WEBVTT - Sammy Davis Jr: National Treasure 0:00:00.280 --> 0:00:03.080 Hello everyone in podcast land. If you have ever wanted 0:00:03.120 --> 0:00:06.080 to see us on stage telling jokes and slinging facts, 0:00:06.640 --> 0:00:08.920 and you live out west, you can come see us 0:00:08.920 --> 0:00:12.800 in Portland, Oregon or Vancouver, Canada. Yep, We'll be at 0:00:12.800 --> 0:00:15.800 the Chance Center in Vancouver on Sunday, March twenty nine, 0:00:15.800 --> 0:00:18.239 and then we'll be at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall 0:00:18.560 --> 0:00:22.400 in Portland on March And if you want tickets and info, 0:00:22.760 --> 0:00:24.599 then the best thing you can do right now is 0:00:24.600 --> 0:00:28.640 to go do s y s K live dot com. 0:00:28.680 --> 0:00:30.960 Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, a production of My 0:00:31.120 --> 0:00:40.040 Heart Radios How Stuff Works. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. 0:00:40.080 --> 0:00:42.760 I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles W. Chuck Bryant, and there's 0:00:42.880 --> 0:00:47.720 guest producer Dylan sitting in again like a great guy. Um, 0:00:47.880 --> 0:00:52.040 like a cool cat baby. I thought you were doing 0:00:52.120 --> 0:00:54.760 evil German doctor for a second and then I figured 0:00:54.760 --> 0:00:57.200 it out. No man, Wait, I haven't said it yet. 0:00:57.200 --> 0:00:59.840 And this is stuff you should know. Okay, that was 0:00:59.840 --> 0:01:02.600 a good one that no man was wonderful. I love 0:01:02.640 --> 0:01:07.640 how Sammy Davis Jr. Always said cat and baby. It 0:01:07.800 --> 0:01:10.920 was just he was such a cool dude. And okay, 0:01:11.160 --> 0:01:14.000 do Sammy Davis Jr. Saying we have ways of making 0:01:14.000 --> 0:01:17.800 you talk. What sounds German about any of that? I 0:01:17.880 --> 0:01:21.440 just do it, please please, we have ways of making 0:01:21.480 --> 0:01:26.760 you talk. Man. It was pretty great and that's a 0:01:26.760 --> 0:01:31.000 little soft shoe. It's great stuff. So you know, Billy 0:01:31.040 --> 0:01:36.240 Crystal Uh used to do Sammy Davis Jr. Uh way 0:01:36.319 --> 0:01:39.360 back in the eighties when black face was super cool 0:01:39.400 --> 0:01:43.559 to do and not controversial. Did he do black face 0:01:43.600 --> 0:01:46.679 Sammy Davis Jr. Yes, dude, he did black face Sammy 0:01:46.760 --> 0:01:52.040 Davis Jr. Eight years ago at the Oscars. What. Yes, 0:01:52.080 --> 0:01:54.920 you don't remember that? No, he hoped the last it's 0:01:54.920 --> 0:01:56.760 the last time he hosted the Oscars eight In two 0:01:56.800 --> 0:02:00.920 thousand twelve, he they did, you know, a remote intro 0:02:01.040 --> 0:02:03.040 thing where he was doing different things. In the last 0:02:03.080 --> 0:02:07.600 bit was him and black face again and people were 0:02:07.680 --> 0:02:09.960 like and then you know, this was in you know, 0:02:10.000 --> 0:02:11.920 two thousand twelves. So that was Twitter and that was 0:02:11.960 --> 0:02:15.320 Facebook and this social media and people were like, that 0:02:15.440 --> 0:02:18.079 wasn't cool in the eighties. And I can't believe he's 0:02:18.120 --> 0:02:22.200 doing that now for real. Uh. Sammy Davis Jr's daughter 0:02:22.240 --> 0:02:24.640 came out and said, you know what, if there's one 0:02:24.680 --> 0:02:26.760 thing I know is that my dad is looking down 0:02:26.800 --> 0:02:29.480 and laughing and smiling at Billy Crystal