Fred Weintraub
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Fred Weintraub (born April 27, 1928 in Bronx, New York) is the original owner and host of The Bitter End in New York City's Greenwich Village. Weintraub's discerning eye discovered and presented to the world such soon-to-be-famous acts as Peter, Paul and Mary, Lenny Bruce (with whom he was arrested for obscenity), Pete Seeger, Randy Newman, The Isley Brothers. The diversity of the Village's most famous club is testament to Weintraub's vision, a partial list (from the Bitter End website) includes early performances of Neil Diamond, Woody Allen, Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, Ricky Nelson, Nina Simone, Dustin Hoffman, Charles Aznavour, Lily Tomlin, Stevie Wonder, Kris Kristofferson, Joni Mitchell,George Carlin, Bob Dylan, Harry Chapin, and Phil Ochs. During the early 1960s The Bitter End hosted "Open Mike" Hootenannies every Tuesday night, showcasing young, old, known and unknown talented folksingers.
Moving west in the mid 60's Weintraub created, wrote, and produced many famous TV shows and dozens of movies including Hootenanny and Dukes of Hazzard.
Bio page: http://www.filmreference.com/film/76/Fred-Weintraub.html
The Bitter End's influence on Folk Music: http://folkmusicarchives.org/bitter_end.htm
The Bitter End website, history page: http://www.bitterend.com/pcolby.html
