- Durante, Jimmy
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orig. James Francis Duranteborn Feb. 10, 1893, New York, N.Y., U.S.died Jan. 29, 1980, Santa Monica, Calif.U.S. comedian.By age 16 he was playing piano in nightclubs in New York City's Bowery. In the 1920s the team of Durante, Lou Clayton, and Eddie Jackson starred in vaudeville and nightclubs; they appeared on Broadway in Florenz Ziegfeld's Show Girl (1929). Durante made his film debut in Roadhouse Nights (1930) and over the next 30 years brightened many films and musicals with his gravelly voice, malapropisms, and warmhearted buffoonery. Nicknamed "Schnozzola" for his large nose, he is remembered for ending his many radio and television programs with the line "Goodnight, Mrs. Calabash, wherever you are."
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▪ American comedianbyname of James Francis Durante, byname Schnozzola , or The Schnozborn Feb. 10, 1893, New York, N.Y., U.S.died Jan. 29, 1980, Santa Monica, Calif.American comedian whose career in every major entertainment performance medium spanned more than six decades.As a boy, Durante wanted to become a saloon pianist. His father, a barber, bought him a piano and provided intermittent lessons. Although Durante left school in seventh grade for a miscellany of jobs, he kept up his piano study, and when he was 17 he realized his dream by playing the piano at Diamond Tony's Saloon in Brooklyn's Coney Island.With the vaudevillians Eddie Jackson and Lou Clayton, he opened the Club Durant in New York in 1923. The partners performed there and in other clubs throughout the 1920s. Durante had roles in such Broadway productions as Show Girl and The New Yorkers and in the movie Roadhouse Nights (1929). He starred in several radio programs during the 1940s, including “The Jimmy Durante Show” and “The Camel Comedy Caravan.” His closing line—“Good night, Mrs. Calabash, wherever you are!”—became as famous as his felt hat, cane, and his persistent malapropisms and mispronunciations; the line was used to close his various television shows during the 1950s, such as “The Four-Star Revue,” “The All-Star Revue,” and “The Jimmy Durante Show.” His outsize nose became his trademark.His Broadway career included a role in Jumbo, a circus extravaganza; in 1962 he had a role in the film version of Jumbo. The following year he acted in the film It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.Additional ReadingJhan Robbins, Inka Dinka Doo: The Life of Jimmy Durante (1991).* * *
Universalium. 2010.
