| Show Elsa Eisa Maxwells Maxwell's I Daily Particles of Patter I think I was the only person person person per per- son in the world who had never heard beard nor seen Danny Kaye w is J un until til I went tt y with Moss 0 s s Hart to the theo j. j u o 0 opening p pen e n i ng of Lady in the I 4 JJ Dark I 1 last a s t tj cI I year I hardly hardly hardly hard hard- ly ever go to j nightclubs so 4 while I enjoy I l the a d v a n- n II I tage of es escaping escaping escaping es- es caping e extreme ex- ex x boredom boredom bore bore- v dom I undo un un- d do 0 u b t e S miss the oc- oc Elsa cas casion ion a 1 I Maxwell s streaking t rea king across the nightlife sky of a comet such as Danny though Danny though these comets like the famous Halle Bane are rare and sometimes do not return for centuries If mf you could combine I sky in L LApres Midi Dun Faune with Eddie Foy or imagine imagine imag imag- ine me the late great Will Rogers as a Cossack Leopold ski as a tap dancer or Pavlova as a man you man you have Danny Kaye Or dont don't you Danny Kaye is just as great an artist as any of the above above- and what is more he plays upon his audience as if it were a fiddle fiddle fid fid- fid fid- dle dle- dle only die only Danny fiddles while we burn turn For after seeing him a dozen times in Lets Face It I find the secret o of his charm is that he is never the same twice Having ing topped the highest record record record rec rec- rec- rec ord in double talk Danny with the help of his wife Sylvia Fine who writes all his material materia graduated into the stratosphere of triple talk talk but but his routine would be worthless and lifeless unless Danny the zany performed performed performed per per- formed it himself Danny is as much a creator of ofa a ft new cult in comedy as Debussy was in music He has an incredible incredible incredible in in- credible elegance a distinct aristocratic aristocratic aristocratic aris aris- taint which touched Inexplicably in inexplicably inexplicably in- in this son of Russian immigrants who was born in Brooklyn I did go to a nightclub once to see him after we had become become become be be- come friends I was sitting in ina a chair at the entrance to the nightclub when a long line of people in evening evening- dress started to pass us on the way down down- stairs Stop said Danny in ringing tones raising his hand like a traffic cop dont descend to that den of vice without giving a little charity to this poor old woman here Indicating indicating indicating ing me me starving For a moment the arrivals almost almost al almost al- al most believed him but when they had a good look at me they knew I might be desperate desperate but but not for lack of food I ran out as fast as I could before Danny could do anything worse to me Eddie Cantor told me that during a Thursday matinee of Banjo Eyes Danny came to the theater to see him While on his way to Eddies Eddie's dressing room Danny discovered that one of the two chorus boys who sang We Did It Before We Can Do It Again with Cantor was ill Eddie said he wen went t on and noticed that during the number number number num num- ber they were getting more laughs in certain spots than they had ever gotten before He turned to face the chorus boy on the right right right-it it was Danny Kaye Eddie convulsed with laughter c continued the number but just before the end he jammed the banana he was supposed supposed supposed sup sup- posed to be eating down Dannys Danny's throat I played a good joke on Danny Danny Danny Dan Dan- ny to pay for the night he tried to take up a collection for me We both had an engagement to togo togo togo go to the costumers to be measured measured measured meas meas- for the clothes we were to wear at a benefit Christmas par par- ty I was to be Santa Claus Glaus he was to be Father Knicker Knicker- bocker I got there first completed my fitting fitting- and waited for Dan Dan- ny When he arrived he got into his Father Knickerbocker costume at once once and and came outto outto out outto to show it to me but when his back was turned I took his own clothes even even to his shoes and dashed to my hotel Danny chased all ail allover over NewYork NewYork New NewYork York before he finally caught up with me at the Waldorf Towers |
