Monday, April 6, 2009

This Week's Top Five List

This is from yesterday's program. I just realized I never put up last week's Top Five, so look for that too in the next couple of days:

6 comments:

Lil' Sis said...
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Lil' Sis said...
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Lil' Sis said...

Dr John,
How could you NOT put the wonderful, preeminent Danny Kaye as your number one???? I have actually heard of all your list but by far Danny Kaye is the tops! ;)
Love Ya
Lil' Sis

Anonymous said...

Paul Muni was by far the greatest actor of all the ones you mentioned, John. Mom

John Hajduk said...

The criteria governing the rankings in the Top Five list are idiosyncratic at best, murky at worst, but ultimately unassailable ;-) Danny Kaye was at the bottom, because he was the least "ethnic" of the group (and because I can only think of one movie of his that I enjoyed, though I admit he was probably the biggest "star" on the list); Muni was the best actor, but too serious to be at the top. Mazurki & Hodiak were wild cards (that is, their relative obscurity mirrored that of the Ukraine as a breeding ground for Hollywood stars). Palance was at the top because I thought he might prompt the most interesting reaction from Art (I'm not entirely sure that worked).
Dr. John

Lil' Sis said...

Dr John,
I guess if you are looking at "acting" chops you would definitely have a point in your list, but Good ol' Danny was a great dancer (White Christmas comes to mind)a super comedian, and as a conductor was acknowledge as someone with "innate musical talent", who would leave the audience (as well as orchestra) in stitches =)I guess with two kids in the music world I am quite partial to that aspect ;) I remember watching his conducting an orchestra(I think it was Ravel's Bolero) that I loved to death. I guess my point is he was a much more rounded performer than the others mentioned (I understand you trying to get a reaction from Art though =).
Here is a link to some clips of his musically speaking- (I liked the Herman's Hermits bit)
http://www.mtraks.com/artist/danny_kaye/videos
Lil' Sis