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Speaker 1: Hey everybody, Hey, hey, hey, welcome back to the show.

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Speaker 1: I'm so glad to have you. As always, of course,

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Speaker 1: in another great episode today about some very interesting people,

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Speaker 1: very old old Hollywood. I mean, you know, there's not

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Speaker 1: a of a more glamorous and GLITZI fascinating point in history,

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Speaker 1: filled with the most horrible people and most succeeding a

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Speaker 1: god boy. It really just like the way the Mob

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Speaker 1: got in there, and the way all these business guys

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Speaker 1: are just like, if I got enough money, I could

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Speaker 1: do whatever I want. They weren't wrong. Sadly, it's different

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Speaker 1: now though, I feel like, you know, like Hugh Jackman

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Speaker 1: is not in with the Mob. I don't think I

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Speaker 1: doubt it. He seems like that would be that would

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Speaker 1: be a weird I don't think a weird one as

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Speaker 1: crazy as Jared leto is. I don't think he's actually

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Speaker 1: got any bodies in his basement. I guess Jared let

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Speaker 1: name for that one. But Seth Rogan, Yeah, it probably

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Speaker 1: doesn't have any bodies in his basement. What's he doing

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Speaker 1: problematic besides making weed expensive? Yeah, well there's that. Any

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Speaker 1: day now he'll come out with like some classy black

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Speaker 1: light posters or something. It'll be great. I'll buy one. Well,

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Speaker 1: um boy, how's it going, how's the world? How's everybody

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Speaker 1: doing out there? It's holiday season. It's the holiday season

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Speaker 1: comes this time each year. Thank you Beach Boys, it

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Speaker 1: sure does. Thank you for being our calendar. The music

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Speaker 1: is playing, the lights are out, the halls are decked,

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Speaker 1: the trees are the dazzled. Whatever it is, what do

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Speaker 1: you call it? Trimmed the trim a tree. It's so

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Speaker 1: weird to me. Trimming the tree. I always thought meant,

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Speaker 1: you know, you like snip all the branches to make

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Speaker 1: them the same length. Well maybe that was what it was.

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Speaker 1: And they just included decorating in that, in that old

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Speaker 1: you know, because they were like, you gotta trim the tree,

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Speaker 1: and then they're like, and we decorate it. So anyway,

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Speaker 1: we're trimming the tree tonight, and it's like all part

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Speaker 1: of it's all part of it. I grew up. I

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Speaker 1: was telling you this earlier, But I grew up. Um.

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Speaker 1: My parents had a lot of friends who were Quaker

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Speaker 1: and lead very rustic lifestyles, very very of the earth,

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Speaker 1: very cottage core, very cottage core, um legit. And I

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Speaker 1: remember my parents had friends who had a Christmas tree

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Speaker 1: that had full on candles hanging on it, like with

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Speaker 1: little paper sleeves around them, little light skinny candles all

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Speaker 1: over the tree. Fire would all there together. I mean

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Speaker 1: that makes weak, It sounds insane. I mean, why would

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Speaker 1: you put candles on I know, pine what it has

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Speaker 1: a lot of SAPs, so maybe it doesn't catch the

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Speaker 1: same way. I'm totally yeah, I have no idea what

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Speaker 1: I mean. You know, it wasn't recklessly just thrown up there.

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Speaker 1: You'd be careful about where you put them and stuff.

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Speaker 1: But I remember hanging candles on that tree. I'm just

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Speaker 1: like the wood stove, you know, Oh my god, Oh yeah,

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Speaker 1: that's how this house was warmed, was with an iron

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Speaker 1: wood stove. I mean again, I'd probably put the tree

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Speaker 1: like far away from the sto if it were me,

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Speaker 1: But nothing was far away from it. Wasn't that big

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Speaker 1: of a house, small house. That's why a wood stove

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Speaker 1: was able to eat it all. Right, Well, before we

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Speaker 1: get started on today's episode, we do have some housekeeping

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Speaker 1: to take care of. You know, there comes a point

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Speaker 1: in every podcast's life where maybe you said something wrong

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Speaker 1: and you need to get corrected on it. So we

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Speaker 1: are going to go back, back, back, back back, all

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Speaker 1: the way to our second episode ever for this edition

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Speaker 1: of Corrections Corner. You're such a loser. Yes, we're back

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Speaker 1: with the Berlin Wall. We got an email from Sala

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Speaker 1: who says, hey, guys, I just had to write in

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Speaker 1: because you pronounced the name Rita all wrong. Oh no,

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Speaker 1: many times constantly in that episode. It's the title, and

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Speaker 1: we say her name a lot lipsy. She says, Finnish

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Speaker 1: words are pronounced just as they are written. Here's a

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Speaker 1: recording of how it said correctly. You can repeat after me.

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Speaker 1: So we've been saying a writa and we should have

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Speaker 1: been saying ataata okay um. Thank you for sending that.

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Speaker 1: I'm glad to know that the correct pronunciation of this name. However,

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Speaker 1: it must be said when you say finished. Names are

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Speaker 1: pronounced just like they're spelled to us. That means j

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Speaker 1: which to me. But it's important to remember, right They say, yeah,

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Speaker 1: but they pronounced it why So for them it is

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Speaker 1: pronounced the way it's written, how it's it's pronounced, how

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Speaker 1: it's spelled old is going to mean something different people

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Speaker 1: all over the world. But thank you for sending that in.

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Speaker 1: That was very good to know they do. Wrap it up,

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Speaker 1: love your show, keep up the good work, stay safe,

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Speaker 1: Thank you, thank you, Solo. That was that's very good

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Speaker 1: to know. I hope we're pronouncing solos well two ls.

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Speaker 1: It could be like in Spanish or who knows, and

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Speaker 1: finish it could be maybe that's where their j sounds wrong.

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Speaker 1: I'm going to go with how it's spelled and assume

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Speaker 1: that it's sala. Thank you for that correction. Very important.

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Speaker 1: We like to get our names right, It's sure, that's true.

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Speaker 1: Sometimes you get you know, way more concerned obviously about

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Speaker 1: the non Western names. You know, if we're we're in

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Speaker 1: Thailand or China or in Africa somewhere, it's like really like,

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Speaker 1: we're very concerned, like this is this is gonna be

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Speaker 1: tough for us to say, and then we end up

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Speaker 1: screwing it up for the Germans or something like girly

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Speaker 1: gets somebody from Wisconsin. We now, no, it's pronounced like

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Speaker 1: it's spelled throat, wobbler, mangrove. All your money Python fans

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Speaker 1: out there, well, Fortunately, today our episode is about two

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Speaker 1: names that we all know how to say, because today

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Speaker 1: we are talking about Sammy Davis Jr. And Kim Novak

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Speaker 1: in ninety seven. Sammy Davis Jr. Was already well on

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Speaker 1: his way to becoming one of the most popular and

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Speaker 1: beloved entertainers in America. But even though the nation adored

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Speaker 1: his singing, dancing, and acting, they couldnot handle it when

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Speaker 1: Sammy's name was linked with white leading lady Kim Novak.

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Speaker 1: It led to hate mail, death threats from the mafia,

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Speaker 1: a sham marriage so much more Shenanigan's until America finally

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Speaker 1: got its shipped together and made interracial marriage legal in

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Speaker 1: all fifty states with the Supreme Court decision Loving v. Virginia.

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Speaker 1: So let's hear all about Sammy Davis Jr. And Kim

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Speaker 1: no Back and how their affair changed both their lives

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Speaker 1: and the country. Let's go, hey their French come listen well,

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Speaker 1: Elia and Diana got some stories to tell. There's no

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Speaker 1: matchmaking a romantic tips. It's just about ridiculous relationships, a lover.

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Speaker 1: It might be any type of person at all, and

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Speaker 1: abstract concept or a concrete wall. But if there's a

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Speaker 1: story with the second glance, ridiculous roles the production of

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Speaker 1: I Heeart Radio. We had several sources for this story.

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Speaker 1: As usual, but a lot of this comes from a

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Speaker 1: great article by Sam Kashner in Vanity Fair called The

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Speaker 1: Color of Love, So shout out to Sam for a

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Speaker 1: great story. Sam Job. Sammy Davis Jr. Basically began his

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Speaker 1: life on stage. By the time he was three, he

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Speaker 1: was touring with his Bodeville dancer father, Sammy Davis Jr.

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Speaker 1: And his partner Will Maston, who they called Sammy Jr's uncle,

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Speaker 1: and they were on the road for all of Sammy's

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Speaker 1: childhood as the Will Maston Trio. Now, it's hard to

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Speaker 1: discuss anything about anyone black in America without also talking

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Speaker 1: about what it was like to be black in America

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Speaker 1: at the time that they were alive. Sammy Davis Jr.

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Speaker 1: And his father and uncle Were touring America from the

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Speaker 1: nineteen thirties through the nineteen sixties, so big surprise, they

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Speaker 1: encountered a lot of terrible racism and discrimination during that

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Speaker 1: entire time. Most of the clubs they played were segregated.

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Speaker 1: So while they were on stage, the Wilmasson Treo was

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Speaker 1: very beloved and exciting. People really liked them, but as

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Speaker 1: soon as the music stopped, they were just some black

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Speaker 1: people who were not even allowed to be inside the

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Speaker 1: building and being on tour since the age of three

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Speaker 1: also meant that Sammy Jr. Never got a formal education, like,

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Speaker 1: for example, he was a voracious reader, but he never

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Speaker 1: really learned how to write. He could sign his name,

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Speaker 1: but now much else, and he often refused to personalize

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Speaker 1: autographs because he was so embarrassed at his own ability

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Speaker 1: to spell. But he ate and slept and breathed show business.

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Speaker 1: That was his whole thing. Yeah. Bert Boyer, who wrote

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Speaker 1: an essential newspaper column called Bowyer's Broadway, became a very

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Speaker 1: close friend of Sammy's and he said that Sammy was

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Speaker 1: quote an entertainment genius. He just understood everything about show business.

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Speaker 1: He just never stopped studying it, which you know, it

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Speaker 1: reminds us a lot of like Desi Arnaz for example, right,

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Speaker 1: who was again just eight breathed lived show business. It

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Speaker 1: was he knew the ins and outs, he knew how

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Speaker 1: people behaved, reacted, and what they wanted. It was just

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Speaker 1: he lived to be on that stage and connecting with

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Speaker 1: an audience. Yeah, yeah, definitely very similar and understood the

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Speaker 1: business really well, right right right, Which it makes sense

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Speaker 1: to me because it's a weird business. Like, it's hard

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Speaker 1: to succeed unless you really do, and you have to

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Speaker 1: understand people and the actual industry that you're in. I mean,

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Speaker 1: you could be the greatest showman in the world. And

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Speaker 1: if you don't understand the ins and outs of the

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Speaker 1: business side of things, good luck to you, you know.

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Speaker 1: I mean, if anything, you just get exploited by smarter businessmen. Basically,

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Speaker 1: when he was eighteen, Sammy Davis Jr. Was drafted to

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Speaker 1: fight in World War Two in nine and in the

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Speaker 1: military he encountered some of the worst racism yet in

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Speaker 1: his life. In one of his biographies, which is called

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Speaker 1: Yes I Can, he wrote, quote, I had been drafted

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Speaker 1: into the army to fight, and I did with Southerners

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Speaker 1: and Southwesterners who got their kicks out of needling me.

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Speaker 1: I must have had a knockdown, drag out fight every

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Speaker 1: two days. His nose was broken countless times and permanently

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Speaker 1: flattened by all these encounters. Another time, a fellow soldier

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Speaker 1: offered him a beer which Sammy realized was laced with urine.

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Speaker 1: But eventually he was assigned to special Services and he

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Speaker 1: started performing in camp shows around the country, sometimes for

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Speaker 1: the same serviceman who had brutalized him before, and he

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Speaker 1: noticed that the acts of violence diminished. He said to

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Speaker 1: his biographers, quote, I had to make the audience acknowledge me.

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Speaker 1: I was ready to stay on stage for hours, dancing

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Speaker 1: down the barriers between us. That's cool, Which made kind

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Speaker 1: of think again of Desi Ownez. You know, both of

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Speaker 1: them just really studying a lot, and I think they

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Speaker 1: both found show business to be a way to really

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Speaker 1: combat a lot of racism that they were experiencing. And

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Speaker 1: they both kind of saw like, when I'm up here,

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Speaker 1: you admire me, you like my talent. I make you

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Speaker 1: feel good, and so it's harder to dismiss me or

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Speaker 1: be rude to me off stage. I mean, hopefully with

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Speaker 1: Lenny Luck it will change your mind about people like me. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: When you when a part of your brains which is

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Speaker 1: and says, oh I like this person, then you know

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Speaker 1: there's got to be some kind of domino effect there somewhere,

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Speaker 1: and you think some other things. Yeah. After the war

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Speaker 1: ended and Sammy was honorably discharged, he went back to

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Speaker 1: touring with his father and Will Maston. By then they

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Speaker 1: were called the Will Maston Trio with Sammy Davis Jr.

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Speaker 1: Because he was such a draw. Sammy Senior and Will

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Speaker 1: Maston had been doing vaudeville for a long time now,

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Speaker 1: and they knew that the way to perform for white

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Speaker 1: people and not get into trouble was to not interact

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Speaker 1: with the audience. You know, we get up there, give

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Speaker 1: him a show, show him a good time, but we

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Speaker 1: don't break that fourth wall. They need to feel there's

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Speaker 1: a barrier between us. They also were like, never imitate

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Speaker 1: white people. Um, don't do impressions of any white people

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Speaker 1: because they don't like that, like something maybe a mockery,

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Speaker 1: you know, feeling mocked or something like that. But they

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Speaker 1: were like, don't do it. So when Sammy Davis Jr.

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Speaker 1: Was like, Hey, I want to add some songs and

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Speaker 1: comedy routines to our act, they at first said no, no, no, no, no,

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Speaker 1: don't do that. They said, quote, you don't even know

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Speaker 1: how to sing. But uh, Sammy Jr. Was like, yeah,

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Speaker 1: watch me, and of course he can sing. He definitely

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Speaker 1: could sing. Yeah. It's the kind of thing you don't

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Speaker 1: want to go back in history and be like I

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Speaker 1: told a young Sammy Davis Jr. Not to sing right

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Speaker 1: in Emmy Davis Jr. Got his first big gig at

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Speaker 1: the l Rancho Hotel in Las Vegas, being paid five

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Speaker 1: hundred dollars a week. But Vegas hotels were segregated, so

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Speaker 1: he was not allowed to live at l Rancho like

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Speaker 1: the white performers usually did. He was in residence, but

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Speaker 1: not allowed to actually reside, and he wasn't he actually

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Speaker 1: he wasn't even allowed to walk across the lobby. Frank Sinatra,

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Speaker 1: who became friends with Sammy Jr. After the Willmaston Trio

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Speaker 1: opened for him in seven, actually had to help him

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Speaker 1: get a suite at the Sands Hotel, like he had

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Speaker 1: to pull Sinatra strings to get this guy a room.

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Speaker 1: But his vanity Fair notes this breaking of the color

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Speaker 1: barrier wasn't really celebrated by the black community. His manager

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Speaker 1: and business partner Si Marsh said, quote, Sammy Davis lived

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Speaker 1: in a white world. The majority of his black audience

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Speaker 1: couldn't afford to go see him. He was a black

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Speaker 1: symbol performing for white audiences. And this is a conflict

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Speaker 1: that would come up again and again in his life.

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Speaker 1: But then Sammy's Big eight was at this place called

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Speaker 1: Ceros on Sunset Boulevard. It was the hottest, the most

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Speaker 1: glamorous club in Hollywood where all the celebs hung out,

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Speaker 1: including our good friends Lucille Ball and Desi Arnett. It

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Speaker 1: was nineteen fifty one, which would have been the year

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Speaker 1: I Love Lucy premiered, and the Will Maston Trio starring

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Speaker 1: Sammy Davis Jr. Was going to open for headliner Janice Page,

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Speaker 1: another hot actress singer of the time Vanity fair rights quote.

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Speaker 1: Sammy went into his imitation of white stars like Jimmy

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Speaker 1: Stewart and Jerry Lewis, and these people were in the audience,

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Speaker 1: and I remember his dad and Will had said, don't

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Speaker 1: imitate what. They don't like that. But the trio was

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Speaker 1: only supposed to do twenty minutes of material, but every

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Speaker 1: time they tried to leave the stage, the audience would

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Speaker 1: start yelling for more. They got Jimmy Stewart out there

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Speaker 1: going all what God, Gods, you ready funny out there? Yeah,

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Speaker 1: don't done me again, Sammy, Okay, what's you Jerry Lewis?

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Speaker 1: Jerry Lewis, Uh, just probably just hankers areas Jerry Lewis

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Speaker 1: his yes, Oh my god, I didn't know that was

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Speaker 1: meant to be. Uh, that's a pretty good impression of

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Speaker 1: there you're doing up there? Play again played against Sammy.

