In Black and White: The Life of Sammy Davis Junior (91 page)

Read In Black and White: The Life of Sammy Davis Junior Online

Authors: Wil Haygood

Tags: #Biography & Autobiography, #Entertainment & Performing Arts, #Performing Arts, #Film & Video, #General, #Cultural Heritage

BOOK: In Black and White: The Life of Sammy Davis Junior
5.56Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub

Chapter 15: Mirrors

The Alex Haley–Sammy Davis, Jr., interview (conducted for
Playboy
) is at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, the New York Public Library, listed under “Alex Haley Papers.” The collection is as yet uncatalogued. Attached to the interview—and unnumbered—are notes Haley kept of the interview. The helpful interviews for this chapter: Virginia Capehart, Jerry Lewis, Harry Belafonte, Shirley Rhodes, Tony Franciosa, Lolly Fountain, Altovise Davis, Hilly Elkins, and Lola Falana.
1:
“I had been”:
Playboy
, 12-66;
2:
“a jug band”: ibid.;
3:
“Sammy puts on”: ibid.;
4:
“Even his dancers”: ibid.;
5:
“I get so”: ibid.;
6:
“a classic”: ibid.;
7:
“They made me”: ibid.;
8:
“They let me”: ibid.;
9:
“All I need”: Tosches,
Dino
, 226;
10:
“Why would
Sammy”: ibid.;
11:
“taken over by”: Davis,
Why Me
, 177;
12:
“I stood up”: Davis,
Yes I Can
, 630;
13:
“I don’t care”:
Playboy
, 12-66;
14:
“Don’t mean a shit”: Davis,
Why Me
, 214;
15:
“You know they”: Early,
The Sammy Davis Jr. Reader
, 237;
16:
“The kids screamed”: Evans,
The American Century
, 551.

Chapter 16: Sammy and Tricky Dick

I am grateful to Mark Feeney—one of my former colleagues at the
Boston Globe
—for sharing with me his shrewdly insightful (though yet to be published) book, “Nixon and the Movies.” It proved a wonderful guide into the cinematic mind-set of President Richard M. Nixon. Jess Rand, Jay Bernstein, Richard Donner, Sy Marsh, Molly Marsh, Lolly Fountain, Jerry Blavat, Altovise Davis, Charles Fisher, Ann Slider, Shirley Rhodes, Timmie Rogers, Mike Curb, and Madelyn Rhue were all also helpful here.
1:
“We should show”:
Hartford Courant
, 2-20-73;
2:
“Sammy’s a white”: Sy Marsh interview;
3:
“after about twenty-four”: Leonard Maltin,
Leonard Maltin’s 2002 Movie & Video Guide
(New York: Penguin Putnam, 2001), 1535;
4:
“She was in”: Davis,
Why Me
, 248;
5:
“my rock and”:
Women’s Wear Daily
, 10-10-72;
6:
“The program you”: McNeil,
Total Television
, 26;
7:
“obviously queer”:
Washington Post
, 3-21-2002;
8:
“It’s a very”:
Ebony
, 6-72;
9:
“If God had”:
TV Guide
, 1-23-99;
10:
“Is Archie Bunker”:
Ebony
, 6-72;
11:
“You see, I”: Feeney, “Nixon,” 1;
12:
“Flush Model Cities”: Evans,
The American Century
, 570;
13:
“We’ve got Jim”: Davis,
Why Me
, 249;
14:
“I know that”: Evans,
The American Century
, 557;
15:
“You gotta ease”: Davis,
Why Me
, 255;
16:
“I saw some”:
Boston Globe
, 2-24-72;
17:
“They’re very lonesome”:
Ebony
, 6-72;
18:
“Motherfucker”: Davis,
Why Me
, 253;
19:
“I can’t discuss”:
Ebony
, 6-72;
20:
“He never learned”: Feeney, “Nixon,” 1;
21:
“There was no”: Davis,
Why Me
, 258;
22:
“amnesty, acid”: Evans,
The American Century
, 571;
23:
“Ladies and gentlemen”: Davis,
Why Me
, 261;
24:
“Sammy, I want”: Sy Marsh interview;
25:
“Well, let me”: Davis,
Why Me
, 263;
26:
“Isn’t that a”: Feeney, “Nixon,” vi;
27:
“What are we”:
New York Times Sunday Magazine
, 10-15-72;
28:
“unbelievable”: ibid.;
29:
“Ladies and gentlemen”: Marsh interview;
30:
“It struck me”: Davis,
Why Me
, 267;
31:
“Brothers, if it”: ibid.;
32:
“This is about”: ibid., 271;
33:
“Brother, can I”: ibid., 272;
34:
“Despite all the”: Feeney, “Nixon,” unnumbered page before introduction;
35:
“You aren’t going”: Davis,
Why Me
, 263.

