Doug Weston

Doug Weston, founder of the storied nightclub Troubadour that helped launch such rock and folk singers as Elton John, Linda Ronstadt and Joan Baez and comedians from the Smothers Brothers to Cheech & Chong, died Sunday. He was 72. Weston died at Midway Hospital Medical Center in Los Angeles, said Troubadour general manager Lance Hubp. Despite suffering a broken hip, Weston had generally been in good health, Hubp said, but had not been in the Troubadour for the last six to eight months.

Watching the warmly nostalgic "Troubadours" is like going to a reunion of old friends. You're so happy to see them again that you are willing to forgive whatever lapses and flaws there are in the experience. The old friends in "Troubadours" are the singer-songwriters who flourished roughly between 1968 and 1975, people like Joni Mitchell, Kris Kristofferson and Bonnie Raitt. It was a time when, says Carole King, "there was a hunger for the intimacy, the personal thing we all did," a moment when, says James Taylor, "the authenticity of telling your own story" mattered a great deal.

Viz "The Brit Is Back" (by Robert Hilburn, Feb. 19): On the night of Aug. 24, 1970, Danny Hutton asked me to his pad in Laurel Canyon to assess Reggie Dwight, also known as Elton John. I'd produced some demos for Three Dog Night; Hutton founded that group. When they performed at the Revolution, on their first trip to London, T.D.N. were pitched by Reggie to record his songs, armed with his demo from Dick James Music. He was too late for T.D.N.'s debut album, but his collaboration "Lady Samantha" was shoe-horned into their next album.

A new theater company is up and running at Bergamot Station, just in time for the new decade. Bergamot Station was one of the biggest popular successes in L.A.'s visual arts scene during the '90s. An enclosed cluster of galleries in eastern Santa Monica, it attracts 750,000 visitors a year, according to Wayne Blank, who runs Bergamot and owns many of its buildings. Yet Bergamot also was the site of one of the biggest missteps in L.A.'s theater scene during the '90s.

Today, the Troubadour on Santa Monica Boulevard is just one of a dozen clubs in Los Angeles presenting name pop-rock talent. But there was a time in the late '60s and early '70s when every young singer-songwriter dreamed of performing in the West Hollywood room's spotlight. The Troubadour is where Elton John made his triumphant U.S.

The nightclubs lining West Hollywood's boulevards draw so many revelers that the city's population doubles on weekends, attracting controversial proposals to regulate the crowds. The nightclub proposals have incensed some longtime club owners who run some of the best-known entertainment spots in the nation, but social-minded civic leaders say their time has come.

A new theater company is up and running at Bergamot Station, just in time for the new decade. Bergamot Station was one of the biggest popular successes in L.A.'s visual arts scene during the '90s. An enclosed cluster of galleries in eastern Santa Monica, it attracts 750,000 visitors a year, according to Wayne Blank, who runs Bergamot and owns many of its buildings. Yet Bergamot also was the site of one of the biggest missteps in L.A.'s theater scene during the '90s.

Re "Doug Weston, Troubadour Founder, Dies," Feb. 15: It was a cataclysmic time, the late '60s and early '70s, and I was a Godforsaken teenager. Yet, in my broken memory, the few cherished experiences I had often were at Doug Weston's Troubadour. From my first awkward date with Anna Sanchez to see the magnificent Phil Ochs sing, to evenings with my friend Carmen Perez as we first heard John Denver and Carly Simon, I treasure those extraordinary nights. I never had the chance to thank Weston for making a place for some of the greatest musical moments in my life, but I know he saw us in the audience.

Watching the warmly nostalgic "Troubadours" is like going to a reunion of old friends. You're so happy to see them again that you are willing to forgive whatever lapses and flaws there are in the experience. The old friends in "Troubadours" are the singer-songwriters who flourished roughly between 1968 and 1975, people like Joni Mitchell, Kris Kristofferson and Bonnie Raitt. It was a time when, says Carole King, "there was a hunger for the intimacy, the personal thing we all did," a moment when, says James Taylor, "the authenticity of telling your own story" mattered a great deal.

Re Robert Hilburn's appreciation of Troubadour owner Doug Weston ("A Man Who Had a Passion for Art of the Troubadour," Feb. 16): The question has to be asked: "What were you thinking in presenting this article as a footnote?" This man, like him or not, was a giant in Los Angeles history. The article is almost buried on the front page in the Calendar section by an article on Beethoven. The Beethoven article could have been presented at any time. . . . You do not even include a picture of Mr. Weston until page 6. . . . Are you not the L.A. Times?

Re "Doug Weston, Troubadour Founder, Dies," Feb. 15: It was a cataclysmic time, the late '60s and early '70s, and I was a Godforsaken teenager. Yet, in my broken memory, the few cherished experiences I had often were at Doug Weston's Troubadour. From my first awkward date with Anna Sanchez to see the magnificent Phil Ochs sing, to evenings with my friend Carmen Perez as we first heard John Denver and Carly Simon, I treasure those extraordinary nights. I never had the chance to thank Weston for making a place for some of the greatest musical moments in my life, but I know he saw us in the audience.

Today, the Troubadour on Santa Monica Boulevard is just one of a dozen clubs in Los Angeles presenting name pop-rock talent. But there was a time in the late '60s and early '70s when every young singer-songwriter dreamed of performing in the West Hollywood room's spotlight. The Troubadour is where Elton John made his triumphant U.S.

Doug Weston, founder of the storied nightclub Troubadour that helped launch such rock and folk singers as Elton John, Linda Ronstadt and Joan Baez and comedians from the Smothers Brothers to Cheech & Chong, died Sunday. He was 72. Weston died at Midway Hospital Medical Center in Los Angeles, said Troubadour general manager Lance Hubp. Despite suffering a broken hip, Weston had generally been in good health, Hubp said, but had not been in the Troubadour for the last six to eight months.

Viz "The Brit Is Back" (by Robert Hilburn, Feb. 19): On the night of Aug. 24, 1970, Danny Hutton asked me to his pad in Laurel Canyon to assess Reggie Dwight, also known as Elton John. I'd produced some demos for Three Dog Night; Hutton founded that group. When they performed at the Revolution, on their first trip to London, T.D.N. were pitched by Reggie to record his songs, armed with his demo from Dick James Music. He was too late for T.D.N.'s debut album, but his collaboration "Lady Samantha" was shoe-horned into their next album.

The nightclubs lining West Hollywood's boulevards draw so many revelers that the city's population doubles on weekends, attracting controversial proposals to regulate the crowds. The nightclub proposals have incensed some longtime club owners who run some of the best-known entertainment spots in the nation, but social-minded civic leaders say their time has come.

Cross "Club MTV" with "Cheers" and what do you get? Joy. A Thursday-night dance club, Joy has created the posed energy of "Club MTV" amid the friendly "Cheers"-like setting at Doug Weston's Troubadour night club in West Hollywood. It's an odd mix that seems to work. The crowd at Joy is young, in-the-know, slightly upscale. A considerable number of casually dressed Brits are present. (Club co-promoter Graham Seaman is English and seems to attract this crowd.