From Those Were the Days:

1924 - The first political convention on radio was presented by NBC. Graham McNamee provided coverage of the Republican National Convention from Cleveland, OH. McNamee was one of the great sports broadcasters of radio’s Golden Age.
11:41:13 AM    comment []  trackback []  

“Get-gat gittle de-de reep fasan, get-gat gittle de-de reep fasan, gat-gat gittle de-de beep!”

Entertainer Danny Kaye, in his long career, conquered many different areas of show business, encompassing stage (Lady in the Dark), screen (The Kid From Brooklyn, On the Riviera) and television (a critically-acclaimed variety hour on CBS from 1963-67). But I’ve always been curious as to how radio managed to pass him by. Veteran comedy scribe Hal Kanter, who wrote for Kaye’s short-lived comedy-variety show that was heard over CBS Radio from January 6, 1945 to May 31, 1946, comments in Jordan R. Young’s The Laugh Crafters that “Danny Kaye was not a very good radio comedian. In order to appreciate Danny fully, you had to see him.”

To be frank, I’ve never been one of Kaye’s admirers (he was always a little too “precious” for my taste)—though I will readily admit he was one hell of a talent. I will make exceptions for two of his movies: Knock on Wood (1954), in which he plays a ventriloquist who gets entangled with spies; and The Court Jester (1956), which I will go on record right now and say that it’s one of cinema’s finest (and perfect) film comedies. It’s just hard to fathom that radio’s The Danny Kaye Show had such a brief run; it showcased first-rate supporting talent in Eve Arden, Lionel Stander, Frank Nelson and Butterfly McQueen, the popular big-band music of Harry James and his Music Makers, the song stylings of Joan Edwards (from Your Hit Parade), and top-notch comedy writing from the likes of Abe Burrows (Duffy’s Tavern) and Goodman Ace (Easy Aces). In other words: “Wha’ hoppened?”

Some have speculated that the friction between Goody Ace and Sylvia Fine—Mrs. Danny Kaye—might have had something to do with the tanking of the show; theirs was a strained relationship, and Ace departed not long after the show’s debut. Writer Kanter mentions one such uncomfortable incident in Young’s book:

Sylvia and Herbie Baker and a girl named Lee Butler used to write the special material for Danny—the patter songs. One week Sylvia told Goody Ace, “Oh, I’m so tired, I can’t—I’m just exhausted—I can’t think of anything new to write. We’ll have to repeat some of the old stuff.” Goody said, “That’s fine, we’ll repeat some of our old jokes, too.” Sylvia said, “You can’t do that.” Goody said, “Why can you and I can’t?”

Fine had met Kaye during a summer engagement in Pennsylvania in the late 30s, and the two of them were wed January 3, 1940. Sylvia became, according to Kaye’s entry in the 1952 edition of Current Biography, “his personal director, coach, critic, and occasionally his accompanist.” (Danny even went on record as to quip, “Sylvia has a fine head on my shoulders.”) Fine contributed to many of Kaye’s classic musical numbers in films, most notably The Lobby Number in Up in Arms and The Maladjusted Jester from The Court Jester.

Kaye’s radio series was sponsored during its run by Pabst Blue Ribbon, whose slogan—“33 fine brews, blended into one great beer—was modified to promote the show’s star as “33 fine talents, blended into one great comedian.” (Yes, I know—it doesn’t make sense to me either.) The show originated from Hollywood in the beginning, and then moved to New York later on, replacing most of Danny’s supporting cast with the likes of Kenny Delmar and Everett Sloane. I listened to a broadcast from February 3, 1945 last night, and as the show opens, Danny has just returned from a whirlwind March of Dimes tour:

STEWARDESS: Step right down, Mr. Kaye…

(SFX: splash)

DANNY: Ah…good ol’ sunny California…

LIONEL: There he is, Miss Arden! Hiya Danny!

DANNY: Hello Lionel! Hello Evey!

EVE: Hello, Danny…welcome home…

DANNY: Ah, thanks, honey…did you miss me?

EVE: Certainly did! This place wasn’t the same without you…now that you’re back, we can all return to abnormal…

DANNY: Ah, you’re a doll…just a little doll…say, Lionel—would you carry my bags a minute, please…I’ve got to carry this little bundle I brought back from Washington…

EVE: I knew it, I knew it…Danny Kaye, just what is in this little bundle? Another milking machine?

DANNY: Oh, on the contrary…look…

(SFX: baby crying)

EVE: A baby!

LIONEL: Well, it ain’t Fanny Brice, sister…

The routine goes on to include an baby-talk exchange between Danny and his new charge (that’s the “precious” part I referred to earlier), but as it turns out, Kaye just brought the rugrat along with him to meet his father at the airport. The second half of the show picks up a great deal, with Danny imagining himself to be “The King of Brooklyn” (with Lionel as his prime minister, “Winston” Stander). This amusing operetta includes one or two musical numbers composed by Sylvia as well. I’ve only listened to a small handful of Danny Kaye Shows and while they could on occasion be amusing (the program used to do a Irish running gag along the lines of “Oh, really?” “No, O’Reilly…”) overall the show is hardly Goodman Ace’s finest hour. In fact, according to Kanter, many of the best lines came from behind the scenes of the show:

One week, I’ll never forget—this is when Goody was still running the show, and we’d sit around the table and read. And this one week, we finished reading the script for the first act, and everyone says, “Good, good.” Except Danny. He folded his script and said, “Well, I’m the highest-paid straight man in show business.” And Goody, without looking up, said “Jack Benny makes three times the money you do.”

Back in March, the magazine known as Small Business Times published an article about a recent cleanup at the Pabst Brewing Company that turned up memorabilia such as photos of OTR stars like Eddie Cantor and Jimmy Durante and some transcription discs marked “Danny Kaye,” which are believed to be broadcasts from the Pabst sponsored show of 1945-46. Perhaps if and when these shows come to light, they’ll fill in a little more back ground on Kaye’s series; as it stands now, approximately two dozen of his shows are extant and in circulation for the enjoyment of OTR fans. Though Danny might not have been able to pull off a career in radio, his programs are nevertheless a fascinating curio from the wonderful time known as the Golden Age of Radio.
11:26:17 AM    comment []  trackback []