Bob Gruen and Elizbeth Gregory-Gruen featured in The Villager article: HOW THE WESTBETH WAS WON

photo; Bob Krasner for The Villager

BY BOB KRASNER | Bob Gruen still recalls the moment vividly — and, no, it didn’t involve an event from his storied career as a rock-’n’-roll photographer.

“When I got the call that there was an apartment for me in Westbeth,” he said, “it was the most exciting moment of my life.”

That was in 1970, when he grabbed one of the last four spaces available in the new affordable artists’ housing complex.

Gruen’s files include the iconic portrait of his friend John Lennon wearing a “New York City” T-shirt — with the sleeves torn off at Gruen’s suggestion to give him more edge — as well as shots of Elvis, the Sex Pistols, Elton John, the Rolling Stones, the Ramones, Johnny Thunders, Blondie, Bob Dylan, Led Zeppelin and, well, the list goes on.

Read the entire Villager article HERE

Westbeth’s programming is made possible by the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State. Westbeth is supported in part by an American Rescue Plan Act grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to support general operating expenses in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.