Tag Archive for: Patti Smith

The Revamped Hotel Chelsea’s Reverse Makeover On Screen In “A Complete Unknown”

Hotels don’t win Oscars, but that doesn’t mean they don’t make cameo appearances in movies tapped for Academy Awards. Almost every year, a movie with a scene or two set in a New York City hotel racks up a fistful of nominations or even strikes gold. See Scent of a Woman (filmed at the Waldorf Astoria and the Plaza), Godfather III (filmed at the Waldorf) and Wolf of Wall Street (filmed at the Four Seasons New York).

This year, A Complete Unknown, the history-steeped film that tracks Bob Dylan’s early career, gifted the legendary Hotel Chelsea with a whiff of Oscar magic.  Just a whiff, it turns out. Despite eight nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor, the movie went home empty handed on March 2. Read more

Is This The End? The Fabled, Troubled, Irreplaceable Hotel Chelsea Closes For Renovations

Today we say good-bye to the fabled Hotel Chelsea, or at least the high-profile bohemian flophouse we knew. On July 31st, at the stroke of midnight, the hotel that housed Virgil Thomson, Sid Vicious and Viva closed its doors to overnight guests, and its future as a hotel is unclear. Read more