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successful in its own right, it also has come to be regarded as oneof the nation’s top showcases for potential Hollywood talent.
    Among “Copa” dancers, singers, and other performers to hit the celluloid trail are crooner Perry Como, hoofer June Allyson (now the pride of MGM), comedian Jimmy Durante (who began a sensational comeback at the Copa). Others include many a name that the public knows, or will know. Talent scouts, producers, executives follow Copa shows as they follow no other nightclub in the U.S.
    Obviously, this is not deliberate Copa policy. Rather, it is the result of a singularly successful approach to entertaining the average nightspot customer. Where most clubs focus on socialites or Broadwayites or tourists, the Copa cuts across the board. Faintly Latin American in decor and atmosphere, it bases its appeal on good food and liquor, excellent dance music (by two orchestras) and a lavish floorshow.
    The show is the crux of the matter. Changed four times a year, it is produced with the care and glitter of a Broadway revue. Costumes alone cost up to $30,000. Each show has a special musical score (typical recent hits: “No Can Do,” “The Coffee Song”). Headlined performers draw headline-worthy salaries: comedian Joe E. Lewis, $5,000 a week; singer Tony Martin, $6,500. Show girls receive $100 a week the year-round-highest regular rate in the country.
    The Copa is the only New York night spot to put on three shows a night, seven nights a week. Its late (2:00 am) performance has become a rendezvous for talent around town. Often customers are entertained, impromptu by such “name” guests as Frank Sinatra, Orson Welles, Dinah Shore.
    Net result: in a room seating 650, the Copa averages more than 7,500 customers a week, a weekly take of more than $50,000.

    Legendary nightclub entertainer Jimmy Durante holds court at the club after one of his performances.

    My cousin, Jackie, dressed as a waiter and flanked by the world famous Copa Girls.
    Some speculate that even more than the headliners, the main attraction at the nightclub was the Copa Girls. Originally billed as the “Copa Babies” or “Samba Sirens,” the Copa Girls would become world famous. The Copa Girls were regarded as the most beautiful showgirls in all of New York. In the first few years of the club’s existence, the girls would be introduced to the audience by their own theme song, “You Just Can’t Copa with a Copacabana Baby.”
    In addition to beauty, the major requirement was a girl’s ability to dance any number that was incorporated into the current Copa revue. Normally, the average age of the girls was twenty years old. Youth was a prerequisite, since the girls had to perform a total of twenty-one shows per week. The girls did not have much time in between shows to do anything except to grab a bite to eat. Rehearsals for the revueswould usually take four to six weeks before it would debut in front of a paying crowd.
    In 1942, eighteen of the twenty-five girls who worked as Copa Girls signed a contract with a Hollywood agent or went into a Broadway musical.
    â€œJack Entratter hired me and we auditioned for an entire week, starting on Monday, before he made his decision on Friday. As a Copa Girl, we had to be at the club by 6:30 P.M. and didn’t get finished until3 A.M. or so; we did three shows a night back then. The shows began at 8 and we would do an opening, middle, and closing number for each show. There was one big dressing room and each girl had her own mirror and dressing table, but it was small area. Doug Coudy was the chorographer and he would walk into our dressing room at any time—even when we would be getting dressed; he was the first gay man I ever knew. As far as the pay was concerned, back then, in the early 1950s, we got $125 a week, which was great money,” says former Copa Girl Lynn Kessler.

    Copa Girls Shirley Cutler, far left bottom, and