Victor Borge

Borge got married to Elsie Chilton in 1933 and adopted two children: Ronald and Janet with her but the marriage did not last very long and he again got married to Sarabel Scraper in 1953 and had two children with her: Victor and Frederikke.

Borge died in Greenwich, Connecticut, at the age of 91 in 2000, in his sleep. Half of his ashes are interred at Putnam Cemetery in Greenwich and the other half is in Western Jewish Cemetery, Copenhagen, Denmark.

Victor Borge was born in Copenhagen, Denmark into a Jewish family to Bernhard and Frederikke Rosenbaum. Both his parents were musicians; his mother was a pianist and father a violist in the Royal Danish Orchestra.

Growing up in a musically inclined household meant that Borge was exposed to the idea of it from a very young age and he was given piano lessons from the age of two. By the time he was eight years old, he gave his first piano recital.

Being a prodigy in piano, just like his mother, he was awarded a full scholarship at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in 1918. He was taught by Olivo Krause, Victor Schioler, Liszt’s student Fredric Lamond and Busoni’s student Egon Petri.

In 1926, Borge played his first big concert at the Danish Concert hall’s The Old Fellow’s Lodge building. Within a few years, he started mixing his comic skills with music and started having ‘stand up’ acts, which was a blend of music and jokes.

Borge moved to America in 1940, owing to Nazis occupation of Denmark during World War II. He did not know how to speak in English when he first came to America but quickly learnt the language to adapt his jokes in the American context.

He became a part of Rudy Vallee’s radio show in 1941. Rudy Valle was an American singer, actor, bandleader and entertainer. Soon thereafter Borge was hired by Bing Crosby—an American singer and actor—for his Kraft Music Hall.

In the following years, Borge received recognition for his talent and queer performances of music blended with jokes. He won the Best New Radio Performer of the Year in 1942. He became a big deal in the entertainment industry and started getting film offers.

In 1946, he started getting more and more success and recognition in the industry, majorly because of the success of his show ‘The Victor Borge Show’ on NBC Network. During the time it ran on the television, Borge developed many of his humorous trademarks.

His show ‘Comedy in Music’ launched in 1953, at John Golden Theatre in New York City, an original Broadway comedy, became the longest running one-man show in the history of theatre. It gave out a total of 849 performances and entered into the Guinness Book of World Record.