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Speaker 1: So they ended up staying up there for almost an hour,

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Speaker 1: and there was so popular that Janice Page insisted on

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Speaker 1: flipping the bill and making them the headliners. That might

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Speaker 1: be unprecedented for a headliner to be like, you know what,

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Speaker 1: letting me take the only one I can think of

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Speaker 1: Annie Oakley. Yeah, when Frank Butler said, you know what

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Speaker 1: you're you should be the top of the list. Here

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Speaker 1: people are here to see you. I think that means

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Speaker 1: Janice Page knew a little something about show business as well.

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Speaker 1: It's like, you know what, if you got the crowd

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Speaker 1: this riled up, there's only one way that this night

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Speaker 1: needs to go. They don't want to see me. Where

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Speaker 1: do I sell more tickets? How do I make more money?

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Speaker 1: If it's you in charge, That's what I'm here for

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Speaker 1: and I'll do it. Plus, she's like the funk, I'm

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Speaker 1: gonna come out on stage and have them all be

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Speaker 1: like more Sammy dum No, you will scream for me

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Speaker 1: or I will not go exactly. So with all this,

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Speaker 1: Sammy Davis Jr. The Star was made in four Sammy

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Speaker 1: was given a masusa, which is a scrap of parchment

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Speaker 1: with words from the Torah inscribed on it, and it's

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Speaker 1: given as a traditional blessing and Sammy's friend Eddie Cantor

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Speaker 1: gave it to him, and instead of hanging it on

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Speaker 1: his door like most people do, Sammy actually wared around

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Speaker 1: his neck as a good luck charm. And the only

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Speaker 1: night he forgot to wear it, he was in a

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Speaker 1: car accident that almost killed him and cost him his

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Speaker 1: left eye. He would wear a glass eye for the

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Speaker 1: rest of his life, and he started studying the history

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Speaker 1: of Judaism and the struggles of the Jews for racial

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Speaker 1: justice and tolerance really resonated with him. For some reason.

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Speaker 1: I can't put my finger on it, but there was

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Speaker 1: some reason that he was like hm, that seems familiar.

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Speaker 1: It wasn't long before he would convert to Judaism, and

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Speaker 1: though he took some time to recuperate from this car

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Speaker 1: accident and his eye injury and everything, he barely slowed down.

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Speaker 1: His first two albums were released the next year to

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Speaker 1: critical acclaim, leading to Vegas headlining gigs and parts and

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Speaker 1: television and movies. But even though the audiences loved him

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Speaker 1: on stage and on screen, they were still their same

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Speaker 1: old shitty racist selves in person. Bert Boyer remembers that

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Speaker 1: Sammy would get six standing ovations, but somebody would always

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Speaker 1: yell at the N word or something like that to

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Speaker 1: just ruin the moment, you know, which sucks because you

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Speaker 1: know it cut like the six standing of we all

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Speaker 1: know this. You really overblow negative stuff so you can

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Speaker 1: get a million compliments, but you only remember the one

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Speaker 1: horrible thing. Somebody said, you can't remember all the nice things,

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Speaker 1: and you just ruin it for the audience too, right,

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Speaker 1: because you're you're cutting the magic. You're like, oh, all

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Speaker 1: having a good oh, oh okay, Well that kind of

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Speaker 1: kills the moment, or you got to assume speculation station.

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Speaker 1: I guess that there's a chunk of people in that

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Speaker 1: audience who maybe forgot they were racist for a little while,

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Speaker 1: and then somebody shouts that and they're like, oh yeah

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Speaker 1: that's cool, we can now I can shout it too,

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Speaker 1: or whatever. You know, like a lot of people feel

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Speaker 1: like they just need permission from someone nearby to go

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Speaker 1: ahead and be their most horrible selves. So either way,

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Speaker 1: that's awful. Boyer says that at one point Sammy told

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Speaker 1: him quote, you know, I reached a point with the indignities,

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Speaker 1: the injustices, the nastiness, the racial abuses. I got to

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Speaker 1: the point where I wanted to get the whitest, most

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Speaker 1: famous chick in the world and just show him to

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Speaker 1: show everybody. Yeah, guess what I'm doing with her? How

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Speaker 1: do you like that? And he often did. He had

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Speaker 1: flings with a number of white women, including a torrid

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Speaker 1: affair with his friend Sinatra's ex wife. Have a Guard

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Speaker 1: in the tabloid Confidential wrote quote, some girls go for

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Speaker 1: the gold, but it's bronze that sends sultry of a gardner. Jeez,

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Speaker 1: I mean seriously, but Hollywood was fairly tolerant of these

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Speaker 1: connections as long as they were just lighthearted flames. But

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Speaker 1: it would be quite different when Sammy Jr. Seemed to

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Speaker 1: start entertaining ideas of something more public and long lasting

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Speaker 1: with a white woman, especially since that woman was Kim Novak,

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Speaker 1: the newest, hottest blonde on the Hollywood scene, and when

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Speaker 1: Sammy's eyes landed on her, Hollywood would not like it

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Speaker 1: one bit. So let's find out more about that right

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Speaker 1: after this. Welcome back to the show. Everyone. So, while

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Speaker 1: Sammy Davis Jr. Was getting more and more famous, after

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Speaker 1: his appearance at Zero's, Kim Novak was getting her start

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Speaker 1: in Hollywood thanks to the notorious studio had at Columbia Pictures,

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Speaker 1: Harry Cone. And we'll just call Harry Cone our villain

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Speaker 1: of the week. Harry Cohne was often called King Kne

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Speaker 1: and he wanted to be known as the toughest, meanest

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Speaker 1: studio mogul in Hollywood. Which is a high bar or

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Speaker 1: a low bar? Right? How yeah, it's not like a

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Speaker 1: bar to clear, it's like a limbo bar to go under.

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Speaker 1: Can I get below the level that you set? Well? Then?

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Speaker 1: Harry Cohne was quite flexible. Indeed. I mean, this guy

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Speaker 1: had a framed photo of his hero Benito Mussolini hanging

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Speaker 1: behind his desk. He would brandish a riding crop and

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Speaker 1: meetings and slash it on the desk to scare employees.

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Speaker 1: And he loved firing people, especially on Christmas Eve. Screwed seriously.

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Speaker 1: I mean, even Scrooge didn't actually fire Bob Cratched on

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Speaker 1: Christmas here, It's true, he just didn't want to give

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Speaker 1: him the Christmas Day Worse than screwed, Harry Cone worse

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Speaker 1: than Scrooge. He also responded harshly to disrespect. Once, when

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Speaker 1: he went to dinner at the most famous restaurant in

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Speaker 1: the world, La Pavilion, the owner sat him near the

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Speaker 1: bathroom because he thought Harry was nothing but a common

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Speaker 1: Hollywood hoodlum. But unfortunately Columbia owned the building that housed

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Speaker 1: La Pavilion, so in retaliation Harry raised their rent. Dimn

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Speaker 1: sit me by the bathroom. Well, how about an extra

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Speaker 1: I'll show you, And then he kicks a little cat,

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Speaker 1: probably slaps a small child. He was also close with

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Speaker 1: several gangsters, including the mobster John Roselli, who he wore

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Speaker 1: matching ruby friendship rings with a little Broman How cute

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Speaker 1: can you imagine them exchanging? Oh yeah, like you know,

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Speaker 1: guts for you? Just what was still close for me?

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Speaker 1: I thought you could wear the B E F R

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Speaker 1: I and I would wear the S T E n

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Speaker 1: Z S. That way, will always know when people put

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Speaker 1: it together, they know we're best friends. Besties. I love you.

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Speaker 1: Let's go down to the playground and screaming some kids. Hey, yeah,

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Speaker 1: I looked steel candy from some babies today. It was

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Speaker 1: also said that no other studio had put more bodies

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Speaker 1: in the cemetery than Harry Cone and he had the

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Speaker 1: most notorious casting couch in Hollywood, expecting actresses to have

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Speaker 1: sex with him in exchange for putting them in the movies. Right,

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00:22:43,600 --> 00:22:48,040
Speaker 1: so this guy was like Harvey Weinstein times Harvey Weinstein

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Speaker 1: plus Harvey Weinstein. Yeah, it was a little tony soprano

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Speaker 1: thrown in again because he had Bob ties. I don't

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Speaker 1: know if maybe Harvey Weinstein as Mob ties. Probably mob

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Speaker 1: still a thing. I don't know. If you're with the Mob,

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Speaker 1: please reach out, let us know if you're still a thing. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: we don't think the FBI is listening, but I mean

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Speaker 1: if they're not, I guess we'll retact your name. If

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Speaker 1: you have friends in the FBI, please tell them to listen.

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Speaker 1: They might get some hot tips about the Mob. You

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Speaker 1: got a friend, a neighbor and uncle or and aunt

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00:23:16,600 --> 00:23:18,680
Speaker 1: and the FBI or the Mob. Let him know. Maybe

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Speaker 1: we could start a little turf war right here in

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Speaker 1: ridiculous romance. Want to fall out from our episode? You mean,

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Speaker 1: what a surgeon listenership? But yeah, also that's so gross

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Speaker 1: because I don't I don't have to tell any of you.

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Speaker 1: I'm sure that a casting couch and being like if

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Speaker 1: I put a lady in a movie. She has to

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Speaker 1: do something sexual for me is disgusting and um because

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Speaker 1: male stars don't didn't have to do that. I mean,

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Speaker 1: Harry Cohen wasn't making Jeff Chandlers like his dick to

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Speaker 1: get apart. He was just like, here, hire, here's a job.

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Speaker 1: But he did get defied a couple of times. I

403
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Speaker 1: think Joan Collins turned him down once she said keep

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Speaker 1: it in your pants. I'm going to dinner with your

405
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Speaker 1: wife in a minute. But he had also been defied

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Speaker 1: by his current studio Darling Rita Hayworth, now Rita's first husband,

407
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Speaker 1: who orson Wells. Rita's second husband called quote literally a pimp,

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Speaker 1: ordered her to sleep with Harry Cone after she signed

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Speaker 1: her contract with Columbia, which seems like weird timing. She

410
00:24:23,520 --> 00:24:27,560
Speaker 1: already had her contract signed, Like what's the point, thank you,

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Speaker 1: you're crazy, But Rita refused to sleep with Harry Cone.

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Speaker 1: She's like, I'm good. You know, I'm a good actress

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Speaker 1: each ship and it made Harry crazy with rage and jealousy.

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Speaker 1: He didn't fire her because she was a huge box

415
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Speaker 1: office straw, but he basically punished her for two decades

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Speaker 1: for not fucking him. He put a bug in her

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Speaker 1: dressing room and listened to all her conversations. He had

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Speaker 1: a maid reporting on all her movements, like watching her

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Speaker 1: dressing room and like reporting on all her movements. He

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Speaker 1: would use the ba throom in front of her, and

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Speaker 1: he belittled her constantly, and he would fight with her

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Speaker 1: about everything, especially her love life, because as you may

423
00:25:07,920 --> 00:25:11,680
Speaker 1: have noticed, Rita did Mary several times and every time

424
00:25:11,680 --> 00:25:14,560
Speaker 1: she did her box office returns with Tank. So yeah,

425
00:25:14,560 --> 00:25:17,400
Speaker 1: they were just in a constant struggle for a long time,

426
00:25:17,440 --> 00:25:19,760
Speaker 1: you know again, for about two decades. But it got

427
00:25:19,800 --> 00:25:24,200
Speaker 1: real infuriating when Harry wanted Rita cast in his pet project,

428
00:25:24,240 --> 00:25:27,000
Speaker 1: which was a biblical epic about Mary and Joseph and

429
00:25:27,119 --> 00:25:30,639
Speaker 1: Rita's fourth husband. A big band singer named Dick Haymes,

430
00:25:30,680 --> 00:25:34,760
Speaker 1: whose Hollywood nickname was Mr Evil, came into Harry Cohn's

431
00:25:34,840 --> 00:25:39,520
Speaker 1: office wearing a beard, demanding to be cast as Joseph.

432
00:25:39,200 --> 00:25:41,520
Speaker 1: H Harry was like, you don't tell me what to do.

433
00:25:41,880 --> 00:25:45,679
Speaker 1: I tell you who's cast. So Harry decided he was

434
00:25:45,680 --> 00:25:47,960
Speaker 1: going to get back at Rita by making the next

435
00:25:48,040 --> 00:25:51,359
Speaker 1: girl to walk into his office a big star, someone

436
00:25:51,400 --> 00:25:53,879
Speaker 1: he could mold into whatever he wanted, and who wouldn't

437
00:25:53,880 --> 00:25:57,159
Speaker 1: give him a whole bunch of lip about right, It's like,

438
00:25:57,200 --> 00:26:01,080
Speaker 1: find me someone docile. Yeah, Fourly. The next person to

439
00:26:01,080 --> 00:26:04,480
Speaker 1: walk into his office was a very beautiful, shy twenty

440
00:26:04,560 --> 00:26:08,040
Speaker 1: year old named Marilyn Novak. Now this girl had done

441
00:26:08,080 --> 00:26:12,880
Speaker 1: a little modeling. She was demonstrating refrigerators as miss deep freeze.

442
00:26:13,320 --> 00:26:15,520
Speaker 1: Do you think anybody was like, what a frigid bit?

443
00:26:16,040 --> 00:26:20,720
Speaker 1: Oh that's pretty good, and she's like, thank you, That's

444
00:26:20,720 --> 00:26:23,760
Speaker 1: what I'm going for here I sposed to do. But

445
00:26:23,920 --> 00:26:26,760
Speaker 1: now Harry wanted to make her a movie star. Marilyn

446
00:26:26,800 --> 00:26:28,840
Speaker 1: Monroe was already a huge star at the time, so

447
00:26:29,040 --> 00:26:31,280
Speaker 1: of course they changed her name and they made her

448
00:26:31,400 --> 00:26:35,080
Speaker 1: Kim Novak. She was, I guess, by their standards, a

449
00:26:35,119 --> 00:26:37,919
Speaker 1: little on the plump side, so they had her lose

450
00:26:38,000 --> 00:26:41,800
Speaker 1: fifteen pounds. They dyed her hair three shades of blonde,

451
00:26:41,800 --> 00:26:45,480
Speaker 1: and even added a lavender tint when her publicist came

452
00:26:45,560 --> 00:26:48,560
Speaker 1: up with this idea for a lavender gimmick as part

453
00:26:48,600 --> 00:26:52,480
Speaker 1: of her branding, so everything had to be lavender smelling

454
00:26:52,720 --> 00:26:55,920
Speaker 1: or colored like lavender. A publicist once wrote to head

455
00:26:55,920 --> 00:26:58,760
Speaker 1: a Hopper's Gossip column that when Kim stayed in a hotel,

456
00:26:58,960 --> 00:27:03,960
Speaker 1: her fetish for lavender was always seen to. They said, quote,

457
00:27:04,200 --> 00:27:07,119
Speaker 1: her sweet will be lavender scented bed sheets and pillow

458
00:27:07,119 --> 00:27:10,320
Speaker 1: slips in lavender, and while she's tubbing in lavender scented water,

459
00:27:10,480 --> 00:27:13,440
Speaker 1: she may take her calls on a lavender colored bathroom telephone.

460
00:27:14,560 --> 00:27:17,919
Speaker 1: Like that. They not have picked an easier color to

461
00:27:17,960 --> 00:27:21,640
Speaker 1: say than all right, what about red reds and nice

462
00:27:21,720 --> 00:27:25,359
Speaker 1: short color? So all this lavender stuff is everywhere. It

463
00:27:25,359 --> 00:27:27,600
Speaker 1: smelled like lavender, looked like lavender, and the fact that

464
00:27:27,720 --> 00:27:34,240
Speaker 1: Kim Novak actually hated the color lavender was apparently totally irrelevant. Um.

465
00:27:34,240 --> 00:27:37,399
Speaker 1: But though she submitted to all this, the weight loss,

466
00:27:37,520 --> 00:27:41,679
Speaker 1: the hair dye, the lavender or whatever, whatever, UM, Kim

467
00:27:42,119 --> 00:27:45,879
Speaker 1: was far from the docile and biddable star that Harry

468
00:27:45,920 --> 00:27:50,040
Speaker 1: Cohne was really looking for. In nineteen fifty seven, Alfred

469
00:27:50,080 --> 00:27:53,280
Speaker 1: Hitchcock was about to start shooting Vertigo when his lead

470
00:27:53,359 --> 00:27:56,840
Speaker 1: actress Vera Miles got pregnant and she withdrew from playing

471
00:27:56,880 --> 00:28:00,320
Speaker 1: the role of Judy Barton, and Hitchcock needed to replace Sminth,

472
00:28:00,480 --> 00:28:03,440
Speaker 1: so he approached Harry Cone about Kim taking the part,

473
00:28:03,520 --> 00:28:07,399
Speaker 1: without even requesting a screen test. Now, Harry hated the

474
00:28:07,440 --> 00:28:10,640
Speaker 1: script for Vertigo, but he thought Hitchcock was a good director.

475
00:28:11,720 --> 00:28:14,159
Speaker 1: I guess he got one of two things right in

476
00:28:14,200 --> 00:28:17,240
Speaker 1: there and that so he let Kim read the script

477
00:28:17,280 --> 00:28:19,720
Speaker 1: and she loved the part. She accepted it right away

478
00:28:19,880 --> 00:28:22,320
Speaker 1: without even asking for a meeting with Hitchcock. So they

479
00:28:22,320 --> 00:28:24,639
Speaker 1: both were kind of like, whatever, let's do this. But

480
00:28:24,760 --> 00:28:28,119
Speaker 1: then she refused to show up to work unless Harry

481
00:28:28,160 --> 00:28:31,040
Speaker 1: gave her a better paying contract. She's kind of on strike.

