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Victor borgeSCANDINAVIAN LEGENDS

With his poor English, he couldn’t even get a job at a gas station. But shortly after, VICTOR BORGE was a guest star on Bing Crosby’s radio show. The Danish entertainer was a man of surprises but also had a talent for survival. He had escaped the Nazi’s persecution of the Jews and fled to the USA with a determination to start his career all over again. And boy, did he. Bruce Johnson tells the story of his hero.

This page: Victor Borge caught smoking in his home in 1970. Right page: Performing on stage in 1957.

kING Of COmEdy

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Elsie Chilton, Borge’s American-born wife, suggested that they immigrate to America after the death of his mother. When Borge went to the American embassy in Sweden to apply for a visa, the ambassador said, “If you promise to make America laugh as much as my wife and I laughed the other night, please, I will ask you to go to America.” Leaving behind almost everything that they had, Borge, Elsie and their dog sailed on the SS Ameri-can Legion, the last passenger ship to leave Northern Europe.

lthough Borge had been an extremely successful entertainer in Scandinavia, he was unknown in the USA. Now, at the age of 31, he had to start his career all over again. Despite what he had told his mother,

he initially had trouble finding bookings. He was confident in his abilities but not sure where to get his start. He moved to Los Angeles where he was hired to warm up audiences for singer, actor, bandleader and entertainer Rudy Vallee’s radio program. To supplement his income, he applied for a job at a gas station near the studio but was turned down because he didn’t speak English well enough.

On December 4, 1941, he appeared as a guest star on Bing Cros-by’s Kraft Music Hall radio program. He performed “Phonetic Punctuation” and other routines that Elsie had translated for him from Danish to English. He performed his act phonetically without being sure what he was saying. Audience response was

n the summer of 1940, Victor Borge was an exile in Sweden because he was number one on the Nazi’s most-wanted list. He received word that his mother, Frederikke, was gravely ill. Although someone in Den-mark could have recognized him, and being spotted by a Danish Nazi sympathizer would have been fatal, he

took a risk and snuck into Denmark disguised as a sailor to see her.He slipped into a private hospital in Copenhagen. When he

entered her room, she held out her arms to greet him and drew him close. She whispered, “You see, I’m getting better and soon ...” Her strength failed.

Desperate to cheer her up, he told her that he had just received a tremendous movie offer from Hollywood and that as soon as she was well enough, they would go to America together. It was the biggest lie of his life, but he would have done anything to reassure her. She smiled and whispered, “Don’t let it go to your head ...”

He leaned down, kissed her and said, “Good-bye mother.” As he left, he knew he would never see her again.

hat evening, Borge took a boat across the sound to Sweden, where he was performing in a musical com-edy revue. He continued his performances, although his heart was breaking.

A week later, he received a cablegram at his hotel informing him that his mother had died in her sleep. The funeral service would be at 10 o’clock on Friday. At 9.30 that morning, Borge got permission to use a small stone chapel at a cemetery in a Stock-holm suburb. Standing alone in the aisle, with soft light filtering through the stained glass windows, he pictured the people who knew and loved his mother filing into the sanctuary where her body lay, 650 kilometers away in Copenhagen.

He went to the organ and sat down. He began by playing a sim-ple lullaby that his mother had sung to him. His hands dropped to his lap. He imagined the people in that distant sanctuary speak-ing about his mother’s dedication to her family and friends and her devotion to decency and dignity. He knew the funeral service by heart. As a student, he had earned extra money playing the organ at a chapel near the Copenhagen Jewish cemetery.

Alone, far from home and forbidden to be by her side, he played the funeral music in his mother’s honor. He was amazed that the walls of the little chapel could withstand the surge of his emotions.

amily and music were always very important to Borge, who was born Borge Rosenbaum. His father Bern-hard Rosenbaum had played violin in the Royal Dan-ish Philharmonic Orchestra. His mother was a pianist

and started teaching him to play her instrument when he was three. According to Borge’s daughter Rikke, “My father said his mother had a great sense of humor. She always had a glint in her eye and was quick for a joke.” Her sense of humor influenced her two sons, Sven and Borge.

Sven, two years older than Borge, had a reputation for being clever and was a friend of legendary Danish humorist/writer Storm P. In his act, Borge performed one of Sven’s creations, licking the fingers of one hand while turning the pages of sheet music with the other hand.

Borge’s own talent for comedy quickly became evident. As a young boy, his parents sent him to cheer up ailing relatives. Borge said, “They either died laughing or they got better.”

When his parents asked him to play at their dinner parties, he would announce he was playing one of Beethoven’s sonatas and then improvise a composition in the style of Beethoven. He thought it was funny when one of the guests would respond, “Ah, yes, that has always been my favorite of Beethoven’s works,” or “I’ve never heard it played so well!”

