WEBVTT - Selects: Sammy Davis Jr: National Treasure 0:00:00.800 --> 0:00:04.080 Hey guys, it's me Josham for this week's s YSK Select. 0:00:04.200 --> 0:00:08.680 I've chosen our February twenty twenty episode on Sammy Davis Junior. 0:00:09.200 --> 0:00:12.520 If I'm not mistaken, this is where I, you, and 0:00:12.600 --> 0:00:14.960 the rest of the world finds out that Chuck does 0:00:14.960 --> 0:00:19.119 a killer Sammy Davis Junior impression, thus booing the podcast 0:00:19.160 --> 0:00:21.919 for years to come. I don't think anything else is 0:00:21.960 --> 0:00:26.680 needed to be said about this one. Just enjoy. 0:00:29.760 --> 0:00:37.519 Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:39.320 --> 0:00:41.680 Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. 0:00:41.720 --> 0:00:44.640 There's Charles w Chuck Bryant, and there's guest producer Dylan 0:00:44.720 --> 0:00:47.160 sitting in again like a great. 0:00:46.880 --> 0:00:52.519 Guy, like a cooled cat baby. I thought you were 0:00:52.560 --> 0:00:55.080 doing evil German doctor for a second and then I 0:00:55.160 --> 0:00:55.840 figured it out. 0:00:55.960 --> 0:00:58.120 No man, wait, I haven't said it yet. And this 0:00:58.160 --> 0:01:00.880 is Stuff you should Know. Okay, that was a good 0:01:00.960 --> 0:01:02.760 one that no Man was wonderful. 0:01:03.040 --> 0:01:07.679 I love how Sammy Davis Junior always said cat and baby. 0:01:08.319 --> 0:01:10.440 It was just he was such a cool dude. 0:01:10.880 --> 0:01:14.279 And okay, do Sammy Davis Junior saying we have ways 0:01:14.280 --> 0:01:15.520 of making you talk. 0:01:16.240 --> 0:01:18.080 What sounds German about any of that. 0:01:18.280 --> 0:01:21.840 I just do it. Please please, we have ways of 0:01:21.880 --> 0:01:22.640 making you talk. 0:01:22.800 --> 0:01:23.039 Man. 0:01:23.920 --> 0:01:24.920 That was pretty good. 0:01:27.000 --> 0:01:28.600 And that's a little soft shoe. 0:01:29.240 --> 0:01:30.640 It's great stuff, Chuck. 0:01:30.880 --> 0:01:35.000 So you know, Billy Crystal used to do Sammy Davis 0:01:35.040 --> 0:01:39.800 Junior way back in the eighties when blackface was super 0:01:39.840 --> 0:01:42.840 cool to do and not controversial. 0:01:43.160 --> 0:01:45.440 Did he do blackface Sammy Davis Junior? 0:01:45.600 --> 0:01:49.760 Yes, dude, he did blackface Sammy Davis Junior eight years 0:01:49.760 --> 0:01:54.240 ago at the Oscars. What. Yes, you don't remember that. No, 0:01:55.480 --> 0:01:57.320 it's the last time he hosted the Oscars. Age In 0:01:57.360 --> 0:02:01.680 twenty twelve, he they did, you know, a remote intro 0:02:01.800 --> 0:02:03.760 thing where he was doing different things and the last 0:02:03.800 --> 0:02:08.480 bit was him and blackface again and people were like, 0:02:08.560 --> 0:02:11.480 and then you know, this was in you know, twenty twelve, 0:02:11.560 --> 0:02:13.480 so that was Twitter and that was Facebook and this 0:02:13.639 --> 0:02:16.840 social media and people were like, that wasn't cool in 0:02:16.880 --> 0:02:19.720 the eighties and I can't believe he's doing that now 0:02:20.040 --> 0:02:23.840 for real. Sammy Davis Junior's daughter came out and said, 0:02:23.919 --> 0:02:25.960 you know what, if there's one thing I know is 0:02:25.960 --> 0:02:28.520 that my dad is looking down and laughing and smiling 0:02:28.520 --> 0:02:31.400 at Billy Crystal doing this. He was he was roasted 0:02:31.400 --> 0:02:34.560 pretty heavily for it, rightfully so, and he is he 0:02:34.960 --> 0:02:37.079 hasn't been around a lot, but he wasn't a real 0:02:37.160 --> 0:02:37.919 up before then. 0:02:38.000 --> 0:02:40.960 He you know, do you think like that? Did it? 0:02:41.000 --> 0:02:42.200 Like that was the demise kid? 0:02:42.280 --> 0:02:43.040 I guess get helped. 0:02:43.600 --> 0:02:46.840 I was, Yeah, I haven't seen him in a while either. Man. 0:02:47.080 --> 0:02:49.600 How did somebody not step back and be like, okay, wait, 0:02:50.320 --> 0:02:51.800 we're about to do blackface? 0:02:52.240 --> 0:02:54.680 I know, Like, how did no one on the production 0:02:54.760 --> 0:02:56.960 crew of the Oscars say not a good idea? 0:02:57.240 --> 0:02:59.920 I don't know, Well he did. 0:03:01.120 --> 0:03:05.280 So I came across something that I thought was pretty interesting. 0:03:05.320 --> 0:03:07.920 I saw a nineteen eighty five interview with David Letterman 0:03:09.880 --> 0:03:14.079 and Sammy Davis Junior says in this interview he did blackface. 0:03:14.560 --> 0:03:15.560 He was a little kid. 0:03:16.480 --> 0:03:20.200 Apparently his skin was lighter when he was a kid, 0:03:20.280 --> 0:03:23.760 and they wanted him because he used to tour with 0:03:23.800 --> 0:03:27.720 his uncle and his dad, as we'll see, and to 0:03:27.880 --> 0:03:31.120 get around labor laws, they would pass him off as 0:03:31.360 --> 0:03:32.040 a midget. 0:03:32.360 --> 0:03:36.080 Yes, and to do that there was right, Yes, thank you. 0:03:36.400 --> 0:03:40.760 They gave him a candy cigar and put him in 0:03:40.800 --> 0:03:43.560 blackface and told anyone who would listened that he was 0:03:43.600 --> 0:03:46.440 a little person. Although again, they didn't say a little person. 0:03:46.520 --> 0:03:47.080 No, they didn't. 0:03:47.960 --> 0:03:50.640 Boy, this is a really controversial episode right out of 0:03:50.640 --> 0:03:51.000 the gate. 0:03:51.240 --> 0:03:52.920 Well, there's a lot of sort of I mean, he 0:03:53.000 --> 0:03:57.720 was a complicated guy who was you know, his father 0:03:57.800 --> 0:04:01.320 was black, his mother was Puerto Rican. He eventually would 0:04:01.800 --> 0:04:05.560 endorse two presidents, both Kennedy and Nixon. He served in 0:04:05.600 --> 0:04:12.480 the army. He was a rat packer. He was shunned 0:04:12.480 --> 0:04:16.159 by racist and also shunned sometimes within his own black community. 0:04:16.760 --> 0:04:19.720 Yeah, like a little pinball getting bounced around. 0:04:19.640 --> 0:04:21.760 And little is right. He was also a little guy 0:04:21.960 --> 0:04:25.080 who always, I think had a complex about his height, 0:04:25.160 --> 0:04:31.040 about his looks. He had this weird sort of underbite 0:04:32.680 --> 0:04:35.080 jaw that would jut out to one side when he talked. 0:04:36.360 --> 0:04:41.240 Just a really fascinating guy that was super super talented 0:04:41.320 --> 0:04:44.800 and had his little tiny fingers and a lot of 0:04:44.839 --> 0:04:49.119 pies from you know, singing and dancing and performing live 0:04:49.240 --> 0:04:54.120 and in movies on TV, and just really really fascinating guy. 0:04:54.520 --> 0:04:56.840 Yeah, when you look back at the rat Pack, he 0:04:56.960 --> 0:04:58.880 was the one that brought the actual talent to the 0:04:58.960 --> 0:04:59.320 rat Pack. 0:04:59.400 --> 0:05:01.680 Like Sinatra could say, Martin. 0:05:01.440 --> 0:05:05.000 Could sing everyone and the rat Pack was talented, right, right, 0:05:05.040 --> 0:05:09.480 But he was multi talented, like dancing, doing impressions. 0:05:10.080 --> 0:05:13.120 He had like a little gunslinger routine too. 0:05:13.200 --> 0:05:14.039 Did you see any of that? 0:05:14.880 --> 0:05:15.159 I did? 0:05:15.440 --> 0:05:16.240 He's amazing. 0:05:17.400 --> 0:05:22.400 I watched a PBS documentary for their series American Masters 0:05:22.440 --> 0:05:25.200 on him, and it was like an hour almost two 0:05:25.200 --> 0:05:28.560 hours long, and it was really in depth and really good. 0:05:28.560 --> 0:05:31.320 But they had some amazing footage of him just doing 0:05:31.360 --> 0:05:33.680 all sorts of different stuff. So I guess, let me 0:05:34.040 --> 0:05:37.719 revise that. Yes, the rat pack was talented. Sammy Davis 0:05:37.800 --> 0:05:41.679 Junior was more talented than all of them put together. 0:05:43.160 --> 0:05:48.360 All right, Okay, so he made Did you see any 0:05:48.360 --> 0:05:50.120 of that documentary of the USO. 0:05:49.920 --> 0:05:54.080 Tour There were a few clips in there. Yeah. 0:05:54.160 --> 0:05:55.800 Yeah, So if you want to see a different So 0:05:55.880 --> 0:05:59.400 if you think Sammy Davis Junior as just the candy 0:05:59.480 --> 0:06:03.880 man or mister bo Jangles babe. 0:06:03.680 --> 0:06:06.440 Man, watching him do mister bo Jangles, that's growing how 0:06:06.440 --> 0:06:09.240 he felt about that song. It's very heartbreaking, it is. 0:06:10.320 --> 0:06:12.560 But if you see this documentary. In nineteen seventy two, 0:06:12.640 --> 0:06:16.080 he did a USO tour of Vietnam where he performed 0:06:16.080 --> 0:06:19.880 at drug rehab camps and some other you know, forward bases. 0:06:20.720 --> 0:06:22.640 If you look at this man, this is like is 0:06:22.680 --> 0:06:26.000 swinging seventies kind of rock and roll as it gets 0:06:26.839 --> 0:06:33.159 really really cool stuff. He was a bad a performer. 0:06:34.120 --> 0:06:36.080 He was at places like some of them were kind 0:06:36.080 --> 0:06:38.320 of full on productions where they were capable of pulling 0:06:38.360 --> 0:06:41.680 that off. Other times, there's this great footage of him 0:06:41.880 --> 0:06:45.080 where they could had nothing but a microphone and he's 0:06:45.160 --> 0:06:46.719 just like, all right, give me the mic and I 0:06:46.720 --> 0:06:50.200 will like basically kind of do my own beat box 0:06:50.200 --> 0:06:54.520 seed rhythm section and sing and dance. And the soldiers 0:06:54.520 --> 0:06:56.719 are just loving it, man, they're eating it up. 0:06:57.200 --> 0:06:57.440 Yeah. 0:06:57.480 --> 0:07:01.080 And this is nineteen seventy two, believe, and like, I 0:07:01.120 --> 0:07:05.040 mean like his like he was a world famous star 0:07:05.200 --> 0:07:07.920 by them, but also he was an older dude, you know, 0:07:08.040 --> 0:07:11.000 like he'd really had his heyday in the late fifties 0:07:11.040 --> 0:07:13.600 and throughout the sixties, and this is seventy two and 0:07:13.640 --> 0:07:16.800 he's out there in Vietnam belting out motown hits and 0:07:17.040 --> 0:07:18.320 drumming on the mic stand. 