admit that the hotel has suffered its share of misfortunes, asks him, in Abel Ferrara’s movie Chelsea on the Rocks, if anyone has ever died at the Chelsea. Well yes, Stanley admits, in a building this old, certainly a few people have died. He then goes on to cite exactly one, the painter Alphaeus Cole, who lived to be 112! (Photo: Stanley and Alphaeus Cole by Allan Tennanbaum)

Stanley is survived by his wife Phyllis, by his two children, David Bard and Michele Bard Grabell, by their spouses, Debbie Bard and Mathew Grabell, and by five grandchildren. Stanley’s first wife, Alice, the mother of David and Michele, predeceased him, as did his older brother, Milton.

Stanley is survived as well as by thousands of people in the arts who have called the Chelsea Hotel their home—for a night, a week, a month, a year, or for several decades—and who will continue to honor his memory in their lives and their art for many years to come. And even beyond that, as long as the Chelsea Hotel stands, the spirit of Stanley and his undying dedication to the arts he so loved will live on.

Services will be Thursday at 10:00 at Temple Emmanuel, 180 Piermont Rd., Closter, NJ. 07624.

— Ed Hamilton
Deena Kaye Rose’s Book “Some Days are Diamonds” Will Take You Back to the Chelsea Hotel in the mid-70s

April 18, 2016

Deena Kaye Rose is a Nashville songwriting legend. She has written songs for some of country’s most renowned stars like Johnny Cash, Jerry Reed, John Denver and wrote the theme song to the all-time American classic movie, Smokey and the Bandit. In Deena Kaye Rose’s new book, Some Days Are Diamonds, she chronicles the best and worst times of living the raucous and crazy musician life all the while knowing that she was suppressing her true feminine self.

In the mid-70s, she landed at the Chelsea Hotel. As she writes in her book, Some Days are Diamonds, “The manager had given me a “long-term artist's” rate: $60 a week. Of course, nothing in my room worked properly and I think I had housekeeping once a week, whether I needed it or not. As a hotel, possibly the worst. As an inspiration for a creative artist, probably the best. And I loved it dearly.” Download "Alive and Well at the Chelsea Hotel – Chapter 28" from Some Days are Diamonds.

How did you learn about the Chelsea Hotel?

I learned about the Chelsea Hotel from studying about creative artists who had spent time in New York City. The Chelsea has long been that citadel of the muse for so many.

How’d you rate your room at the Chelsea?

On a scale of one to ten, it was about a minus two! But as inspiration it was ten to the tenth power!

Can you describe the Vibe of the Hotel at the time (mid-70s)?

There were some full time residents at the Chelsea who were quite interesting characters; one old fella dressed like a cowboy all the time. Out on the streets of New York he looked a little out of place but at the Chelsea, he fit right in. There was one middle-aged guy who dressed like a pirate complete with silk pantaloons, a black sash, and a pirate doo-rag. I thought perhaps he was a doorman at a seafood restaurant, but no, he was a pirate!

Daytime piano music drifted down from the upper floors that contained small studios and at least one grand piano. It was beautiful.

Do you think the Chelsea has a special creative energy?

Absolutely! I always felt a physical tingle, a buzz of electrical energy from just walking through the entrance. The thought of so many great artists and creative souls who had walked these halls, trod upon these stairs, or occupied a bar stool in the first floor bar was thrilling for a romantic like myself. Sitting in my room and looking out on Twenty-Third would invariably lead me to muse about others who had gazed upon this same midnight, this same street scene, as they also awaited a visit from the muse.

Have you written any songs about the Chelsea Hotel or songs that were inspired by your experience staying at the Hotel?

I wrote the liner notes for my third album while living at the Chelsea on one nocturnal evening, gazing out through the ornate cast iron balcony.

Thumb-humped rhythms in the A.M. Quiet,Star-crossed words in a hot tea buzz…

To say how it is!

Not how it should be.

Or even how it was.

I bring a mirror,

Not a pulpit.

