Danny Kaye

Our November star Danny Kaye was an “acquired taste” so said Robert Osborne. David Daniel Kaminsky born January 18, 1911 in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn New York first listed his birth year as 1913 later corrected by his daughter Dena Kaye in an interview with Ben Mankewicz Osborne’s successor. 

A third son of an Ukrainian immigrant tailor Danny dropped out of High School at age 13 and ran away to Florida where he began singing in the streets as a “busker” and earned enough money to travel to the Catskills and the Borscht Belt performing comedy working for a radio station for camps and hotels. 

 Dena Kaye in describing her father said try to imagine Tommy Tune, Robin Williams and Tony Bennett on stage all at the same time and you might get an idea of the embodiment of the talent of her Dad Danny Kaye. She said her father could do anything dance, sing in a lilting voice and do it wittily and combine it with tongue twister lyrics. Kaye enunciated a complex dialogue written by his wife Sylvia Fine and invented his own gibberish of onomatopoeia interspersed with an odd spoken real word. Somehow he would make it all sound coherent and the meaning was crystal clear. His dance steps even when they seemed erratic were elegant. In White Christmas that adroitness was on display when he performed the Fred Astaire role. 

 What Danny didn’t know he learned like flying jet planes (he obtained a commercial 747 license) conducted more than 50 orchestras including the New York Philharmonic, owned part of a professional baseball team (The Seattle Mariners) and cooked Chinese meals for 3 French chefs, he took fencing lessons and became so skilled for his scene in The Court Jester that he held his own with the very talented Basil Rathbone. Watch it on You Tube it’s a classic. All these accomplishments coming from a man who dropped out of High School.  

Outside of his professional life he was a UNICEF ambassador (He raised millions) for more than 30 years and traveled on their watch once visiting 65 cities in 5 days. Danny never injected his agenda into anyone’s life including his daughters and his listening skills were uncanny. When he raised money for charities like the Musician’s Pension Fund he never expected or took a fee. He accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of UNICEF and received two for his humanitarian work. His daughter witnessed his oft humility as she watched him take a tray of hors d’oeuvres from a waitress at a party and served the guests until it was empty and then promptly left. 

Amongst all his talents of voice, dance, gymnastic countenance, lyrical complexity and exacting enunciation Danny had a ballet like expression with the use of his hands. It helped articulate his whole presentation as an orchestra leader uses his baton. 

This writer first got acquainted with Danny Kaye on my turntable when he released his single “The Ugly Duckling”. I hadn’t seen the movie wherein it was played called Hans Christian Anderson (1952)  a very loose fantasy interpretation by the legendary children’s storybook author but when I did I instantly became a fan and from that point on, I scanned back and forward to his complete compendium of releases. I might argue that The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947) was his most remembered but oddly his biggest box office success came in White Christmas (1954) wherein he starred opposite Bing Crosby, Rosemary Clooney and Vera Ellen. (Kings Academy just performed it spectacularly last Christmas) 

His first release came in 1944 in a movie Up In Arms starring opposite Dana Andrews and Dinah Shore. He plays a hypochondriac and it was here that we were introduced to his adroitness of singing a tongue twister intertwined with conversation and he literally steals the film. Danny portrayed as a coward ends up the hero capturing a platoon of Japanese soldiers. 

He followed with Wonder Man (1945) playing a dual role  with antithetical personalities. Next came The Kid From Brooklyn (1946). Then the much-heralded The Secret Life of Walter Mitty in (1947) a James Thurber short story that the author hated but audiences loved. Here he starred opposite the menacing Boris Karloff. Again Kaye plays the mouse turned lion as he wins the affection of his perennial  costar Virginia Mayo.  After Mitty, he followed with a remake of Ball of Fire (1941) renamed A Song is Born (1948) again opposite Virginia Mayo (An original Goldwyn Girl) That film didn’t come near the success of the original with Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck. Next up was  The Inspector General followed (1949) with Walter Slezak, On the Riviera (another dual role) (1951) Knock on Wood (1954), The Court Jester (1956) opposite heavy and Sherlock Holmes star Basil Rathbone, Merry Andrew (1958) opposite the tragic Pier Angeli and The Five Pennies (1959) opposite the legendary Louis Armstrong. 

Danny had a successful run on television as well called simply The Danny Kaye Show it ran for 4 seasons from 1963-1967. It starred all the luminaries of the day stars like Lucille Ball, Art Carney, Nancy Wilson, Wayne Newton, Shirley Jones and Louis Armstrong to name but a few. Danny died of hepatitis and internal bleeding from contaminated blood during a transfusion during bypass surgery at age 76. He left a wife Sylvia Fine who passed in 1991 and is survived by his daughter Dena now 71. 

Danny Kaye may have been an acquired taste but like fine aged wine or scotch it suits the palate of many a moviegoer still today.  Check out also the The Pellet with the Poison from The Court Jester another gem.