“Danny Readies Show For Annual TV Performance”
Manhattan Mercury – Nov. 3, 1961
HOLLYWOOD—The “gitgatgittle” man, Danny Kaye, returns to TV with an hour of dancing, singing and pantomime in a CBS special, Monday night, November 6th.
Last Autumn on TV, Kaye worked with a studio audience and trumpeter Louis Armstrong, and had members of the audience singing back silly phrases to him This is a Kaye specialty, but he had never tried it in television before. Danny had visions of fans singing under his direction in every living room that night. The idea must have worked when you see how Mitch Miller makes such a big thing of it.
This fall Kaye will leave the audience participation bit to Mitch and work alone. Danny has more actors and chorus people in the choir this year, but he is the big cheese. He has a theme this time—how people appear differently to others. He likes the idea of a person with one concept of himself, but who creates an entirely different concept in the minds of others.
There’s a six minute segment where Kaye makes eight to ten costume changes as he plays a man going through a day making enemies. He’s a jackass to one person, a Simon Legree to another. To himself, he’s quite harmless. In another segment Kaye illustrates how singers may look differently to others when he imitates a baritone, a soprano and a blues singer with all the right body movement, but no voice.
Since taping the show Danny has been jumping around the country, but was concerned one hot day in his Paramount Studio office. As he talked about the show, Danny stretched out on a couch with one arm lazily tossed over his head like a dancer. It seemed to be a typical Kaye gesture.
“You know, we worked six months on this show,” he said. “I’m beginning to think it’s harder to do one show a year than a month. You have to be so selective. You put something in, then take it out and worry about it. If you could just put a number in and forget about it because of lack of time, the worry would at least disappear.”
While a lot of time and effort has gone into the show, onlookers agreed the results seemed dubious after dress rehearsal which turned into a shambles. Afterwards, director Bud Yorkin said to the cast, “if the old adage about a poor dress and a good show is true, we’re going to have one of the greatest shows ever.”
According to Kaye, a real workhorse, who wasn’t perturbed about the dress rehearsal, the main event came off quite nicely. “There are some things I would like to do over and there are some pieces I’m very happy with,” he said, getting up to take a few practice swings with a golf club. “No matter how hard you try there are always a few things you want to try again. There are times when I come off a stage at night completely disgusted with myself. Then a good night will keep me happy for a while.”
Danny’s favorite TV effort was the United Nation’s Children’s Fund program where he talked and sang with children in Africa, Europe and Asia. “That fit television like a jewel,” he said. “A combination of information and entertainment done spontaneously. I actually just shot film of what was going on in front of me. We came back with six hours of film and cut it down to 90 minutes. That was like cutting a pound of flesh.
“There was one shot that always impressed me tremendously, in which we filmed streams of people coming out of a white hospital building in the middle of the desert. If that didn’t show the need for medical help, I don’t know what would.”
Danny is a medical buff and a close friend of his says that if Danny had to do it all over again, he would be a surgeon. So the combination of Kaye, who loves children and medicine, finding spots where help was needed, turned the show into one of TV’s gems.
Take a look at Danny’s hands in this TV show. They’re very expressive and used with great finesse. No doubt Danny could have been a surgeon, judging from those hands, but he has earned his spurs entertaining the world.