1945
January 6, 1945
Guest: Eddie Cantor
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The opening broadcast. Kaye performs an entire play single-handed, voicing every character, reels off his celebrated list of Russian composers against the clock, and closes with "Minnie the Moocher." Eddie Cantor guests.
January 13, 1945
The Life of Danny Kaye
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The company stages a mock biography of its own star. Part of the broadcast was reused later on the Armed Forces program "To The Rear March."
January 20, 1945
The Milking Machine
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An auction leaves Kaye the owner of an electric milking machine. He works the sponsor's name into "The Blues," and the Playhouse hands Scotland Yard's Inspector H. I. Kaye "The Case of the Missing Toothpick." Part of it was later carried on the Armed Forces program "To The Rear March."
January 27, 1945
Plane Trip to Washington
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The week's business takes Kaye to Washington by air. He scats his way through one number and sings "Molly Malone."
February 3, 1945
A Baby from Washington
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Back from Washington, Danny arrives with a baby in tow; as King Danny of Brooklyn he then sets out to save the mortgage on Ebbets Field. Two songs: "The Fairy Piper" and "The Countess of Coney Island."
February 10, 1945
A Valentine for Jack Benny
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A Valentine's broadcast. Kaye plays a sketch about Cupid with Kitty Kallen and bandleader Harry James, and performs "It's Never Too Late to Mendelssohn" and "Stanislavsky."
February 17, 1945
Teaching an Old Dog New Tricks
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A new dog named Fletcher costs Kaye his hotel room, at a moment when rooms are scarce. The company follows with a sketch called "Uncle Dan'l's Cabin," and the songs are "A Railroad Song" and "Accentuate the Positive."
February 24, 1945
The Case of the Murdered Meatball
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Inspector H. I. J. Kaye takes the Playhouse's latest case, "The Case of the Murdered Meatball." Two songs: "Deenah" and "Let's Not Talk About Love."
March 3, 1945
New Playhouse Opening Night
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Kaye's mock repertory company, "The Danny Kaye Playhouse," throws open its doors for a first night. Kitty Kallen steps out from the band for a vocal.
March 10, 1945
Germs
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The cast imagines "Romeo and Juliet" as a radio script of Shakespeare's own devising. Kaye performs "Rockin' the Alphabet" and "Accentuate the Positive." A disc turnover costs the surviving recording a few seconds in the middle.
March 17, 1945
One Irishman's Family
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The St. Patrick's Day broadcast. Kaye goes shopping for a suit, delivers his "One Irish Man's Fantasy," and performs three numbers -- "Accentuate the Positive," "The Railroad Song" and "Concerto for Tongue and Orchestra."
March 24, 1945
A Job with the Dodgers
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Danny goes after a place on the Brooklyn Dodgers roster, with a song in praise of the borough; the sketch, "The Great Diamond Robbery," brings in Dodgers manager Leo Durocher as guest.
March 31, 1945
Heading for Burmingham General Hospital
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April 6, 1945
Guest: Kitty Kallen
April 7, 1945
Diary of a Return Trip to Hollywood
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The broadcast is built on the diary Kaye kept riding the train back to Hollywood, read out entry by entry. "Minnie the Moocher" is the song.
April 14, 1945
(untitled)
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April 21, 1945
Dublin or Nothing
The sketch is "Dublin or Nothing," with Kaye as a New York patrolman named Daniel O'Kaye. He also sings "The Fairy Pipers."
April 27, 1945
Find Umbriago
Jimmy Durante and Garry Moore arrive in search of the missing Umbriago, and Kaye takes a courtroom scene single-handed, playing every part in it. Kitty Kallen has a number with the band.
May 4, 1945
Buys Engagement Ring
Kaye sets out to buy an engagement ring. The songs are "Blue Skies" and "Deenah."
May 11, 1945
War Bond Drive Chairman
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Kaye finds himself running the Seventh War Loan drive for his neighborhood and canvassing for buyers. The number is "Concerto for War Bonds" -- Sylvia Fine's lyrics set to Arthur Sullivan -- and Eve Arden stumbles over two lines back to back.
May 18, 1945
He Learned His Blarney in Kilarney
An Irish turn to match the title: Kaye sings "Danny Boy," and Kitty Kallen takes a vocal with the orchestra.
May 25, 1945
From the Pantages Theater in Hollywood
June 1, 1945
Dreams He Is All the Characters He's Played
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The season's last broadcast puts Kaye to sleep and has him dream his way back through every character he played across the run. He sings "Bali Boogie" and a number written in praise of radio itself.