doing this. He 0:02:29.560 --> 0:02:32.560 was he was roasted pretty heavily for it, rightfully so, 0:02:32.600 --> 0:02:35.600 and he is he hasn't been around a lot, but 0:02:35.680 --> 0:02:38.440 he wasn't around a lot before then. He you know, 0:02:39.080 --> 0:02:40.680 do you think like that? Did it? Like that was 0:02:40.760 --> 0:02:43.880 the demise kid? I guess helped. I was, Yeah, I 0:02:43.919 --> 0:02:46.799 haven't seen him in a while either. Man, How did 0:02:46.840 --> 0:02:49.720 somebody not step back and be like, okay, wait, we're 0:02:49.720 --> 0:02:52.679 about to do black face? I know, Like, how did 0:02:52.760 --> 0:02:55.040 no one on the production crew of the Oscar say 0:02:55.400 --> 0:03:01.240 not a good idea? I don't know. Well he did it? So, Um, 0:03:01.520 --> 0:03:04.520 I came across something that I thought was pretty interesting. 0:03:04.520 --> 0:03:10.480 I saw interview with David Letterman and Sammy Davis Jr. 0:03:10.520 --> 0:03:14.080 Says in this interview he did black face. He was 0:03:14.120 --> 0:03:18.920 a little kid. Apparently his skin was lighter when he 0:03:18.960 --> 0:03:22.480 was a kid, and they wanted him because he used 0:03:22.480 --> 0:03:24.560 to tour with his uncle and his dad as as 0:03:24.600 --> 0:03:28.480 we'll see um, and to get around labor laws, they 0:03:28.480 --> 0:03:32.880 would pass him off as a midget. And to do 0:03:32.919 --> 0:03:36.440 that there was right, yes, thank you. They gave him 0:03:36.680 --> 0:03:40.600 um a candy cigar and put him in black face 0:03:40.640 --> 0:03:42.800 and and told anyone who would listen that he was 0:03:42.840 --> 0:03:45.120 a little person. That's although again they didn't say a 0:03:45.160 --> 0:03:49.600 little person. Boy. This is a really controversial episode right 0:03:49.640 --> 0:03:51.680 out of the gate. Well, there's a lot of sort 0:03:51.720 --> 0:03:54.840 of I mean, he was a complicated guy who was uh, 0:03:56.080 --> 0:03:58.240 you know, his father was black, his mother was Puerto 0:03:58.320 --> 0:04:02.440 Rican Um. He eventually Lee would endorse to presidents both 0:04:02.520 --> 0:04:06.480 Kennedy and Nixon. He served in the army. He was 0:04:06.520 --> 0:04:12.400 a rat packer. He uh was uh shunned by racist 0:04:12.560 --> 0:04:16.400 and also shunned sometimes within his own black community. Yeah, 0:04:16.520 --> 0:04:19.760 like a little pinball getting bounced around and little is right. 0:04:19.839 --> 0:04:22.960 He was also a little guy who always I think 0:04:23.040 --> 0:04:26.560 had a complex about his height, about his looks. Um. 0:04:26.600 --> 0:04:32.320 He had this weird sort of underbyte uh jaw that 0:04:32.360 --> 0:04:35.680 would jut out to one side when he talked. Just 0:04:35.760 --> 0:04:40.720 a really fascinating guy that was super super talented and 0:04:40.760 --> 0:04:44.080 had his his little tiny fingers and a lot of 0:04:44.080 --> 0:04:48.400 pies from you know, singing and dancing and performing live 0:04:48.480 --> 0:04:52.239 and in movies on on TV, and uh, just really 0:04:52.279 --> 0:04:54.960 really fascinating guy. Yeah, when you look back at the 0:04:55.080 --> 0:04:57.480 rat pack he was the one that brought the actual 0:04:57.600 --> 0:04:59.840 talent to the rat Pack, like Sinatra could say, he 0:05:00.320 --> 0:05:04.440 Martine and the rat back was talented right right, But 0:05:04.520 --> 0:05:09.960 he was multi talented, like dancing, doing impressions. He he 0:05:10.040 --> 0:05:12.880 had like a little gun slinger routie. Did you see 0:05:12.920 --> 0:05:17.200 any of that? I did? It's amazing. Um. I watched 0:05:17.200 --> 0:05:22.760 the PBS documentary for their series American Masters on him 0:05:22.800 --> 0:05:25.000 and it was like an hour almost two hours long, 0:05:25.480 --> 0:05:27.839 and um, it was really in depth and really good. 0:05:27.839 --> 0:05:30.560 But they had some amazing footage of him just doing 0:05:30.600 --> 0:05:32.960 all sorts of different stuff. So I guess let me 0:05:33.000 --> 0:05:37.400 revise that, Yes, the rat Pack was talented. Sammy Davis Jr. 0:05:37.560 --> 0:05:43.960 Was was more talented than all of them put together. Right, Okay, 0:05:44.640 --> 0:05:47.800 so he made Uh did you see any of that 0:05:47.839 --> 0:05:52.080 documentary of the U s O Tour? Uh there were 0:05:52.080 --> 0:05:54.039 a few clips in there. Yeh yeah. So if you 0:05:54.040 --> 0:05:55.839 want to see a difference, So if you think Sammy 0:05:55.920 --> 0:06:00.839 Davis Jr. Is as just the candy man or Mr 0:06:00.960 --> 0:06:05.720 bo Jangles babe man, watching him do Mr Bojangles how 0:06:05.720 --> 0:06:09.520 he felt about that song, it's very heartbreaking, it is, um. 0:06:09.560 --> 0:06:12.200 But if you see this documentary in two he did 0:06:12.360 --> 0:06:15.760 a USO tour of Vietnam where he performed at drug 0:06:15.800 --> 0:06:20.120 rehab camps and some other you know, forward bases. If 0:06:20.160 --> 0:06:22.359 you look at this man, this is like a swinging 0:06:22.520 --> 0:06:26.440 seventies kind of rock and roll as it gets really 0:06:26.480 --> 0:06:32.440 really cool stuff. Uh, he was a a bad a performer. 0:06:33.400 --> 0:06:35.360 He was at places like some of them were kind 0:06:35.360 --> 0:06:37.599 of full on productions where they were capable of pulling 0:06:37.600 --> 0:06:40.960 that off. Other times there's this great footage of him 0:06:41.160 --> 0:06:44.360 where they could had nothing but a microphone and he's 0:06:44.400 --> 0:06:45.960 just like, all right, give me the mic and I 0:06:46.000 --> 0:06:49.560 will like basically kind of do my own beat boxy 0:06:49.760 --> 0:06:53.920 rhythm section and sing and dance. And the soldiers are 0:06:53.960 --> 0:06:56.839 just loving it. Man, they're eating it up. Yeah, And 0:06:56.880 --> 0:07:00.720 this is two I believe in. Like I mean like 0:07:00.800 --> 0:07:04.839 his like he was a world famous star by then, 0:07:04.880 --> 0:07:07.359 but also he was an older dude, you know, like 0:07:07.480 --> 0:07:10.280 he'd he'd really had his heyday in the late fifties 0:07:10.280 --> 0:07:12.840 and throughout the sixties, and this is seventy two and 0:07:12.880 --> 0:07:16.200 he's out there in Vietnam belting out motown hits and 0:07:16.280 --> 0:07:20.040 drumming on the mic stand. So yeah, I didn't see 0:07:20.040 --> 0:07:21.800 all of it, but yeah, you can tell like it 0:07:21.880 --> 0:07:24.880 was pretty cool. Yeah, he's he's even more of a 0:07:24.880 --> 0:07:28.640 talented performer than people realize, because you know, you do 0:07:28.720 --> 0:07:30.920 think of him was doing like standards and show tunes 0:07:30.960 --> 0:07:32.840 and stuff like that, and he did mostly do those things, 0:07:32.880 --> 0:07:34.920 but he was talented in all sorts of different ways. 0:07:35.400 --> 0:07:37.800 So Um the Grabster helped us out with this one. 0:07:38.000 --> 0:07:40.880 And he said that there were a few defining sort 0:07:40.920 --> 0:07:44.280 of things about Sammy Davis Jr's life that inform who 0:07:44.320 --> 0:07:49.880 he was. One was that he um came from poverty. 