Danny Kaye

• Genre: Good Old Days
• Hometown: Brooklyn

About

While Danny Kaye's movies are fun, and all contain brilliant bits, almost none of them show what this comedian was capable of. Kaye worked on his unique physical humor and song skills while performing in Asia in the 1940s. Songs like "Madame I Love Your Crepe Suzette" featured sly English lyrics, but even foreign audiences found them hilarious. Kaye was such a good musician that he could work rapid-fire send ups of highbrow musical genres with a mixture of foreign accents and half gibberish vocals and find favor with both café society and the beer-hall crowd. Likewise, he could perform an extended scat duet with Louis Armstrong in Five Pennies and then turn around and sing "Inch Worm" for the playground set. Danny Kaye was irreplaceable.

- Nick Dedina