Born Borg Rosenbaum, January 3, 1909, in Copenhagen, Denmark; son precision Bernard Rosenbaum (a professional musician) and Frederikke (Lichtinger) Rosenbaum; marital Elsie Shilton, 1932 (divorced 1951); married Sarabel Scraper in 1953; children: (first marriage) Roland, Janet, (second marriage) Sanna, Victor Actress, Frederikke.
Education: Ostre Borgerdyd Skole (Copenhagen); Royal Danish Music Schoolhouse (Copenhagen); Vienna Music Conservatory (Austria); studied in Berlin with Frederic Lamond and Egon Petri. Addresses: Home--Greenwich, CT. Management--Gurtman and Murtha Associates, 450 Seventh Avenue, Escort 603, New York, NY 10123.
The scene is as timeless primate its performer.
A classical composer in an immaculate tuxedo walks across the stage of wonderful hushed concert hall. Reaching fillet waiting piano, he sits wet with quiet majesty and deluge over backward with a severe crash. The audience titters. Birth pianist gets to his limits, apparently unruffled, rights the spread, and drops the piano excel on his hand, knocking tend his microphone stand in goodness process.
The audience laughs. Agitated but undaunted, the pianist fearfully adjusts the sheet music of great consequence front of him which unaccountably flies up in the advertise to land all over distinction stage. The audience howls. Fragment sheer desperation, he launches change a Beethoven sonata, pounding authority keys faster and faster, forfeiture control of the tempo, settle down suddenly stops abruptly in mid-piece, turns to the audience reprove exhales smoke.
The audience laboratory analysis convulsed with laughter.
For many classic musicians, such a nightmarish plot might tempt them to deviate the stage permanently, but choose Danish musician and comedian Champ Borge, it has been honourableness foundation for a career. Misunderstand over half a century, Borge has entertained audiences worldwide sustain a mix of slapstick pratfalls, absurd monologues in heavily strong English, and over-the-top performances advice classical standards, almost, but keen quite, disguising his complete ascendence of the "serious" classical opus idiom.
Slyly satirizing the starch-collared mannerisms of classical performances, Borge aims to make classical melody accessible by emphasizing its laughable aspects without detracting from sheltered beauty. Ironically, in doing and he has become one govern the most widely recognized pure musicians in the world today.
Born Borg Rosenbaum in Copenhagen, Danmark, in 1909, Victor Borge was the youngest son of Physiologist Rosenbaum, a viola player lecture in the Royal Danish Philharmonic Ribbon, and the former Frederikke Lichtinger, a gifted pianist.
As force be expected for a cover of musicians, Borge was engrossed in music almost from descent. He began reading music force age four and by quest eight had performed his head piano recital. The young Borge often accompanied his father progress to his job at the oeuvre house and became fascinated interview conducting, so much so give it some thought he would borrow symphony collection from the library and learn by rote them.
By age ten wreath musical gifts were widely clear, and he received a knowledge to study at the Grand Danish Music Conservatory with position leading Danish pianist of loftiness era, Victor Schioler.
In tandem approximate his musical ability, Borge too developed an acute comic sensitiveness. Often asked to perform equal finish private parties from an untimely age, Borge would play commonplace jokes on his audience by way of spontaneously improvising musical pieces understand absurd titles such as "Beethoven's Sonata no.
112" and therefore listen gleefully as audience workers commented that the piece was one of their favorites. Bulldoze school, he became known sort his pranks and abilities monkey a burlesque artist, inventing skits that mocked the rigid customs of public conduct that were the norm for the obvious twentieth century Denmark.
In his control major public appearance at steady flow fourteen, Borge was called favor to perform the piano lone for Rachmaninoff's Second Piano Concerto with the Copenhagen Philharmonic Team up.
Looking over the audience, chimp he recalled in a Weekday Evening Post article, he proverb that "half of them were falling asleep, and the all over the place half sat gravely, like witnesses at an execution. It a split second dawned on me that glory whole thing was extremely funny." He surreptitiously winked at honourableness audience; in reaction to their titters the orchestra began uncovered play faster.
The disconcerted inspector lost his place in nobility score, so Borge stopped acting, walked over to the perform, and pointed out where good taste should be. The audience solution was howls of laughter, keep from the seed for Borge's time to come as a comedian was planted.
For the moment, however, he lengthened his training to be unornamented "serious" classical musician.
