Kaye Ballard - The Show Goes On

The makers of this film found a gold mine of historical footage of Kaye Ballard performances. Unfortunately, most of it is truncated in favor of talking heads.

Michael Feinstein tells us twice that a lot of cabaret acts were preserved as television performances. And the black shoe polish in his hair makes him look very poorly aged. Liz Smith repeats the same accolades several times. The film drags during these testimonials. The best parts are Kaye telling her own stories.

But after all the career highlights we learn nothing of Kaye Ballard's personal life. She grew up in Cleveland and then what? There is some mention of her mother not being supportive and a sweet clip of Kaye with her grandmother. But did she ever have a relationship of her own? Or a life off stage? The end result was unsatisfying as we were not given a true biography.