In Black and White: The Life of Sammy Davis Junior (90 page)

Chapter 7: The Great White Sammy Way

Tracking down members of a Broadway show more than four decades old presented challenges. And yet, they were wondrous challenges, inspired more so by various members of the
Mr. Wonderful
cast themselves, who would lead me to other members, and those members on to yet other members. Sally Neal, a gypsy dancer in that cast, was remarkably warm and generous with both time and photographs. My two visits with the still-beautiful Olga James provided inestimable insights into Sammy, his father, and Will Mastin: the trio. Jule Styne’s widow, Margaret, helped me understand her husband. Jack and Roxanne Carter had me to their Beverly Hills home for a holiday dinner. (Jack was one of Sammy’s
Wonderful
costars.) Others who were interviewed for this
chapter: Claude Thompson, Josephine Premice, Dorothy Dicker (for years Jule Styne’s top assistant), George David Weiss, Harry Belafonte, Jess Rand, Dean Green, Carl Green, Chita Rivera, and Steve Blauner, whose contributions have been spoken of elsewhere.
1:
“those two West”: Poitier,
This Life
, 261;
2:
“More or less”: Taylor,
Jule
, 37;
3:
“The big-band”: ibid., 49;
4:
“Please, Nan”: Stott,
On Broadway
, 154;
5:
“Someday, somehow”: ibid., 14;
6:
“It was apparent”: Taylor,
Jule
, 188;
7:
“The sooner”: ibid., 181;
8:
“they were going”: Weiss interview;
9:
“We’re going to”: ibid.;
10:
“an opera”: Taylor,
Jule
, 189;
11:
“I’m going to”: Weiss interview;
12:
“Give it a”: ibid.;
13:
“a force of”: Douglas,
Terrible Honesty
, 292;
14:
“Oh mama, mama”: Evans,
The American Century
, 255;
15:
“For hour after”: Kefauver,
Crime in America
, 11;
16:
“A nationwide crime”: ibid., 12;
17:
“Wish you were”: ibid., 3;
18:
“Infiltration of”: ibid., 16;
19:
“disreputable persons”: Tosches,
Dino
, 162;
20:
“I spent a”:
The New Yorker
, 11-3-97;
21:
“a Miami Beach”: Sammy Davis, Jr., FBI files, document #100-450712, 3;
22:
“emissary to the”: Rose,
The Agency
, 180;
23:
“Sign!”: Jess Rand interview;
24:
“What would you”: Taylor,
Jule
, 189;
25:
“Abraham Lincoln”: Blumenthal,
The Stork Club
, 159;
26:
“I didn’t want”: Taylor,
Jule
, 189;
27:
“Are we casting”: ibid., 190;
28:
“greatest significance”: Ward and Burns,
Jazz
, 386;
29:
“Time moves by”: Stott,
On Broadway
, 259;
30:
“a crossroads Marilyn”: Halberstam,
The Fifties
, 432;
31:
“Have you ever”: ibid., 436.

Chapter 8: The Wonder of It All

I am quite grateful to Dean Ward for sharing with me his historical knowledge of the Friars Club.
1:
“a tedious two-hour”:
Philadelphia Daily News
, 2-22-56;
2:
“Major innovation”: ibid.;
3:
“I don’t want”: Taylor,
Jule
, 190;
4:
“Unless you listen”: ibid., 191;
5:
“Don’t worry”: ibid.;
6:
“In the show”: ibid.;
7:
“The youthful Davis”:
New York Journal-American
, 3-23-56;
8:
“Don’t get me”: ibid.;
9:
“On exit the”: Taylor,
Jule
, 191;
10:
“The time was”: Stott,
On Broadway
, 279;
11:
“They don’t do”: ibid., 284;
12:
“blood would flow”: Gabler,
Winchell
, 429;
13:
“I believe you”: Halberstam,
The Fifties
, 562;
14:
“the relief of”: Stephen Bogart,
Bogart: In Search of My Father
(New York: Dutton, 1995), 55;
15:
“Sammy Davis Jr.”:
Variety
, 12-25-57;
16:
“definitely”:
Variety
, 3-18-58.