Here, People,

I wrote these songs for you!

These lines are included in my book, Some Days Are Diamonds, in the chapter about the Chelsea.

Has your song writing been influenced by any artists associated with the Chelsea Hotel?

My goal has always been to never try and emulate other songwriters. If I learn to write exactly like Steven Sondheim it wouldn’t mean a thing. We already have a Steven Sondheim. My focus has been with poets, novelists, film makers, artists that create in a genre entirely different from the one I am attempting. Dylan Thomas was certainly a poet whom I admired greatly. Thomas Wolf, yes, and I even have some leaves that I picked up along the sidewalk of his boyhood home in Ashville, North Carolina. But there is one songwriter/poet of the Class of Chelsea whom I love dearly—as a fan. That would be Leonard Cohen. Genius!

Are there any transgender role models who you admire who are/were also part of the Chelsea Hotel scene?

Holly Woodlawn! Yes, yes, YES. This courageous lady made her statement in a time when it was most difficult to express an alternative lifestyle. She definitely took a “Walk on the Wild Side.” Holly Woodlawn was one of the Godmothers to us all. The footprints of her high heels are always to be found on the pathway before me.

How did you get interested in Country music?

My childhood was spent in western Missouri, a mostly agrarian part of America. Our “popular” music was the folk music done by artists like Woody Guthrie, the Western Swing of Bob Wills and mixed with the Appalachian influences of European Americans. We didn’t have a symphony but we had a square dance every Saturday night where the local musicians played things like “Wildwood Flower” and “Under the Double Eagle,” songs from the nineteenth century.

Chet Atkins once said, “There are only two kinds of music; good and bad!” That has always been my feeling. It seemed to me that Rock and Roll was always so optimistic: “We’re gonna do this and it will be great!” Jazz was more like; “We’re Doin’ this and isn’t it great!” But Country Music was more like; “We did this and it wasn’t always that great!” I love real life emotions told with great lyrical lines.

What was it like working with the greats of country music?

Terrific! During the time when I was writing for Johnny Cash, I thought, Wow, I am writing for someone who actually was a great influence in shaping “how” I write now. I once played John a song and I said, “I stole this idea from you and one of your songs.” John listened and said, “I don’t hear any theft there.”

What is your favorite song that you wrote and why?

Songs are like children: a parent could never choose one over the others. Feels to me that at any given time I will always have two favorite songs: the last one and the next one!

Perhaps some of my works could be singled out as having some historical significance in regards to my career. “East Bound and Down” has played over a million times in broadcast play in North America alone, as has, “Some Days Are Diamonds.” And, yes, each of these compositions was a financial Pleasure! But there is another song that I wrote and that was recorded by The Kingston Trio entitled “Jock and the Trapeze Lady” that didn’t make nearly as much money but that I love just as dearly.

Can you tell us about your experience transitioning into a woman?

Well, I guess I first had the feeling that I should have been a girl rather late in life—I was three years old! But knowing that I was trans for the whole of my life and deciding to do something about it were two different things. The most surprising thing about my life after Transition was the soul-deep JOY that I have found. I was prepared for disappointments but I had not anticipated being so HAPPY. Since transitioning three years ago, the worst day I have had as a woman is better than the best day I had as a guy in the dozen years before that in Nashville.

Do you think it is easier now for people who transition?

Certainly there are more resources available and a little more understanding in the cisgender community. We have learned that there are others just like ourselves. Gender reassignment is not something that one can undertake on a whim. The decision is a lifelong commitment. It is not akin to walking through the pet store and suddenly deciding to buy an Angel Fish.

How was your transitioning received by your fellow artists in the country music industry?

Wonderful! The old friends who have reached out to me have been great. I have a dear friend in the onstage, performing area of the Entertainment Business who, as guy, I have known for over thirty years. Just a few months ago, I reached out to him and explained my “cha-cha-cha, Changes.” He was much more excited about him and his wife getting together with me to have dinner and talk about creativity and music, without having superficial conversations about Transsexuality! We have done just that several times.

