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Danny Kaye

Danny Kaye smiles down at me. When I was shooting a film with Vittorio De Sica in Paris, Danny came to visit me. Once he got there, he decided he wanted to fly me to New York for dinner at a Chinese restaurant he knew very well. In fact, he often cooked meals there himself. That's what he did that night. He piloted the plane across the Atlantic himself, cooked dinner for me and flew me back to Paris to be ready for work the next day. Why was I so foolhardy where my professional life was concerned? I don't know. I did such things often in the middle of a shoot. I guess getting every experience I could out of life was absolutely as important to me as having a successful career.

Danny would often fly me to dinner at a good steak house regardless of where I was shooting or where the restaurant was. He also completely remodeled my kitchen, much to the chagrin of the couple who worked for me. I still cook some of the meals he taught me and think sweet thoughts of him.

We had a fabulous relationship, full of love, starlit night skies, food and humor. Just before he died, he insisted he didn't want a funeral, so it never happened.

Next: "Vassy"

Copyright © 2011 by Shirley MacLaine. From the forthcoming book I'M OVER ALL THAT by Shirley MacLaine to be published by Atria Books, a Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc., N.Y. Printed by permission.

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