Born on February 10, 1893, in Brooklyn (Kings County), New York, Jimmy Durante is best recalled as a great vaudevillian and later, radio, Motion Pictures, and TV star. Very few people now remember that he started his career as a "Dixieland" musician (working in New York City).

Durante was an all-around entertainer. A fine Ragtime/Jazz pianist. Scott Joplin was one of his early influences - then the ODJB and their brand of Dixieland Jazz fired his imagination. He was one of the true pioneers of jazz and (acoustic) recording.

In 1911, Durante was playing piano is New York City clubs, where he was billed as "Ragtime Jimmy" In 1917, Jimmy heard the ODJB when they scored their great success at Reisenweber's Restaurant (in New York City). At the time, he was booked into a Harlem club (called Alamo's) and Jimmy got the ODJB to appear with him at the club for a few nights. The ODJB was the hottest band in town, and Dixieland Jazz was sweeping the City and the world. Jimmy and his friend Johnny Stein gathered a few musicians together and formed a group calling themselves 'Durante's Jazz and Novelty Band' that played at the 'Alamo's Club'. In late 1918 Okeh Records had them record two sides, using the name of 'The New Orleans Jazz Band' A couple of months later, they cut the same two songs for Gennett Records, this time using the name of 'Original New Orleans Jazz Band', And, in 1920, they again recorded for Gennett, this time as 'Jimmy Durante's Jazz Band. The clarinetist, Achille Baquet was of Creole origin, but so light-skinned that he always played in the "White" bands. (Lhotak is on Trombone, Christian on cornet, Stein on drums, and Durante on piano.)

In 1921, Black singer Mamie Smith recorded "Let's Agree To Disagree", a tune that had been composed by Jimmy Durante and Chris Smith. All during the early 1920s, he played piano and recorded with various White Jazz bands including 'Eddie and Sugar Lou's Orchestra', Bailey's Lucky Seven, Phil Napoleon's Original Memphis Five, Ladd's Black Aces, and Lanin's Southern Serenaders. But by the mid-1920s, he had become a part of 'Clayton, Jackson, and Durante' -a comedic vaudeville music team. Near the end of the '20s, his part in the show "Jumbo", playing at New York's Hippodrome, made him a star.

After vaudeville, Durante established himself as the lovable comedian whose laughs came at his own expense rather than by belittling others. His prominent proboscis earned him the nickname “Schnozzola,” which he parlayed into a character in the film The New Adventures of Get-Rich-Quick Wallingford (1931). By the early 1930s he was acting in the movies,and becoming a popular radio star. On one of his radio shows, he joked about writing a symphony that he would call "Inka Dinka Doo", and in 1934, he recorded a tune with that same title which then became his theme song.

He appeared in two dozen movies in the '30s, including Jumbo (1935), and did several other films in the '40s before turning to hosting variety shows on television in the '50s. Though he died nearly two decades ago, children today still know him as the narrator of Frosty the Snowman (1969). He had one of the most successful entertainment careers imaginable, - covering the "Rags" era, to Jazz, to records, to acting in vaudeville, Broadway shows, and Hollywood, to Radio, and to Television.

When he died, Hollywood, CA. on Jan. 29, 1980, at age 86, the great stage and film vocalist Ethel Merman and other stars paid him homage by attending his funeral. He is buried at Holy Cross Cemetery, Culver City, California.