celebrated their divorce there.*** The club's main stage was replicated on the TV series I Love Lucy as the "Tropicana" Club. *** Among 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, 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, Jayne Mansfield, John Wayne, Ann Sothern, and Louis B. 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. 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. *** In 1943, when Frank Sinatra became a solo act, he made his Los Angeles debut at the Mocambo *** On MaElla Fitzgerald opened at the Mocambo, after Marilyn Monroe lobbied the owner for the booking. 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 designed by Tony Duquette cost $100,000. RARE! UNSTRUCK! OWN A PIECE OF AMERICAN HISTORY! More About The Mocambo Club Hollywood ***The Mocambo opened on January 3, 1941, and became an immediate success.
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