482
00:28:31,240 --> 00:28:34,560
Speaker 1: And that's because Harry Cone was being paid two hundred

483
00:28:34,560 --> 00:28:38,160
Speaker 1: and fifty thousand dollars to loan Kim out to Paramount

484
00:28:38,200 --> 00:28:42,640
Speaker 1: to do Vertigo, but Kim was only getting paid one

485
00:28:42,680 --> 00:28:45,840
Speaker 1: thwod fifty dollars a week to actually do the movie.

486
00:28:45,960 --> 00:28:49,920
Speaker 1: That's a discrepancy, very large description. Can we convert that?

487
00:28:49,960 --> 00:28:53,680
Speaker 1: And we look at those numbers today. So he got

488
00:28:53,800 --> 00:28:56,800
Speaker 1: he was being paid two hundred fifty dollars to loan

489
00:28:56,840 --> 00:29:02,920
Speaker 1: out Kim Novak and that seven is two point four

490
00:29:03,000 --> 00:29:07,720
Speaker 1: million dollars today, And then she got what ended up

491
00:29:07,760 --> 00:29:11,040
Speaker 1: being twelve thousand dollars a week today. All right, that

492
00:29:11,040 --> 00:29:14,760
Speaker 1: that's too large of a descript So somebody's making millions

493
00:29:14,760 --> 00:29:17,320
Speaker 1: of dollars on you and you're getting thousands in return

494
00:29:17,800 --> 00:29:20,239
Speaker 1: for being the actual body that shows up to do

495
00:29:20,280 --> 00:29:23,040
Speaker 1: the work. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, honestly, it reminds me

496
00:29:23,080 --> 00:29:27,960
Speaker 1: a little bit of Um Scarlett Johansson and Disney. Oh yeah, sure,

497
00:29:28,560 --> 00:29:31,600
Speaker 1: because of course people maybe even at this time, but

498
00:29:32,400 --> 00:29:34,360
Speaker 1: certainly when Scarlett did it, people were like, do you

499
00:29:34,400 --> 00:29:37,000
Speaker 1: make so much money? Shut up? And It's like, sure,

500
00:29:37,160 --> 00:29:39,280
Speaker 1: but the thing is, it's not about how much I'm

501
00:29:39,320 --> 00:29:43,239
Speaker 1: making in comparison to an average person in America. The

502
00:29:43,240 --> 00:29:45,720
Speaker 1: thing is is that they are making billions of dollars

503
00:29:45,720 --> 00:29:49,280
Speaker 1: off my work, and I have to be paid proportionately

504
00:29:49,440 --> 00:29:52,600
Speaker 1: to the value that I'm bringing. Ye. So anyway, I

505
00:29:52,640 --> 00:29:54,560
Speaker 1: think she had a very similar like, Okay, I know

506
00:29:54,600 --> 00:29:57,720
Speaker 1: I'm getting paid a lot, and I'm very grateful, but look,

507
00:29:57,920 --> 00:29:59,840
Speaker 1: the truth is you're making a lot more off me

508
00:30:00,280 --> 00:30:03,240
Speaker 1: making and you're going to have to fix this. Um.

509
00:30:03,280 --> 00:30:05,280
Speaker 1: And it wasn't like this was the first time either.

510
00:30:05,440 --> 00:30:08,400
Speaker 1: On an earlier film, Harry Cone got a hundred thousand

511
00:30:08,440 --> 00:30:10,720
Speaker 1: dollars to loan out Kim while she only got seven

512
00:30:11,160 --> 00:30:14,680
Speaker 1: fifty dollars a week, and then on another film she

513
00:30:14,800 --> 00:30:17,920
Speaker 1: was only paid thirteen thousand dollars and the leading man

514
00:30:18,040 --> 00:30:21,760
Speaker 1: got paid two hundred thousand dollars. So she was just like,

515
00:30:22,480 --> 00:30:27,719
Speaker 1: I'm not doing this. That's a lot less than yeah, yeah, okay.

516
00:30:27,880 --> 00:30:31,360
Speaker 1: Harry was, of course royally piste when her salary disputes

517
00:30:31,360 --> 00:30:35,120
Speaker 1: were mentioned in a Time magazine profile on Kim, and

518
00:30:35,160 --> 00:30:39,080
Speaker 1: he famously said, quote, they all believe their publicity after

519
00:30:39,160 --> 00:30:42,760
Speaker 1: a while. I have never met a grateful performer in

520
00:30:42,800 --> 00:30:46,120
Speaker 1: the picture business. Oh yeah, let me be so grateful

521
00:30:46,120 --> 00:30:47,840
Speaker 1: to you that I first of all have to sleep

522
00:30:47,880 --> 00:30:49,960
Speaker 1: with you in order to ever get one job. And

523
00:30:50,000 --> 00:30:52,320
Speaker 1: the secondly, I should just take whatever scraps you willing

524
00:30:52,360 --> 00:30:56,160
Speaker 1: to throw me now. And then the fact that he

525
00:30:56,200 --> 00:30:58,560
Speaker 1: gets so mad when it goes out publicly because he

526
00:30:58,640 --> 00:31:01,840
Speaker 1: knows it's shitty. Yeah, he knows it's terrible. I want

527
00:31:01,840 --> 00:31:05,520
Speaker 1: to be a horrible person without people knowing about Yeah,

528
00:31:05,560 --> 00:31:08,560
Speaker 1: I don't like it. Why don't want to face consequences

529
00:31:08,560 --> 00:31:13,160
Speaker 1: for my affections. So at first he suspended her, Actually

530
00:31:13,160 --> 00:31:15,240
Speaker 1: he was like, I'm not given into your little strike.

531
00:31:15,520 --> 00:31:18,120
Speaker 1: But after a few weeks he relented, and he offered

532
00:31:18,120 --> 00:31:20,960
Speaker 1: her a contract more worthy of a major star, bumping

533
00:31:20,960 --> 00:31:23,240
Speaker 1: her up to three thousand dollars a week, which is

534
00:31:23,280 --> 00:31:25,640
Speaker 1: still not that very much, to be honest, I mean

535
00:31:25,760 --> 00:31:28,120
Speaker 1: compared to what he was getting. Yeah, but it was

536
00:31:28,160 --> 00:31:31,240
Speaker 1: definitely better. She was happy with it, and she told

537
00:31:31,240 --> 00:31:34,080
Speaker 1: the press quote, I don't like to have anyone take

538
00:31:34,120 --> 00:31:37,720
Speaker 1: advantage of me, mister am right, Kim. So she turned

539
00:31:37,720 --> 00:31:40,280
Speaker 1: in some of her best acting work in Vertigo, and

540
00:31:40,320 --> 00:31:43,320
Speaker 1: she got tons of praise for her performance, but found

541
00:31:43,360 --> 00:31:46,000
Speaker 1: out later that Hitchcock was frustrated at having to have

542
00:31:46,080 --> 00:31:48,840
Speaker 1: her instead of Vera, and he thought that she was

543
00:31:48,960 --> 00:31:52,880
Speaker 1: ruining his movie. I think time would tell that that's

544
00:31:52,920 --> 00:31:56,520
Speaker 1: not the case. Funnily enough, that movie was not very

545
00:31:56,560 --> 00:31:59,080
Speaker 1: well received when it came out like that. People thought

546
00:31:59,080 --> 00:32:01,840
Speaker 1: it wasn't that great. They thought Kim was really good

547
00:32:01,840 --> 00:32:03,560
Speaker 1: in it, but they were like, this isn't the best

548
00:32:03,640 --> 00:32:05,920
Speaker 1: movie Hitchcock's ever made. And then now, of course it's

549
00:32:05,960 --> 00:32:09,320
Speaker 1: considered one of his masterpieces, right right? So what is what?

550
00:32:09,320 --> 00:32:13,120
Speaker 1: What do you what is Hitchcock? Now? She had just

551
00:32:13,320 --> 00:32:16,160
Speaker 1: finished up the shoot when she went to see Sammy

552
00:32:16,360 --> 00:32:21,040
Speaker 1: Davis Jr. Singing at the shap Perry in Chicago. Like Kim,

553
00:32:21,280 --> 00:32:23,680
Speaker 1: he was at the height of his popularity and fame

554
00:32:23,920 --> 00:32:29,920
Speaker 1: after appearing on Broadway in Mr. Wonderful in nineteen Now

555
00:32:30,000 --> 00:32:33,280
Speaker 1: he was getting paid twenty five thousand dollars a week

556
00:32:33,360 --> 00:32:38,360
Speaker 1: at the Sands Hotel in Vegas dollars in nineteen fifty six,

557
00:32:38,400 --> 00:32:41,400
Speaker 1: money not today. He had invited Kim to sit in

558
00:32:41,400 --> 00:32:44,160
Speaker 1: the front row at the club, and this would be

559
00:32:44,200 --> 00:32:47,760
Speaker 1: the first and virtually last time that he and Kim

560
00:32:47,760 --> 00:32:51,200
Speaker 1: would be seen in public together. A little while after

561
00:32:51,320 --> 00:32:54,800
Speaker 1: she went to shap Perry to see him sing, Tony

562
00:32:54,920 --> 00:32:58,959
Speaker 1: Curtis was backstage at Ciro's and Sammy told him, you know,

563
00:32:59,040 --> 00:33:02,360
Speaker 1: I'd really like to meet Kim Novak. Um. You know,

564
00:33:02,440 --> 00:33:04,880
Speaker 1: he's kind of telling him. I invited her to come

565
00:33:04,920 --> 00:33:07,560
Speaker 1: see me sing, and she she came. She sat in

566
00:33:07,600 --> 00:33:09,280
Speaker 1: the front row, but like, we never got a chance

567
00:33:09,320 --> 00:33:11,680
Speaker 1: to talk, and I'd love to just really get a

568
00:33:11,760 --> 00:33:14,040
Speaker 1: chance to sit down with her and exchange some words.

569
00:33:14,560 --> 00:33:16,800
Speaker 1: He thought if they met in public that it would

570
00:33:16,880 --> 00:33:20,000
Speaker 1: create problems for both of them, so he was kind

571
00:33:20,000 --> 00:33:22,840
Speaker 1: of at a loss about how to ever meet Kim Novak,

572
00:33:22,920 --> 00:33:26,560
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. So Wingman Extraordinaire Tony Curtis

573
00:33:26,960 --> 00:33:29,280
Speaker 1: was like, let me help you out, and he decided

574
00:33:29,320 --> 00:33:31,480
Speaker 1: to throw a party at his house and invite him

575
00:33:31,520 --> 00:33:35,800
Speaker 1: to it, and it totally worked, Tony told Vanity Fair quote,

576
00:33:36,040 --> 00:33:38,680
Speaker 1: they both came over and spent the evening together, deep

577
00:33:38,720 --> 00:33:41,400
Speaker 1: and thought, deep in talk. I could see right from

578
00:33:41,400 --> 00:33:44,240
Speaker 1: the beginning that they were getting along in an intense way.

579
00:33:44,520 --> 00:33:46,960
Speaker 1: That is a hell of a wing man like y'all

580
00:33:46,960 --> 00:33:49,680
Speaker 1: want to meet, Let me set up a whole damn party.

581
00:33:49,960 --> 00:33:52,240
Speaker 1: You know how much trouble it is to throw a party,

582
00:33:52,280 --> 00:33:54,320
Speaker 1: and Tony was just doing it so Sammy could meet

583
00:33:54,320 --> 00:33:56,160
Speaker 1: this white lady. Well, and you know how hard it

584
00:33:56,200 --> 00:33:57,800
Speaker 1: is for you and I to throw a party for

585
00:33:57,840 --> 00:34:01,800
Speaker 1: our twelve friends. You know, imagine doing it in Hollywood

586
00:34:01,840 --> 00:34:05,280
Speaker 1: for like the hottest stars of the day. But some

587
00:34:05,440 --> 00:34:08,080
Speaker 1: asshole at the party called in a tip to a

588
00:34:08,200 --> 00:34:13,200
Speaker 1: gossip columnist who wrote, quote, which top female star k

589
00:34:13,640 --> 00:34:18,400
Speaker 1: n is seriously dating which big named entertainer SD like

590
00:34:18,520 --> 00:34:21,359
Speaker 1: through in the initials and everything. And as soon as

591
00:34:21,360 --> 00:34:24,680
Speaker 1: the column ran, Sammy called Kim to apologize for the

592
00:34:24,680 --> 00:34:27,040
Speaker 1: publicity and assure her that he had nothing to do

593
00:34:27,120 --> 00:34:29,280
Speaker 1: with it. He told her they would handle it however

594
00:34:29,320 --> 00:34:31,680
Speaker 1: she wanted, because he knew the position she was in

595
00:34:31,680 --> 00:34:34,279
Speaker 1: with the studio they both had a lot to lose

596
00:34:34,320 --> 00:34:37,360
Speaker 1: from this relationship. She was the number one box office

597
00:34:37,400 --> 00:34:40,120
Speaker 1: babe in the country at the time, and he was

598
00:34:40,160 --> 00:34:43,360
Speaker 1: trying to become a dramatic actor. And they both needed

599
00:34:43,400 --> 00:34:46,439
Speaker 1: America to love them in order to keep their careers going,

600
00:34:46,719 --> 00:34:50,120
Speaker 1: and America did not love interracial relationships. At this time,

601
00:34:50,600 --> 00:34:54,440
Speaker 1: only four percent of Americans approved of it, and it

602
00:34:54,520 --> 00:34:58,440
Speaker 1: was still illegal in twenty three states. The Supreme Court

603
00:34:58,480 --> 00:35:01,040
Speaker 1: had just ordered the d segre gnation of schools, so

604
00:35:01,200 --> 00:35:04,960
Speaker 1: racial tension was incredibly high at this time. Yeah, and

605
00:35:05,000 --> 00:35:09,240
Speaker 1: also it was only three years after Emmett Till of course,

606
00:35:09,440 --> 00:35:13,920
Speaker 1: was killed for allegedly like winking at a white lady

607
00:35:14,040 --> 00:35:17,359
Speaker 1: or doing something totally innocuous, So it was just inter

608
00:35:17,520 --> 00:35:21,120
Speaker 1: racial stuff. People were not here for it. But Kim

609
00:35:21,160 --> 00:35:24,760
Speaker 1: said the studio didn't own her, and she invited Sammy

610
00:35:24,840 --> 00:35:28,560
Speaker 1: over for spaghetti and meatball? Did they Did they get

611
00:35:28,600 --> 00:35:31,080
Speaker 1: the same noodle? They must have done it, must have

612
00:35:31,320 --> 00:35:34,960
Speaker 1: he like nuzzles over a meatball with his nose. Yeah,

613
00:35:35,080 --> 00:35:40,160
Speaker 1: this is yours, Sammy. Did I forget to give you a? Four? Everything? Okay?

614
00:35:38,960 --> 00:35:43,000
Speaker 1: With For a while they evaded the press and Harry

615
00:35:43,040 --> 00:35:47,439
Speaker 1: Cone's studio spies by having intimate dinners at Kim's house,

616
00:35:47,840 --> 00:35:50,200
Speaker 1: and Sammy would get a ride from his friend Arthur

617
00:35:50,239 --> 00:35:52,680
Speaker 1: Silver up to her house and he would hide in

618
00:35:52,719 --> 00:35:55,360
Speaker 1: the back of the car, huddled under a rug just

619
00:35:55,520 --> 00:35:58,080
Speaker 1: like nobody could see him in the car, and like

620
00:35:58,160 --> 00:36:01,160
Speaker 1: put two and two together, And eventually a third party

621
00:36:01,239 --> 00:36:04,000
Speaker 1: helped Sammy rent a beach house in Malibu so they

622
00:36:04,040 --> 00:36:07,920
Speaker 1: could have private run davits, and Sammy wrote in his

623
00:36:07,960 --> 00:36:11,200
Speaker 1: biography that all the secrecy kind of drew them together

624
00:36:11,280 --> 00:36:14,640
Speaker 1: even more. He wrote, quote, she hadn't thought about me

625
00:36:14,680 --> 00:36:17,560
Speaker 1: anymore than I thought about her until it was forbidden.

626
00:36:18,040 --> 00:36:21,879
Speaker 1: Then we became conspirators, drawn together by the single thing

627
00:36:21,960 --> 00:36:26,640
Speaker 1: we had in common, defiance because you know, as we've noticed,

628
00:36:26,760 --> 00:36:32,840
Speaker 1: Kim's being real corralled and directed a lot by Harry Cone. Right. Meanwhile,

629
00:36:32,920 --> 00:36:35,920
Speaker 1: Sammy is always getting it because he's black, so he

630
00:36:36,000 --> 00:36:38,600
Speaker 1: gets it from all directions about what he's allowed to

631
00:36:38,600 --> 00:36:41,080
Speaker 1: do and not allowed to do. So they're both I think,

632
00:36:41,200 --> 00:36:43,880
Speaker 1: really chomping at the bit to like, oh, I just

633
00:36:43,880 --> 00:36:47,319
Speaker 1: want to do one thing that will really funk with everybody. Um.

