The Copacabana (Images of America) Paperback – Illustrated, December 13, 2006

Kristin Baggelaar's "The Copacabana" is a stunning, concise gift of talent and history to the United States of America, especially for New Yorkers, and for artists who performed there and the guests who enjoyed those performances. The cover's photos immediately attracted me and drew me in. I couldn't wait to devour it with my eyes, my mind, and my heart as my only opportunity to almost experience the Copa as my father, Carroll Webster (of the ballroom-dance duo Diane and Carroll), did when he performed there in the 1940s, long before I was born. I was told that the author interviewed every surviving Copa girl and nearly anyone else who was associated with the Copa in order to be able to paint such a complete and visually descriptive portrait of the place where every entertainer worth his or her salt went to make it in the entertainment industry while at least rubbing shoulders with the top-drawer and upcoming performers of the day. As a writer and an editor, I can only imagine how the author, after amassing boxes of informative treasures, decided how to distill so many facts and beautiful photos into this thorough yet compact book; it was a Herculean effort undertaken, quite simply, with vision, clarity of mind and purpose, and the finest brush strokes. That such a successful, well-run, and special venue was allowed to close is beyond comprehension, leaving me to wish that I could have experienced it. My thanks go to Kristin and to the interviewees, and more, whose cooperation brought this book into being. Thank you!

bought this book as a gift for an older ladies birthday, who used to be a dancer at the Copa. She loved the book. It cam quicker than expected so she got it on time even though I ordered later than I had intended. the photos and the stories were just fascinating!

Nice quality book, informative, smaller than expected for the price.

BORING AND TEDIOUS. THE NAME OF THE BOOK SHOULD HAVE BEEN THE COPA GIRLS OR THE SHOWGIRLS. TOO MANY PICTURES NOT AT ALL INTERESTING. I WOULDNT RECOMMEND THIS BOOK TO ANYONE.

I enjoyed this book very much. It is well done and wonderfully illustrated with beautiful photographs.

fun read on a fabled nightclub

Rather than watching those traditional parades on television during the morning of New Year's day, I instead spent a very pleasant couple of hours returning to the wondrous days of my youth. It happens that I entered this world only a scant six months before the Copacabana made its own debut in October 1940. However, even by my late teens I had neither the opportunity nor the inclination to frequent a nightclub some two hundred miles distant from my home in rural upstate New York. What we did have here, starting in the early 50's, was television, and that first opened to a cloistered twelve-year-old that wondrous, glorious world of show business. The faces of Jerry Lester, Peter Lind Hayes, Sid Caesar, Vivian Blaine, Martin and Lewis, Jimmy Durante, the young Eddie Fisher and so many others - fixtures on television in its infancy - were all there in this profusely illustrated volume. All those stars I was watching on television as a kid, when they were not before the cameras, were appearing at one time or another at the Copa. For someone like me, who still wistfully dwells in that decade of the 50's, these were all my old friends!At first glance one would receive the impression that this is primarily a picture book, a miniature coffee table book, as it were. However, the often lengthy and always insightful captions deliver a thorough history of this New York City institution, starting with its conception and tracing the path to its ultimate demise, as the times and popular tastes changed. While the history of the Copa's first decade contains many names unfamiliar to most of us, those in its artistic and financial management, still many others are well known. Some performers appearing at the venue during the 1940's had already achieved fame in the movies, even vaudeville, while others like June Allyson and Joanne Dru, plucked from the Copa chorus line, would later make their mark in Hollywood.I heartily recommend this book to anyone interested in the history of the entertainment business in this country during a golden age. The original Copacabana for some four decades provided a venue for the best and most revered talent of the day to display their wares, and Ms. Baggelaar most ably escorts us along the journey through those years.Albert J. Kopec

Not least were the internationally immensely popular and beautiful Supremes who were marquee at the Copa, and cut an entire album based on their appearances there. And no doubt others of possibly equal fame. But at least this gives an interesting basis for appreciating the Copa as an American cultural capstone that propelled many stars and groups to even greater fame and continues via YouTube to perpetuate their timeless greatness.