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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