Foreward by Red Buttons

I grew up at the Copa. I was able to tell the season of the year by the Copa. When Joe E. Lewis opened, it was fall.

September was when New York City came to life. We were off to the races, and the Copa was the Kentucky Derby of the nightclubs. Its stewards were Monte Proser, Jack Entratter, and Julie Podell.

I was working at the Gaity Theatre on Broadway for Harold Minsky in 1940, the year the Copa opened. I wandered in one night, and I never left. It became my home away from my real home, Lindy’s Restaurant. It was not until the fifties that I played the Copa. I was thrilled. I finally headlined the palace of the nightclubs.

Every opening night, Julie Podell, who managed the club, performed a ritual that became a legend. He would take the star of the show into the kitchen (while the opening act was on) and then rap his pinky ring on a table, and growl, “Boys—[and the name of the star]!” The chefs, cooks, waiters, and busboys would applaud while Podell stood there beaming (no small feat for Julie). It was tantamount to being knighted by the queen—it was the Copa Oscar. Podell was wise. It broke the tension and it assuaged the trauma of opening night nerves.

I remember my opening, walking out on the floor to the strains of my musical intro number, the “Ho Ho Vamp,” wearing a beautiful gray tuxedo. Before I could open my mouth, my pal, comedian Jack E. (Fat Jack) Leonard yelled, “There he is folks! Red Buttons! A Jewish Confederate soldier!” The house broke up. I broke up. It was smooth sailing from then on—that’s what friends are for.

The Copa was a joy to work, not only because of the physical set-up of the room—so intimate you could hear the ringsiders breathe. It was a joy because it attracted the sharpest, hippest, most diverse clientele in the country. You name it; the Copa had it. Show business. Politics. The Fourth Estate. Doctors. Lawyers. Indian Chiefs. It was the watering hole for the fur and shmahteh business. It was the oasis for good guys and bad guys. Park Avenue rubbed elbows with Delancey Street—democracy at work. It was bigger than the Big Apple. It was the top banana. And for icing on the cake, the Copa Girls were every red-blooded American boy’s fantasy.

Oh, and by the way, there was never a cover charge! When the Copa closed, it was the beginning of the homeless problem in New York, New York.

When Kander and Ebb wrote, “If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere,” odds are they were thinking of the Copa. I miss it. A lot.

Sayonara.

A hug.

Pg8 (Toni Carroll Talking………….

When I was one of the Copa Girls, I saw everyone (even though we were not allowed to circulate with guests) and everyone saw us. The scent of romance was always prevalent.

One of our very young dancers (I believe she was still of high school age) was the object of a much older entertainer. He wined and dined her for the usual intentions, and finally presented her with a lovely, seemingly expensive ring, which she proudly displayed to the other girls in the dressing room. Several of the other young dancers loudly chuckled and stretched out their fingers to reveal the same ring. Georgie Jessel was always striving to impress the young ones!

We saw Elizabeth Taylor with Mike Todd, Louis B. Mayer, Marlene Dietrich, Erroll Flynn, Bette David, etcetera, etcetera, and etcetera.

In its heyday, the 40’s, the 50’s, the 60’s, and the 70’s, the Copa was “the hottest spot north of Havana,” as Barry Manilow described it. The club had a capacity of 800 and was located at 10 East 60th Street, in the heart of Manhattan. In its pseudo-tropical atmosphere, diners (the men, that is) would ogle the Copa Girls, look around the room to see who was sitting with whom, and at what table, and then read about it the next day in Walter Winchell or Earl Wilson columns.

No other club had a greater impact on talent and café operations across the country than the Copacabana. No other club did as much to develop entertainers and entertainment as well as managerial talent. The Copa was the palace of the nightclub business and the pinnacle of “showbiz” ambition for every act.

……. pg12But with all the successes that comedians and singers achieved at the Copacabana, it was often a frightening experience. Unknown performers appearing at the Copa for the first time were extraordinarily nervous. Will it be a hit or a flop? A smash could mean ultimate success; a flop could be a disaster to a career.

This was the dilemma that faced Joey Bishop on his opening night in 1954. It was a unique evening in Copa history. The guests included many of the top names in show business: Judy Garland, Yul Brenner, Edith Piaf, Dinah Shore, Sammy Davis, Jr., Jane Kean, Johnnie Ray, Nanette Fabray, Sugar Ray Robinson, and scores of other celebrities.

It was a standing-room-only audience; they had come to cheer the established headliner, Frank Sinatra, and were now ready for a newcomer.

Joey Bishop remembered his big break in show business this way:

“Frank Sinatra asked me to open for him at the Copacabana. He had just won the Oscar for From Here to Eternity and was hot again. The place was mobbed. I came out, sized up the place, and said, ‘Look at this crowd! Wait till Sinatra’s following shows up.’ That brought a few laughs.

“In the middle of my act, Marilyn Monroe walks in all by herself, draped in a white ermine coat. All heads, of course, turn towards her. I looked at her and said, ‘I thought I told you to wait in the truck!’