“The Woman Behind The Man”

Evening Times – Oct. 20, 1958

(British Article)

Sylvia Fine is a pint-sized vivacious brunette who barely reaches her husband’s shoulders in her stockinged feet. “But she’s the head on my shoulders,” says comedian Danny Kaye.

Besides being the wife of one of the greatest mirth-makers of our time, she is his sternest critic and his unofficial business manager. She has written music and lyrics for his films. She originated the act which made him a hit.

It has been said that without Sylvia behind him Danny Kaye would never have made the grade. But with wifely devotion and diplomatic tact she always redirects the plaudits.

Sylvia Fine is the daughter of small-town American dentist, her first job after leaving high school was in a grocery store—demonstrating soup for £3 10s a week. But within a few years she had become an established lyric writer.

Instant Success

In 1939 she met the young unknown Danny Kaye at a rehearsal for a little theatre revue. Sylvia, who had written some of the songs for the show, was so impressed by the way he sang them that she introduced herself.

The ‘young’ Miss Fine never doubted Danny’s talent. Immediately after the rehearsal she took him to see her friend, Max Liebman, with whom she was collaborating in producing a new show, “Straw Hat Revue.” Kaye was given a part.

The revue was an instant success—and so was Danny, who collected his first rave notices. But when war came the show closed and there were no prospects of work for the promising newcomer.

Sylvia’s total savings at this time amounted to $30—and Danny was almost penniless. Yet they decided to marry.

Their troubles appeared to be over when they landed jobs as entertainer and accompanist at a New York club, La Martinique, at £60 a week. Danny spent the last of their savings on a brand-new tuxedo specially for the occasion, and went on for the first performance.

Not Amused

But the customers of the exclusive Martinique, used to a more refined style of entertainment, were not amused. Danny was so unnerved by his cool reception that he sought out the manager and asked to be released from his contract.

Sylvia, however, was not so easily beaten. Knowing that £60 a week couldn’t easily be found again, she rounded on Danny and told him he must carry on. She was backed up in her pep talk by the club’s publicity manager, Ed Dukoff, who later became Danny’s manager and close friend.

When it was time for his next performance, Danny took the floor of the Martinique feeling more scared of his wife than of the customers.

He was singing one of the numbers Sylvia had written for him—“Anatole of Paris”—when he suddenly, unaccountably, started ad-libbing, improvising his now-famous inconsequential gibberish, while his wife, at the piano, struggled to keep up with him. Danny Kaye, as we know him today, was born.

Loved It

The audience loved this original style, and soon everyone in New York society was flocking to the club to see the new crazy comedian. One visitor was Moss Hart, the famous American showman, and after the show he told Sylvia—“This boy is great.”

Moss promptly wrote a part for Danny in his new show “Lady in the Dark,” starring Gertrude Lawrence. Kaye stopped the show, night after night. He had arrived.

From then on the Danny Kaye story is one of success after success, with Sylvia always playing an invaluable part in the background—writing lyrics and music, encouraging him, criticizing him, and, more often than not, doing battle with his business associates.

“Arty” Tastes

Sylvia not only helped to mould Danny into a great comedian, she also altered his tastes. He admits that when he first met her his way of dressing was, to say the least, “arty.”

He wore his hair at near shoulder-length and had a penchant for strangely colored suits and gaudy bow ties.

Mrs. Kaye changed all that. Nowadays, Danny wears sober suits and fairly plain ties, and saves his more brightly coloured clothes for the golf course.

Small, dark and composed, Sylvia is the perfect foil for this tall, fair, human pep-pill. Their marriage is based on the attraction of opposites, for all they have in common is their interest in show business and in their 11-year-old daughter, Dena.

She is even-tempered. He is volatile—on top of the world one minute, miserable the next. Sylvia is the hard-headed, strictly business type with an analytical mind; Danny, who relies more on instinct and emotion, is far more at ease among children than with adults.

With an explosive mixture of personalities like this, it is small wonder that Danny and Sylvia quarreled their way through the first few years of their married life and even separated for a time.

Now they have settled down happily and, with their eighteenth wedding anniversary this year, the Kayes may yet be among the contestants for Hollywood’s longest and happiest marriage.

- Home -