![]() ![]() In later configurations of the establishment, musical acts appeared on separate stages located on the main and second floor of the building. Live music was not permitted until July 1948, when the Liquor Licence Board of Ontario reversed an earlier ban. In the club's original incarnation, which officially opened on March 23, 1948, the main floor was converted into a dining hall with a dance floor on the second floor that featured Latin music. The establishment's name and iconic neon palm sign were inspired by a San Francisco nightclub. With the passage of the Liquor Licence Act of 1946, which allowed the sale of liquor in taverns and restaurants in the province for the first time since World War I, restaurateurs Joseph Brown and John Lang decided to apply for one of Toronto's first liquor licences and convert their property at 464 Spadina into one of the city's first cocktail bars. The current building was built in 1910 and housed a dry goods store, a barbershop, and restaurants in its first three decades. It is best known for the 1977 surprise show by The Rolling Stones, which became nationally notorious for the presence of then Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau's wife, Margaret Trudeau, who was partying with the Stones.Īpocryphally, the original building at 462 Spadina had been a music venue since 1850 and was first used as a haven for escaped slaves. Located on Spadina Avenue, just south of College Street, the venue has played an important role in the development of popular music in Toronto since 1948. The El Mocambo is a live music and entertainment venue in Toronto, Ontario. 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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