Danny Kaye

A gifted mimic and peerless physical comedian, Danny Kaye ranked among America's most popular entertainers in the years during and following World War II. Rubber-faced and manic, he rose to stardom in film and in television, on record and on Broadway, easily adapting from outrageous novelty songs to tender ballads; for all of his success as a performer, however, his greatest legacy remains his tireless humanitarian work -- so close were his ties to the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) that when the organization received the Nobel Peace Prize, Kaye was tapped to accept it. Born David Daniel Kominsky on January 18, 1913, in Brooklyn, NY, he dropped out of high school at the age of 14 to hitchhike with his friend Louis Elison to Florida, where the duo sang for money. Upon returning to New York they teamed in an act dubbed Red and Blackie, later working as "toomlers" (i.e., creators of tumult, or all-around entertainers) on the borscht-belt circuit in the Catskills. In 1933 he joined the Three Terpsichoreans' vaudeville act, performing for the first time as "Danny Kaye"; after touring the country in the stage revue La Vie Paree, the troupe sailed to the Orient in 1934. In Japan and China, Kaye developed his pantomime and face-making techniques; he also began singing in gibberish, allowing only the occasional word to be rendered intelligible. After returning stateside in 1936, Kaye worked with comedian Nick Long, Jr., and toured with Abe Lyman's Band before journeying to London to play the city's cabaret circuit. The trip proved unsuccessful, and soon Kaye was back in New York; there he met pianist and songwriter Sylvia Fine, who became not only his performing partner but also his wife. Fine wrote many of Kaye's best-known songs, including...