In light of Hotel Chelsea's application for building a swanky rooftop, Curbed took us back in history to the time when board members kicked out the hotel's manager Stanley Bard. Gothamist interviewed Mr. Bard and received a tour of the hotel five years ago, and my how much it has changed.

The hotel was purchased by the mysterious Joseph Chetrit who plans to transform the beloved building. The biggest obstacle was Mr. Bard who the board isolated and pushed out in 2007. He was the largest resistant against changes, especially since his father purchased the building in 1939, and Mr. Bard cultivated its personality and character over the decades.

Mr. Bard claims to have built an "mutual admiration society" between him and his residents. So much for all that.

Meanwhile, tonight, in the hotel's grand ballroom, calling hours are scheduled for Chelsea inhabitant Angela O'Conner, 46, who was found dead late last week in a room on the ninth floor, after neighbors complained of a nasty odor.

Welcome to the Chelsea, Mr. Tilley!

It's a precarious position to be in: Since taking the daunting job several weeks ago, the former Hard Rock Hotel frontman has publicly sought to smooth over lingering tensions between longtime Chelsea tenants and the new regime, recently issuing a friendly introduction letter and assuring local paper Chelsea Now of his intention to uphold the iconic inn's artistic legacy.

Yet, at the same time, he's had to carry on the divisive prior management's tradition of issuing blunt notices of non-payment to resident creatives who, in the past, had been granted great leniency rent-wise. (Some legendarily bartered with artworks.)

Chelsea Hotel blog Living With Legends this week highlighted the case of Jim Georgiou, 49, a six-year hotel resident and teacher of the self-healing Chinese internal art Xing Xing Shen.

Mr. Georgiou said he was left virtually incapacitated through the painful process of exorcising his own personal demons over much of the past 10 months, with symptoms best described by Western medicine as "chronic fatigue" -- "It's esoteric, what can I tell you," he explained to this reporter -- and had gotten behind on the rent by more than $17,000, according to court papers.

Friends recently pitched in to help Mr. Georgiou pay off the debt and settle his case. Ironically, management's petition against Mr. Georgiou actually benefited him through the revelation that his apartment is now registered as rent-stabilized.

Another resident recently slapped with a late bill of $18,444 has since lawyered up and joined the growing ranks of Chelsea denizens currently pursuing overcharge claims against the hotel. Court papers indicate that fifth-floor Chelsea tenant Olivier French may have overpaid by about $14,800 since 2004 and is now seeking "treble damages" in the amount of $44,400.

Management also continues to pursue eviction proceedings against terminally ill former rock musician Jann Paxton, whose case has long been stayed by request of his city-appointed guardian.

Bet none of this stuff ever happened at the Hard Rock!

Hotel blog Living With Legends has the scoop that former Hard Rock Hotel boss Andrew Tilley is taking over today, becoming the hallowed Bohemian enclave's third manager in just over a year.

Mr. Tilley replaces former corporate manager BD NY Hotels, the Richard Born and Ira Drukier-led outfit fired this past April after just 10 tumultous months in charge.

The previous manager, legendary hotelier Stanley Bard, had overseen the hotel's operations for nearly 50 years before his controversial dismissal last summer.

No punches were thrown, but the incident clearly spooked Mr. Elder. In recent days, a new security detail has been patrolling the hotel’s lobby and hallways. The hulking guys in suits have been particularly attentive to Mr. Nash.

The initial standoff happened during the second night of a photography exhibit entitled “Chelsea Hotel Through the Eyes of The Photographers,” scheduled to coincide with the historic hotel's 125th anniversary. But it also came at a time of lingering tensions inside the iconic lodge.

Mr. Elder is at the center of the controversy. It was his 2005 lawsuit that ultimately resulted in the highly-publicized ouster of longtime manger and majority owner Stanley Bard. Thus, he has taken the brunt of some residents’ anger. “Greed” has been scrawled on his door; excrement left on his doormat—someone even sent him a dead fish in the mail. And, the hotel blog, Living With Legends, has fervently chronicled Mr. Elder’s long-standing California court battle with his elderly step-father, the writer Piri Thomas, over more than $1 million in dividends reaped from hotel profits.

“I’m not doing an interview,” Mr. Elder said on Saturday, mingling with guests just one night after he was chased from the exhibit hall by a masked doppelgänger dressed in a hotel bathrobe. (A stink bomb had earlier disrupted the show.)

Mr. Nash, meanwhile, is perhaps the hotel's most fervent activist opposing the new regime. Banners reading "Bring Back The Bards," among other messages, hang from his balcony over 23rd Street. If he was feeling particularly cocksure on that evening, perhaps that’s because he had just beaten the landlord in housing court only a week earlier.

Mr. Nash, a curator by trade whose own exhibit of artifacts from the nation’s execution chambers goes on display in Washington, D.C., this month, later explained his intentions to the The Observer: “I never got physical with him at all or threatened to get physical. I only wanted to know where he'd put Piri's money and make the point publicly that the residents don't feel he belongs here.”