I am still a creative artist; it is just that now I am a female creative artist.

What inspired you to write your book?

My first thought about a post-transition life was that I would live in “stealth,” a term used by transpeople to denote living in a new gender without referring or alluding to the previous life as the old gender. Hence, we call our birth name our “deadname.” But I noticed that a common misperception was that Trans folks are totally incapacitated by being transgender: that we have spent our pre-transition time hiding in dark places waiting for grs so that our lives could actually begin.

Porcine Dip!

In recent years, many post-transition persons have made it a point to embrace achievements conducted in the previous gender, the gender assigned at birth. The Wachowski Sisters, genius film makers and transladies, Kristin Beck, former Navy Seal and Transgender woman. Chaz Bono, Jennifer Leitham, and, of course, Caitlyn Jenner, and many others have been effusive in acknowledging previous successes I felt it was my obligation to my trans family that I should make my statement: that even a male Country Music songwriter from Nashville, who wrote for Johnny Cash, wrote for macho, truck drivin’ Burt Reynolds film, Smokey and the Bandit, was not immune from being transgender. I did not choose Transgenderism—Transgenderism chose me.

Do you have any new creative projects coming up that we should look out for?

I am working on a book of poetry that will include all new, never before published works. I have a ton of new songs I wrote for and about the Trans community. Some pending speaking engagements are on the horizon. And, of course, there is the current autobiographical book, “Some Days Are Diamonds”, that is available on Amazon at this very moment. Believe me, it has a happy ending!

ABOUT DEENA KAYE ROSE

Deena Kaye Rose is a Nashville songwriting legend. She has written songs for some of country’s most renowned stars like Johnny Cash, Jerry Reed, John Denver and wrote the theme song to the all-time American classic movie, Smokey and the Bandit. In Deena Kaye Rose’s new book, Some Days Are Diamonds, she chronicles the best and worst times of living the raucous and crazy musician life all the while knowing that she was suppressing her true feminine self. Today Deena is a transgender woman and activist, sharing the history of her journey in performances and lectures around the country. She is letting trans persons know they are not alone. Deena’s hope is that her tale of growing up knowing she was a transgender woman in a time when those topics were considered either taboo or nonexistent in the Bible Belt of the United States, may add a positive note to the transgender conversation.

For more information about Deena visit her website at www.deenakayerose.com

Follow her on Twitter @DeenaKayeRose

Like her on Facebook www.facebook.com/DeenaKRose

Buy her book on Amazon
The Chintz Age by Ed Hamilton

November 12, 2015

The Chintz Age is about bohemians and the middle class struggling to survive and maintain relevance in an urban climate that has become overly expensive and increasingly hostile to their very existence. While the stories are set in NYC, the themes they deal with are equally relevant to any rapidly changing urban environment.

Can living in a bland glass and steel tower erode your soul? In “Highline/Highlife,” a young writer who enters into a marriage in bad faith to advance his career, willing himself to be a sort of master of the literary universe, becomes trapped in his glass apartment overlooking the Highline, the disintegration of his life and career on display for the amusement of poorly dressed tourists. The writer is driven to adultery, and then madness, through living under the constant scrutiny of passersby.

The displacement of mom and pop shops by chain stores and bank branches has become a hot button issue of late, as cities become increasingly standardized and suburbanized. In “Fat Hippie Books,” a bookshop owner, faced with the imminent closure of his small East Village shop due to skyrocketing rent, sets off on a journey of self discovery intended to mirror one of Beat legend Jack Kerouac’s famous road trips.

The decrease of affordable housing has led to a climate of increasingly cutthroat competition for living space in NYC. In “The Retro-Seventies Manhattan Dream Apartment,” the novella that completes the collection, a schizophrenic dinner theater actress and a psychopathic computer programmer, dark soul mates bound together in a twisted love affair, engage in a battle of wills in a bid to control a valuable piece of rent stabilized real estate.

