Danny Kaye
Birth : 1911-01-18, Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA
Death : 1987-03-03
History
Danny Kaye (born David Daniel Kaminsky; January 18, 1911 – March 3, 1987) was a celebrated American actor, singer, dancer, and comedian. His best known performances featured physical comedy, idiosyncratic pantomimes, and rapid-fire nonsense songs.
Kaye starred in 17 movies, notably The Kid from Brooklyn (1946), The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947), The Inspector General (1949), Hans Christian Andersen (1952), White Christmas (1954), and — perhaps his most accomplished performance — The Court Jester (1956). His films were extremely popular, especially his bravura performances of patter songs and children's favorites such as The Inch Worm and The Ugly Duckling. He was the first ambassador-at-large of UNICEF and received the French Legion of Honor in 1986 for his many years of work with the organization.
Self (archive footage)
Not only did Mary Tyler Moore “turn the world on with her smile,” as her show’s theme song declared, she also influenced a generation of women to become more independent and to pursue successful and fulfilling careers. Moore’s own 50-plus-year career has spanned award-winning films and Broadway shows, as well as two beloved television series that broke ground and continue to entertain viewers. This one-hour special includes highlights from a recent interview with Mary Tyler Moore, tributes from her co-stars and clips from iconic moments throughout her career. The program looks at her breakthrough role on The Dick Van Dyke Show, her iconic turn as TV's first independent career woman on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and her Academy Award-nominated work on Ordinary People.
Self (archive footage)
Bing Crosby was, without a doubt, the most popular and influential multi-media star of the first half of the twentieth century, pulling audiences in with his intimate, laid-back voice and innate charm. Narrated by Stanley Tucci and directed by Robert Trachtenberg, this film explores the life and legend of this iconic performer, revealing a personality far more complex than the image the public had only thought they'd known.
Self (archive footage)
The story of the gold-plated statuette that became the film industry's most coveted prize, AND THE OSCAR GOES TO... traces the history of the Academy itself, which began in 1927 when Louis B. Mayer, then head of MGM, led other prominent members of the industry in forming this professional honorary organization. Two years later the Academy began bestowing awards, which were nicknamed "Oscar," and quickly came to represent the pinnacle of cinematic achievement.
(archive footage)
A tribute to the legendary costume designer Edith Head during her years providing costumes for the films of Paramount studio which includes Sunset Boulevard, Roman Holiday and many others during her distinguished career that lasted more than six decades and earned her eight Academy Awards wins in between more than 30 nominations.
Phil Davis (archive footage) (uncredited)
Actress Rosemary Clooney reminisces about the making of the classic holiday film White Christmas (1954).
(archive footage)
Highlights from the great musicals of the 1940s. Stars featured include Judy Garland, Mickey Rooney, Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, Bing Crosby, Doris Day, Danny Kaye, Jimmy Durante and Frank Sinatra.
Self (archive footage)
A film scrapbook, images, phrases from our past, hiding their meanings behind veils. Let's lift those veils, one by one, to find how images, at one time seeming innocent, have revealed, after decades, to have homosexual overtones.
Self (archive footage)
HBO (in association with the American Film Institute) presents this 1997 anthology, narrated by Liev Schreiber, which looks at sports in cinema from the earliest silent films until the nineties. Watch not for dramatic scenes but for the glimpse of historical figures shown both cinematic and athletic- in this tribute to the merging of sports and Hollywood.
Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
Stephen H. Bogart narrates the rise to fame of his father, Humphrey Bogart through the use of film clips, written material and interviews of friends and co-workers.
Self (archive footage)
Legendary showman Danny Kaye's greatest moments have been handpicked by Kaye's daughter, Dena, in this lighthearted compilation. Highlights ranging from Kaye's many television and film appearances are featured in all of their old Hollywood splendor, among them including his performance as a painfully shy man with the duty of escorting Lucille Ball to a restaurant, duets with Louis Armstrong and Harry Belafonte, and the famous tongue-twisting segment from The Court Jester.
Self
This special is the second "Night of 100 Stars" to benefit The Actors Fund of America. Edited from a seven-hour live entertainment marathon that was taped February 17, 1985, at New York's Radio City Music Hall, this sequel to the 1982 "Night of 100 Stars" special features 288 celebrities.
Self (archival footage)
William Shatner, Liz Taylor and many more stars blow lines, lose their pants and more in this hilarious collection of movie and TV bloopers.
From 'White Christmas' (archive footage)
A documentary film about dancing on the screen, from it's orgins after the invention of the movie camera, over the movie musical from the late 20s, 30s, 40s 50s and 60s up to the break dance and the music videos from the 80s.
Archive Footage
While a few Hollywood celebrities such as James Stewart and Clark Gable saw combat during World War II, the majority used their talents to rally the American public through bond sales, morale-boosting USO tours, patriotic war dramas and escapist film fare. Comedian David Steinberg plays host for this star-studded, 90-minute documentary, which looks at the way Tinseltown helped the United States' war effort.
