Danny Kaye
Danny Kaye (born David Daniel Kaminsky; Yiddish: דוד־דניאל קאַמינסקי; January 18, 1911 – March 3, 1987) was an American actor, comedian, singer, and dancer. His performances featured physical comedy, idiosyncratic pantomimes, and rapid-fire novelty songs.
Danny Kaye
January 18, 1911
March 3, 1987 (aged 76)
- Actor
- comedian
- singer
- dancer
- television presenter
1933–1987
1
Kaye starred in 17 films, notably Wonder Man (1945), The Kid from Brooklyn (1946), The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947), The Inspector General (1949), Hans Christian Andersen (1952), White Christmas (1954), and The Court Jester (1955). His films were popular, especially for his performances of patter songs and favorites such as "Inchworm" and "The Ugly Duckling".
He was the first ambassador-at-large of UNICEF in 1954 and received the French Legion of Honour in 1986 for his years of work with the organization.[1]
Early years[edit]
David Daniel Kaminsky was born in Brooklyn, New York, on January 18, 1911 (though he would later say 1913),[2][3][4][5] to Ukrainian–Jewish immigrants Jacob and Clara (née Nemerovsky) Kaminsky. He was the youngest of three sons. His parents and older brothers Larry and Mac left Yekaterinoslav (then part of Novorossia, Russian Empire) two years before Danny's birth; he was their only son born in the United States.[6]
He attended Public School 149 in East New York, Brooklyn (eventually renamed to honor him)[7]—where he began entertaining his classmates with songs and jokes.[8] He attended Thomas Jefferson High School in Brooklyn, but he did not graduate.[9]
His mother died when he was in his early teens. Not long after, Kaye and his friend Louis ran away to Florida. Kaye sang while Louis played the guitar, and the pair eked out a living for a while. When Kaye returned to New York, his father did not pressure him to return to school or work, giving his son the chance to mature and discover his abilities.[10] Kaye said that as a young boy, he had wanted to be a surgeon, but the family could not afford medical education.[6][11]
After leaving school, he held a succession of jobs as a soda jerk, auto insurance investigator, and office clerk. Most ended with him being fired. He lost the insurance job when he made an error that cost the insurance company $40,000 ($600,000 in 2019 adjusted for inflation).[12] A dentist who hired him to look after his office over lunch and run errands fired him when he found Kaye using his dental drill on the office woodwork. In 1939, Kaye met the same dentist's daughter, Sylvia Fine, at an audition, and in 1940, they eloped.[13][6][14] He learned his trade in his teenaged years in the Catskills as a tummler (M.C.) in the Borscht Belt.[8]
Kaye's first break came in 1933 when he joined the Three Terpsichoreans, a vaudeville dance act. They opened in Utica, New York, where he used the stage name Danny Kaye for the first time.[8] The act toured the United States and in Asia with the show La Vie Paree.[15] The troupe left for a six-month tour of Asia on February 8, 1934. During its stay in Osaka, Japan, a typhoon hit the city. The troupe's hotel suffered heavy damage. The strong wind hurled a piece of the hotel's cornice into Kaye's room. By evening's performance time, the city was in the grip of the storm. With no power, the audience became restless and nervous. To calm them, Kaye went on stage holding a flashlight to illuminate his face and sang every song he could recall as loudly as he was able.[6]
The experience of trying to entertain audiences who did not speak English inspired him to do the pantomime gestures, songs, and facial expressions that eventually made his reputation.[8][14] Sometimes, he found them necessary when ordering a meal. Kaye's daughter Dena relates a story her father told about being in a restaurant in China and trying to order chicken. Kaye flapped his arms and clucked, giving the waiter an imitation of a chicken. The waiter nodded in understanding, bringing Kaye two eggs. His interest in cooking began on the tour.[8][15]
Jobs were in short supply when Kaye returned to the United States, and he struggled for bookings. One job was working in a burlesque revue with fan dancer Sally Rand. After the dancer dropped a fan while trying to chase away a fly, Kaye was hired to watch the fans, so they were always held in front of her.[8][14]
Other endeavors[edit]
Cooking[edit]
In his later years, Kaye entertained at home as chef. He specialized in Chinese and Italian cooking.[20][70] He had a custom-made Chinese restaurant installed at the rear of his house by its alley, then had a kitchen and dining area built around it.[70] The stove that Kaye used for his Chinese dishes was fitted with metal rings for the burners to allow the heat to be highly concentrated, and a trough with circulating ice water cooled the area to keep the intense heat tolerable for those who were cooking.[71] He learned "at Johnny Kan's restaurant in San Francisco and with Cecilia Chang at her Mandarin restaurants in San Francisco and Los Angeles".[70] He taught Chinese cooking classes at a San Francisco Chinese restaurant in the 1970s.[72] The theatre and demonstration kitchen under the library at the Hyde Park, New York, campus of the Culinary Institute of America is named for him.[73]
