Paul Colby, the owner of venerable Greenwich Village nightclub the Bitter End, has died at age 96.
The Philadelphia-born Colby managed the club for about a decade before he purchased it in 1974, helping to launch the careers of performers like Bob Dylan, James Taylor and Billy Crystal. As singer Kris Kristofferson told the Times, the Bitter End was where "people like me and Bob Dylan didn’t just perform, we came to hang out." And though the club's become more of a tourist spot than a legitimate venue in recent years (much like fellow Village mainstay Cafe Wha?) contemporary stars like Norah Jones and a pre-Lady Gaga Stefani Germanotta have made it onstage as well.
Colby, who died in his Montclair, NJ home last week, grew up on the Lower East Side, working as a shipping clerk and sheet music deliverer before delving into the music business as a promoter. When that fell through, he began manufacturing furniture before getting the managing gig at the Bitter End. "The Bitter End is not a second or third take,” Colby wrote in his 2002 memoir. “It’s as alive as it gets. For me, there is no other way to live life.
The Bitter End announced Colby's death on their website; they plan to hold a memorial for their "colonel," who was "sharp , witty and happy until the end," in the near future.
