“My Life in a watermelon”
Youngstown Vindicator – Jan. 12, 1958
By: Danny Kaye
No one in show business ever can forget the first time he appeared on stage. This moment means what his first operation means to a surgeon, what his first case in court means to an attorney. Not long ago I enjoyed a nostalgic reminder of my first performance.
The memory flooded back when I returned to my old grammar school, P. S. 149 in Broolyn,
N. Y. I went there to chat with the students and to record a new introduction to
my filmed CBS-
The occasion was a minstrel show my class was giving. I, my face dusted with burnt cork, played one seed in a huge watermelon. I don’t remember what I did in this taxing role except to sing a song called Let It Rain, Let It Rain. But when I heard the applause, I felt as Madame Curie must have when she discovered radium.
Up to the time we began to take our places on stage, I hadn’t cared much about the show. I’d rather have been out playing stickball. All I wanted was to appear, be the watermelon seed and get it over with as quickly and painlessly as possible.
But just before the performance, our teacher stopped us. “I want you to remember one thing,” she said. “That auditorium is full of children. They are going to pay you the honor of giving you their attention. They have the right to expect in return that you will do your very best to entertain them.”
Somehow those words made a tremendous impression on me. I have adopted them as my own. If an audience has come to see me, I feel it is entitled to the very best I can give. And though most of my life has been spent in show business, it seems to me the same would apply to any line of endeavor.
If you’re going to be a watermelon seed, be the best darned watermelon seed you know how to be!