Rodney Dangerfield Finally To Get Some Hometown Respect
Rodney Dangerfield in 1978 Image by Getty Images
(JTA) — The late Jewish comedian and actor Rodney Dangerfield will get some respect from the New York City neighborhood where he grew up.
A plaque honoring Dangerfield, whose birth name was Jacob Cohen, will be unveiled Friday in a garden in Kew Gardens, Queens, next to the building that Dangerfield lived in as a child, The New York Times reported. Dangerfield died in 2004 at 82.
A local historian and teacher, Carl Ballenas, told the Times that the standup comic’s self-deprecating style came from his upbringing in Kew Gardens, where he lived with his mother and sister and worked menial jobs such as delivering groceries to wealthy neighbors, and was subjected to anti-Semitism.
Ballenas told the news website DNAInfo that a group of his students in the Aquinas Honor Society of the Immaculate Conception School in Jamaica Estates came up with the idea to honor Dangerfield when they worked on a book about the history of Kew Gardens published by Arcadia Publishing and The History Press in 2014. Joan Dangerfield, the comedian’s widow, worked with them on the project.
The students also collected memorabilia related to Dangerfield that will be displayed at the local bar Austin’s Ale House located near the plaque.
Dangerfield occasionally came back to visit the old neighborhood, especially Bailey’s, the bar that preceded Austin’s Ale House in the same building, according to the Times.
The plaque will be unveiled during the opening events for the 10-day Kew Gardens Festival of Cinema. No Dangerfield films will be screened at the festival, however.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30