0:07:50.840 --> 0:07:53.880 He performed with his like he said, his uncle, which 0:07:54.000 --> 0:07:56.600 was not really uncle, but his dad, and his uncle 0:07:56.640 --> 0:08:01.040 Will Masston as the was the mast and true Wilmass 0:08:01.080 --> 0:08:04.560 in trio, right, And they came from nothing, and he 0:08:04.600 --> 0:08:07.120 did not have any money. And he talked later in 0:08:07.160 --> 0:08:12.360 life about the thrill of leaving a waitress a hundred 0:08:12.440 --> 0:08:16.280 dollar tip and walking around with a thousand dollars in 0:08:16.280 --> 0:08:18.720 your pocket. He's later on in life, Yeah, he's like, 0:08:18.760 --> 0:08:21.360 that was a year's salary, and he was like, no 0:08:21.400 --> 0:08:24.440 one understands that unless you've been at the bottom, right, 0:08:24.560 --> 0:08:27.200 And he was definitely at the bottom. And they he 0:08:27.640 --> 0:08:31.800 and his father and his uncle will work their way up, um, 0:08:31.840 --> 0:08:34.000 you know, all through they started all throughout the Depression 0:08:34.040 --> 0:08:38.680 on the Chitland circuit doing vaudeville. UM. And he didn't 0:08:38.679 --> 0:08:43.240 go to school once. Because this is really important to understand. 0:08:43.480 --> 0:08:50.040 He spent his entire life in show business and the 0:08:50.200 --> 0:08:53.720 earliest years constantly on the road with his uncle and 0:08:53.760 --> 0:08:56.199 his dad. Yeah, so that's the second point. Never went 0:08:56.240 --> 0:08:59.640 to school at all. Uh, did not learn to read 0:08:59.720 --> 0:09:02.640 and right until he was in the army UM, and 0:09:02.679 --> 0:09:06.199 always apparently had trouble writing, and he always looked at 0:09:06.200 --> 0:09:08.400 it as he was always you know, sort of ashamed 0:09:08.440 --> 0:09:12.160 of it. He was proud of who he became, but 0:09:12.400 --> 0:09:15.120 always was ashamed of his lack of formal schooling. And 0:09:15.160 --> 0:09:18.480 he called his um what he had was the facade 0:09:18.520 --> 0:09:21.960 of intelligence, which Ed rightfully points out as just bunk, 0:09:22.640 --> 0:09:24.760 because there are many kinds of intelligence. He was a 0:09:24.840 --> 0:09:28.320 very intelligent guy, he just didn't have formal schooling. UM. 0:09:28.360 --> 0:09:31.000 But he was very self conscious of this and about 0:09:31.080 --> 0:09:35.280 representing the black community. Uh. Still like if he ever 0:09:35.320 --> 0:09:38.400 mispronounced something because he didn't know, it would make him 0:09:38.400 --> 0:09:41.320 feel really bad because he thought that that represented black 0:09:41.320 --> 0:09:45.760 people as a whole. So that's number two. Uh, And 0:09:45.800 --> 0:09:49.080 the third thing is that early on his family, his 0:09:49.160 --> 0:09:52.600 dad and his uncle really kind of um shielded him 0:09:52.640 --> 0:09:57.200 from racial prejudice. He certainly encountered it on the Chipland circuit, 0:09:57.280 --> 0:09:59.240 but he didn't really get the full deal until he 0:09:59.280 --> 0:10:01.599 went into the army. That was a big shock to him, 0:10:01.840 --> 0:10:06.120 right he UM. I think this kind of explains that 0:10:06.240 --> 0:10:12.360 he approached racism differently than some of his contemporaries, especially 0:10:12.400 --> 0:10:14.520 when he got to the army and was