The Chintz Age is Available Now – Buy here or on Amazon. Or buy directly from the publisher by clicking here.

Watch the trailer:
Jerry Weinstein, Long-Time Chelsea Hotel Front Desk Manager Dies at 81

February 23, 2015

The Chelsea Hotel community mourns the passing of Jerry Weinstein. Jerry was born October 3, 1933 and spent his early years growing up in the Bronx, which is where he met
the Bard family. After a career in Social Work he joined the Chelsea Hotel staff as the front desk manager in 1979. A job offered to him by his childhood friend, Stanley Bard. Jerry served as Stanley’s right-hand man up until 2007, when the Bard family was ousted.

In addition to his official duties, Jerry also conducted a series of very popular tours of the Chelsea Hotel. And, for the Hotel’s guests, getting to meet the legendary Jerry was almost as good as getting to meet Stanley Bard.

One Chelsea Hotel guest wrote to the blog:

“I can't imagine a Hotel Chelsea where the people at the desk (and doorman?!?) don't have a clue about the history. I still remember the first time I stayed, upon checking in, Jerry went into a long story about an actress (who has the same name I do) and her husband and their stays at the hotel… of course, I always learned something new about The Chelsea everytime I stayed. I LOVE THAT!”

And, former Chelsea Hotel employee Charlie wrote:

Personal Note To Jerry,
Hey Jerry, I hope you chance this note of thanks. The one thing that made my day, everyday, working with you, was your singing, "Charlie Me Boy", and your daily joke. I have one for you…

A new manager of a hotel reviewing a potential employee's application notices that the person never worked in a hotel before.

He says to the person, "For someone with no experience, you are certainly asking a high wage."

"well Sir," the applicant replies, "the work is so much harder when you don't know what your doing."

Hey Jerry, That makes you PRICELESS!
Your Friend, Charlie

Jerry is survived by his wife Rose, daughters Tammy, Lisa & Beth. Grandchildren Hayley, Joshua, Sam, Jordan, Rachael, & Chelsea. Sister-in-law Janice and Son-in-laws – Alan and Leon. He is also survived by many nieces, nephews, cousins and friends.

Services will be held Tuesday at 11 am. Louis Suburban Chapel, Inc. 13-01 Broadway (Route 4 West) Fair Lawn, NJ 07410 tel: 201-791-0015 toll-free: 800-525-3834

(Photo: Rita Barros)

The family will begin greeting guests at 10:15 am and services will begin promptly at 11:00.

Jerry celebrating his 80th birthday with his grand kids.

With Lisa Weinstein Morris, Josh Morris, Alan Dalewitz, Jerome Weinstein, Hayley Amiel, Michelle Weintraub Rimland, Leon Amiel and Alan Morris.
RIP: Larry (Nikki) Nichols – 1941 – 2014

December 9, 2014

It is with sadness that the Chelsea Hotel community learned of the recent passing of Nikki Nichols. According to his good friend, Gabriel Marchisio, Nikki was born in Portland, Oregon in August 1941and died there on December 7, 2014. Nicky Nichols was an actor and costume designer, best known for his work on Jodorowsky’s The Holy Mountain (1973). Nikki resided at the Chelsea Hotel from 2003 – 2006.

Nikki at the Chelsea in 2010

During that time, Nikki and his pug Wallis, were welcome fixtures in the Hotel Chelsea lobby. Nikki was someone who could always be counted on to support the work of other artists in the Hotel by attending their events and shows. Nikki was also known as a gracious host. One of the most eagerly anticipated social events of the year would be the birthday party Nikki would host in the lobby on the occasion of Wallis' birthday. Champagne flowed freely and animal owners from all over town would attend.

Nikki came back for a visit to the Hotel Chelsea in 2010 and was looking forward to another visit at the time of his death.

(Photo: Gabriel Marchisio)

Party in the Chelsea Hotel Lobby, 2005

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