British postcard to promote 'Worth exposing Hollywood exhibition: Frank Worth's glamorous and unpublished Hollywood photographs, 1939-1964' at the 20th Century Theatre, London, 2002. Photo: Frank Worth. Caption: Sammy Davis Jr. leaps above the city, 1960.
Italian postcard by Bromofoto, Milano, no. 1749. Photo: Warner Bros. in Ocean's Eleven (Lewis Milestone, 1960). The Italian film title was Colpo grosso.
German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/193. Photo: Terb Agency. Sammy Davis Jr., Dean Martin, Peter Lawford and Frank Sinatra in Ocean's 11 (Lewis Milestone, 1960).
Vintage autograph card.
Mr. Wonderful
Sammy Davis Jr. was born in 1925 in Harlem, Manhattan. He was the son of dancer Elvera Davis (née Sanchez) and Vaudeville star Sammy Davis Sr. His father was African American, and his mother was of Cuban and African American ancestry. When he was three years old, his parents separated. His father, not wanting to lose custody of his son, took him on tour. Davis learned to dance from his father and his godfather, Will Mastin. Davis joined the act, and they became the Will Mastin Trio.
Performing since the age of five, he was largely self-taught. Sammy often appeared in states and cities with strict child labour laws. To get around these laws, he was billed as 'Silent Sammy, the Dancing Midget', and conspicuously walked around backstage with a rubber cigar in his mouth and a woman on each arm. Davis Jr. was known as someone who could do it all: sing, dance, play instruments, act, and do stand-up. At age seven, Davis played the title role in the short film Rufus Jones for President (Roy Mack, 1933), in which he sang and danced with Ethel Waters. Throughout his career, Davis included the Will Mastin Trio in his billing. Mastin and his father shielded him from racism.
A stint in the army in 1944 opened his eyes to the evils of prejudice. A slight man, he was often beaten up by bigger white soldiers. His nose was broken numerous times and permanently flattened. He was given the dirtiest and most dangerous assignments by white officers simply because he was black. He was reassigned to the Army's Special Services branch, which provided entertainment for troops. Davis, who earned the American Campaign Medal and World War II Victory Medal, was discharged in 1945 with the rank of private. Davis rejoined the family dance act, which played at clubs around Portland, Oregon. He also recorded blues songs for Capitol Records in 1949 under the pseudonyms Shorty Muggins and Charlie Green. In March 1951, the Will Mastin Trio appeared at Ciro's as the opening act for headliner Janis Paige. They were to perform for only 20 minutes, but the reaction from the celebrity-filled crowd was so enthusiastic, especially when Sammy Davis Jr. launched into his impressions. They performed for nearly an hour, and Paige insisted that the order of the show be flipped.
Davis began to achieve success on his own and was singled out for praise by critics, releasing several albums. In the 1950s, Sammy Davis Jr. helped break down racial barriers in show business, particularly in Las Vegas, where he frequently performed. When he started there in the early 1950s, he was not allowed to stay in the hotels he played in, as they refused to take blacks as customers. He lost his left eye in a car crash when he was on his way to record the theme song for the Tony Curtis film, Six Bridges to Cross (1955). He wore an eyepatch for some time after that. Humphrey Bogart ultimately convinced him to unmask when he told him that he didn't want to be known as the kid with the eyepatch. Davis was fitted for a glass eye, which he wore for the rest of his life. Years after the accident, Davis converted to Judaism. In the hospital, Eddie Cantor had already described to Davis the similarities between Jewish and Black cultures.
In 1956, he was a success in his first Broadway show, 'Mr. Wonderful', which led to his career in Hollywood. He acted in the drama Anna Lucasta (Arnold Laven, 1958), starring Eartha Kitt, and the musical Porgy and Bess (Otto Preminger, 1959), starring Sidney Poitier and Dorothy Dandridge. He became even more famous as one of the Rat Pack, a group of free-wheeling entertainers that included Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Joey Bishop and Peter Lawford. All appeared in the Heist film Ocean's Eleven (Lewis Milestone, 1960), followed by the Western comedy Sergeants 3 (John Sturges, 1962) and the musical Robin and the Seven Hoods (Gordon Douglas, 1964). In 1957, Davis was involved with actress Kim Novak, who was under contract with Columbia Pictures. Because Novak was white, Columbia president Harry Cohn worried that public backlash against the relationship could hurt the studio. There are several accounts of what happened, but they agree that Davis was threatened by organised crime figures close to Cohn.
