Julius Withers Monk (10 Nov 1912,
Spencer, North Carolina
Spencer is a town in Rowan County, North Carolina, United States, incorporated in 1905. As of the 2010 census, the town population was 3,267.
History
The town was named for Samuel Spencer, first president of the Southern Railway, who is credi ...
– 17 Aug 1995, New York City, New York) was an American
impresario
An impresario (from the Italian ''impresa'', "an enterprise or undertaking") is a person who organizes and often finances concerts, plays, or operas, performing a role in stage arts that is similar to that of a film or television producer.
Hist ...
in the New York cabaret scene. His 1956
revue
A revue is a type of multi-act popular theatrical entertainment that combines music, dance, and sketches. The revue has its roots in 19th century popular entertainment and melodrama but grew into a substantial cultural presence of its own duri ...
, ''Four Below'', has been characterized as "the first legitimate cafe revue in New York City"
Biography
Monk was born into a well-heeled and well-established family of
North Carolina
North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...
. After training at the
Cincinnati Conservatory of Music
The Cincinnati Conservatory of Music was a conservatory, part of a girls' finishing school, founded in 1867 in Cincinnati, Ohio. It merged with the College of Music of Cincinnati in 1955, forming the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, wh ...
, he earned his living playing piano in New York City and France, then became manager (1942) of the New York
nightclub
A nightclub (music club, discothèque, disco club, or simply club) is an entertainment venue during nighttime comprising a dance floor, lightshow, and a stage for live music or a disc jockey (DJ) who plays recorded music.
Nightclubs gener ...
Le Ruban Bleu, owned by his associate
Herbert Jacoby
Herbert may refer to:
People Individuals
* Herbert (musician), a pseudonym of Matthew Herbert
Name
* Herbert (given name)
* Herbert (surname)
Places Antarctica
* Herbert Mountains, Coats Land
* Herbert Sound, Graham Land
Australia
* Herbert, ...
. In 1956, Monk left that establishment for San Francisco's the
hungry i
The hungry i was a nightclub in San Francisco, California, originally located in the North Beach neighborhood. It played a major role in the history of stand-up comedy in the United States. It was launched by Eric "Big Daddy" Nord, who sold i ...
, where he did duty as master of ceremonies. Soon, however,
Murray Grand
Murray Grand (August 27, 1919 – March 7, 2007) was an American singer, songwriter, lyricist, and pianist best known for the song "Guess Who I Saw Today".
Born in Philadelphia, Grand played piano as a teenager. During World War II, he served a ...
, new manager of the Downstairs Room (formerly the Purple Onion), recalled Monk to Manhattan. On March 4, 1956, his opening revue, ''Four Below'' (starring
Dody Goodman
Dody Goodman (October 28, 1914 – June 22, 2008) was an American character actress. She played the mother of the title character in the television series ''Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman'', her distinctive high-pitched voice announcing the s ...
) was a triumph. (It was characterized as "the first legitimate cafe revue in New York City" by James Gavin, author of the 1991 book ''Intimate Nights, The Golden Age of New York Cabaret''.
) At the new venue (officially: the
Upstairs At The Downstairs, West 56th Street) Monk then staged a succession of revues by writers such as
Tom Jones and
Harvey Schmidt
Harvey Lester Schmidt (September 12, 1929 – February 28, 2018) was an American composer for musical theatre and illustrator. He was best known for composing the music for the longest running musical in history, '' The Fantasticks'', which ran of ...
(later collaborators on ''
The Fantasticks
''The Fantasticks'' is a 1960 musical with music by Harvey Schmidt and book and lyrics by Tom Jones. It tells an allegorical story, loosely based on the 1894 play ''The Romancers'' (''Les Romanesques'') by Edmond Rostand, concerning two neigh ...
''),
Louis Botto Louis may refer to:
* Louis (coin)
* Louis (given name), origin and several individuals with this name
* Louis (surname)
* Louis (singer), Serbian singer
* HMS Louis, HMS ''Louis'', two ships of the Royal Navy
See also
Derived or associated te ...
,
Sheldon Harnick
Sheldon Mayer Harnick (born April 30, 1924) is an American lyricist and songwriter best known for his collaborations with composer Jerry Bock on musicals such as ''Fiorello!'' and ''Fiddler on the Roof''.
Early life
Sheldon Mayer Harnick was bo ...
,
Herb Hartig
In general use, herbs are a widely distributed and widespread group of plants, excluding vegetables and other plants consumed for macronutrients, with savory or aromatic properties that are used for flavoring and garnishing food, for medicinal ...
