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| Lovelady Powell and Danny Kaye rehearse for the premiere of the Danny Kaye Show. |
Although my book Danny Kaye: King of Jesters contains an extensive section on Kaye's weekly TV variety show, I know there are many more stories, information and behind-the-scenes photos out there. So, in my infrequent spare time, I have continued to seek out anecdotes, factoids and images on The Danny Kaye Show, perhaps to one day be used in an all-new book devoted entirely to the series.
I'd love to be able to announce that project... but unfortunately (as you can probably tell from the sporadic updating of this blog) I've just been too overwhelmed with more pressing matters for that to be in the cards in the near time.
I recently finished a gorgeous coffee-table book all about the Magic Kingdom's original employees (The 55ers: The Pioneers Who Settled Disneyland) and am now up to my ears in another project related to classic entertainment. If all goes well, when my current work is released in 1 to 2 years, I can then devote my undivided efforts to The Danny Kaye Show.
As a teaser, I recently acquired a massive collection of behind-the-scenes images taken during the dress rehearsal and the taping of the very first episode of The Danny Kaye Show on Aug. 9-10, 1963. These were snapped by a private professional photographer, not by CBS, so they have never been published before. And they are ALL amazing.
The collection did not include any prints, only negatives and some contact sheets, so at some point I'll have high-resolution scans produced and ideally include a great number of them in the later project. The only problem is there are 463 different images, so choosing how many and which ones to include won't be easy.
In the meantime, here are a few, scanned from the contact sheets. Enjoy. Be patient. Read (or re-read!) King of Jesters. And one day I can hopefully share many of these in all their glory, along with hundreds of other photos, soundstage diagrams, and wonderful stories that I'm continuing to collect along the way.
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| Danny takes a quick cigarette break between scenes. |
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| Jackie Cooper and Danny rehearse a sketch for the show. |
