Silver-haired Joyce Bryant played a smash-hit, two-week engagement at Hollywood's plush Mocambo Club and drew rave notices from critics who called her the "beltin'est babe of the bistro set." Movie stars and entertainers packed the club every night, wildly applauded Miss Bryant in her biggest night club engagement to date. Joyce Bryant Gets Rave Notices at Mocambo Joyce Bryant also wowed crowds at the club two years before Monroe urged Morrison to book Fitzgerald. Singers Herb Jeffries and Earth Kitt both hit the stage at the Mocambo years earlier. However, Fitzgerald was not the first black singer to perform at the West Hollywood hot spot. It's also true that Monroe urged Mocambo's owner Charlie Morrison to book Fitzgerald in 1955. This is a genuine photograph of Monroe and Fitzgerald. In November 2019, the History Lovers Club Twitter account posted a photograph of the two celebrities along with one of the most oft-repeated versions of this story: The owner of the popular night club was reportedly hesitant to book a true jazz singer and thought that Fitzgerald wasn't glamorous enough to perform at the West Hollywood hot spot.Ī popular anecdote about how actress Marilyn Monroe helped Ella Fitzgerald book a gig at the posh West Hollywood night club Mocambo in the 1950s is frequently shared on social media. The building was then sold, reopened as a supper club called The Cloister, and eventually demolished.While race may have been a contributing factor, black entertainers had performed at the Mocambo club prior to Ella Fitzgerald. The Mocambo remained in business for one final year, before closing its doors on June 30, 1958. According to a commentary track on the DVD with this cartoon, the animators managed to get into the kitchen and drew the kitchen exactly as they saw it, complete with dripping grease on the refrigerator and vegetables lying around the ground.Įarly in 1957, club operator and co-owner Charlie Morrison died at his Beverly Hills, California, home. The Mocambo was also parodied mercilessly in the 1947 Bugs Bunny cartoon, " Slick Hare". Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz were frequent guests at the Mocambo and were close friends of Charlie Morrison. The club's main stage was replicated on the TV series I Love Lucy as the "Tropicana" Club. African-American singers Herb Jeffries, Eartha Kitt, and Joyce Bryant all played the Mocambo in 1953, according to stories published at the time in Jet magazine.Īmong the many celebrities who frequented the Mocambo were Clark Gable and Carole Lombard, Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, Errol Flynn, Charlie Chaplin, Elizabeth Taylor, Judy Garland, Henry Fonda, Yma Sumac, Lana Turner, Ava Gardner, Bob Hope, James Cagney, Sophia Loren, Janet Leigh and Tony Curtis, Natalie Wood and Robert Wagner, Grace Kelly, Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher, Howard Hughes, Kay Francis, Marlene Dietrich, Theda Bara, Tyrone Power, Gene Tierney, Jayne Mansfield, John Wayne, Ben Blue, Ann Sothern, and Louis B. It has been widely reported that Fitzgerald was the first Black performer to play the Mocambo, following Monroe's intervention, but this is not true. The incident was turned into a play by Bonnie Greer in 2005. The booking was instrumental in Fitzgerald's career. On March 15, 1955, Ella Fitzgerald opened at the Mocambo, after Marilyn Monroe lobbied the owner for the booking. In 1943, when Frank Sinatra became a solo act, he made his Los Angeles debut at the Mocambo. On any given night, one might find the room filled with the leading men and women of the motion picture industry. With big band music, the club became one of the most popular dance-till-dawn spots in town. Along the walls were glass cages holding live cockatoos, macaws, seagulls, pigeons, and parrots. The club's Latin American-themed decor was designed by Tony Duquette and cost $100,000 (equivalent to $1,842,308 in 2021). The Mocambo opened on January 3, 1941, and it became an immediate success. It was owned by Charlie Morrison and Felix Young. The Mocambo was a nightclub in West Hollywood, California, at 8588 Sunset Boulevard on the Sunset Strip.
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