The club was run by Betty Smyth (who is the mother of Scandal lead singer Patty Smyth), and blues guitarist/performer Susan Martin until its closing in 1971. Ed Simon, the owner of another popular Village coffeehouse, The Four Winds, reopened the Gaslight in 1968. Clarence Hood bought the club in 1961, and he and his son Sam managed the club through the late 1960s. Opened in 1958 by John Mitchell, the dark, steamy, subterranean Gaslight had showcased beat poets Allen Ginsberg and Gregory Corso but later became a folk-music club. The Gaslight was originally a "basket house" where unpaid performers would pass around a basket at the end of each set and hope to be paid.
#Gaslight cafe series#
There is currently (September - June, 2012) a revival of the Village Gaslight with Sheriff Bob's Gaslight Revival presenting concerts the 2nd and 4th Tuesday and Bob Porco presenting a concert series on Saturdays nights, dubbing them a "Friends of Mike Porco Production" The Gaslight (alternatively known as "The Village Gaslight" opened in 1958 and was a well known venue for folk music and other musical acts, until it closed in 1971.
The Gaslight Cafe was an American coffee house located in the basement of 116 MacDougal Street in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York.