0:07:18.600 --> 0:07:21.120 So yeah, I didn't see all. 0:07:21.000 --> 0:07:22.680 Of it, but yeah, you can tell, like it was 0:07:22.800 --> 0:07:26.560 pretty cool. Yeah, he's even more of a talented performer 0:07:26.600 --> 0:07:29.800 than people realize, because you know, you do think he 0:07:29.880 --> 0:07:32.240 as doing like standards and show tunes and stuff like that, 0:07:32.280 --> 0:07:34.040 and he did mostly do those things, but he was 0:07:34.080 --> 0:07:35.800 talented in all sorts of different ways. 0:07:36.160 --> 0:07:38.920 So the Grabster helped us out with this one. And 0:07:39.040 --> 0:07:41.760 he said that there were a few defining sort of 0:07:42.000 --> 0:07:45.480 things about Sammy Davis Junior's life that inform who he was. 0:07:45.840 --> 0:07:45.960 Right. 0:07:46.800 --> 0:07:52.880 One was that he came from poverty. He performed with 0:07:53.000 --> 0:07:55.000 his like he said, his uncle which was not his 0:07:55.080 --> 0:07:58.120 real uncle, but his dad, and his uncle Will Meston 0:07:59.080 --> 0:08:00.960 as the was it the Maston. 0:08:00.600 --> 0:08:03.760 Trio, Will Maston trio, right, And they. 0:08:03.840 --> 0:08:06.480 Came from nothing, and he did not have any money. 0:08:06.560 --> 0:08:10.360 And he talked later in life about the thrill of 0:08:11.720 --> 0:08:15.840 leaving a waitress one hundred dollars tip and walking around 0:08:15.840 --> 0:08:17.880 with one thousand dollars in your pocket. He said the 0:08:18.080 --> 0:08:19.760 later on in life. Yeah, he's like, that was a 0:08:19.840 --> 0:08:23.160 year's salary. And he was like, no one understands that 0:08:23.360 --> 0:08:25.360 unless you've been at the bottom, right. 0:08:25.320 --> 0:08:26.800 And he was definitely at the bottom. 0:08:27.000 --> 0:08:30.160 And they, he and his father and his uncle Will 0:08:30.280 --> 0:08:33.679 worked their way up, you know, all through they started 0:08:33.720 --> 0:08:37.480 all throughout the Depression on the Chitlin circuit doing vaudeville. 0:08:37.800 --> 0:08:42.800 And he didn't go to school, once, because this is 0:08:42.840 --> 0:08:48.080 really important to understand. He spent his entire life in 0:08:48.200 --> 0:08:53.640 show business and the earliest years constantly on the road 0:08:53.720 --> 0:08:54.599 with his uncle. 0:08:54.360 --> 0:08:54.920 And his dad. 0:08:55.160 --> 0:08:57.480 Yeah, so that's the second point. Never went to school 0:08:57.600 --> 0:09:01.319 at all, did not learn to read and write until 0:09:01.360 --> 0:09:05.040 he was in the army, and always apparently had trouble writing, 0:09:05.760 --> 0:09:08.079 and he always looked at it as he was always, 0:09:08.200 --> 0:09:11.160 you know, sort of ashamed of it. He was proud 0:09:11.200 --> 0:09:14.440 of who he became, but always was ashamed of his 0:09:14.559 --> 0:09:18.200 lack of formal schooling. And he called his what he 0:09:18.280 --> 0:09:21.760 had was the facade of intelligence, which Ed rightfully points 0:09:21.760 --> 0:09:25.280 out as just bunk, because there are many kinds of intelligence. 0:09:25.280 --> 0:09:27.680 He was a very intelligent guy, right, He just didn't 0:09:27.720 --> 0:09:30.480 have formal schooling. But he was very self conscious of 0:09:30.520 --> 0:09:35.760 this and about representing the black community. So like, if 0:09:35.800 --> 0:09:38.840 you ever mispronounced something because he didn't know, it would 0:09:38.840 --> 0:09:41.200 make him feel really bad because he thought that that 0:09:41.280 --> 0:09:45.520 represented black people as a whole. So that's number two. 0:09:46.440 --> 0:09:49.480 And the third thing is that early on his family, 0:09:49.720 --> 0:09:53.319 his dad and his uncle really kind of shielded him 0:09:53.360 --> 0:09:57.559 from racial prejudice. He certainly encountered it on the Chitlin 0:09:57.640 --> 0:09:59.840 circuit but he didn't really get the full deal until 0:09:59.880 --> 0:10:01.760 he into the army, and it was a big shock. 0:10:01.600 --> 0:10:03.000 To him, right he. 0:10:03.960 --> 0:10:08.760 I think this kind of explains that he approached racism 0:10:09.000 --> 0:10:13.600 differently than some of his contemporaries, especially when he got 0:10:13.640 --> 0:10:16.080 to the army and was confronted with the full brunt 0:10:16.080 --> 0:10:20.280 of it, and that that kind of informed how he 0:10:20.400 --> 0:10:26.080 viewed race and racial discrimination in the the dynamic between 0:10:26.120 --> 0:10:28.439 the races in the United States in the middle of 0:10:28.520 --> 0:10:32.240 last century, because he hadn't really seen it firsthand or 0:10:32.240 --> 0:10:33.160 experienced at firsthand. 0:10:33.280 --> 0:10:34.000 He hadn't been in. 0:10:34.000 --> 0:10:37.160 School and so other little white kids hadn't bullied him, 0:10:37.640 --> 0:10:40.800 or he hadn't been around town and just lived in 0:10:40.880 --> 0:10:46.840 a set space where most kids were introduced to racism firsthand. 0:10:47.160 --> 0:10:49.160 He didn't get that until he was eighteen, and so 0:10:49.200 --> 0:10:51.240 by the time he was eighteen, he was like, this 0:10:51.400 --> 0:10:52.000 isn't right. 0:10:52.080 --> 0:10:53.800 What do you what do you? Who do you think 0:10:53.800 --> 0:10:54.200 you are? 0:10:54.760 --> 0:10:56.480 And so when he got to the army and was 0:10:56.520 --> 0:11:01.160 confronted with it full on, he he approached it differently, 0:11:01.520 --> 0:11:04.199 whereas other some of his contemporaries in the army who 0:11:04.200 --> 0:11:07.040 were black, just kind of kept their head down and 0:11:07.360 --> 0:11:09.439 you know, tried to go along and get along. 0:11:09.520 --> 0:11:09.880 Mm hmm. 0:11:10.320 --> 0:11:12.679 He would he would fight back, he would not he 0:11:12.720 --> 0:11:14.680 would not back down, he would not step down. And 0:11:14.760 --> 0:11:17.719 he spent a lot of time in the army physically 0:11:17.960 --> 0:11:21.439 fighting white racists who were trying to make things hard 0:11:21.480 --> 0:11:25.160 for him. And apparently at some point he fought one. 0:11:25.880 --> 0:11:28.080 He fought one guy in one he beat up some 0:11:28.160 --> 0:11:31.400 white guy who had done something racist to him. I'm 0:11:31.400 --> 0:11:34.079 not sure what it was. And then after the fight, 0:11:34.920 --> 0:11:38.200 the guy beaten said, you know, you may have beaten me, 0:11:38.240 --> 0:11:42.040 but you're still black. And apparently this guy does Sammy 0:11:42.120 --> 0:11:44.760 Davis Junior in such a way that it just transformed 0:11:44.880 --> 0:11:49.000 his approach that he realized, like he could fight white 0:11:49.000 --> 0:11:51.839 boys his whole life, yeah, and probably win some of 0:11:51.880 --> 0:11:54.000 the fights, probably get beat up a lot of the fights. 0:11:54.120 --> 0:11:56.960 He had his nose broken at least twice, but that 0:11:57.040 --> 0:11:59.079 it wasn't going to get him anywhere. And so he 0:11:59.280 --> 0:12:01.560 decided that in there that what he could do is 0:12:01.640 --> 0:12:05.680 fight prejudice through his performing. He would be such a 0:12:05.679 --> 0:12:10.440 good performer, he would transcend race at least while he 0:12:10.520 --> 0:12:13.880 was performing. Yeah, And he managed to do that, or 0:12:14.600 --> 0:12:17.400 as much as anybody ever has in the history in 0:12:17.440 --> 0:12:19.520 modern history, at least in the United States. 0:12:19.920 --> 0:12:23.439 Yeah. So he's discharged in the army in nineteen forty five, 0:12:24.200 --> 0:12:28.160 goes right back to the Maston Trio and touring with them, 0:12:28.280 --> 0:12:30.560 and he was sort of even though he was just 0:12:30.640 --> 0:12:34.120 the little kid growing up in that trio, he was 0:12:34.520 --> 0:12:35.680 sort of the star still. 0:12:36.240 --> 0:12:37.520 Yeah, little Sammy. 0:12:37.240 --> 0:12:40.120 Little Sammy, like little Stevie Wonder. 0:12:40.640 --> 0:12:45.200 Yeah, he actually chuck. He won his first contest at 0:12:45.200 --> 0:12:49.719 age three, Yeah, at like an amateur hour or amateur night, 0:12:50.040 --> 0:12:52.880 and he's saying, I'll be glad when you're dead, you rascal. 0:12:52.960 --> 0:12:53.719 You that's what. 0:12:53.880 --> 0:12:55.880 He knocked the house down at age three, and that 0:12:56.040 --> 0:13:00.000 was the formal start to his show business. 0:13:00.160 --> 0:13:00.319 Yeah. 0:13:00.360 --> 0:13:03.000 He won ten bucks, Yeah, about one hundred and fifty 0:13:03.040 --> 0:13:03.520 bucks today. 0:13:03.600 --> 0:13:06.679 Yeah, which for him, I mean, that's a lot of dope, sure, 0:13:06.920 --> 0:13:11.040 for a very very poor kid. So he gets out 0:13:11.080 --> 0:13:13.920 of the army, goes back to the Maston Trio. And 0:13:14.080 --> 0:13:17.880 this sort of corresponded with the same timeline as when 0:13:17.960 --> 0:13:20.800 Vegas started to become a big deal and a big 0:13:21.280 --> 0:13:25.280 entertainment center, and they played Vegas a little bit. And 0:13:25.800 --> 0:13:27.720 you know, we should point out too, on the Chitlin circuit, 0:13:27.760 --> 0:13:31.120 they were never making much money. No, it's a grueling thing. 0:13:31.160 --> 0:13:32.880 And they did get paid, but it's not like they 0:13:32.880 --> 0:13:33.880 were getting rich out there. 0:13:34.040 --> 0:13:36.560 I mean, you'd have to be a vaudeville superstar to 0:13:36.600 --> 0:13:38.800 make a lot of money. And this is also during 0:13:38.840 --> 0:13:42.200 the depression largely too, so people didn't make money in general. 0:13:42.360 --> 0:13:44.440 Right, But doing three, four or five shows a day 0:13:44.920 --> 0:13:48.079 on that circuit, yah, but goes to Vegas, starts performing 0:13:48.120 --> 0:13:53.480 in Vegas, starts doing impressions, which he did throughout his career, 0:13:53.559 --> 0:13:56.440 was very good at them, and audiences ate it up. 0:13:56.960 --> 0:14:00.440 And then Frank Sinatra, the chairman of the board as 0:14:00.480 --> 0:14:03.520 they say, gave him a call or gave their people 0:14:03.600 --> 0:14:06.960 called and said, hey, I want this guy opening up 0:14:07.240 --> 0:14:10.440 for me in Vegas. This trio opening up. Took him 0:14:10.480 --> 0:14:11.080 under his wing. 0:14:11.679 --> 0:14:12.520 That was a big deal. 0:14:12.640 --> 0:14:14.240 It was a very big deal. Said, you know, you 0:14:14.280 --> 0:14:17.640 do these great impressions, you do me, it's hysterical. You're 0:14:17.679 --> 0:14:22.680 so talented. Open for me in Vegas. And that was 0:14:22.720 --> 0:14:25.040 where he said, you know, in Vegas for twenty minutes, 0:14:25.040 --> 0:14:28.600 twice a night, our skin had no color. But the 0:14:28.640 --> 0:14:31.680 second they got finished, he said, other acts to go 0:14:31.720 --> 0:14:33.760 out and gamble and socialize, have a drink, he said, 0:14:33.760 --> 0:14:35.920 we had to go through the kitchen with the garbage, 0:14:36.520 --> 0:14:38.400 and that's when it would all sort of hit home 0:14:38.440 --> 0:14:38.920 once again. 