Mr. Elder soon fled out the front door to Star Lounge, downstairs from the hotel, as Mr. Nash followed. A bouncer stepped between them, allowing Mr. Elder to escape into the bar while Mr. Nash exchanged harsh words with the bouncer.

“David’s a good guy,” Star Lounge owner Charles Ferri said, as Mr. Elder commiserated over a Shirley Temple. “I think people just misunderstand him. Once you get to know him, he’s a good-hearted person who wants to do the right thing for the hotel, cleaning it up and making it nice but still keeping that old-school mentality.”

But Mr. Elder’s bizarre night was not quite over. After stepping outside briefly, he returned with a security guard. Someone had dumped some sort of liquid from a balcony above, the bouncer said, as Mr. Elder wiped off his head.

The security staff immediately suspected Mr. Nash, of course, although his apartment is located on the opposite side of the hotel. They called the cops.

When police arrived, stun-guns drawn, firefighters were already there. Someone had called to complain about overcrowding inside the exhibit hall.

Police were unable to immediately locate Mr. Nash, after roughly interrogating his girlfriend in the hallway. Unable to locate a key to his apartment, they quit knocking.

Still, Mr. Elder didn’t feel safe staying in his own hotel that night. He crashed with Star Lounge owner Mr. Ferri.

The next day, some big security guards appeared in the lobby and, days later, still haven't stopped hounding Mr. Nash.

“I feel like I've been through a meat press,” the rebellious tenant said in his room after a particularly bruising encounter on Monday night.

EDITOR'S NOTE: This article has been changed to reflect an error. The original item stated that Mr. Thomas was Mr. Elder's father-in-law. In fact, he is his step-father. The author regrets the error. 

The show, curated by Chelsea resident and photographer Linda Troeller with the help of hotel co-owner (and rumored interim manager) David Elder, opens May 9 and runs through Sunday, May 11, from noon to 6 p.m.

The exhibition comes at a pivotal time for the iconic-yet-embattled lodge, which saw its second management shakeup in less than a year last week.

The New York Post today reports on the ouster of corporate manager BD NY Hotels, which The Observer reported last week. (Expect further details of the shakeup in Wednesday's Observer.)

Full details on the show (and obligatory namedropping of the hotel's famous inhabitants) are as follows:

CELEBRATING THE 125th ANNIVERSARY OF THE CHELSEA HOTEL
PHOTO EXHIBITION ON MAY 9 - 11

THE CHELSEA HOTEL, a historic landmark hotel and an iconic gathering place for artists in all genres turns 125 years old this year. To celebrate this glamorous outpost of Bohemia, photographers will exhibit their work in homage to this inspirational place where luminaries such as Mark Twain, Madonna, and Martha Graham worked.

The exhibition will be held in the hotel, located at 222 W 23rd St. It opens Friday, May 9 and runs through Sunday, May 11 from noon to 6pm. (It is the weekend before the first New York Photography Festival.) ³The show will unite colleagues in a celebration of this cultural icon,² says curator Linda Troeller, a longtime resident of the hotel and the author of a recent photo book, Hotel Chelsea Atmosphere: An Artist¹s Memoir.

David Elder, a Vice President of the hotel, will co-curate the exhibit with Troeller. They have selected editorial, advertising, music, portraits and art projects shot in the hotel. ³The show is meant to capture the hotel¹s unique visual history in this time when a lot of NYC history is vanishing,²Dear says Troeller, an award-winning photographer whose photographs of the Chelsea Hotel were recently published in the NY Times, Flair Magazine, (Italy) and Le Monde 2 (Paris).

Built in 1884 as the tallest building in New York, the hotel has a famous staircase surrounding 10 floors. While the roster of residents past and present reads like a Who¹s Who in the art world, the magnetic draw reaches further. For many of the hotel¹s illustrious residents, it is about the ability to bring their dreams to fruition. Photographer Ralph Gibson created his first Lustrumbook while living in the hotel in the early 70's; Magnum photographersHenri Cartier Bresson and Inga Morath and Robert Mapplethorpe also lived in the hotel.Whether or not you believe Sid Vicious still haunts the place or if Dylan Thomas fell into his fatal coma after drinking 18 whiskies here, the hotel is filled with dreams and art of several generations, some of which is scattered through the building.

The community and press are invited to join in the spirit of the creativity the hotel has fostered and wish a happy birthday to the Chelsea Hotel.

The controversial management team, which installed a rookie, 26-year-old Glennon Travis in the place of the veteran manager, Mr. Bard, has claimed in court papers that it has "fully performed its obligations" under a three-year contract, signed last June, and further asserted that the hotel was more profitable on its watch than when Mr. Bard ran the place.

Over the first six months of its oversight, BD NY claims, the hotel's income increased by 225 percent and occupancy increased from 73 to 88 percent.

Moreover, BD NY claims that the hotel's owners owe the ousted managers a whopping $2.7 million in "incentive" fees, which have not been paid.

A hearing is scheduled for May 5.

