“Danny Kaye’s Recipe: Good Food, Good Show”
Syracuse Post Standard – Sept. 27, 1964
By: Margaret McManus
LOS ANGELES, Calif. – Danny Kaye has always been known as an all-
En route to San Francisco more than 100 guests, members of the press, performers who will appear on Kaye’s show during the season, and assorted friends saw a preview of the first show by means of astrovision. Normally the trip takes less than an hour, but the plane went the long way around so there would be time to see the full show.
There has to be something of the politicians’ physical endurance about people engaging in this rollicking game of entertainment.
Busy Day
Kaye flew in from New York the day of the party, arrived at the Los Angeles airport an hour before the guests were due, shaved and showered and changed his clothes in a dressing room of the Admiral’s Club, and by takeoff time, he looked far more rested and refreshed than most of his friends.
He is notably contented and happy with his television series. Kaye says, in fact, he has never been happier in his work. He was a late comer to television, but he always believed there was no need to rush in, and he would be along when the time was right for him. When he had begun to get bored with movies, night clubs, and personal appearances, the time was right for him. Danny Kaye cannot bear to be bored.
Obviously the timing was right for television too, since the Danny Kaye show last year was the outstanding success of the season, winning four Emmys, and the George Foster Peabody Award.
Kaye said all this success has not made him nervous. He is not worried about topping himself or even keeping even.
“We’re going to try to do exactly what we tried to do last year,” he said. “We’re going to try to make every show as good as it is possible to be. If we can do this, the people will like it; if we can’t, they’ll drop us. It’s that simple. But I’m not worried about it. I always do my best. I’m not likely to stop now. I love television and I don’t think in terms of a whole season. That’s too overwhelming. I concentrate on one show at a time.”
As a man very much absorbed in his work, and aware that his work is going extremely well, Kaye wears a comfortable cloak of quiet composure and pleasant restraint. This is equally true of his performances. It’s instinctive discipline. He always knows when to pull up, when to stop. He never rides a joke too hard.
Wandering through the plane, he was friendly, but casual. There were no shouting,
over-
Obviously, this Chinese dinner, primarily for the press, was a clever, well-
Most of his studying he has done in the kitchen of Johnny Kan’s restaurant in Chinatown
where the dinner was held. He’s been dropping in there two or three times a week,
learning from the chefs and last spring he installed a Chinese kitchen in his own
house. He takes a housewifely pride in his lobster and black bean sauce, his shark
fin soup and his Chinese salad made with cold noodles and 1,000-
14 Courses
He chose the entire 14-
It was a sleepy trip back to Los Angeles, with little sound but a few of the hardiest crunching on fortune cookies.