0:14:39.200 --> 0:14:41.240 They had to stay in like an entirely different part 0:14:41.240 --> 0:14:44.440 of Vegas that, from the looks of it, almost didn't 0:14:44.480 --> 0:14:49.160 have electricity, Dusty roads. Yeah, that's where they had to stay. 0:14:49.200 --> 0:14:52.840 They were beloved performers, but that's where they had to 0:14:52.880 --> 0:14:55.400 go stay after the show. And I saw that even 0:14:55.600 --> 0:14:59.040 after he was a member of the rat Pack a superstar, 0:15:00.160 --> 0:15:03.480 he had used the pool at the Sands and guests 0:15:03.560 --> 0:15:07.680 in the fifties complained enough that the Sands agreed to 0:15:07.800 --> 0:15:10.720 drain the pool and refill it because Sammy Davis Junior 0:15:10.800 --> 0:15:12.960 had been using the pool and this is after he 0:15:13.120 --> 0:15:17.040 was a star already. That's how vile the segregation was, 0:15:17.080 --> 0:15:18.720 even in a place like Vegas. 0:15:19.600 --> 0:15:22.360 All right, let's take a break and we'll come back 0:15:22.400 --> 0:15:25.040 and talk more about the candy Man. Right after this, 0:15:26.720 --> 0:15:28.640 Softly Jaws. 0:15:30.000 --> 0:15:32.600 Stoff. 0:15:49.320 --> 0:15:52.280 So Sammy Davis Junior wrote a bunch of memoirs and 0:15:52.320 --> 0:15:55.280 autobiographies over the years, and one of them is a 0:15:55.360 --> 0:15:59.400 very great spinal tap joke. So I know you still 0:15:59.400 --> 0:16:02.080 haven't seen it, right, I saw it, but you've. 0:16:02.000 --> 0:16:03.680 Only seen it once and it was a couple of 0:16:03.720 --> 0:16:04.080 years ago. 0:16:04.200 --> 0:16:06.800 Okay, so one of his I think his first one 0:16:07.680 --> 0:16:10.360 was called yes I Can. Sure. There's a great scene 0:16:10.360 --> 0:16:13.760 in spinal tapp when Bruno Kirby as a limo driver 0:16:15.000 --> 0:16:17.360 is talking about it and he said he said something 0:16:17.400 --> 0:16:19.320 about yes I can, he said, although the real title 0:16:19.320 --> 0:16:21.960 should have been yes I can. If Frank says, it's 0:16:22.000 --> 0:16:24.440 okay because Frank called the shots for all those. 0:16:24.320 --> 0:16:27.880 Guys, right, I remember that too. It's very funny, Joe like, 0:16:27.920 --> 0:16:29.840 he just keeps going off about that, doesn't it. 0:16:30.040 --> 0:16:32.640 Yeah, Yeah, it's good stuff. You know, Billy Crystal and 0:16:32.680 --> 0:16:36.240 Bruno Kirby had a very famous falling out and no 0:16:36.640 --> 0:16:39.880 legend has it. Billy Crystal sort of had him blackballed. 0:16:41.400 --> 0:16:44.840 What is up with Billy Crystal? My impression of him 0:16:44.920 --> 0:16:48.680 is changing dramatically. He really sells it when the cameras 0:16:48.680 --> 0:16:48.960 are on. 0:16:49.120 --> 0:16:49.360 Huh. 0:16:49.480 --> 0:16:50.600 Yeah, well that's what you do. 0:16:50.680 --> 0:16:55.800 You know. That's crazy though, to be that Wow, Wow. 0:16:55.760 --> 0:16:57.320 I mean we know the game. People think you and 0:16:57.360 --> 0:16:57.960 I like each. 0:16:57.840 --> 0:17:02.920 Other, right, we got everybody fool It's amazing. Like what 0:17:02.920 --> 0:17:04.400 were their names of the MythBusters? 0:17:04.560 --> 0:17:07.440 Yeah, they like. The day the camera stopped rolling, they 0:17:07.560 --> 0:17:09.840 release press statement saying we never liked each other. 0:17:10.000 --> 0:17:12.600 I know, why would why would anybody do that? Even 0:17:12.640 --> 0:17:15.280 if you didn't like each other, Why would you just 0:17:15.760 --> 0:17:16.440 let it go? 0:17:16.920 --> 0:17:17.159 You know? 0:17:17.280 --> 0:17:17.840 I don't know. 0:17:18.160 --> 0:17:21.680 But it's a Jamie and Adam Adam, that's. 0:17:21.640 --> 0:17:23.560 Right, Aim Savage. Adam's a great guy. I know him 0:17:23.560 --> 0:17:24.000 a little bit. 0:17:24.640 --> 0:17:26.159 So are you implying Jamie's not? 0:17:26.400 --> 0:17:30.240 I don't know him any Oh, Okay, I'm not siding 0:17:30.600 --> 0:17:32.280 this took a really weird turn, didn't it. 0:17:32.280 --> 0:17:36.520 It did. So back to Sammy Davis Junior, he also 0:17:37.119 --> 0:17:41.920 started his stars started rising. Well, his star had already risen, 0:17:41.960 --> 0:17:45.119 but in the seventies when the variety show came about, 0:17:45.600 --> 0:17:47.560 which was a big deal in the seventies and even 0:17:47.600 --> 0:17:51.760 into the eighties, Sammy Davis Junior was perfect for that medium. 0:17:52.240 --> 0:17:54.919 Well, this was this was I think even earlier than that, 0:17:55.119 --> 0:17:58.720 when TV really started to dominate. The earliest shows that 0:17:58.760 --> 0:18:02.440 they had were vaudeville shows that led to variety show. 0:18:02.560 --> 0:18:04.520 He had his own variety show later in the seventies 0:18:04.520 --> 0:18:06.600 because he was so and it wasn't a huge hit. 0:18:06.640 --> 0:18:09.119 But for someone who can dance and sing and do 0:18:09.160 --> 0:18:13.480 impressions and do comedy and for God's sakes, as a 0:18:13.560 --> 0:18:16.640 real deal gun slinger, a variety show is pretty great. 0:18:16.960 --> 0:18:17.639 It really was. 0:18:17.760 --> 0:18:24.399 So he's you know, he's getting onto TV. Their Vegas 0:18:24.400 --> 0:18:27.040 gigs have really put the will Maston trio on the map, 0:18:27.520 --> 0:18:32.120 and they were doing really well. They had reliable work, 0:18:32.160 --> 0:18:34.480 that kind of stuff. People knew who Sammy Davis Junior was. 0:18:34.480 --> 0:18:37.160 He was already, you know, a protege of Frank Sinatra 0:18:37.200 --> 0:18:40.200 by this time. But it wasn't until nineteen fifty one 0:18:40.720 --> 0:18:44.880 that the big break came through. And it really came 0:18:44.920 --> 0:18:47.400 through in like a really kind of Hollywood story kind 0:18:47.400 --> 0:18:51.480 of way, where like this they were given this one 0:18:51.600 --> 0:18:55.120 shot and this one particular spot at just the right time, 0:18:55.240 --> 0:18:57.399 in front of just the right people, and they killed 0:18:57.400 --> 0:19:00.639 it and that was it. They Sami dave Or was 0:19:00.640 --> 0:19:02.040 a star from that moment on. 0:19:02.280 --> 0:19:07.280 That's right. And that was at Janis Page and a 0:19:07.359 --> 0:19:10.920 show at Ciro's which is now the Comedy. 0:19:10.480 --> 0:19:13.600 Store, right, And oh really I didn't know that. 0:19:13.720 --> 0:19:16.760 Yeah, yeah, it became the Comedy Store after Ciro's, but 0:19:16.920 --> 0:19:19.440 was sort of a legendary place, you know, of its 0:19:19.440 --> 0:19:22.000 own in its own right, Oh, yeah, but everyone, you know, 0:19:22.280 --> 0:19:25.119 apparently it's debatable whether or not it was an Oscar 0:19:25.160 --> 0:19:28.600 party after party or not, but regardless, there were a 0:19:28.640 --> 0:19:29.960 lot of Hollywood people. 0:19:29.760 --> 0:19:32.480 There, including Bogie and his rat Pack. 0:19:32.800 --> 0:19:37.399 Sure, the original rat Pack, which wasn't called the rat. 0:19:37.280 --> 0:19:39.879 Pack, no, it was actually it was yep. 0:19:40.600 --> 0:19:42.920 Well why did well, never mind, I'm not going down 0:19:42.920 --> 0:19:45.280 that rabbit hole. What that's all right? 0:19:45.640 --> 0:19:46.000 Okay? 0:19:46.119 --> 0:19:49.080 So he he kills it there. He's doing impressions of 0:19:49.119 --> 0:19:52.080 people that are in the audience. Everyone loves them. They 0:19:52.080 --> 0:19:56.480 signed with the William Morris Agency, and an overnight sensation, 0:19:56.640 --> 0:20:00.000 you know, twenty thirty years in the making, starts happening. 0:20:00.280 --> 0:20:03.399 Yeah, and we should say so. Sammy Davis Junior became 0:20:03.480 --> 0:20:07.280 known for his impressions. He was groundbreaking in the sense 0:20:07.359 --> 0:20:10.280 that he would do impressions of white people. And up 0:20:10.359 --> 0:20:13.320 to the time Sammy Davis Junior started doing impressions of 0:20:13.320 --> 0:20:15.600 white people, if you're a black performer, you could do 0:20:15.640 --> 0:20:18.119 impressions of other black people, and that was it. It 0:20:18.160 --> 0:20:20.040 was just not okay for you to do white people. 0:20:20.200 --> 0:20:22.679 Sammy Davis Junior just started doing white people and the 0:20:22.720 --> 0:20:25.600 white people loved it. And at that show at Zero's. 0:20:25.800 --> 0:20:27.879 He was doing impressions of some of the people in 0:20:27.920 --> 0:20:31.199 the crowd, like he did a killer Carrie Grant and 0:20:31.280 --> 0:20:34.000 Carry Grant was a member of Humphrey Bogart's rat Pack 0:20:34.200 --> 0:20:36.879 and he was probably there that night. So there were 0:20:36.880 --> 0:20:39.320 a lot of people who were getting impressions done of them. 0:20:39.400 --> 0:20:43.119 They just loved it killed And I think Janis Page 0:20:43.160 --> 0:20:45.640 said I was the headliner tonight. I think these guys 0:20:45.640 --> 0:20:48.200 should be the headliner from now on. Yeah, which is 0:20:48.240 --> 0:20:49.960 pretty cool of her to do that, you know. 0:20:49.880 --> 0:20:50.440 It's amazing. 0:20:50.720 --> 0:20:50.920 Yeah. 0:20:51.240 --> 0:20:54.680 So he gets a record deal after that, he's putting 0:20:54.720 --> 0:20:56.880 out like showtuns old standards. 0:20:57.320 --> 0:20:57.600 Sure. 0:20:58.080 --> 0:21:00.199 He does a pilot in the mid fifties with his 0:21:00.240 --> 0:21:04.680 father and uncle about a trio of black entertainers that 0:21:04.720 --> 0:21:06.359 are kind of struggling called We Three. 