I. 98 Bowery, 1969 - 89
I was living with my California friend, Carla Dee Ellis, in a small apartment on Thompson Street. When we heard that an 1800 square-foot top floor loft was available in an old flop house at 98 Bowery we eagerly grabbed the lease. The loft was raw, but the rent was only $175 a month.
Back in 1969 the Bowery was New York’s skid row dominated by bars and drunks sleeping on the streets. Harry’s Bar was on the ground floor at 98 Bowery so we often had to push away inebriated men to enter the building. Less visible were the artists and bohemians living in the area’s upper floors in spaces that once housed factories and warehouses.
A day in the life of Bowery Bar owner Harry Mason, 1974. A portrait in words and pictures.
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, hundreds of young artists and would be bohemians passed though our loft at 98 Bowery.
Living at 98 Bowery from 1969 to 1973, Carla Dee Ellis (aka Carla Popcorn) created Pop Art paintings inspired by Andy Warhol’s style, subject matter and factory techniques.
In late 1960s Mike Shannon and poet Billy Collins shared a love of Lord Buckley, Charles Bukowski, and the Rolling Stones. Billy encouraged Mike to write and publish poems.
Mike Malloy's controversial exhibition at OK Harris Gallery in Soho in 1972 confronted gallery goers with the decision to either kill or free an ant.