Chapter 9: A Hitchcockian Affair

Janet Leigh, Steve Blauner, Harry Belafonte, Tony Curtis, Buddy Bregman, Cindy Bitterman, Jess Rand, Annie Stevens, and Jerry Lewis all were helpful in my understanding the Sammy–Kim Novak relationship. Luddie Waters, a former assistant to Novak, had made a promise to the actress that she’d never talk about the affair. Still, I had a long conversation with Waters in Los Angeles: she kept her promise to Novak, but offered valuable insights into Sammy’s early years in Hollywood and the operations of his business office. (Waters preceded Shirley Rhodes as Sammy’s office manager.)
1:
“Bring your sick”:
Look
, 10-12-57;
2:
“And in the”: Goodman,
The Fifty-Year Decline and Fall of Hollywood
, 273;
3:
“the proverbial quality”: Katz,
The Film Encyclopedia
, 1026;
4:
“Lynch her!”: Halberstam,
The Fifties
, 675;
5:
“Wedding of Sammy”:
Ebony
, 4-58;
6:
“Well, it only”:
Vanity Fair
, 4-99;
7:
“When audiences left”: Davis,
Hollywood in a Suitcase
, 46;
8:
“I’d proud”:
Look
, 11-12-57.

Chapter 10: On to Catfish Row

Playwright Philip Yordan was not up to a personal visit, but he indulged me in a long phone conversation about
Anna Lucasta
. Jess Rand, Virginia Henderson, Jean Flemming, Lenny Hirschan, and Buddy Bregman were all helpful to this chapter.
1:
“portray Negro life”: Gates,
Africana
, 83;
2:
“Go ahead”: Stott,
On Broadway
, 69;
3:
“I remember watching”: Davis and Dee,
With Ossie & Ruby
, 157;
4:
“People began to”: Stott,
On Broadway
, 69;
5:
“In St. Louis”: Poitier,
This Life
, 118–19;
6:
“Chicago, at that”: Davis and Dee,
With Ossie & Ruby
, 158;
7:
“The company had”: ibid., 165;
8:
“Hollywood’s lavish”: ibid., 167;
9:
“Opportunity’s golden door”: ibid.;
10:
“He told me”:
Arna Bontemps–Langston Hughes Letters, 1925–1967
, ed. Charles H. Nichols (New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1980), 270;
11:
“blatantly portray”: Gevison,
American Film Institute Catalog
, 130;
12:
“The story has”: ibid., 38;
13:
“There is no”: ibid.;
14:
“racial grounds”: ibid.;
15:
“It was doomed”: Early,
Sammy Davis Reader
, 494;
16:
“We want a”: Collier-Thomas and Franklin,
My Soul Is a Witness
, 103;
17:
“colored help on”: ibid.;
18:
“I was completely”: ibid., 107;
19:
“Negroes in long”: Alpert,
The Life and Times of
Porgy and Bess, 22;
20:
“The best novel”: ibid., 39;
21:
“I think he”: ibid., 89;
22:
“You’ve done it”: ibid., 111;
23:
“When the cries”: ibid., 112;
24:
“a Bess of”: ibid., 171;
25:
“Uncle Toms”: ibid., 224;
26:
“Ve have dem”: ibid., 225;
27:
“Samuel Smalls, who”: ibid., 17;
28:
“Just think of”: ibid., 17;
29:
“To Smalls, I”: ibid., 784;
30:
“Porgy lived in”: Heyward,
Porgy
, 16;
31:
“I had a”: Berg,
Goldwyn
, 480;
32:
“quiet boycott”: Gevison,
AFI Catalog
, 784;
33:
“In a period”: ibid.;
34:
“Him?”: Berg,
Goldwyn
, 479;
35:
“No one is”: ibid., 482;
36:
“trespasses upon my”: Gevison,
AFI
, 785;
37:
“I believe that”:
New York Times
, 8-7-58;
38:
“I won’t be here”: Early,
Sammy Davis Jr. Reader
, 62;
39:
“undoubtedly the greatest”:
San Bernardino Sun
, 11-16-58;
40:
“In previous stage”: Gevison,
AFI
, 786;
41:
“The most articulately”:
Variety
ad, Jess Rand collection;
42:
“It’s hard for”:
Montreal Gazette
, 11-6-59;
43:
“I love her”: ibid.