0:21:06.800 --> 0:21:08.000 Yeah, I would love to see that. 0:21:08.320 --> 0:21:10.320 Well, there's another part we'll talk about later that you 0:21:10.400 --> 0:21:11.399 definitely need to see. 0:21:11.600 --> 0:21:13.960 I haven't checked it out yet, but I know I 0:21:14.040 --> 0:21:14.679 know the one. 0:21:14.920 --> 0:21:19.159 It's pretty legendary. Yeah. So a big thing happened that 0:21:19.200 --> 0:21:22.639 same year in nineteen fifty four is Sammy Davis Junior 0:21:22.680 --> 0:21:26.720 had a wreck and his Cadillac, and the Cadillac and 0:21:26.760 --> 0:21:30.560 This is just horrific to think about, because I've seen these, 0:21:30.640 --> 0:21:32.399 you know, in the middle of the steering wheel, they 0:21:32.400 --> 0:21:35.960 had these little decorative cones that stuck out. His left 0:21:36.000 --> 0:21:39.280 eyeball hit that thing and he lost it and wore 0:21:39.280 --> 0:21:41.560 an eyepatch for a while and then a glass eye. 0:21:41.960 --> 0:21:45.679 Yeah, apparently he remembers coming out of the car with 0:21:45.960 --> 0:21:48.879 holding his eye in his hand, and then that's the 0:21:48.960 --> 0:21:50.880 last thing you remember. The next thing he remembers after 0:21:50.880 --> 0:21:53.080 that was waking up in a hospital bed and when 0:21:53.080 --> 0:21:55.200 he woke up and realized that he'd lost his eye 0:21:55.280 --> 0:21:59.840 for life. As eye was gone, he was really really 0:21:59.840 --> 0:22:03.120 scared that his career was over. This is nineteen fifty four. 0:22:03.520 --> 0:22:06.240 He'd just got in his big break three years before 0:22:06.920 --> 0:22:08.680 and was on his way up, and now all of 0:22:08.680 --> 0:22:10.840 a sudden he loses his eye. And the thing about 0:22:10.840 --> 0:22:14.000 losing your eye, in addition to say, you know, having 0:22:14.080 --> 0:22:17.000 to sit for publicity photos and try to be a 0:22:17.080 --> 0:22:19.560 leading man in movies or on Broadway or that kind 0:22:19.600 --> 0:22:27.080 of thing, you have to relearn spatial awareness. You're going 0:22:27.080 --> 0:22:30.800 from binocular vision to monocular vision, and that has all 0:22:30.840 --> 0:22:33.399 sorts of weird tricky effects on you. So if you're 0:22:33.440 --> 0:22:37.560 a dancer or a gunslinger or doing some old soft 0:22:37.600 --> 0:22:41.040 shoe or whatever you're doing, you have to relearn how 0:22:41.080 --> 0:22:44.640 to move. And apparently one of the things that Sinatra 0:22:44.720 --> 0:22:47.919 did that was really stand up for Sammy Davis Junior 0:22:48.000 --> 0:22:51.840 was he had him basically come convalesced at Sinatra's place 0:22:52.320 --> 0:22:58.120 and really guided him in saying, like, you need to 0:22:58.160 --> 0:23:01.120 relearn how to move. You're gonna be fine, but you're 0:23:01.160 --> 0:23:04.000 gonna have to You're gonna have to start really attacking 0:23:04.000 --> 0:23:05.920 this and you can't really sit around and feel bad 0:23:06.000 --> 0:23:10.520 for yourself. You need to get you know, relearn movement 0:23:11.119 --> 0:23:14.200 now rather than you know, spend a year feeling sad. 0:23:14.600 --> 0:23:16.040 And that was a huge help for him. 0:23:16.119 --> 0:23:19.960 It was, and he also was kind of I don't think, 0:23:20.440 --> 0:23:22.439 I mean, maybe his life did kind of pass before him, 0:23:22.440 --> 0:23:26.159 because he definitely had an awakening of what have I 0:23:26.280 --> 0:23:29.159 done here with my life so far? What greater purpose 0:23:29.200 --> 0:23:32.320 have I served? And what can I do from this 0:23:32.400 --> 0:23:37.080 point forward? He and put a pin in this. But 0:23:37.480 --> 0:23:40.520 this was the first exposure to Judaism in the hospital, 0:23:40.720 --> 0:23:43.119 he got a visit from a rabbi. Yeah, and just 0:23:43.520 --> 0:23:46.399 put a pin in that because that will come back again. Later, Okay, 0:23:46.480 --> 0:23:49.680 there a pin in it. Well, look all right, I 0:23:49.720 --> 0:23:52.160 don't even know where this pin came from. You, I don't. 0:23:52.240 --> 0:23:53.800 Well you do have that pin coashion right there. 0:23:53.840 --> 0:23:57.640 But yeah, this little tomato one with the strawberries dangling 0:23:57.680 --> 0:23:58.840 off of it? Remember those? 0:23:59.040 --> 0:24:01.600 Oh, man, do I was there a seventies mom that 0:24:01.680 --> 0:24:02.640 didn't have one of those? 0:24:02.880 --> 0:24:05.520 Yeah, with a Macromay owl hanging on the wall behind him. 0:24:05.600 --> 0:24:06.679 Yah. 0:24:06.720 --> 0:24:11.000 So here's where it gets really kind of great as 0:24:11.000 --> 0:24:13.480 far as knowing what a stand up guy Sammy Davis 0:24:13.520 --> 0:24:19.080 Junior was. His success is booming, and you would think, 0:24:19.359 --> 0:24:24.040 Sammy Davis Junior, you can leave that Will Maston Trio behind. Yeah, 0:24:24.080 --> 0:24:27.560 because it's really all about you. He said, no, man, 0:24:29.240 --> 0:24:32.280 shine us all up, babe. Three way split, yep, And 0:24:32.320 --> 0:24:35.160 that's what they did. He ensured contractually that they would 0:24:35.200 --> 0:24:39.159 get a three way split that endured ten years after 0:24:39.960 --> 0:24:42.359 he left as a solo performer. He was still giving 0:24:42.359 --> 0:24:46.080 them thirty three percent each. Yeah, for fifteen years total. 0:24:46.119 --> 0:24:49.600 They got a third of the profits each of them. 0:24:50.400 --> 0:24:54.040 And yeah they were you know, originally they were still 0:24:54.040 --> 0:24:56.960 doing their Vegas show as the Will Maston Trio featuring 0:24:57.000 --> 0:25:00.040 Sammy Davis Junior. But then over time, you know, I 0:25:00.080 --> 0:25:02.760 remember his uncle and his dad were a good twenty 0:25:02.840 --> 0:25:06.440 years older than him. By this time, he's in his thirties, 0:25:06.840 --> 0:25:09.719 so you know, they're starting to get they're losing their 0:25:09.720 --> 0:25:11.919 step a little bit, so they start to not be 0:25:11.960 --> 0:25:14.520 in the show quite as much, just stepping back. But 0:25:14.600 --> 0:25:16.600 even still, he made sure they were taken care of 0:25:16.680 --> 0:25:20.040 for another fifteen years. Third a third and this is 0:25:20.080 --> 0:25:24.679 a third during Sammy Davis Junior's peak earning years, So 0:25:25.200 --> 0:25:27.760 he got one third of what he would have gotten 0:25:27.840 --> 0:25:31.080 had he just basically said, dad, uncle will thank you 0:25:31.119 --> 0:25:32.040 for teaching me everything. 0:25:32.040 --> 0:25:32.240 I know. 0:25:32.320 --> 0:25:34.679 I'm going to move on now, best of luck, let 0:25:34.720 --> 0:25:37.720 me know if you need a loan. Instead, he just 0:25:37.760 --> 0:25:39.399 took a third of what he could have gotten and 0:25:39.440 --> 0:25:41.719 gave the other two thirds to those two, which is 0:25:41.880 --> 0:25:45.080 for fifteen years. Chuck, Yeah, that's really amazing. 0:25:45.119 --> 0:25:48.159 It's pretty great. So that pen it actually wasn't in 0:25:48.200 --> 0:25:49.520 there that long. We can go ahead and take the 0:25:49.520 --> 0:25:53.399 pen out. Because he after that first meeting with a rabbi, 0:25:53.480 --> 0:25:56.240 he reads more and more about Judaism. He draws a 0:25:56.240 --> 0:25:59.040 correlation between the plight of the Jewish people and the 0:25:59.040 --> 0:26:02.120 plight of black people, and it really spoke to him 0:26:02.119 --> 0:26:05.040 and he converted. And some people said, oh, this big 0:26:05.080 --> 0:26:08.680 publicity stunt. He's like, no, this is not a publicity stunt. 0:26:08.680 --> 0:26:12.800 He said, this is my new religion. And he very 0:26:12.880 --> 0:26:16.320 humorously started referring to himself as a one eyed Black. 0:26:16.160 --> 0:26:19.480 Jew, sometimes a one eyed black Puerto Rican. 0:26:19.440 --> 0:26:22.119 Puerto Rican Jew, which was very sort of in keeping 0:26:22.160 --> 0:26:23.639 with his self deprecating style. 0:26:24.119 --> 0:26:27.960 For sure, he's like Tim Wattley. He converted for the jokes. 0:26:28.160 --> 0:26:31.160 Oh man, I remember that one. I've been plowing through 0:26:31.200 --> 0:26:32.000 Seinfeld again. 0:26:32.400 --> 0:26:33.400 Yeah, I love. 0:26:33.640 --> 0:26:35.800 One of my favorite things that always gets me is 0:26:35.840 --> 0:26:38.840 when Jerry calls George Biff. 0:26:39.840 --> 0:26:40.560 Yeah. 0:26:41.000 --> 0:26:45.439 It never fails to make me laugh. Biff. Yeah, so 0:26:45.520 --> 0:26:48.960 good should we? Well, no, let's not take another break. 0:26:49.040 --> 0:26:51.359 Let's plow on here, right yeah, sure, all right. So, 0:26:52.320 --> 0:26:55.840 dating wise, he is dating black women and white women. 0:26:56.560 --> 0:27:01.200 When he dates white women, he gets racist threats from 0:27:01.200 --> 0:27:04.680 white people, and he gets condemnation from the black community 0:27:05.640 --> 0:27:08.040 for betraying the black community by dating a white woman. 0:27:08.640 --> 0:27:11.800 Right, he can't win. No, he really couldn't win. And apparently, 0:27:11.840 --> 0:27:18.560 from what I saw in that American Masters documentary. 0:27:19.880 --> 0:27:23.520 He really, really, really was in love with kim Novak. Yeah, 0:27:23.600 --> 0:27:25.280 from what I saw, she may have been the love 0:27:25.320 --> 0:27:26.040 of his life. 0:27:26.320 --> 0:27:28.800 At the very least. He never got to explore whether 0:27:28.840 --> 0:27:32.480 she was or not. But when he said that he 0:27:32.560 --> 0:27:35.160 intended to marry her. I guess it was in the fifties. 0:27:39.160 --> 0:27:41.080 There was a contract put on in his life by 0:27:41.119 --> 0:27:44.480 the studio head and I think Columbia where kim Novak 0:27:44.560 --> 0:27:45.280 was an actress. 0:27:45.440 --> 0:27:48.760 Yeah, Harry Cohne was the studio head. And this was 0:27:48.800 --> 0:27:51.800 back when Vegas and Hollywood were you know, there was 0:27:51.800 --> 0:27:56.639 some mob in mafia dealings going on for sure, and 0:27:56.800 --> 0:27:59.280 Sammy had some mob friends too, just because he was 0:27:59.320 --> 0:28:01.680 friends with Frank and you know, that was just sort 0:28:01.720 --> 0:28:03.359 of the thing. These guys would come to these Vegas 0:28:03.359 --> 0:28:06.320 clubs and he would meet them. He sought protection from 0:28:06.320 --> 0:28:09.480 a Chicago gangster that he was in with. The Chicago 0:28:09.520 --> 0:28:13.800 gangster was like, I can't help you in California. He's like, 0:28:14.080 --> 0:28:15.840 I'm no good there. I can protect you in Chicago, 0:28:15.920 --> 0:28:18.440 I can protect you in Vegas. Can't do anything about 0:28:18.480 --> 0:28:22.480 California and it's not my territory. And supposedly, and this 0:28:22.520 --> 0:28:24.240 is where it gets a little hazy, because some people 0:28:24.280 --> 0:28:27.040 say it happened. Some people say it didn't. Supposedly he 0:28:27.080 --> 0:28:30.320 was even kidnapped for a few hours to scare him, 0:28:31.160 --> 0:28:32.920 but who knows if that's really true. 0:28:33.920 --> 0:28:37.280 Well, apparently one of his friends who was there said no, 0:28:37.359 --> 0:28:37.960 it wasn't true. 0:28:37.960 --> 0:28:39.120 He was never kidnapped. 