Josef Astor, Lost Bohemia: The Secret World Above Carnegie Hall

For more than a century, artists and musicians of all kinds lived and worked in the 170 studios built on top of Carnegie Hall. Today, it's all gone.

The film "Lost Bohemia" by former resident Josef Astor, documents the lives of some of these artists, and their fight to save the historic towers. For 22 years, Josef Astor lived in Studio 845, a triplex in the Carnegie Hall towers, long the home of a fascinating segment of New York's Bohemia. A fine art and portrait photographer, he is also a filmmaker, and  the Voice of Leadership will be speaking with Mr. Astor about his documentary Lost Bohemia.

According to the New York Times, Lost Bohemia is a sad and spirited elegy for the Carnegie Hall Studios, also acknowledging the famous ghosts who haunt the place, ranging from Isadora Duncan and Enrico Caruso to Marilyn Monroe and Martha Graham.

"It is staggering to contemplate how much of New York’s cultural history is contained in the square feet Mr. Astor — known to his neighbors as Birdman — surveys. And it is infuriating, though not surprising, to witness how efficiently it is wiped away." 

Lost Bohemia. A film by Josef "Birdman" Astor.