September 28, 1945
(untitled)
October 5, 1945
Frank Sinatra and Judy Garland Host the Show
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Kaye is away on his USO tour and does not appear at all. Frank Sinatra and Judy Garland take the program over between them, telling a tall-tale version of their own romance set ten years ahead in 1955, with Axel Stordahl conducting.
October 12, 1945
Ed Gardner Subs for Danny Kaye
October 19, 1945
George Burns and Gracie Allen Sub for Danny
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October 26, 1945
Jack Benny Subs for Danny
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Kaye's USO tour leaves the slot open and Jack Benny moves in with his whole company. The centerpiece is Benny in conversation with three ghosts: Diamond Jim Brady, Stradivarius and Hitler.
November 2, 1945
(untitled)
November 9, 1945
Eddie Cantor Subs for Danny
The half-hour is not really Kaye's this week. With him away on the USO tour, the slot carries a regular edition of "The Eddie Cantor Show" instead, and Cantor fills it with his own story -- how Ida came into his life, the marriage, and the lean early years in the business.
November 16, 1945
(untitled)
November 23, 1945
(untitled)
November 30, 1945
(untitled)
December 7, 1945
Sophie's Weight
Sophie Tucker is the guest, and the company spends much of her visit teasing her about her weight before she and Kaye pair off for a duet. Her own number is "Your Red Hot Mama Is a Jitterbugging Hep Cat Now" and his is "Stanislavsky." Kaye's O'Reilly gag returns.
December 14, 1945
Dottie Mahoney
Shirley Booth brings on her character Dottie Mahoney, and Georgia Gibbs sings.
December 21, 1945
(untitled)
December 28, 1945
(untitled)
1946
January 4, 1946
The Movie Makers
Betty Hutton guests. The two of them spend the half-hour on a plan to appear together in a serious picture -- an unlikely pairing, which is the joke.
January 11, 1946
(untitled)
January 18, 1946
(untitled)
January 25, 1946
Mr. Anthony's Court of Human Relations
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The conceit is that Kaye has been booked as a guest on his own program. The sketch sends up Mr. Anthony's "Court of Human Relations."
February 1, 1946
Jack and Jill Opera
The show goes out from Milwaukee, honoring the city's hundredth anniversary, with Helen Jepson guesting. Kaye sings "Minnie the Moocher," "Frim Fram Sauce" and "Poor Jenny," and works "Jack and Jill" up into an opera.
February 8, 1946
The Broadway Show
Ann Sothern arrives with a proposition: she wants Kaye on Broadway alongside her. "Molly Malone" is the song.
February 15, 1946
Guest: Carmen Miranda
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The broadcast opens on a bulletin about the steel strike. Danny then hunts for an interpreter to help him talk to guest Carmen Miranda, and the two sing an extended duet in which neither one's Portuguese comes out ahead. They reprised it on the AFRS Command Performance of June 30, 1946.
February 22, 1946
Guests: Jack Pearl and Georgia Gibbs
March 1, 1946
The Wife of O'Reilly
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Orson Welles opens the show before Kaye is on the air, sparring with an "average radio listener" who first mistakes him for Kaye and then heckles him. Welles explains that he has come to give Kaye pointers on making the right Hollywood social contacts, and offers a sample in prose so ornate that when the listener asks what it means he admits he has no idea -- only that he read it beautifully. Kaye enters on his scat signature; Georgia Gibbs sings "Come to Baby, Do." The company then cashes in Kaye's long-running Irish gag as "The Wife of O'Reilly," the sketch that gives the show its title and the longest block on the running order, after which Kaye takes "McNamara's Band" and he and Welles close by playing "Julius Caesar" as a Hollywood musical.
March 15, 1946
(untitled)
March 22, 1946
Guests Benay Venuta and Dick Powell
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March 29, 1946
Dr. Christian
Jean Hersholt guests as Dr. Christian and the whole company queues up to be looked over -- Kaye among them, convinced he has turned into a horse. Georgia Gibbs sings.
April 5, 1946
The Dolly Brothers
George Jessel guests. The two of them turn up first as a pair of songwriters starving in Tin Pan Alley, and later as "The Dolly Brothers."
April 12, 1946
(untitled)
April 19, 1946
The Quiz Kids
The radio quiz shows get the treatment, with Joan Blondell guesting and Kenny Delmar on hand in his running role as "the average radio listener."
April 26, 1946
Billie Burke's House Party
Guest Billie Burke throws a party, Kaye is drawn into a parlor game there, and he sings "Bali Boogie." Kenny Delmar is again "the average radio listener."
May 10, 1946
Julius Caesar
Basil Rathbone guests and the two of them stage "Julius Caesar" as a Hollywood musical. Part of the broadcast was reused afterwards on the Armed Forces program "To The Rear March."
May 24, 1946
Arthur Treacher
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