0:28:39.160 --> 0:28:43.440 But the contract basically said there was a contract that said, 0:28:43.440 --> 0:28:46.920 you have forty eight hours to marry a black woman, yeah, 0:28:47.080 --> 0:28:48.640 or you die yeah. 0:28:48.440 --> 0:28:50.320 And whatever it was. 0:28:50.360 --> 0:28:53.000 Whatever, whether there was an actual contract, whether it wor 0:28:53.240 --> 0:28:55.240 just got to him that there was, it didn't matter 0:28:55.280 --> 0:28:57.200 to Sammy Davis Junior at that minute, because he broke 0:28:57.240 --> 0:28:58.760 it off with Kim Novak. 0:29:00.200 --> 0:29:02.560 To his own heart's break and. 0:29:03.480 --> 0:29:04.320 Married a woman. 0:29:04.680 --> 0:29:08.600 Yeah, proposed to a woman named laure White who she 0:29:08.720 --> 0:29:10.680 was a black singer, and I think they had dated 0:29:10.760 --> 0:29:15.880 years before. And I guess he never copped to the 0:29:17.440 --> 0:29:19.880 to the idea that it was an arranged marriage that 0:29:19.960 --> 0:29:23.880 was basically a business proposal, But that is definitely how 0:29:23.920 --> 0:29:26.680 it's portrayed by the people who were there at the 0:29:26.720 --> 0:29:29.560 time were his close friends that he even paid her 0:29:29.640 --> 0:29:32.560 ten thousand dollars to do this, and I'm sure it 0:29:32.600 --> 0:29:36.360 was very you know, kind and congenial to it. But 0:29:36.400 --> 0:29:39.880 they described that day. His wedding day to Laura White 0:29:39.960 --> 0:29:42.560 is probably the worst day of his life, tied for 0:29:42.640 --> 0:29:44.880 first with the day that he lost his left eye. 0:29:45.400 --> 0:29:47.920 Yeah, and he you know, we can't look over some 0:29:47.960 --> 0:29:50.400 of the ugly parts of that day. He got drunk 0:29:50.920 --> 0:29:54.240 and physically assaulted her in the car just after the 0:29:54.280 --> 0:29:58.800 wedding reception. Not making any excuses for the guy, but 0:29:59.000 --> 0:30:01.000 it was certainly not right to do that. 0:30:01.600 --> 0:30:06.640 Right, So their marriage didn't last terribly long. I didn't 0:30:06.680 --> 0:30:08.120 see how long it lasted, did you. 0:30:08.280 --> 0:30:09.160 Yeah, a little every year. 0:30:09.360 --> 0:30:12.440 Okay, so about a year, and I guess he considered 0:30:12.440 --> 0:30:14.920 that the heat had gone down or whatever by that time. 0:30:16.200 --> 0:30:19.320 But I get the impression that the fact that Kim 0:30:19.360 --> 0:30:24.200 Novak had been taken from him strictly out of racism. 0:30:24.520 --> 0:30:26.800 Like Harry Cohne, I'm sure was a racist, but he 0:30:26.880 --> 0:30:28.959 was also a businessman, and the reason that he was 0:30:29.000 --> 0:30:32.160 doing this was because he knew America was racist. This 0:30:32.280 --> 0:30:35.040 is at a time when there were laws that prevented 0:30:35.120 --> 0:30:38.560 black men and white women or vice versa. 0:30:38.040 --> 0:30:38.600 To marry. 0:30:38.720 --> 0:30:39.960 Yeah, it wasn't legal yet. 0:30:40.240 --> 0:30:44.000 No, So the idea of one of his biggest stars, 0:30:44.040 --> 0:30:47.440 Kim Novak, marrying a black man. He decided that he 0:30:47.520 --> 0:30:49.720 just couldn't take that risk business wise, and so he 0:30:49.760 --> 0:30:53.880 threatened Sammy Davis Junior. Whatever the reason was, Sammy Davis 0:30:53.960 --> 0:30:58.440 Junior really bristled under that. And so in nineteen sixty, 0:30:59.360 --> 0:31:02.240 this was a few years after the he had to 0:31:02.280 --> 0:31:05.160 break it off with kim Novak, he got married to 0:31:05.280 --> 0:31:10.800 a woman, a Swedish actress named my brit and he 0:31:10.920 --> 0:31:13.080 had children with her and was married to her, but 0:31:13.160 --> 0:31:16.760 he also ran around on her almost constantly. From what 0:31:16.800 --> 0:31:20.640 I understand, and you get the impression that my was 0:31:20.680 --> 0:31:25.120 in part A, I'll just put it as PG as possible, 0:31:25.160 --> 0:31:28.400 thumbing his nose at all of the racists out there 0:31:28.440 --> 0:31:31.800 who took kim Novak from him. He was saying, I think, 0:31:32.000 --> 0:31:34.360 as somebody put it, I'm big enough now that you 0:31:34.400 --> 0:31:36.320 can't tell me who to marry. And I'm going to 0:31:36.360 --> 0:31:39.080 marry this beautiful six foot white woman. 0:31:39.280 --> 0:31:43.280 Yeah, who looks like Margo Robie sort of she does, Yeah, 0:31:43.280 --> 0:31:43.800 she does. 0:31:43.640 --> 0:31:44.040 A little bit. 0:31:44.080 --> 0:31:46.440 I hadn't put my finger on it. And their children 0:31:46.880 --> 0:31:51.400 were incredibly beautiful, thanks largely to their mom too, but 0:31:51.440 --> 0:31:54.880 they were They had three kids together, and they were 0:31:54.880 --> 0:31:57.360 married for eight years and I think it's very sad 0:31:57.400 --> 0:32:00.640 because my Britt immediately lost her career. Yeah, so she 0:32:00.680 --> 0:32:02.800 gave up her career to be with Sammy Davis Junior. 0:32:03.480 --> 0:32:06.560 I don't know. I she must have fallen in love 0:32:06.600 --> 0:32:10.000 with them, and because she had three kids with him too. 0:32:10.240 --> 0:32:13.920 But she gave up a lot and he gave up nothing. 0:32:14.640 --> 0:32:18.760 And I think that was very unfair on his part 0:32:19.240 --> 0:32:22.720 to ask for what he asked for from her and 0:32:22.840 --> 0:32:25.000 give so little in return. 0:32:25.600 --> 0:32:29.240 Yeah. And what was also not fair and sort of 0:32:29.280 --> 0:32:32.240 a black eye on John F. Kennedy was that Sammy 0:32:32.320 --> 0:32:35.080 Davis Junior had been scheduled to perform at the nineteen 0:32:35.120 --> 0:32:39.360 sixty inauguration and he disinvited him because of his marriage 0:32:39.400 --> 0:32:40.120 to a white woman. 0:32:40.640 --> 0:32:46.120 Kennedy personally had him disinvited. This wasn't Kennedy's advisors or 0:32:46.160 --> 0:32:46.760 anything like that. 0:32:46.880 --> 0:32:49.600 No, it was him, and he said, you know, apparently 0:32:49.640 --> 0:32:52.400 people said he you know, it was a political move 0:32:52.480 --> 0:32:57.520 because he didn't want to alienate Southern Democrats. But either way, 0:32:57.760 --> 0:33:02.760 that was a big fracturing of the relationship between JFK 0:33:02.840 --> 0:33:04.680 and Sammy Davis Junior. He never got over that. 0:33:04.880 --> 0:33:05.680 No, he never did. 0:33:05.720 --> 0:33:08.760 And it was also a moment where Sinatra, who had 0:33:08.800 --> 0:33:13.680 stood up for Sammy Davis Junior multiple countless times against racists, 0:33:13.720 --> 0:33:18.360 against studio heads, against the record company executives, against all 0:33:18.400 --> 0:33:20.200 sorts of people, didn't. 0:33:20.640 --> 0:33:22.080 He did not stand up. 0:33:21.960 --> 0:33:26.760 And argue and try to persuade JFK to change his mind. 0:33:27.080 --> 0:33:29.840 He just quietly went along with it. And I think 0:33:29.960 --> 0:33:33.240 that broke Sammy Davis Junior's part as much as JFK 0:33:33.400 --> 0:33:36.520 betraying him, and probably even more because he expected more 0:33:36.600 --> 0:33:41.120 from from Frank than he did from Kennedy. And the 0:33:41.160 --> 0:33:45.480 other thing about Kennedy rescinding that invitation, Harry Belifani's invitation 0:33:45.680 --> 0:33:48.320 wasn't rescinded, and Harry Belifani was married to a white 0:33:48.320 --> 0:33:51.280 woman and was there with his white wife at this 0:33:51.320 --> 0:33:55.680 inauguration party. So Sammy Davis Junior couldn't help but take 0:33:55.720 --> 0:33:57.120 it personally, and he really did. 0:33:57.360 --> 0:33:59.320 Yeah, it was a big It. 0:33:59.280 --> 0:34:01.160 Was a big deal, a big moment in his life, 0:34:01.200 --> 0:34:03.360 in a very sad moment, and a lot of people 0:34:03.400 --> 0:34:07.880 think that it led to him later on embracing, probably 0:34:07.960 --> 0:34:12.560 ill advisedly, the Nixon campaign in the early seventies. 0:34:12.640 --> 0:34:14.480 That's right, you want to take a break. 0:34:14.400 --> 0:34:15.919 Yeah, let's take a break, and we'll talk a little 0:34:15.920 --> 0:34:17.879 bit about his work in the civil rights movement right 0:34:17.920 --> 0:34:18.120 up to. 0:34:18.120 --> 0:34:21.920 This softly jawsh. 0:34:25.280 --> 0:34:45.279 Sof this cat is interesting, man, right, I don't know 0:34:45.320 --> 0:34:46.640 if everybody's picking up on it. 0:34:46.640 --> 0:34:49.719 Did you know this before? Because this is your pick. 0:34:49.560 --> 0:34:52.200 Right, Yeah, yeah, I've always been pretty fascinated with him 0:34:52.640 --> 0:34:55.040 because we haven't even gotten to the super weird and 0:34:55.080 --> 0:34:59.680 interesting stuff, yeah, right, which happens in the seventies. So 0:35:00.120 --> 0:35:02.759 in the sixties is when, and possibly because of the 0:35:02.840 --> 0:35:05.919 JFK treatment, is when he really starts to get more 0:35:06.360 --> 0:35:10.720 socially aware, starts donating money to the cause, and marches 0:35:11.400 --> 0:35:15.920 at SELMA for the civil rights efforts. He when he 0:35:15.960 --> 0:35:19.799 supported Nixon, it was not just a thumbing of the 0:35:19.880 --> 0:35:23.800 nose at Kennedy, but he bought into Nixon and thought 0:35:23.840 --> 0:35:26.120 that it was going to be a good choice for 0:35:26.200 --> 0:35:30.040 black America. He regretted that later on, of course, but 0:35:30.320 --> 0:35:34.160 it wasn't just a poopy pants move like, hey, well, 0:35:34.239 --> 0:35:37.359 I'm going to support Nixon now because you disinvited. 0:35:36.800 --> 0:35:37.840 Me, exactly. 