Copacabana's famous Copa Girls, as pictured in the club's opening year, 1941. Photograph: George Karger/Getty Images The block in midtown Manhattan where the club now resides - its third venue since its opening in 1941 - has been condemned to make way for an extension of the city's No 7 subway line. In its early days the club was cherished for its meticulous taste, its great music and its long-legged dancers, the Copa Girls, Joan Collins and Raquel Welch among them. There were also the Samba Sirens, a troupe of eight dancers whom one reviewer described in 1945 as "endowed with all the beauty of face and body you could wish, they move through their routines like a school of well-trained horses". The club was also graced with a fine restaurant and was noted for the meticulous cleanliness insisted upon by its owner Jules Podell. "Let him see a piece of lettuce staining the floor and he'll stop everything to have it cleaned up," it was reported in 1953. "Let a waiter show a spot on his white jacket with the crimson collar and a quick change is ordered. " With such standards, it had no difficulty attracting the cream of New York high society, including the Roosevelts and the Kennedys, to its Upper East side home. In the 1950s it faltered, however, largely due to mounting competition from television, although the Supremes gave it back its glamour for a while in the 1960s. After Podell died in 1972 it remained disused until the current owners took it over in 1976 and turned it into a disco. Two years later Barry Manilow gave the club a boost with his song named after it about a former Copa Girl called Lola: "She was a showgirl/ But that was 30 years ago, when they used to have a show/ Now it's a disco". "We filled the club with famous names," the current owner, John Juliano, told Associated Press. "We had Bette Midler, Robin Williams, Red Foxx, Peter Allen and Sammy Davis Jr. " These days the nightclub tries to hang on to some of its former glory, paying lip-service to the meticulous standards of yesterday. Men wishing to attend are told they must "dress to impress". They can wear jeans, but only if worn fashionably and no baggies. Shirts must be collared, long-sleeved and buttoned-down and gold chains are verboten. It remains one of the city's largest clubs, with two floors for music and dancing spread over 50,000 sq ft. However, the big band sounds of the 40s and 50s have morphed into blazing salsa, house and hip-hop. Mr Juliano has a 27-year lease on the venue in West 34th Street and has vowed to find a new location. "We aren't closing," he said. "It's hurting our business, all this talk of us closing. I mean, maybe we have to renovate a new space. That may take some time, but we're coming back."
News RSS