“Danny Kaye Looks At Life”
It’s been OK to him, he says, knocking on wood
The Milwaukee Journal – May 9, 1954
By: Lawrence Perry
NEW YORK—Danny Kaye was eating brunch in his hotel suite, wearing—notably—a canary colored dressing gown and a pair of slippers into which each toe fitted like a glove. Somehow the talk turned to his future—but Danny wouldn’t have it.
Immediately ahead he had a picture to do for his Paramount employer—but that wasn’t bothering him either.
“It’s futile to bother about things lying ahead,” he said. “You make your plans; more often than not something rises to upset them. Fate takes a hand—and you can’t control fate. I’ll go to bed with everything arranged for tomorrow’s conditions; circumstances arise to throw everything into discard.”
Danny’s remark about not counting on anything was in line with the general trend of talk. It could have been titled: “Danny Kaye Looks at Life.” For one thing, he’s deeply interested in juvenile delinquency and has spoken before organizations engaged in studying this problem.
“I was born and raised in New York’s east side,” he said, “but you can’t escape one conclusion no matter on which side of this town you were born and brought up. It relates to the cause of delinquency, and the main cause to my mind, that can be put in a sentence: If adults were not delinquent there would be no juvenile delinquency.”
As to himself, Kaye is tempted at times to attribute his success as an entertainer to flukes. But nothing, he went on, is really an accident with him—or anyone else—who has worked as hard and consistently as he has.
Things do occasionally happen by chance, he said, but usually they arise out of a foundation one has laid, sometimes unconsciously. Yes, he has religious faith but that is his own business.
“Heaven knows I have faults,” he said. “Lots of them. But inner things are a person’s own private business. Yet, I can cite one article of faith to which I have always stuck: Never be salacious or in any way smutty, direct or indirect on the stage.
“That kind of stuff offends and embarrasses me as much as the most devout Puritan in any audience.”
Does he ever have a proud feeling that his talent takes audiences out of themselves—eases their worries?
“All I know,” he said, “is that the hour and a half or two hours I am on the stage I personally am lifted out of normal self so maybe the customers are too.”
Has he ever thought about writing of his career which has seen friendship with kings, queens and princesses? His reply was prompt as it was brief.
“No!”
Beyond what he has accomplished, has he any ambition other than what he is doing?
“Yes, I have one powerful ambition,” he said, “and just one: An ambition never to play Hamlet. As to anything else let fate decide—and fate will decide whether I like it or not.”
Kaye has a 7 year old daughter named Dena and not the slightest plan for her future.
“All I can say is that whatever she wants to be she will be without interference from her mother (Sylvia Fine, to whom he has been married 14 years and whose ability as writer and composer is integrated into his career) nor from me,” Kaye said.
“When I was in my teens I showed promise as an actor and neighbors used to jump on my old father for letting me have my way. But he (Jacob Kaminsky, who died three years ago), although uneducated and not rich to say the least, was wise in many ways.
“‘The boy,’ he said, ‘shall be let alone to follow his will.’ And so it was.”
Despite Danny’s rule against counting upon the future he has to deal with it. His plans include a trip to Johannesburg to open a four week engagement in May, followed by another week in Rhodesia. He’ll stop first of all in England—he and the three acts he’s taking—but not to perform, merely to check up on friends.