Danny Kaye in Hollywood
Danny Kaye’s Hollywood career making feature-length, major-studio films lasted from 1944 with Up in Arms through 1962 with On the Double, and he worked for most of the major production studios—Samuel Goldwyn, Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros., and 20th Century Fox. One of his most iconic films was a movie that almost never came to fruition: White Christmas (1954). The film suffered during the writing stages, but its biggest setback was the loss of Bing Crosby’s original costar, Fred Astaire. The second choice, Donald O’Connor, fell severely ill before shooting was scheduled to start. The studio was finally able to lock in Kaye as costar and have the film ready for a December release in 1954.
Danny Kaye’s Hollywood career making feature-length, major-studio films lasted from 1944 with <em>Up in Arms</em> through 1962 with <em>On the Double</em>, and he worked for most of the major production studios—Samuel Goldwyn, Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros., and 20th Century Fox. One of his most iconic films was a movie that almost never came to fruition: <em>White Christmas</em> (1954). The film suffered during the writing stages, but its biggest setback was the loss of Bing Crosby’s original costar, Fred Astaire. The second choice, Donald O’Connor, fell severely ill before shooting was scheduled to start. The studio was finally able to lock in Kaye as costar and have the film ready for a December release in 1954.