0:35:37.880 --> 0:35:41.280 And so one of the other reasons that he embraced 0:35:41.360 --> 0:35:44.000 Nixon was that Nixon embraced him as a human being 0:35:44.400 --> 0:35:47.000 and really stood in stark contrast to the treatment he 0:35:47.080 --> 0:35:54.080 received from Kennedy, and in that Nixon actually seemed to 0:35:54.160 --> 0:35:56.919 really like Sammy Davis Junior, that a lot of people 0:35:56.920 --> 0:35:59.439 are like. The Nixon administration was just using Sammy Davis 0:35:59.520 --> 0:36:03.600 Junior at the same time, using what's called the Southern strategy, 0:36:03.640 --> 0:36:06.200 which is they were stoking racism among Southern whites to 0:36:06.200 --> 0:36:10.920 get them to turn on the Democrats. But he also 0:36:10.960 --> 0:36:14.520 apparently really did like Sammy Davis Junior and admired him, 0:36:14.960 --> 0:36:19.560 and under Nixon's administration, it tastes like bitter acid saying this. 0:36:20.239 --> 0:36:23.480 Sammy Davis Junior became the first black person to sleep 0:36:23.520 --> 0:36:27.680 in the Lincoln bedroom, and apparently Sammy Davis Junior was 0:36:27.680 --> 0:36:32.760 an avid Lincoln fan, and sleeping in the Lincoln bedroom 0:36:32.960 --> 0:36:36.360 with some of Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd Lincoln's personal 0:36:36.440 --> 0:36:37.600 effects in. 0:36:37.560 --> 0:36:39.600 This room just blew him away. 0:36:39.760 --> 0:36:40.320 Oh, I'm sure. 0:36:40.760 --> 0:36:42.960 And that was actually how he ended up in Vietnam 0:36:43.080 --> 0:36:46.000 doing this USO tour in nineteen seventy two. He said, 0:36:46.040 --> 0:36:48.080 what can I do to help? And Nixon said that 0:36:48.080 --> 0:36:51.120 would probably that would probably help a lot, But that 0:36:51.719 --> 0:36:57.160 just contributed even further to his alienation from not just 0:36:57.200 --> 0:36:59.840 black people, but young black people too, because it was 0:36:59.880 --> 0:37:02.840 a really tone deaf move as I saw it described 0:37:02.880 --> 0:37:04.799 at the time, that was not the kind of thing 0:37:04.840 --> 0:37:08.160 you did. Vietnam was so unpopular that even the troops 0:37:08.160 --> 0:37:11.799 weren't particularly supported at home. You know, it's not like 0:37:11.840 --> 0:37:15.600 today where it's like, you know, we really really hate this, 0:37:15.880 --> 0:37:17.240 you know, these endless wars. 0:37:17.400 --> 0:37:19.440 This is we really disagree. 0:37:18.960 --> 0:37:22.480 With the you know, the hawks and the military industrial 0:37:22.520 --> 0:37:26.400 complex that supports us. But we're still going to be 0:37:26.520 --> 0:37:28.919 supportive of the troops who have to go there, who 0:37:28.960 --> 0:37:32.080 are over there, whether by their own choice or well, 0:37:32.080 --> 0:37:36.480 I guess it's all volunteer army, they still deserve support 0:37:36.560 --> 0:37:41.040 these individuals over there overseas. That was not necessarily how 0:37:41.080 --> 0:37:43.880 it was during the Vietnam era. So Sammy Davis Junior 0:37:43.960 --> 0:37:47.400 going over there to support the troops after embracing the 0:37:47.520 --> 0:37:49.840 Nixon administration really. 0:37:51.160 --> 0:37:51.640 Furthered. 0:37:51.719 --> 0:37:56.319 This rift between him and the black community, which and 0:37:56.360 --> 0:37:59.680 I don't know if we've really said this enough, was 0:38:00.239 --> 0:38:04.239 fair and unjust because he was a fervent supporter of 0:38:04.280 --> 0:38:08.440 the civil rights movement during the fifties and sixties. Yeah, 0:38:08.800 --> 0:38:12.040 I mean fervent, like he marched in Selma with Martin 0:38:12.080 --> 0:38:15.600 Luther King Junior, Scared to death apparently, but he still 0:38:15.640 --> 0:38:18.399 went and he still did it. He contributed a ton 0:38:18.440 --> 0:38:22.120 of money to the civil rights movement. He was he 0:38:22.239 --> 0:38:26.880 was legit, for sure. But he also was, you know, 0:38:27.160 --> 0:38:31.239 friends with Richard Nixon. So one kind of one kind 0:38:31.239 --> 0:38:32.680 of tarnishes the other, you know. 0:38:33.080 --> 0:38:37.919 For sure. So in the sixties he is blown up. 0:38:38.360 --> 0:38:43.520 He's everywhere. He's on stage, he's recording records, he's on TV, 0:38:43.719 --> 0:38:47.040 he's doing celebrity roast, he's on Broadway, he's writing books, 0:38:47.520 --> 0:38:51.840 he's doing the Gunslinger thing. He's making a lot of 0:38:51.840 --> 0:38:53.840 money at this point and starts spending a lot of 0:38:53.840 --> 0:38:57.399 money because he came from nothing. Like we said, this 0:38:57.480 --> 0:39:00.200 is when the rat pack thing really heats up. And 0:39:00.239 --> 0:39:03.520 he's hanging out with Joey Bishop, Peter Lawfer, Dean Martin 0:39:04.120 --> 0:39:09.520 and of course the Chairman and started their first movie together, 0:39:09.600 --> 0:39:14.839 which was Ocean's Eleven. Not a great movie. Oh disagree, 0:39:15.480 --> 0:39:17.080 I don't. I think the original's not very good. 0:39:17.360 --> 0:39:18.040 Oh I liked it. 0:39:19.000 --> 0:39:22.319 I thought the remake was great, but did not care 0:39:22.360 --> 0:39:23.040 for the original. 0:39:23.360 --> 0:39:26.720 The original. Yeah, hanging seen Robin in the seven Hoods. 0:39:27.120 --> 0:39:29.160 Yeah, also not great. I don't think the Ratpeck ever 0:39:29.200 --> 0:39:31.960 made a great movie. Okay, that's just my opinion. 0:39:32.680 --> 0:39:35.840 What about Time Bandits fantastic? Okay. 0:39:37.239 --> 0:39:40.600 They were hanging out at the Coconut Grove in the 0:39:40.600 --> 0:39:44.160 Ambassador Hotel, which is a place that I have a 0:39:44.200 --> 0:39:47.319 neat little quick story did a commercial shoot there before 0:39:47.320 --> 0:39:49.879 they tore it down. And it was, you know, an 0:39:49.880 --> 0:39:51.680 empty hotel at this point that they just used for 0:39:51.719 --> 0:39:54.400 movie shoots. And it was an overnight thing, and like 0:39:54.800 --> 0:39:57.160 two in the morning, I was working in the art department. 0:39:57.200 --> 0:39:59.399 They said, here, you need to go assemble all these 0:39:59.719 --> 0:40:01.880 flag that we're going to hang. And they said, just 0:40:01.920 --> 0:40:04.120 go in the in the Coconut Grove and do it 0:40:04.680 --> 0:40:06.560 because there's plenty of room in there. And I went 0:40:06.600 --> 0:40:09.960 in there all by myself, sitting in cocaine in the 0:40:09.960 --> 0:40:13.479 the dusty old shadows of what was once the Great 0:40:13.520 --> 0:40:16.920 Coconut Grove, and uh, for like an hour and a 0:40:16.960 --> 0:40:19.560 half by myself, like sitting in a booth that the 0:40:19.600 --> 0:40:20.680 rat Pack might have sat in. 0:40:21.000 --> 0:40:22.799 Wow, that's amazing, really pretty neat. 0:40:22.880 --> 0:40:25.040 And later that night got to go see where Bob 0:40:25.120 --> 0:40:25.839 Kennedy was shot. 0:40:26.920 --> 0:40:29.839 Oh, that's where he was shot Yeah in the Ambassador Hotel. 0:40:30.040 --> 0:40:31.640 Yeah, in the kitchen, and one of the got the 0:40:31.680 --> 0:40:34.320 overnight security guy. It was just sort of one of 0:40:34.320 --> 0:40:36.319 those slow shoots. He was like to me and my friend, 0:40:36.360 --> 0:40:37.640 He's like, you want to go down in the kitchen. 0:40:37.680 --> 0:40:39.879 It's where it happened. And we went, oh yeah, wow, 0:40:39.920 --> 0:40:42.160 that's amazing. It was super cool and creepy. 0:40:42.360 --> 0:40:44.720 Wow. So anyway, great story. 0:40:44.800 --> 0:40:49.879 Charge they're hanging out with the rat Pack, and this 0:40:49.920 --> 0:40:52.319 is where it gets a little like dodgy because the 0:40:52.400 --> 0:40:55.520 rat Pack they were all best buds. They genuinely loved 0:40:55.520 --> 0:40:58.080 each other. But when you look at their old stick, 0:40:58.239 --> 0:41:03.720 there is a lot of sort of racial joking about Sammy. 0:41:05.000 --> 0:41:07.760 It's all in good fun, but there were often jokes 0:41:07.800 --> 0:41:10.800 made about him being black, being the only black member. 0:41:11.520 --> 0:41:14.280 Dean Martin one of his famous jokes was he would 0:41:14.800 --> 0:41:16.960 pick little Sammy up on stage because Dean was a 0:41:16.960 --> 0:41:21.000 big guy and Sammy was small and thank the audience 0:41:21.400 --> 0:41:25.480 for the n double ACP Award. So stuff like that. 0:41:26.160 --> 0:41:29.480 So in that documentary, and I'm not like justifying that 0:41:29.560 --> 0:41:31.640 at all, but in that documentary, what p be Goldberg 0:41:31.760 --> 0:41:34.080 is like, you know, you can you could take any 0:41:34.320 --> 0:41:37.800 segment of their show and be like this was really offensive. 0:41:37.800 --> 0:41:43.440 Sure Italians or alcoholics, or women, or black people or Jews, 0:41:43.600 --> 0:41:47.040 and she said they went hard on everybody. But from 0:41:47.080 --> 0:41:49.680 what I understand, at least as far as Sammy was concerned, 0:41:49.680 --> 0:41:53.759 he wasn't secretly didn't secretly have a chip on his 0:41:53.800 --> 0:41:55.359 shoulder and he had to just put up with this 0:41:55.400 --> 0:41:57.120 to be a member of the rat pack. He seemed 0:41:57.120 --> 0:42:00.439 to really not like he didn't take it as if 0:42:00.440 --> 0:42:05.840 they were being hostile or cruel, that it was just 0:42:05.880 --> 0:42:07.759 part of the act and that's how he took it. 0:42:08.200 --> 0:42:10.680 Yeah, I mean it was certainly a different time. I 0:42:10.680 --> 0:42:13.080 mean there was for sure no doubting about it that 0:42:13.120 --> 0:42:14.759 back then you could make jokes about all kinds of 0:42:14.800 --> 0:42:16.000 things that you can't joke about now. 0:42:16.400 --> 0:42:19.000 Yeah, And it's like, it's not like I used to 0:42:19.000 --> 0:42:21.160 hang out with Sammy Davis Junior and had like quiet 0:42:21.200 --> 0:42:23.279 talks with him or whatever. So it is possible that 0:42:23.400 --> 0:42:25.879 he did, you know, harbor resentment from it, but that's 0:42:25.920 --> 0:42:28.279 not the impresson that I have from the research. 