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

econtinueing

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.

Grandfather of "The Lobby Number"

Danny Kaye wasn't the first to poke fun at "Apple Blossom Time" in Up in Arms' "Lobby Number."

My favorite Danny Kaye number is “The Lobby Number,” from his first feature, Up in Arms. The song’s convoluted creation (which continued even after the number was filmed, so Danny had to go back and film parts again) is fully detailed in the book Danny Kaye: King of Jesters. But, in brief, Sylvia Fine and Max Liebman created most of the number by piecing together snippets of songs and sketch jokes they’d written for movie spoofs at Camp Tamiment.

But what about the number’s most famous line, “When it’s cherry blossom time in Orange, New Jersey, we’ll make a peach of a pear”—where did that come from? Jerome Kern and Cole Porter, if you go back far enough. For Up in Arms, Sylvia pilfered the line from a ditty she’d written at Tamiment, a Busby Berkeley-type production number, “Cherry Blossom Time” (“When it’s cherry blossom time in Orange, New Jersey, we’ll make a peach of a pear. Oh, honeydew be mine, because we cantaloupe. I’ll take you to the chapel, as the apple of my I declare, the month of May is merry, for girls ‘n’ boysenberry…”). Sylvia’s inspiration was “When It’s Apple Blossom Time in Normandy,” a pop song that was a huge hit—in 1913.

But Fine wasn’t the first to spoof the song. In 1917, Jerome Kern and P.G. Wodehouse made fun of it (and other “When it’s something-or-other-time in some place far away place” songs, like “Tulip Time in Holland”) in “Nesting Time in Flatbush” for the 1917 Broadway show Oh Boy! And, five years later, Cole Porter included a joke about the lyrics in his song “Cocktail Time” from his show Mayfair and Montmartre.

For the record, Sylvia insisted she’d never heard of the Kern or Porter songs when she wrote “The Lobby Number.”