Playing music and making jokes were as natural to Borge as breathing. “I do it all the time whether on the stage or off. I found that in a precarious situation, a smile is the shortest distance between people. When one needs to reach out for sympathy or a link with people, what better way is there?”

Borge’s unique combination of classical music and come-dy made him one of Scandinavia’s most popular entertainers appearing on the radio, in live revues and in four Danish movies.

When rehearsing for a musical revue, Borge noticed that his colleagues all had colds and were “punctuating” their lines with coughs, sneezes, nose blowing, etc. That inspired one of his most famous routines, “Phonetic Punctuation.” He would explain that punctuation marks help us when we read, but we sometimes have problems when we listen because we don’t know where the punctuation is. His solution was to create a motion and sound for each punctuation mark, which he demonstrated while read-ing a love story out loud.

Aware of their persecution of the Jews, Borge satirized and ridiculed Hitler and the Nazis in his act. Because of his verbal attacks, he headed the Danish Nazi hit list and began getting threatening phone calls and letters.

When Germany invaded Denmark on April 9, 1940, Borge was performing in Sweden. To protect his mother from retaliation because he had disappeared, she was immediately admitted to the hospital under an assumed Christian name.

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Doggy style. Borge and poodle perform in the USA in the 1950s.

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Left: Lighting the cigarette for Danish Queen Margrethe, a heavy smoker, at a dinner party at the University Club in New York in 1999. Right: At a benefit for Memorial-Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, held at New York’s Radio City Music Hall in 1983, Borge and Frank Sinatra sing Autumn Leaves.

Above left: Borge prepares for his two-hour performance at the Palace Theatre in London on March 22, 1957. Above right: The Borges relax at their estate in Greenwich, Connecticut, in the mid-1950s. Below: In December 1999, Borge receives the Kennedy Center Honors from President Bill Clinton for his achievement in the performing arts.

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him little time to spend with his family. So he sold the farm in 1965 and devoted the remainder of his life to his musical comedy career, family and philanthropy.

Although he became an American citizen and loved his adopt-ed land, Borge retained his love of his native land and often returned to Scandinavia to perform. “Basically there is no dif-ference between Scandinavian humor and American humor because when you play a thing upside down you don’t have to have a language to do that.”

One of Denmark’s highest grants is a musical one Borge estab-

lished in honor of his parents, and it continues to fund music scholarships. Borge understood its value because, at the age of nine, he received a full scholarship to the Royal Danish Academy of Music, and he later received scholarships to study under Fred-eric Lamond and Egon Petri.

is mother was not the only member of his family protected by the Danes from the Nazi Holocaust. His four older brothers survived because they were hidden by Danish citizens and sent by boat to Swe-

den. His aunt, Johanne, was captured by the SS and sent to the Theresienstadt concentration camp. Diplomatic pressure from the Danish government and the Red Cross protected the 500 Danish Jews imprisoned there. They survived because Danish citizens sent them food parcels.

In 1959, Borge began a long association with CARE, a humani-tarian organization that began in 1945 by sending food parcels to those living in areas that had been devastated by the war.

In 1963, the 20th anniversary of the rescue of the Danish Jews, Borge and Richard Netter created the Thanks To Scan-dinavia (TTS) scholarship fund in recognition of the bravery and decency of Scandinavian citizens who risked their lives

to protect the Jews. The multimillion-dollar fund has allowed more than 3,000 Scandinavian students, scholars, scientists and doctors to study and conduct research in the United States, Isra-el and Scandinavia.

To celebrate the founding of TTS, Borge wrote and performed “The Legend,” a 20-minute monologue. The first part included some of the humorous wordplay that Borge was known for. The second half was very effective dramatic theater as Borge described the rescue of the 7,500 Danish Jews, paid homage to those involved and urged the listeners to learn from their exam-

ple. “The Legend” was recorded and used as a TTS fund-raiser.At the end of his shows, Borge would say, “I would like to thank

my parents for making this evening possible, and I would like to thank my children for making it necessary. I would like to thank all of you for making it so pleasant. When once in a while, a handkerchief comes out to wipe away tears from laughter, that is my reward ... the rest goes to the government. Remember that a smile is the shortest distance between two people. When you say good-bye to something you love, a little of yourself dies. So I won’t say good-bye to you. I’ll just say, ‘until next time.’”

His wife died in September 2000. Only three months later, arriving home after a tour in Denmark to celebrate the holidays with his family, Borge went to bed and died in his sleep. He was 91. His daughter Rikke said, “It was just his time to go. He had been missing my mother terribly.”

Borge saw the last sunrise of his life in Copenhagen and saw the last sunset of his life in Greenwich, the two places in the world that he loved the most.

