Joe’s Corner – Teaching History through Humor and Literature
Teaching history with humor evokes Joe Dorinson’s passion for history, Brooklyn, Yiddish, literature, psychology, pedagogy, and humor.
Teaching history with humor evokes Joe Dorinson’s passion for history, Brooklyn, Yiddish, literature, psychology, pedagogy, and humor.
Danny Kaye (born David Daniel Kaminsky; Yiddish: דאַװיד דאַניעל קאַמינסקי; January 18, 1911 – March 3, 1987) was an American actor, singer, dancer, comedian, musician, and philanthropist. His performances featured physical comedy, idiosyncratic pantomimes, and rapid-fire novelty songs. Wikipedia.com
Danny Kaye
Not long after his mother’s death, Kaye and his friend Louis ran away to Florida. Kaye sang while Louis played the guitar; the pair eked out a living for a while. When Kaye returned to New York, his father did not pressure him to return to school or work, giving his son the chance to mature and discover his own abilities. Kaye said he had wanted to be a surgeon as a young boy, but there was no chance of the family affording a medical school education.
He held a succession of jobs after leaving school, as a soda jerk, insurance investigator, and office clerk. Most ended with his being fired. He lost the insurance job when he made an error that cost the insurance company $40,000. The dentist who hired him to look after his office at lunch hour did the same when he found Kaye using his drill on the office woodwork. He learned his trade in his teenage years in the Catskills as a tummler in the Borscht Belt, and for four seasons at The White Roe resort.
Kaye’s first break came in 1933 when he joined the “Three Terpischoreans”, a vaudeville dance act. They opened in Utica, New York, with him using the name Danny Kaye for the first time. The act toured the United States, then performed in Asia with the show La Vie Paree. The troupe left for a six-month tour of the Far East on February 8, 1934. While they were in Osaka, Japan, a typhoon hit the city. The hotel where Kaye and his colleagues stayed suffered heavy damage; a piece of the hotel’s cornice was hurled into Kaye’s room by the strong wind, nearly killing him. By performance time that evening, the city was in the grip of the storm. There was no power, and the audience was understandably restless and nervous.
To calm them, Kaye went on stage, holding a flashlight to illuminate his face, and sang every song he could recall as loudly as he was able. The experience of trying to entertain audiences who did not speak English inspired him to the pantomime, gestures, songs, and facial expressions that eventually made his reputation. Sometimes it was necessary just to get a meal. Kaye’s daughter, Dena, tells a story her father related about being in a restaurant in China and trying to order chicken. Kaye flapped his arms and clucked, giving the waiter an imitation of a chicken. The waiter nodded in understanding, bringing Kaye two eggs. His interest in cooking began on the tour.
When Kaye returned to the United States, jobs were in short supply and he struggled for bookings. One job was working in a burlesque revue with fan dancer Sally Rand. After the dancer dropped a fan while trying to chase away a fly, Kaye was hired to watch the fans so they were always held in front of her.
photo: Danny Kaye, well known stage and screen star, entertains 4,000 5th Marine Division, occupation troops at Sasebo, Japan. The crude sign across the front of the stage says: `Officers keep out! Enlisted men’s country.'” Pfc. H. J. Grimm, October 25, 1945. 127-N-138204. 25 October 1945. Photo courtesy of the U. S. National Archives.
Young Danny Kaye
JOE’S CORNER – LIVE ON JEWISH HUMOR American (Jewish) Humor in an Era of Ethnic Sensitivity and Cultural Competence: Intersections of Religion, Race, Ethnicity and Gender at the University of South Carolina. Session II Joseph Dorinson Jewish Humor Kvetching and Shpritzing.
Teaching history with humor evokes Joe Dorinson’s passion for history, Brooklyn, Yiddish, literature, psychology, pedagogy, and humor.
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A noted authority in the field of popular culture, Dorinson’s research specialties span sports history (in particular, the Brooklyn Dodgers and African American sports heros), humor studies, Russian immigration, Brooklyn and Jewish history, and World War II movies and music. His television appearances have included Fox News on Joe DiMaggio; NBC Morning News on Al Gore’s acceptance speech; the WLIW-TV program, “Brooklyn: The Way It Was;” and New York 1 News.
On radio, he has appeared several times on WNYC-AM’s “New York and Company,” hosted by Leonard Lopate. Dorinson has been quoted in major newspapers such as the Baltimore Sun, the Chicago Tribune, the New York Daily News, the Christian Science Monitor and the Newark Star-Ledger on such topics as ill manners in sports, nostalgia TV, the use and abuse of cell phones, the crime wave in the National Football League, and Joe DiMaggio’s death.
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