Official HBO Promotional Photograph: The Best Hotel On Skid Row, Narrated by Charles Bukowski

This is an original publicity photograph issued by HBO Films for the 1990 HBO documentary, The Best Hotel On Skid Row.

Bukowski was asked to do the narration for the film because of his days spent living there.

“I did it for the money,” Bukowski recalled. “Especially when I found out the subject matter. You know, being an ex-bum and having lived on Skid Row, I just fell into it. They said they needed a narrator and I said okay. We had a little struggle since I speak so slowly, to fit in with the time frame.”

The inset photograph is by Michael Montfort, Bukowski’s personal photographer and measures approximately 2” x 2.5”.  Minus the inset photo, the image size measures approximately 8.5” x 7.5”. The entire photograph measures approximately 8” x 10”.

I don’t have qualifications to rate fine phorography, but by book standards I’d rate it in Near Fine condition.

From the website “Alternative Reel:
Skid row is where people are mutilated and almost dead, they’re creeping, crawling, uncared-for creatures.” A bleak and depressing but truly fascinating documentary narrated by “The Poet Laureate of Skid Row” himself, Charles Bukowski, The Best Hotel on Skid Row focuses on the broken denizens residing in the Madison Hotel ($8.20 a night) in downtown Los Angeles. Those profiled include Becky, a heroin addicted prostitute; Gary, a loner and day laborer; John, a guitar player who stalks another resident named Debbie; and the alcoholic Jack Woodrow Wilson, who keeps his room spotless and considers the other residents “bums” and “garbage.” Part of HBO’s critically acclaimed America Undercover series, The Best Hotel on Skid Row was directed by Christine Choy and Renee Tajima-Pena, and produced by Peter Davis (Hearts and Minds). The film features music by Tom Waits such as “A Sight for Sore Eyes.” The running time is just 48 minutes. The directors reportedly read all of Bukowski’s books, starting with Ham on Rye, before embarking on the film. “We used to go down to Skid Row for fun like a break,” Bukowski once remarked in an interview. “Now for the people down there, there’s no way back … It’s sheer luck for the one in 1,000 who finally makes it out.” One of the interviewees, “Guitar John,” reportedly agreed to be interviewed in exchange for a bottle of Wild Turkey.

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