Danny Kaye (January 18, 1913)

My whole family loved Danny Kaye movies, especially my father. I remember our going to see "The Court Jester" and "Hans Christian Andersen." We also watched TV programs where he appeared. Quite a hero!

I read somewhere, but can't find it, that the Hollywood entrepreneurs made Danny Kaye dye his dark hair blonde and suppress some of the Jewishness that might have been in his personality in order to make him more popular.  This seems rather paranoid, since the Marx Brothers were dark-haired, very Jewish, and totally accepted.

I wouldn't be willing to claim that his humor was Jewish, but it's possible, since you can argue that Jewish humor became American humor in a lot of ways. I do know that Danny Kaye visited Israel in 1956 and other times, where he was insanely popular.