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Jimmy Durante Biography

Comedian / Actor

James Francis Durante

Big-nosed and boisterous, Durante was a vaudeville favorite who remained a hit in the early days of radio and TV. Originally a saloon piano player, he combined his ragged musical talents with a rumpled charm and endless jokes about his nose, a mighty instrument which earned him the nickname "Schnozzola" or just "the Schnoz." The 1935 stage musical Jumbo paired Durante with an elephant and boosted his career; he was a popular guest on the radio shows of stars like Bob Hope and Bing Crosby, and eventually hosted his own shows as well. Durante's dese-and-dose New York accent was much parodied by impressionists of the day. He had a musical hit with the novelty tune "Inka Dinka Doo" and his famous sign-off phrase was "Goodnight, Mrs. Calabash, wherever you are."

Extra credit: Durante is the guy who "kicks the bucket" at the start of the 1963 film It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World... Hotbreath Houlihan, a character from Durante's radio show, was the inspiration for the nickname Hotlips Houlihan in the film and TV sitcom M*A*S*H... Durante narrated the 1960s holiday TV cartoon Frosty the Snowman... The origin of the phrase "Goodnight, Mrs. Calabash" is unknown, and Durante wouldn't say what the funny phrase meant; his first wife died in 1943 and may or may not have been the "Mrs. Calabash" referred to.

Durante appears with Cleopatra in our loop on Big Noses... Other vaudevillians who made it big on TV include Milton Berle, Henny Youngman and Groucho Marx.