"Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, this is your Broadway and Hollywood reporter, Jack Eigen, coming to you from the very beautiful and very glamorous lounge bar of the Copacabana at Ten East Sixtieth Street in New York City. 
            "We're making radio history tonight, ladies and gentlemen.  This is the first disc jockey program to originate in a nightclub. 
            "We'll be with you for the next four hours with a number of very interesting and very celebrated guest stars, the latest inside news, the baseball scores, and, of course, the very latest recorded hit tunes and many of the very fine and wonderful old songs, too. 
            "Later on, we'll play the Morning Star game, and we'll have our Torch Hour.  So relax, all you people out there.  Relax and enjoy yourselves.  Remember, you can call us any time during this broadcast at Plaza eight, one oh seven four, and Plaza eight, one oh seven five.  Those numbers  
again, ladies and gentlemen, are Plaza eight, ten seventy-four, and ten seventy-five.  So give us a ring.  As I look around the Copa lounge tonight I see almost every big name in show business. 
            "Yes, the room is really jumpin' folks.  I see Milton Berle, Frank Sinatra, Martha Raye, Monica Lewis, Ida and Eddie Cantor, Judy Garland, Skitch Henderson, Perry Como, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, Frankie Laine, Jane Russell, George Jessel, Joey Adams, the Ritz Brothers, the noted Broadway columnist Earl Wilson, the noted radio columnist Nick Kenny, Ethel Merman, Bert Lahr, and Mary Martin. 
            "And they're just the ones I can see without my glasses.  Wait till I put my specs on and I'll really tell you who's here.   I'll have a lot of these famous people up here at the microphone with me before the evening's over, so don't go away." 

           The lights on the phones began flashing as the calls started coming.  People were up out there and they were listening, and they would continue to listen and call, from as far north as Canada, as far east as Bermuda, as far south as Miami, and as far west as Illinois, for the three-plus years that the show was on the air.  People heard the show, with the guest celebrity interviews, the kidding, the banter, and they wanted to come in to witness for themselves the fun, the glamour, the excitement, and the celebrities in the magical atmosphere of the Copacabana nightclub.  

           Click here to hear a clip taken from the June 6, 1948 Fred Allen Show radio broadcast with special guest Jack Eigen in a simulation of a "Meet Me at the Copa" session.  

           Click here to download a 90-second clip from the 1948 Columbia Pictures movie I Surrender Dear.  The scene, featuring Jack Eigen in a simulated interview with bandleader Frankie Carle, was filmed on location in the Copa lounge. 

            The diminished floorshow space was a tribute to their draw and mass impact.  The Doug Coudy production numbers were curtailed as the acts, including the personable dance team of Conn & Mann, were stage waits for the headliners.  Martin & Lewis worked with smoothness and no apparent personal friction despite all the press about their rift, but some dissension was evident with their Pardners bit, a cafe trailer for their soon-to-be released Paramount film of the same name.  To their professional credit they played it straight, with Lewis foiling for Martin's crooning, and likewise, Martin foiling for his partner's clowning.  While both were well received, it was felt that solo or team, the impact was not as resounding as in the past until their final night.  Every celebrity in Manhattan was in the audience to witness the pair's swan song of one of the greatest comedy acts in history.  They pulled out every schtick in their comedy bag for the star-studded crowd, from squirting seltzer down Milton Berle's shirt front to cutting off Monte Proser's necktie.  The sophisticated cafe crowd wouldn't let them quit. 

            The final moments of the last show of their farewell engagement at the Copa on a hot Tuesday night, July 24, 1956, are pressed indelibly in the minds of those who were present.  Martin's face was impassable, cool to the end.  They finished with the final crescendo from Pardners:  "You and me, we'll be the greatest pardners, buddies, and pals!"  They joined hands for a last bow.  Martin hugged Lewis.  The audience exploded in an emotional uproar.  Jackie Gleason jumped up and grabbed the mike, wiped away a tear, and said, "Folks, this can't be allowed to happen."  The audience roared its approval, but Martin & Lewis just shook their heads, no.  It was over.  There was no encore.  Martin took one aisle away from the floor; Lewis took the other.  

            Visitors to this page who have Real Player installed on their computer can enjoy the following clips of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis performing onstage at the Copacabana in the early fifties by clicking on the links below.  
  
            M&L Clip 1  (bandleader Dick Stabile introduces Jerry Lewis) 

            M&L Clip 2  (Jerry Lewis introduces Dean Martin) 
  
            M&L Clip 3  (end of their show with acknowledgment by Dean Martin of  
                                 Dick Stabile and his Orchestra)  
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