D'Lugoff turned away Bob Dylan, prompting the latter to write music in the basement of the club.[2] He also fired a Dustin Hoffman for providing poor table service. Playwright Sam Shepard once bused tables.[3]
D'Lugoff styled himself on the famous showman Sol Hurok.[4] His avant-garde programming also set the stage for theatrical nudity in New York - the 1974 musical review Let My People Come featured a fully nude co-ed cast.[3]
Financial reverses led D'Lugoff to declare bankruptcy in 1991. He closed the club in 1994.[4] In the wake of The Village Gate's closing, D'Lugoff dreamed of opening a new jazz club near Times Square. He worked on raising money for the development of a national jazz museum and hall of fame to be located in New York City.[2][5] D'Lugoff's idea of a museum eventually developed into the National Jazz Museum of Harlem.[6]
In 2008 the Village Gate re-opened under the name "Le Poisson Rouge", with D'Lugoff as a consultant.[1][7]
On November 4, 2009, after complaining of a shortness of breath, he was taken to New York-Presbyterian Hospital where he died at the age of 85.[3] On November 7, 2009, citing an unnamed source, the New York Post claimed that at the time of his death, D'Lugoff was weeks away from re-launching his nightclub at an even bigger downtown venue.[3]
D'Lugoff's wife, Avital D'Lugoff, worked as a photographer; she died on March 29, 2010.[8] The couple had four children: Sharon, Dahlia, Rachael, and Jazz pianist Raphael.[9]