634
00:36:47,360 --> 00:36:49,960
Speaker 1: So I think they had a real connection, like a real,

635
00:36:50,080 --> 00:36:52,719
Speaker 1: real chemistry, but it seems like a lot of it

636
00:36:52,760 --> 00:36:55,439
Speaker 1: was just like, oh, this will really funk with them. Yeah,

637
00:36:55,480 --> 00:36:58,200
Speaker 1: well yeah, like you said, I mean, Kim was almost

638
00:36:58,200 --> 00:37:00,120
Speaker 1: in a position of like, you know, an oppressive of

639
00:37:00,400 --> 00:37:03,600
Speaker 1: parent type, almost like you can't go out looking like that,

640
00:37:03,680 --> 00:37:05,840
Speaker 1: you can't date this boy, you can't do that, you

641
00:37:05,880 --> 00:37:08,200
Speaker 1: can't be in this movie. I'll give you your allowance,

642
00:37:08,560 --> 00:37:11,560
Speaker 1: you know. And so of course she rebelled against that

643
00:37:11,840 --> 00:37:16,120
Speaker 1: every way she could. And yeah, it's Sammy Davis Jr.

644
00:37:16,200 --> 00:37:19,759
Speaker 1: Just rebelling against just trying to be a person, just

645
00:37:19,800 --> 00:37:21,640
Speaker 1: trying to show the world that he should be free

646
00:37:21,640 --> 00:37:24,719
Speaker 1: to make his own choices. Does this piss you off?

647
00:37:24,760 --> 00:37:29,839
Speaker 1: Then get piste off, die mad, you know. But when

648
00:37:29,840 --> 00:37:32,719
Speaker 1: Sammy had a private telephone installed in his dressing her

649
00:37:32,719 --> 00:37:34,640
Speaker 1: with the sands so he could talk to Kim without

650
00:37:34,680 --> 00:37:37,400
Speaker 1: the hotel switchboard listening in, then it seemed to his

651
00:37:37,480 --> 00:37:39,920
Speaker 1: friends that Sammy was starting to get serious about this.

652
00:37:40,960 --> 00:37:43,960
Speaker 1: In December of nineteen fifty seven, when Kim went home

653
00:37:44,000 --> 00:37:47,400
Speaker 1: to Chicago to visit her family for Christmas, Sammy missed

654
00:37:47,400 --> 00:37:50,120
Speaker 1: her so much that he wanted to find a replacement

655
00:37:50,160 --> 00:37:52,399
Speaker 1: for himself. At his show at the Sands to fly

656
00:37:52,440 --> 00:37:56,360
Speaker 1: out and see her, and Old Frankie Sinatra Old Blue

657
00:37:56,360 --> 00:38:00,760
Speaker 1: Eyes refused to let him leave. I don't think so, Sammy.

658
00:38:00,840 --> 00:38:02,799
Speaker 1: You got a job to do, and you're gonna do

659
00:38:02,840 --> 00:38:04,759
Speaker 1: it if people came out for a show, and we're

660
00:38:04,760 --> 00:38:09,080
Speaker 1: gonna give him a show. Yeah. So Sammy begged his

661
00:38:09,160 --> 00:38:12,279
Speaker 1: friend Arthur on his knees to go to Chicago for

662
00:38:12,440 --> 00:38:15,080
Speaker 1: him so he could take him a message. He couldn't

663
00:38:15,080 --> 00:38:18,080
Speaker 1: call her because her family only had one phone, and

664
00:38:18,320 --> 00:38:20,400
Speaker 1: you know, who knows anybody could be listening in on

665
00:38:20,400 --> 00:38:23,640
Speaker 1: that conversation. Does that not sound old as hill? Right?

666
00:38:24,280 --> 00:38:26,560
Speaker 1: They got one phone in their house and it's a

667
00:38:26,600 --> 00:38:29,800
Speaker 1: party line, there's no private coma Like, that's so funny

668
00:38:29,840 --> 00:38:32,879
Speaker 1: to me. So Arthur had to get a flight from

669
00:38:32,960 --> 00:38:35,840
Speaker 1: Vegas to Los Angeles at three am and then another

670
00:38:35,880 --> 00:38:38,600
Speaker 1: flight to Chicago from there. But when he got there,

671
00:38:38,960 --> 00:38:42,520
Speaker 1: he heard a message over the loudspeaker that Sammy Davis Jr.

672
00:38:42,600 --> 00:38:45,719
Speaker 1: Was on the next flight to Chicago himself. So Arthur

673
00:38:45,760 --> 00:38:48,160
Speaker 1: told Vanity Fair later quote, I don't know how he

674
00:38:48,200 --> 00:38:50,960
Speaker 1: did it. I mean all this for five minutes. It

675
00:38:51,080 --> 00:38:53,759
Speaker 1: was just how deep this affair went. I was sent

676
00:38:53,800 --> 00:38:57,000
Speaker 1: to Chicago to go to Kim and say, Sammy loves you.

677
00:38:57,320 --> 00:39:00,640
Speaker 1: That is dedication, right. He lou all the way to

678
00:39:00,719 --> 00:39:03,200
Speaker 1: Chicago for one night just to see her and meet

679
00:39:03,200 --> 00:39:05,400
Speaker 1: her parents and like hang out for a second, and

680
00:39:05,400 --> 00:39:07,880
Speaker 1: then he had to go back to Vegas because Frankie

681
00:39:08,000 --> 00:39:11,400
Speaker 1: only let him off for one night, which although I

682
00:39:11,400 --> 00:39:15,719
Speaker 1: gotta say m hmm, little rude to Arthur and be

683
00:39:15,800 --> 00:39:17,759
Speaker 1: like hey, I need you to fly to Chicago, and

684
00:39:17,800 --> 00:39:20,000
Speaker 1: then he leaves and he's like, hey, you know what,

685
00:39:20,640 --> 00:39:23,200
Speaker 1: screw and I'm gonna go. I was like, Arthur was

686
00:39:23,239 --> 00:39:25,520
Speaker 1: like tired as hell from all his red eyes and

687
00:39:25,560 --> 00:39:27,440
Speaker 1: he's sitting at the airport like, I didn't even need

688
00:39:27,480 --> 00:39:31,680
Speaker 1: to go. What are you doing? Man? Back to Las Vegas?

689
00:39:31,760 --> 00:39:34,720
Speaker 1: I go. I guess I didn't. Nobody told me, Nobody

690
00:39:34,760 --> 00:39:37,359
Speaker 1: told anybody I love them. I'm not going to sleep

691
00:39:37,360 --> 00:39:39,560
Speaker 1: with a hot blond after all this, I know, right,

692
00:39:39,719 --> 00:39:44,160
Speaker 1: what do I get just my millions of dollars hanging

693
00:39:44,160 --> 00:39:47,080
Speaker 1: out with all my celebrity friends. Fine, I guess I'll

694
00:39:47,080 --> 00:39:50,440
Speaker 1: write my memoirs at some point. So all this sexy

695
00:39:50,600 --> 00:39:54,440
Speaker 1: stuff between Kim and Sammy was making Harry Cone furious.

696
00:39:55,360 --> 00:39:59,160
Speaker 1: But when the London Daily Mirror reported quote Kim Novacus

697
00:39:59,200 --> 00:40:02,799
Speaker 1: about to becoming age to Sammy Davis Junior in Hollywood.

698
00:40:02,920 --> 00:40:08,439
Speaker 1: Is a guess that was the last draw. Now, this

699
00:40:08,960 --> 00:40:12,080
Speaker 1: little item in the London Daily Mirror was based on

700
00:40:12,120 --> 00:40:15,640
Speaker 1: a rumor that a clerk had found a marriage license

701
00:40:15,760 --> 00:40:18,399
Speaker 1: for Kim and Sammy that was filled out but had

702
00:40:18,440 --> 00:40:21,879
Speaker 1: never been filed. Um, I'm not sure anyone actually saw

703
00:40:21,920 --> 00:40:26,520
Speaker 1: that piece of paper like a big dubious Yeah, I'm

704
00:40:26,560 --> 00:40:30,600
Speaker 1: sure it was whatever I found it right here. Office

705
00:40:30,640 --> 00:40:35,560
Speaker 1: says right here, Sammy Davis Junior, Kim Novak, we want

706
00:40:35,640 --> 00:40:39,400
Speaker 1: to get married. And they wrote in the notes section

707
00:40:39,440 --> 00:40:43,080
Speaker 1: at the bottom, Uh, look, we really want to get married.

708
00:40:43,120 --> 00:40:47,080
Speaker 1: This will piss Harry Kane off and everyone should buy

709
00:40:47,160 --> 00:40:49,400
Speaker 1: a copy of the London Daily Mirror. They said that

710
00:40:49,480 --> 00:40:52,600
Speaker 1: it says it right there. Who can argue with it?

711
00:40:52,640 --> 00:40:55,680
Speaker 1: Is right? They've been black him why whether it was

712
00:40:55,760 --> 00:40:59,319
Speaker 1: real or not. Harry was so incensed by this that

713
00:40:59,400 --> 00:41:02,560
Speaker 1: he even had a small heart attack over it, which

714
00:41:02,600 --> 00:41:05,080
Speaker 1: was the first of several that would finally kill him.

715
00:41:06,840 --> 00:41:11,480
Speaker 1: And everyone breathed. Decided too little, too late, because he

716
00:41:11,560 --> 00:41:14,000
Speaker 1: felt like he had put all this work into making

717
00:41:14,120 --> 00:41:16,680
Speaker 1: Kim Novak into a star, and then she would be

718
00:41:16,719 --> 00:41:19,279
Speaker 1: thrown it all away by marrying a black band, which

719
00:41:19,320 --> 00:41:23,200
Speaker 1: would alienate box office audiences all over the country, especially

720
00:41:23,239 --> 00:41:26,480
Speaker 1: in the South. But Harry Cohen wasn't the type to

721
00:41:26,600 --> 00:41:30,080
Speaker 1: take these things lying down. Harry Cohen was a man

722
00:41:30,160 --> 00:41:34,280
Speaker 1: of action, so he got in touch with an old friend,

723
00:41:34,480 --> 00:41:37,719
Speaker 1: a gangster named Mickey Cohen, and told him to put

724
00:41:37,760 --> 00:41:41,360
Speaker 1: some pressure on Sammy to marry a black woman right away.

725
00:41:41,400 --> 00:41:45,680
Speaker 1: If Sammy refused, Mickey was told to break his legs

726
00:41:45,800 --> 00:41:48,640
Speaker 1: and put out his other eye. So in January of

727
00:41:48,719 --> 00:41:54,200
Speaker 1: ninety eight, Mickey Cohen approached Sammy's dad, Sammy Davis Sr.

728
00:41:54,560 --> 00:41:58,680
Speaker 1: At the race track, and he told him, as Sammy's

729
00:41:58,719 --> 00:42:02,000
Speaker 1: got one the full arous to find the black woman

730
00:42:02,040 --> 00:42:06,080
Speaker 1: the merry, I'm gonna have to blind him. Sorry, you know,

731
00:42:06,160 --> 00:42:09,200
Speaker 1: it's just business. You gotta do what you gotta do us.

732
00:42:09,239 --> 00:42:11,640
Speaker 1: But I'm just don't don't shoot the messenger, you know,

733
00:42:12,640 --> 00:42:15,640
Speaker 1: or the guy who's gonna do it. Don't shoot the

734
00:42:15,640 --> 00:42:18,640
Speaker 1: guy who's gonna blind you. You know, I'm just doing

735
00:42:18,640 --> 00:42:23,239
Speaker 1: my job. So when Sammy Davis Jr. Found out about this,

736
00:42:23,560 --> 00:42:27,960
Speaker 1: he was obviously stunned. The first thing he did was

737
00:42:28,040 --> 00:42:30,359
Speaker 1: called some of the gangsters that he was friendly with,

738
00:42:30,440 --> 00:42:33,080
Speaker 1: because this is a time in Hollywood when you could

739
00:42:33,080 --> 00:42:36,320
Speaker 1: not be in the entertainment business without dealing with mobsters

740
00:42:36,360 --> 00:42:38,920
Speaker 1: on some level. So everybody knew a couple of gangsters.

741
00:42:39,520 --> 00:42:42,560
Speaker 1: If you got famous, you you owed a Christmas card

742
00:42:42,600 --> 00:42:46,440
Speaker 1: to a mobster somewhere, you know. Arthur Silber told Vanity

743
00:42:46,440 --> 00:42:50,359
Speaker 1: Fair quote, the gangsters owned the nightclubs, all of them.

744
00:42:50,440 --> 00:42:54,600
Speaker 1: They controlled the silverware, they controlled the linens, they controlled

745
00:42:54,600 --> 00:42:58,760
Speaker 1: all the liquor. Sammy Davis Jr. Also Had a bad

746
00:42:58,800 --> 00:43:02,520
Speaker 1: habit of borrowing, so he was always deeply in debt

747
00:43:02,520 --> 00:43:04,600
Speaker 1: to the mob as well, which Arthur spent a lot

748
00:43:04,680 --> 00:43:08,120
Speaker 1: of time straightening out for him. Sammy Jr. Called Sam

749
00:43:08,200 --> 00:43:12,480
Speaker 1: Giancana in Chicago, but Sam couldn't help. He basically told him,

750
00:43:13,320 --> 00:43:15,200
Speaker 1: you know what, a West coast, that's not really my

751
00:43:15,320 --> 00:43:19,120
Speaker 1: jurisdiction there, So you know, you better not go back

752
00:43:19,160 --> 00:43:23,480
Speaker 1: to Hollywood until you're all good there with Harry Cone. Chicago,

753
00:43:24,120 --> 00:43:29,320
Speaker 1: this midwestern a little north of Chicago, I think maybe

754
00:43:30,040 --> 00:43:32,960
Speaker 1: that's okay. Now. It is worth noting that Bert Boyer,

755
00:43:33,239 --> 00:43:36,960
Speaker 1: the Broadway writer, he never really thought that the mob

756
00:43:37,000 --> 00:43:40,480
Speaker 1: would ever hurt Sammy Davis Jr. Um He pointed out

757
00:43:40,520 --> 00:43:43,640
Speaker 1: to Vanity Fair that Sammy played all the mobs clubs,

758
00:43:43,840 --> 00:43:46,080
Speaker 1: you know, all of the country, no matter West coast,

759
00:43:46,120 --> 00:43:49,520
Speaker 1: East coast, Chicago, he was playing all of them. He

760
00:43:49,640 --> 00:43:52,480
Speaker 1: was a huge draw, so he made them tons of money,

761
00:43:52,560 --> 00:43:57,400
Speaker 1: which made him more valuable than Harry Cone. So you know,

762
00:43:57,480 --> 00:44:00,480
Speaker 1: he was kind of like they you know, if Harry

763
00:44:00,520 --> 00:44:02,600
Speaker 1: kN asked for a favor, maybe they were like, yeah, sure,

764
00:44:02,600 --> 00:44:04,279
Speaker 1: we'll put the screws to him, but they never would

765
00:44:04,280 --> 00:44:07,279
Speaker 1: have actually gone through with it. But Sammy's manager Si

766
00:44:07,440 --> 00:44:11,600
Speaker 1: Marsh was certain that quote Sammy was inches away from

767
00:44:11,600 --> 00:44:15,240
Speaker 1: being killed, and Sammy certainly believed that he was inches

768
00:44:15,280 --> 00:44:17,839
Speaker 1: away from being killed like he I which I can

769
00:44:17,920 --> 00:44:20,880
Speaker 1: imagine he probably even though he's very well paid and

770
00:44:21,000 --> 00:44:23,880
Speaker 1: very famous, it's not like people were telling him a

771
00:44:23,880 --> 00:44:27,399
Speaker 1: lot how valuable he was, so he's probably like, yeah,

772
00:44:27,440 --> 00:44:30,759
Speaker 1: I'm disposable. And after he got the phone call from

773
00:44:30,760 --> 00:44:34,520
Speaker 1: his father about the threats from Mickey Cowen, Arthur noticed

774
00:44:34,600 --> 00:44:36,680
Speaker 1: Sammy sitting on the edge of his bed in his

775
00:44:36,719 --> 00:44:39,560
Speaker 1: suite at the Sands, flipping through an address book and

776
00:44:39,560 --> 00:44:42,239
Speaker 1: he's like, what you're doing and Sammy said, I'm looking

777
00:44:42,280 --> 00:44:45,399
Speaker 1: for a woman to marry, and that brings us right

778
00:44:45,440 --> 00:44:55,960
Speaker 1: into this episode side, will you marry me? The name

779
00:44:56,040 --> 00:44:58,960
Speaker 1: he picked was Laray White, who is an actress and

780
00:44:59,040 --> 00:45:02,600
Speaker 1: dancer he had dated briefly and she was performing down

781
00:45:02,600 --> 00:45:06,960
Speaker 1: the street at the Silver Slipper speculation station. Do you

782
00:45:06,960 --> 00:45:09,879
Speaker 1: think that he was like he got to Laray's name

783
00:45:09,960 --> 00:45:11,800
Speaker 1: and was like, you know what, fucked them? I'm gonna

784
00:45:11,800 --> 00:45:17,239
Speaker 1: marry a white woman one way or another. I got

785
00:45:17,280 --> 00:45:21,080
Speaker 1: me a white woman somehow. Yes, last name counts. Last

786
00:45:21,120 --> 00:45:24,879
Speaker 1: name counts. Close it up. So she was twenty three,

787
00:45:25,000 --> 00:45:27,279
Speaker 1: she was already twice divorced, and she had a six

788
00:45:27,360 --> 00:45:30,080
Speaker 1: year old. She came over to a suite and Sammy

789
00:45:30,080 --> 00:45:33,480
Speaker 1: sat down and told her he'd give her a certain

790
00:45:33,520 --> 00:45:37,640
Speaker 1: sum of money people have speculated between ten thousand and

791
00:45:37,640 --> 00:45:41,840
Speaker 1: twenty five dollars to marry him and act as his wife,

792
00:45:41,960 --> 00:45:44,640
Speaker 1: on the condition that the marriage would be dissolved before

793
00:45:44,640 --> 00:45:47,040
Speaker 1: a year was out. So she was just going to

794
00:45:47,120 --> 00:45:48,759
Speaker 1: play act for a little while, get him out of

795
00:45:48,800 --> 00:45:51,440
Speaker 1: this mess, just so my legs don't get broken. So

796
00:45:51,560 --> 00:45:53,920
Speaker 1: romantic now, she was probably like, oh my god, me,

797
00:45:54,400 --> 00:45:57,480
Speaker 1: what was your proposal? Like well, I didn't want my

798
00:45:57,560 --> 00:46:02,040
Speaker 1: legs broken, so there was were crosshairs on me, and

799
00:46:02,080 --> 00:46:04,000
Speaker 1: I got done on one knee and said, for the

800
00:46:04,040 --> 00:46:07,560
Speaker 1: sake of my vision, please do me the honor of

801
00:46:07,600 --> 00:46:11,320
Speaker 1: taking this check and marrying me for ten months taking

802
00:46:11,320 --> 00:46:13,800
Speaker 1: this check, and also my name for a little period

803
00:46:13,800 --> 00:46:17,719
Speaker 1: of time. And Lay agreed, and on January tenth, ninety

804
00:46:18,239 --> 00:46:20,880
Speaker 1: she and Sammy Jr. Were married by a Justice of

805
00:46:20,920 --> 00:46:24,040
Speaker 1: the peace. She was forty minutes late for a two

806
00:46:24,080 --> 00:46:27,680
Speaker 1: minute ceremony, so she wasn't in a rush to get there.

