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

Authors: Wil Haygood

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

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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.

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