Duchess of Carnegie Hall fought eviction
Editta Sherman lived in artist studio for six decades
Photographer Editta Sherman, dubbed the Duchess of Carnegie Hall while living in a studio over the famed auditorium for six decades, has died. She was 101.
Known for her photos of celebrities, Sherman died last week in her sleep, a friend, Billy Lyons, said. Her funeral was held just as Bill de Blasio was elected mayor.
Sherman had met de Blasio in 2007 — a New York city council member fighting to keep artists from being evicted from century-old studios above Carnegie Hall.
The future mayor visited her there and they spoke Italian, learned from their immigrant families, Lyons said.
A muse of Andy Warhol, Sherman was known for her portraits of musicians, actors, sports stars, dancers and writers taken in the cavernous space where she partly raised her five children — in one of two towers 19th-century industrialist Andrew Carnegie had built above the hall as an affordable artist enclave.
Marilyn Monroe, Grace Kelly and Robert Redford studied acting there, Lucille Ball had voice coaching and Leonard Bernstein wrote music.
Sherman was “the big Italian mama who was always making a pot of chicken soup in her darkroom,” said Lyons, an actor a third her age.
A native of Philadelphia, she was married to Harold Sherman, who was a sound engineer as well as her business partner. He died at 50, blind and diabetic, leaving her with their young children.
In 2010, she and others were forced out in a landlord-tenant battle. Carnegie officials argued they needed the space for educational purposes and found new apartments for them.
The Duchess never quite got over having to leave “the great, brilliant interaction of artists in the studios, hanging out together, inspiring each other,” said another resident photographer, Josef Astor.
But she kept in touch from her new, nearby apartment.
“I got to sing Some Enchanted Evening to her the other night,” said Lyons.
Astor worked with her recently on a book of her portraits, titled Studio 1208: Camera Studies by Editta Sherman. The number of her penthouse studio was 1208, and her clients were diverse, ranging from Elvis Presley and Joe DiMaggio to Tilda Swinton.