,
Gerry Matthews, John Meyer and
Tom Poston
Tom or TOM may refer to:
* Tom (given name), a diminutive of Thomas or Tomás or an independent Aramaic given name (and a list of people with the name)
Characters
* Tom Anderson, a character in ''Beavis and Butt-Head''
* Tom Beck, a character ...
.
Monk's annual revues established the standard for New York cabaret over the following decade: ''Take Five'' (1957), ''Demi-Dozen'' (1958), ''Four Below Strikes Back'' (1959), ''Pieces of Eight'' (1959), ''Dressed to the Nines'' (1960) and ''7 Come 11'' (1961). Performers hired and/or cultivated by Monk include Jean Arnold,
Michael Brown,
Ceil Cabot
In mathematics and computer science, the floor function is the function that takes as input a real number , and gives as output the greatest integer less than or equal to , denoted or . Similarly, the ceiling function maps to the least inte ...
,
Thelma Carpenter
Thelma Carpenter (January 15, 1922 – May 14, 1997) was an American jazz singer and actress, best known as "Miss One", the Good Witch of the North in the movie ''The Wiz''. She was born in Brooklyn, New York, the only child of Fred and Mary C ...
,
Pat Carroll
Patricia Ann Carroll (May 5, 1927 – July 30, 2022) was an American actress and comedian. She was known for voicing Ursula in ''The Little Mermaid'' and for appearances in CBS's ''The Danny Thomas Show'', ABC's ''Laverne & Shirley'', and NBC' ...
,
Imogene Coca
Imogene Coca (born Emogeane Coca; November 18, 1908 – June 2, 2001) was an American comic actress best known for her role opposite Sid Caesar on ''Your Show of Shows''. Starting out in vaudeville as a child acrobat, she studied ballet and wishe ...
,
Jane
Jane may refer to:
* Jane (given name), a feminine given name
* Jane (surname), related to the given name
Film and television
* ''Jane'' (1915 film), a silent comedy film directed by Frank Lloyd
* ''Jane'' (2016 film), a South Korean drama fil ...
and
Gordon Connell,
Blossom Dearie
Margrethe Blossom Dearie (April 28, 1924 – February 7, 2009) was an American jazz singer and pianist. She had a recognizably light and girlish voice. Profile at AllMusicDearie performed regular engagements in London and New York City over ...
and
Annie Ross
Annabelle McCauley Allan Short (25 July 193021 July 2020), known professionally as Annie Ross, was a British-American singer and actress, best known as a member of the jazz vocal trio Lambert, Hendricks & Ross.
Early life
Ross was born in Surr ...
; collaborators and associates also included
Robert Downey Sr.,
George Furth
George Furth (born George Schweinfurth; December 14, 1932 – August 11, 2008) was an American librettist, playwright, and actor.
Life and career
Furth was born in Chicago, Illinois, the son of George and Evelyn (née Tuerk) Schweinfurth. He was ...
,
Alice Ghostley
Alice Margaret Ghostley (August 14, 1923 – September 21, 2007) was a Tony Award-winning American actress and singer on stage, film and television. She was best known for her roles as bumbling witch Esmeralda (1969–70; 1972) on '' Bewitched' ...
,
Ronny Graham
Ronny Graham (August 26, 1919 – July 4, 1999) was an American actor and theater director, composer, lyricist, and writer.
Life and career
Graham was born Ronald Montcrief Stringer in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the second of five children born ...
,
Tammy Grimes
Tammy Lee Grimes (January 30, 1934 – October 30, 2016) was an American film and stage actress.
Grimes won two Tony Awards in her career, the first for originating the role of Molly Tobin in the musical '' The Unsinkable Molly Brown'' and the ...
,
Ellen Hanley
Ellen Hanley (May 15, 1926 – February 12, 2007) was a musical theater performer best known for playing Fiorello H. LaGuardia's first wife in the Pulitzer Prize-winning ''Fiorello!''. She was related to the British writers James and Gera ...
,
Bill Hinnant
William Hinnant (born John F. Hinnant; August 28, 1935 – February 17, 1978) was an American actor. His younger brother is actor and comedian Skip Hinnant.
Biography
Hinnant was born John F. Hinnant in Chincoteague Island, Virginia. He a ...
,
Susan Johnson,
Liberace
Władziu Valentino Liberace (May 16, 1919 – February 4, 1987) was an American pianist, singer, and actor. A child prodigy born in Wisconsin to parents of Italian and Polish origin, he enjoyed a career spanning four decades of concerts, recordi ...
