Column – Hollywood Report
Daytona Beach Morning Journal – Jun. 15, 1953
By: Bob Thomas
HOLLYWOOD (AP) – Can the old two a day vaudeville come back?
“I’m afraid not,” is the sad reply of its leading practitioner of modern times, Danny Kaye. The brickhaired comic has played his vaudeville show to sellout audiences at New York’s Palace, The London Palladium, The Curran in San Francisco and other noted theaters.
His example has stirred hopes that bigtime vaude might again rise to the glory which it held in the first three decades of this century. Every sizeable U.S. city had at least one vaude house and sometimes more. Those days will not return, says Kaye.
“There aren’t enough situations for an actor to appear 50 weeks out of the year, as in the old days,” he remarked. “You can only play a vaudeville show in certain big cities.
“Besides, there aren’t enough acts to go around. The only ones who have tried to do vaudeville on the old scale are myself, Judy Garland, Jack Benny and Betty Hutton. That isn’t enough to keep a circuit going.”
Despite his pessimistic outlook, he was enthusiastic about vaudeville for those can do it.
“It’s the greatest business in the World,” he glowed. “It’s even better than the old two a day. You don’t have to do two shows a day—only matinees on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Otherwise you only do one show a night.”
His “one show” is a rigorous workout, however. Kaye stays on stage for an hour and 40 minutes of dancing, singing, telling jokes and generally cutting up. But, as anyone who has caught his act will testify, he certainly enjoys his work. He evokes the warm response from an audience which performers in the more mechanical mediums seldom experience.
It’s not only fun, but profitable. Amazingly so, as Kaye admits.
“Take a show like ‘Oklahoma!’” he observed. “It represents an investment of perhaps $250,000 to $300,000. It has a cast of perhaps 40 to 50 people and carloads of scenery and costumes. It can play a theater in San Francisco and make $45,000 a week, which is good business.
“Then I play the same house. I carry my whole show in one small suitcase. I take along five vaudeville acts and no scenery. This show can draw $50,000 for the week.”
Kaye has earned such fantastic figures wherever he plays. In his 14th and last week during his recent stand at The Palace in New York, he drew an amazing $55,000. his share of the receipts has been reported in excess of $25,000.
So it’s no wonder that he has sluffed off the other entertainment mediums to concentrate
on vaudeville. He is currently making one of his infrequent movies, called, “Knock
on Wood.” He plays a ventriloquist in the film, which is being made independently
with those triple threat men, Norman Panama and Melvin Frank. Kaye and the two writer-
The comic has averaged a picture a year recently, and that’s how he’d like to keep it. What about television? He is virtually the last holdout among the top comedians.
“I’m not interested in TV, as long as I can play vaudeville,” he explained. “I’m sure I’ll get into it eventually, but I’m in no hurry. I can tell you one thing—I would never do a weekly show. That’s plain murder.”