confronted with 0:10:14.600 --> 0:10:18.400 the full brunt of it. Um, and that that kind 0:10:18.400 --> 0:10:22.560 of informed how he viewed race and racial discrimination in 0:10:22.640 --> 0:10:27.200 the the dynamic between the races in the United States 0:10:27.200 --> 0:10:30.320 in the middle of last century. UM, because he hadn't 0:10:30.360 --> 0:10:32.920 really seen it firsthand or experienced the firsthand. He hadn't 0:10:32.920 --> 0:10:35.839 been in school and so other little white kids hadn't 0:10:35.840 --> 0:10:39.640 bullied him, or he hadn't been around town and just 0:10:39.760 --> 0:10:43.600 lived in a in a set space where most kids 0:10:43.640 --> 0:10:47.439 were introduced to racism firsthand. He didn't get that until 0:10:47.480 --> 0:10:49.560 he was eighteen, and so by the time he was eighteen, 0:10:49.600 --> 0:10:51.880 he was like, this isn't right. What do you what 0:10:51.960 --> 0:10:54.320 do you who do you think you are? And so 0:10:54.400 --> 0:10:56.480 when he got to the Army and was confronted with 0:10:56.520 --> 0:11:01.160 it full on. He Um, he approached it differently, whereas 0:11:01.200 --> 0:11:03.960 other some of his contemporaries in the army who were black, 0:11:04.400 --> 0:11:06.840 UM just kind of kept their head down and you know, 0:11:06.960 --> 0:11:09.960 tried to go along and get along. Uh. He would 0:11:10.120 --> 0:11:12.280 he would fight back, he would not he would not 0:11:12.360 --> 0:11:14.440 back down, he would not step down. And he spent 0:11:14.520 --> 0:11:18.600 a lot of time in the army physically fighting white 0:11:18.800 --> 0:11:21.360 racists who were trying to make things hard for him. 0:11:21.440 --> 0:11:25.559 And apparently at some point he fought one he fought 0:11:25.559 --> 0:11:27.600 one guy in one he beat beat up some white 0:11:27.640 --> 0:11:30.679 guy who had um done something racist to him. I'm 0:11:30.679 --> 0:11:33.320 not sure what it was. And then after the fight, 0:11:34.200 --> 0:11:37.480 the guy beaten said, you know, you may have beaten me, 0:11:37.480 --> 0:11:41.280 but you're still black. And apparently this got to Sammy 0:11:41.360 --> 0:11:44.000 Davis Jr. In such a way that it just transformed 0:11:44.200 --> 0:11:48.240 his approach that he realized like he could fight white 0:11:48.240 --> 0:11:51.600 boys his whole life, and probably when some of the fights, 0:11:51.640 --> 0:11:53.400 probably get beat up a lot of the fights, he 0:11:53.480 --> 0:11:56.199 had his nose broken at least twice, Um, but that 0:11:56.320 --> 0:11:58.360 it wasn't going to get him anywhere. And so he 0:11:58.520 --> 0:12:01.160 decided then and there that he could do is fight 0:12:01.240 --> 0:12:05.959 prejudice through his performing. He would be such a good performer, 0:12:06.240 --> 0:12:10.400 he would transcend race at least while he was performing. 0:12:10.840 --> 0:12:14.480 And he managed to do that or as much as 0:12:14.520 --> 0:12:17.520 anybody ever has in the history and modern history, at 0:12:17.559 --> 0:12:20.880 least in the United States. Yeah. So he's discharged in 0:12:20.920 --> 0:12:25.440 the army in goes right back to the Maston trio 0:12:25.760 --> 0:12:28.960 and touring with him, and he was sort of even 0:12:28.960 --> 0:12:31.520 though he was just a little kid growing up in 0:12:31.559 --> 0:12:35.720 that trio, he was sort of the star still. Yeah, 0:12:35.800 --> 0:12:40.160 little Sammy, Little Sammy um like little Stevie Wonder. Yeah. 0:12:40.240 --> 0:12:44.160 He he actually chuck. He won his first UM contest 0:12:44.320 --> 0:12:49.000 at age three, at like an amateur hour or amateur night, 0:12:49.320 --> 0:12:52.120 and he's sang, I'll be glad when you're dead, you rascal. 