Self
Danny Kaye tours EPCOT Center, singing its praises in Future World and the World Showcase. He meets celebrities and park characters like Dreamfinder and Figment, and speaks with some of the people responsible for creating the park.
Max Feldman
A dramatization of the controversial trial concerning the right for Neo-Nazis to march in the predominantly Jewish community of Skokie, Illinois.
Self
A night of classical music,conducted by famous comedian actor Danny Kaye,is something for the whole family to watch. Danny puts his talents to use while conducting and makes it very special for people of all ages.
Self
A tribute to American musical theater, featuring scenes from "Show Boat", "South Pacific," "Sweet Charity," "Finian's Rainbow," and "Lady in the Dark", among others. There is also discussion of the various creative aspects of the plays.
(archive footage)
Glenn Ford narrates this hilarious look back at the greatest comedians in movie history.
Captain Hook / Mr. Darling
Peter Pan is a 1976 musical adaptation of J. M. Barrie's Peter Pan, or the Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up, produced for television as part of the Hallmark Hall of Fame, starring Mia Farrow as Peter Pan and Danny Kaye as Captain Hook, and with Sir John Gielgud narrating. Julie Andrews sang one of the songs, "Once Upon a Bedtime", off-camera over the opening credits. It aired on NBC at 7:30pm on Sunday, December 12, 1976, capping off the program's 25th year on the air. The program did not use the score written for the highly successful Mary Martin version which had previously been televised many times on NBC. Instead, it featured 14 new and now forgotten songs, written for the production by Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse.
Self
CBS honors Lucille Ball with this celebration of her three CBS series: I Love Lucy, The Lucy Show and Here's Lucy.
Geppetto / Boris Stroganoff
This musical adaptation of Pinocchio from 1976 features the incomparable talents of Danny Kaye, Sandy Duncan, Flip Wilson, and Clive Revill. Framed by the story of a young theater girl's desire to study and work apart from her father, the story of Pinocchio is presented as a subplay with the young girl as Pinocchio (Sandy Duncan) and her father as Geppetto (Danny Kaye). The famous Carlo Collodi story of a lonely woodcutter whose marionette comes to life is presented faithfully and engagingly.
Marmaduke
This is one of the 'Animagical' titles from the children's film archive of Rankin/Bass. The story line is reminiscent of an earlier 1966 R/B Animagic film, 'The Daydreamer', both of which chronicles the fairy tales of Danish author, Hans Christian Andersen.
Narrator (voice)
Peter Cottontail wants to be the #1 chief Easter Bunny, and everyone in April Valley agrees...except for Evil Irontail. Peter must deliver more eggs than this archrival to earn the top spot...and save Easter for children everywhere!
The Ragpicker
An eccentric Parisian woman's optimistic perception of life begins to sound more rational than the rather traditional beliefs of others.
Self
A program featuring original comedy skits written as a tribute to Stan Laurel.
Nikolai Nikolayevich
A compilation of film clips of comedies from 1930's.
Ernest Klenk
Mobster Foots Pulardos, who operates a health gym as a front, plans to flee to Mexico to evade government tax officials. His girl friend, Sugar Pye, suggests that he first arrange for the cremation of a man having his own peculiar identifying characteristic--feet of different sizes--and then apply for a Diners' Club card for use in paying his fare. The request for the credit card comes to the desk of Ernie Klenk, a timid clerk. Nervous about his forthcoming marriage to the boss's secretary, Lucy, Ernie inadvertently okays the application, then, discovering his mistake, rushes to the health gym to recover the club card he has issued.
Pfc. Ernie Williams
American GI Ernie Williams, admittedly weak-kneed, has an uncanny resemblance to British Colonel MacKenzie. Williams, also a master of imitation and disguise, is asked to impersonate the Colonel, ostensibly to allow the Colonel to make a secret trip East. What Williams is not told is that the Colonel has recently been a target of assassins. After the Colonel's plane goes down, the plan changes and Williams maintains the disguise to confuse the Nazis about D-Day.
(archive footage)
Compilation of comedy sketches from the comedy kings Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, Danny Kaye & Bing Crosby.
Red Nichols
Dixieland cornetist Red Nichols runs into opposition to his sound, but breaks through to success. He marries a warm, patient woman and even finds time to raise a family. Then tragedy strikes when their daughter contracts polio.
S.L. Jacobowsky
Jacobowsky, a Jewish refugee, flees from the Nazis with an aristocratic, anti-semitic Polish officer trying to get papers to England. Jurgens learns to appreciate Jacobowsky, despite their competition for the same woman, and together they outwit their pursuers
Andrew Larabee
When eccentric English teacher Andrew Larabee needs a raise in order for his fiancée to marry him, his interest in archaeology leads him to an ancient statue's burial site. But when he finds a traveling circus directly above the statue's location, he accidentally becomes part of the act. With a newfound passion for performance and an attraction to the beautiful acrobat Selena, Andrew must decide what is truly important to him.
