[Dixielandjazz] Danny Kaye - New York Times, April 9, 2013

[Ivor Jones]

 I would not care to read this article, although I was a great fan and 
watched him a couple of time when he visited London,
Why ? Because the author, is what we would call, 'a bit of a wally'. 'Twit' 
or 'Prat' would be just as good.
Danny Kaye was born in 1913 and his birth name was David Daniel Kaminsky. 
And good 'ole Joe McCarthy, didn't like him very much.
Ivor





----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Robert Ringwald" <rsr at ringwald.com>
To: "iVOR jONES" <BANJONES at sapo.pt>
Cc: "Dixieland Jazz Mailing List" <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Friday, April 12, 2013 11:29 PM
Subject: [Dixielandjazz] Danny Kaye - New York Times, April 9, 2013


>A Brooklyn Jester Had an Enduring Comic Brew That Was True
> by Neil Genzlinger
> New York Times, April 9, 2013
> To people over a certain age it no doubt seems incredible that people 
> under a certain
> age have to be told who Danny Kaye was. In the middle of the last century 
> Kaye was
> one of the country's biggest stars, working his nimble, quick-tongued 
> brand of comedy
> into a career that bridged eras and genres: radio, stage, film, records, 
> television.
> For decades you would have to have lived in a cave to not know his work.
> At the moment Kaye, who died in 1987, is the focus of renewed attention. 
> It is his
> centennial year, according to the birth date he used (though he was 
> actually born
> in 1911, as David Koenig, author of the new biography "Danny Kaye: King of 
> Jesters,"
> has noted). Various events have been celebrating his work and that of his 
> wife, Sylvia
> Fine, a lyricist and composer who wrote many of his best-known songs. The 
> Library
> of Congress in Washington has an exhibition called "Danny Kaye and Sylvia 
> Fine: Two
> Kids From Brooklyn" on view through July 27, and last month it held a gala 
> to mark
> the opening of an archive and Web site dedicated to Kaye and Fine.
> A lot of the centennial attention has been on Kaye's film career, movies 
> from the
> 1940s and '50s like "The Court Jester," "White Christmas" and "The Secret 
> Life of
> Walter Mitty" that captured him in his prime. His television work, in 
> contrast, can
> tend to be shrugged off, much of it coming in the archaic-looking 
> variety-show format
> ("The Danny Kaye Show" ran from 1963 to 1967) and its cousin, the 
> star-centered special.
> But look more closely at some of these television clips (YouTube has a 
> smattering,
> and more are coming in DVD releases), and Kaye seems to have one of his 
> fast-moving
> feet in the present after all. Here is a Kaye clinic of sorts: lessons for 
> young
> comedic performers, drawn from specific TV appearances:
> Break the Rules; Defy Expectations
> Kaye's brand of humor seems tame today, but it had an anarchic quality 
> that would
> sit well in the 21st century. Evidence of that can be found in his first 
> appearance
> as the mystery guest on "What's My Line?," from 1960 or so. In a regular 
> segment
> on that show a panel of celebrities would try to guess the identity of a 
> mystery
> guest -- that is, a fellow celebrity -- while blindfolded.
> Kaye turned the proceeding on its head, refusing to answer the panelists' 
> questions
> with anything but a nod or a grunt, giving false answers as often as true 
> ones. (At
> one point he tried to get the host, John Daly, to identify him as a 
> baseball player.)
> The panelists -- Tony Randall, Bennett Cerf, Arlene Francis and Dorothy 
> Kilgallen
> -- were flummoxed, guessing Harpo Marx, Laurence Olivier, John Gielgud. 
> "The most
> dishonest mystery guest we've ever had," Cerf said when Kaye's identity 
> was revealed.
> Daly said the appearance was the first time Kaye had ever been on live 
> television.
> So from the start he was subverting the medium a bit even while working in 
> its mainstream.
> Play Well with Others
> Kaye and Fine's daughter, Dena Kaye, of course has a number of favorite 
> Kaye moments,
> but one from television that she singled out recently in an interview was 
> a duet
> he did with Louis Armstrong on an early-1960s program. They reprised a 
> number from
> the 1959 movie "The Five Pennies," a version of "When the Saints Go 
> Marchin' In"
> with ridiculous patter lyrics by Fine.
> The television clip is better than the movie version, both men utterly at 
> ease. Although
> some accounts have said Kaye could be difficult, there was rarely any 
> evidence of
> that in front of the camera, and certainly none in this clip.
> "You see my father's ability to work with another star, and you never feel 
> he wants
> center stage," Ms. Kaye said. "He didn't have to outshine anybody."
> That's a quality -- of comedy, of performing in general -- that sometimes 
> seems in
> short supply today. Practically every late-night talk show host could use 
> a refresher
> course: Jon Stewart, David Letterman, Stephen Colbert and others have a 
> tendency
> to step on their guests' moments. Their interruptions might be amusing, 
> but probably
> not as amusing as a shared spotlight would have been.
> Incongruity Is Comedy Gold
> It was the mid-1970s, and the folk-pop singer John Denver was at the 
> height of his
> popularity when Kaye was the guest on one of Denver's television specials. 
> Kaye by
> this time was well known for his work with Unicef, and he did a bit that 
> began with
> his telling the host that everywhere he traveled for that charity he heard 
> people
> singing Denver songs.
> Kaye, a master of foreign and made-up accents, then proceeded to 
> demonstrate how
> Denver's songs sounded in the Caribbean, England, the Soviet Union. By the 
> time he
> was done, "Leaving on a Jet Plane," "Sunshine on My Shoulder" and "Country 
> Roads"
> were in tatters, having been rendered in preposterous accents and rhythms 
> that were
> the antithesis of the syrupy Denver sound. It was a delirious comeuppance 
> for the
> somewhat pretentious Denver, one with which he happily went along.
> Know the Intelligence and Tolerance Level of Your Audience
> As Roseanne Barr found out the hard way in 1990 when she sang a 
> disrespectful version
> of "The Star-Spangled Banner" before a San Diego Padres game, humor works 
> only if
> you can read the crowd properly. Kaye had the temerity to bring slapstick 
> into that
> most somber of chambers, the concert hall, and yet not only survived but 
> also thrived.
> His comedic conducting served him well for decades, and by the time of "An 
> Evening
> With Danny Kaye and the New York Philharmonic," a "Live From Lincoln 
> Center" performance
> in 1981, he had already proved that he could make classical-music 
> audiences love
> him. Still, watching this performance leaves you startled at its 
> brashness: Kaye
> made fun of the orchestra, the art of conducting, the audience and more, 
> but his
> obvious knowledge and appreciation of classical music gave him the 
> latitude to do
> so. As Seth MacFarlane perhaps learned from the reaction to his recent 
> turn as Oscar
> host, there's a difference between merely mocking and mocking as a form of 
> homage.
> Kaye returns to the concert stage, in a manner of speaking, on April 29 
> when he is
> to be honored along with Frank Loesser and Jule Styne at a New York Pops 
> concert
> at Carnegie Hall. Assorted other Kaye events are also yet to come.
> "My overall goal is to get the work out," Ms. Kaye said. The best of it is 
> certainly
> worth a fresh look.
> -30-
>
>
>
> -Bob Ringwald
> www.ringwald.com
> Amateur (ham) Radio Operator K6YBV
> 916/ 806-9551
>
> A penny saved is a government oversight.
>
>
>
> -Bob Ringwald
> www.ringwald.com
> Amateur (ham) Radio Operator K6YBV
> 916/ 806-9551
>
> A penny saved is a government oversight.
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