Biography
Born Julius Withers Monk on 10 November 1912 in Spencer, North Carolina, he died on 22 August 1995 in New York City. Training at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music preceded his piano engagements throughout New York City and across France. Association with Le Ruban Bleu proprietor Herbert Jacoby led to Monk’s appointment as manager of the New York room. In 1956 he left that post to work as emcee at San Francisco’s the hungry i.
Concurrently Murray Grand ran the Purple Onion in New York for Irving Haber. Grand rebranded the space the Downstairs Room and summoned Monk. Its inaugural production, Four Below starring Dody Goodman, proved an immediate success. Although Grand created nearly all of the material, Monk received the program credit. Accepting that attribution, Haber installed Monk as director, whereupon Grand resigned. Scheduled demolition of the original site forced relocation to West 56th Street, where Haber and Monk launched Upstairs At The Downstairs directly above the renamed Downstairs At The Upstairs.
There Monk mounted successive revues whose contributors included Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt, later the team behind The Fantasticks, together with Louis Botto, Sheldon Harnick, Herb Hartig, Gerry Matthews and Tom Poston. Artists who appeared under his aegis, whether as soloists, accompanists or revue cast members, encompassed Jean Arnold, Michael Brown, Cecil Cabot, Thelma Carpenter, Pat Carroll, Imogene Coca, Jane and Gordon Connell, Blossom Dearie and Annie Ross while the latter two performed as a duo, Robert Downey, George Furth, Alice Ghostly, Ronny Graham, Tammy Grimes, Ellen Hanley, Bill Hinnant, Susan Johnson, Liberace, Dorothy Loudon, Portia Nelson, Bibi Osterwald, Norman Paris, Lovelady Powell, Caspar Reardon, Rex Robbins, William Roy, Maxine Sullivan, Nancy Sussault, Sylvia Syms, Fredricka Weber and Mary Louise Wilson.
Monk’s occasional assertions that he had discovered performers already well known sometimes caused irritation; his discernment was imperfect, illustrated by his rejection of Barbra Streisand and his miscalculation of Billie Holiday’s suitability for the club’s somewhat condescending clientele. Strained relations with Haber induced Monk’s departure, after which he joined associate Thomas Hammond in opening the Rendezvous Room, or Plaza 9, at the Plaza Hotel in 1962. Productions presented there included Baker’s Dozen and Dime A Dozen. Four In Hand, his final Plaza offering, closed on 29 June 1968, whereupon Monk retired. Additional revues he mounted across the years comprised Take Five, Demi-Dozen, Pieces Of Eight, Four Below Strikes Back, Dressed To The Nines and Seven Come Eleven.
Concurrently Murray Grand ran the Purple Onion in New York for Irving Haber. Grand rebranded the space the Downstairs Room and summoned Monk. Its inaugural production, Four Below starring Dody Goodman, proved an immediate success. Although Grand created nearly all of the material, Monk received the program credit. Accepting that attribution, Haber installed Monk as director, whereupon Grand resigned. Scheduled demolition of the original site forced relocation to West 56th Street, where Haber and Monk launched Upstairs At The Downstairs directly above the renamed Downstairs At The Upstairs.
There Monk mounted successive revues whose contributors included Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt, later the team behind The Fantasticks, together with Louis Botto, Sheldon Harnick, Herb Hartig, Gerry Matthews and Tom Poston. Artists who appeared under his aegis, whether as soloists, accompanists or revue cast members, encompassed Jean Arnold, Michael Brown, Cecil Cabot, Thelma Carpenter, Pat Carroll, Imogene Coca, Jane and Gordon Connell, Blossom Dearie and Annie Ross while the latter two performed as a duo, Robert Downey, George Furth, Alice Ghostly, Ronny Graham, Tammy Grimes, Ellen Hanley, Bill Hinnant, Susan Johnson, Liberace, Dorothy Loudon, Portia Nelson, Bibi Osterwald, Norman Paris, Lovelady Powell, Caspar Reardon, Rex Robbins, William Roy, Maxine Sullivan, Nancy Sussault, Sylvia Syms, Fredricka Weber and Mary Louise Wilson.
Monk’s occasional assertions that he had discovered performers already well known sometimes caused irritation; his discernment was imperfect, illustrated by his rejection of Barbra Streisand and his miscalculation of Billie Holiday’s suitability for the club’s somewhat condescending clientele. Strained relations with Haber induced Monk’s departure, after which he joined associate Thomas Hammond in opening the Rendezvous Room, or Plaza 9, at the Plaza Hotel in 1962. Productions presented there included Baker’s Dozen and Dime A Dozen. Four In Hand, his final Plaza offering, closed on 29 June 1968, whereupon Monk retired. Additional revues he mounted across the years comprised Take Five, Demi-Dozen, Pieces Of Eight, Four Below Strikes Back, Dressed To The Nines and Seven Come Eleven.