Nobody's Fool [Paperback]

Martin Gottfried (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 7, 2002

A portrait of the entertainer Danny Kaye giving an insight into his private life. The book discusses his marriage and his affairs and explores the charges made that he was a paedophile and Laurence Olivier's lover.

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers 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.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Generation X types might ask, Why all the fuss about Danny Kaye? Perhaps because, in his prime, the energetic Kaye was one of the most beloved of all American entertainers--singer, dancer, actor, comedian, and master of his own unique brand of double-talk, "git-gat-giddle." Supplementing his research with numerous interviews, Gottfried paints a portrait of a man who exuded warmth in public yet was chilly if not frigid in private. There is much discussion of Kaye's long but troubled marriage to Sylvia Fine, who wrote the majority of her husband's early material and became so linked with his career that it was often noted that Danny had "a Fine head on his shoulders." Gottfried also addresses the issue of Kaye's rumored homosexuality, concluding that although he may have had homosexual affairs, it's unlikely he was Laurence Olivier's lover, as Donald Spoto claimed in a recent biography of Olivier. Are there enough Danny Kaye fans out there to get this perfectly serviceable Hollywood bio off the ground? Just barely, thanks to the AMC (American Movie Classics) cable channel, but don't expect high demand. Ilene Cooper --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster (June 7, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743244761
• ISBN-13: 978-0743244763
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #549,371 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

37 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Full of innuendo and contempt, June 21, 2006

By 

A Reviewer (Eugene, OR) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Nobody's Fool (Paperback)

This is a dreadful book by a journalist who ought to know better. He has his theories about Danny Kaye, and he fits the evidence (some of which is mighty thin) around them, unable to disguise how irritating and contemptible he finds his subject. His main theory is that Kaye wasn't "sexually available" and was "whipped by obedience" by his wife, and was therefore gay. The claim that he wasn't "sexually available" is repeated over and over, despite the fact that Kaye is shown having numbers of girlfriends in his early years and later affairs with Eve Arden, Princess Margaret, and others -- so it's a bit strange, not to say contrary, that Gottfriend insists his sexuality is hesitant or dubious. He throws out insinuations like "He certainly knew how to make love to [an audience]. The question was whether he could make love to a person." The whole book is full of snide remarks like that, dropped in without provocation. Even a photo of Kaye looking a healthy 60 (but without his age actually being identified) is captioned "Despite his interest in medicine and health, Kaye aged prematurely. His haggard appearance reflected an assortment of operations as well as, perhaps, a lifetime of internalized emotions." Gottfried labels Kaye "nasty," "icy," "juvenile," "childish," "passive," and, again and again, "sexually ambiguous." (Gottfried's ideas of what constitutes a real man seem to be straight out of the he-man '50s, and men who can sing, dance, and improvise comedy need not apply.) His antipathy for Kaye's wife, Sylvia Fine, is even stronger. Did he write this book on assignment? It seems odd that someone would dislike the subject of his book so strongly and feel so little sympathy for any aspect of him. What perhaps troubled me the most is the many statements made without citing evidence -- "the popularity of the double-talk was beginning to bother him," as well as all the innuendoes about sexual passivity -- so that in many instances we have no way of assessing how strong his evidence is. This is a pop biography, not a serious one, as if Danny Kaye doesn't deserve to have his work or life taken seriously. It's also as if the only interesting things about him might be contradictions to his public persona -- he wasn't gregarious! he was moody! he was unhappy! he was sexually ambiguous! -- as if in disappointment that no bigger scandals are forthcoming. Danny Kaye deserves better.

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars THE DANNY KAYE WE NEVER SAW, May 18, 2004

By 

Gail Cooke (TX, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Nobody's Fool (Hardcover)

A twinkly-eyed jolly Hans Christian Andersen he was not, despite what the movies led us to believe. Instead, as the first full length biography of the master of the absurd, Danny Kaye, makes clear, he was bereft of humor off stage. What he had, according to this biographer, was a penchant for the small, the petty, the spiteful, and a great gift for scene stealing.

However, none of that detracts from the actor's one-of-a-kind genius. While most of us probably missed the Broadway musical "Lady In The Dark" many treasure Kaye's televised delivery of that musical's show stopper - "Tchaikovsky," in which he recited the names of 49 Russian composers in 38 seconds. Such movies as "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" and "White Christmas" won him numerous fans; his television show (broadcast in the mid 60s) won him countless more.

Pagliacci typifies the tearful clown in opera; perhaps Danny Kaye does the same in filmdom. Certainly the supposition that a comedic flair springs from pain is not new.

Nobody's Fool brims with show business anecdotes, and refutes the oft heard rumors of a liaison between Kaye and Sir Laurence Olivier. The descriptions of Kaye's mean spiritedness are all the more puzzling when one remembers his tireless efforts for UNICEF.

One indisputable fact is that he was an incredibly gifted entertainer, and he entertained us royally.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars OK journalism where comedy becomes tragedy, January 6, 2006

By 

Flynn Farralone (California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Nobody's Fool (Paperback)

This is a rather comprehensive look at Kaye's life with credible, recognizable sources (such as Alan King and some of Kaye's co-stars/directors/producers), although this book screams for input from the biggies in Kaye's life such as his daughter (apparently prohibited from speaking about her parents in their will) and some of his high-profile friends (most of whom were dead by the time this book was published). Gottfried airs out Kaye's dirty laundry pretty much, which is why we all read biographies anyways, and even if half of what he claims is true (no reason to believe it isn't as Gottfried is a respected journalist and the book has credible sources), then it is a fact that the Danny Kaye that generations laughed at for years and years was not really a reflection of who Kaye really was, and that Kaye predictably had a very dark side to him like most "zany" comedians -- Jerry Lewis, Robin Williams, Steve Martin and of course Jim Carrey come to mind.

Kaye could have been worse -- no claims of drug/alcohol abuse, not physically abusive, etc. -- but he appears to have been a totally self-absorbed manic-depressive and possibly (POSSIBLY) a closeted homosexual. The revelations made me sad not so much because he wasn't what he portrayed on-screen, but that he appears to have not enjoyed such a rich life and did not appreciate what he did for people (and did not appreciate the people who supported him and loved him so much). I never imagined Kaye to be a zany, delightful elf in his off-hours, but I always imagined him to be a gentle, perhaps retiring, sweet man, and according to Gottfried, he was not.

I think the person I felt the worst for after reading this book was his wife, Sylvia Fine, who has a notorious reputation in Hollywood lore as an enormously unpleasant woman. Was she this way because she was really that unkind and controlling? Gottfried presents a slightly different perspective, portraying her as a very shy, somewhat homely, but enormously intelligent woman who lacked social confidence, especially when contrasted to her incredibly extroverted and charming husband. The Fine we come to know is a woman who fell madly in love with Kaye at the age of 14 and kept on worshipping and holding on to him through infidelities, isolation, abandonment and humiliation up until his deathbed.

All-in-all, the book left me feeling that Kaye and Fine's life was triumphant in many outward ways but tragic on the personal side. But Kaye was a one-of-a-kind genius and it appears that people with his level of talent always pay for it in tears. But we must also remember that Kaye was a hard-working perfectionist who gave more of himself to the world than most, and that also takes a toll. His audience who "took" so much from him -- from moviegoers, to music-hall attendees to yes, even UNICEF -- was also instrumental in making Kaye the man who he was.