807
00:46:27,680 --> 00:46:32,200
Speaker 1: It's like, he'll wait, ain't gonna be mad. He ain't leaving.

808
00:46:32,239 --> 00:46:36,040
Speaker 1: I know that much. Harry Belafonte, who was in town

809
00:46:36,040 --> 00:46:39,879
Speaker 1: performing at the Riviera, was Sammy's best man. Sammy got

810
00:46:39,920 --> 00:46:42,239
Speaker 1: wasted at the wedding, and on the way back to

811
00:46:42,280 --> 00:46:45,400
Speaker 1: the hotel, he tried to strangle Lay in the backseat

812
00:46:45,400 --> 00:46:48,680
Speaker 1: of their car. Arthur had to restrain him and carry

813
00:46:48,800 --> 00:46:52,399
Speaker 1: him to his room while Sammy yelled, quote, why won't

814
00:46:52,440 --> 00:46:56,000
Speaker 1: they let me live my life? He also put a

815
00:46:56,040 --> 00:46:58,640
Speaker 1: gun to his head that evening, but Arthur walked in

816
00:46:58,719 --> 00:47:00,880
Speaker 1: just in time to suck it out of his hands

817
00:47:00,880 --> 00:47:05,080
Speaker 1: and literally sit on him until he passed out. Arthur

818
00:47:05,160 --> 00:47:08,640
Speaker 1: really just the best friend you could ask for. Arthur

819
00:47:08,760 --> 00:47:12,160
Speaker 1: was there for Sammy Davis Jr. His whole life. Basically,

820
00:47:12,800 --> 00:47:15,440
Speaker 1: I think it's telling that even though Sammy knew this

821
00:47:15,480 --> 00:47:18,800
Speaker 1: was temporary and not real, he still was so upset

822
00:47:18,880 --> 00:47:21,799
Speaker 1: to be married to this woman he didn't love and

823
00:47:21,880 --> 00:47:26,160
Speaker 1: that he didn't want, and he's like just dealing with

824
00:47:26,200 --> 00:47:29,799
Speaker 1: that weirdness of like I have money and fame and

825
00:47:30,000 --> 00:47:34,720
Speaker 1: famous friends, and I'm in this great sweet and everything

826
00:47:34,719 --> 00:47:37,959
Speaker 1: seems like fine, but I still can't have the things

827
00:47:37,960 --> 00:47:40,799
Speaker 1: that I want that any other man can have. And

828
00:47:41,080 --> 00:47:44,920
Speaker 1: it should be noted that with all that said, totally

829
00:47:45,000 --> 00:47:48,839
Speaker 1: unacceptable for him to take it out on her with violence, absolutely,

830
00:47:48,880 --> 00:47:54,200
Speaker 1: Like that's insane, like drunk, angry at the world, totally mistreated,

831
00:47:55,120 --> 00:47:58,719
Speaker 1: all totally good reasons to be furious and upset and

832
00:47:58,760 --> 00:48:02,920
Speaker 1: inconsolable and didn't like a damn fool, but not okay

833
00:48:03,040 --> 00:48:05,000
Speaker 1: to try and strangle a woman, you know, in the

834
00:48:05,000 --> 00:48:06,680
Speaker 1: back of your car. And there's not a lot of

835
00:48:06,680 --> 00:48:09,200
Speaker 1: details about that. It just said he got really distraught,

836
00:48:09,800 --> 00:48:13,160
Speaker 1: that's why he started like trying to strangle her. So

837
00:48:14,640 --> 00:48:18,360
Speaker 1: who knows, maybe they exchanged some words she said something

838
00:48:18,400 --> 00:48:22,720
Speaker 1: in sense, you know, insensitive of something, and he decided

839
00:48:22,800 --> 00:48:25,160
Speaker 1: he just went off, like I just can't imagine why

840
00:48:25,239 --> 00:48:27,400
Speaker 1: he would make her the I guess she was just

841
00:48:27,440 --> 00:48:30,399
Speaker 1: the representation of everything that was wrong at that point. True,

842
00:48:30,400 --> 00:48:32,359
Speaker 1: that's true. That's true too. And if you're really drunk

843
00:48:32,400 --> 00:48:35,040
Speaker 1: and fucked up, you know, you probably don't have a

844
00:48:35,040 --> 00:48:38,000
Speaker 1: lot of logic into your thoughts or anything like that.

845
00:48:38,080 --> 00:48:40,600
Speaker 1: But get you to a place where when you're drunk

846
00:48:40,640 --> 00:48:43,279
Speaker 1: and angry, you don't take it out with violence on

847
00:48:43,360 --> 00:48:47,160
Speaker 1: anyone else. Right, that's still a choice. Lora White was

848
00:48:47,200 --> 00:48:50,400
Speaker 1: installed in the presidential suite at the Sands Hotel alone,

849
00:48:50,560 --> 00:48:53,319
Speaker 1: and later rented a house in the Hollywood Hills. The

850
00:48:53,400 --> 00:48:57,719
Speaker 1: couple never once lived together, but Sammy was grateful to

851
00:48:57,760 --> 00:49:00,600
Speaker 1: her for protecting him from the mob violence, and he

852
00:49:00,640 --> 00:49:03,080
Speaker 1: gave her a blonde minx stole and a rose cut

853
00:49:03,120 --> 00:49:06,560
Speaker 1: diamond ring surrounded by emeralds. She went on a shopping

854
00:49:06,560 --> 00:49:09,840
Speaker 1: spree and was photographed surrounded with twenty pairs of shoes,

855
00:49:10,520 --> 00:49:13,560
Speaker 1: and only six months later, he paid her twenty five

856
00:49:13,600 --> 00:49:17,680
Speaker 1: thousand dollars to divorce him. Kim meanwhile, largely kept to

857
00:49:17,719 --> 00:49:20,120
Speaker 1: herself after his marriage. And it seems like they're a

858
00:49:20,120 --> 00:49:23,640
Speaker 1: fair kind of fizzled out. She said in vanity fair quote.

859
00:49:23,960 --> 00:49:26,560
Speaker 1: I was suddenly in the eye of a hurricane. My

860
00:49:26,680 --> 00:49:28,960
Speaker 1: agent told me my career would be over if I

861
00:49:29,000 --> 00:49:32,080
Speaker 1: continued to see Sammy. Some of my friends wouldn't even

862
00:49:32,080 --> 00:49:35,319
Speaker 1: return my telephone calls. That you have to say, if

863
00:49:35,360 --> 00:49:37,480
Speaker 1: you're dating a black guy and your friends stopped returning

864
00:49:37,480 --> 00:49:40,080
Speaker 1: your phone calls, then maybe they are not very good friends. Yeah,

865
00:49:40,800 --> 00:49:43,600
Speaker 1: I'll I like that, she got, if you continue to

866
00:49:43,680 --> 00:49:46,120
Speaker 1: date him, you'll get fired. And he got if you

867
00:49:46,120 --> 00:49:48,840
Speaker 1: continue to date her, I'll break your legs and take

868
00:49:48,880 --> 00:49:53,680
Speaker 1: your eye. Yeah. Yeah, that's that's a racial disparity right there,

869
00:49:53,800 --> 00:49:57,080
Speaker 1: very much so. Yeah, and yeah, Kim's biographer thought Harry

870
00:49:57,120 --> 00:49:59,479
Speaker 1: Cohne was the real villain of this whole thing, which

871
00:49:59,520 --> 00:50:02,160
Speaker 1: he's not wrong, it's it really does sound like I mean,

872
00:50:02,200 --> 00:50:06,280
Speaker 1: Harry Cohne is the reason they elevated the steak so high.

873
00:50:06,320 --> 00:50:10,319
Speaker 1: He's crazy, why would you do that? But fortunately, which

874
00:50:10,360 --> 00:50:12,879
Speaker 1: I normally don't say about things like this, But fortunately,

875
00:50:12,960 --> 00:50:16,040
Speaker 1: two months after ordering the hit on Sammy, Harry Cohne

876
00:50:16,080 --> 00:50:18,719
Speaker 1: had a final heart attack and died in the ambulance

877
00:50:18,760 --> 00:50:22,080
Speaker 1: on the way to the hospital. Now two thousand people

878
00:50:22,120 --> 00:50:26,799
Speaker 1: attended his funeral, and comedian Read Skelton famously said, quote, well,

879
00:50:26,960 --> 00:50:29,880
Speaker 1: it proves what Harry always said. Give the public something

880
00:50:29,880 --> 00:50:31,520
Speaker 1: they want to see and they'll come out for it.

881
00:50:34,760 --> 00:50:37,880
Speaker 1: I love. He was roasted his own funeral, and Harry's

882
00:50:37,920 --> 00:50:43,799
Speaker 1: widow blamed Kim's quote scandalous behavior for Harry's death. It's

883
00:50:43,800 --> 00:50:46,839
Speaker 1: all her fault, all right, lady, Get over it. Maybe

884
00:50:46,840 --> 00:50:48,520
Speaker 1: he should have learned how to calm down and not

885
00:50:48,640 --> 00:50:52,080
Speaker 1: take things so seriously. And though he had been such

886
00:50:52,120 --> 00:50:55,760
Speaker 1: an asshole, work dried up for Kim after he died.

887
00:50:56,200 --> 00:50:58,879
Speaker 1: She admitted that he was good at finding parts for her,

888
00:50:58,960 --> 00:51:01,040
Speaker 1: and she said that no that the studio seemed to

889
00:51:01,040 --> 00:51:03,560
Speaker 1: know what to do with her. After that, she did

890
00:51:03,600 --> 00:51:06,040
Speaker 1: a few more films, but in nineteen sixty two she

891
00:51:06,200 --> 00:51:09,319
Speaker 1: basically left Hollywood for good, and she retired to Big

892
00:51:09,360 --> 00:51:13,719
Speaker 1: Sir to horseback ride, paint, lasso, driftwood, raise lamas, and

893
00:51:13,760 --> 00:51:17,359
Speaker 1: make flutes out of kelp you know, classic starlet things

894
00:51:17,360 --> 00:51:21,399
Speaker 1: to do post retirement, normal hobbies that we all have.

895
00:51:22,560 --> 00:51:24,799
Speaker 1: She tried to write her memoirs, but she discovered that

896
00:51:24,840 --> 00:51:27,680
Speaker 1: she had blocked out entire parts of her Hollywood life,

897
00:51:28,200 --> 00:51:30,440
Speaker 1: and she would either not be able to remember anything,

898
00:51:30,880 --> 00:51:33,240
Speaker 1: or she'd get so emotional that she had to stop writing,

899
00:51:33,680 --> 00:51:36,279
Speaker 1: which says a lot about whatever was going on with her.

900
00:51:37,440 --> 00:51:39,160
Speaker 1: I mean, this is only just a part of her

901
00:51:39,200 --> 00:51:42,960
Speaker 1: life in Hollywood, and it was this crazy, but it

902
00:51:43,040 --> 00:51:45,320
Speaker 1: must there must have been some real fucked up ship

903
00:51:45,400 --> 00:51:47,279
Speaker 1: to have her be like I can't remember any of that.

904
00:51:48,360 --> 00:51:51,080
Speaker 1: Eventually she moved to an even more remote area in

905
00:51:51,080 --> 00:51:55,080
Speaker 1: the Pacific Northwest. Actor Cliff Robertson believed that she quote

906
00:51:55,120 --> 00:51:59,640
Speaker 1: played her cards, carefully, kept her winnings, and finally left Hollywood.

907
00:51:59,800 --> 00:52:02,919
Speaker 1: I think she beat it. I think that's fair to say,

908
00:52:03,080 --> 00:52:05,239
Speaker 1: right if you're like, she didn't burn out, She didn't

909
00:52:05,280 --> 00:52:08,040
Speaker 1: flame out. Nobody asked her to leave. Nobody was like,

910
00:52:08,400 --> 00:52:11,160
Speaker 1: why are we still looking at this this lady. She

911
00:52:11,360 --> 00:52:14,439
Speaker 1: just did her movies, she turned in some amazing work.

912
00:52:14,560 --> 00:52:18,760
Speaker 1: She's a legend, and then she went to go be herself.

913
00:52:18,880 --> 00:52:22,160
Speaker 1: Look how many people Hollywood leaves destroyed, especially back then,

914
00:52:22,800 --> 00:52:27,319
Speaker 1: just left, you know, just with nothing except alcoholism and

915
00:52:27,520 --> 00:52:33,600
Speaker 1: horrible memories. And even the successful ones were often left miserable,

916
00:52:33,640 --> 00:52:36,840
Speaker 1: even like Carry Grant, who was successful his whole life

917
00:52:37,280 --> 00:52:40,520
Speaker 1: was still we learned in the Carlo Ponte Serfield are

918
00:52:40,520 --> 00:52:44,640
Speaker 1: An episode, like a damaged, destroyed person who wasn't very happy,

919
00:52:45,080 --> 00:52:48,080
Speaker 1: you know, so if she got out, took her money,

920
00:52:48,120 --> 00:52:51,640
Speaker 1: and obviously she wasn't. She had issues, she had memories

921
00:52:51,640 --> 00:52:56,720
Speaker 1: she couldn't even think of without getting upset distraught. Um,

922
00:52:56,760 --> 00:53:00,319
Speaker 1: but she she beat it, she got out. She's okay

923
00:53:00,000 --> 00:53:04,920
Speaker 1: a relatively speaking, so yeah, yeah, so good, good for her.

924
00:53:05,160 --> 00:53:09,239
Speaker 1: And she's still alive, by the way, she's still but

925
00:53:09,400 --> 00:53:12,960
Speaker 1: only a few months after all this rigamarole with Kim

926
00:53:13,080 --> 00:53:17,600
Speaker 1: Sammy would set Tinseltown ablaze again with his marriage to

927
00:53:17,640 --> 00:53:21,479
Speaker 1: a different white actress, My Britt, And we'll find out

928
00:53:21,520 --> 00:53:31,520
Speaker 1: all about that right after this and welcome back to

929
00:53:31,560 --> 00:53:36,200
Speaker 1: the show, and welcome back to Tinseltown. Yeah lights camera

930
00:53:37,320 --> 00:53:41,880
Speaker 1: Vanity Fair says that quote like Novak, Britt was a shy,

931
00:53:41,920 --> 00:53:46,200
Speaker 1: towering blonde with a breathtaking face. She was Swedish and

932
00:53:46,239 --> 00:53:49,719
Speaker 1: she had been discovered by Italian filmmaker Carlo Ponti. Hey

933
00:53:49,760 --> 00:53:51,840
Speaker 1: I know that guy. Hey, we talked about him in

934
00:53:51,880 --> 00:53:55,240
Speaker 1: our episode Carlo Ponti and Sophia loren So, yeah, she

935
00:53:55,239 --> 00:53:58,960
Speaker 1: she did make a few Italian films, and then she

936
00:53:59,160 --> 00:54:02,560
Speaker 1: relocated to l and to Hollywood and she signed with

937
00:54:02,680 --> 00:54:06,239
Speaker 1: twentieth Century Fox and she made a few films with

938
00:54:06,280 --> 00:54:10,600
Speaker 1: the likes of Marlon Brando, Robert Meetschum, Montgomery Cliff, and

939
00:54:10,719 --> 00:54:14,560
Speaker 1: Peter Falk. Poor girl, now right, She's like, actually, I

940
00:54:14,640 --> 00:54:17,160
Speaker 1: kind of hate it here. But in nineteen fifty nine

941
00:54:17,239 --> 00:54:20,600
Speaker 1: she met Sammy Davis Jr. And after dating briefly, they

942
00:54:20,640 --> 00:54:25,359
Speaker 1: got engaged in nineteen sixty and twentieth Century Fox immediately

943
00:54:25,400 --> 00:54:28,400
Speaker 1: canceled her contracts and she never made a movie again.