Chapter 17: Ode to the Vaudevillian

Jack Carter, Shirley Rhodes, John Souza, Sy Marsh, Jim Davis, Madelyn Rhue, and Leon Isaac Kennedy all sat for interviews and have my gratitude.
1:
“The flak got”: Early,
The Sammy Davis Jr. Reader
, 539;
2:
“It is only”: Morris,
The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt
, 54;
3:
“Fucking youth”: Davis,
Why Me
, 274;
4:
“How does she”:
New York Times
, 4-24-02;
5:
“And I liked”: Davis,
Why Me
, 280;
6:
“Sammy never asked”: Early,
The Sammy Davis Jr. Reader
, 86;
7:
“He had his”: ibid.;
8:
“The whole thing”: Tosches,
Dino
, 426;
9:
“What we want”: Frady,
Jesse
, 256;
10:
“It suggests”: Baldwin,
The Price of the Ticket
, 556;
11:
“obscure white and black”: Davis,
Why Me
, 300;
12:
“The state of”: Pomerantz,
Peachtree
, 485;
13:
“Secondly, I wasn’t”:
Washington Post
, 12-6-87;
14:
“When he didn’t”: ibid.

Chapter 18: The Ides of Time

Sy Marsh, Shirley Rhodes, and George Schlatter were all helpful.
1:
“We’ve got to”: Davis,
Why Me
, 364;
2:
“How much longer”: Tosches,
Dino
, 451;
3:
“Smokey, let’s”: Davis,
Why Me
, 364;
4:
“golden child”: ibid., 365;
5:
“This is the”:
Washington Post
, 12-6-87;
6:
“You start it”: Davis,
Why Me
, 367;
7:
“Ladies and gentlemen”: ibid.;
8:
“We want to”: ibid.;
9:
“This country has”: Tosches,
Dino
, 453;
10:
“The accountants say”: Davis,
Why Me
, 368;
11:
“What the fuck”: ibid., 370;
12:
“Pay what we”: ibid.;
13:
“Can’t hear”: Tosches,
Dino
, 453;
14:
“For me”: ibid.;
15:
“Don’t unpack”: ibid., 454;
16:
“the last of”: Jerry Lewis interview;
17:
“This movie represents”:
Boston Globe
, 2-10-89.

Chapter 19: The Final Curtain

I thank Shirley Rhodes for accompanying me to Sammy Davis’s grave site in Glendale: one needs a key to enter the gated site. Lola Falana, Steve Blauner, Burt Boyar, Peter Brown, and Jack Carter all shared their memories of Sammy’s last days.
1:
“I’m vaudeville”:
New York Times
, 10-3-77;
2:
“It was a”:
Los Angeles Times
, 5-17-90;
3:
“I’ll see him”: ibid.;
4:
“To love Sammy”:
Ebony
, 7-90.

Epilogue: Mother of a Motherless Child

Elvera Davis, Gloria Williams, and Ramona Davis—all, like Sammy, touched by Cuban blood—had memories to share.

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

Alexander, Michael.
Jazz Age Jews
. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2001.

Alpert, Hollis.
The Life and Times of
Porgy and Bess:
The Story of an American Classic
. New York: Knopf, 1990.

Anderson, Jervis.
This Was Harlem: A Cultural Portrait, 1900–1950
. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1983.

Appiah, Kwame Anthony, and Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience
. New York: Basic Civitas Books, 1999.

Atkins, Cholly, and Jacqui Malone.
Class Act: The Jazz Life of Choreographer Cholly Atkins
. New York: Columbia University Press, 2001.

Auiler, Dan.
Vertigo: The Making of a Hitchcock Classic
. New York: St. Martin’s/Marek, 1985.

Baldwin, James.
The Price of the Ticket: Collected Nonfiction 1948–1985
. New York: St. Martin’s/Marek, 1985.

