Danny Kaye 1 Waxworks (1948)

Probably unissued footage showing unveiling of Danny Kaye waxwork at Madame Tussaud's, London, by the man himself - 1948.



Danny Kaye walks onto platform, audience sitting at tables applauds. Danny and another man stand before a microphone. Danny makes a play of looking through curtains at the back of the stage. The man says he has a record that has been sent from Hollywood containing an open letter to Danny on the occasion of being included in Madame Tussaud's. We hear (very soft and bad quality) comedian Jack Benny's voice coming out of record player. Very hard to make out exactly what is being said. Audience and Danny listen and laugh at several good-natured jokes that Benny makes. Benny asks Danny to pick up the toothbrush and toupee that he left in his dressing room at the Palladium. (Danny was in London for Royal Command Performance.)



Danny makes speech, talking about his friendship with Jack Benny. He then gets excited about seeing his waxwork and peeks through the curtains at it, telling the audience it looks like Val Parnell! He finally shouts "open sesame!", and the curtains are drawn back to reveal his waxwork figure. Danny walks around it, examining it closely. He stands behind it and starts to sing his theme tune 'Ballin' The Jack'. A woman in the audience shouts out "Sing it, Danny! Sing it!" and he laughs and says "I will in a minute, honey!"



The other man introduces Danny to Bernard Tussaud who presents Danny with a pair of bronze hands and a bronze bust of himself. Danny does some funny business, putting the bust on the piano and asking it to marry him. He then makes speech, saying never before has he felt so at home in any country in his life, and how pleased he is to be back. He thanks movie mogul Jack Warner for suspending production on a film so Danny could come over. He says "As the ocean gets smaller, and as the world gets narrower, so do I feel closer to everyone here. God bless you all". Applause. M/S of Danny singing 'Ballin' The Jack' with piano accompaniment. Some of the audience join in. He then does impression of BBC radio announcer signing off.
FILM ID:2743.11

A VIDEO FROM BRITISH PATHÉ. EXPLORE OUR ONLINE CHANNEL, BRITISH PATHÉ TV. IT'S FULL OF GREAT DOCUMENTARIES, FASCINATING INTERVIEWS, AND CLASSIC MOVIES. http://www.britishpathe.tv/

FOR LICENSING ENQUIRIES VISIT http://www.britishpathe.com/

British Pathé also represents the Reuters historical collection, which includes more than 136,000 items from the news agencies Gaumont Graphic (1910-1932), Empire News Bulletin (1926-1930), British Paramount (1931-1957), and Gaumont British (1934-1959), as well as Visnews content from 1957 to the end of 1984. All footage can be viewed on the British Pathé website. https://www.britishpathe.com/