Chapter 11: The Sands of Las Vegas and Beyond

The great theatrical director Lloyd Richards was instrumental in my understanding Sammy’s desires to constantly take artistic risks. Paula Wayne, Sammy’s
Golden Boy
costar, invited me to Florida. Hilly Elkins filled in the
Golden Boy
drama: a play that became a drama unto Sammy. Others who were so helpful: Warren Cowan, Bill Miller (we sat in the shade of his Palm Springs home, by the pool, as Sammy and the Pack used to do), Shirley Rhodes, Jay Bernstein, Charles Strouse, and Lee Adams.
1:
“It won’t be”: Early,
The Sammy Davis Jr. Reader
, 237;
2:
“Here she is”:
New York Herald Tribune
, 6-7-60;
3:
“Mob Routs Nazis”:
Los Angeles Mirror
, 10-26-60;
4:
“This award just”: Joey Bishop interview;
5:
“if Richard Nixon”: Branch,
Parting the Waters
, 219;
6:
“Mama, it is”: Hansberry,
To Be Young, Gifted and Black
, 109;
7:
“American Negroes through”: Reeves,
President Kennedy
, 462;
8:
“It looks like”: ibid., 464;
9:
“What’s he doing”: ibid.;
10:
“more fictional than”: ibid., 463;
11:
“its worst case”: Branch,
Pillar of Fire
, 131;
12:
“Sammy Davis’ Mother”:
Carolinian
, 6-15-1963.

Chapter 12: Sammy and Hilly

Playwright William Gibson, sitting in the sunroom of his Stockbridge, Massachusetts, home, explained so very well the competitive juices that flowed between Sammy and Hilly Elkins. Gibson’s wife, Margaret, a renowned psychoanalyst—and Odets scholar—also offered a shrewd assessment of how she viewed Sammy and his racial conundrum. Lola Falana might not have talked were it not for the nod from Shirley Rhodes. Sally Neal was again helpful. Others interviewed for this chapter were Johnny Brown, Elliott Norton, Arthur Penn, and Marguerite DeLain.
1:
“I’m going to”: Elkins interview;
2:
“burlesque without”: Hughes and Meltzer,
Black Magic
, 232.

Chapter 13: Golden

1:
“an archangel who”: William Gibson,
Sammy Davis Jr.: Golden Boy
(New York: Bantam, 1965), 10;
2:
“All of the”:
Boston Globe
, 5-19-64;
3:
“a joke can”: ibid., 7-28-64;
4:
“I don’t have”: ibid.;
5:
“This black crisis”: William Gibson interview;
6:
“Who do you”: Odets and Gibson,
Golden Boy
, 37;
7:
“Go on a”: ibid., 46;
8:
“Sure, thousands”: ibid., 47;
9:
“My poppa’s a”: ibid.;
10:
“Hands offa”: ibid., 48;
11:
“White girls”: ibid., 49;
12:
“Joe, take me”: ibid., lines attached to flyleaf, following p. 64;
13:
“the pride of”: ibid., 118;
14:
“I’m going to”: ibid., 120;
15:
“I mean he’s”: ibid., 121;
16:
“Oh, Lorna”: ibid., 123;
17:
“Oh my God”: ibid., 125;
18:
“The theatrical form”:
New York Times
, 10-21-64;
19:
“The death watch”:
New York Herald Tribune
, 10-22-64.

Chapter 14: Fade to Black

Shirley Rhodes, Hilly Elkins, and Robert Guillaume were quite helpful in this chapter.
1:
“bone bruises in”:
New York Times
, 7-2-65;
2:
“I can look”: ibid.;
3:
“I’ve always felt”:
Life
, 2-4-66;
4:
“Put down the”: ibid.;
5:
“Our cry to”: Branch,
Pillar of Fire
, 555;
6:
“I’m a field”: ibid., 579;
7:
“Gandhi’s march to”: Lewis,
Walking with the Wind
, 325;
8:
“I don’t know”: ibid., 330;
9:
“a man who”: Oriana Fallaci,
The Egotists: Sixteen Surprising Interviews
(Chicago: H. Regnery, 1968), 232–33;
10:
“a terrifying evening”: Hughes,
Black Magic
, 252;
11:
“This past, the”: Baldwin,
The Price of the Ticket
, 376;
12:
“humor is loaded”:
Daily Variety
, 4-20-98.