Song:The Submarine Officer
Album:Jose Can You See?: The Best of Jose Jimemez: Yesterday & Today
Bill Dana was an actor, comedian and writer best known for the character Jose Jiminez. Though today this character would be perceived as offensive, he was very popular in the 60s. He even had a top 20 hit single. He was born William Szathmary Oct. 5, 1924 in Quincy, Ma. His parents were Hungarian Jewish immigrants. His mother's name was Dena so he took the stage name Bill Dana. His brother Arthur was fluent in several languages and I'm sure Hungarian and Yiddish were spoken in the home too. Dana served in WWII as a machine gunner in the US Army. He was awarded a Bronze Star. Dana moved to New York in the 50s to perform comedy in nightclubs with partner Gene Wood. Wood would go on to be an announcer on game shows. Dana appeared on several variety shows including writing for The Spike Jones Show. After writing routines for Don Adams that would later become part of Adams' shtick on Get Smart, Dana was hired to write for The Steve Allen Show. He created the Jose Jiminez character for the show's Man in the Street segment. The Submarine Officer is from the Allen show and it appears on this Rhino comp. Dana did other characters in his standup act. But he's mainly known for Jose Jimenez. In 1961 he released the album My Name...Jose Jimenez on Roulette Records. The Astronaut reached #19 on the Billboard Hot 100. The interviewer is Don Hinkley who was also a writer on the Allen show. Dana appeared as a bumbling bellhop on The Danny Thomas Show and that led to the 1963 NBC sitcom The Bill Dana Show with Jonathan Harris (Mr. Smith from Lost In Space) as his boss and Don Adams as an inept house detective. The show ran for two seasons and Adams used that character's mannerisms in Get Smart. Dana continued to appear on TV and record as Jose Jiminez until he retired the character in 1970. With changing tastes, Dana obviously thought it was time to move on from Jose Jimenez. Dana wrote one of the most famous All In The Family episodes; Sammy's Visit featuring Sammy Davis Jr. And he wrote and appeared in the 1980 Get Smart movie The Nude Bomb. And he had a recurring role on Golden Girls as Sophie's brother Angelo. It looks like Dana retired in the mid-90s and he died on June 15, 2017 at age 92. Though Bill Dana is mostly known for Jose Jimenez, he did plenty of other notable things. Here's Bill Dana with Steve Allen performing The Submarine Officer on The Steve Allen Show. No date was given but I think this is from 1959.
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