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Paul Colby
an IntroductionThe Bitter End is the most famous nightclub in New York City's legendary Greenwich Village. But any night spot is merely wood, mortar and brick, in this case 'red brick'. The building and the business needs a leader or captain to guide it and the Bitter End is lucky to have Paul Colby at the helm.
Paul Colby's career is as legendary as the club he has managed and owned for almost thirty years. Starting as a song plugger for Benny Goodman's record publishing company, Paul has gone onto work with Frank Sinatra, Duke Ellington and Guy Lombardo, cutting his teeth in the entertainment business during the Golden Age of popular music.
As a prolific painter and designer, Paul, started the award winning Colby furniture Co. where he produced contemporary furniture that won acclaim in the New York Times, House Beautiful and Interior Design magazines. He created original pieces for Miles Davis, Cy Coleman, Tony Bennett and Diahann Carroll among others but the call of the entertainment world finally drew him back into the vibrant and rejuvenated Greenwich Village of the sixties and a new age in music and comedy. The place to be was the Bitter End.
In 1968 he was manager and booking agent and by 1974 he became the owner. He has owned the Bitter End for the last 22 years and in that time has transformed a small coffee house into one of the premiere entertainment hubs in New York. Piloting his club through every contemporary musical, social and cultural wave in America, Paul has elevated the status of a basement bistro into a fullfledged nightclub of world renown. From the days of ice cream sundaes and milk shakes to five course dinners and wine and cocktails, playing host to every important entertainer in the last thirty or more years, Paul has continued his unabated successstory.
Withstanding fads, generational changes and the fickleness of taste and sensibilities, Paul has adapted and thrived in one of the most difficult businesses in America. And he has done it without sacrificing the sense of class, professionalism and bottom line faith in great talent that has made both him and his legendary nightclub such mainstays in the cultural life of NewYork City.
A successful nightclub in New York City demands straight connections between heart and mind and guts. Along with Woody Allen, Bill Cosby, Kris Kristofferson, Carly Simon, Peter Paul and Mary and so many others, the Bitter End is fortunate to have discovered Paul Colby for its owner and guiding light. This great entertainment juggernaut couldn't be in better hands.
THE BITTER END
The Bitter End was unique in that it, at the same time, sought out new talent through its legendary hootenannies on Tuesday nights, nurtured that talent through showcases and its gracious accommodations for booking agents and record producers and finally celebrated that talent as headliners and stars in their own right in front of the famous red brick back drop to what has now become known as America's stage.
Major albums by such stars as Peter, Paul and Mary, Randy Newman, Curtis Mayfield, Arlo Guthrie, Tom Paxton, Pete Seeger, The Isley Brothers and the Serendipity Singers have been recorded live at the Bitter End. Continuing in that tradition on May 16, 1996, Tommy James recorded his latest Compact Disc, Tommy James' Greatest Hits: Live from the Bitter End proving that this is one nightclub that does not take refuge in the past.
At present a major book on the history of the Bitter End is being written as well as a television production with live footage of the early concerts 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 and George Carlin to name but a few. If that partial list of performers doesn't confirm the diversity and magnitude of talent that the Bitter End has created and help sustain for the American public at large, I don't know what could.
If those famous red brick walls could talk they would tell the history of the United States in some of its most aching years. But the Bitter End is not a museum. It is a virtual living, breathing part of the entertainment industry. The Bitter End is where it all began and where it keeps on beginning. It was not for nothing that the City of New York bestowed Landmark status to the famed night club on July 23, 1992. That is why today, the Bitter End is still a must stop for anyone visiting New YorkCity, for anyone who loves music and history and for anyone who loves to be entertained.
" The best play at the best," says owner Paul Colby and while it is true that some, like Bob Dylan, will probably not come again; and some, like Harry Chapin or Tim Hardin or Phil Ochs tragically can never come again, the Bitter End is still, at 147 Bleecker Street in Greenwich Village, waiting for that next star to light up the skies.
Bitter End Management
212.673.7030
Contact us at info@bitterend.com