Village Gate club owner, Art D’Lugoff, dies

Hired blacklisted singers Robeson and Seeger; fired Dustin Hoffman

Interviews, performances

Choir sings lullaby Christmas songs
Dec. 4: Awarding-winning men's choir Chanticleer sings two Christmas songs from their new album, "Best of Chanticleer."

‘Hark the Herald Angels Sing’

The doc who rocks

Ron Wood arrested

Beyonce tops Grammy nods

updated 12:02 a.m. ET Nov. 8, 2009

NEW YORK - Art D'Lugoff, who owned the famed Village Gate nightclub in New York City, has died. He was 85.

D'Lugoff died Wednesday at a Manhattan hospital. His brother, Burt D'Lugoff, said a cause of death was not yet known.

D'Lugoff opened the Greenwich Village club in 1958. He hired blacklisted singers Paul Robeson and Pete Seeger and fired Dustin Hoffman as a waiter. Hoffman, then a struggling actor, later said he was so distracted by the performers that he neglected customers.

Story continues below ↓

advertisement | your ad here

Other performers included jazz greats John Coltrane, Miles Davis and Thelonious Monk.

The Village Gate closed in 1994.

Beside his brother, D'Lugoff is survived by his wife, Avital Achai, a son and three daughters.