Danny Kaye and Sylvia Fine: Two Kids from Brooklyn
Humanitarian Efforts

Danny Kaye, like many stars in the mid-twentieth century, traveled to war zones to entertain the troops. He toured Asia during the Korean and Vietnam wars performing for thousands of servicemen.

Sylvia Fine participated in many charity events throughout her career. Most of her work was in support of Jewish causes and musical theater causes. She also helped with war efforts alongside her husband, most notably by producing a USO Christmas special in 1958.

As soon as his career took off in the early 1940s with his Broadway and New York nightclub performances, Danny Kaye began participating in events to raise money for military efforts during World War II. He performed at USO shows and war bond sales throughout the 1940s and 1950s. During the Korean and Vietnam wars, he made frequent trips to Japan, Korea, and Vietnam to entertain troops and visit military hospitals.

In March of 1966, right after an appearance at the London Palladium, Danny Kaye traveled to the Pacific Theater to visit and entertain troops in the Vietnam war. On the way, he and Vikki Carr landed on board the USS Hancock to perform for sailors at sea.

In 1954, Danny Kaye was named ambassador-at-large for the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF). He was appointed by the executive director, Maurice Pate, whom he met by chance when they flew together from England to the United States. In this lifetime position, Kaye worked tirelessly to raise awareness and money for UNICEF by traveling the world on its behalf. One of his most important achievements was filming a movie on the work of UNICEF in Asia titled Assignment Children (1956), for which he received an honorary Oscar.

In the mid-1960s, Danny Kaye started a program through UNICEF in which he would fly to as many U.S. cities on Halloween collecting donations at each stop. Children would dress up to meet Kaye at the airport and often city and state officials would attend. Kaye, an avid amateur pilot, would fly the plane himself.

Danny Kaye’s career as a conductor started during his summers working at resorts in the Catskills. He began adding bits of humorous conducting of the band into his comedy routine, an act that continued throughout his stage career. In 1954, Philadelphia Orchestra music director Eugene Ormandy (1899–1985) asked Kaye to conduct a few pieces with the orchestra for a pension benefit concert. The event was a huge success, and Kaye quickly received similar requests from other orchestras. Although Kaye was unable to read music, he spent his later career conducting many of the world’s professional ensembles in benefit concerts.

In the spring semester of 1976, Sylvia Fine taught a course at Yale University on the history of musical comedy, a topic that would lead to her PBS special Musical Comedy Tonight. Because of her relationship with the university, the Yale School of Music requested that Danny Kaye conduct the orchestra. In April of 1976, Kaye led the Yale Symphony in a concert to benefit scholarships.

By the end of the 1970s Danny Kaye had conducted many of the world's major orchestras in benefit concerts, from the New York Philharmonic and Boston Symphony in America to the Gewandhaus Orchestra and London Symphony in Europe. His schedule during the 1970s was generally filled with UNICEF events and orchestra appearances. In May of 1978, he conducted one of America’s most renowned ensembles—the Cleveland Orchestra

Danny Kaye maintained a close relationship with the Los Angeles Philharmonic throughout his career and specifically with its music director, Zubin Mehta, during the 1970s. On numerous occasions he conducted benefit concerts with the orchestra at the Hollywood Bowl, and in 1947 lead a gala concert for their new hall.

Danny Kaye’s tenure as Goodwill Ambassador to UNICEF lasted from 1954 through the end of his life. He was regularly honored by organizations related to UNICEF and philanthropy during this time.