NY Times on Hans Christian Andersen bicentennial

This is from April 4th; it touches mainly on the celebrations in
Denmark, and here are the last paragraphs.

Lenona.


Strangely absent from the celebrations, though, is almost any mention
of Danny Kaye, the man whom many older Americans perhaps most identify
with Andersen. Playing the storyteller in Charles Vidor's 1952 movie
"Hans Christian Andersen," Kaye had a generation of children singing
"Wonderful, Wonderful Copenhagen." But that fictionalized version of
Andersen's life is no longer welcome here.

"The 20th century offered many a sentimentalized version of his life
story," Mr. Seeberg wrote in an essay for this occasion, "not least in
the Hollywood adaptation from 1952 where Danny Kaye depicts Andersen as
a sweet, pathetic entertainer, reducing the image of the fairy tale
poet to a caricature: a divinely inspired half-wit. Nothing could be
more unfair."

This year, then, Denmark has set out to define Andersen its own way.


(me again) Personally, I don't see why that should be considered
"strange." Even if the movie had been accurate, I seem to remember the
film critics' not liking it much. Not to mention that so much of it has
to do with a bickering theatrical couple and not with Andersen. All the
more reason to let it fade away. No one could imagine Kaye's character
writing any of the grim, death-filled stories HCS wrote! BTW, I didn't
see the movie till I was a teen in the 1980s, and by then I'd read
almost every single fairy tale of his.

But I DO like listening to Kaye singing the songs on the album.....

lenona321.TakeThisOut@yahoo.com wrote:

 > This is from April 4th; it touches mainly on the celebrations in
 > Denmark, and here are the last paragraphs.
 >
 > Lenona.
 >
 >
 > Strangely absent from the celebrations, though, is almost any mention
 > of Danny Kaye, the man whom many older Americans perhaps most identify
 > with Andersen. Playing the storyteller in Charles Vidor's 1952 movie
 > "Hans Christian Andersen," Kaye had a generation of children singing
 > "Wonderful, Wonderful Copenhagen." But that fictionalized version of
 > Andersen's life is no longer welcome here.
 >
 > "The 20th century offered many a sentimentalized version of his life
 > story," Mr. Seeberg wrote in an essay for this occasion, "not least in
 > the Hollywood adaptation from 1952 where Danny Kaye depicts Andersen as
 > a sweet, pathetic entertainer, reducing the image of the fairy tale
 > poet to a caricature: a divinely inspired half-wit. Nothing could be
 > more unfair."

It's pretty awful, even by Goldwyn-Danny Kaye standards, let alone bio
standards.
("Court Jester" officially spoiled us for the rest of his movie
career--It just never got any better than that.)

Hallmark Channel did a big budget TV-miniseries version of Andersen's
"My Life As a Fairytale" autobio, which played around with the
"psychological interpretations" a bit on depictions of the stories, but
otherwise portrayed Hans in all his childish, over-effusive and slightly
annoying borderline-dementia...
<a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.netflix.com/MovieDisplay?movieid=60026353" target="_blank">http://www.netflix.com/MovieDisplay?movieid=60026353</a>

At least it gives you a better (if slightly fictionalized) idea where
the stories came from, even if Kaye's version might've been a little
less disturbing to be around. 0_0''

Derek Janssen
djanss.TakeThisOut@charter.net<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->