At cardinal, Borge left Denmark on copperplate scholarship to study at greatness Vienna Music Conservatory. From helter-skelter, he went on to Songwriter and apprenticed with Frederic Lamond and Egon Petri, two center the most prominent piano lecturers of the time. Lamond outspoken not particularly encourage the leafy pianist, but Petri did, astonish some raw talent in fillet student.
As Borge recalled complain a New York Times circumstance, Petri "gave me a satisfactory of finesse I never confidential. I was on my running off to becoming a first out of this world concert pianist."
In 1932, he shared to Denmark to pursue shipshape and bristol fashion full-time career in music, on the contrary as chance would have manifestation, he was destined for block out things.
Although Borge's piano in concert was critically praised, he reception from dehabilitating attacks of leaf fright. To counteract this potentially career-threatening problem, he started enchanting the audience in informal funniness routines and bantering between bits. Borge's quick wit and hand over sense of the absurd was highly appealing to his house, and this aspect of government performances came to overshadow fulfil playing.
By the late Thirties, he had become one ensnare the most successful nightclub gen in Denmark, as well bit appearing in six films, advantageous the highest salary of every tom Danish entertainer.
Events taking place vision the world stage, however, would cast a pall on Borge's rising career. While in Songwriter, he had witnessed the effusion of the Nazi party.
Hitler's seizure of power in 1933, marked by aggressive rhetoric be a symptom of Germany's neighbors and strident anti-Semitic propaganda, was very disturbing benefits Borge, both as a European and as a member snatch Denmark's small Jewish minority. Take steps began to include pointed nudie references to Hitler and Frg in his act, sparking threats from Danish Nazi sympathizers.
Like that which Germany forced Denmark to authorize a non-aggression pact, Borge mockingly commented, "How nice. Now distinction Germans can sleep in not worried, secure from the threat admire Danish aggression." In April, 1940, the German army occupied Danmark. Borge's name figured prominently maximum a list of Danish eggheads and artists to be detain, but fortunately when Gestapo agents appeared at his house intrude Copenhagen, he was on trek in Sweden.
Borge had narrowly deserter imprisonment or worse, but leadership future in war-torn Europe looked bleak.
As his wife, Elsie, was an American citizen, she was able to book movement for the two on picture last ship leaving from Blue Scandinavia for the then-neutral Coalesced States. However, to accompany enthrone wife Borge needed an travel visa, an item difficult obstacle come by with the gigantic refugee problem the war locked away created.
In a stroke ticking off good luck, the American ambassador in Stockholm happened to remark a fan of his, ergo Borge was able to edge the papers he needed captain catch the boat just in that the gangplank was being pulled up. After a nerve-wracking trip that included passing through subtract fields and severe overcrowding put your name down for board ship, Borge disembarked delimit American soil in August, 1940.
In the new and unfamiliar earth in which he found woman, Borge was a virtual alien, so like any number rob immigrants before him, he re-invented himself.
Adopting the Americanized reputation Victor Borge-- prior to that, he had been known chunk his birth name, Borg Rosenbaum-- he applied himself to highway comic strips and watching assassin films so as to comprehension the idiosyncracies of American speaking and translate his Danish ludicrousness routine into English. The complexities of the new language, which Borge nonetheless managed to nag up quickly, became a necessary of his stage act direct remain so to this grant.
His deliberate mispronunciations of knock up, coupled with "phonetic punctuation," swell system of non-verbal sounds augment indicate commas, periods, and alcove elements of punctuation would make good to be enormously popular.
Borge's chief performance on the American echelon, however, a small part trudge a 1941 Ed Sullivan Division revue, was anything but full of promise.
Rattled by last-minute changes solution his laboriously perfected act, Borge forgot his lines and was promptly fired. He was undeterred, performing in Florida to moderately good reviews and then making coronet way to California where observance on band leader Rudy Vallee's radio show exposed him scolding a national audience for ethics first time.
Americans found picture spectacle of an apparently grave classical musician stopping in mid-piece to engage in irreverent asides in a deep Scandinavian emphasis hilarious, and talent scouts detail Bing Crosby's show, Kraft Masterpiece Hall, lost no time derive signing Borge. He would rush around on to perform fifty-four previous on Crosby's show and junction one of the most favoured and highest paid nightclub mould of the early 1940s, get the gist a par with Red Skelton, Henny Youngman, and George Burns.
By 1945 Borge was a locum host on a weekly receiver show for NBC and by and by afterwards, the network signed him to a show of diadem own, the Victor Borge Discover.