944
00:54:29,200 --> 00:54:32,760
Speaker 1: But Vanity Fair says she has no regrets. She said, quote,

945
00:54:32,960 --> 00:54:35,319
Speaker 1: I loved Sammy and I had the chance to marry

946
00:54:35,360 --> 00:54:38,760
Speaker 1: the man I loved. Sammy announced their engagement in London,

947
00:54:38,800 --> 00:54:42,720
Speaker 1: where he was performing, but the day after, British fascists

948
00:54:42,760 --> 00:54:47,719
Speaker 1: picketed the theater, booing and shouting racial slurs, which included

949
00:54:47,760 --> 00:54:52,320
Speaker 1: anti Semitic slurs as well, because they had converted to Judaism,

950
00:54:52,400 --> 00:54:54,680
Speaker 1: so it was a lot of horrible words all strung together.

951
00:54:55,719 --> 00:54:58,360
Speaker 1: So back at home, both of them got stacks of

952
00:54:58,400 --> 00:55:01,720
Speaker 1: hate mail from white and black people. Plenty of people

953
00:55:01,719 --> 00:55:04,520
Speaker 1: in the black community had long accused Sammy Davis Jr.

954
00:55:04,560 --> 00:55:08,240
Speaker 1: Of being ashamed of being black. Bomb threats were called

955
00:55:08,239 --> 00:55:11,520
Speaker 1: in at theater Sammy performed in and once in d C.

956
00:55:12,160 --> 00:55:16,799
Speaker 1: The American Nazi Party picketed outside his show, although audiences

957
00:55:16,840 --> 00:55:19,160
Speaker 1: gave him a standing ovation when he got to the stage.

958
00:55:19,680 --> 00:55:22,200
Speaker 1: But he got so many death threats that he had

959
00:55:22,239 --> 00:55:25,000
Speaker 1: to hire twenty four hour armed guards, and he was

960
00:55:25,040 --> 00:55:28,000
Speaker 1: always worried that someone would attack My if they went out,

961
00:55:28,080 --> 00:55:31,920
Speaker 1: so they rarely did. Bert Boyer said My was quote

962
00:55:31,920 --> 00:55:35,640
Speaker 1: like a prisoner in a mink lined cell. When they

963
00:55:35,640 --> 00:55:38,920
Speaker 1: did go out, Sammy was armed either with a cane

964
00:55:38,920 --> 00:55:41,480
Speaker 1: with a knife in it or a gun, which he

965
00:55:41,520 --> 00:55:44,280
Speaker 1: definitely knew how to use. Because Sammy Davis Jr. Also

966
00:55:44,320 --> 00:55:48,200
Speaker 1: competed in fast draw competitions, wouldn't you love to see

967
00:55:48,280 --> 00:55:51,680
Speaker 1: him against Annie Oakley? Like, if there was a way to,

968
00:55:52,200 --> 00:55:54,160
Speaker 1: if I could Bill and Ted, you know, a collection

969
00:55:54,200 --> 00:55:55,879
Speaker 1: of people and do a show, that would be part

970
00:55:55,880 --> 00:56:00,200
Speaker 1: of it sharpshooters. Yeah. Also, I mean, I don't know

971
00:56:00,239 --> 00:56:02,160
Speaker 1: about you, but I was a little shocked that this

972
00:56:03,360 --> 00:56:06,360
Speaker 1: close after the end of World War Two, we still

973
00:56:06,480 --> 00:56:11,040
Speaker 1: had a Nazi Party, and we still had fascists like

974
00:56:11,800 --> 00:56:15,600
Speaker 1: and proud fascists walking around. I feel like I guess

975
00:56:15,640 --> 00:56:20,200
Speaker 1: I thought, well, after they lost, you know, everyone sort

976
00:56:20,200 --> 00:56:22,719
Speaker 1: of like, oh, that's not popular anymore. But I guess

977
00:56:22,760 --> 00:56:24,799
Speaker 1: it took a lot longer than I thought to kind

978
00:56:24,840 --> 00:56:27,960
Speaker 1: of and we still didn't really stamp out that. You know,

979
00:56:28,800 --> 00:56:32,520
Speaker 1: one thing I've learned about fascists recently, and Nazis specifically,

980
00:56:32,719 --> 00:56:36,120
Speaker 1: is that it's very hard to stop them from being Nazis.

981
00:56:36,640 --> 00:56:39,400
Speaker 1: No matter how many times they lose and look like

982
00:56:39,480 --> 00:56:43,200
Speaker 1: idiots and fail and suck horribly at everything they tried

983
00:56:43,239 --> 00:56:47,800
Speaker 1: to accomplish, um, they continue to just keep on sucking

984
00:56:47,800 --> 00:56:51,640
Speaker 1: out there in the world. Yeah, so I imagine that. Yeah,

985
00:56:51,640 --> 00:56:53,319
Speaker 1: after World War Two, plenty of them were just like,

986
00:56:53,400 --> 00:56:55,960
Speaker 1: barely even took time to lick their wounds. I just

987
00:56:56,080 --> 00:56:58,840
Speaker 1: got right back on the on the horrible, horrible horse.

988
00:57:00,000 --> 00:57:03,200
Speaker 1: A horse was like, please, don't write, don't involve me

989
00:57:03,239 --> 00:57:07,640
Speaker 1: in your nonsense. Sammy worked with the civil rights movement.

990
00:57:07,680 --> 00:57:11,800
Speaker 1: He campaigned for JFK, but he was booed while singing

991
00:57:11,800 --> 00:57:15,840
Speaker 1: the national anthem at the Mississippi Democratic National Convention, and

992
00:57:15,920 --> 00:57:19,720
Speaker 1: that brought him nearly to tears. And after winning the election,

993
00:57:19,840 --> 00:57:24,680
Speaker 1: JFK invited Sammy to sing at his inauguration, and Sammy

994
00:57:24,960 --> 00:57:27,640
Speaker 1: was so proud that he got like a special suit made,

995
00:57:27,760 --> 00:57:31,640
Speaker 1: and My bought a Balenciaga dress like they were getting

996
00:57:31,640 --> 00:57:36,080
Speaker 1: ready to bring it to the inauguration. But only three

997
00:57:36,160 --> 00:57:39,720
Speaker 1: days before the event, the White House called an uninvited

998
00:57:39,760 --> 00:57:43,040
Speaker 1: them all politics. They say as nothing personal. They just

999
00:57:43,080 --> 00:57:47,160
Speaker 1: don't want to invite Controver anything. But the snub really

1000
00:57:47,360 --> 00:57:51,360
Speaker 1: hurt and embarrassed Sammy and plus Harry Bellefonte was still

1001
00:57:51,400 --> 00:57:54,680
Speaker 1: invited and still performed, even though he too was married

1002
00:57:54,720 --> 00:57:56,560
Speaker 1: to a white woman. He had married a white woman

1003
00:57:56,600 --> 00:58:00,000
Speaker 1: in the eighty seven, but no one had gotten more

1004
00:58:00,040 --> 00:58:05,120
Speaker 1: publicity than Sammy and his wife. Speculation Station, I'm guessing

1005
00:58:05,160 --> 00:58:08,320
Speaker 1: that JFK strategists were kind of like, well, Sammy's in

1006
00:58:08,320 --> 00:58:11,960
Speaker 1: the middle of a whole controversy. Everybody's looking at him

1007
00:58:12,040 --> 00:58:14,720
Speaker 1: and talking about him in my and we don't want

1008
00:58:14,720 --> 00:58:17,360
Speaker 1: all that energy up in here. It will alienate the

1009
00:58:17,720 --> 00:58:20,200
Speaker 1: racist Southern Democrats we still have in the party for

1010
00:58:20,280 --> 00:58:22,720
Speaker 1: some reason. But also they were kind of like, well,

1011
00:58:22,720 --> 00:58:24,320
Speaker 1: we have to have at least one black face in

1012
00:58:24,360 --> 00:58:28,360
Speaker 1: the mix. Because JFK campaigned one of his huge campaign

1013
00:58:28,400 --> 00:58:31,200
Speaker 1: promises was to sign a Civil Rights Act as soon

1014
00:58:31,240 --> 00:58:33,280
Speaker 1: as he entered office. He was like, I'm that's my

1015
00:58:33,320 --> 00:58:36,600
Speaker 1: first priority. Of course it wasn't, but um but anyway,

1016
00:58:36,640 --> 00:58:39,440
Speaker 1: so I'm sure that's why. That's probably why Harry Belafonte

1017
00:58:39,600 --> 00:58:43,720
Speaker 1: was there. Um again, I'm speculating. And then again in

1018
00:58:43,840 --> 00:58:47,080
Speaker 1: nineteen sixty three, Sammy and his wife My were invited

1019
00:58:47,160 --> 00:58:50,760
Speaker 1: to a White House dinner for African American leaders, and

1020
00:58:50,800 --> 00:58:52,640
Speaker 1: they actually got to go to that one, I guess.

1021
00:58:52,760 --> 00:58:56,760
Speaker 1: But JFK hissed at one of his aids to quote,

1022
00:58:57,040 --> 00:58:59,720
Speaker 1: get them out of here and like hustle them away

1023
00:58:59,760 --> 00:59:02,360
Speaker 1: from photographers. He didn't want them to seem like I

1024
00:59:02,400 --> 00:59:05,400
Speaker 1: guess they were a big part of the event or something.

1025
00:59:06,120 --> 00:59:09,920
Speaker 1: So anyway, even though Sammy had campaigned for JFK, had

1026
00:59:09,920 --> 00:59:14,240
Speaker 1: fundraised for the Democratic Party, had helped him win, he

1027
00:59:14,320 --> 00:59:17,000
Speaker 1: did not give get a lot of respect from that

1028
00:59:17,080 --> 00:59:22,080
Speaker 1: administration at all. Come on, John Speculation Station maybe of

1029
00:59:22,200 --> 00:59:29,040
Speaker 1: either Maryland or Jackie was like, Sammy, he's pretty cool, cool.

1030
00:59:29,120 --> 00:59:31,360
Speaker 1: I like Sammy Davis Jr. And John was like, get

1031
00:59:31,400 --> 00:59:34,800
Speaker 1: him out of here. I will not have him here

1032
00:59:35,560 --> 00:59:40,560
Speaker 1: impressing my wife or a girlfriend. I will not allow it.

1033
00:59:41,360 --> 00:59:44,400
Speaker 1: So Once, right after their marriage, Martin Luther King Jr.

1034
00:59:44,440 --> 00:59:47,000
Speaker 1: Came to visit Sammy and My at their hotel suite,

1035
00:59:47,240 --> 00:59:49,480
Speaker 1: which they were sharing with Bert Boyer and his wife.

1036
00:59:50,200 --> 00:59:55,480
Speaker 1: Bert asked MLK, Martin, where are we racially, But it

1037
00:59:55,600 --> 00:59:59,320
Speaker 1: was Sammy Davis Jr. Who answered. He said, quote, I'll

1038
00:59:59,360 --> 01:00:01,960
Speaker 1: tell you where I am. I'm in the best suite

1039
01:00:02,040 --> 01:00:04,520
Speaker 1: in this hotel. But I can't walk down the street

1040
01:00:04,560 --> 01:00:09,400
Speaker 1: with my wife. So frustrating, so much because it's like,

1041
01:00:09,480 --> 01:00:13,080
Speaker 1: I'm a millionaire. I'm one of the top earning people

1042
01:00:13,080 --> 01:00:16,800
Speaker 1: in this country. I've got respect and love and cash,

1043
01:00:17,280 --> 01:00:20,720
Speaker 1: and I'm living at the top of the mountain of

1044
01:00:20,720 --> 01:00:23,360
Speaker 1: the American dream. I have achieved it all like we're

1045
01:00:23,400 --> 01:00:28,080
Speaker 1: supposed to, and yet I am hated, derided. I can't

1046
01:00:28,120 --> 01:00:31,120
Speaker 1: go out in public. I can't express my love for

1047
01:00:31,200 --> 01:00:34,960
Speaker 1: someone hideous. America will not let me forget that I

1048
01:00:35,000 --> 01:00:37,720
Speaker 1: am black and that black is different and black is

1049
01:00:38,160 --> 01:00:42,360
Speaker 1: not as good or something like. That's just crazy. It is.

1050
01:00:42,440 --> 01:00:46,919
Speaker 1: It must be such a cognitive like just a mind fuck,

1051
01:00:47,280 --> 01:00:50,360
Speaker 1: because you're like, I've done everything that you're supposed to do.

1052
01:00:50,440 --> 01:00:54,040
Speaker 1: I have everything everyone says makes you happy, and yet

1053
01:00:54,240 --> 01:00:57,560
Speaker 1: here I am still dealing with the same bullshit as

1054
01:00:58,240 --> 01:01:00,440
Speaker 1: anyone else on the street that does and have what

1055
01:01:00,520 --> 01:01:04,200
Speaker 1: I have. MLK responded by quoting the words of a

1056
01:01:04,240 --> 01:01:07,680
Speaker 1: slave preacher, quote, we ain't what we ought to be,

1057
01:01:08,080 --> 01:01:10,120
Speaker 1: We ain't what we want to be. We ain't what

1058
01:01:10,160 --> 01:01:14,200
Speaker 1: we're gonna be, but thank god we ain't what we was. Um,

1059
01:01:14,200 --> 01:01:16,560
Speaker 1: which is it's certainly a context to put it in,

1060
01:01:17,000 --> 01:01:20,040
Speaker 1: but you really kind of see Sammy's feelings there about

1061
01:01:20,040 --> 01:01:22,360
Speaker 1: his situation and the reality of the situation he was

1062
01:01:22,440 --> 01:01:26,280
Speaker 1: in UM and MLK kind of not tempering that but

1063
01:01:26,400 --> 01:01:30,440
Speaker 1: sort of looking for the silver lining I guess maybe yeah,

1064
01:01:30,680 --> 01:01:33,120
Speaker 1: which I think m OK was good at doing that,

1065
01:01:33,280 --> 01:01:35,880
Speaker 1: where he's like, listen, I want to acknowledge that we've

1066
01:01:35,920 --> 01:01:39,360
Speaker 1: come very far, because, as we've talked about before, white

1067
01:01:39,360 --> 01:01:42,360
Speaker 1: people always think you've gone far enough. You know what

1068
01:01:42,400 --> 01:01:44,440
Speaker 1: I mean, Well, you're not slaves anymore, So what are

1069
01:01:44,440 --> 01:01:47,080
Speaker 1: you complaining, right, Well, you know things aren't segregated, So

1070
01:01:47,080 --> 01:01:48,480
Speaker 1: what are you complaining about? You know what I mean,

1071
01:01:48,520 --> 01:01:51,840
Speaker 1: it's always moving. There was a black president, come on, right,

1072
01:01:53,200 --> 01:01:55,240
Speaker 1: I mean basically, so it's you know, I think he

1073
01:01:55,320 --> 01:01:57,040
Speaker 1: was kind of like, yeah, I want to acknowledge that

1074
01:01:57,280 --> 01:02:00,440
Speaker 1: certainly things have changed. They are better than they were, sure,

1075
01:02:00,680 --> 01:02:05,240
Speaker 1: but they ain't what they're gonna be. And I promised

1076
01:02:05,280 --> 01:02:07,840
Speaker 1: you the more changes are coming. We're still going to

1077
01:02:07,960 --> 01:02:11,320
Speaker 1: be working on that. Were satisfied. So they shouldn't they

1078
01:02:11,400 --> 01:02:15,240
Speaker 1: should not be satisfied. Yeah. Absolutely. Then in nineteen sixty seven,

1079
01:02:15,480 --> 01:02:19,400
Speaker 1: the Supreme Court ruled that anti missgenation laws, the laws

1080
01:02:19,400 --> 01:02:23,280
Speaker 1: that made interracial marriage illegal, were unconstitutional in the landmark

1081
01:02:23,640 --> 01:02:27,800
Speaker 1: Loving Versus Virginia decision, And we are going to do

1082
01:02:27,840 --> 01:02:30,280
Speaker 1: a whole other episode on Loving Versus Virginia. We talked

1083
01:02:30,280 --> 01:02:32,920
Speaker 1: about it a bit in the Betty and Barney Hill episode.