,
Dorothy Loudon
Dorothy Loudon (September 17, 1925 – November 15, 2003) was an American actress and singer. She won the Tony Award for Best Lead Actress in a Musical in 1977 for her performance as Miss Hannigan in '' Annie''. Loudon was also nominated for T ...
,
Portia Nelson
Portia Nelson (born Betty Mae Nelson; May 27, 1920 – March 6, 2001) was an American popular singer, songwriter, actress, and author. She was best known for her appearances in 1950s cabarets, where she sang soprano.
In 1965, she portrayed ...
,
Bibi Osterwald
Margaret Virginia "Bibi" Osterwald (February 3, 1920 – January 2, 2002) was an American actress.
Life and career
Osterwald was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey, the daughter of Dagmar (Kvastad) and Rudolf August Osterwald, a hotel own ...
,
Norman Paris,
Lovelady Powell,
Caspar Reardon,
Rex Robbins
Rex McNicol Robbins (March 30, 1935 – September 23, 2003) was an American character actor of stage and screen.
Career
Robbins appeared opposite Angela Lansbury in the 1974 Broadway revival of '' Gypsy''. He made his Broadway debut in 1963 as ...
,
William Roy
Major-General William Roy (4 May 17261 July 1790) was a Scottish military engineer, surveyor, and antiquarian. He was an innovator who applied new scientific discoveries and newly emerging technologies to the accurate geodetic mapping of Gr ...
,
Maxine Sullivan
Maxine Sullivan (May 13, 1911 – April 7, 1987), born Marietta Williams in Homestead, Pennsylvania, United States, was an American jazz vocalist and performer.
As a vocalist, Sullivan was active for half a century, from the mid-1930s to just b ...
,
Nancy Dussault
Nancy Dussault (born June 30, 1936) is an American actress and singer.
She is best known for playing Muriel Rush in the sitcom ''Too Close for Comfort'' (1980–1987). In a career spanning over half a century, Dussault received two Tony Award n ...
,
Sylvia Syms,
Fredricka Weber and
Mary Louise Wilson
Mary Louise Wilson (born November 12, 1931) is an American actress, singer, and comedian.
In a career that has spanned more than 50 years, she has appeared in a number of plays, films and television shows. Wilson's most notable work includes a ...
.
Friction between Monk and owner
Irving Haber prompted the former to leave and in 1962 he and
Thomas Hammond opened a new nightclub — the Rendezvous Room (Plaza 9) — at the
Plaza Hotel
The Plaza Hotel (also known as The Plaza) is a luxury hotel and condominium apartment building in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is located on the western side of Grand Army Plaza, after which it is named, just west of Fifth Avenue, a ...
. There his troupe continued with revues such as ''Dime A Dozen'' (1962), ''Baker's Dozen'' (1964), and ''Bits & Pieces XIV'' (1964). Many unknown performers who worked at Monk's cafe revues, including
Ken Berry
Kenneth Ronald Berry (November 3, 1933 – December 1, 2018) was an American actor, dancer, and singer. Berry starred on the television series ''F Troop'', ''The Andy Griffith Show'', ''Mayberry R.F.D.'' and ''Mama's Family''. He also appea ...
,
Ruth Buzzi
Ruth Ann Buzzi ( ; born July 24, 1936) is an American actress, comedian, and singer. She has appeared on stage, in films, and on television. She is best known for her performances on the comedy-variety show ''Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In'' from 1968 ...
, and
Liz Sheridan, among others, went on to achieve varying degrees of fame. Monk's last revue at the Plaza, ''Four In Hand'', closed on 29 June 1968 after which he retired.
Monk died at age 82 in August 1995 at his home in
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
.
Legacy and assessment
*In the 1960s, ''
Mad'' published "The Agony and the Agony" (a parody of the film ''
The Agony and the Ecstasy'') with the plotline moved from Renaissance Rome to present-day New York City. The film's antagonist,
Pope Julius II
Pope Julius II ( la, Iulius II; it, Giulio II; born Giuliano della Rovere; 5 December 144321 February 1513) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 1503 to his death in February 1513. Nicknamed the Warrior Pope or th ...
, was updated by ''Mad'' as nightclub entrepreneur Julius Pope, a satire of Julius Monk.
*Monk, who was not above claiming credit for discovering already established stars, did not have an unerring eye and ear for talent; he turned down
Barbra Streisand
Barbara Joan "Barbra" Streisand (; born April 24, 1942) is an American singer, actress and director. With a career spanning over six decades, she has achieved success in multiple fields of entertainment, and is among the few performers List ...
and misunderstood the appeal of
Billie Holiday
Billie Holiday (born Eleanora Fagan; April 7, 1915 – July 17, 1959) was an American jazz and swing music singer. Nicknamed "Lady Day" by her friend and music partner, Lester Young, Holiday had an innovative influence on jazz music and pop si ...
who was somewhat out of place in these snooty venues.
