NBC Television · Public domain

Victor Borge was a Danish concert pianist turned comedian, blending music and slapstick into a stage act that made him a transatlantic star. Touring Europe in the late 1930s, he built anti-Nazi jokes into his routine; when Germany occupied Denmark in 1940 he was performing in neutral Sweden and escaped to the United States with $20 to his name, arriving unable to speak English. He rebuilt his act in English within months and won Best New Radio Performer of 1942.