NEW YORK, NY (1010 WINS)  -- Lola the showgirl and the rest of Copacabana crowd are looking for a new home.

The famed nightclub, currently in its third reincarnation on West 34th Street, has been condemned by the city to make way for an extension of the No. 7 subway line to Manhattan's major convention hall, the Javits Center.

Owner John Juliano doesn't have a lease signed yet on a new location, but he has until July 1 before he has to be out.

``We aren't closing,'' he said. ``It's hurting our business, all this talk of us closing. I mean, maybe we have to renovate a new space. That may take some time, but we're coming back.''

The club has always endured change well. Since it first opened in 1941, it has morphed from the glitziest nightspot in a town teeming with celebrities, to disco and the legendary scene of Barry Manilow's signature 1978 song ``Copacabana,'' and now to a catering business and thumping hip-hop and salsa club.

The clientele has drastically changed. The neighborhoods have changed. Even the owners changed once, when Jules Podell died and sold the business to Juliano and two associates.

Really, the only thing that has remained the same in the 60-plus years the club has been open is the name. And the whole palm-tree theme.

``When it first opened it was the most famous nightclub in the world,'' Juliano said. ``And it still is the most famous name in the world.''

The club opened on East 60th Street at just the right time _ shortly before World War II when Americans were freshly out of the Great Depression. Finally, there was money to spend, and people were just itching to have a good time.

``The times were hot,'' said Kristin Baggelaar, author of the nonfiction book, ``The Copacabana.'' ``It was a highly charged atmosphere, almost like the roaring 20s.''

Well-heeled New Yorkers were entertained by the most famous acts of the era, including Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Jimmy Durante and Sid Caesar. And then there were the Copa Girls. A troupe of leggy, fresh-faced dancers dressed to perfection. Joan Collins and Raquel Welch got their start in the troupe.

In the '50s the club brought in rock acts and tried to roll with the times, but the advent of television was the death knell for the old nightclub ways. People didn't need to leave the house to be entertained anymore.

Its popularity waned. Podell died in 1972 and the club sat vacant for several years until Juliano, Peter Dorn and Ron Hollick took it over in 1976. The three renovated the club and reopened it as a disco.

``I'm sitting at the bar one day and this fella walks in and introduces himself by the last name of Sussman,'' Juliano said. ``He says to me, I'm writing a song called 'Copacabana.' Sure enough, in the song there are two names, Tony and Rico, and those happened to be the names of the bartenders that worked for me at the time.''

The tune written by Bruce Sussman and Manilow came out shortly after and suddenly, the place to be was again the Copacabana _ ``the hottest spot north of Havana'' and where ``music and passion were always in fashion.''

``We filled the place with famous names,'' Juliano said. ``We had Bette Midler, Robin Williams, Red Fox, Peter Allen and Sammy Davis Jr.''

The owners eventually shifted operations in 1992 to a 25,000-square-foot location on West 57th Street.

The 57th Street club was used in the filming of ``Raging Bull,'' and ``Tootsie,'' starring Dustin Hoffman.

``Dustin Hoffman was sitting in my office with me one day. His feet were killing him because he had heels on. He was just dying,'' Juliano said. ``We laughed, and I said, 'Oh Dustin, you'd never make a good Copa Girl.'''

The Martin Scorsese mob film ``Goodfellas,'' filmed a memorable scene at the Copa, where a young Henry Hill and his soon-to-be wife Karen, played by Ray Liotta and Lorraine Bracco, weave their way through the back doors and crevices of the club to a front-row seat by the big band.

The Copacabana figured prominently in other scenes of ``Goodfellas.'' As Liotta's character put it in one line: ``Saturday night was for wives, but Friday night at the Copa was always for the girlfriends.''

But again, the owner of the building wanted to renovate and in 2001, the Copa shifted to the 34th Street location on the barren West Side.

The current location has three floors and a 6,000-square-foot kitchen for banquets. Juliano said 50 percent of the revenue comes from small parties, bar mitzvahs, and catering.

There's a 15-piece orchestra that plays mostly salsa music on the weekends on the main floor, and a hip-hop club downstairs. The space is squeaky clean and fancy, but it feels a bit like the theme-park version of the club.

The crowds have changed, too, becoming more diverse.

``We reflect the population of today,'' Juliano said. ``And the population today is a mix of all sorts of people, Hispanic, white, black.''

Business remains steady after all these years and Juliano expects it to stay that way after they move again, even though the club's power over the New York nightclub scene may have diminished.

``You have to remember, when the Copa was so huge, those were the days before Las Vegas and before television, when you had to go to a nightclub if you wanted entertainment,'' he said. ``Now, there's too many outlets.''