BRUCe JoHNSoN is a variety arts historian and a professional entertainer appear-ing as charlie the Juggling clown. he has spent his entire life enjoying borge’s per-formances through recordings, video and live concerts. clownjugl@aol.com

great, and the sponsor insisted he be added to the program. He appeared on Kraft Music Hall for 56 weeks and was named “the best new radio performer of the year” by the American press.

After several weeks on the show, Borge returned to the gas station and told the owner, “My English may not be good enough to pump your gas, but it is good enough for me to speak on the radio to 30 million people every week.”

Since English was not his native language, Borge analyzed idi-oms that everyone else takes for granted. He “stumbled over” the idiosyncrasies of English, which became part of his act. He commented, “People think composers sit down all day and sit

up all night waiting for inspiration to come. I don’t know why you sit down in the day and sit up at night. It’s your language. I’m just trying to use it.”

Borge’s success on the Bing Crosby radio show led to his own radio program and then to a TV series in 1951.

fter his TV series concluded, Borge bought a 160-hectare ranch in Southbury, Connecticut, because he wanted to share his love of animals with his children. (His first concert performance in Denmark had been

a benefit for homeless cats and dogs.) He always had at least one dog, usually a stray that he had adopted. He was a skilled eques-trian and a gentleman farmer. He also had sheep, Japanese deer, pheasants, geese and horses on the farm.

His farm manager suggested that Borge should try raising a new breed of bird called the Rock Cornish hen. Borge served the hens to guests at the farm and then began giving them away as holiday gifts. His friends soon wanted to give them as gifts as well. One of those friends, Vincent Sardi, began serving the birds at his New York restaurant. The city’s hotels had a hard time estimating how much meat they needed for banquets. The Rock Cornish hen was the ideal solution – one bird per person.

Borge’s farm became a phenomenal success, and his staff grew from three to 125. He oversaw all stages of the production, including the brochures and the recipe booklet accompanying the gift packs. The booklet contained some of Borge’s humor, like this recipe for three-minute eggs – “bring the piano into the kitchen and play the ‘Minute Waltz’ three times, slightly drag-ging the third time!”

Borge and Chilton eventually divorced, and he married Sara-bel Sanna Scraper in 1953. Together with their children, they moved from the farm to a waterfront home in Greenwich, Con-necticut, which was closer to airports and to New York. Borge felt at home when he was on the water or where he could see it. Water symbolized escape and freedom to Borge, and he resumed his love of sailing. He enjoyed the solitude of being on a boat away from the phone and business obligations. “To me the three B’s are Bach, Beethoven, and Boats,” he said.

He spent half his time traveling to performances, and when he was home, he was occupied by his poultry business, leaving t

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“I don’t know why you sit down in the day and sit up at night. It’s your language. I’m just trying to use it.”

Always finding new, and sim ple, ways to entertain,

Borge plays his piano in 1956. H

Victor Borge (Borge Rosen-baum) is born in Copen-hagen on January 3

Borge’s mother begins teaching him to play the piano

Gives his first piano concert, at the odd Fellow Palæet in Copenhagen, to benefit homeless dogs and cats

Becomes the headliner at the Gypsy Hall nightclub in Copenhagen

Marries American-born elsie Shilton

on December 24. Their marriage ends in divorce

after 18 years

The Nazis invade Denmark in April. Borge, who tops the Nazi hit list, is per-forming in a music revue in Sweden

Arrives in New York on the SS Amer­ican Legion, the last passenger ship to leave Northern europe

Debuts on Bing Crosby’s radio program and makes 56 appearances

The Victor Borge Show, a 30-minute variety show, debuts on the radio. The pro-gram is broadcast for four years

Performs at Carnegie Hall in New York

Becomes an American citizen

Makes his TV debut on The Ed Sullivan Show

Stars in 22 half-hour epi-sodes of his own weekly comedy-variety TV show, which is sponsored by Kellogg’s cereals

Marries Sarabel Sanna Scraper

Borge’s one-man show Comedy In Music debuts on Broadway and sets a record for the longest run-ning solo broadway show (849 performances)

The Complete Victor Borge, a six-week TV series, is broad-cast on BBC2

Plays himself in the film The King Of Come­

dy by Martin Scorsese

Borge’s autobio-graphy The Smile Is the Shortest Distance… is published in Denmark

Borge dies on December 23, three months after the death of his wife Sarabel Sanna

In front of the camera during The Victor Borge Show in 1951.

Borge and family at the house in Frydenlund, Denmark, in 1959.

Visiting the Tivoli amusement park in Copenhagen in 1989.

Launching his biography in 1997.

opening the Scandinavia House in New York

in 2000.

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