The Remarkable Women of the Chelsea Hotel

The Remarkable Women of the Chelsea Hotel is a collection of interconnected biographies that reclaims forgotten female history. Featuring sixteen trailblazing residents of the world’s most infamous hotel, this book reframes historical narratives to highlight the cultural impact of women in the arts in America throughout the 20th century and beyond. 


From its opening in 1884 the Chelsea Hotel has been home to many of the world’s greatest artists, pioneers, musicians, celebrities, and misfits. However, historians have almost entirely written the women of the hotel out of history in favor of famous men. The Remarkable Women of the Chelsea Hotel aims to preserve a more equal, inclusive and accurate history of not only the legendary hotel, but also the history of feminism in America and the significant impact of women in the arts.  

In addition to featuring revelations and insights into the lives, struggles, and contributions of modern icons, including Nico, Janis Joplin, Edie Sedgwick, Nancy Spungen, and Patti Smith, the book also spotlights inspiring women who also deserve and need to be remembered. 

Includes:  

• Jennie June, America’s 1st female journalist and most well-known woman of the 19th century. 
• Laura Sedgwick Collins, America’s 1st female composer left out of history for never marrying or having children. 
• Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, the 1st female political activist, union organizer, and the 1st female chairwoman of the U.S. Communist Party.
• Katherine Dunham, founder of the 1st African-American dance company, once thrown out of the hotel for bringing live lions up to her 10th floor studio to make a rehearsal for a Met production of Aida “more real.” 
• Isabella Gardener, New York City’s 1st Poet Laureate, erased from history by her 4th husband, poet Allen Tate. Born into wealth, her life is a modern tragedy that included alcoholism, abuse, four marriages, outliving her son, and a daughter who was permanently brain damaged after being practically beaten to death in the hotel by the Hell’s Angels. 
• Shirley Clarke, the 1st female director to win an Oscar, and the only woman to be commemorated with a plaque outside the Chelsea, amongst 13 men. 
• Storme de Larverie, a mixed race queer person who passed as a white torch singer touring in the Royal American Midway shows before becoming America’s 1st drag king and inciting the Stonewall riots that instigated the LGBTQ+ rights movement.  
• Vali Myers, an Australian dancer turned artist who “spoke fox,” had facial tattoos, and practiced witchcraft. 
• Niki de Saint Phalle, an artist known for taking aim at the patriarchy with her live shooting demonstrations, larger-than-life Nana sculptures, and being the 1st woman to create huge public sculpture gardens.
• Holly Woodlawn, a Warhol Superstar and America’s 1st trans actress whose trailblazing  life included episodes of homelessness, addiction, and imprisonment.   

As the last woman to ever live in the Chelsea Hotel’s pyramid penthouse apartment, author Amelia Kallman is uniquely qualified to write this book. Bringing extensive research, firsthand sources, humor, entertainment, and a high level of respect to the material, The Remarkable Women of the Chelsea Hotel will be Amelia’s third book. 

After fifteen years of closure, the Chelsea Hotel has finally reopened. Dusty hotel histories focused almost exclusively on straight white men are no longer acceptable. In a country where abortion, the morning after pill, and LGBTQ+ and trans rights continue to be politicized and weaponized, people need role models now more than ever. It is time for the story of The Remarkable Women of the Chelsea Hotel to be told.