Dutch postcard by Rembrandt N.V., Amsterdam, no. 1132. Photo: Reprise Records.
Dutch postcard by Uitgeverij 't Sticht, Utrecht, no. AX 5776.
American postcard by Colourpicture Publishers, Boston, Mass., no. P59031. Colour by Dan Andrews. Caption: Sammy Davis Jr. performing on stage.
A short, ugly, one-eyed, black Jew
In 1960, Sammy Davis Jr. again stirred up a large amount of controversy by openly dating, and ultimately marrying, blonde, blue-eyed Swedish-born actress May Britt. Davis Jr. starred in the Broadway musical version of Clifford Odets' 'Golden Boy' (1964), for which he was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Actor in 1965. The show featured the first interracial kiss on Broadway. Internal tensions, production problems and bad reviews resulted in the musical's closing fairly quickly.
Much of the bad press was directed at Davis for playing a role originally written for a white man. When someone later complained about discrimination, he said, according to IMDb: "You got it easy. I'm a short, ugly, one-eyed, black Jew. What do you think it's like for me?" His film and nightclub career were in full swing, however. He co-starred in the buddy spy comedy Salt and Pepper / Salt & Pepper (Richard Donner, 1968) with Peter Lawford and appeared in the popular musical Sweet Charity (Bob Fosse, 1969) starring Shirley MacLaine. Davis was a regular at many of Elvis Presley's concerts in Las Vegas. He appeared in the audience and backstage in the documentary Elvis: That's the Way It Is (Denis Sanders, 1970).
He filmed a cameo appearance for the James Bond film Diamonds Are Forever (Guy Hamilton, 1971). The scene was ultimately deleted, but can be seen on the DVD. In 1975, he performed the theme song from the Baretta television series, 'Baretta's Theme (Keep Your Eye on the Sparrow)', which was released as a single. He made appearances on the Soap Opera General Hospital (1982-1983) and had a recurring role as Chip Warren on another Soap Opera, One Life to Live (1979), for which he received a 1980 Daytime Emmy Award nomination. He turned up in the all-star cast of the successful action-comedy The Cannonball Run (Hal Needham, 1981) and the sequel Cannonball Run II (Hal Needham, 1983).
His final feature film was the dance drama Tap (Nick Castle, 1989) starring Gregory Hines. After reuniting with Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin in 1987, Davis toured internationally with them and Liza Minnelli. During the tour in 1989, chain-smoker Davis was diagnosed with throat cancer. Davis died at the age of 64. He was survived by his mother, Elvera Sanchez (1905-2000), and his grandmother, Elvera's mother, Luisa (who died in 1995 at 112). Davis was married three times. A 'contract' was allegedly put out on Sammy's life because of his interracial affair with Kim Novak, but Frank Sinatra intervened and saved the day. Nevertheless, Davis married a black showgirl, Loray White, in 1958 out of fear for his life. A year later, Davis got it annulled, and Loray allegedly received a $10,000 settlement and a Cadillac.
His marriage to May Britt was from 1960 to 1968. They had a daughter, Tracey Davis, and also adopted two sons: Mark Sidney (born 1960, adopted on June 4, 1963) and Jeff (born 1963). His final marriage to Altovise Davis was from 1970 to his death in 1990. They also adopted a son, Manny Davis (born 1978, adopted 1989). When he died, he was in debt. He admitted to compulsive carousing, reckless gambling and spending $50 million over 20 years while earning $3 million a year. To pay for Sammy Davis Jr's funeral, most of his memorabilia was sold off. He was interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California, in the Garden of Honour, next to his father, Sammy Davis Sr. In 2001, he was posthumously awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, and in 2017, he was inducted into the National Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame.
Big East German card by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 131/71, 1971.
West German collector card in the Penny-Bildband series Unsere Bambi-Lieblinge, no. 16. Larry Hagman, Sammy Davis Jr. and Barbara Eden in the TV series I Dream of Jeannie (1965-1970).
Dutch postcard by Uitloper Utrecht 1000, no. 1, 2007. De Uitloper was a weekly cultural events calendar for the Dutch cities of Breda and Utrecht. It was published from 1988 to 2018. A series of postcards was published in 2007 to commemorate the 1000th edition. Old collector cards of film stars of the early 1960s were used as images.
Sources: rocknrollunderdawg (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.