0:42:27.960 --> 0:42:28.759 That I've done. 0:42:29.000 --> 0:42:30.239 Let me tell you, Josh. 0:42:30.320 --> 0:42:32.719 Right, But apparently no one did, because this is a 0:42:32.760 --> 0:42:37.560 really bizarre thing about him when he was talking about 0:42:37.560 --> 0:42:40.480 converting to Judaism. I think in like a nineteen sixty 0:42:40.520 --> 0:42:45.319 six Playboy interview he was talking about losing his eye 0:42:45.320 --> 0:42:47.520 and then you know, converting to Judaism, and that it 0:42:47.600 --> 0:42:50.120 happened during a period of soul searching, and that he 0:42:50.200 --> 0:42:51.960 did all this and went through all this even though 0:42:51.960 --> 0:42:55.360 he was convalescing at Frank Sinatra's house, even though apparently 0:42:55.440 --> 0:42:58.160 Jerry Lewis spent seven days at his bedside when he 0:42:58.200 --> 0:43:00.880 was in the hospital, had all these tele Graham's coming in, 0:43:01.000 --> 0:43:05.120 all this outpouring of support. He considered himself alone and 0:43:05.120 --> 0:43:08.000 that he was a loaner, and that that was that's 0:43:08.080 --> 0:43:10.640 really bizarre when you step back and look at that, 0:43:10.719 --> 0:43:14.000 because Sammy Davis Junior always had friends. He was always 0:43:14.040 --> 0:43:15.839 the life of the party. He was always a good guy. 0:43:15.880 --> 0:43:19.560 Everybody wanted to be around him. He was always having fun. 0:43:19.960 --> 0:43:22.840 But he considered himself a loner. And apparently he didn't 0:43:22.960 --> 0:43:25.760 let people in. So even if I had been hanging 0:43:25.760 --> 0:43:28.400 around with him, he probably wouldn't have had that conversation 0:43:28.560 --> 0:43:28.880 with me. 0:43:28.960 --> 0:43:31.200 Anyway, Like, Sammy, I don't feel like I know they're real. 0:43:31.280 --> 0:43:33.040 You come on, Sammy, let. 0:43:32.920 --> 0:43:36.360 It, and he said, that's by design, babe. 0:43:36.920 --> 0:43:39.280 I feel like I'm tripping or something right now. 0:43:40.400 --> 0:43:44.479 So his career is booming in the sixties and into 0:43:44.480 --> 0:43:47.919 the seventies, and the result of that, of course, well 0:43:47.920 --> 0:43:50.560 through the sixties I guess, is that he's not around much. 0:43:51.000 --> 0:43:53.880 He had a lot of regrets about not being around 0:43:53.880 --> 0:43:57.680 as a father, as a husband. He was flandering, he 0:43:57.800 --> 0:44:00.960 was drinking a lot, he was using drugs. So in 0:44:01.040 --> 0:44:04.759 nineteen sixty eight he got divorced. In nineteen seventy, he 0:44:04.840 --> 0:44:08.920 married a woman named Altaviz Gore who was eighteen years 0:44:08.920 --> 0:44:12.400 his junior. Great name, backup dancer. His children did not 0:44:12.640 --> 0:44:15.480 like the fact that she was so much younger, but 0:44:15.520 --> 0:44:17.480 they were stayed married, you know, for the rest of 0:44:17.520 --> 0:44:17.919 his life. 0:44:18.440 --> 0:44:18.720 Yeah. 0:44:18.760 --> 0:44:20.719 He was like, oh, if you got a problem with her, 0:44:20.800 --> 0:44:23.239 you should probably not know about everything else I'm doing. 0:44:24.080 --> 0:44:28.520 Yeah, So here's where it gets really interesting, very interesting. 0:44:28.600 --> 0:44:33.440 Sammy Davis Junior had a convergence of two interests. In 0:44:33.480 --> 0:44:37.880 the seventies. He became a member of the Church of Satan. 0:44:38.680 --> 0:44:40.800 He was an honorary warlock. 0:44:40.760 --> 0:44:49.120 And he got really really into porn and porn you know, 0:44:49.200 --> 0:44:51.520 there's no better way to say it than he was 0:44:51.560 --> 0:44:56.120 a swinger. He was in orgies. He participated in Satanic orgies. 0:44:56.200 --> 0:44:58.640 Right, yeah, that was actually I don't know if it 0:44:58.680 --> 0:45:00.279 was his first orgy or not, but that that's how 0:45:00.280 --> 0:45:03.560 he became a part of involved in the Church of Satan, 0:45:03.920 --> 0:45:06.320 you know, like the original Church of Satan with Anton 0:45:06.440 --> 0:45:08.080 Levey there and everything. 0:45:08.920 --> 0:45:12.320 Like the real good, like right back with Golden Ears 0:45:12.320 --> 0:45:13.640 of Church of Satan exactly. 0:45:15.200 --> 0:45:18.880 He went and participated in a Satanic orgy. 0:45:20.280 --> 0:45:22.200 Sammy Davis Junior, which I think is like. 0:45:22.160 --> 0:45:25.640 A regular orgy, but with just more like red candles. 0:45:25.360 --> 0:45:27.960 Yeah, and pentagrams and black robes and stuff like that. 0:45:28.000 --> 0:45:29.799 But then the black robes come off, but I think 0:45:29.840 --> 0:45:33.520 the pentagrams stay on. But he I read this really 0:45:33.600 --> 0:45:38.160 interesting Vice article about it, and he was apparently at 0:45:38.160 --> 0:45:40.920 the first one, and this would have been in the 0:45:41.000 --> 0:45:44.600 late sixties, and somebody in a hood is trying to 0:45:44.600 --> 0:45:47.640 get his attention, and it turns out he lifts the 0:45:47.680 --> 0:45:49.840 hood and it's his barber is Barbara J. S. 0:45:50.040 --> 0:45:50.239 Bring. 0:45:50.520 --> 0:45:54.719 He would later be killed with Sharon Tate by the 0:45:54.760 --> 0:45:57.399 Manson family. But he was basically like, hey, Sam, it's 0:45:57.480 --> 0:45:58.840 me Jay, how are you doing. 0:45:59.160 --> 0:46:01.719 In this awesome, and then they went back to They're 0:46:01.760 --> 0:46:02.520 coming Yeah. 0:46:04.200 --> 0:46:06.719 Yeah, but he yeah, he was hugely in the in 0:46:06.760 --> 0:46:08.960 the pornography he was and the Orgies into swinging. 0:46:09.000 --> 0:46:13.320 He was. He loved cocaine and loved drinking. 0:46:13.360 --> 0:46:17.560 I saw our Sineo interview with him, must have been 0:46:17.640 --> 0:46:19.360 very shortly before his death, where he's like, you know, 0:46:19.400 --> 0:46:21.640 I had to give everything up, uh, and I don't 0:46:21.640 --> 0:46:23.360 miss all the other stuff, but I miss booze, I 0:46:23.400 --> 0:46:24.760 miss whiskey, I miss wodka. 0:46:24.800 --> 0:46:26.080 I love that stuff. 0:46:26.640 --> 0:46:30.920 But then I also saw another interview where he basically 0:46:30.960 --> 0:46:33.000 said the same thing to Larry King, like I've given 0:46:33.040 --> 0:46:35.000 everything up, I don't smoke anymore, or anything like that. 0:46:35.120 --> 0:46:38.880 And then somebody went backstage and there's Sammy Davis Junior 0:46:38.920 --> 0:46:42.360 smoking a cigarette, drinking a brand and he goes, Sammy, 0:46:42.400 --> 0:46:45.319 what are you doing. You just told Larry King that 0:46:45.320 --> 0:46:47.480 he gave all this up. He's like, I'm I plan to. 0:46:49.320 --> 0:46:51.360 So who knows what he actually gave up or didn't do, 0:46:51.440 --> 0:46:56.320 but his whole jam was I want to experience every 0:46:56.640 --> 0:46:59.480 possible human experience I can, and I approach all this 0:46:59.480 --> 0:47:01.839 stuff without judgment. Yeah, which is how he ended up 0:47:01.840 --> 0:47:03.839 becoming involved in the Church of Satan, which went. 0:47:03.760 --> 0:47:06.680 On, yeah, no judgment here. If that's his bag, it's 0:47:06.719 --> 0:47:10.560 not hurting anybody. Did you see the one quote about 0:47:10.600 --> 0:47:13.239 the the ritual with the lady who was tied to 0:47:13.280 --> 0:47:13.840 the bed. 0:47:15.560 --> 0:47:17.400 Where he decided like it was okay. 0:47:18.040 --> 0:47:19.839 Yeah, he was talking about it and he was like 0:47:20.360 --> 0:47:24.520 that chick was loving it. Man, Right, Well, I won't 0:47:24.520 --> 0:47:26.719 say the rest of the quote, but do you. 0:47:26.760 --> 0:47:29.720 Remember, Yeah, I remember, I remember. 0:47:29.840 --> 0:47:33.759 So all of this led to what we were talking 0:47:33.760 --> 0:47:38.319 about earlier. This this TV pilot that is legendary in 0:47:38.360 --> 0:47:43.320 Hollywood as one of the weirdest, worst things that Hollywood 0:47:43.320 --> 0:47:45.719 has ever produced. And it was a pilot for a 0:47:45.800 --> 0:47:49.040 TV show in nineteen seventy three called Poor Devil, which 0:47:49.120 --> 0:47:53.319 was about a man who was a load load down 0:47:53.440 --> 0:47:55.239 on the totem pole or I guess high on. 0:47:55.200 --> 0:47:55.879 The totem pole. 0:47:56.120 --> 0:48:01.440 Sure, Cole shoveler in Hell, who has offered the chance 0:48:01.480 --> 0:48:04.319 to work his way up the ranks in Hell if 0:48:04.320 --> 0:48:08.440 he can get the soul of Jack Klugman, a living 0:48:08.440 --> 0:48:09.120 white man on. 0:48:09.120 --> 0:48:11.520 Earth, right, Jack Klugman, Quincy, MD. 0:48:12.200 --> 0:48:15.800 Yeah, And it is on YouTube, and dude, it is amazing. 0:48:16.280 --> 0:48:18.120 I have not had a chance to see it. I 0:48:18.120 --> 0:48:21.319 can't wait to see it, but it sounds amazing. I 0:48:21.360 --> 0:48:25.000 saw it described as like he's a reverse Clearance from 0:48:25.320 --> 0:48:28.680 It's a Wonderful Life, which you wouldn't possibly understand that. Yeah, sure, 0:48:28.680 --> 0:48:32.520 but just imagine that somebody's not trying to get you 0:48:32.560 --> 0:48:35.000 to be good so that they can or understand how 0:48:35.040 --> 0:48:38.520 great life is. He's trying to get him to follow 0:48:38.560 --> 0:48:42.440 his most bitter revenge impulses and stuff like that. But 0:48:42.520 --> 0:48:46.239 at one point, apparently Jack Klugman wants to get in 0:48:46.280 --> 0:48:49.279 touch with Sammy Davis Junior the Devil, and is like, oh, 0:48:49.320 --> 0:48:51.560 I know, I'll call the Church of Satan downtown. They'll 0:48:51.560 --> 0:48:53.160 know how to get in touch with them. And the 0:48:53.280 --> 0:48:57.320 Church of Satan went because apparently the pilot was aired 0:48:57.360 --> 0:48:59.640 and they were all about Sammy d At this point, 0:49:00.239 --> 0:49:01.719 they made him an honorary war law. 0:49:01.880 --> 0:49:03.680 Yeah. 0:49:03.760 --> 0:49:05.959 He used to flash like the devil horns at them 0:49:06.000 --> 0:49:08.920 from stage when he would love San. 0:49:08.760 --> 0:49:13.040 Francisco, honey. Yeah. Christopher Lee, by the way, played the Devil, 0:49:13.760 --> 0:49:17.000 which is pretty on the noes but perfect. Yeah, so 0:49:17.600 --> 0:49:21.080 that doesn't succeed, obviously, it's terrible. The seventies and the 0:49:21.080 --> 0:49:23.600 eighties his star starts to fade a little bit. He's 0:49:23.600 --> 0:49:25.319 still around. Of course, he was on All in the 0:49:25.320 --> 0:49:28.680 Family in a very famous episode where he kissed Archie 0:49:28.680 --> 0:49:33.600 Bunker on the lips. He was we have to talk 0:49:34.160 --> 0:49:36.160 about the great great Cannonball Run. 0:49:37.280 --> 0:49:38.640 Oh yeah, he was in that, wasn't he. 0:49:38.880 --> 0:49:41.279 Man? He and Dean were for partners. They played I 0:49:41.400 --> 0:49:45.120 forgot about. They dressed up as priests, that's right, heavily drinking, 0:49:45.200 --> 0:49:49.080 smoking priests. They played themselves basically as priests who wanted 0:49:49.120 --> 0:49:49.800 to drive fast. 0:49:50.040 --> 0:49:50.799 That's pretty great. 