Berg, A. Scott.
Goldwyn: A Biography
. New York: Knopf, 1989.

Blumenthal, Ralph.
Stork Club: America’s Most Famous Nightspot and the Lost World of Café Society
. Boston: Little, Brown, 2000.

Bogle, Donald.
Prime Time Blues: African Americans on Network Television
. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2001.

———.
Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies & Bucks
. New York: Bantam Books, 1974.

Branch, Taylor.
Parting the Waters: America in the King Years 1954–1963
. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1988.

———.
Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years: 1963–1965
. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1998.

Brontë, Emily.
Wuthering Heights
. New York: Random House Modern Library, 2000.

Buber, Martin.
On Judaism
. New York: Schocken Books, 1967.

Buckley, Gail Lumet.
The Hornes
. New York: Knopf, 1986.

Cantor, Eddie, with David Freeman and Jane Kesner Ardmore.
My Life Is in Your Hands & Take My Life: The Autobiographies of Eddie Cantor
. Published as one edition. New York: Cooper Square Press, 2000.

Chaplin, Lita Grey, with Morton Cooper.
My Life with Chaplin: An Intimate Memoir
. New York: Bernard Geis Associates, 1966.

Collier-Thomas, Bettye, and V. P. Franklin.
My Soul Is A Witness: A Chronology of the Civil Rights Era 1954–1965
. New York: Henry Holt, 1999.

Courtney, Marguerite.
Laurette: The Intimate Biography of Laurette Taylor
. New York: Limelight Editions, 1984.

Davis, Christopher.
The Producer
. New York: Harper and Row, 1970.

Davis, Ossie, and Ruby Dee.
With Ossie & Ruby: In This Life Together
. New York: William Morrow, 1998.

Davis, Sammy, Jr.
Hollywood in a Suitcase
. New York: William Morrow, 1980.

Davis, Sammy, Jr., and Jane and Burt Boyar.
Why Me? The Sammy Davis Jr. Story
. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1989.

———.
Yes I Can: The Story of Sammy Davis Jr
. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1965.

Davis, Tracey, and Dolores A. Barclay.
Sammy Davis Jr.: My Father
. Los Angeles: General Publishing Group, 1996.

Douglas, Ann.
Terrible Honesty: Mongrel Manhattan in the 1920s
. New York: The Noonday Press, 1996.

Early, Gerald, ed.
The Sammy Davis Jr. Reader
. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2001.

Ellison, Ralph.
Invisible Man
. New York: Vintage, 1995.

Evans, Harold.
The American Century
. New York: Knopf, 2000.

Feeney, Mark. “Nixon at the Movies.” (unpublished.)

Fein, Irving A.
Jack Benny: An Intimate Biography
. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1976.

Frady, Marshall.
Jesse: The Life and Pilgrimage of Jesse Jackson
. New York: Random House, 1996.

Frank, Rusty E.
Tap! The Greatest Tap Dance Stars and Their Stories 1900–1955
. Revised edition. New York: Da Capo, 1994.

Gabler, Neal.
An Empire of Their Own: How the Jews Invented Hollywood
. New York: Anchor Books, 1989.

———.
Winchell: Gossip, Power and the Culture of Celebrity
. New York: Knopf, 1994.

Gerard, Philip.
Cape Fear Rising
. Winston-Salem, N.C.: John F. Blair, 1994.

Gevison, Alan.
American Film Institute Catalog—Within Our Gates: Ethnicity in American Feature Films, 1911–1960
. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997.

Gibson, William.
A Mass for the Dead
. New York: Atheneum, 1968.

Goodman, Ezra.
The Fifty-Year Decline and Fall of Hollywood
. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1961.

Halberstam, David.
The Fifties
. New York: Ballantine, 1994.

Hanna, David.
Ol’ Blue Eyes Remembered
. New York: Gramercy Books, 1997.

Hansberry, Lorraine.
To Be Young, Gifted, and Black
. New York: New American Library, 1970.

Harvey, James.
Movie Love in the Fifties
. New York: Knopf, 2001.

Herr, Michael, and Guy Peellaert.
The Big Room
. New York: Summit, 1986.

Heyward, DuBose.
Porgy
. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2001.

Hotaling, Edward.
The Great Black Jockeys
. Rocklin, Calif.: Prima, 1999.

