The Manic Bodies of Danny Kaye

Abstract

I examine Danny Kaye's on-screen queer persona, arguing that his manic performance style gives historical specificity to his distinctive signification of gender and sexual ambiguities. Specifically, three signature elements constitute Kaye's performances in his 1940s musicals: the doubled identities, suggesting the closet; the association of Jewishness with Broadway sophistication and effeminate masculinity; and the popularity in this period of "Freudism" and fantasy. I then consider how that queer persona fared in the more conservative period of the 1950s, especially in the light of Kaye's identification as a children's entertainer.