Sylvia Fine
Encyclopedia
Sylvia Fine was an American lyricist
Lyricist
A lyricist is a songwriter who specializes in lyrics. A singer who writes the lyrics to songs is a singer-lyricist. This differentiates from a singer-composer, who composes the song's melody.-Collaboration:...

, composer, producer and the wife of the comedian Danny Kaye
Danny Kaye
Danny Kaye was a celebrated American actor, singer, dancer, and comedian...

. The daughter of a dentist and the youngest of three children, she and her future husband grew up within blocks of each other in Brooklyn, but never met until 1939.

Biography

Raised in a Jewish household in East New York, she attended Thomas Jefferson High School
Thomas Jefferson High School (Brooklyn, New York)
Thomas Jefferson High School is a former high school in the East New York section of Brooklyn, New York. The New York City Department of Education closed the school and broke it into several different schools in 2007, owing to low graduation rates....

 and studied music at Brooklyn College
Brooklyn College
Brooklyn College is a senior college of the City University of New York, located in Brooklyn, New York, United States.Established in 1930 by the New York City Board of Higher Education, the College had its beginnings as the Downtown Brooklyn branches of Hunter College and the City College of New...

, where she wrote the music for the school's alma mater, with lyrics from the poet Robert Friend
Robert Friend
Robert Friend was an American-born poet and translator. After moving to Israel, he became a professor of English literature at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.-Biography:...

.

She was working as an audition pianist when she met Danny Kaye; both were working on a short-lived Broadway show. Fine also wrote the lyrics and music for it. Though the pair had never met, they discovered something in common. Kaye had once worked for Fine's father: watching his office while the dentist went to lunch. Dr. Fine also had to fire his future son-in-law for doing woodworking with his dental drill
Dental drill
A dental drill is a small, high-speed drill used during dental procedures, usually to remove decay and shape tooth structure prior to the insertion of a filling or crown...

s. After a whirlwind romance, they were married on January 3, 1940. Kaye proposed on the telephone while working in Florida; Fine was in New York. She made the trip to Fort Lauderdale where they were married.

She took a direct role in managing her husband's career and wrote many of his songs for him, both in film and recordings. Those for the film The Court Jester
The Court Jester
The Court Jester is a 1956 musical-comedy film starring Danny Kaye, Glynis Johns, Basil Rathbone, and Angela Lansbury. The movie was co-written, co-directed, and co-produced by Melvin Frank and Norman Panama...

were co-written with Sammy Cahn
Sammy Cahn
Sammy Cahn was an American lyricist, songwriter and musician. He is best known for his romantic lyrics to films and Broadway songs, as well as stand-alone songs premiered by recording companies in the Greater Los Angeles Area...

. Fine was also an associate producer of some of the films. Fine received a Peabody Award
Peabody Award
The George Foster Peabody Awards recognize distinguished and meritorious public service by radio and television stations, networks, producing organizations and individuals. In 1939, the National Association of Broadcasters formed a committee to recognize outstanding achievement in radio broadcasting...

 in 1980, and during her career she was also nominated for two Oscars and two Emmys.

Fine and Kaye had a daughter, Dena, who was born on December 17, 1946, and they remained married, although estranged circa 1947, until his death in 1987.

According to her obituary in the New York Times, "In the 1970s, she 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 1979, she produced and narrated the course as a 90-minute PBS program, "Musical Comedy Tonight," (eventually a three part series), which won a Peabody Award. In 1975 she was executive producer for a television special, "Danny Kaye: Look In at the Met." She also produced and edited "Assignment Children," a Unicef film that starred her husband." She began working in television production with her husband's 1960s television shows.

In the last three years of her life, she had been writing an autobiography "Fine and Danny" about her life with Danny Kaye, for Knopf Books.

