The Copa (14 page)
Authors: Mickey Podell-Raber
A night at the Copa.
Dad's famous ring; one tap would send shivers up the spine of the Copa staff.
Walter Winchell, the renowned gossip columnist, was a good friend of my parents. Winchell was also famous as the narrator on the popular television series
The Untouchables
. I remember him as an old man who smoked a cigar. Whenever he would come to our house he was
always friendly to me. Winchell 's wife liked the name Malda, God knows why, and they named their daughter Walda, after me. So her name was Walda Winchell. When I complained to my mother for naming me Malda she would say, “At least we didn't name you Walda!” After a while I said I was changing my name to Mickey, and I would tell people to address me as Mickey.
The late comedian Joey Villa would recount this story about working the Copa:
In 1962 I was booked at the Copacabana as the opening act for Nat King Cole. At that time, I was part of a comedy team called Forbes and Villa. When Nat Cole played the Copacabana for Jules Podell the place was packedâ¦Cole was one of the club's highest-rated performers. One evening my partner, Don Forbes, and I were just getting ready to walk down the steps of the nightclub floor. Don was on the left and I was on the right side of the room when the announcer was introducing us to start the show. While he was on the side of the stage, Don started to flirt with one of the Copa Girlsâwhich did not sit well with Jules Podell. All of a sudden, out of nowhere, Podell walk[ed] by and punched Don in the stomach; so hard that he was winded and couldn't even speak. By this time our names had been announced, so I was onstage for a few minutes alone before Don finally arrived huffing and puffing. Podell had rules in his club, and when you were at the Copa you better stick to them.
Famous publicist Lee Solters, who has represented everyone from Barbra Streisand to Michael Jackson, remembers, “I had a client that was working the Copa, I can't even remember who it was now, but I went to the rehearsal. I didn't want to be noticed, so I found a seat by a table in the back of the room, figuring I wouldn't bother anyone in such
a remote place. After five minutes or so, someone taps me on the shoulderâ¦it was Podell. He says to me in a gruff voice âWho are you and why are you sitting in my seat?'”
Rip Taylor remembers:
The first time I played the Copa was nerve-racking. I had finally graduated from doing my act in strip joints across America to legitimate clubs and then television. Someone saw me on
The Ed Sullivan Show
and that led to my being booked at the Copacabana. Meeting Jules Podell for the first time was very exciting. Before your first show, Podell would welcome and introduce you to the staff in the kitchen. I remember him saying, “Everybody, this is Rip Taylor, a brand-new funny guyâ¦let's hear it for him,” and the staff would all applaud. The acts always said hello to Podell before they went on because he would sit at a register in the kitchen and you had to pass him to get to the stage every show. I thanked him and was so happy my act was well received by the Copa audience. Although I had played the Latin Quarter and other top clubs, the Copa was specialâ¦it was the mecca of show business. I worked the Copa seven or eight times. Nat King Cole was, without question, one of the sweetest and kindest men I've ever metâ¦he was just so wonderful. I can't tell you how it furthered my career, and others, once word spread that you had played the Copa.
Martha Raye would also visit us, and I would play with her daughter Melody. Raye was a popular radio, nightclub, and movie star whose nickname was “The Big Mouth”; later generations would come to know her from a series of popular commercials she made for Polident denture cleaner. Martha was fun to be around; she'd always sing and play the piano at our house. She could open her mouth so wide it looked
like the Grand Canyon. She was funny and a genuinely nice person. Martha liked being around children and always did something to keep us entertained. She didn't sit with the adults, she'd rather hang out with us. Sophie Tucker also came to the house a lot. I remember her being loud and fat, and my father loved her. Sophie would crack my father up; I never saw him laugh as much as he did around her.
A billboard in Times Square announcing Sam Cooke's at the club. Cooke would record the live album
Sam Cooke at the Copa
during his 1964 engagement.
Me and two friends pose with Martha Raye. Besides being a very talented comedian, Martha was always very nice to me and loved being around children.