Now, the Chelsea Hotel gossip site, Living With Legends, is suggesting that Mr. Travis' corporate higher-ups at BD Hotels have been sacked, as well.

The Observer just sent an email to hotel president Marlene Krauss' publicist at Rubenstein Communications to get some type of confirmation -- only to find out that Rubenstein doesn't work for the hotel, either, anymore.

But, two weeks ago, the hotel's infamously ousted manager made a rare appearance, joining the director Milos Forman (himself a former hotel resident) for an on-camera interview smack-dab in the middle of the lobby.

"The new management comes running out of the back and is like, 'You can’t shoot that here!'" said the writer Ed Hamilton, a 13-year resident of the iconic lodge on West 23rd Street. "He tried to charge Stanley $600 to film in the lobby. Of course, Stanley wouldn't pay that."

Mr. Hamilton relayed the recent lobby incident during a panel discussion about the historic and embattled hotel last night at the Museum of the City of New York.

Mr. Hamilton, author of Legends of the Chelsea Hotel: Living With the Artists and Outlaws of New York’s Rebel Mecca, interviewed Mr. Bard himself recently for a short video by fellow hotel resident and filmmaker Sam Bassett.

In the interview, played during the panel discussion, Mr. Bard took a few jabs at the hotel's controversial new managers.

"There are a lot of things, naturally, that I'm not very happy with," he said, citing specifically the recent evictions of some longtime hotel residents. "I don't like putting nice people out. I don’t like putting people that love the hotel out—I’m not happy with them even trying to do that. I could understand that they want to enhance the value or the so-called value. But my philosophy is you can enhance value by a lot of things, not just monetarily. …

"We’re not always going to be in this bubble. We’re not always going to be in this economic boom, hotel-wise, etc. And when you satisfy people and make them happy in your hotel then they will want to return. …

"Under my management, we had the highest repeat business of probably any hotel in the world. I think that enhances value more so than just the bottom line. So my philosophy is a little different than theirs."

Asked whether he hopes to someday return as manager, Mr. Bard replied, "I'm not getting any younger, but my son is," referring to David Bard, his heir apparent. "I think that over the years he's learned to appreciate more this hotel than he did as a young person. He may have felt I forced him into it. ... That wasn't my intent. I wanted him to respect the hotel and appreciate it. I felt that someday he would want to be here on his own.

"Unfortunately, I think that has happened. And they don't want him here. They want outside management, which blows my mind. I don't understand why. This outside management has no idea about the Chelsea Hotel or what the Chelsea Hotel is about. David, you understand, has every knowledge of the hotel—every inch of knowledge of the hotel. And that is exactly what is necessary in this hotel. He would be the best person for that job—not an outside manager that is here once a week or twice a week for a few hours. ..."

Since his highly publicized ouster last summer, Mr. Bard has been "writing ... thinking ... reminiscing," basically working on his long-awaited memoirs after nearly 50 years as the hotel's manager, he said.

"Keep loving the hotel, keep spreading its good name," he urged the hotel's remaining residents. "Keep creating."

Also during last night's panel discussion, the writer Mr. Hamilton discussed Mr. Bard's "congenial inability to admit that anything bad has ever taken place in the hotel"—reading aloud perhaps this reporter's favorite passage from Legends, a tale in which Mr. Bard gracefully glosses over the apparent drug overdose of a longtime resident; instead, suggesting that the deceased was merely traveling in Europe.

Sherill Tippins, author of the forthcoming Dream Palace: The Extraordinary Life of the Chelsea Hotel, discussed hotel architect Philip Huber's original utopian vision for the building, Manhattan's first co-op, constructed during a particularly greedy era in the city's history.

Former Chelsea Now editor Lawrence Lerner, meanwhile, discussed how the changes at the Chelsea mirrored a larger trend of developers converting former artist flophouses, also including the Gramercy Park Hotel and the Hotel Breslin, into hip boutique hotels.

Hear what the charismatic former manager of the embattled Chelsea Hotel has been up to since his controversial ouster last summer, what he thinks about the new management and ongoing eviction proceedings, as well as his vision for the future of the iconic 125-year-old lodge, of which he remains the majority owner.

Mr. Bard's remarks will follow a panel discussion with preservationist Edward Kirkland and writers Ed Hamilton, author of the 2007 book Legends of the Chelsea Hotel: Living with the Artists and Outlaws of New York’s Rebel Mecca, and Sherill Tippins, author of the forthcoming Dream Palace: The Extraordinary Life of the Chelsea Hotel.

The event starts at 6:30.

Glennon Travis, the new director of operations for the embattled bohemian enclave, whom The Observer profiled last week, has scrapped his revealing MySpace page following the article's publication.

Nevermind that part about "[d]espite the teasing, Mr. Travis has yet to remove or even alter his MySpace presence."

Yet the new guy continues to provide more juicy gossip for writer Ed Hamilton's blog about hotel life, Living With Legends.

Mr. Hamilton further reports that Mr. Travis is engaged to be married: "Congratulations Glennon!"