Mom.

That's the short answer. The real answer has become more complex over the years.

OK, I'm going to take for granted that you know a bit about Danny Kaye already and about his personality, performances, characterizations and general good time that made up his personna.

I was born into a family of humor.

My dad's humor was sardonic, sometimes crude and in a story vein. He's always loved to draw out a story and end it with a surprising punchline that makes you think before you laugh. That kind of intelligence in humor weighed heavilly against the strict upraising that he enforced with his children (i.e. me).

My mom pretended to be a dumb blonde but never missed a trick and was quick with her humor with a silliness unparalleled. Not slapstic humor but the silly vaudville type punchlines that made you gasp for breath because she delivered them so unexpectedly.

The spontenaety of those two people rubbed off on their three sons. My older brother Bob is literally the king of the pun and my younger brother Thom's sardonic and sometimes dark humor with just a touch of silliness can bring you to your knees.

Me? I'm stuck in the middle. I'm the "Uncle Milty" of the family as like Milton Bearle, I can commit stolen jokes to memory and bring them out whenever appropriate. Like some Rainman idiot-savant, I can recall jokes, lines and sometimes full comic routines.

My name is Steve and my namesake was Steve Allen, a comedic genius. Maybe in my head, I figured my parents wanted me to live up to that kind of comedy. . .but have a "real job."

When my parents broke up when I was 12, things, of course, changed in the household. Within a year my Dad was remarried and my older brother moved out. The atmosphere changed in the house especially Friday nights when Thom fell asleep early and Mom and I sat on the couch absorbing old movies with bowls of popcorn.

I became a lover of movies Mom watched and became fluent in the names of all the stars from the 40s-50s and the rumours behind their Hollywood fame. I even remember my Dad calling me up at midnight to have me ask my mom a Hollywood question. He needed to win a bet at a bar and knew my mom would know it. . . what shocked him was that I answered his querie and Mom verified it.

During one of these late, Friday night movie nights when I was already 18 (legal drinking age) and Mom and I were pretty well "lit" . . . The Court Jester came on and she and I laughed for two hours straight. The silliness of Danny Kaye and the gorgeous colors of the costumes and the toungue-twisting songs made my stomach hurt from laugh-ache.

I'd already been a Danny Kaye fan from growing up watching "Hans Christian Anderson" during the Easter season's calvacade of movies (10 Commandments, Greatest Story Ever Told, and Wizard of Oz). The Court Jester turned me into a "Kaye-o-phile."

These were the days before cable and even video recorders and I would scan every week's TV Guide for The Court Jester. One late night, just prior to me being shipped out to the Navy, the movie came on and I recorded every minute on a series of cassettes on my audio cassette recorder.

When I boarded the USS Nimitz near Palma de Mallorca, Spain, the cassettes were in my seabag. They became my "holy grail," touching a little bit of home every time I heard Danny sing "they'll never outfox the fox." On my first shore leave, with half a bottle of Ouzo in me, I sang all the words to "The Maladjusted Jester" to my friends and even into the long-distance phonecall to my mom (collect). I later talked the Chaplain into getting some biographies of famous entertainers on board the ships' library and one of Danny Kaye's was among the stack. I even tried to meet Mr. Kaye at the dog tracks in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida when an older enlistedman on the ship said he'd seen Danny at the tracks a lot when he was stationed nearby.

In 1985, the first Betamax tape purchased for my new Sony VCR was "The Court Jester." I wore the thing out. I later purchased and wore out two VHS versions and now have the DVD and a copy in memory on my laptop for whenever I need a "fix."

So, are you beginning to see why this site has come to being?

I've collected a lot of Danny Kaye memorabilia from his Time Magazine cover in the 40s and his Mad Magazine writing in the 50s and his childrens' LPs from the 60s and a copy of his Rankin-Bass "Here Comes Peter Cottontail" video of the 70s and another tape of Danny conducting the New York Philharmonic from 1981.

I have a mass of clippings dedicated to Danny Kaye's passing in the late 1980s, some with real tears smearing the type.

Fast forward twenty years.

My then-girlfriend-now-wife Cynthia had a great idea. We could go to the Maryland Renaissance Festival . . . I said that we had to dress up to go! She had a wig and an outfit standing by, but what would I wear?

Danny reached down from Heaven and slapped the Black Fox into my head. . . I'm sure of that. I showed Cyn the movie and she agreed. . .with my love of Danny and the Court Jester. . . I HAD to be the Black Fox.

I sketched out the design friday afternoon and Cyn sewed it together on Saturday. . . on Sunday I walked through the gates with Cyn on my arm and I marvelled at the festival. We got only halfway through the village of Revel Grove and heard from the background of the crowd, "Hawkins, get out of my clothes."

I literally beamed like a saint and Cyn's smile drew ear-to-ear as she squeezed my hand. That line from The Court Jester from the Black Fox to Hawkins (played by Danny Kaye) made an incredible memory when I sat on the couch with Mom watching the movie for the first time . . .

. . . and now I was hearing it directed at me with the woman who would be my wife on my arm. A tear fell for Danny, and a few more fell for Cynthia and my Mom because they were never to meet. Mom passed away before she had a chance to meet Cynthia.

That line out of the background of voices brought some cosmic full-circle to my life. . . my love for Mom. . . my love for The Court Jester. . . my love for Cynthia. . . and my love for Danny Kaye.