The collage of 20th century American entertainment wouldn't be complete without Danny Kaye, a singer, dancer and all-around funnyman who just missed being born in Ukraine - the land of everyone else in his family.
David Daniel Kaminsky was instead born in Brooklyn, N.Y., on January 18, 1913, the youngest of three brothers. Though he had dreamed of being a doctor, Kaye dropped out of school at age 13 and headed for Florida, where he sang on the street for handouts.
“It was during this travelling minstrel period of his life that he changed his surname to Kaye. After trying his hand at radio and comedy skits at summer camps and hotels, Kaye went abroad, where he honed his raw stage talents among professionals. The young Ukrainian-American showed particular pizzazz as a mime.
By 1938, he had met his future wife and creative soul mate, comedy writer Sylvia Fine. A year later, Kaye debuted on Broadway in "The Straw Hat Revue," but what got him noticed was a song called "Tchaikovsky," in which he sang the names of 54 Russian composers in 38 seconds - true to his Slavic roots.
In the early 1940s, while the rest of the world was as at war, Kaye was doing the nightclub and theatre circuit in New York, although he also did his part to entertain the troops. Finally in 1943, movie mogul Samuel Goldwyn offered him a film contract. In order to portray Kaye as the all-American boy, Goldwyn asked him to bleach his hair and get a nose job. Kaye agreed to the first request but left his nose naturally long.
Kaye's film career includes classics like "Up in Arms," "Wonder Man," "The Kid from Brooklyn" and - again remembering his Ukrainian roots - Gogol's "Inspector General." He is probably better known for his role in "White Christmas" (1954) and "Court Jester" two years later. Kaye's popularity even extended to Europe. In 1948, Britain's Royal Family liked his theater performance so much that they reportedly left the royal box to sit in the front row.
The all-around entertainer from back east also had a serious side. In the 1950s, Kaye began doing charity work for UNICEF. As a licensed pilot, he flew himself to dozens of cities to do his part for less fortunate kids. When UNICEF was granted the Nobel Prize in 1965, Kaye was selected to accept it.
In the 1960s, he went into television, starring in his own musical variety show, the Emmy winning "Danny Kay Show." In the 1970s, he returned to Broadway, where even after a hip injury he did his stuff on stage with crutches. Kaye also tried his hand as a conductor for several orchestras, performing "Flight of the Bumblebee" with a flyswatter.
Finally, in 1981, Kaye demonstrated his talent for serious drama in "Skokie," a TV movie in which he earned acclaim as a Nazi concentration camp survivor. In 1987, at the age of 74, he died of a heart attack in Los Angeles.
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