Sylvia Fine Kaye (August 29, 1913October 28, 1991) was an American lyricist, composer, and producer. Many of her compositions and productions were performed by her husband, comedian Danny Kaye.
Early life
Sylvia Fine was born in Brooklyn, New York, the youngest of three children of a Jewish dentist, and raised in East New York. She attended Thomas Jefferson High School and studied music at Brooklyn College, where she wrote the music for the school's alma mater, with lyrics from the poet Robert Friend.
Career and Danny Kaye
She was working as an audition pianist when she met Danny Kaye; both were working on a short-lived Broadway show, The Straw Hat Revue.
He proposed on the telephone while working in Florida; Fine was in New York. She made the trip to Fort Lauderdale where they were married on January 3, 1940.[ ]
She took a direct role in managing her husband's career and wrote many of his songs for him, both in film and recordings.[
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The New York Times reported, "In the 1970s, Fine embarked on a separate career as a television producer and teacher. She began teaching musical comedy at the University of Southern California in 1971 and at Yale in 1975.
In 1975 she was executive producer for the television special "Danny Kaye: Look in at the Metropolitan opera."
She produced and edited Assignment Children, a UNICEF film that starred her husband. In the last three years of her life, she had been writing a book about her life with Kaye, Fine and Danny, for Knopf Books.
Personal life
Fine and Kaye had a daughter, Dena (born December 17, 1946
Death
Sylvia Fine Kaye died of emphysema at the age of 78 in her Manhattan apartment in 1991.
Legacy
The careers of Fine and Kaye are documented in The Danny Kaye and Sylvia Fine Collection at the Library of Congress. The materials preserved in the collection include manuscripts, scores, scripts, photographs, sound recordings, and video clips.
The Sylvia and Danny Kaye Playhouse at Hunter College in New York opened in 1988, with a $1 million gift from Sylvia Kaye.
Selected list of Sylvia Fine songs
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"Anatole of Paris" from The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947)
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"The Inspector General" and "Happy Times" (Johnny Green, Sylvia Fine) from The Inspector General (1949)
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"The Moon Is Blue" (Herschel Burke Gilbert, Sylvia Fine) from The Moon Is Blue (1953) - Academy Awards nominee, Best Original Song
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"Knock on Wood" from Knock on Wood (1954)
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"(You'll Never) Outfox the Fox" (Sammy Cahn, Sylvia Fine) from The Court Jester (1956)
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"The Five Pennies" from The Five Pennies (1959) - Oscar nominee, Best Original Song
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"Lullaby in Ragtime," also from The Five Pennies
External links
