TROPICANA is to Cuba what the Bolshoi is to Russia, the Moulin Rouge to Paris, or the Blue Note to New York: an enduring cultural mecca. Part casino and part cabaret, it was all Cuban—the only nightclub owned and run by Cubans rather than by the American mob. Nat “King” Cole, Liberace, Josephine Baker, and Carmen Miranda performed there before audiences that included Ernest Hemingway, Marlon Brando, and Joan Crawford. Tropicana Nights not only brings back the days and nights of the club’s greatest glory, when it was the brightest jewel in 1950s Havana nightlife, but also vividly portrays the cultural richness and roiling social problems of pre-Revolutionary Cuba.
ROSA LOWINGER was born in Havana and grew up in Miami. A writer and art conservator, she first visited Tropicana in 1998 and, as she put it, was “struck dumb” by its beauty. She lives with her family in Los Angeles.
OFELIA FOX (1924-2006) married Tropicana owner Martin Fox in 1952. They moved to Miami in 1962. After her husband's death, she became a teacher and playwright and was twice awarded the Carlos Felipe Award.
[ Note: originally blackened pages 210 and 211 were replaced with copies from another uncensored book edition ]
Author(s): Rosa Lowinger, Ofelia Fox
Series: Harvest book
Edition: First Harvest edition
Publisher: Harcourt
Year: 2006
Language: English
Commentary: scantailor + ocrmypdf
Pages: 468
City: Orlando
Tags: tropicana;cuba;afro-cuban jazz
Tropicana Nights: The Life and Times of The Legendary Cuban Nightclub
Contents
PROLOGUE: The Flight
PART I
1 Introductions
2 A Nickel on the Butterfly
3 The Boulevard of the New World
4 The Peanut Vendor
5 Valentín
6 Waiting Things Out
7 Covering Your Bets
8 Arcos de Cristal
PART II
9 The Santos and the Song-and-Dance Man
10 The Two Loves of Martín Fox
11 The Coup
12 Mambo a la Tropicana
13 The Leap
Illustrations
Entrance to Villa Mina, with Tropicana sign
Ofelia Fox in Bajo las Estrellas, September 1955
Martin and Ofelia Fox, February 13, 1958
Liberace onstage in Bajo las Estrellas with Ana Gloria Varona, August 1956
Liberace with Ofelia and Martin Fox in August 1956 at the piano table designed in Liberace’s honor
Inset: An aerial view of the table
Santo Trafficante with Martín's sister, Angela (Lita) Fox; Martín and Ofelia Fox; and Ofelia’s mother, Cuca González.
Martín Fox and Lefty Clark in front of the Fountain of the Muses, 1956.
Valentín Jodra at his post at the roulette wheel
Rodney and Alberto Ardura signing a contract on October 17, 1954
At Martin and Ofelia’s house on 1st Street in Miramar
Lilia Lazo, Maria Félix, Olga Guillot, Carmen Miranda, Nica Fox, and Ofelia Fox. Two unidentified journalists, Martin Fox, and Pedro Fox, July 1955.
Olga Guillot and Carmen Miranda in the finale of Bahiondo, July 1955
Ofelia and Martin Fox with Joan Crawford and Crawford’s husband, Pepsi-Cola Chairman Alfred Steele
Tropicana makeup artist Carlos Gomery with Celia Cruz
Tropicana’s choreographer, Rodney (Roderico Neyra) with two modelos
Diosas de Carne (Goddesses of the Flesh) performed April 28, 1958
Chiquita and Johnson
Chiquita and Johnson perform in Orguideas Para Usted in Arcos de Cristal, October 1952.
Musica del Alma, a show with a rock 'n' roll theme. performed in Bajo las Estrellas in June 1957 and starring Leonela González and Henry Boyer
Ana Gloria Varona on the cover of Show magazine, February 1958
Alicia Figueroa
Fulgencio Batista at the 1954 Anti-Cancer League Dinner at Tropicana
Emilia “La China” Villamil
An ad in the June 1, 1957, issue of Diario de la Marina. Includes the Cuarteto Llopis
Jenny León in Show magazine, September 1957
Steve Allen, Ofelia Fox, Martin Fox, and Jayne Meadows
Nat “King” Cole and Maria Cole at Tropicana's bar
Nat “King” Cole performing at Tropicana, February 1958
Sunan. Ofelia's pet lion
Rumbo al Waldorf. November 1958
14 The Circus
15 On Diamonds, Razzle, and Goddesses of the Flesh
PART III
16 “The Guajiro has gone crazy!”
17 Cabaret in the Sky
18 Esta es mi Cuba, Mister
PART IV
19 Shattered Slots
20 Rumba at the Presidential Palace
21 Bongo Congo
PART V
22 The House on Beacom Boulevard
23 Noche de Ronda
Acknowledgments
APPENDIX
A List of Rodney's Tropicana Shows
Authors Note on Sources
Dates of Interviews
Bibliography
Index
