Post #615035 by bigbrotiki on Wed, Nov 23, 2011 12:31 AM

Wow, great findings, Tom! It looks like "The Beachcomber" was just a blip on the screen for this guy (the list of places he opened and closed doesn't even include the "Playhouse Inn")! What a man about town, chasing and getting married to two show girls (though not HER: "..Mamie Van Doren then began working on the stage. She was a showgirl in New York in Monte Proser nightclub version of "Billion Dollar Baby"...)

• that masked gal mug is clearly related to this and his Broadway theater connections in the Theater District, where the Beachcomber/Lanai/Hawaii Kai was located:

"One famous stretch near Times Square, where Broadway crosses Seventh Avenue in midtown Manhattan, is the home of many Broadway theaters, housing an ever-changing array of commercial, large-scale plays, particularly musicals. This area of Manhattan is often called the Theater District or the Great White Way, a nickname originating in the headline "Found on the Great White Way" in the February 3, 1902 edition of the New York Evening Telegram. The journalistic nickname was inspired by the millions of lights on theater marquees and billboard advertisements that illuminate the area."

What the film industry was for faux Polynesian places in Hollywood, the Theater industry was for bamboo hideaways in New York. The Luau 400 for example was decorated by a THEATER art director.

Also, the reference to the Puerto Rican rum company....

...must mean this product:

Monte really was ahead of Don in the game for a while, it seems. Don got it curbed, but then he let his wife take over and really start franchising. Although Monte seemed to have been more of a creative "softy" like Don, too:

"Nightclub impresario Monte Proser was the quiet, dynamic force - the entrepreneurial spirit and creative spark - behind the original concept and operation of the Copacabana. This imaginative man, dubbed by Frank Sinatra as "the Genius," created, built, and ran the world's great American nightclub in its heyday, before he was muscled out by the Copa's moneyed organized crime interests. From his early adventures as a press agent, he segued into a number of Broadway and other ventures, from a string of Beachcomber nightclubs - predecessors of the Copacabana - a Madison Square Garden Dance Carnival, producer of Broadway and TV show producer, and owner-operator of La Vie en Rose, to entertainment director of the Thunderbird Hotel in Las Vegas."

of course it all comes full circle with the mob and Vegas:

"How about the succeeding owner, Jules Podell? Actually Jules Podell was there from the beginning. He was the often violent, profane co-operator, mob representative, and Monte Proser's bitter rival for control of the club. While the Copacabana was still under construction, Mafia kingpin Frank Costello introduced himself to Monte Proser as his new partner, making it clear to the Broadway impresario that he had no choice in the matter. A week later Costello brought in the ex-op of Broadway's unsavory Kit Kat Club, Jules Podell, to oversee his financial interests in "Monte Proser's Copacabana." It was agreed that Proser would run the front operation, the floor and entertainment, and Podell would control the kitchen and wait staff. Podell became known as the boss man of the Copa. He was a tyrant, who was belligerent and ruthless. He was famous for screaming, spewing obscenities, and slapping waiters. When he was disgruntled, he would bang his huge pinky ring on the table, bang, bang, bang, and everyone would come running, "Yes, Boss? Yes, Boss? What is it, Boss?" In the tug-of-war for control, Monte Proser finally lost out when manager Jack Entratter backed Podell, instead of him. With the Copacabana's originator forced out, Podell continued to run the club for many years, while Jack Entratter was offered a sweet deal to run the Copa Room of the Sands Hotel in the new mob outpost, Las Vegas."

In this great LIFE photo you really get the sense of the man as the "brain" behind the scenes of the show biz operation:

..dubbed "The Genius" by Frank Sinatra? Not bad, Monte.

[ Edited by: bigbrotiki 2011-11-23 08:20 ]