Jimmy Durante

James Francis "Jimmy" Durante (February 10, 1893 – January 29, 1980) was an American singer, pianist, comedian, and actor. His distinctive clipped gravelly speech, New York accent, comic language butchery, jazz-influenced songs, and prominent nose helped make him one of America's most familiar and popular personalities of the 1920s through the 1970s. He often referred to his nose as the Schnozzola (from the Yiddish schnoz [nose]), and the word became his nickname.

Early life

Childhood

Durante was born on the Lower East Side of New York City. He was the youngest of four children born to Rosa (Lentino) and Bartolomeo Durante, both of whom were immigrants from Salerno, Italy. Bartolomeo was a barber, and his wife Rosa was the sister of a woman who lived in the same boarding house. Young Jimmy served as an altar boy at Saint Malachy's Roman Catholic Church, known as the Actor's Chapel.

Early career

Durante dropped out of school in seventh grade to become a full-time ragtime pianist. He first played with his cousin, whose name was also Jimmy Durante. It was a family act, but he was too professional for his cousin. He continued working the city's piano bar circuit and earned the nickname "Ragtime Jimmy", before he joined one of the first recognizable jazz bands in New York, the Original New Orleans Jazz Band. Durante was the only member not from New Orleans. His routine of breaking into a song to deliver a joke, with band or orchestra chord punctuation after each line, became a Durante trademark. In 1920 the group was renamed Jimmy Durante's Jazz Band.

Podcasts:

Famous quotes by Jimmy Durante:

"My wife has a slight impediment in her speech. Every now and then she stops to breathe."
"Politics is developing more comedians than radio ever did."
"I hate music, especially when it's played."
"Good night, Mrs Calabash, wherever you are!"
"All of us have schnozzles . . . if not in our faces, then in our character, minds or habits. When we admit our schnozzles, instead of defending them, we begin to laugh, and the world laughs with us."
"Why can't everybody leave everybody else the hell alone"
"Be a awful nice to 'em goin' up, because you're gonna meet 'em all comin' down"
"When I got through with him, he was all covered wit' blood, my blood"
"Man is the only animal that can be skinned more than once."
"Be nice to people on your way up because you meet them on your way down."

Jimmy Durante

ALBUMS

Born: 1893-02-10

Died: 1980-01-29

PLAYLIST TIME:

The Very Best of Song

by: Jimmy Durante

You gotta start off each day with a song
Now even when things go wrong
You'll feel better, you'll even look better
I'm here to tell you that you'll be a go-getter
Now the way that you shake my hand
Will tell me how I stand
Now isn't it better to go through life
With a smile and a song
Than walking around with a face 11 miles long
Now you know that you can't go wrong
If you start off each day with a song
You gotta start off each day with a song
(Oh, sing it to me boy)
Even when things go wrong
(Sing it for the hoi-poloi)
You'll feel better, you'll even look better
Ah, that music it does somethin' to me
I wish I knew what it was
Last night I was telling Umbriago
About my latest concerto
Called Tony's push cart
He said Tony's push cart, how does it go
I said it doesn't go you have to push it
Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha
I got a million of 'em, a million of 'em
Now you know that you can't go wrong
(Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yes)
If you start off each day with a song
You gotta start off each, boys please, soft, soft
A little more fortissimo, I wanna relate a yarn
Turn back the pages of history and what do you see
Madison Square Garden, a Rodeo
And there I was, interviewing a prize winning cow
I asked her to tell the radio public how she feels
She said moo, she's contented
I'm contented but her husband ain't
So what happens? The bull ups to me, I ups to him
And without any preliminaries, I'm flat on my back
Being a gentlemen I apologize nut the bull's not satisfied
He demands an autopsy
So I grabs him by the tail and what happens
He flips his tail, I lands on his head
He flips his head, I lands on his tail
He's playing ping, pong with me and I'm losing
Just then the bull is ready to charge again
I gets an idea
I starts singing, 'South Of The Border Down Mexico Way'
And what happens, the bull starts crying
But even regardless I keeps on singin'
This time with the castanets
That's too much for the bull and he collapses
A cheer goes up, I'm saved and the moral is
You've gotta start off each day with a song
You gotta start off each day with a song
(oh boy your singing now)
Even when things go wrong
(Oh, Jimmy your a wow)
You'd feel better
You know I'm walking down Broadway
And who taps me on the shoulder
My pal, Hit 'Em In The Head Schwartz
I said who you working for now
He said the same bunch
The wife and the kids
Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha
Now isn't it better to go through life with a smile and a song
Then walking around with a face 11 miles long
Now you know that you can't go wrong
(Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yes)
If you start off each day with a song




Latest News for: Jimmy Durante

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Heat offered this package for Kevin Durant at deadline: 'Up the ante a little'

Sportingnews 03 Apr 2025
Durant is sure to be in headlines all summer long as teams like the Houston Rockets, New York Knicks, and others bid for his services ... “They offered Jimmy Butler and Josh Richardson for Kevin Durant … you (have to) up the ante a little bit.”.
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8 of our top concert picks for San Diego County this week

San Diego Union-Tribune 03 Apr 2025
The Memory Bank Tour, featuring Drew and Ellie Holcomb, will port at Humphreys Concerts by the Bay this weekend. In January, the husband-and-wife duo issued its first full-length album ... 8 p.m. Sunday ... tonight. The Sound, 2260 Jimmy Durante Blvd., Del Mar.
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Warriors may reunite Stephen Curry with ring-chasing $194 million star this summer

Sportingnews 02 Apr 2025
“Kevin Durant vetoed a trade ahead of the deadline to the Golden State Warriors, who then pivoted to Jimmy Butler,” Bleacher Report’s Dan Favale wrote Wednesday ... the Warriors prefer Durant to him.”.
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Kevin Durant trade rumors: Suns found five teams with mutual interest in former MVP at ...

CBS Sports 02 Apr 2025
Kevin Durant was blindsided when the Phoenix Suns attempted to trade him to the Golden State Warriors at the deadline ... The Heat seemingly had the inside track on Durant at the deadline because, at that time, they still had Jimmy Butler.
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The best things to do this weekend in San Diego: April 4-6

San Diego Union-Tribune 02 Apr 2025
Here are some of the best things to do this weekend in San Diego from Friday, April 4 to Sunday, April 6. Friday. Finnegan Blue ... 4.30 p.m. April 4 ... Free ... Union Hall Gallery ... LA Art World Fire Relief Fund ... ‘SEED’ ... The Sound, 2260 Jimmy Durante Blvd., Del Mar ... .
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Warriors' simplest solution to avoid spiraling at worst time

NBC Bay Area 26 Mar 2025
Have a healthy Steph Curry. That always has been the case, even in the past with Kevin Durant, Klay Thompson and any other star, and it remains the same with the addition of Jimmy Butler ... “But we want him to be right ... Jimmy Butler 5 hours ago ... .
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Norman Regional Board to meet Monday over hospital system's debt, budget

The Oklahoman 23 Mar 2025
Explaining health risks that wildfire smoke can cause ... The Transcript reported that Moodys wrote ... Jimmy Durant, the director of government affairs for the St ... “We are very interested in a partnership with Norman Regional," Durant said ... Durant said St.
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Todd Rundgren honors Burt Bacharach on new tour: ‘You don’t want to murder the melodies!’

San Diego Union-Tribune 18 Mar 2025
And the chord changes are something I took from (jazz organ great) Jimmy Smith’s 1960 live-album version of ‘When Johnny Comes Marching ... The Sound, 2260 Jimmy Durante Blvd., Del Mar.
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