wow....what a shame. never knew that about Danny Thomas at all. His wife must have been a martyr. I know i have heard stories about Danny Kaye w/Lawrence Olivier (you must have heard those rumors too), but nothing other than that. For all their talent, they have deep character flaws, apparently. I don’t know if it is the money/power/ego trip when they become stars or if they were just that way from the beginning. You hear the same kinds of things about famous writers/artists...many, while obviously talented, aren’t people you’d want to be friends with or invite to dinner. I have heard that Lillian Helman could be a real handful.
I know you’ve been in the theatre...we’ve emailed in the past. I bet you have some interesting stories up your sleeve!
Highly successful people are often weird - I don’t know why. I think a lot of manic-depressive people go into show biz but I don’t know why that is, either.
I once talked to a famous actor who knew Olivier very well and said the Danny Kaye story was nonsense. Kaye was noted for his ill-humor. He also dressed up as Kay Thompson a lot which fed the gay rumors.