0:49:51.280 --> 0:49:54.360 But you know, even though we revere that film, I 0:49:54.360 --> 0:49:57.120 don't think it was looked at generally as one of 0:49:57.160 --> 0:49:58.440 the big highlights of his career. 0:49:59.160 --> 0:50:01.799 Oh I'm sure not. By this time. He's kitchy Sammy. 0:50:02.560 --> 0:50:04.560 From what I understand, like he was fine with that 0:50:04.760 --> 0:50:06.640 as long as he was working. 0:50:07.120 --> 0:50:07.800 He was okay. 0:50:07.840 --> 0:50:10.280 Because I said earlier that like he had a certain 0:50:11.080 --> 0:50:15.440 affiliation with that song Mister Bojangles. Yes where if you 0:50:15.480 --> 0:50:18.399 listen to it, it's about an old performer who's washed 0:50:18.480 --> 0:50:20.719 up and has been washed up for years, and he's 0:50:20.760 --> 0:50:24.000 still drinking and just doing you know, he's been reduced 0:50:24.040 --> 0:50:28.440 to doing basically sidewalk performances, and apparently Sammy was scared 0:50:28.760 --> 0:50:32.640 to death about that being his future. So even just 0:50:32.880 --> 0:50:35.359 doing what he was doing with Dean and Cannonball Run, 0:50:35.360 --> 0:50:37.440 I'm sure it was just fine in his in his 0:50:37.960 --> 0:50:40.360 mind because he was still working and performing. 0:50:41.520 --> 0:50:44.120 Of course, he looks around and there's there's Burt Man, 0:50:44.160 --> 0:50:45.280 there's Adrian Barbo. 0:50:48.080 --> 0:50:48.120 Was. 0:50:49.400 --> 0:50:50.759 You're digging the Sammy now, aren't you. 0:50:50.960 --> 0:50:53.560 Yes, Sude, I think Sammy needs to be a recurring 0:50:53.640 --> 0:50:54.680 character from now on. 0:50:54.840 --> 0:50:58.680 In episode We'll see, We'll see, okay, the new hippie rob. 0:50:59.480 --> 0:51:03.040 So in the eighties, he gets into some financial trouble, 0:51:03.360 --> 0:51:06.359 to say the least, because I love how I had 0:51:06.360 --> 0:51:09.200 put it. He'd been struggling with tax payments since the 0:51:09.280 --> 0:51:12.279 nineteen sixties. I think it was a Willie Nelson sort 0:51:12.320 --> 0:51:15.399 of deal from what I could gather. Oh yeah, yeah, 0:51:15.400 --> 0:51:17.320 I mean I think he wasn't really paying his taxes. 0:51:17.640 --> 0:51:20.359 Sure, sure, And apparently he'd also I don't know if 0:51:20.360 --> 0:51:22.640 he got bad tax advice or what, but he had 0:51:22.920 --> 0:51:26.320 claimed some very extravagant stuff as a write off, and 0:51:26.440 --> 0:51:29.400 the IRS came back and said, Nope, that doesn't count. 0:51:29.640 --> 0:51:32.919 You also owe on that. And his estate was worth 0:51:33.000 --> 0:51:36.640 or his net assets were worth about four million, but 0:51:36.719 --> 0:51:39.799 he owed about seven million cheese. And he was a 0:51:39.960 --> 0:51:44.399 profligate spender of money. I saw one interview once where 0:51:44.400 --> 0:51:47.000 a guy said that he walked six blocks. 0:51:46.600 --> 0:51:47.560 In New York with them. 0:51:47.680 --> 0:51:49.719 He even named the streets, So it seems like he 0:51:49.760 --> 0:51:52.680 really did just walk six blocks and dropped fifty thousand 0:51:52.719 --> 0:51:55.160 dollars along the way, stopping in different stores. 0:51:55.239 --> 0:51:57.080 I thought, you dropped that out of his pocket on 0:51:57.120 --> 0:51:57.439 the street. 0:51:57.440 --> 0:52:00.359 No, no buying stuff, just buy by buy. 0:52:00.440 --> 0:52:02.160 He had to spend it because he had come from 0:52:02.239 --> 0:52:05.640 nothing and he knew, you know, that thrill of spending money. 0:52:05.840 --> 0:52:09.960 He was terrible with his money, and so he as 0:52:09.960 --> 0:52:12.080 he found out he owed seven million dollars, he started 0:52:12.120 --> 0:52:16.080 to organize some shows and specials to try to raise 0:52:16.080 --> 0:52:19.040 some money to help him pay off this debt. And 0:52:19.120 --> 0:52:21.399 after the first one, I think in nineteen eighty nine, 0:52:21.800 --> 0:52:24.040 he found that he had a sore throat, so he 0:52:24.080 --> 0:52:27.880 went to the doctor and ultimately was diagnosed with throat cancer. 0:52:28.080 --> 0:52:31.760 Yeah, after that very first show, that's like such cruel 0:52:31.760 --> 0:52:35.120 irony to raise all this money. Because when he passed 0:52:35.160 --> 0:52:40.960 away in nineteen ninety in May sixteenth of cancer, he 0:52:41.360 --> 0:52:45.319 left that tax bill to his wife like that that 0:52:45.440 --> 0:52:51.000 carried over, yeah, Altavius. Yeah, so that really left her 0:52:51.080 --> 0:52:52.960 kind of destitute for the rest of her life as well. 0:52:53.040 --> 0:52:54.160 Oh yeah, for sure. 0:52:55.200 --> 0:52:58.400 I mean like she then she basically owed three million 0:52:58.400 --> 0:53:01.279 dollars and his estate was sold off like basically at 0:53:01.320 --> 0:53:07.360 a yard sale auction. All of his stuff was And yeah, 0:53:06.600 --> 0:53:11.680 that was the negative part of his legacy, was that 0:53:11.880 --> 0:53:13.600 text at leaving that behind. 0:53:13.800 --> 0:53:16.600 Yeah, and you know, in one way, it's like kind 0:53:16.600 --> 0:53:20.320 of a sad ending with the financial stuff and obviously 0:53:20.680 --> 0:53:22.040 dying way too young of cancer. 0:53:22.080 --> 0:53:24.480 But yeah, sixty five man, he did. 0:53:24.320 --> 0:53:27.960 Accomplish everything he set out to accomplish. He showed everybody 0:53:28.400 --> 0:53:33.440 who said this diminutive, little mixed race, kind of funny 0:53:33.440 --> 0:53:36.600 looking guy is never going to amount to anything. And 0:53:36.680 --> 0:53:39.000 he had a lifelong career from the age of three 0:53:39.120 --> 0:53:41.400 to sixty five in show business. 0:53:42.000 --> 0:53:43.759 And one of the things Chuck is he did not 0:53:44.000 --> 0:53:47.960 really harbor regret. He apparently whenever he talked about his life, 0:53:48.520 --> 0:53:52.279 he talked about it with great satisfaction, which is pretty reassuring. 0:53:52.360 --> 0:53:55.240 Yeah, that quote on that Letterman show was great. Yeah, 0:53:55.239 --> 0:53:58.280 on the eighty five episode, he's talking about the younger generation, 0:53:59.080 --> 0:54:01.320 and he said, I look at the young performers today 0:54:01.320 --> 0:54:04.120 and I go like this, Yeah, man, go ahead, cook, 0:54:05.200 --> 0:54:07.600 I've been there. That's it man, I have no envy. 0:54:07.680 --> 0:54:11.240 I did it all. Yeah, pretty great, Go ahead, cook, 0:54:11.600 --> 0:54:12.160 that's great. 0:54:12.880 --> 0:54:17.640 Sammy Davis Junior. Everybody, round of applause. You got anything else? 0:54:17.680 --> 0:54:18.319 Got nothing else? 0:54:18.640 --> 0:54:20.359 If you want to know more about Sammy Davis Junior, 0:54:20.480 --> 0:54:22.160 just start watching some of his old performances. 0:54:22.200 --> 0:54:23.880 They're pretty amazing. Uh. 0:54:23.920 --> 0:54:26.359 And while you're doing that, we're going to just move 0:54:26.400 --> 0:54:27.759 on ahead to listener mail. 0:54:30.160 --> 0:54:31.480 Yeah, this is about the nine to one to one 0:54:31.560 --> 0:54:34.440 pizza thing. We heard from a lot of uh nine 0:54:34.080 --> 0:54:34.760 one one people. 0:54:35.000 --> 0:54:37.319 Yeah, I'm glad that you you picked one of these men. 0:54:37.400 --> 0:54:37.799 This is good. 0:54:38.320 --> 0:54:41.520 Hey, while we are not specifically trained, just send ems 0:54:41.560 --> 0:54:44.399 to calls where people pretend to order a pizza. Most 0:54:44.480 --> 0:54:48.440 nine one one dispatchers will in fact ask you, this 0:54:48.480 --> 0:54:50.600 is nine one one? Did you dial the wrong number? 0:54:51.040 --> 0:54:54.000 And if they respond no, we will then say are 0:54:54.000 --> 0:54:56.120 you in a situation where you can't ask for help? 0:54:56.680 --> 0:54:59.400 And then they can say yes or no. Obviously, there 0:54:59.400 --> 0:55:01.600 are many stories of this working out. Most in domestic 0:55:01.640 --> 0:55:04.480 violence are kidnapping situations. So even though it is a 0:55:04.600 --> 0:55:07.200 protocol necessarily or set in stone as a way to 0:55:07.239 --> 0:55:10.200 ask for help, it could help many people in bad situations. 0:55:10.600 --> 0:55:13.560 We will not just hang up on you. Even if 0:55:13.600 --> 0:55:16.920 you keep ordering a pizza and do not acknowledge that 0:55:16.960 --> 0:55:19.840 you need help. Most will still send out law enforcement 0:55:19.840 --> 0:55:22.279 for a welfare check due to the suspicious nature of 0:55:22.280 --> 0:55:22.600 the call. 0:55:23.040 --> 0:55:23.920 I'm glad to hear this. 0:55:24.000 --> 0:55:25.879 Yeah, please let this be known because in a last 0:55:25.920 --> 0:55:27.480 ditch effort, this may save someone's life. 0:55:27.560 --> 0:55:28.600 And that yeah is. 0:55:28.560 --> 0:55:30.719 From responder Brooke Diane. 0:55:31.280 --> 0:55:35.200 Thanks Brooke, and thank you also not for being like Josh. 0:55:34.960 --> 0:55:37.000 Was wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong. 0:55:37.040 --> 0:55:38.760 Oh I don't remember did you say that's not true? 0:55:38.960 --> 0:55:41.320 Yeah, I said specifically it's an urban legend. 0:55:41.840 --> 0:55:43.160 Oh okay, I don't even remember that. 0:55:43.400 --> 0:55:43.640 Yeah. 0:55:43.640 --> 0:55:45.560 So I was really glad when people started writing I'm 0:55:45.560 --> 0:55:47.200 glad you picked one to say like, no. 0:55:47.200 --> 0:55:48.759 This is this is for real. 0:55:49.000 --> 0:55:53.160 Okay, great, thanks again, Brooke. That was fantastic. If you 0:55:53.200 --> 0:55:54.959 want to get in touch with this like Brooke did. 0:55:55.040 --> 0:55:56.959 Even if you do want to say Josh was wrong 0:55:57.040 --> 0:55:59.800 wrong wrong, wrong, wrong, that's all right, we'd love to 0:55:59.800 --> 0:56:02.239 hear that kind of thing. You can send us an 0:56:02.280 --> 0:56:08.439 email to stuff podcast at iHeartRadio dot com. 0:56:08.600 --> 0:56:11.480 Stuff you Should Know is a production of iHeartRadio. For 0:56:11.560 --> 0:56:15.759 more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, 0:56:15.840 --> 0:56:17.680 or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.