Word: copacabana
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...dominate the Camel programs (CBS, 10 p.m., E.W.T.) in his own most explosive and sidesplitting manner-with much credit to an understanding producer (Phil Cohan) and an admiring young foil (Garry Moore). Jimmy has also, after twelve years, made a sensational comeback in nightclub hilarity at Manhattan's Copacabana...
Those who have not had the luck or money to get into Manhattan's Copacabana (or other Durante nightspots in the past) have missed the full effect of Jimmy's comedy, which comes only from watching him work in a small joint where his extraordinary gusto can not only bounce forth but also reach him on the rebound from a close and delighted audience. Then Jimmy reaches a comic violence that makes his audience feel like spectators at a small Balkan...
...insult the Copacabana's boss ("He can't even spell da name!"). He may insult the menu ("Dere goes a load of ice with three olives. Twelve-fifty for dat load. Somebody's got to pay for da cocktail room!"). He may insult labor when a busboy knocks over a chair ("He's gotta pick it up. No one else can touch it. Union!"). He may challenge the whole situation when a microphone is lowered toward his expectant and famous nose ("Go ahead! Touch da nose! Just once! I'll sue da jernt for every...
Jimmy turned to his old tonic: intimate, free-style comedy in a Manhattan nightclub. His triumph in eight weeks at the Copacabana enraptured his friends and customers, who saw a great clown resume mastery of his profession. He was, in his own tongue, "colossial." His take ($2,750 weekly from radio, $3,500 more from the nightclub) helped add up to his best fiscal year-about $250,000. He moved into his old suite at the Astor (No. 472) with Eddie Jackson, Jack Roth, for a quarter of a century his drummer, hat buyer, trainer, secretary, valet, friend...
Jimmy Durante, now 50 and some 15 years away from his nightclubbing prime, left Hollywood with his nose-that-walks-like-a-yam and made his second smashing nightclub comeback in nine months-like the first, at Manhattan's Copacabana...