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.
