In 1959, Manny Roth laid down some marble floor and spray-painted the walls black in this basement venue that had been a horse stable. The idea was to have a place for the beatnik crowd to enjoy.
Roth held "hootenanny" nights where anyone could perform a song. It was on Jan. 24, 1961 that a 19-year-old Bob Dylan played his first NYC set, consisting of several Woody Guthrie tunes. At the end of the set, Roth asked the crowd if anybody had a couch Dylan could sleep on (he had just hitch-hiked from Minnesota).
Jimi Hendrix used to play at Cafe Wha? in the mid-60s when he called himself Jimmy James and fronted The Blue Flames.
Manuel "Manny" Lee Roth is the uncle of Van Halen frontman David Lee Roth. Manny Roth passed away on July 25, 2014 at the age of 94.
