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Show by Joseph N. 0 Bell march night in 1943, a wildly cheering crowd at New York standing-room-on- ly City's Copacabana greeted a plaintive little man wearing a smasned hat, a lecherous leer, and a magnificent nose. Behind him, a second enter-taine- rr clad impeccably in top hat and tails, into the spotlight Then, unexpectedly, from the shadows of a ringside table, a lithe form . hurdled a chair, slid gracefully across the floor, and bounced to his feet The first two men looked at the third in startled wonderment, then ecstatic joy. The fabled team of Durante, Clayton, and Jackson was reunited. They hadn't, appeared together for 12 years, and they never would again. This night was one of the great dramatic mpments in show business. If Jimmy Durante had to single out a few highlights of his remarkable career, this would be one of them. For Lou Clayton along with Jimmy's wife, Jeanne, and his father, Bartolomeo was a great driving force in his life. All three are gone now, but Jimmy the greatest down of our time, appears indestructible. He has been a headliner in every aspect of show business vaudeville, night clubs, radio, television; motion pictures, and records for almost 40 years. And he has been a headliner as a gentle, generous, thoroughly good guy for much longer; Jimmy's, philosophy of life is simple and to the point: "There are more good people than bad ones in the world." An associate once said of Jimmy: 'The only thing about him bigger than his nose is his. heart." There are few dissenting votes to this summation of Durante. Jimmy has constantly looked for the good in his fellow men. Practically everything about Durante is fabulous, from his age (he admits to 65, but some of his friends think he is older) to his peculiar eating habits (an affinity for hot water, cornflakes, and powdered milk) to his steadfast loyalty to friends. His insistence that Eddie Jackson and other longtime pals share in his success is well known. 7 Less well known are the dozens of times each year Jimmy goes out of his way to help an acquaintanceor a total stranger. When he was in New York recently for a television show, he got up with the commuters, subwayed to Brooklyn and shook hands with customers of an old friend who was opening an appliance store. It took 30 cops to hold back the crowd. But as Jimmy pointed out with his unshakable logic: "A friend in need is a friend in need." Durante is living proof that a youngster raised with good judgment in a family will seldom go wrong, regardless of temptations. Jimmy was spawned in a rugged Bronx neighborhood, but his parents were never in want, even though Bartolomeo, a fine barber, cut his neighbors' hair for nothing as often as he charged for it The Durantes wanted Jimmy to be a musician, and they gave him piano lessons when ne reached ' the eighth grade. But instead of the classical music his parents preferredr Jimmy took to ragtime. He was good at" it, and he landed a. job in a Coney Island saloon when he was in his mid-teeplaying all night,- - every night, for $25 a week. Jimmy was exposed to a constant' procession of drunks, streetwalkers, and hoodlums. Yet the only N A A LIVING LEGEND: cake-walk- ed God-feari- ng ns Family Weekly, June 29, 1958 oQ, o 1 o o Or P o '0& o o o. OP hQ CO WnOO OX O ooP5 o o ... For almost 40 years, he's been a top star M : hP-- h : . part of it that ever rubbed off on accent and a deep understanding and compassion for all sorts of people. He has always been a virtual teetotaler, and to this day he looks upon all women as great ladies. Jimmy is impulsively that he wouldn't ask generous yet so the simplest favor of someone he had befriended. Maybe these are the things that make Jimmy's friends love him! After he had graduated from Coney Island to the Harlem night clubs, Jimmy met a young singer named Maud Jeanne, Olson who applied to him for a job when he was playing piano and directing an outfit known as "Jimmy Durante's New Orleans Jazz Band." Jeanne Olson got the job and a year later she got Jimmy. At about the same time, Eddie Jackson .tried 7um--wah- self-effaci- ng is .; 7' out for Jim s show with a vaudeville partner. The team didn't make the grade, but Jackson stayed to become Durante's lifelong companion. Several years later Lou Clayton, an established soft-shdancer, joined the team. '"Took it over" would be a more accurate term. Clayton recognized the genius in the gravel-voicDurante' and neither Clayton nor Jackson got in Jimmy's way, years later, when oners came do a single.,' But throughout the for Durante-- 1 Prohibition period, 'Durante Ciay ton, and Jackson operated a spot in tfew York known as the Club Durant, where they supplied the entertainment. Clayton took Jimmy away from the piano and put him on the floor as a comedian. The team did a combination song, dance, and patter act that oe ed |