The Danny Kaye Show (radio program)

Last updated
The Danny Kaye Show
GenreComedy-variety
Country of originUnited States
Language(s)English
Syndicates CBS
TV adaptations The Danny Kaye Show
StarringDanny Kaye
Announcer Ken Niles
Dick Joy
Written by Sylvia Fine
Abe Burrows
Goodman Ace
Directed byDick Mack
Produced by Goodman Ace
Original releaseJanuary 6, 1945 (1945-01-06) 
May 31, 1946 (1946-05-31)
Sponsored by Pabst Blue Ribbon beer

The Danny Kaye Show is an American old-time radio comedy-variety program. Broadcast on the CBS radio network, it ran from January 6, 1945 to May 31, 1946. [1]

Contents

Format

The Danny Kaye Show featured singing, instrumental music, and various kinds of comedy sketches. [2] In Nobody's Fool, Martin Gottfried wrote about the program: "Everything about it was to be top drawer, beginning with Kaye's then record salary of $16,000 a week (compared to the $100 apiece he had been paid for three minor CBS radio shows in 1940)." [3]

Personnel

In addition to Kaye, the cast included Eve Arden, Lionel Stander, and Frank Nelson as regulars, with the supporting cast including Kenny Delmar, Everett Sloane, Joan Edwards, and Butterfly McQueen. Announcers were Ken Niles and Dick Joy. Music was under the direction of Harry James, Lyn Murray, David Terry, and Harry Sosnik. Dick Mack was the director. [1] The producer was Goodman Ace, described by Gottfried in Nobody's Fool as "radio's premier comedy writer, who had so estimable a reputation that even though the program would be broadcast from Los Angeles, he was able to insist on running it from New York." [3]

A behind-the-scenes influence was Kaye's wife, Sylvia Fine, a producer, composer, and lyricist in her own right. Gottfried wrote, "She demanded and won the right to approve the show's writers." [3] She also wrote for the program, along with Ace and Abe Burrows. [1]

See also

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References

  1. 1 2 3 Dunning, John (1998). On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio (Revised ed.). New York, NY: Oxford University Press. pp.  190-191. ISBN   978-0-19-507678-3.
  2. Terrace, Vincent (1999). Radio Programs, 1924-1984: A Catalog of More Than 1800 Shows. McFarland & Company, Inc. p. 91. ISBN   978-0-7864-4513-4.
  3. 1 2 3 Gottfried, Martin (7 June 2002). Nobody's Fool. Simon and Schuster. pp. 101–105. ISBN   9780743244763 . Retrieved 17 May 2017.

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