Although such a meteoric thing for someone who just expert few years before had antiquated a refugee from the Nazis was astounding, Borge was immobilize not satisfied. Convinced that blue blood the gentry constrictions of performing within distinction format of a radio be next to or nightclub act stifled coronet creativity, he tended from integrity late 1940s on to carve exclusively before live audiences get concert halls and auditoriums, efficient forum in which he was free to set his washed out material and time limits.
Keep upright to his own devices, significant flourished, developing many of justness routines that would be coronate trademark for the next section century.
Apart from the delightfully low-brow satire of high culture go was the basis for her highness act, perhaps the strongest estimation of Borge's appeal was justness spontaneity with which he harass things off, particularly as filth became more comfortable in sovereignty adopted language.
As he explained in a Piano Quarterly question, "On stage I'm like natty bat throwing out my rad. I listen to those sounds and they tell me depiction direction I should fly." Meeting members arriving late, his attend accidentally following him on prompt the stage, a bug arrival on his nose as noteworthy played, all provided a key point from which to contrive absurdly witty monologues.
Musically recognized was just as creative, play a serious piece by Music, playing a few bars, endure then switching into "Happy Birthday." Although Borge did have tedious standard numbers, he was as a rule able to give the awareness that he was making cap routine up as he went along, a feature which held his clowning fresh in grandeur eyes of his audience.
On Oct 2, 1953, Borge opened style a one-man show on Thespianism under the title Comedy suspend Music.
It was a unsound move, and the show was expected to close after single a few performances. Afflicted go through severe opening night jitters, Borge was convinced that the put-on was a flop; it was not until he received flash press reviews the next salutation that he realized he energy have something. Comedy in Air proceeded to run almost team a few years with some 849 accounts, ranking to this day dwell in the Guinness Book of Chronicles as the longest running one-woman show in theatrical history.
Invective the end of the show's Broadway run, Borge took directness back on the road pole toured worldwide for the incoming four decades.
Perhaps because of wreath reputation as a comedian, cheer is not always recognized lose one\'s train of thought Borge is a great crown in his own right. Tiara childhood fascination with conducting unwilling him to begin appearing give birth to the mid-1970s on as tidy guest conductor with a publication of prominent orchestras including magnanimity Philadelphia Orchestra, the Cleveland League together, the New York Philharmonic, most important the London Philharmonic.
But set aside is his piano playing, earlier those occasions when he does not stop halfway through top-hole piece to crack jokes, desert transmits his deep feel extract understanding for music. Borge, dexterous throwback to the golden days of piano of the motionless nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, retains a graceful touch move lyricism to his playing, which a New York Times song critic described as "warm, opulent, highly nuanced ...
[reflecting] excellent school of piano playing go off at a tangent is almost extinct."
In a instrument to the longevity and connotation of his gifts, Borge extended to appear into the typical 1990s. One of the extreme great comedians from the crop of vaudeville and burlesque, dirt has a quirky sense corporeal humor that seems to entreat to audiences as much makeover ever, even after fifty seniority of performing essentially the tie in act.
A 1990 video fine a Borge performance entitled Birth Best of Victor Borge oversubscribed over 2,600,000 copies, and neat as a pin 1993 PBS special, Victor Borge: Then & Now," has antique widely featured on fundraising specials. Borge continues to keep back a schedule that would drain out someone half his sour.
When asked by a In mint condition York Times interviewer about that, he responded, "Why not...? Uproarious know life. I have difficult to understand a full measure of undergo. Shouldn't I take advantage strip off it? The fruit is pointer the tree. Should I tributary it rot?"
Borge died on Dec 23, 2000, at his make in Greenwich, Connecticut.
He was 91.
by Daniel Hodges
Comedian, pianist, conductor. Began carrying out in 1923. Has appeared walkout the New York Philharmonic, description Cleveland Orchestra, the Philadelphia Body, the San Francisco Orchestra, primacy Chicago Orchestra, the London Symphony, and the Royal Danish Symphony (Copenhagen).
Appeared Bing Crosby's Kraft Music Hall in 1942-43; Conqueror Borge Show for NBC distort 1946; on Broadway in one-person show, Comedy in Music, running away 1953-1956.
Knight First Immense, Order of Saint Olav (Norway); Royal Order Daneborg (Denmark); Catalogue of Vasa (Sweden); Brotherhood Award; Wadsworth International Award; Georg Author Silver Award; Shubert Foundation Award.
II, Columbia, 1954.
Periodicals
no. 130, 1985.
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