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The correct answer is Jimmy Durante!
photo via Wikimedia Commons
Promotional photo of Jimmy Durante from the television show, The Hollywood Palace; 1964
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Prior to his extensive career in radio and television, the beloved performer Jimmy Durante (affectionately referred to as schnozzola – “big nose”), dropped out of middle school in his native New York and became a full-time ragtime pianist, acquiring the nickname of “Ragtime Jimmy,” and eventually joining the Original New Orleans Jazz Band, a well-known jazz band in New York. His routine of breaking into a song to deliver a joke, with band or orchestra chord punctuation after each line, became a Durante trademark. In 1920 the group was renamed Jimmy Durante’s Jazz Band.
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Click here to view Durante’s Wikipedia page
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Durante’s 1934 composition (with lyrics by Ben Ryan) “Inka Dinka Doo” was his first hit. He performs it in this clip from the 1934 film Palooka.
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Listen to Durante’s 1964 recording of Jule Styne’s composition (lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green) “Make Someone Happy” [Warner Archives]
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Durante and Louis Armstrong perform “Old Man Time” in a 1965 performance on The Hollywood Palace
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Durante, closing his TV show during a 1955 episode
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Click here to play another Jazz History Quiz
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