This Ain't No Holiday Inn: Down and Out at the Chelsea Hotel 1980–1995

by James Lough

During its heyday, the Chelsea Hotel in New York City was a home and safe haven for Bohemian artists, poets, and musicians such as Bob Dylan, Gregory Corso, Alan Ginsberg, Janis Joplin, and Dee Dee Ramone. This oral history of the famed hotel peers behind the iconic façade and delves into the mayhem, madness, and brilliance that stemmed from the hotel in the 1980s and 1990s. Providing a window into the late Bohemia of New York during that time, countless interviews and firsthand accounts adorn this social history of one of the most celebrated and culturally significant landmarks in New York City.

Genres: Nonfiction, New York, History

297 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 1, 2013

Reviews

[Jennie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really liked reading about the interesting characters living in the Chelsea in the last throes of it's heydey.

However, bad editing on Kindle version.

Additionally, if you want to read about how New York changed during the late 1980s-90s, you pretty much won't find much of that here. There is an awareness and a discussion of the change, but the focus is definitely on the people living in the Chelsea. There is essentially no larger context. (And don't expect very much in the way of anecdotes about earlier residents...you will not find any stories about Dylan Thomas, Arthur Miller and Janis Joplin get breezy mentions, and if you want to learn about the demise of Sid and Nancy, you need to check out a different book (although, to be fair, there is a slight overview of the murder).)Plenty about Dee Dee Ramone though.

Still a fun read about good old dirty NYC.

[Kenya Wright · Rating 3 out of 5]

This would have been perfect if the information was presented in a different format. The author checks into the hotel himself and does flashbacks from other's interviews. I would've rather it just been presented as a typical history of the hotel verses back and forth. It got a bit dense after a while, but still valuable information.

[Angie and the Daily Book Dose · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was a short oral history of some of the denizens of the Chelsea Hotel from 1980-1995. I have read other books on the Chelsea and enjoyed them more. This title did mainly deal with characters I wasn't super familiar with other than Dee Dee Ramone and the Beat poets.

[Donna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book. Oral History of the famous and fabulous Chelsea Hotel. Just to spend a night there during the 50's, 60's, 70's and 80's. The stuff dreams are made of. Can you imagine bumping into those famous artists, authors, poets, musicians in the hall or elevator? I saw Updike twice at the airport but that just did not cut it compared to these luminaries. Ah, the end of an era of crazy goodness.

[Jordan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm so glad I found this book. This is one of a few books I've read to research my podcast, Heinous Hotels. I have loved reading about the Chelsea Hotel for years and when it was time to research it for my podcast I knew I wanted to find as much as possible from people who had really lived there/stayed there. This book, as well as Ed Hamilton's book Legends of the Chelsea Hotel, were exactly what I needed.

[I like big books · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting but at times emotionally exhausting.

[Alan Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

An oral history of the Chelsea Inn in the eighties and nineties. Episodic, lively, annotated, it’s a kind of anthology that I enjoyed reading.

[Zach · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this oral history, author James Lough connects with former residents of New York City's infamous Chelsea Hotel and paints a compelling picture of the bohemian, punk, and sometimes deviant lifestyles for which the hotel was best known. Told in the residents' own words and connected with Lough's concise commentary, this document is especially important now that the hotel's new ownership has turned it into luxury residences and expelled the last of a century's worth of notable figures in the arts, culture, and counter-culture.

The book reads quickly and enjoyably, covering movements as diverse as punk and beat as told by first-hand witnesses and participants. While the information is interesting in itself, the real strength of the book lies in how it reveals each of the dozen-and-a-half interviewees as an individual. These individual stories, more than the grand myths of the hotel, show the reader what life was like there, and why so many aspiring artists flocked to its halls.

[GK Stritch · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just when you thought you knew every story ever told about the Chelsea Hotel, it's time to check into "This Ain't No Holiday Inn," and what tasty tales are told. A fast, fun, scary read that's hard to put down. The book picks up speed as it unfolds; here are conversations from the last days of the grande dame, before gentrification (1980-1995). Fascinating insights on Herbert Hunke and Gregory Corso, Johnny Thunders and Dee Dee Ramone, Warhols and more.

[Glorianne Roccanova · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wrote this whole great review, and then my laptop, had a hissy fit and I lost it, in more ways than one.....anyway the book was great...it brought me home to a time that I loved. running wild on the lower east side....23rd street was as high up as, we went....so far this is one of the better books that I have read about the Chelsea....

[York · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not a bad book, and contains a lot of interesting information, but quickly became exhausting due to a lack of organization. Even ordering the stories in chronological order would have helped, as the narrative leaps all over, with flashbacks to earlier periods mixed in with modern-day tidbits and a rotating Rolodex of names that'd require an eight page dossier to keep straight.

[Todd baron · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eh.

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am obsessed with the Chelsea Hotel. There are better books written about it, but this one is pretty good. I don't know what it is about that place, but it creates magic.

[Ron S · Rating 4 out of 5]

Primarily an oral history of the landmark Bohemian enclave that lets those that were there tell the story.