Radio Drama · Old Time Radio Researchers · Comedy · Mystery & crime

The Danny Kaye Show

Networks
CBS (as its archives name them)
Heard
1945–1946
Episodes
57

Singles from the OTRR Maintained Danny Kaye set.

More about it

THE DANNY KAYE SHOW

In December 1944 it was announced that Pabst Sales Co. was dropping The Kenny Baker Show in favor of a vehicle for rising star Danny Kaye. Pabst had tried to sign established comedian Fred Allen for the show at a whopping cost of $25,000 per episode but the effort fizzled when Allen reportedly sniffing that he didn’t care to work for a beer company. Kaye agreed to a package costing the beer producer $16,000 per week, 2/3 the cost of Fred Allen. The Danny Kaye Show debuted on January 6, 1945 and featured Eve Arden, Frank Nelson, Lionel Stander among others. Music was provided by Harry James and a 26-piece orchestra. Interestingly, before signing onto the show James contractually insisted that his wife would never be mentioned and that he would not serve as a comedy stooge for Kaye. Lionel Stander served as the second man while Ken Niles was announcer (followed by Fred Robbins and Dick Joy). Dick Mack of Warwick & Legler was the producer. Initially Phil Rapp was approached to script the show but talks fell through and Kaye’s wife Sylvia Fine was responsible for much of the writing when it first took to the air. The highly regarded Goodman Ace took over writing duties when the show returned in the fall on September 28 at a salary of $3,500 per episode. Eventually Ace walked away calling the entire effort a “lost cause.” During its sixteen-month run (minus a 1945 summer hiatus) The Danny Kaye Show never…

Episodes, in broadcast order

  1. First Show

    · 29 min

  2. Guest Eddie Cantor

    · No. 1 · 30 min

  3. The Story of His Life

    · 28 min

  4. Life of Danny Kaye, the

    · No. 2 · 28 min

  5. The Life of Danny Kaye

    · No. 2 · 30 min

  6. Auction Sale

    · 29 min

  7. The Blues

    · 29 min

  8. Blues, the

    · No. 3 · 30 min

  9. The Milking Machine

    · No. 3 · 30 min

  10. Singing in the Bathtub

    · 30 min

  11. Kaye

    · 22 min

  12. Plane Trip to Washington

    · No. 4 · 30 min

  13. Back From Washington

    · 30 min

  14. Brings Baby From Washington

    · No. 5 · 30 min

  15. A Baby From Washington (AFRS)

    · No. 5 · 30 min

  16. A Baby From Washington

    · No. 5 · 30 min

  17. Air Mail Letter

    · 30 min

  18. Sends Valentine to Jack Benny

    · No. 6 · 30 min

  19. A Valentine for Jack Benny

    · No. 6 · 30 min

  20. Teaching an Old Dog New Tricks

    · 30 min

  21. Dog Gets Danny Evicted (AFRS)

    · No. 7 · 15 min

  22. Dog Gets Danny Evicted

    · No. 7 · 30 min

  23. Opening Night

    · 30 min

  24. Woman Building Inspector (AFRS)

    · No. 8 · 30 min

  25. Woman Building Inspector

    · No. 8 · 30 min

  26. Opening Night of Playhouse

    · 30 min

  27. Danny Kaye Playhouse, the

    · No. 9 · 30 min

  28. The Danny Kaye Theater (AFRS)

    · No. 9 · 30 min

  29. The Danny Kaye Theater

    · No. 9 · 30 min

  30. Theater Performance

    · 30 min

  31. Romeo and Juliet

    · No. 10 · 30 min

  32. AFRS 6 Uncle Dans Cabin

    · 30 min

  33. Accent-U-Ate the Positive

    · No. 11 · 30 min

  34. One Man's Irish Family (AFRS)

    · No. 11 · 31 min

  35. AFRS 7 Mystery of the Murdered Meatball

    · 30 min

  36. Great Diamond Robbery, the

    · No. 12 · 30 min

  37. AFRS 8 The Great Donivitch Kayeoff

    · 30 min

  38. AFRS 12 Danny Returns From New York

    · 30 min

  39. Diary of a Train Trip to Hollywood (AFRS)

    · No. 14 · 30 min

  40. AFRS 13 One Irish Mans Family

    · 31 min

  41. Guest Benny Rubin

    · 30 min

  42. Concerto for War Bonds

    · No. 19 · 30 min

  43. Danny has a Dream

    · No. 22 · 29 min

  44. Frank Sinatra Substitutes While Danny is on Tour (AFRS)

    · No. 24 · 30 min

  45. George Burns and Gracie Allen Substitute (AFRS)

    · No. 26 · 30 min

  46. Jack Benny Substitutes While Danny is on Tour

    · No. 27 · 30 min

  47. xx His Own Guest Star

    · 28 min

  48. Court of Human Relations (AFRS)

    · No. 40 · 28 min

  49. Guest Carmen Miranda

    · No. 43 · 30 min

  50. AFRS 39 The Wife of ORiley

    · 30 min

  51. Guest Orson Welles

    · No. 45 · 29 min

  52. Guest Orson Welles (AFRS)

    · No. 45 · 30 min

  53. Guests Benay Venuta and Dick Powell

    · No. 48 · 29 min

  54. Guest Arthur Treacher (AFRS)

    · No. 57 · 30 min

  55. Eve Arden Biography

    No date given · 2:43

Where it comes from 5

The archive items its episodes are played from, best first, with each one’s rights as its archive states them. An episode two sets both hold is played from the first.

  1. The Danny Kaye Show Singles

    Old Time Radio Researchers · Old Time Radio Researchers · 28 episodes here · archive.org (opens in a new tab)

    the Internet Archive states no licence or rights for it.

  2. The Danny Kaye Show

    Old Time Radio · 20 episodes here · archive.org (opens in a new tab)

    Uploader’s mark: Public domain (Creative Commons dedication): Marked Public domain (Creative Commons dedication) by its uploader at the Internet Archive; the record gives no basis for it.

  3. Danny Kaye Show

    Old Time Radio · 7 episodes here · archive.org (opens in a new tab)

    the Internet Archive states no licence or rights for it.

  4. Danny Kaye Shows

    Old Time Radio · Goodman Ace, Sylvia Fine · 1 episode here · archive.org (opens in a new tab)

    the Internet Archive states no licence or rights for it.

  5. Danny Kaye 45 01 20 The Blues

    Old Time Radio · 1 episode here · archive.org (opens in a new tab)

    the Internet Archive states no licence or rights for it.

7 more sets hold only episodes played here from a set above.

A set by the Old Time Radio Researchers Group (otrr.org), at the Internet Archive's Old Time Radio collection.

More Comedy

Radio drama, old-time radio and historic broadcasts from the Internet Archive (its Old Time Radio collection with the Old Time Radio Researchers' sets, WWII Era Audio Recordings, the Pacifica Radio Archives, the Radio Haiti Archive, German radio plays and listeners' uploads), Wikimedia Commons (with the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision's broadcasts) and the Library of Congress. Every episode plays from its archive, which this site does not copy; rights are as each archive states them. Nothing here is called public domain on this site's say-so. In the United States, sound recordings first fixed before 15 February 1972 have federal protection under the Music Modernization Act of 2018, for most until 2067 at the latest, so most American radio of the 1930s to the 1950s is not in the public domain there. Each set shows the licence, mark or statement its archive gives, and says whose it is. Horror, crime, war and westerns are for teenage and adult profiles, racist caricature for adults only, and children’s profiles hear what was made for children. More about these archives.