The Copa Read online

  Time marches on, and while I do miss my parents and the excitement of the Copacabana, I lead a very satisfying life. Today I’m married to a wonderful man, and I have three wonderful children and I am a proud grandmother.

  After my father passed away, the Copa would remain shuttered for several years. Rumors would circulate and items would appear in the press about the future of the club every few months.

  In a 1975 interview, Frank Sinatra summed up his feelings regarding the nightclub era: “I do know that when the Copacabana closed, it was the end of a great era, of the so-called cabaret era, where all the names in show business worked. Everybody worked there; it was a great age at the time. There are no rooms in New York like that now…and there’s no reason why there isn’t a club like that in New York City today because every performer who works in Las Vegas would like to work New York at least three times a year. So figure how many people there are who would work—it would be loaded all the time.”

  While Sinatra could have easily filled such a club three or more times a year, most acts were not popular enough to do so. Also, because of the gaming revenue generated in Las Vegas, the show rooms were able to pay the entertainers a large fee in order to draw gamblers to their hotel casinos. Such was not the case in New York and clubs were unable to compete with the salaries offered elsewhere.

  It was not until 1976 that the Copacabana finally reopened; this time it would be operated as both a disco and cabaret. The New York press praised the new owners and their renovation of the club and predicted that the new venture would be a success.

  After a few years, the new owners of the Copa moved the location to 617 West Fifty-seventh Street. The club now catered to a Latino market. The Copa would again move, this time to 560 West Thirty-fourth Street, which had a larger dance floor and a more modern sound system. The weekly entertainment schedule consists of Latin salsa-style music and dance. Some remnants of the old Copa, such as the palm trees and tropical theme, remain. The club also does a brisk business as a catering hall for wedding and banquets.

  In 1978 Barry Manilow would turn the Copacabana into a household name again with his hit song of that name. For the past three generations, the strongest link to the Copacabana’s glorious past is that song.

  Manilow recalled:

  I went to the Copa for my prom in the 1960s; I think I saw Bobby Darin. I remember lots of palm trees and the beautiful waitresses there. For a young man, the Copa was all very adult. I never met Jules Podell. The Copacabana symbolized glamour and danger to me. The song was born when Bruce Sussman and I were on vacation in Rio and we were staying at the Copacabana Hotel. There were towels with Copacabana sewn into them all over the place, matchbooks with Copacabana engraved on them, signs with Copacabana blazing on them, and we were getting sun on the Copacabana beach when Bruce sat up and said, “Barry, has there ever been a song called ‘Copacabana’?” I said I didn’t think so. When we got back to the states, Bruce called me from his place in New York to my place in Los Angeles and asked me about that idea for a song called “Copacabana.” I told him that I thought that he and his collaborator, Jack Feldman, should write me a lyric that would be a story song à la Frankie and Johnny; a story about a love triangle with a death in it; something you would see on television at 2 A.M. They called me back in an hour and read me the brilliant lyric to “Copacabana.” I set music to it within a half hour and the song “Copacabana” was born. An interesting story: years later, I was walking down Sixty-first Street and saw workmen tearing down the outside of a building. As I got closer, I realized that they were tearing down the old Copacabana nightclub. I went inside and stood in the middle of the dust and beams; it was indeed the Copa where I had spent my prom night. I spoke with some of the workmen who recognized me. They told me that they were moving the Copa to Fifty-seventh Street. New Yorkers and I are family, and before I left, one of them folded up the Copacabana awning and gave it to me. I was so moved. I still have it among my valuable collection of memorabilia.

  This song was also the inspiration for a musical titled Copacabana. The story of Lola, Tony, and Rico was set amid the nightclub scene of the 1940s where “music and passion were always the fashion.” The musical enjoyed a successful run.

  The Copacabana was a product of the twentieth century and the people who lived during it. Take a look at photos of Times Square a few decades ago; it was not littered with corporate coffee shops, fast-food outlets, and owned mainly by the Walt Disney Corporation. New York has morphed into a different city and the change, good or bad, began almost thirty years ago.

  In December 2006 it was announced that the Copacabana would once again change locations. The current building that houses the storied nightclub has been condemned to make way for an extension of the number 7 subway line that will stop at the Javits Center.

  It’s hard to explain to today’s generation what the Copa represented in its heyday. The elegance, glamour, and excitement of a night at the Copacabana were something special. New York, and that world, was a different place back then and the Copa was of that era. I don’t believe there can or will be anything like it ever again. There are no more stars like Sinatra, Nat King Cole, or Peggy Lee, who could mesmerize an audience with just their God-given talents. There’s also no one like my dad; it was people like him who made the Copa so special. All in all, it doesn’t matter who ends up running the Copacabana and where it may be located; it can never be the same. Regardless of the changing times, the club has lost its heart and soul—Jules Podell.

  Jules Podell.

  Special Thanks and Acknowledgments

  I want to thank my parents for adopting me and my children for urging me to write this book. I also want to thank all my friends past and present for telling me to write this book for so long; especially Gina Barata. I want to thank my husband, Al, for his patience during the writing of this book. I want to thank Charlie Pignone for being my friend. I want to thank my daughter Jama for putting it all together for me and keeping me going with car rides to the city. Without you, all my dreams would never have come true.

  —Mickey Podell-Raber

  For their time and invaluable recollections: Tony Bennett, Barry Manilow, Rip Taylor, Rich Little, Frank Military, Phoebe Jacobs, Pete Moore, Lee Solters, Joey Villa, Danny and Lynn Kessler, Joe Soldo, and Hank Cattaneo.

  For their time, effort, and assistance: Jama Vitale, Danny Bennett, Tom Young, Vance Anderson, Nancy Sinatra, Arthur Marx, Robert Finkelstein, Herman Rush, Ken Barnes, Holly Foster Wells, Ken Goldman, March Hulett, Johnny Pizza, Terry Woodson, Jeff Abraham, Craig Zavetz (TipsOnTables.com), J. M. Kenny, Bill Zehme, and Laurie Pignone.

  Mickey, thank you for trusting me to tell your story and collaborate on this project with you.

  —Charles Pignone

  Matthew Benjamin and the entire staff at HarperCollins. Randi Murray, our agent, for her belief and support of this book.

  —Mickey Podell-Raber, Charles Pignone

  Searchable Terms

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  New York Sun article

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  overview

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  See also specific performer names Podell, Claudia

  birth

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  Danny Thomas and

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  early years

  family and in-laws

  high standards of

  home meals and

  Judge Gertrude Bacon and

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  (continued) telling Mickey about adoption

  Tinker (dog) and

  vanity of

  weekly Copa dinner

  See also Podell, Jules and Claudia Podell, Jules ambition and drive

  best show biz friends

  Claudia and. See Podell, Jules and

  Claudia

  Copa Girls and

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  death

  decline of Copa and

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  first wife

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  Hank Cattaneo describing

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  Lee Solters on

  legacy of. See legacy, of Jules Podell

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