Danny Kaye's Stomping Grounds: Then & Now, Part II

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His Catskills days behind him, Danny Kaye continued his slow climb up the ranks of show business primarily in New York. His biggest stops included:

(6) Where Danny Met Sylvia: 201 W. 52^nd St., New York, NY
Two years his junior, Sylvia Fine grew up not far from Danny. She remembered having a crush on him as a young girl. For his part, Kaye did not seem to remember her, even though he briefly worked for her father, the neighborhood dentist. The first meeting they both recalled was in February 1939, in a loft-turned-makeshift theater on W. 52^nd Street. Danny was rehearsing for a revue, Sunday Night Varieties, which was in need of another songwriter. Enter Sylvia.
They called the space the Keynote Theatre, and held performances on three consecutive Sundays. They were ready for a fourth performance, but were closed down when police discovered the facility didn’t have a proper license. The second-story “theater” has been used for a variety of purposes ever since. Today, it’s a for-rent event space called Manhattan Manor, which sits above Rosie Grady’s Saloon and looks out on Central Park.
Sunday Night Varieties, meanwhile, was able to move up in the world, to a better-furnished space inside the Barbizon-Plaza Hotel. The 38-story art deco hotel, at 106 Central Park South, was purchased by Donald Trump in 1981, who closed the hotel in 1985 to convert it into condos and rename it The Trump Parc. 

Through the doors and head up and, for a fleeting moment, you'd find a loft theater called the Keynote.

(7) Danny’s Broadway Debut: 219 W. 49^th St., New York, NY
Kaye first appeared on a Broadway stage on Sept. 28, 1939, in The Straw Hat Revue. Comprised of sketches, songs and variety acts lifted from Danny and Sylvia’s last summer camp gig, the show ran for 75 performances at the Ambassador Theatre on 49^th Street. 
The Ambassador had a unique set-up; because it was built in 1921 on an angled lot, it had to be situated diagonally, creating an extra-wide, none-too-deep auditorium, guaranteeing that even the worst seats in the house were close to the action. Many of its stately architectural features from the days of Danny remain intact, and its hulking chandelier is a reminder of the Straw Hat Revue’s Act One climax, “The Great Chandelier.” The theater has stayed active ever since, and since 2003 has been the home of Chicago. 

In the revue's show-stopping "The Great Chandelier," Danny played the Masked Gondolier.

Even the back of the balcony at the Ambassador offered audiences a close up look at young Danny Kaye.

(8) Danny’s First Solo: 57 W. 57^th St., New York, NY
Kaye’s first break as a solo performer came in January 1940 when he agreed to a two-week tryout engagement at Dario’s La Martinique nightclub, inside the Medical Arts Building on W. 57^th Street. Although the high-rise had 21 floors, La Martinique wasn’t on any of them—it was stashed in the basement, which had been used as a themed nightclub (first Parisian, then Cuban, and finally Latin American) since 1934.
At La Martinique, Danny performed Sylvia’s songs in a solo act for the first time, accompanied by Sylvia on piano.Over the years, the building—now simply called “57”—has housed a wide range of offices and businesses, including a few other nightclubs and a disco. 

Through the doors and head down to the basement was where you used to be able to find the La Martinique.

(9) Danny Goes Legit: 250 W. 52^nd St., New York, NY
Kaye had only a small supporting role in Lady in the Dark, and one he kept for fewer than five months, but with it he nearly stole the show. It premiered at Broadway’s Alvin Theatre, which today operates as the Neil Simon Theatre. 

Danny in Lady in the Dark at Broadway's Alvin (now Neil Simon) Theatre.

(10) Danny’s Starring Role: 249 W. 45^th St., New York, NY
Danny spent nearly a year and a half headlining the Cole Porter musical comedy Let’s Face It at the Imperial Theatre. The playhouse has premiered A-list productions ever since, including the original runs of Annie Get Your Gun (1946), Call Me Madam (1950), Oliver! (1963), Fiddler on the Roof (194), Cabaret (1967), Pippin (1972), Dreamgirls (1981), and of course Kaye’s return to Broadway, Two by Two (1970). 

Danny's two longest-running Broadway shows both played at the Imperial.

Next Time: In Part III, our travels will take us to more Danny Kaye landmarks outside of New York.

Danny Kaye's Stomping Grounds: Then & Now, Part I

Unfortunately, there aren’t many people around today who grew up knowing or working with Danny Kaye dating back to his early years in New York. But many places survive that we can visit to see where he began.

