Biografie

Kaye Ballard

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Ballard began her career in vaudeville as an impressionist and singer.
Ballard was the original voice of Lucy van Pelt in the animated cartoon "Peanuts" and was the first performer to record the 1954 Bart Howard song "Fly Me to the Moon.".
The classic flea routine that Chaplin performs in his 1952 film "Limelight" was taken verbatim from Ballard's cabaret act, an idea she had hired a young Mel Brooks to script for her.
It was Ballard who brought Gypsy Rose Lee's 1957 memoir to Jerome Robbins and suggested that he adapt it for the stage.
Ballard introduced the Kander and Ebb song "Maybe This Time," which they had written for her.

Referring to Kaye Ballard Lane in Rancho Mirage, California: Frank Sinatra had a street. Dean Martin had a street. I have a lane.
On "The Mothers-in-Law" series: It's hard to get away from anything like that. It's like the Fonz. Only he made a lot of money. We didn't
I'm one of the lucky ones. People get Master's Degree and they say, 'I don't know what I wanted to do,' I knew I always wanted to do. Isn't that nice?
[When asked if $250 would be a joke, and whether Eve Arden, who starred alongside Ballard herself, were making enough]: Yes! We were all supposed to get a two-hundred-fifty-dollar raise the second year, and suddenly Proctor & Gamble wouldn't do it. So Desi said, 'Either you do it, or the show doesn't go on.' And all this when we were still in the top ten! What was so funny was that Eve and I were telling him, 'No! We want to do it!' It's fascinating the difference [in salaries] today. Eve and I didn't make that much money. Eve Arden who was a big star then, made six-thousand a week, and I made two. When you compare that today to one or two million dollars an episode!! It's crazy!
[Of Eve Arden]: Eve Arden was another class act to work with. Just classy, classy, and I bought a house in Los Angeles, and everyone said, 'You sold your house to Eve Arden?' I said, 'No!' I sold my 28 pier mortgage to Eve Arden; and she was just a wonderful, woman to work with.