“Kids the Same World Over, Danny Says”
The Milwaukee Sentinel – May 29, 1959
CHICAGO (UPI) A man who should know thinks kids are the same the world over—with the same potential for good and the same for not so good.
“If you treat a kid like an idiot, he’ll act like one,” comedian Danny Kaye said. “Treat them like intelligent little people and they’ll be that way, because they are anyway.”
Kaye, 46, the son of Polish parents, [his parents were of Russian descent, not Polish
– J.N. webmistress] climbed his way up the entertainment ladder as a double-
He was in Chicago last week to promote his latest film, “The Five Pennies.” It’s mainly about kids.
SECRET LIFE
But the lean, almost elfin, Kaye has a somewhat secret life of his own.
He has worked at great personal sacrifice and without financial reward for the United Nations Children’s Educational Fund for several years.
He has probably done at least as much and probably more to raise funds for the world’s underprivileged children than any other American entertainer.
“Nothing in my life has given me much personal satisfaction as my work with UNICEF,” Kaye said.
“I have traveled all over the world in this work and have talked and actually gotten to know kids in nearly every nation.”
KIDS ARE SAME
“It has left me with the major discovery of my life—kids are the same anywhere.”
Kaye, who has a 12-
“Children will not accept you right away—on Fifth Avenue or in the ghettos of Rome,” he said. “You have to try to be real kind, but more important real, with them.
“You might even make an idiot out of yourself to make a kid laugh. It’s worth it.”