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    The Copacabana
    The Copacabana
    The Copacabana
    Ebook229 pages1 hour

    The Copacabana

    By Kristin Baggelaar

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    It has been years since New York has seen anything quite like the old Copacabana. The Copa, Manhattan's best-known night club, was also the most popular nightspot in America. From the moment it burst onto the scene in 1940, an aura of glamour and sophistication hovered over the Copa. It was a luminous glow that, over the course of five decades, served this illustrious establishment well, beckoning the people who made it famous-Hollywood stars, sports heroes, foreign dignitaries, and the town's leading families, including the Kennedys, the Roosevelts, and the Du Ponts. The Copa was a showcase for past, present, and future stars, including Joe E. Lewis, Sophie Tucker, Jimmy Durante, Julie Wilson, Tony Orlando, and Wayne Newton. Through vintage photographs and stories from performers, Copa Girls, and other people connected with the Copa's history, The Copacabana chronicles how this landmark institution became an American cultural icon.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArcadia Publishing
    Release dateDec 13, 2006
    ISBN9781439618479
    The Copacabana

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      Book preview

      The Copacabana - Kristin Baggelaar

      course.

      INTRODUCTION

      In its time, the 1940s and 1950s, the long-ago glamorous Copacabana was the biggest, best-known, and most popular nightclub in Manhattan. Some contend it was the most popular nightclub ever. In the pseudo-tropical atmosphere, you would ogle the Copa Girls, strain your eyes to see who was sitting at the best tables, and then read about it the next day in Walter Winchell’s column.

      No other club had a greater impact on talent and café operations across the nation than the Copacabana. No other club did as much to develop acts as well as managerial talent. The Copa was the bellwether of the nitery business throughout the country and the pinnacle of showbiz ambition for every café act in the business.

      The Copa is a storehouse of memories that evokes a nostalgic, yet unsentimental, backward glance at the years that have come and gone. These were the thrilling years of an incredible entertainment era. It was the heyday of nightlife in New York and the Copacabana epitomized the madcap fun and excitement of those high-living days. It was a celebrity hangout—a place to be seen, as well as to see that celebrated audience, the stars of the stage and screen—Elizabeth Taylor, Mike Todd, Louis B. Mayer, Marlene Dietrich, Errol Flynn, and Bette Davis. They were all there regularly, like the pulsating, electric, opening night in 1954 when a standing-room-only celebrity-packed audience flipped over an established star, Frank Sinatra, and cheered and made a new star of Joey Bishop. In the audience were all the names that made headline news; Judy Garland, Yul Brenner, Edith Piaf, Dinah Shore, Sammy Davis Jr., Jane Kean, Johnnie Ray, Nanette Fabray, and Sugar Ray Robinson.

      The Copa’s roster of performers read like a who’s who of show business. Copa boss Jules Podell followed in the footsteps of originator Monte Proser with an uncanny knack for picking unknown talent that went on to stardom, such as Perry Como, Johnny Mathis, Bobby Darin, and Paul Anka. Sammy Davis Jr. achieved his dream in the spring of 1954 when the Will Mastin Trio featured him while they made their New York café debut at the Copacabana. The team of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, along with Tony Bennett, Julie Wilson, Wayne Newton, and many others who are still big names today, got their first big break at the Copa and made their emotional, final appearance together there.

      No other nightclub had a more profound effect on the public recognition of a performer than the Copacabana. A comedian didn’t arrive until he scored at the Copa. Singers assured their future prestige by continually doing well there.

      The Copacabana was also the springboard to star status and the silver screen for the beautiful Copa Girls. From June Allyson, who taught herself to dance as a girl by watching the footwork in MGM musicals, and went from the Copa Girl line to Hollywood stardom and into the arms of actor Dick Powell; to acclaimed actress-dancer Lucille Bremer; Jane Ball, who won the heart of and married Copa founder-owner Monte Proser; actress Grace Gillern; Janice Rule, on screen from 1951 and married for 25 years to actor Ben Gazzara; Barbara Feldon, who became famous for her role in the television series Get Smart; singer-actress Julie Wilson, who became a veritable cabaret cottage industry, and so on.

      Whether or not you’ve lived through this era, it is possible to feel a yearning for it, an urge to call back a way of life now gone forever—the golden years of fabulous, unforgettable nights, nights of laughter, nights of excitement. The Copa takes us back, even if we were never there.

      Many years have passed since the opening of the Copacabana and while those years have seen much change, this landmark institution continues to symbolize everything that is understood to be cosmopolitan, elegant, and glamorous. The world-famous Copacabana, a mainstay of New York clubs’ golden era, lives on in the public’s imagination.

      One

      A PRELUDE TO A PIECE OF MUSICAL HISTORY 1940

      The Copacabana burst on the scene over half a century ago as the Great Depression was ending and World War II was beginning. While the United States was no longer in the Depression, many citizens had not yet recovered from it. The country was moving closer to war, but temporarily still at peace. It was a tense, highly dramatic period of history. Americans were wrestling with insecurity and indecision as they nervously awaited changes that might affect their work, homes, and family lives. The menacing possibility of direct involvement in the war evoked fear and sorrow as well as excitement, and doubts about the future stimulated a craving for pleasure. While America was not immediately endangered or officially embroiled in battle, prewar jitters pervaded, and a mood of unrestraint produced an upsurge in patronage of hotels, restaurants, movie houses, theaters, and nightclubs. The highly charged atmosphere recalled the frenetic pace of the Roaring Twenties, and again, the times were hot. (Courtesy of New York City Guide, 1939.)

      Migration from rural to metropolitan areas continued as it had been for years, but now the pace was accelerating. Not since the upheaval of the French Revolution would so many talented, well-to-do, cultured refugees be brought together in this friendly haven at one time. They, in turn, would elevate the status of New York, establishing this great city beyond all doubt as the premier cultural capital of the United States. (Courtesy of New York City Guide, 1939.)

      The 1939 New York World’s Fair, more than anything else, attracted the attention, not only of this country, but of the world, to New York City. Dance director of the popular Aquacade attraction, Robert (Bob) Alton, already known for his work with many theatrical and nightclub productions, would soon be hired as one of the Copacabana’s original choreographers. (Courtesy of Billy Rose’s Aquacade program.)

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