Copacabana is gone after 80 years

May 26, 2020


Kim Kardashian’s behind won’t stick out in people’s memory like the Copacabana. Yesterday the Copacabana said adios.

Opened 1940 by types known to the NYPD, the Copa nightclub starred Martin and Lewis, Sammy Davis, the Supremes, Belafonte, Groucho Marx, Carmen Miranda, Danny Thomas, my husband Joey Adams.

Barry Manilow sang about it. Oscar winners from “GoodFellas” to “Green Book” featured it. Its midnight shows were jammed, and certain unnamed oddities, tucked into certain corners of the checkroom, got quietly collected at 2 a.m.

The musical film “Copacabana” (1947), starring Marx and Miranda, takes place there.

The Copa changed locations four times. Its last incarnation on West 47th just waved goodbye. Gone. Closed. Finito. Lights out. Will a fifth version open someday? Who knows? Will the Statue of Liberty ever wear jeans?

Ring around the nosy

Besides Me-me-me Meghan, who thought she’d grabbed off a prize — now unemployed and unroyal Harry — there’s Lauren Sanchez, who left her successful elegant husband, Patrick Whitesell, for Amazon’s amazon. She considered its potential trillionaire handsomer than Timothée Chalamet? She thinks she copped the brass ring? OK, so where’s the wedding ring? Her brother, Hollywood type Michael, called her Bezos’ “fiancée” in a lawsuit against Bezos and security chief Gavin de Becker. Lauren, 50, was seen wearing a diamond ring on her right hand while the pair were in St. Barts. But that was the holidays. Now it’s May. So far, Bozo Bezos’ delivery is slower than his company’s packages.

Fly on wall

Flights have landed here from Wuhan and the rest of China. You can’t fly from Wuhan, CV’s primary problem place, to Beijing or any place in China but — per reporter Rachel Sharp in London’s Daily Mail plus info from app Flight Tracker, which texts travel info — you can fly from Wuhan to other parts.

Last week, from Wuhan, a China Southern Airlines plane landed at JFK plus, also from Wuhan, a China Eastern at LAX Wednesday. And questions have arisen over the mandatory 14-day quarantine. US citizens, green card holders, family members and some who visited high-risk countries appear to have still flown home. A Russian passenger reportedly flew from coronavirus-ravaged Moscow to New York on a packed flight and possibly did not quarantine or get tested upon landing.

The Daily Mail quotes a traveler named Joe Horvath saying: “I haven’t seen anybody being screened for anything.”

Ship, no fool

Ships are docked. Coming is the book “All Abroad: A Memoir of Travel and Obsession” by Geoffrey Weill, best travel expert since Marco Polo.

He’s crossed the Atlantic with “sequined suited” David Bowie. He’s watched Donatella Versace “swimming topless in Marrakech.” He’s seen Princess Michael of Kent inhale “spaghetti alle vongole at the Regina Isabella in Ischia.” He’s stood with Liza Minnelli as my Yorkie Jazzy pooped in his living room. It’s University of Wisconsin Press.

Relatively speaking

One word about TV’s Lori Loughlin and daughters Olivia Jade and Isabella Rose. I’m not into breaking the law. But murderers, killers, robbers, dope addicts are now getting out, walking free, and this lady — who hasn’t harmed before, didn’t flout laws before, paid taxes before, lived decently before, raised proper children before — could have faced 45 years in jail? What is happening to us?


Biden out of his mind? Beats the one he’s in. His campaign’s actually heating up, and not just because he’s in his basement, where the pipes are.

Only mumbled in some areas of New York, kids, only in some areas of New York.

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