Woman sheds light on Bowie’s ’76 arrest
When Matt Ehlers walked in for his first haircut at Chi Wah Organica three years ago, he hoped for more than a sharp trim. Ehlers had begun making the documentary Bowie Goes to
Jail, about the infamous 1976 arrest of David Bowie in Rochester, and wanted to speak to someone who knew what went down in the corner suite at the Americana Rochester.
Chi Wah Soo, the 61year-old Brighton salon owner, was 20 when arrested and jailed for possession of marijuana with the musician after his concert. At first, people accused her of being the “narc” that blew Bowie into the cops.
“Everyone has the wrong idea of what happened,” Soo told a Rochester reporter days after the arrest. “They can think what they wish, but I know I’m innocent.” The Times in London also contacted Soo, but she declined comment per her lawyer’s advice.
Silence followed. Almost 40 years. She regularly shrugged off shock jocks pestering her for lurid details on the anniversaries of the arrest.
Then came Ehlers, a 46-yearold Rochester filmmaker, who said it took a year-and-a-half of haircuts before Soo trusted him enough to tell her story for the documentary he plans to complete in 2017.
Soo’s effervescent personality sparkles in the rough cut Ehlers screened at the Little Theatre last year. Her vivid memories make it feel as though Bowie’s first — and last — Rochester concert happened last night.
Before she left the show, a man gave her a note saying, “Meet me at my party. David.” When Bowie entered the party, Soo said he seemed to have a “halo around his head.”
“Hello, love,” were his first words to her.
Later, they retreated to his corner suite at the Americana on State Street (now the Holiday Inn Rochester Downtown) with rocker Iggy Pop and Bowie’s bodyguard. Two other women joined them — undercover police.
Ehlers’ documentary says police acted on a tip that Bowie had cocaine, and secured the adjacent hotel room.
Bowie’s entourage had marijuana but they didn’t have cocaine. Undercover police officer Deborah Kilborn said they only asked her where they could score some. Nevertheless, police had enough evidence to raid. Soo saw three faces peer into the room when Bowie cracked open the door. It slammed him in the face and knocked him backward.
“That was the start of the nightmare,” Soo said.
Charges against Soo, Bowie, Pop and Bowie’s bodyguard were eventually dropped, but their reputations had been tarnished. Ehlers considers the arrest a “wake-up call” in a drug-addled chapter of Bowie’s life.