Alexander Douglas Weston (December 13, 1926 – February 14, 1999) was an American

nightclub A nightclub (music club, discothèque, disco club, or simply club) is an entertainment venue during nighttime comprising a dance floor, lightshow, and a stage for live music or a disc jockey (DJ) who plays recorded music. Nightclubs gener ...

owner, known as the owner of The Troubadour nightclub in Los Angeles which in the 1960s and 1970s was particularly responsible for promoting many successful

singer-songwriters A singer-songwriter is a musician who writes, composes, and performs their own musical material, including lyrics and melodies. In the United States, the category is built on the folk-acoustic tradition, although this role has transmuted th ...

in the early stages of their careers. Weston founded the club as a coffee house on La Cienega Boulevard in 1957. It moved to its current location at 9081

Santa Monica Boulevard Santa Monica Boulevard is a major west–east thoroughfare in Los Angeles County. It runs from Ocean Avenue in Santa Monica near the Pacific Ocean to Sunset Boulevard at Sunset Junction in Los Angeles. It passes through Beverly Hills and West Ho ...

West Hollywood West Hollywood is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Incorporated in 1984, it is home to the Sunset Strip. As of the 2020 U.S. Census, its population was 35,757. It is considered one of the most prominent gay villages ...

in 1961 and has remained open continuously ever since.Sharline Chiang
Doug Weston, Owner of Famed Troubadour, Dies At Hospital
'' Daily News'', February 15, 1999. The Troubadour played an important role in the careers of Elton John,

Linda Ronstadt Linda Maria Ronstadt (born July 15, 1946) is a retired American singer who performed and recorded in diverse genres including rock, country, light opera, the Great American Songbook, and Latin. She has earned 11 Grammy Awards, three American ...

, the

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, Joni Mitchell,

James Taylor James Vernon Taylor (born March 12, 1948) is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. A six-time Grammy Award winner, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000. He is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, havi ...

, Carole King, Bonnie Raitt, J.D. Souther, Jackson Browne,

Van Morrison Sir George Ivan Morrison (born 31 August 1945), known professionally as Van Morrison, is a Northern Irish singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist whose recording career spans seven decades. He has won two Grammy Awards. As a teenager in t ...

Buffalo Springfield Buffalo Springfield was a rock band formed in Los Angeles by Canadian musicians Neil Young, Bruce Palmer and Dewey Martin and American musicians Stephen Stills and Richie Furay. The group, widely known for the song "For What It's Worth", rele ...

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, and other prominent and successful performers whose early performances at the club helped establish their future fame. ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...

'' music critic

Robert Hilburn Robert Hilburn (born September 25, 1939) is an American pop music critic, author, and radio host. As critic and music editor at the ''Los Angeles Times'' from 1970 to 2005, his reviews, essays and profiles appeared in publications around the wor ...

said that Weston was "arguably the godfather of the

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most populous urban a ...

singer-songwriter movement in the late '60s and early '70s".Myrna Oliver
Doug Weston, Troubadour Founder, Dies'
''

'', February 15, 1999. A charismatic impresario, 6'6" tall with long hair, Weston became known for the agreements he made with new artists, which stipulated that, after they became famous, they would return to the club to perform.Robert Hilburn
A Man Who Had a Passion for Art of the Troubadour
''Los Angeles Times'', February 16, 1999. According to Hilburn: In later years, Weston was no longer involved in running the club, but retained ownership. He died from

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severi ...

in a Los Angeles hospital on February 14, 1999, aged 72. A memorial was held at the Troubadour with performances and dedications from musicians as a tribute to him for his role in the success in so many entertainers' careers. Weston and the Troubadour feature in the 2019 Elton John biopic ''

Rocketman ''RocketMan'' (also written as ''Rocket Man'') is a 1997 American comic science fiction film directed by Stuart Gillard and starring Harland Williams, Jessica Lundy, William Sadler, and Jeffrey DeMunn. A partial remake of the 1967 film, '' The ...

'' with

Tate Donovan Tate Buckley Donovan (born September 25, 1963) is an American actor, comedian and television director. He is known for portraying Tom Shayes in ''Damages'', Jimmy Cooper in '' The O.C.'', and the voice of the title character in the 1997 Disney ...

playing Weston. Weston and the Troubadour are also featured in the 2020 David Mitchell novel '' Utopia Avenue''.

References

External links

Brett Johnson, ''Troubadour nights: Nightclub subject of independent film''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Weston, Doug 1999 deaths American entertainment industry businesspeople Nightclub owners Businesspeople from Los Angeles Deaths from pneumonia in California 1926 births 20th-century American businesspeople