1084
01:02:33,080 --> 01:02:35,720
Speaker 1: We met our Alien friends because they were an interracial

1085
01:02:35,720 --> 01:02:40,000
Speaker 1: couple in the sixties too. So the Loving Versus Virginia decision, Uh,

1086
01:02:40,080 --> 01:02:43,680
Speaker 1: definitely changed the whole country. Gerald Early, the editor for

1087
01:02:43,680 --> 01:02:47,320
Speaker 1: the book The Sammy Davis Reader, told Smithsonian Magazine quote,

1088
01:02:47,400 --> 01:02:50,720
Speaker 1: I was a little kid when this happened. Everybody talked

1089
01:02:50,720 --> 01:02:53,280
Speaker 1: about it. I do think it had an impact. It

1090
01:02:53,320 --> 01:02:55,120
Speaker 1: was one of those things in the sixties that was

1091
01:02:55,200 --> 01:02:58,400
Speaker 1: part of opening up American society a little bit. He

1092
01:02:58,520 --> 01:03:02,240
Speaker 1: and my brit were pioneered in making America more accepting

1093
01:03:02,400 --> 01:03:06,040
Speaker 1: of interracial marriage. Sammy and My had three children together,

1094
01:03:06,200 --> 01:03:09,320
Speaker 1: but he performed constantly and he spent very little time

1095
01:03:09,360 --> 01:03:12,760
Speaker 1: with her, and their marriage ended in nineteen sixty eight

1096
01:03:12,840 --> 01:03:16,160
Speaker 1: after Sammy had an affair with a dancer named Lola Felana.

1097
01:03:16,960 --> 01:03:20,360
Speaker 1: After that, Sammy started drinking a lot more. He did

1098
01:03:20,400 --> 01:03:25,440
Speaker 1: a lot of drugs. He started experimenting with satanism and pornography.

1099
01:03:26,080 --> 01:03:31,160
Speaker 1: He actually traveled with trunks of pornographic videos. Listen, kids,

1100
01:03:31,760 --> 01:03:34,080
Speaker 1: you used to not have this little rectangle that could

1101
01:03:34,080 --> 01:03:38,040
Speaker 1: show you titties all day long. You had to bring

1102
01:03:38,280 --> 01:03:41,240
Speaker 1: a trunk of tapes with you everywhere you went, and

1103
01:03:41,280 --> 01:03:43,920
Speaker 1: you had to remember to rewind him, or next time

1104
01:03:43,920 --> 01:03:45,400
Speaker 1: you'd be sitting there with your dick in your hand,

1105
01:03:45,440 --> 01:03:48,800
Speaker 1: like crap, I can't now, I gotta wait thirty seconds

1106
01:03:48,840 --> 01:03:52,479
Speaker 1: for this tape to rewind. De kind, rewind, be kind

1107
01:03:52,480 --> 01:03:54,880
Speaker 1: to your future self. Rewind your porn when you're done

1108
01:03:54,880 --> 01:03:57,600
Speaker 1: with it. Yes, I guess. I mean. I mean like

1109
01:03:57,680 --> 01:03:59,920
Speaker 1: DVDs came out when I was like fifteen. I was

1110
01:04:00,000 --> 01:04:02,520
Speaker 1: going to say how many tapes of porn, of internet

1111
01:04:02,520 --> 01:04:06,600
Speaker 1: porn was around, you know, early enough for time for

1112
01:04:06,640 --> 01:04:10,240
Speaker 1: them to download though days you had to wait for

1113
01:04:10,320 --> 01:04:14,200
Speaker 1: one little web. Next month, I'm going to have some blurry.

1114
01:04:15,840 --> 01:04:18,000
Speaker 1: You just don't know how good you have it children.

1115
01:04:20,360 --> 01:04:23,600
Speaker 1: So yeah, he would travel with these trunks of pornographic videos,

1116
01:04:23,680 --> 01:04:27,120
Speaker 1: and one of the members of his entourage would sometimes

1117
01:04:27,200 --> 01:04:30,000
Speaker 1: steal the tapes and then charge bell boys at the

1118
01:04:30,000 --> 01:04:32,280
Speaker 1: hotel to watch them. So he had his own little rental,

1119
01:04:32,720 --> 01:04:36,160
Speaker 1: a little porn blockbuster on porn. Oh theater happening in

1120
01:04:36,240 --> 01:04:41,600
Speaker 1: this hotel somewhere. Later that year, Sammy became involved with

1121
01:04:41,640 --> 01:04:44,880
Speaker 1: an actress named Alta vis Gore, who played his sister

1122
01:04:45,120 --> 01:04:48,360
Speaker 1: during the London run of the musical Golden Boy, and

1123
01:04:48,400 --> 01:04:51,160
Speaker 1: when he first invited her to join him in his suite,

1124
01:04:51,440 --> 01:04:54,680
Speaker 1: she was reluctant and told him, quote, they call you

1125
01:04:54,720 --> 01:04:58,040
Speaker 1: the carpenter because you nail every girl you meet. Oh wow,

1126
01:04:58,240 --> 01:05:01,440
Speaker 1: that's pretty good. That's good. But she did go, and

1127
01:05:01,480 --> 01:05:04,560
Speaker 1: in nineteen seventy they got married, and she told Vanity

1128
01:05:04,560 --> 01:05:07,280
Speaker 1: Fair quote, we loved each other very much. I was

1129
01:05:07,320 --> 01:05:09,480
Speaker 1: like a kid in a candy store and he wanted

1130
01:05:09,520 --> 01:05:13,000
Speaker 1: me to have the best. Then the late sixties and

1131
01:05:13,080 --> 01:05:16,440
Speaker 1: seventies were tough for Sammy. He performed on a fundraiser

1132
01:05:16,440 --> 01:05:19,160
Speaker 1: for Jesse Jackson, but he was booed when he came

1133
01:05:19,200 --> 01:05:22,280
Speaker 1: on stage. He sang one song and then left after

1134
01:05:22,320 --> 01:05:24,680
Speaker 1: all the snubs from JFK. You know, maybe it's no

1135
01:05:24,760 --> 01:05:28,480
Speaker 1: surprise that Sammy supported Republican Richard Nixon for president. In

1136
01:05:28,560 --> 01:05:32,240
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy two, he performed for the troops to benefit

1137
01:05:32,320 --> 01:05:35,960
Speaker 1: Nixon's drug treatment program, and in nineteen seventy three, Nixon

1138
01:05:36,000 --> 01:05:38,640
Speaker 1: invited him and Alta Viz to sleep in the White

1139
01:05:38,640 --> 01:05:41,800
Speaker 1: House in the Lincoln Bedroom. They were the first black

1140
01:05:41,840 --> 01:05:45,920
Speaker 1: couple ever to do so. But later in life, Sammy

1141
01:05:45,960 --> 01:05:49,080
Speaker 1: said he regretted supporting Nixon because Nixon had made a

1142
01:05:49,080 --> 01:05:51,520
Speaker 1: lot of promises about civil rights that he didn't end

1143
01:05:51,600 --> 01:05:55,120
Speaker 1: up keeping. Surprise, surprise, Nixon not a man of his word,

1144
01:05:55,480 --> 01:06:00,640
Speaker 1: Nixon a liar. But his support of Nixon cause still

1145
01:06:00,680 --> 01:06:04,120
Speaker 1: more problems for Sammy within the black community. Vanity Fair

1146
01:06:04,160 --> 01:06:07,320
Speaker 1: wrote quote cy Marsh believes that Davis had spent the

1147
01:06:07,360 --> 01:06:10,000
Speaker 1: first half of his career making himself loved by the

1148
01:06:10,040 --> 01:06:13,040
Speaker 1: white world and the second half trying to make himself

1149
01:06:13,080 --> 01:06:15,880
Speaker 1: loved by the black world, which is very interesting to

1150
01:06:15,920 --> 01:06:20,560
Speaker 1: think about, just going from extremely white, very segregated forties

1151
01:06:20,600 --> 01:06:25,920
Speaker 1: fifties sixties two. I mean, basically, and especially in the seventies,

1152
01:06:26,040 --> 01:06:28,680
Speaker 1: it was very pro black. I mean that's even when

1153
01:06:28,760 --> 01:06:32,040
Speaker 1: they started saying call me black, not not colored or

1154
01:06:32,120 --> 01:06:34,400
Speaker 1: negro or whatever the other words used to use. They

1155
01:06:34,400 --> 01:06:38,000
Speaker 1: were like black is good, um and wearing afros and

1156
01:06:38,080 --> 01:06:42,760
Speaker 1: African jewelry, like it really became a whole movement. And

1157
01:06:42,840 --> 01:06:46,280
Speaker 1: so it must have been such a weird, like you know,

1158
01:06:46,400 --> 01:06:49,520
Speaker 1: kind of feeling for black performers like Sammy Davis Jr.

1159
01:06:49,640 --> 01:06:51,720
Speaker 1: Who were like, well, the only way I can make

1160
01:06:51,720 --> 01:06:55,000
Speaker 1: money was to be I mean, what do they say

1161
01:06:55,000 --> 01:06:59,160
Speaker 1: earlier blacks on black symbol performing for white audiences. Now

1162
01:06:59,320 --> 01:07:01,840
Speaker 1: that's making me look bad to my own community, who

1163
01:07:01,920 --> 01:07:05,360
Speaker 1: was like, stop catering to white people. You know, it's

1164
01:07:05,400 --> 01:07:08,120
Speaker 1: about us now I have I feel like that would

1165
01:07:08,120 --> 01:07:12,000
Speaker 1: be very weird. Sammy would remain married to Altavis until

1166
01:07:12,080 --> 01:07:15,800
Speaker 1: his death from throat cancer in n but he would

1167
01:07:15,800 --> 01:07:19,160
Speaker 1: see his former flame Kim Novak a couple more times.

1168
01:07:19,640 --> 01:07:22,240
Speaker 1: In nineteen seventy nine, he and Alta Vize went to

1169
01:07:22,280 --> 01:07:26,400
Speaker 1: the Academy Awards with Kim and the Awards producer Jack Haley,

1170
01:07:26,440 --> 01:07:28,600
Speaker 1: and Jack brought Kim to the Davis's house so they

1171
01:07:28,600 --> 01:07:31,440
Speaker 1: could all go to the awards together. And then he

1172
01:07:31,600 --> 01:07:34,600
Speaker 1: and Altavis like sat together in the living room and

1173
01:07:34,720 --> 01:07:37,400
Speaker 1: let Sammy and Kim talk privately in the kitchen for

1174
01:07:37,480 --> 01:07:39,840
Speaker 1: like about forty five minutes, because this of course been

1175
01:07:39,840 --> 01:07:42,200
Speaker 1: the first time they had hung out in like over

1176
01:07:42,240 --> 01:07:47,680
Speaker 1: twenty years since. Yeah, right, right, So I think he

1177
01:07:47,760 --> 01:07:50,880
Speaker 1: was like, hey, how you been. Let's let's let's have

1178
01:07:50,920 --> 01:07:54,440
Speaker 1: a moment. At the awards gala, Sammy and Kim danced together,

1179
01:07:54,920 --> 01:08:00,720
Speaker 1: and afterwards, Sammy was stunned, saying, quote, not one picture,

1180
01:08:01,480 --> 01:08:05,840
Speaker 1: nobody even took one picture. Twenty years before, when you

1181
01:08:05,880 --> 01:08:08,120
Speaker 1: know they had actually been dating, they would have been

1182
01:08:08,160 --> 01:08:11,480
Speaker 1: mobbed by the press, probably by a bunch of angry racists,

1183
01:08:11,480 --> 01:08:14,680
Speaker 1: like it would have just been a ship show. So

1184
01:08:14,720 --> 01:08:17,720
Speaker 1: it wasn't insane to him that nobody even cared that

1185
01:08:17,760 --> 01:08:21,120
Speaker 1: he was dancing with Kim Novak. Nobody looked at them twice,

1186
01:08:21,320 --> 01:08:24,280
Speaker 1: and it just demonstrated, like nothing else, how much the

1187
01:08:24,320 --> 01:08:28,600
Speaker 1: world had really changed. So in nineteen, when Sammy was

1188
01:08:28,640 --> 01:08:31,559
Speaker 1: dying of cancer at Cedars Sinai Medical Center in l A,

1189
01:08:32,280 --> 01:08:35,559
Speaker 1: Kim Novak came to visit him. He knew she was coming,

1190
01:08:35,600 --> 01:08:38,200
Speaker 1: so he sent home for his beautiful silk pajamas and

1191
01:08:38,320 --> 01:08:40,639
Speaker 1: robes that he could see her while he was dressed

1192
01:08:40,680 --> 01:08:42,880
Speaker 1: the nines. I love that He's like, let me get

1193
01:08:42,960 --> 01:08:46,759
Speaker 1: dressed up from my old girlfriend. Ye. After he died.

1194
01:08:47,240 --> 01:08:51,240
Speaker 1: Kim's friend Shirley Rhodes says that Sammy's friend Murphy Bennett,

1195
01:08:51,280 --> 01:08:53,880
Speaker 1: one of his closest friends for forty years, would visit

1196
01:08:53,920 --> 01:08:58,200
Speaker 1: Sammy's grave. Shirley said, quote, Murphy would always stop on

1197
01:08:58,240 --> 01:09:00,519
Speaker 1: the way and buy a white rose, leave it for

1198
01:09:00,680 --> 01:09:03,760
Speaker 1: Sammy from her, because that's what Sammy always gave to

1199
01:09:03,880 --> 01:09:07,880
Speaker 1: Kim and Murphy he knew everything white rose. And if

1200
01:09:07,880 --> 01:09:12,439
Speaker 1: he called her his white rose, that, yeah, I just

1201
01:09:12,479 --> 01:09:15,000
Speaker 1: think that's beautiful. It's still a white rose on Sammy's

1202
01:09:15,040 --> 01:09:20,479
Speaker 1: grave for from Kim. Right. Sweet sweet story. I mean,

1203
01:09:20,560 --> 01:09:23,120
Speaker 1: I guess the two of them tried to have a

1204
01:09:23,160 --> 01:09:25,360
Speaker 1: sweet story, and ever Predy kept getting in the way.

1205
01:09:25,520 --> 01:09:28,000
Speaker 1: This is one of those situations where I get so

1206
01:09:28,720 --> 01:09:34,040
Speaker 1: frustrated with Well, it's both Hollywood and the Democratic government

1207
01:09:34,720 --> 01:09:39,000
Speaker 1: in this one, and it's because they keep falling back

1208
01:09:39,000 --> 01:09:43,040
Speaker 1: in this excuse of well, people won't like it, and

1209
01:09:43,320 --> 01:09:45,840
Speaker 1: that's something that really drives me crazy in Hollywood that

1210
01:09:45,880 --> 01:09:48,599
Speaker 1: we saw for decades and decades, and it's only beginning

1211
01:09:48,640 --> 01:09:52,280
Speaker 1: to break down now where they say, oh, audiences won't

1212
01:09:52,280 --> 01:09:54,880
Speaker 1: want to see a woman's superhero. Oh they won't want

1213
01:09:54,920 --> 01:09:57,880
Speaker 1: to see an interracial couple. Oh they won't want to

1214
01:09:58,160 --> 01:10:00,240
Speaker 1: They keep using that as an excuse when it's like,

1215
01:10:00,720 --> 01:10:02,720
Speaker 1: you guys are the ones who decide what we want

1216
01:10:02,720 --> 01:10:07,160
Speaker 1: to see. Isn't the whole underlying rule of marketing that

1217
01:10:07,400 --> 01:10:10,280
Speaker 1: we tell you what you want, not the other way around,

1218
01:10:10,880 --> 01:10:13,920
Speaker 1: And so you're fine with that when it comes to

1219
01:10:13,960 --> 01:10:17,840
Speaker 1: selling cigarettes or bacon or whatever, But when something comes

1220
01:10:17,920 --> 01:10:20,519
Speaker 1: up that's racially different, you're like, oh, well, now my

1221
01:10:20,520 --> 01:10:22,960
Speaker 1: hands are tied. I gotta do what the consumer wants.

1222
01:10:23,000 --> 01:10:24,960
Speaker 1: I'm like, no, no, no, you already said you tell

1223
01:10:25,000 --> 01:10:27,840
Speaker 1: the consumer what they want. So it's your job to

1224
01:10:27,960 --> 01:10:31,880
Speaker 1: show that, to give that representation so that it normalizes

1225
01:10:31,880 --> 01:10:35,160
Speaker 1: it for everyone else. And they stopped thinking such crazy thoughts. Yeah,

1226
01:10:35,640 --> 01:10:40,400
Speaker 1: it's your job fully escapegoat because they don't want to

1227
01:10:40,400 --> 01:10:42,760
Speaker 1: be like I don't like it. Yeah exactly, I don't

1228
01:10:42,760 --> 01:10:45,040
Speaker 1: want to see a lady superhero. I don't want to

1229
01:10:45,080 --> 01:10:47,240
Speaker 1: see that ship. But I mean, we talked about this

1230
01:10:47,280 --> 01:10:49,519
Speaker 1: in Lucy and DESI right, because it was like, you

1231
01:10:49,560 --> 01:10:52,439
Speaker 1: can't show a pregnant lady. You know, whatever it was,

1232
01:10:52,920 --> 01:10:55,320
Speaker 1: it's always some dumb ship and then it's like as

1233
01:10:55,360 --> 01:10:57,479
Speaker 1: soon as you put it on TV, maybe there's a

1234
01:10:57,560 --> 01:11:00,200
Speaker 1: kick up for a minute, but it usually was a

1235
01:11:00,200 --> 01:11:02,559
Speaker 1: way pretty quickly. You know. Most people who watch movies

1236
01:11:02,600 --> 01:11:05,519
Speaker 1: have a lot of ship going on. It's okay, they

1237
01:11:05,560 --> 01:11:08,320
Speaker 1: gotta work, they got kids, I gotta clean out the car.

