Jimmy Durante
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James Francis "Jimmy" Durante (February 10, 1893 - January 29, 1980) was an American entertainer, one of the most popular and recognized personalities of the 1920s-1960s. Durante was a pianist, actor, comedian, as well as a singer with a distinctive hoarse voice with a strong working class New York City accent. He was noted for his large nose which he frequently made jokes about, which earned him the nickname Schnozzola.
Jimmy Durante was born New York City. He dropped out of school in eighth-grade to play ragtime piano.
In his youth Durante worked as pianist and entertainer in New York city, nickmaned "Ragtime Jimmy". About 1917 he joined one of the first jazz bands in New York, The Original New Orleans Jazz Band (all other musicians were from New Orleans). Durante's outgoing personality and ability to "sell" a number to the audience started attracting greater attention, and by 1920 the band was renamed Jimmy Durante's Jazz Band.
In the mid 1920s he became a star on Vaudeville and radio with his music & comedy trio Clayton Jackson & Durante (with Lou Clayton and Eddie Jackson); despite third billing Durante was the star of the act.
He had big hit in 1934 with his composition Inka Dinka Do, a novelty number he sang and played piano on, and which became his signature song.
In 1935 he starred in Billy Rose's spectacle, Jumbo. In the show, a policeman stops him while leading a live elephant and asks "What are you doing with that elephant?" Durante stopped the show by saying "Elephant? What elephant?"
He was featured in a series of comedy motion pictures paired with Buster Keaton in the early 1930's.
Durante had a nationally broadcast radio variety show; in the 1950s he had a television show as well. He continued making movie appearances through 1963 and television appearances until 1970.
He married Jeanne Olsen on 19 June 1921, who remained his wife until her death on 14 February 1943. Though it did not become public knowledge until after his own death, she was the mysterious "Mrs. Calabash" to whom he always referred with what became the sign off line to all his radio and TV shows: "'Goodnight Mrs. Calabash, wherever you are." Calabash was a private name between them for Calabasas, California, where she spent the final years of her life.
Durante courted his second wife, Marjorie Little, whom he met as a hatcheck girl at the Copacabana, for 16 years before they married in 1960, when she was 39, and he 67. On Christmas day 1961, they adopted a baby girl, Cecelia Alicia, whom they nicknamed "CeCe". Cecelia became a horseback-riding instructor near San Diego, married a computer designer, and has two sons.
Jimmy Durante died in Santa Monica, California of pneumonia, and was interred at Holy Cross Cemetery, Culver City.
Filmography
- Get-Rich-Quick Wallingford (1921)
- Roadhouse Nights (1930)
- The New Adventures of Get-Rich Quick Wallingford (1931)
- The Cuban Love Song (1931)
- Jackie Cooper's Birthday Party (1931) (short subject)
- The Christmas Party (1931) (short subject)
- Hollywood on Parade: Down Memory Lane (1932) (short subject)
- The Wet Parade (1932)
- Hollywood on Parade (1932) (short subject)
- Speak Easily (1932)
- Blondie of the Follies (1932)
- The Phantom President (1932)
- Give a Man a Job (1933) (short subject)
- What! No Beer? (1933)
- Hollywood on Parade No. 9 (1933) (short subject)
- Hell Below (1933)
- Broadway to Hollywood (1933)
- Meet the Baron (1933)
- Palooka (1934)
- George White's Scandals (1934)
- Strictly Dynamite (1934)
- Hollywood Party (1934)
- Student Tour (1934)
- Carnival (1935)
- Land Without Music (1936)
- Start Cheering (1938)
- Sally, Irene and Mary (1938)
- Little Miss Broadway (1938)
- Melody Ranch (1940)
- You're in the Army Now (1941)
- The Man Who Came to Dinner (1942)
- Two Girls and a Sailor (1944)
- Music for Millions (1944)
- Two Sisters from Boston (1946)
- It Happened in Brooklyn (1947)
- This Time for Keeps (1947)
- On an Island with You (1948)
- The Great Rupert (1950)
- The Milkman (1950)
- Screen Snapshots: Hollywood Premiere (1955) (short subject)
- The Heart of Show Business (1957) (short subject)
- Beau James (1957) (Cameo)
- Pepe (1960) (Cameo)
- The Last Judgment (1961)
- Billy Rose's Jumbo (1962)
- It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963)
- Just One More Time (1974) (short subject)
External links
- Durante on RedHotJazz.com (http://www.redhotjazz.com/jdurante.html)
- Internet Movie Database listing (http://www.imdb.com/Name?Durante,+Jimmy)
- Review of 1951 performance at the Copacabana (http://www.bigbandsandbignames.com/durante.html)
- An alternate theory about Mrs. Calabash (http://www.skypoint.com/members/schutz19/durante.htm)