Kaye referred to his kitchen as "Ying's Thing". While filming The Madwoman of Chaillot in France, he phoned home to ask his family if they would like to eat at Ying's Thing that evening; Kaye flew home for dinner.[15] Not all of his efforts in the kitchen went well. After flying to San Francisco for a recipe for sourdough bread, he came home and spent hours preparing loaves. When his daughter asked about the bread, Kaye hit the bread on the kitchen table; his bread was hard enough to chip it.[15] Kaye approached kitchen work with enthusiasm, making sausages and other foods needed for his cuisine.[71][74] Though it is often claimed that he was a Meilleur Ouvrier de France (MOF),[9] this is not true, as the MOF is restricted to French professionals.[75] Rather, he had cooked for several famous French chefs at his house (all of them MOFs), and they signed an "honorary" Meilleur Ouvrier de France diploma for him.[76]
Flying[edit]
Kaye became an aviation enthusiast and pilot. His interest was sparked by his longtime friend, choreographer Michael Kidd, who at the time had recently earned his private pilot's license. Kaye was an enthusiastic and accomplished golfer, but reduced golf activities in favor of flying and started training for his license in 1959.[77]
[78] The first plane Kaye owned was a Piper Aztec.[77][79] After this, he became qualified for many types of aircraft, from single-engined light aircraft to multiengine jets.[20][9][77][80]
Kaye received a type rating in a Learjet, and he was named vice president of the Learjet Company by Bill Lear as an honorary title (he had no line responsibility at the company).[81] He supported many flying projects. In 1968, he was honorary chairman of the Las Vegas International Exposition of Flight, a show that used many facets of the city's entertainment industry while presenting an air show. The operational show chairman was well-known aviation figure Lynn Garrison. Kaye flew a Learjet to 65 cities in five days on a mission to help UNICEF.[9][81]
Business ventures[edit]
In 1958, Kaye and partner Lester Smith formed Kaye–Smith Enterprises. The company owned a chain of radio stations, mostly in the Pacific Northwest. Other Kaye–Smith divisions included a concert-promotion company, a video-production company, and a recording studio.
Baseball[edit]
A lifelong Dodgers fan, Kaye recorded a song called "The D-O-D-G-E-R-S Song (Oh really? No, O'Malley!)", describing a fictitious encounter with the San Francisco Giants, a hit during the real-life pennant chase of 1962. That song is included on Baseball's Greatest Hits compact discs. A good friend of Leo Durocher's, he often traveled with the team.[14] He also possessed an encyclopedic knowledge of the game and was an accomplished second baseman.[20]
Kaye and his business partner Lester Smith also led an investment group, which was awarded the American League's 13th franchise, which became the Seattle Mariners for US$6.2 million on February 7, 1976.[82][83] The ownership percentages of Kaye, Smith, and two other remaining original investors were reduced to 5% each when George Argyros purchased 80% of the Mariners for $10.4 million on January 30, 1981.[84] Kaye sold all of his business interests to Smith's family in 1985.[85]
Medicine[edit]
Kaye was an honorary member of the American College of Surgeons and the American Academy of Pediatrics.[20]
Legacy[edit]
Kaye’s body was cremated and his ashes were interred in the foundation of a bench in Kensico Cemetery in Valhalla, New York.[104] His grave is adorned with a bench that contains friezes of a baseball and bat, an aircraft, a piano, a flowerpot, musical notes, and a chef's toque. His name and birth and death dates are inscribed on the toque. The United Nations held a memorial tribute to him at its New York headquarters on the evening of October 21, 1987.[105][106]
The Sylvia and Danny Kaye Playhouse at Hunter College in New York was opened in 1988, with a $1 million gift from Sylvia Kaye.[107]
David Koenig reflects, "His legacy has dimmed with the passage of time. His greatest works (...) endure today only as memories in the minds of aging members of his audiences (...) much of his TV work has not aged particularly well. Whimsy was of another time." However, Koenig sees Kaye's film work in a different light, "History has smiled on individual pictures — in particular the holiday staple of White Christmas and The Court Jester... the medieval romp has steadily gained a reputation as one of the greatest comedies of all time."[108]