“Comedian Rules Against Strict Rules in Marriage”
The Victoria Advocate – Apr. 2, 1954
By: Dorothy Roe (AP Women’s Editor)
If you want to be happily married, don’t make any hard and fast rules on the subject, advises Danny Kaye.
The comedian, who has panicked stage, screen and night club audiences for the last
decade, was discussing the women in his life the other day, while preparing for his
forthcoming trip to South Africa. The women are two: his wife, the former Sylvia
Fine, and his 7-
The usually effervescent Danny was in a lugubrious mood, applying hot compresses to an infected finger while discussing the ups and downs of family life. Said he:
“Everybody keeps talking about normal homes, normal parents, normal children, normal environment. I’m sick of the word. Just who says what is normal for anybody else?”
Danny gives full credit to wife Sylvia for helping boost him into the top ranks of showmanship. In the beginning she wrote most of his material, now concentrates mostly on his movie work. Despite rumors of a marital rift a year or so ago, the Kayes have remained together, and retain the title of one of the happiest couples in show business. But, as Danny remarks:
“Do you know anybody who’s happy all the time? I love my work more than anything else, but I still get bored with it at times. I think that’s true of everyone.
“I wouldn’t want to be happy all the time. It would be extremely dull. No contrast.
“I’d hate to be crazy about anything—even marriage—all of the time. It shows a lack of imagination, a channeling of emotions. In such a case you just take everything for granted until something goes wrong. Then sometimes you find you’re not such a nice guy as you thought you were.”
In dealing with both women in his life, Danny finds a sense of humor his greatest asset. He said:
“Too many parents try to make children into what they themselves wanted to be, and
that’s the surest way to ruin a child’s life. The only rule for child-
“If adults paid more attention to their own behavior, they would have less worries about juvenile delinquency.”
Asked if he believed in the old theory of “spare the rod and spoil the child,” Danny replied:
“I never hit my daughter except once—and that was in self-