Victor Borge (January 3, 1909-December 23, 2000), was a Danish piano-playing comedian and the son of married musicians Frederikke Lichtinger, a pianist, and Bernhard Rosenbaum, a violinist.
After years of concertizing as a boy, he began telling jokes and performing some slapstick comedy from his piano bench. He married Elsie Chilton, an American in 1933, with whom he raised two children, Ronald and Janet. He was performing in neutral Sweden when German armed forces occupied Denmark. He came to the United States thereafter and hosted his own NBC program in 1946.
One routine involved adding a number to any word containing the sound of a number, so, for example, “wonderful” became “twoderful” and “anyone for tennis?” became “any two for elevennis?” Another shtick was reading books aloud, making special sound effects to indicate punctuation. With second wife Sarabel Sanna Scraper he had three more children, Sanna, Victor and Frederikke.
Tomorrow, January 4: Kevin Pillar
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SDJW condensation of a Wikipedia article