Hughes, Langston, and Milton Meltzer.
Black Magic
. New York: Da Capo, 1967.

Katz, Ephraim.
The Film Encyclopedia
. Third edition. HarperCollins, 1998.

Kelley, Kitty.
His Way: The Unauthorized Biography of Frank Sinatra
. New York: Bantam, 1987.

Kefauver, Estes.
Crime in America
. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1951.

Kitt, Eartha.
Thursday’s Child
. New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1956.

Kluger, Richard.
The Paper: The Life and Death of the
New York Herald Tribune. New York: Knopf, 1986.

Lemann, Nicholas.
The Promised Land: The Great Black Migration and How It Changed America
. New York: Knopf, 1991.

Levy, Shawn.
King of Comedy: The Life and Art of Jerry Lewis
. New York: St. Martin’s, 1996.

Lewis, David Levering.
When Harlem Was in Vogue
. New York: Knopf, 1981.

Lewis, Jerry.
The Total Film-Maker
. New York: Random House, 1971.

Lewis, John, with Michael D’Orso.
Walking with the Wind: A Memoir of the Movement
. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1998.

Mailer, Norman.
An American Dream
. New York: Vintage, 1999.

Mazursky, Paul.
Show Me the Magic
. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1999.

McNeil, Alex.
Total Television
. New York: Penguin, 1980.

Mordden, Ethan.
The Hollywood Studios
. New York: Knopf, 1988.

Morris, Edmund.
The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt
. New York: Ballantine, 1980.

Muse, Clarence, and David Arlen.
Way Down South
. Hollywood, Calif.: David Graham Fischer, 1932.

Odets, Clifford, and William Gibson.
Golden Boy
. New York: Bantam, 1966.

Petkov, Steven, and Leonard Mustazza, eds.
The Frank Sinatra Reader
. New York: Oxford, 1995.

Plimpton, George.
Truman Capote
. New York: Doubleday, 1997.

Poitier, Sidney.
This Life
. New York: Knopf, 1980.

Pomerantz, Gary.
Where Peachtree Meets Sweet Auburn: The Saga of Two Families and the Making of Atlanta
. New York: Scribner, 1996.

Reed, Bill.
Hot from Harlem: Profiles in Classic African-American Entertainment
. Los Angeles: Cellar Door Books, 1998.

Reeves, Richard.
President Kennedy
. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1993.

Rooney, Mickey.
I.E., An Autobiography
. G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1965.

Rose, Frank.
The Agency: William Morris and the History of Show Business
. New York: Harper Business, 1995.

Salamon, Julie.
Facing the Wind
. New York: Random House, 2001.

Sampson, Henry.
Blacks in Blackface
. Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1988.

Short, Bobby.
Black and White Baby
. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1971.

Sobel, Bernard.
A Pictorial History of Vaudeville
. New York: Citadel Press, 1961.

Sontag, Susan.
On Photography
. New York: Doubleday, 1989.

Stearns, Marshall, and Jean.
Jazz Dance: The Story of American Vernacular Dance
. New York: Da Capo, 1994.

Stott, William, with Jane Stott.
On Broadway
. New York: Da Capo, 1978.

Stowe, Harriet Beecher.
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
. New York: The Modern Library, 2001.

Taylor, Theodore.
Jule: The Story of Composer Jule Styne
. New York: Random House, 1979.

Tosches, Nick.
Dino: Living High in the Dirty Business of Dreams
. New York: Dell, 1993.

Ward, Geoffrey C., and Ken Burns.
Jazz: A History of America’s Music
. New York: Knopf, 2000.

Waters, Ethel, with Charles Samuels.
His Eye Is on the Sparrow; an Autobiography
. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1951.

Watkins, Mel.
On the Real Side
. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1995.

Williams, Alan D.
Fifty Years: A Farrar, Straus and Giroux Reader
. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1996.

Other books

Sartor Resartus (Oxford World's Classics) by Carlyle, Thomas, Kerry McSweeney, Peter Sabor
Spacetime Donuts by Rudy Rucker
Every Mother's Son by Val Wood
The Lost Mage by Difar, Amy
The Reward of The Oolyay by Alden Smith, Liam
The Search by Suzanne Woods Fisher
Nanny and the Professor by Donna Fasano