Lucy and Desi at the Mocambo in 1949. On June 6, 1949, LA Examiner reporter Dorothy Manners wrote: Lucy and Desi at the Mocambo in July 1942.īonita Granville with Lucy and Desi at the Mocambo in 1943. He was broke at the time of his death, so Frank Sinatra volunteered to sing at the club for two weeks to make enough money to pay for his funeral. The club’s opening was scheduled for New Year’s Eve 1939, but was delayed when animal rights activists asserted that the loud noise might negatively impact the birds! Morrison died a year before the club closed. The dominant feature was a large aviary containing 21 parakeets, 4 macaws, and a cockatoo. Duquette was an uncredited costume designer on Ziegfeld Follies (1945), which featured Lucille Ball. The Mocambo was once described as “a mixture of imperial Rome, Salvador Dali, and a birdcage.” Interiors were designed by Tony Duquette with murals by Jane Berlandina. Morrison’s partner (in name only, mostly) was Felix Young. Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz were frequent guests at the Mocambo and were close friends of the co-owner Charlie Morrison. The building was then sold, reopened as a supper club called The Cloister, and eventually demolished.The Mocambo was a nightclub in West Hollywood, California, at 8588 Sunset Boulevard on the Sunset Strip. 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.
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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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