Arena

Episode Synopsis

It was in the Chelsea Hotel, New York, that Bob Dylan wrote 'Sad-eyed lady of the lowlands', Andy Warhol filmed Chelsea Girls and Dylan Thomas drank himself to death. For 100 years the Chelsea has been a legendary haven for artists and performers from Mark Twain to Sid Vicious. Tonight Arena explores the brilliant and eccentric worlds created behind the drab brown doors of the Chelsea's apartments. Andy Warhol and William Burroughs have dinner in the room where Arthur C. Clarke wrote 2001; Virgil Thomson, doyen of American composers, reveals the truth about Alice B. Toklas and those famous cookie cakes; Quentin Crisp recalls moving in to 'the place where the great stylists have lived'; Nico, star of the Velvet Underground, sings 'Chelsea girls'; George Kleinsinger, composer of Tubby the Tuba plays a waltz for his turtle... and painter Alpheus Cole reflects on being 104 years old.