Sammy Davis Bio

American Masters (PBS) does Sammy Davis tonight. I am anxious to finally find out "what made Sammy run".

 

I saw that and it looks interesting. I was not a huge Sammy Davis fan growing up (I was a little too young to appreciate his talents), but I want to learn more about him. It is reported that he was massively talented.

 

The PBS American Masters trailer shows Sammy describing his multi-ethnicity to an audience where he ends by saying..."When my family moved into an neighborhood we wiped it out".

That alone makes me want to watch to find out his background. He was much more than what some wrongly termed him as a token black within the "Rat Pack". I really liked his personality over his singing though.

He was truly someone with star qualities.

 

He wrote a couple of autobiographies, and they were harrowing stories. The tale on how he lost his eye in a terrible car wreck on the highway between Vegas and LA was really shocking. He also had a "complicated" series of relationships, plus he blew through a huge fortune during his lifetime and basically left his wife penniless at the end. Really sad story, but man, Sammy Davis really lived a life to the fullest.

 

My 2 Sammy anecdotes:

He was banging Kim Novak and Kim had a few movies awaiting release. The head of that studio, not sure which one it was, called Davis to his office and told him to stay away from her or he would lose his other eye.

The other story, much funnier, he was in the urinals with Milton Berle, around the same time period. Uncle Miltie, well known to be prodigiously endowed, told Davis, if Kim gets a look at this you'll be back to f***ing Hattie McDaniel!

 

Legend. Dude took risks that was scary for a regular person. He was just destined to be. Still shocked he was only 64 though when he passed. Seems really young these days.

 

One of the best profiles broadcast on American Masters.
If you have even a slight interest in Sammy Davis, this is well worth the time.

 

It was Harry Cohn, president of Columbia Pictures, who told Davis to stop seeing Kim Novak. Because Cohn was mob-connected, the story goes that he put out a contract on Sammy Davis, so he broke up with Novak and left the country for about six months on a "European tour."

Cohn is also the Hollywood executive who made the Frank Sinatra film From Here to Eternity. There's a little bit of truth in how the mob pressured Cohn in giving Sinatra the part, but no horses were harmed in the making of that film.

 

Sammy didn't take no prisoners, or so Chuck Berry says.

 

Sammy was cool. The Candyman. Ring a ding ding. I think I heard Sammy say that more than Frank.

 

Harry Cohn of Columbia, the inspiration for Woltz in The Godfather

 

The very young Richard Pryor did a similar line: "When I walked down the street people would yell, 'Look out! He's all of them!'"

 

I saw Sammy when I turned 21 and went to Vegas (1985)- it was his first show after a hip replacement and he was amazing and Jerry Lewis was in the audience. Also hit the Liberace Museum. Man, I miss that Las Vegas.

 

Hugging Nixon was not a good move

 

Of course the Pablum Broadcasting Corporation is going to open with the Nixon thing! Sammy Davis had a legitimate reason to support Nixon, who did a lot more for civil rights than Kennedy had done.

 

This was great.

Revisionist History Podcast

 

Very interesting bio on Sammy, especially for this HUGE fan of "The Rat Pack". I watched the beginning of it on PBS and finished it this afternoon with my wife on DVD.

 

Yeah, but kissing Archie Bunker almost made up for it.

 

This documentary was shown in the UK at Christmas, and I thought it was decent enough, but not as good as some of the wonderful music documentaries we have seen over the past few years, including those on Sinatra and Nina Simone. For me, the structure spoiled it - it jumped around from one thing to another with no obvious reason for doing so, and for that reason it was like watching around ten DVD bonus features all joined together. Some of the footage was great, of course, but I still came away thinking that after two hours, it still hadn't really tackled the myth that Davis's singing style was somehow nothing more than an imitation of Sinatra. Of all things, it is Davis's recordings that are still under-valued and often not even taken seriously. He was no Sinatra clone or imitator - his style was very much his own, and his repertoire was also culled from different places to Sinatra. It's nice to see Sammy getting the spotlight, but I think this could have been better.

 

Funny Sammy story from Warren Zanes. Warren was giving a talk at my local library during the release of his Tom Petty Book. Petty and the band are in Vegas waiting on Dylan to rehearse for their upcoming tour. Bob shows up and shortly after Stan Lynch announces he's got to leave. Petty asks Stan, "Bob just got here and you're leaving?". Stan says he's got tickets to See Sammy and turns to Bob and asks if he wants to go. Turns out Bob is a HUGE Sammy fan. Cut to Bob and Stan in the Front row watching the Candy Man in action. Awesome!

 

What a well done doc. Such a complex, interesting guy. Lots of troubles, to understate it. And seemed to take stuff head on. Just his childhood sho biz was enough of a story but he just kept the amazing drama all the way. Always wondered about him converting to the Jewish religion. Pretty interesting it was a true faith conversion when he was in the hospital. Watched it twice. Loved the films at the end. He could shoot guns in cowboy way real well, and then the ventriliquist bit, what couldn't he do.

As an aside i remember Darlene Love saying everyone was real protective of her and the other young women in the studio. But, Sammy would always want to make it a social thing. Dinner and talking a party after a session. Seemed lonely kind of, from the story by Darlene.

Also the Sinatra relationship was interesting. With ups and downs. Complex. They somehow seem similar in some ways. It's interesting people judging or trying to figure out relationships of others. Seems like both guys were stand up type people to me. Not perfect but not underhanded.

 

Most awkward photograph in the history of photography.



I used to laugh myself sick with "Jackie Rogers" (Martin Short) on SCTV when he'd basically do Sammy Davis schtick as an entire act. "Konk chi-konk, konk-konk chi-konk konk! Peace and love, man!"

 

One of my personal favorite songs by Sammy, was recorded in 1963 called "The Shelter Of Your Arms", which ironically was written by Jerry Samuels (aka as Napoleon XIV and "They're Coming To Take Me Away")



Many years later, Neil Diamond did a beautiful, much slower and "100% Neil" cover of that song, on his "September Morn" album which was produced by The 4 Seasons Bob Gaudio.

Heard here ... The Shelter Of Your Arms

 

Well, naturally, especially now in hindsight of Nixon and currently with the brightness of today's politics, that photo can seem awkward to many, but if I put that photo into it's original timeline, knowing what I now know about Sammy, I'd just say that it was purely "Sammy being Sammy". Sammy promoted peace and so what if a couple of political turds and a few hugs and kisses to and from (unusual at the time) celebrities (The white woman of "Golden Boy" and Archie Bunker on "All In The Family"), there was no real need in getting your apple carts upset, as it was just "Sammy being Sammy", in my opinion. GOD bless the guy for never accepting the norm and often breaking down the walls and just being what he believed in himself to be. I NEVER realized until I watched that new documentary, just how much crapola Sammy got from so many, especially from his own race, for actually living his life like one of his biggest songs, "I've Gotta Be Me".