Hubert Hawkins
A hapless carnival performer masquerades as the court jester as part of a plot against a usurper who has overthrown the rightful king of England.
Phil Davis
Two talented song-and-dance men team up after the war to become one of the hottest acts in show business. In time they befriend and become romantically involved with the beautiful Haynes sisters who comprise a sister act.
Jerry Morgan
Ventriloquist Jerry Morgan has failed with another love affair. The reason: when the relationship reaches the point when it is time to discuss marriage, his two dolls become mean and jealous. Morgan's dollmaker Papinek is a member of a spy ring who has stolen the secret plans for the top-secret Lafayette airplane. Since Morgan is leaving for Zurich the same night, he decides to hide the secret plan in the heads of the dolls.
Hans Christian Andersen
A small-town shoemaker with a knack for spinning yarns, Hans encounters happiness and heartbreak on his road to becoming a full-fledged writer.
Jack Martin / Henri Duran
In this fast-paced remake of the Muarice Chavlier vehicle Folies Bergere, talented Danny Kaye plays both a performer and a heroic French military pilot.
Georgi
An illiterate stooge in a traveling medicine show wanders into a strange town and is picked up on a vagrancy charge. The town's corrupt officials mistake him for the inspector general whom they think is traveling in disguise. Fearing he will discover they've been pocketing tax money, they make several bungled attempts to kill him.
Danny Kaye (uncredited)
A waitress at the Warner Brothers commissary is anxious to break into pictures. She thinks her big break may have arrived when actors Jack Carson and Dennis Morgan agree to help her.
Self
The Warner Bros. annual blooper reel for 1949.
Professor Hobart Frisbee
The story of seven scholars in search of an expert to teach them about swing music. They seem to have found the perfect candidate in winsome nightclub singer Honey Swanson. But Honey's gangster boyfriend doesn't want to give her up.
Walter Mitty
Walter Mitty, a daydreaming writer with an overprotective mother, likes to imagine that he is a hero who experiences fantastic adventures. His dream becomes reality when he accidentally meets a mysterious woman who hands him a little black book. According to her, it contains the locations of the Dutch crown jewels hidden since World War II. Soon, Mitty finds himself in the middle of a confusing conspiracy, where he has difficulty differentiating between fact and fiction.
Burleigh Sullivan
Shy milkman Burleigh Sullivan accidentally knocks out drunken Speed McFarlane, a champion boxer who was flirting with Burleigh's sister. The newspapers get hold of the story and photographers even catch Burleigh knock out Speed again. Speed's crooked manager decides to turn Burleigh into a fighter. Burleigh doesn't realize that all of his opponents have been asked to take a dive. Thinking he really is a great fighter, Burleigh develops a swelled head which puts a crimp in his relationship with pretty nightclub singer Polly Pringle. He may finally get his comeuppance when he challenges Speed for the title.
Edwin Dingle / Buzzy Bellew
Boisterous nightclub entertainer Buzzy Bellew was the witness to a murder committed by gangster Ten Grand Jackson. One night, two of Jackson's thugs kill Buzzy and dump his body in the lake at Prospect Park in Brooklyn. Buzzy comes back as a ghost and summons his bookworm twin, Edwin Dingle, to Prospect Park so that he can help the police nail Jackson.
Self (uncredited)
The history of a Polish family and its contributions to the war effort throughout American history.
Danny Weems
Hypochondriac Danny Weems gets drafted and accidentally smuggles his girlfriend aboard his Pacific-bound troopship.
Danny Kaye
Documentary short film depicting the work in a British armaments plant in which the night shift consists of women workers.
Nikolai Nikolaevich
This fun little piece has Danny Kaye as man who buys a life insurance policy. What the insurance salesman doesn't know is that Danny is on the hit list by assassins so he has to do everything he can to keep him alive or else pay up on the policy.
Nikolai Nikolaevich
Because his family has a history of insanity that breaks out when a family member hasn't married by the time they are 25 years old, Nikolai Nikolaevich visits a matrimonial firm searching for a bride. But all the candidates are either too fat, too young, too old, too skinny or too ugly,and he turns them all down.
Nikolai Nikolaevich
Nickotai (Danny Kaye) needs an eye test and is the first patient of ‘eyetestometist’ Henry Groper.
Eddie
June Allyson is a cashier in a dance hall and her friend Imogene Coca wants to get a job there as a dance hostess. June advises her she needs to first make herself attractive to men,and gives her a book on the subject. But Imogene, by mistake, picks up the wrong book and reads one on the art of jiu-jitsu. Imogene's first customer is a bashful sailor who gets turned every which way but loose. Hank Henry also appears as a sailor. All four performers had better things ahead of them although,in the case of comedian Hank Henry, not by much.