(1) Danny’s Boyhood Home: 361 Miller Ave., Brooklyn, NY
During his boyhood in the 1910s, Danny lived with his parents, two brothers, and grandmother in a small apartment on Miller Avenue in Brooklyn. Today, there’s a four-story building at that address, crammed with 20 tiny apartment units, but city records show that structure was built in 1925, after the Kaminskys had moved out. Perhaps the construction is why in the early 1920s, the family relocated to the next block, Bradford Street.

(Top) Danny about age 3 with an unidentified friend, possibly in front of his first home, at 361 Miller Ave. in Brooklyn. (Lower) Here's the site today. If building records are correct and this four-story apartment complex wasn't built until 1925, Danny and family moved shortly beforehand. 

(2) Danny’s Elementary School: 700 Sutter Ave., Brooklyn, NY
Danny was schooled through eighth grade at Public School 149, a five-minute walk from his family’s apartment. The facility, later renamed in his honor as PS 149 The Danny Kaye School, now teaches grades pre-K through fifth. (In 1952, Kaye recorded the school’s fight song, “Good Old 149,” as part of a medley with “I Belong to Glasgow” and “Tchaikovsky.”)

Danny's elementary school, PS 149, has been renamed in his honor.

Danny's home from adolescence through adulthood, at 350 Bradford St. in Brooklyn.

(3) Danny’s Longtime Home: 350 Bradford St., Brooklyn, NY
From the early 1920s through the late 1930s, Kaye listed his home address as 350 Bradford Street. The lease was in his father, Jacob Kaminsky’s, name. But since Danny was an itinerant show business performer, he “moved out” dozens of times, only to keep returning to Poppa until Danny married Sylvia Fine at age 29. The snug two-story brownstone, built in 1901, survives to this day.

Danny's home from adolescence through young adulthood, at 350 Bradford Street in Brooklyn, still stands.

(4) Danny’s High School: 400 Pennsylvania Ave., Brooklyn, NY

Thomas Jefferson High School was just a few years old when Danny enrolled. He dropped out shortly before graduation to pursue a show biz career. In 2007, the school was closed due to poor performance and the campus was given over to four smaller, specialized schools (performing arts/technology, nursing, civil rights, fire/life safety).

Danny's high school, Thomas Jefferson High School, is now four vocational schools in one.

(5) Danny’s Catskills Resort: White Roe Lake Rd., Livingston Manor, NY
In 1929 at age 18, Danny was hired as a “tummler” at the White Roe Lake House in the Catskill Mountains. Meyer Weiner had purchased the property in 1919 from Emory Keene, who had been operating it as a farm and boarding house. Weiner transformed it into a summer camp for young Jewish singles. Kaye was among the hired hands who made sure all the guests were constantly entertained, so they wouldn’t want to check out.
The main house offered lodging (with overflow guests and staff living out of tents), plus courts for tennis, basketball and handball, a baseball diamond, riding stables, boathouse, and private lake, three-quarters of a mile long, for swimming and boating. In all, Danny would spend six summers at White Roe, but brand new during his first was a gorgeous two-story Social Hall down by the lake. Topped by a gabled roof and faced with wood shingles and white trim, the elegant structure featured a recreation hall on the main floor, as well as an auditorium with a professionally equipped, 50-foot-wide stage. Every night it would come alive with dancing to a live orchestra or a stage production.
White Roe Lake continued as a Jewish singles resort through the 1950s. In the 1960s, the Weiners sold the property to the Hebrew Institute of Long Island, to use as a youth retreat called Camp HiLi International. The site was later purchased for a private residence, by a party who tore down all structures from Kaye’s days. Only a couple of reminders survive: an abandoned concrete pad where the tennis courts once sat and the entry road running the near-identical dogleg path that it always has, ending at the former site of that glorious Social Hall. In the exact spot sits a modern residence featuring a similar gabled roof.

White Roe Lake, Danny's first show biz home. The first real stage he ever appeared on was in the Social Hall (lower left).

Danny (back row, second from right), his arm around his mentor Nat Lichtman, with his 1935 castmates in front of White Roe's Social Hall.

All buildings have been torn down along White Roe Lake to make room for a private residence built on the site of the old Social Hall.

Next Time: In Part II, our travels will take us to five more historic Danny Kaye landmarks in New York.