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Tips on Tables - Robert W. Dana - April 30, 1956

Mae West's Show Grows

The old belief that everything should be bigger and better, a thought most forcefully pronounced by Hollywood trailers, can be applied with forthright honesty to Mae West, who has returned to the Latin Mae WestQuarter, where she scored heavily in the fall of 1954.

Instead of changing her act, Miss West embellished it. Most noteworthy, I think, is the addition of some song-and-dance men whose soft-shoe capers and grace provides a fair contrast to the muscle boys who are the background for her boudoir comedy. They rock and they roll and Miss West demonstrates that her vocal chords are as roving as her come- hither eyes.

Chorus of Goliaths.

This is the one chance for women to get back at men who go to the Quarter to ogle the pretty dancing girls. Miss West, stretched on a chaise lounge with a plush, seductive look, allows a ringmaster (they call him ambassador) of the Olympic games to trot Out eight Goliaths of the day, clad in breech cloth and sandals, with muscles seemingly built upon muscles.

Packaged in regal white robes, they march first toward the audience then turn to Miss West and throw back their robes. Her expression of approval regale the customers. One of the muscle specimens is Mickey Hargitay, Mr. Universe.

Mere Singer Handicapped.

As before, Miss West pretends to have a bona fide romantic interest and her current candidate is Tito Coral, Mexican singer and motion picture actor. west drawingHis position is shaky at best and one notes that he isn't included when she passes out keys for the "Ooh What a Night" finale.

The Latin Quarter, because of the length of the Mae West act, has cut down on the number of individual acts, but the three it offers, in addition to the lavish production numbers, "A Night at Maxim's" and "Mardi Gras in New Orleans," are first class.

Sorcerers Apprentice.

Jack Kodell, a newcomer, should become the talk of the town for his magic act. A debonair chap in red, even to his shoes, he extracts parakeets from the air, blue ones, green ones, and a tiny yellow one. The latter watches, from a post on the magician's neck, the master do tricks with a rope. When, by magic, he makes it stiffen like a post, the bird blithely climbs to the top. This is a great act.

Chiquita and Johnson, Latin Quarter favorites, are back with their breathtaking display of dancing and the Metropolitan Sextette demonstrates most dramatically that good opera singing can be appreciated in a night club.

THE REVIEWS
Andrews Sisters - Latin Quarter 1957
Desi Arnaz - w/Diosa Costello 1948
Count Basie - Lincoln 1943
Tony Bennett - Copacabana 1958
Milton Berle - Latin Quarter 1948
Joey Bishop - w/Andy Williams 1959
Ray Bolger - Wizard of Oz Scarecrow, Empire Room 1956
Cab Calloway - Greenwich Inn 1949
Diahann Carroll - Persian Room 1961
Betty Clooney - Waldorf Astoria 1954
Nat King Cole - Copacabana 1958
Perry Como - Versailles 1944
Copacabana - famous night club restaurant is reviewed 1953
Crosby Brothers - Latin Quarter 1961
Xavier Cugat - Waldorf Astoria 1951
Vic Damone - Riviera 1953
Billy Daniels - Copacabana 1952
Sammy Davis Jr. - Copacabana 1959
Phyllis Diller - w/Bobby Short 1958
Nancy Donovan - Copacabana 1952
Jimmy Durante - Copacabana 1951
Billy Eckstine - Copacabana 1951
Duke Ellington - Basin St. East 1961
Eddie Fisher - Empire Room 1959
Judy Garland -Town & Country 1958
Jackie Gleason - La Vie en Rose 1953
Benny Goodman - Empire Room 1956
Dolores Gray - Waldorf Astoria 1954
Buddy Hackett - Copacabana 1956
Connie Haines - Terrace Room 1951
Dick Haymes - Versailles 1956
Horace Heidt - 30th Anniversary 1954
Florence Henderson w/Bill Hayes 1958
Hildegarde - Pierre 1953
Celeste Holm - Plaza 1958
Eddy Howard - Roosevelt 1955
Burl Ives w/Wally Cox - Persian Room
Lisa Kirk - Persion Room 1958
Frankie Laine - Latin Quarter 1955
Julius La Rosa - Romanian 1958
Peggy Lee - Copacabana 1958
Jerry Lewis - Town & Country 1957
Joe E. Lewis - Copacabana 1945
Ted Lewis - Latin Quarter 1953
Liberace - Persian Room 1947
Guy Lombardo - Roosevelt 1957
Vincent Lopez - Grill Room 1954
Tony Martin - Riviera 1953
Martin and Lewis - Copacabana 1950
Ray McKinley - Glenn Miller Band 1957
Mills Brothers - Latin Quarter 1956
Vaughn Monroe - Astor 1955
Constance Moore - St. Regis 1958
Johnnie Ray - Copacabana 1953
Rowan & Martin - Latin Quarter 1961
Della Reese - Copacabana 1961
Sugar Ray Robinson - French Casino
Dorothy Shay - St. Regis 1961
Frank Sinatra - Wedgewood 1943
Danny Thomas - Copacabana 1949
Sophie Tucker - Latin Quarter 1950
Mae West - Latin Quarter 1956
Julie Wilson - Persian Room 1954
EDITORIALS
Dean Martin - thoughts on Mr. Sauve
Peter Lawford - retrospective
Rise & Fall of the big bands
INTERVIEWS
K Baggelaar- Copacabana author
Don Dellair - cabaret performer
Denny Farrell - big band disc jockey
Hal Turner - Performer/Conductor
B Zickafoose - played in WWII Europe
ASSORTED
Bernie Bierman bio
Sammy Kaye - Roosevelt 1957
Dinah Shore - press release and autograph from the 50's
A Letter about a WWII song
Harbers & Dale - Dance Team
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