Showing posts with label Frank Sinatra. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Frank Sinatra. Show all posts

Monday, January 05, 2015

Filmmakers trying to fund documentary about Cleveland's lost, Rock Hotel, Swingo's Celebrity Inn

The 70's and 80's were a dark time in Cleveland. The river caught on fire, crime was rising and industry was leaving. But at the same time, a huge list of celebrities and especially musicians were drawn to one hotel- Swingos was the place to be!

The story probably starts when Elvis decided to rent 100 rooms and make it the base for his Ohio tour. Later, almost every actor, comedian and especially musicians Sinatra, David Bowie, Led Zeppelin, The Who, The Rolling Stones, Deep Purple, Bruce Springsteen etc.. passing through seemed to stay there.

From Cleveland.com
"One relationship that became very lucrative was with the British heavy metal band Led Zeppelin. They had a habit of “redecorating” their rooms wherever they stayed -- even going so far as pushing a piano out of a hotel window in Chicago. “I loved Led Zeppelin, because they always traveled with their accountant,” Swingos says. “Whatever damage they did to their rooms, the accountant always took out his checkbook and paid for everything down to the penny. I didn’t mind because I always got new stuff for whatever rooms they stayed in after they left.”


Actual Kickstarter page

A lot of the known stories have become legends and who knows what we don't know?

Mott the Hoople's Ian Hunter said "Swingos was a place you remember checking in and out of, but can't remember anything in between" (Quote from the Guardian)



Friday, January 08, 2010

Palm Springs Modern @ Carnegie Museum Of Art



Most people including myself don't always think about architecture, but as Julius Shulman says in the video above, it's something that affects our lives in the deepest way.

Anyway, the Carnegie has an absolutely fantastic show up right now of photos taken by the master photographer, Julius Shulman of the modern architecture of Palm Springs. Most are photos of the private second homes built for relaxation and enjoyment in a beautiful natural setting. A very high percentage of the masterworks of modern architecture are private homes and few places have as many as Palm Springs. Seeing these homes through the eyes of a master photographer who photographed the area over a lifetime takes things to another level.

The show is very well put together and includes a great film about Shulman in Palm Springs that puts things in perfect context.

Here's a blurb from Justin Hopper's review in the City Paper.

"In Palm Springs Modern: The Photographs Of Julius Shulman, at the Carnegie Museum Of Art, we can see Shulman's oeuvre in yet another light: as an attestation to the strange sublimity that defined the postwar American Dream.

Shulman's photographs of Palm Springs depict a time period readily identified. As second homes for movie stars and "mad men"-- houses for Sinatra and Doris Day join Kaufmann's in the exhibit- these were designs uninhibited by desire for privacy or workspace. They were "machines for relaxing in"."


Show closes Jan 31st.

Almost all amazing shows at the Carnegie right now. Be back with more thoughts like it or not.