NYC's Village Gate club owner, Art D'Lugoff, dies

NEW YORK - Art D'Lugoff (Duh-LOO'-guhf), 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.

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.