Happy 90th to a son of Quincy, MA...the incredible funny man Bill Dana....Dana was born William Szathmary in Quincy, Massachusetts. He is of Hungarian-Jewish descent. He took his stage name Dana after his mothers first name Dina as he felt Szathmary was unpronounceable! Dana began his career as a page at NBCs famous Studio 6B while performing comedy in nightclubs around New York with partner Gene Wood. In the 1950s, he performed on The Imogene Coca Show, The Danny Thomas Show and The Martha Raye Show, as well as writing for and producing The Spike Jones Show. Danas career took a major turn when he began writing stand-up routines for the young comedian Don Adams, including the now well-known Would you believe? jokes popularized by Get Smart. From there, he was brought in as a writer for The Steve Allen Show, where he created the José Jiménez character for the shows Man in the Street segments. On an Ed Sullivan Show appearance, Dana related a story of how a woman recognized him on the street, but only knew him as José Jiménez, and asked what his real name was. Instead of his stage name, Bill Dana, he gave her his real name, William Szathmary. The woman rejoined: Wow, no wonder you changed it to Jiménez! https://youtube/watch?v=x1MOLzFpqrU
Posted on: Sun, 05 Oct 2014 11:41:22 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015