Editta Sherman has lived above Carnegie Hall for more than 50 years.
Known as the Duchess of Carnegie, the 96-year-old came home a few days ago to find an eviction notice on her door.
"I thought, oh, what is this? Are you kidding me that they are really going to send a woman like me down the street just like that? Have me scurry away without a fight," she said, delivering a whooping cackle, punctuated with a grandmother's tsk tsk.
"Oh, no, that's not what I am going to do. They'll have to take me out of here with their bare hands."
The city of New York wants to renovate the space above Carnegie Hall, where Marlon Brando once lived and where Sherman and five other renters, including iconic New York Times' photographer Bill Cunningham, have enjoyed rent-stabilized bliss since Frank Sinatra cut his first demo.
Sherman pays $650 a month for her studio, a drool-inducing space basked in natural light with floor-to-ceiling windows. An enormous skylight hangs over bold, black-and-white tiled floors; a cast-iron circular staircase leads to a loft stuffed with props.
Read the complete CNN report
..Sherman said. "This is who I am, where I live, and I won't let someone change that."
© 2009 Cable News Network
December 30, 2008
USA: Duchess of Carnegie, 96, refuses to leave
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ATLANTA, Georgia / CNN / December 30, 2008
By Ashley Fantz
CNN
* Editta Sherman has lived above New York's Carnegie Hall since 1947
* She and other rent-control tenants are being evicted for Hall renovations
* Sherman photographed huge stars from Salvador Dali to Marlene Dietrich
* Only one thing will convince the grandmother of 25 to leave: $10 million
Editta Sherman has celebrated more than half a century's worth of new years in her palatial studio apartment above New York's Carnegie Hall. But it's unlikely the celebrated portrait photographer will be raising her glass there next year.
Editta Sherman has lived above Carnegie Hall for more than 50 years.
Known as the Duchess of Carnegie, the 96-year-old came home a few days ago to find an eviction notice on her door.
"I thought, oh, what is this? Are you kidding me that they are really going to send a woman like me down the street just like that? Have me scurry away without a fight," she said, delivering a whooping cackle, punctuated with a grandmother's tsk tsk.
"Oh, no, that's not what I am going to do. They'll have to take me out of here with their bare hands."
The city of New York wants to renovate the space above Carnegie Hall, where Marlon Brando once lived and where Sherman and five other renters, including iconic New York Times' photographer Bill Cunningham, have enjoyed rent-stabilized bliss since Frank Sinatra cut his first demo.
Sherman pays $650 a month for her studio, a drool-inducing space basked in natural light with floor-to-ceiling windows. An enormous skylight hangs over bold, black-and-white tiled floors; a cast-iron circular staircase leads to a loft stuffed with props.
Read the complete CNN report
..Sherman said. "This is who I am, where I live, and I won't let someone change that."
© 2009 Cable News Network
Editta Sherman has lived above Carnegie Hall for more than 50 years.
Known as the Duchess of Carnegie, the 96-year-old came home a few days ago to find an eviction notice on her door.
"I thought, oh, what is this? Are you kidding me that they are really going to send a woman like me down the street just like that? Have me scurry away without a fight," she said, delivering a whooping cackle, punctuated with a grandmother's tsk tsk.
"Oh, no, that's not what I am going to do. They'll have to take me out of here with their bare hands."
The city of New York wants to renovate the space above Carnegie Hall, where Marlon Brando once lived and where Sherman and five other renters, including iconic New York Times' photographer Bill Cunningham, have enjoyed rent-stabilized bliss since Frank Sinatra cut his first demo.
Sherman pays $650 a month for her studio, a drool-inducing space basked in natural light with floor-to-ceiling windows. An enormous skylight hangs over bold, black-and-white tiled floors; a cast-iron circular staircase leads to a loft stuffed with props.
Read the complete CNN report
..Sherman said. "This is who I am, where I live, and I won't let someone change that."
© 2009 Cable News Network
