The A to Z of the Eisenhower Era by Burton I. Kaufman & Diane Kaufman

Author:Burton I. Kaufman & Diane Kaufman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scarecrow Press
Published: 2009-04-06T04:00:00+00:00

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KAYE, DANNY (1913–1987). Born David Daniel Kaminski in Brooklyn, New York, Danny Kaye began performing at the age of 13 in Catskill Mountain resorts. His ability to do tongue twisters quicker than anyone else delighted audiences. He also performed on Broadway and later signed a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. His movies often included his tongue twisters. During the 1950s, he starred in some of MGM’s most popular musical comedies, including The Court Jester, which some critics considered his best performance. He also performed for four years (1963–67) in his own television show and appeared as a guest conductor with some of the finest orchestras in the world. From 1954 until his death in 1987, he worked as a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). In 1965, when UNICEF received the Nobel Peace Prize, Danny Kaye was asked to represent the organization at the ceremony. See also CINEMA.

KAZAN, ELIA (1909–2003). Director Elia Kazan was born in Turkey but raised in New York. Educated at Williams College (A.B., 1930), Yale University (1930–32), and Wesleyan University (M.F.A., 1955), he began his directing career on Broadway. He later founded the Actors Studio with Lee Strasberg. In addition to his work in theater, Kazan directed some of Hollywood’s best actors in cinema, including Gregory Peck in Gentleman’s Agreement (1947), Marlon Brando in Viva Zapata (1952) and On the Waterfront (1954), and Lee J. Cobb in America, America (1963).

When Kazan was called to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), he refused at first to provide names of suspected communists in Hollywood. When he was informed that if he did not do so, he would be blacklisted, he testified giving the names of several communist sympathizers or Communist Party members. As a result, he was blacklisted in his own way by many colleagues in the entertainment industry. In 1999, the Academy Awards honored Kazan with an Oscar for his lifetime achievement. Many in the entertainment industry did not believe Kazan deserved to receive the honor, while others understood his predicament in the 1950s. Kazan wrote in his biography that he had to think of himself and his family first when he finally named people before HUAC. During the 1950s, when Senator Joseph McCarthy was promoting fears about communists in America, no other director was as controversial as Kazan. See also COLD WAR; RED SCARE.

KEFAUVER, ESTES (1903–1963). U.S. representative 1939–49, U.S. senator 1949–63. Born and raised in Tennessee, Carey Estes Kefauver received his B.A. from the University of Tennessee (1924) and his law degree from Yale University Law School (1927). A member of the Democratic Party, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1939. After his election to the Senate in 1948, he became chair of the Senate Committee on Organized Crime, better known as the Kefauver Committee. Its two-year investigation resulted in Kefauver’s book Crime in America (1951), and it made him a nationally known political figure. Although Kefauver was unsuccessful in his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination in the 1952 and 1956 elections, Adlai Stevenson chose him as his running mate in 1956.

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