“Danny Kaye Stars In Special Show”
Waycross Journal-
By: Richard K. Shull
NEW YORK – Danny Kaye, the emphemeral entertainer with the fey little dance step, spent nearly a year and a half in one place – New York – while he starred on Broadway in “Two by Two.”
“It was the longest I’d been in one place in 30 years,” he said.
So to compensate for it, he’s been moving double time ever since, including an around-
Among his frenetic activities in motion, he worked in a special TV show, “The Enchanted
World of Danny Kaye,” which will be broadcast Feb. 21, in which he recorded the sound
track in New York, filmed portions featuring himself in Copenhagen, and dropped in
at Tokyo to see the main portion of the show, done in three-
So what do you do, Mr. Kaye, for recreation when you’re not popping all over the globe?
“Well, Monday I flew a DC-
Danny Kaye piloting a jumbo jet?
“In many ways it’s easier than the Jet Commander I used to have,” he replied casually. “It’s all a series of buttons. Once you punch the right buttons it does it all. It even lands itself.”
Aside from his occasional TV efforts on behalf of UNICEF, Kaye has been away from TV for five years. That’s when he ended his CBS variety hour.
And if you really want to get a jolt, consider 28 years have past since Kaye burst on the public along with another newcomer named Dinah Shore in a movie titled “Up in Arms.”
Kaye said he’s had no desire at all to get back on TV in a regular basis. “I see no challenge in dancing every week. The only thing that interests me now are things that stimulate and excite me,” he said.
And he said he was intrigued when producers Arthur Rankin and Jules Bass approached him while he still was working on Broadway to do a TV special for them.
Rankin and Bass specialize in a process they call Animagic—three-
(The most famous of the technique is the annual TV Christmas special, “Rudolph the
Red-
In this instance, Rankin and Bass wanted Kaye to do the Hans Christian Andersen tale of “The Emperor’s New Clothes.” The star of the show happens to look, act and dance exactly like Danny Kaye.
So, while Kaye still was appearing nightly on Broadway, he, Cyril Ritchard, and Imogene Coca performed the sound track for the program.
After Kaye left “Two by Two,” he flew to Copenhagen to appear live on film against the authentic Danish backgrounds, for his opening and close of the show.
Then he went to Tokyo, where the Japanese filmed his dancing, gestures, etc., which they faithfully transferred to the movements of their puppet.
Kaye confided he was a little shocked to see the finished film of a little puppet accurately performing his famous dance steps and gestures.
Kaye’s inability to stand still, to even tolerate doing the same thing for very long, or even being in the same locale for an extended period, has worked to a great advantage for UNICEF, for which he serves as a representative on a global basis.
“I’ve been at it 18 years now,” Kaye said, “and day by day, year by year, I’ve watched the world get smaller. Five years ago, a man in an African costume in New York could draw a crowd. Today, he is commonplace. It’s the same everywhere, thanks to communications and jet travel. When the SSTs are in service, the world will really shrink. You’ll be able to go from anywhere to anywhere in five hours.”
He said his work with UNICEF has been particularly gratifying because the United Nations agency operates anywhere, regardless of political boundaries, for benefit of children and without political involvement.