Sylvia Fine Kaye died of emphysema
Emphysema
Emphysema is a long-term, progressive disease of the lungs that primarily causes shortness of breath. In people with emphysema, the tissues necessary to support the physical shape and function of the lungs are destroyed. It is included in a group of diseases called chronic obstructive pulmonary...

 at the age of 78 in New York City in 1991. She is buried with her husband at Kensico Cemetery
Kensico Cemetery
Kensico Cemetery, located in Valhalla, Westchester County, New York, was founded in 1889, when many New York City cemeteries were becoming full, and rural cemeteries were being created near the railroads which served the city...

 in Valhalla, New York
Valhalla, New York
Valhalla is an unincorporated hamlet and census-designated place that is located within the town of Mount Pleasant, New York, in Westchester County. Its population was 3,162 at the 2010 U.S. Census...

. In 1992, her daughter, Dena Kaye, was quoted in a newpaper article, recalling Fine's advice to her and the influence it had in her life. Both Fine and Kaye were determined not to influence their daughter's choices as she grew up. In a 1954 interview, Kaye stated that, "Whatever she (Dena) wants to be she will be without interference from her mother nor from me."


Selected list of Sylvia Fine songs

  • "Anatole of Paris" from The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
    The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
    "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" is a short story by James Thurber. The most famous of Thurber's stories, it first appeared in The New Yorker on March 18, 1939, and was first collected in his book My World and Welcome to It...

    (1947)
  • "The Inspector General" and "Happy Times" (Johnny Green
    Johnny Green
    Johnny Green was an American songwriter, composer, musical arranger, and conductor. He was given the nickname "Beulah" by colleague Conrad Salinger. His most famous song was one of his earliest, "Body and Soul"...

    , Sylvia Fine) from The Inspector General
    The Inspector General (film)
    The Inspector General is a 1949 musical comedy film. It stars Danny Kaye and was directed by Henry Koster. The film also stars Walter Slezak, Gene Lockhart, Barbara Bates, Elsa Lanchester, Alan Hale Sr. and Rhys Williams. Original music by Sylvia Fine and Johnny Green.-Premise:The film is loosely...

    (1949)
  • "The Moon Is Blue" (Herschel Burke Gilbert, Sylvia Fine) from The Moon Is Blue
    The Moon Is Blue
    The Moon Is Blue is a 1953 American comedy film produced and directed by Otto Preminger. The screenplay by F. Hugh Herbert, based on his 1951 play of the same title, focuses on a young woman who meets an architect on the observation deck of the Empire State Building and quickly turns his life...

    (1953) - Oscar
    Academy Awards
    An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...

     nominee, Best Original Song
    Academy Award for Best Original Song
    The Academy Award for Best Original Song is one of the awards given annually to people working in the motion picture industry by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences . It is presented to the songwriters who have composed the best original song written specifically for a film...

  • "Knock on Wood" from Knock on Wood (1954)
  • "(You'll Never) Outfox the Fox" (Sammy Cahn
    Sammy Cahn
    Sammy Cahn was an American lyricist, songwriter and musician. He is best known for his romantic lyrics to films and Broadway songs, as well as stand-alone songs premiered by recording companies in the Greater Los Angeles Area...

    , Sylvia Fine) from The Court Jester
    The Court Jester
    The Court Jester is a 1956 musical-comedy film starring Danny Kaye, Glynis Johns, Basil Rathbone, and Angela Lansbury. The movie was co-written, co-directed, and co-produced by Melvin Frank and Norman Panama...

    (1956)
  • "The Five Pennies" from The Five Pennies
    The Five Pennies
    The Five Pennies was a semi-biographical 1959 film starring Danny Kaye as cornet player and bandleader Red Nichols. Other cast members included Barbara Bel Geddes, Harry Guardino, Bob Crosby, Louis Armstrong, Susan Gordon, and Tuesday Weld...

    (1959) - Oscar nominee, Best Original Song
  • "Lullaby in Ragtime," also from The Five Pennies, a sumptuous song that fulfills both its title words, and which Barbara Cook
    Barbara Cook
    Barbara Cook is an American singer and actress who first came to prominence in the 1950s after starring in the original Broadway musicals Candide and The Music Man among others, winning a Tony Award for the latter...

    turned into a standard

External links

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