For Tybee, this proved to be only an inauspicious
start since her star was destined to rise
upon teaming with Johnny Brascia. Together,
they would go on to gain much visibility
as a contemporary dance act, combining adagio
and jazz where their work might bring
them to the Las Vegas strip to open
for Frank Sinatra at the Sands or performing
on Ed Sullivan’s Sunday night variety
show. John
Brascia’s latter career included credited
roles in the Dean Martin as Matt Helm vehicle
The Ambushers and the controversial 1973
Walking Tall.
Tybee too remained active as a performer
with an occasional film role until her death
in 1982 from brain cancer. Augie Rodriguez
of Augie and Margo recounted Tybee’s
last moments when, at her request, Johnny
played an audiotape of Machito’s version
|
|
of
Tanga or wild woman that years earlier earned
Tybee that nickname when it figured in her mambo
act at El Palladium.
Deeming the content and volume of the music unsuitable
and recommending rest, an
on-duty doctor attempted to turn off the device
to that Tybee, fully aware of her terminal condition,
protested as she contending that since her death
even to herself was imminent, she should die with
the sound of her beloved music audible. Approximately
twenty minutes later, Tybee succumbed to her illness.
Native New Yorkers Augie & Margo Rodriguez
met and apparently fell in love at the Palladium.
Their first home together was a fifth-floor walk-up
apartment in the Bensonhurst
neighborhood of Brooklyn that they occupied at
the time of the birth of their only child, a son
named Richard.
It
was one of their typical weeknight gigs at the
Palladium that attracted the attention of Dave
Baumgarten of the MCA talent agency who arranged
for the two to open for Lena Horne at the Waldorf-Astoria
Empire Room. The invitation, however, presented
the dilemma of a commitment to a rivaling supper
club to that Augie and Margo was bound.They immediately
called Mike Terrace to fill in, along with his
new partner, Elita.
The
Palladium Has a Thousand Stories – Part
2 (continued) click
here
© Michael
Terrace
|