1238
01:11:08,560 --> 01:11:11,439
Speaker 1: They don't have time to be mad about an interracial

1239
01:11:11,479 --> 01:11:14,240
Speaker 1: couple in a movie. Well they did find time sometimes,

1240
01:11:14,280 --> 01:11:17,960
Speaker 1: but still it's like screw them, like what so? What right?

1241
01:11:18,080 --> 01:11:21,960
Speaker 1: And like cater to the worst impulses exactly? Why not

1242
01:11:22,120 --> 01:11:24,599
Speaker 1: cater to the best impulses and be like you catch

1243
01:11:24,640 --> 01:11:27,240
Speaker 1: up with us? Yeah? And JFK too. Oh, I don't

1244
01:11:27,240 --> 01:11:31,360
Speaker 1: want to alienate Southern Democrats who are racist. Why don't

1245
01:11:31,360 --> 01:11:33,680
Speaker 1: you go to those Southern Democrats and say, hey, you know,

1246
01:11:33,760 --> 01:11:35,080
Speaker 1: we can get a lot more done if you guys

1247
01:11:35,120 --> 01:11:37,559
Speaker 1: stop being racist. Here, let me show you an example

1248
01:11:37,560 --> 01:11:39,080
Speaker 1: of how you don't have to be racist. These guys

1249
01:11:39,080 --> 01:11:41,400
Speaker 1: are cool, they give us money. I wouldn't be here

1250
01:11:41,439 --> 01:11:43,400
Speaker 1: for work for them, so why don't you chill out

1251
01:11:43,439 --> 01:11:45,920
Speaker 1: about it, and they'd probably be like, you know, a

1252
01:11:45,960 --> 01:11:47,880
Speaker 1: bunch of them would be like, I'm angry because I

1253
01:11:47,920 --> 01:11:49,240
Speaker 1: like to be angry, and then a bunch of them

1254
01:11:49,240 --> 01:11:50,960
Speaker 1: will be like, all right, you're right, okay. Well, I

1255
01:11:50,960 --> 01:11:53,519
Speaker 1: guess by the time the you know, ten years go by,

1256
01:11:53,840 --> 01:11:56,040
Speaker 1: we'll all have gotten over it and be cool. Now. Well,

1257
01:11:56,080 --> 01:11:58,960
Speaker 1: it's a really good case study for how I mean

1258
01:11:59,080 --> 01:12:03,479
Speaker 1: democrats lie to progressive voters, and especially to minority voters,

1259
01:12:03,600 --> 01:12:08,679
Speaker 1: because you know, JFK was straight up campaigning I will

1260
01:12:08,760 --> 01:12:11,000
Speaker 1: sign a civil rights Act, it's my number one thing.

1261
01:12:11,800 --> 01:12:14,320
Speaker 1: Actually didn't really care about that at all, and he

1262
01:12:14,439 --> 01:12:17,559
Speaker 1: was very much more focused on foreign policy. He wanted

1263
01:12:18,560 --> 01:12:21,800
Speaker 1: that kind of I mean platform, I guess was more

1264
01:12:21,800 --> 01:12:24,880
Speaker 1: about international affairs or whatever. So he kept pushing that,

1265
01:12:25,000 --> 01:12:27,280
Speaker 1: pushing that away, pushing that to the side, pushing it

1266
01:12:27,280 --> 01:12:30,559
Speaker 1: to the side. After the march on Washington, MLK even

1267
01:12:30,600 --> 01:12:33,040
Speaker 1: went to seat JFK was like, what a great protest,

1268
01:12:33,120 --> 01:12:35,519
Speaker 1: y'all did. Everybody's looking eyes of the world on, you

1269
01:12:35,600 --> 01:12:38,080
Speaker 1: come see me. And they had like a meeting where

1270
01:12:38,120 --> 01:12:41,000
Speaker 1: they were like laying out like, hey, we want black

1271
01:12:41,040 --> 01:12:44,880
Speaker 1: people should be promoted to managerial positions. You know, it

1272
01:12:44,920 --> 01:12:47,080
Speaker 1: was like little ship like that that we hadn't even

1273
01:12:47,120 --> 01:12:50,320
Speaker 1: got to yet. And I mean it was just a

1274
01:12:50,320 --> 01:12:52,800
Speaker 1: whole bunch of like, you guys are doing so great

1275
01:12:52,840 --> 01:12:57,320
Speaker 1: out there, sweetie, Like we definitely are listening, definitely are listening,

1276
01:12:57,360 --> 01:12:59,880
Speaker 1: and like we'll get to that at some point, you know.

1277
01:13:00,600 --> 01:13:02,920
Speaker 1: And I think it's around that time that MLK said,

1278
01:13:02,960 --> 01:13:05,280
Speaker 1: you know, why do you get to put a timeline

1279
01:13:05,280 --> 01:13:08,479
Speaker 1: on another man's liberty? Stop telling me to be patient? Yes,

1280
01:13:08,960 --> 01:13:12,840
Speaker 1: you know, and I can feel that because, especially if

1281
01:13:12,840 --> 01:13:14,880
Speaker 1: you're black in America, you've been told to be patient

1282
01:13:14,960 --> 01:13:18,799
Speaker 1: for an extremely long time. Like how much more patient

1283
01:13:18,840 --> 01:13:23,120
Speaker 1: can you get? You're great great, great great great great

1284
01:13:23,120 --> 01:13:28,400
Speaker 1: grandchildren will almost definitely have it a little bit better. Yeah,

1285
01:13:28,400 --> 01:13:31,080
Speaker 1: it's frustrating. That's such an interesting story because it really

1286
01:13:31,160 --> 01:13:34,160
Speaker 1: encompasses so many things. I mean, of course we're talking

1287
01:13:34,160 --> 01:13:37,760
Speaker 1: about white racism, but also I mean the black community

1288
01:13:37,800 --> 01:13:41,240
Speaker 1: also having issues with Sammy Davis Jr. Which of course

1289
01:13:41,320 --> 01:13:43,960
Speaker 1: I'm not going to try to explain. I mean, I

1290
01:13:44,000 --> 01:13:46,400
Speaker 1: don't know, but it's I think there's a lot of

1291
01:13:46,400 --> 01:13:48,479
Speaker 1: that now where people are like are you black enough,

1292
01:13:48,520 --> 01:13:52,439
Speaker 1: quote unquote, are you acting white? Quote unquote or whatever.

1293
01:13:52,960 --> 01:13:56,640
Speaker 1: Who gets to decide, you know, whose community you belong to,

1294
01:13:56,800 --> 01:13:59,800
Speaker 1: which is better whatever. I don't know. I wish I

1295
01:13:59,840 --> 01:14:01,559
Speaker 1: was a little better at talking about that. I don't know.

1296
01:14:01,680 --> 01:14:03,160
Speaker 1: There was a cool play in Atlanta a couple of

1297
01:14:03,240 --> 01:14:05,880
Speaker 1: years back that we saw called Black Nerd. Was written

1298
01:14:05,880 --> 01:14:09,679
Speaker 1: by John carr Um, who's an awesome Atlanta native theater

1299
01:14:09,720 --> 01:14:13,120
Speaker 1: producer who's now in Chicago heading up Second City. So

1300
01:14:13,200 --> 01:14:18,160
Speaker 1: cool dope job. Yes, But that was a really cool

1301
01:14:18,160 --> 01:14:20,080
Speaker 1: show that was sort of about that, you know, about

1302
01:14:20,120 --> 01:14:24,120
Speaker 1: this this guy who was uh, you know, he liked

1303
01:14:24,600 --> 01:14:27,599
Speaker 1: Marvel and Comic con and stuff like that, and he

1304
01:14:27,680 --> 01:14:30,600
Speaker 1: was a total nerd and some of his friends, you know,

1305
01:14:31,200 --> 01:14:33,920
Speaker 1: and his family. Yeah, it was like you're not you're

1306
01:14:33,960 --> 01:14:38,280
Speaker 1: not black enough white you like, that's fiction or whatever. Yeah,

1307
01:14:38,360 --> 01:14:41,320
Speaker 1: that was just again not not for us to extrapolate

1308
01:14:41,400 --> 01:14:43,479
Speaker 1: too much on, but just that it was like it

1309
01:14:43,600 --> 01:14:46,360
Speaker 1: was the first time I'd been shown sort of that side, Like, oh,

1310
01:14:46,400 --> 01:14:50,679
Speaker 1: that's that's an interesting yet another thing that some black

1311
01:14:50,720 --> 01:14:53,720
Speaker 1: people have to go through. Right, you know, this is

1312
01:14:53,800 --> 01:14:58,120
Speaker 1: just a whole uh concept about race being a race trader,

1313
01:14:58,920 --> 01:15:03,320
Speaker 1: right right, right, total nonsense. But Sammy Davis Jr. And

1314
01:15:03,400 --> 01:15:07,240
Speaker 1: Kim would have probably both been seen as race traders. Yeah,

1315
01:15:07,439 --> 01:15:10,400
Speaker 1: just getting it from all sides kind of. Yeah, And

1316
01:15:10,439 --> 01:15:13,680
Speaker 1: I think that's really the core of it is just

1317
01:15:14,240 --> 01:15:17,599
Speaker 1: for us, at least for for white people, just being

1318
01:15:17,800 --> 01:15:21,600
Speaker 1: aware that this is this doesn't turn off, you know,

1319
01:15:21,760 --> 01:15:24,800
Speaker 1: this never, this to a large degree doesn't stop. And

1320
01:15:24,840 --> 01:15:27,559
Speaker 1: it's something that affects, you know, your life in a

1321
01:15:27,560 --> 01:15:30,400
Speaker 1: way that I can't understand because I read about it,

1322
01:15:30,400 --> 01:15:32,760
Speaker 1: and oh my god, that's so tough. I can But

1323
01:15:32,920 --> 01:15:34,640
Speaker 1: then I stopped reading about it, you know. Then I

1324
01:15:34,720 --> 01:15:36,360
Speaker 1: go on about my life and I walked down the

1325
01:15:36,360 --> 01:15:39,400
Speaker 1: street and everything is in in my view normal like

1326
01:15:39,479 --> 01:15:41,479
Speaker 1: I'm used to, and I don't have to, I don't

1327
01:15:41,479 --> 01:15:44,360
Speaker 1: have to be thinking about it constantly. But some people

1328
01:15:44,400 --> 01:15:46,720
Speaker 1: it's part of every decision that they make, right well,

1329
01:15:46,720 --> 01:15:49,240
Speaker 1: And I think it shows to like how much what

1330
01:15:49,320 --> 01:15:53,960
Speaker 1: you're doing has to be put in context of white people, right,

1331
01:15:54,120 --> 01:15:55,360
Speaker 1: you know what I mean? So I don't know, it

1332
01:15:55,439 --> 01:15:57,320
Speaker 1: must be so frustrating to be like, I'm just trying

1333
01:15:57,360 --> 01:15:58,960
Speaker 1: to live, you know, like you said, why don't let

1334
01:15:58,960 --> 01:16:00,559
Speaker 1: me live my life? Like I just want to live

1335
01:16:00,600 --> 01:16:03,320
Speaker 1: my life. There's nowhere I can go that everyone's happy

1336
01:16:03,360 --> 01:16:05,800
Speaker 1: with me, So yeah, just being aware, like taking to

1337
01:16:06,000 --> 01:16:08,240
Speaker 1: that's kind of what I take from this story is like, yes,

1338
01:16:08,280 --> 01:16:10,360
Speaker 1: of course things are better now than they were back then.

1339
01:16:11,000 --> 01:16:14,400
Speaker 1: That was insane to me that sixty years ago these

1340
01:16:14,400 --> 01:16:16,880
Speaker 1: two people who loved each other couldn't even be seen

1341
01:16:16,960 --> 01:16:20,800
Speaker 1: in public together, and that's certainly not the case now.

1342
01:16:21,120 --> 01:16:24,400
Speaker 1: But you can extrapolate from this story. I think what's

1343
01:16:24,479 --> 01:16:27,639
Speaker 1: still there, you know, what's left over and what hasn't

1344
01:16:27,680 --> 01:16:30,800
Speaker 1: been scrubbed yet, and and the number of people who

1345
01:16:30,800 --> 01:16:32,920
Speaker 1: still feel that way, they're still out there. That was

1346
01:16:32,920 --> 01:16:35,519
Speaker 1: a generation ago. You know, there's still plenty of adults

1347
01:16:35,560 --> 01:16:38,840
Speaker 1: now who were raised to think this way by the

1348
01:16:38,840 --> 01:16:41,400
Speaker 1: people who lived during that time. So I think it's

1349
01:16:41,400 --> 01:16:45,360
Speaker 1: foolish to think that again, that there aren't black people

1350
01:16:45,439 --> 01:16:49,439
Speaker 1: all over the countries still dealing with circumstances a lot

1351
01:16:49,520 --> 01:16:52,759
Speaker 1: like this, if not so egregious and obvious, but still

1352
01:16:52,920 --> 01:16:56,200
Speaker 1: really making their lives more challenging. And that's not fair.

1353
01:16:56,920 --> 01:16:59,200
Speaker 1: I don't like that. It's not the world I want

1354
01:16:59,200 --> 01:17:02,559
Speaker 1: to live in. No um. So I hope that you

1355
01:17:02,600 --> 01:17:06,600
Speaker 1: know this story we're telling is valuable in that context

1356
01:17:06,640 --> 01:17:09,120
Speaker 1: in some way. I hope that you took something from

1357
01:17:09,160 --> 01:17:13,040
Speaker 1: it as well. I certainly did, and we'd love to

1358
01:17:13,080 --> 01:17:16,639
Speaker 1: hear from you about it. Absolutely. Please give us any

1359
01:17:16,720 --> 01:17:21,200
Speaker 1: sort of feedback, like about the episode, anything you thought,

1360
01:17:21,240 --> 01:17:23,040
Speaker 1: if you if you're a big fan of Sammy Davis

1361
01:17:23,120 --> 01:17:27,480
Speaker 1: Junior's music, which I can recommend the track Sweet gingerbread

1362
01:17:27,479 --> 01:17:31,040
Speaker 1: Man by Sammy Davis, which was just a lovely Christmas

1363
01:17:31,560 --> 01:17:34,040
Speaker 1: was just in Hawkeye. Sure, it was just great. Are

1364
01:17:34,080 --> 01:17:36,360
Speaker 1: you guys loving Hawkeye? Come on? Why is Hawkeye good?

1365
01:17:36,439 --> 01:17:40,320
Speaker 1: Oh my god? Totally Also Spider Man. We're not gonna

1366
01:17:40,320 --> 01:17:42,400
Speaker 1: get into it, but we did see it, so anyway,

1367
01:17:42,400 --> 01:17:44,360
Speaker 1: we're breaking out. I'm not we're not here to talk

1368
01:17:44,360 --> 01:17:47,759
Speaker 1: about Spider Man, but I will and I only want

1369
01:17:47,800 --> 01:17:50,720
Speaker 1: to struggle to focus on this story and not just

1370
01:17:50,760 --> 01:17:55,320
Speaker 1: be like well Spider Man and Kim Novak, Spider Man

1371
01:17:55,439 --> 01:17:59,519
Speaker 1: Junior in Kim Novak. But please shoot us a message.

1372
01:17:59,520 --> 01:18:00,960
Speaker 1: We'd love to or from you. You can get us

1373
01:18:00,960 --> 01:18:03,360
Speaker 1: at Romance at i heeart media dot com right or

1374
01:18:03,360 --> 01:18:06,360
Speaker 1: we're on social media on Twitter and Instagram. I'm at

1375
01:18:06,439 --> 01:18:09,040
Speaker 1: Dianamite Boom and I'm at oh Grade. It's Eli and

1376
01:18:09,080 --> 01:18:11,640
Speaker 1: the show is at predict romance. We look forward to

1377
01:18:11,680 --> 01:18:13,760
Speaker 1: hearing from you soon and we will catch you at

1378
01:18:13,760 --> 01:18:17,200
Speaker 1: the next episode. Can't wait. Thanks for hanging out with us, Bye,

1379
01:18:17,520 --> 01:18:21,360
Speaker 1: so long friends, it's time to go. Thanks so listening

1380
01:18:21,439 --> 01:18:25,360
Speaker 1: to our show. Tell your friend's name's Uncle Sandez to

1381
01:18:25,479 --> 01:18:27,720
Speaker 1: listen to a show Ridiculous Romance.