Arranger and conductor Pete Moore recalled that during one of Tom Jones's successful engagements at the Copa, the singer had a request. After the first few days, Jones asked Podell if it would be possible to get some fresh lemons in between his shows. Jones told Podell that he liked to drink hot water with lemon to ease the strain on his throat. Podell said that he would be happy to have the lemons delivered each night to Jones's dressing room. Jones was grateful that Podell was happy to honor his request; however, he was taken aback when on his closing night, Podell had deducted the cost of the lemons from his performing fee.
Celebrity impressionist and comedian Rich Little played the Copa with acts such as Billy Daniels in the 1960s. During his debut appearance, Little's routine included a parody of the Sinatra (Frank and Nancy) hit song “Something Stupid.” Little would sing the parody in the voice of President Lyndon Johnson, and one of the lines in the song mentioned Vietnam. One critic wrote a scathing review, saying how dare Little, a Canadian, mention the Vietnam conflict in his routine. This caused a firestorm of press and protests, which left Podell in quite a conundrum. On the one hand, the brouhaha over Little's routine was filling the club, as curious audiences wanted to hear the routine themselves. On the other, Podell did not like the negative press and protests in front of his club. Rich Little offered to quit but Podell told him that
was not necessary. In the end, after other critics came to see Little's controversial bit, the majority of them agreed that it was not offensive or disrespectful to the American people or the military. Rich Little would play the Copa several more times without causing any such controversy.
Ad for singer Billy Daniels. His most famous song was âThat Old Black Magic.' This was still during the time that Jack Entratter was working with my father at the club before moving to Las Vegas and becoming the entertainment director at the Sands.
As the decade of the 1950s was coming to a close, the Copa was still the “in” place to be seen. This
New York Sun
article, from 1959, on the nightclub scene in the city, praised the club as one of its best-run operations:
The Copacabana, at 10 E. 60th St., is the only other major cabaret to give the LATIN QUARTER serious competition. It features a line of beautiful and stylish girls, picked less for their dancing talent than their ability to wear clothes, two dance bandsâone for the Latin-America rhythmsâsinging and dancing soloists and one big-name star. Joe E. Lewis is a perennial favorite, and so is Jimmy Durante. Whenever they perform in New York, Nat King Cole and Sammy Davis Jr. pick the COPA for their appearances. Some of the beauties who graduated from the COPA chorus line are June Allyson, Joanne Dru, Janice Rule and Carroll Baker.
The COPA is open seven nites a week the year around and is one nite club which puts an emphasis on good food. It has a special kitchen for Chinese dishes, which are popular with stay-up-lates.
Like most every other nite spot in New York, the COPA has an interesting background. During Prohibition era it was known as the Villa Vallee, featuring (naturally) Rudy Vallee. Jules Podell, the owner, previously operated a Coney Island restaurant, a Fulton Street chop house, and the Kit Kat Club, a
late nite rendezvous where the BLUE ANGEL is now located. A friend who had returned from a visit to Rio suggested the name COPACABANA for Podell's new nite club when he took over in 1940. The first floor show was staged by Ramon, popular as part of the dance team of Ramon & Rosita when the Latin-American dances first came in. With his new partner, Renita, Ramon headed the show, but the vogue for their type of ballroom dancing had gone out and the early shows were flops.
Podell took on as press agent Mary Anita Loos, niece of Anita Loos, and now a well established writer herself. She proposed bringing in Don Loper, who danced with Maxine Barratt. Loper designed all of Maxine's clothes and she was the first member of a dance team to wear a hat and long gloves. Loper costumed the COPA girls in the same style, and that style has changed very little in the past 18 years.
Jules Podell usually puts in a full day at his club but seldom puts in a personal appearance in front. His club employs 275 people and his is one of the few restaurants where there is an employee pension plan for retirement.
The COPA is far more expensive than the LATIN QUARTER and its patrons are mostly big spenders from Miami Beach, Hollywood and New York. The name stars draw highly professional audiences.
