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Blondie’s Style266 Bowery, New York, NY 1001240.723460-73.9932500
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Elton John Goes Downtown79 E 4th St, New York, NY 1000340.726670-73.9900001
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Families in the Village66 W 12th St, New York, NY 1001140.735470-73.9971702
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Gary Valentine Writes “(I’m Always Touched by Your) Presence, Dear”266 Bowery, New York, NY 1001240.723460-73.9932503
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Harry Koutoukas Holds Court at 87 Christopher87 Christopher St, New York, NY 1001440.733510-74.0038604
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Indie Media Sows the Seeds of Punk61 Christopher St, New York, NY 1001440.733780-74.0024705
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Interesting People Live on Christopher Street87 Christopher St, New York, NY 1001440.733510-74.0038606
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Lisa Jane Persky Meets Harry Koutoukas87 Christopher St, New York, NY 1001440.733510-74.0038607
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Lisa Jane Persky Meets Yoko Ono87 Christopher St, New York, NY 1001440.733510-74.0038608
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Poaching from Old Movies144 Bleecker St, New York, NY 1001240.728080-73.9993409
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Stanley Bard—Keeper of the Chelsea Hotel222 W 23rd St, New York, NY 1001140.744370-73.99689010
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Superintendent Yoko Ono87 Christopher St, New York, NY 1001440.733510-74.00386011
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The Dolls’ New Style230 W 74th St, New York, NY 1002340.780310-73.98218012
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The Loud Family Goes To Reno Sweeney126 W 13th St, New York, NY 1001140.737050-73.99866013
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Video Comes to 87 Christopher Street87 Christopher St, New York, NY 1001440.733510-74.00386014
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Women Behind Bars434 Lafayette St, New York, NY 1000340.729410-73.99237015
Blondie’s Style
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Elton John Goes Downtown
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Families in the Village
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Gary Valentine Writes “(I’m Always Touched by Your) Presence, Dear”
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Harry Koutoukas Holds Court at 87 Christopher
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Poaching from Old Movies
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Stanley Bard—Keeper of the Chelsea Hotel
In 1969, Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe moved into the Chelsea Hotel after escaping a dangerous Lower East Side loft building and a stint in a fleabag hotel. In this shabby artist-friendly residential hotel, Smith cultivated social connections that led her to become a performer—first on Off-Off-Broadway, then as a poet, and finally as a musician. Stanley Bard, co-owner and manager of the Chelsea, filled the lobby with art created by those who couldn’t pay for their rooms. (Bard not only accepted artwork in lieu of rent money, he also charged artists lower rent than other professionals.) Smith offered Bard the couple’s portfolios as collateral, which secured them Room 1017 for fifty-five dollars a week. “Stanley was real schizophrenic,” Warhol superstar Viva recalled. “He could be extremely generous and then he could be really mean.” Lisa Jane Persky saw both sides of Bard when she worked as an assistant for another Chelsea resident, fashion designer Charles James. “Even though Stanley was a real bastard,” she said, “he did care about the talents of people” (perhaps because he hoped to sell their work). When Persky met “America’s first couturier,” as James was known in his prime, he had been on the downslide for years; James’s friend Harry Koutoukas helped secure her a job as his assistant, which entailed a variety of tasks. “Charles would send me downstairs because I was cute and young, and I would say, ‘Please don’t lean on him right now—he’s not well.’ So Stanley would give him a little more time, and it was always like that for a lot of people in that hotel.”
From Chapter 21 of The Downtown Pop Underground — order online, or from a local independent bookstoreRelated Stories
Superintendent Yoko Ono
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The Dolls’ New Style
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The Loud Family Goes To Reno Sweeney
The buzz created by An American Family brought the Loud family to the attention of millions of people, including Lisa Jane Persky. The year it debuted, her father, Mort Persky, hired Pat Loud to write a piece about the show for Family Weekly, a newspaper insert that he edited. Lisa thought Lance Loud’s brother was cute, and a couple of months later, Mort introduced her to Grant Loud when he and the other Loud kids visited New York. She took them to see Holly Woodlawn perform at Reno Sweeney, an intimate cabaret located at 126 West Thirteenth Street in Greenwich Village. “Because of Warhol films like Trash and Off-Off-Broadway,” said Paul Serrato, who often accompanied Woodlawn as a pianist, “everybody wanted to see Holly perform at Reno Sweeney. It attracted everybody from the underground scene.”
From Chapter 32 of The Downtown Pop Underground — order online, or from a local independent bookstore