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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. |
Look forward to seeing the prints!
ReplyDeleteGreat job ! Looking forward to the book about the TV series and any and all photos and stories. Valuable history we are all interested in... Thanks..
ReplyDeleteHey David, waiting for more posts about Danny Kaye. Have you been following our Facebook page ..? Lots of DK history and TV alerts to keep everybody up to date..
ReplyDeleteHi! I just stumbled on your blog and finally found your book and purchased it. Really looking forward to reading it and seeing your work. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteHello! I’m looking for a way to comment here and it’s the only way I could find. My name is Diana Lee and for nearly 60 yeas I was blessed with a busy career as a backup singer in Los Angeles. At the age of 19 I was hired as part of the vocal group for Danny’s new TV show, then headed by Johnny Mann. He was followed by Earle Brown who wrote the vocal charts for several years. I remember Lovelady Powell, that show….she sang Bye Bye Blackbird. Never was really heard from after that. It’s nice you have such an interest in those years. The 60s brought us many musical variety shows. I left the Kaye show to do the Dean Martin Show for six years, awesome, wonderful memories and the nicest boss one could ever hope for. Carry on!
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