Discography
*''Take Five with Ronny Graham'';
Offbeat Records (OLP 4013): Julius Monk Revue;–
Ronny Graham
Ronny Graham (August 26, 1919 – July 4, 1999) was an American actor and theater director, composer, lyricist, and writer.
Life and career
Graham was born Ronald Montcrief Stringer in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the second of five children born ...
,
Ceil Cabot
In mathematics and computer science, the floor function is the function that takes as input a real number , and gives as output the greatest integer less than or equal to , denoted or . Similarly, the ceiling function maps to the least inte ...
,
Ellen Hanley
Ellen Hanley (May 15, 1926 – February 12, 2007) was a musical theater performer best known for playing Fiorello H. LaGuardia's first wife in the Pulitzer Prize-winning ''Fiorello!''. She was related to the British writers James and Gera ...
, Jean Arnold,
Gerry Matthews /1958
**Introductory "Notes"
**"You've Got to Open the Show"
**Roger, the Rabbit
**Westport/Portofino
**Jefferson Davis Tyler's General Store
**Gristedes
**Say Hello
**Poets' Corner
**Pro Musica Antiqua
**Gossiping Grapevine
**Night Heat
**Finale-Doing the Psycho-Neurotique
*''Julius Monk Presents Demi-Dozen''; Offbeat Records (OLP 4015) - Julius Monk Revue
/1959
**Grand Opening
**Yes Sirree
**Mist OffBroadway
**You Fascinate Me So
**Conference Call
**Holy Man and the New Yorker
**Race of the Lexington Avenue Express
**Sunday in New York
**Intellectual's Rag
**Portofino
**One and All
**Seasonal Sonatina
**Thire Avenue El
**Guess Who Was There
**Grand Finale
*''Pieces of Eight''; Offbeat Records (OLP 4016): Julius Monk Revue - Julius Monk Revue
959
Year 959 ( CMLIX) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.
Events
By place
Byzantine Empire
* April - May – The Byzantines refuse to pay the yearly tribute. A Hungari ...
**Overture
**Happiness is a Bird
**And Then I Wrote
**Radio City Music Hall
**Miss Williams
**Uncle Bergie Evans Show
**Oriental
**Ardent Admirer
**Steel Guitars and Barking Seals
**Election Spectacular
**A Name of Our Own
**M'Lady Chatterley
**Seasons' Greetings
**Farewell
**Everybody Wants to Be Loved
**Night the Hurricane Struck
**A Conversation Piece
*''Four Below Strikes Back''; Offbeat Records (OLP 4017): Julius Monk Revue - Julius Monk Revue
959
Year 959 ( CMLIX) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.
Events
By place
Byzantine Empire
* April - May – The Byzantines refuse to pay the yearly tribute. A Hungari ...
**Overture and Opening
**Leave Your Mind Alone
**Mr. X
**It's a Wonderful day to Be Seventeen
**Castro Tango!
**Charlie Chan
**Sitwells
**Merry-Go, Merry-Go-Round
**Jefferson Davis Tyler's General Store
**Four Seasons/Speak No Love
**Constant Nymphet
**Man Tan
**Lola Montez
**Family Fallout Shelter
**Literary Time
**Love, Here I Am
**Payola
*''Julius Monk presents Tammy Grimes'' (1959)
*''Julius Monk Simply Plays (and / or Vice-versa)'' - 1959
*''Seven Come Eleven''; Columbia Records LP (55477): Julius Monk Revue - New York Cast
961
Year 961 (Roman numerals, CMLXI) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.
Events
By place
Byzantine Empire
* March 6 – Siege of Chandax: Byzantine forces under Nikephoro ...
*''Dressed to the Nines'' - LP
*''It's Your Fault''
*''Dime A Dozen''; Cadence Records LP (CLP 3063, mono; CLP 25063, stereo): Julius Monk Revue - New York Cast
962
Year 962 ( CMLXII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.
Events
By place
Byzantine Empire
* December – Arab–Byzantine wars – Sack of Aleppo: A Byzantine e ...
References
External links
Julius Monk papers, 1906-1991.Held by the Billy Rose Theatre Division,
New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center, at 40 Lincoln Center Plaza, is located in Manhattan, New York City, at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts on the Upper West Side, between the Metro ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Monk, Julius
1912 births
1995 deaths
People from Spencer, North Carolina
20th-century American businesspeople