“Danny Kaye Has Her Rolling”
Meriden Journal – Aug. 22, 1961
By: Tom Affinito
Comedian Danny Kaye meets thousands of admirers annually in his travels throughout the world and consequently, the greeting of fans becomes a pretty routine affair.
However, the internationally-
The fan, Mrs. Muriel LaCombe, of 12 Lourdes Court, has been a Kaye admirer for a number of years. However, she hadn’t made any plans to attend his revue when it was scheduled at a nearby summer theater.
Then, on the spur of the moment, I decided that I wanted to meet Danny Kaye,” Mrs. LaCombe said. “It was partly a joke and a challenge.”
That was the beginning of the story. The next stop was to get to Wallingford where the comedian had set up shop.
Mrs. LaCombe, 38, has been paralyzed since birth and she has to transport herself from place to place with a wheel chair.
“I told my neighbors and family that I could wheel myself from my home down to the Oakdale where the show was,” said Mrs. LaCombe.
“They laughed at me and I decided to make them eat their words,” she explained.
The journey started last Thursday shortly after noon. The crippled woman quietly wheeled herself out of the Chamberlain Heights project and down the Old Colony Road to the Oakdale Summer Theater. A distance of approximately seven miles.
“It was about six o’clock when I finally got down there,” she reported, “and I must confess that I’ve been more tired from doing house work than from that ride.”
She said that she didn’t experience any trouble along the way but admitted that some of those hills along the way were tough work. At one point, she was stopped by the Wallingford Police who wanted to know if she were in trouble.
“When I finally arrived at the theater, they couldn’t believe it,” Mrs. LaCombe, the mother of two children, explained. “They went and go Danny Kaye and he shook his head in disbelief.”
The visitor then got a cherished possession, a Danny Kaye autograph. Theater officials brought her into the show as their guest.
Following the show, Mrs. LaCombe telephoned a neighbor. Mrs. Carol Olson, of 7 Lourdes Court, who drove to Wallingford and brought her home.
“I’ve always liked him,” Mrs. LaCombe said of the versatile showman, “and he’s just
as nice in person.”
When asked if she had plans for making any more of these long-
“I’m waiting for my children to grow up, then I’m going to push myself across the country!”