Nobody's Fool

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Overview

It is the facinating story of an energetic, athletic, curious, perhaps overly mothered kid from Brooklyn who became an utterly original star parlaying his multiple talents into a career as one of the most popular and adored entertainers in American history. With his songwriting wife and mentor, Sylvia Fine, he formed a unique and perhaps perverse team, and the two of them created a Danny Kaye who enchanted an entire country. He combined the joy and ingenuousness of a child with the knowing wink of sophisticated ...
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Overview

It is the facinating story of an energetic, athletic, curious, perhaps overly mothered kid from Brooklyn who became an utterly original star parlaying his multiple talents into a career as one of the most popular and adored entertainers in American history. With his songwriting wife and mentor, Sylvia Fine, he formed a unique and perhaps perverse team, and the two of them created a Danny Kaye who enchanted an entire country. He combined the joy and ingenuousness of a child with the knowing wink of sophisticated entertainer. But while he was fostering this image and developing into one of the greatest of stars, and even an international humanitarian, was Danny Kaye concealing very different life - a secret life of his own? In Nobody's Fool, Gottfried passes through the veil of secrecy and beyond the elegant image of Kaye that was so brilliantly nurtured and protected during his lifetime.
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Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly
Brooklyn-born in 1913 as David Daniel Kaminski, this kinetic comedian with the crooked smile got his start in summer vaudeville. Beginning at age 16, he learned the hard way and learned well. He could mesmerize a nightclub audience, reduce it to tears of laughter and then get everyone to dance the conga. His rags-to-riches career took him to Hollywood, Broadway, the London Palladium (where he performed a triple act with Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh and drank champagne with Princess Margaret). Through all this he was coached by his wife, Sylvia Fine, who wrote the songs and devised the comic business that launched his career. The couple stayed together for 47 years (Kaye died in 1987). However, Gottfried (All His Jazz: The Life and Death of Bob Fosse) isn't telling a fairy tale here. Despite worldwide acclaim, good works with UNICEF and a mega-movie hit with Hans Christian Andersen, there was a cold and dark side to Kaye. No one quoted in this detailed biography felt close to him; even Sylvia played more the role of mother and manager than wife or lover. Convincingly discredited as well are recent assertions that Kay and Olivier were once lovers. ``Perhaps he could not be intimate with any individual,'' Gottfried writes, ``but he certainly could be with an audience.'' Audiences everywhere loved him and felt loved by him. Perhaps that is the way to remember him: the redheaded singing elf who spread happiness. Photos not seen by PW. (Nov.)
Booknews
Gottfried's capably researched and recounted biography offers a none too flattering glimpse into Kaye's well-guarded personal life, including his egotism, cruelty, his strained marriage and his flirtations and affairs. His career is treated in detail, from his obvious early talent to the creation of his acting personae and his sad professional and personal decline before his death in 1987. Lacks a bibliography. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
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Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780743244763
  • Publisher: Simon & Schuster
  • Publication date: 6/7/2002
  • Pages: 352
  • Product dimensions: 5.90 (w) x 9.00 (h) x 0.90 (d)

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