Hearne: Westport Entertainment Legend Bites The Dust

How could I not write about the passing of Dave McQuitty?

For well over 20 years the controversial local entertainment honcho loomed large – for better and for worse – beginning in Westport’s early entertainment infancy.

McQuitty’s United Entertainment managed a number of prominent, local cover bands and ran nightclubs such as the Lone Star, Hurricane, London’s, Shadow and Guitars & Cadillacs. Bands like the Clique, Charlie and the Stingrays and Rampage.

In the 1980s and early 1990s McQuitty was basically the guy in Westport.

“He was,” says longtime area rock promoter and heavy metal kingpin Jim Kilroy.“Here’s what I remember about him when I started out with Banzai magazine. Everybody I encountered in the local music industry said, ‘He screwed me.’ Everyone said, ‘He fucked me.’ That’s how I remember him.”

Did Kilroy ever hear anything nice about McQuitty?

“Well, of course, when he passed away,” Kilroy says.

In the early days when I took over running the Pitch as a record store rag and converting it into an alternative news and entertainment weekly, McQuitty was our biggest advertiser. A position he often leveraged in any number of heavy handed ways to try and bend our writers and editorial slant to his will (mostly unsuccessfully).

Like when we did a controversial “Violence in Westport” cover.

Yet there was another side to Dangerous Dave – apart from his being an entertainment and behind-the-scenes, small time political bully. A side that transcended his garish parading around Westport in a bright red Dodge Viper.

Having produced a good number of alternative rock shows at the Lone Star and Shadow, there were occasions after a show when we would talk about music and the entertainment scene into the wee hours of the morning. That was a side of Dave I rarely saw, but I truly believe his interest in booking bands and running clubs began with the best of intentions.

That said, the reason I bailed from the music promotion scene was it’s a pretty dirty, dog-eat-dog biz.

And mastering it brought out Dave’s dark side.

Longtime area promoter Brett Mosiman‘s recollection of McQuitty and United:

“They took everybody’s money and said, “I’ll give you 50 cents on the dollar or sue me. They were scumbags. And there was a time when they had four or five Guitars & Cadillacs all over the Midwest.”

McQuitty fell onto hard times in the early 2000s and was sidelined by a stroke.

At which point he began to paint and post his art works in area galleries and businesses.

I remember calling Dave – maybe 10 years back – wanting to do an update.

He begged me not to.

I won’t mention names, but one he expressed great fear that one of his former associates might come back on him physically. He described himself to me as a “gimp,” and said the only way he could get around his apartment was via a giant, elastic band affixed to his waist.

Longtime Westport businessman Bill Nigro is familiar with McQuitty’s controversial ways but says he always got along with him.

“Dave was so involved in Westport at one point that he was one of the early pioneers in building the entertainment industry up.”

However you cut the cake, it was a sad end for a dude who walked softly but wielded a pretty big stick.