“Jet Pilot Danny Kaye Really Gets Around”

The Milwaukee Journal – Dec. 2, 1966

By: Vernon Scott

Hollywood, Calif. – UPI – Bob Hope once told Danny Kaye, “You travel as much as people think I do.”

It’s true. Kaye racks up more mileage a year than any entertainer in memory—despite his weekly television show.

Between shows the blond comedian is off winging, piloting his own jet. In one recent two day period he left New York to spend 20 minutes in a number of cities to give airport television interviews for UNICEF.

His schedule went like this: Baltimore; Raleigh, N.C.; Columbia, S.C.; Atlanta, Louisville; St. Louis; Kansas City; Topeka; Witchita; Oklahoma City; Dallas, San Antonio; Albuquerque; Phoenix; San Diego and Burbank, Calif.

He left New York on a Monday morning and arrived in Hollywood in time for rehearsal Tuesday at 2 p.m.

From Nov. 13 to Dec. 1 he flew to Chicago, Toronto, New York, London, Paris, Amsterdam, back to Paris, Los Angeles and back to New York for a variety of concerts, UNICEF functions and to accept a humanitarian award from the National Institute of Social Sciences.

Almost anybody else would be exhausted by the schedules and hours Kaye maintains. But it leaves him refreshed and energetic.

“It’s not emotional trauma for me,” he said. “I’m as prepared to go to Calcutta right now as I am to Denver. Traveling to me is a part of my occupation. I love coming to work, but I love to travel too.

“Most people make a big production of going on a trip. Not me. I just pack a bag and I’m off.

“When I’m piloting a plane all I think about is being a pilot. Show business never enters my head.

“I had a week off recently and went straight to Hong Kong to shoot some film and to spend most of my time in a Chinese kitchen.

“I came back to Hollywood nine days later and I felt as if I’d been away for six months. I don’t have a compulsion to keep active. It’s simply doing something away from my profession which re-energizes me and stimulates my mind and body.”

Kaye has an uncanny ability to relax. In his penthouse apartment he slumped in his chair as limply as a rag doll.

He conserves his energy for the TV cameras where he is a study in perpetual motion; singing, dancing, clowning and skipping through sketches with his guests.

Once the show is over, however, chances are he’ll be in the sky somewhere having the time of his life.


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