0:12:52.200 --> 0:12:54.920 You that's what He knocked the house down at age three, 0:12:54.960 --> 0:12:57.920 And that was the the formal start to his UM, 0:12:58.280 --> 0:13:01.559 his show business. He went to Bucks. Yeah about a 0:13:01.640 --> 0:13:04.079 hundred fifty bucks today, Yeah, which for him, I mean, 0:13:04.240 --> 0:13:08.040 that's a lot of dough for a very very poor kid. 0:13:09.040 --> 0:13:11.280 So he gets out of the army, goes back to 0:13:11.320 --> 0:13:15.760 the Maston trio, and this sort of corresponded with the 0:13:16.120 --> 0:13:18.880 same timeline as when Vegas started to become a big 0:13:18.920 --> 0:13:23.280 deal and a big entertainment center, and they played Vegas 0:13:23.280 --> 0:13:26.000 a little bit. And you know, we should point out 0:13:26.000 --> 0:13:29.080 to on the Chiland circuit they were never making much money. No, 0:13:29.520 --> 0:13:31.480 it's a grueling thing. And they did get paid, but 0:13:31.559 --> 0:13:33.520 it's not like they were getting rich out there. I mean, 0:13:33.559 --> 0:13:36.160 you'd have to be a vaudeville superstar to make a 0:13:36.160 --> 0:13:38.680 lot of money. And this is also during the depression 0:13:38.800 --> 0:13:41.760 largely too, so people didn't make money in general, right, 0:13:41.920 --> 0:13:44.320 but doing three, four or five shows a day on 0:13:44.360 --> 0:13:47.920 that circuit. But goes to Vegas, starts performing in Vegas, 0:13:48.559 --> 0:13:52.720 uh starts doing impressions, which he did throughout his career. 0:13:52.800 --> 0:13:55.319 Was very good at them, and and the audiences ate 0:13:55.360 --> 0:13:59.240 it up. And then Frank Sinatra, the chairman of the board, 0:13:59.520 --> 0:14:02.480 as they say, gave him a call or gave their 0:14:02.480 --> 0:14:05.200 people called and said, hey, I want I want this 0:14:05.280 --> 0:14:08.120 guy open it up for me in Vegas. This trio 0:14:08.240 --> 0:14:11.280 opening up. Took him under his wing. That was a 0:14:11.320 --> 0:14:13.400 big deal. It was a very big deal. Said, you know, 0:14:13.440 --> 0:14:16.200 you do these great impressions, you do me, it's hysterical, 0:14:16.720 --> 0:14:21.560 You're so talented. Open for me in Vegas, and uh, 0:14:21.600 --> 0:14:23.720 that was where he said, you know, in Vegas for 0:14:23.720 --> 0:14:26.240 twenty minutes, twice a night, our skin had no color. 0:14:26.520 --> 0:14:30.480 But um, the second they got finished, he said, other 0:14:30.480 --> 0:14:32.720 acts to go out and gamble and socialize, have a drink. 0:14:32.760 --> 0:14:34.480 He said, we had to go through the kitchen with 0:14:34.560 --> 0:14:37.160 the garbage. And that's when it would all sort of 0:14:37.240 --> 0:14:39.240 hit home once again. They had to stay in like 0:14:39.280 --> 0:14:42.720 an entirely different part of Vegas that, from the looks 0:14:42.720 --> 0:14:47.560 of it, almost didn't have electricity. Dusty Rhodes, Yeah, that's 0:14:47.560 --> 0:14:50.880 where they had to stay. They were beloved performers, but 0:14:51.080 --> 0:14:53.280 that's where they had to go stay after the show. 0:14:53.600 --> 0:14:56.680 And I saw that even after he was a member 0:14:56.720 --> 0:15:00.320 of the rat Pack, a superstar, he had use the 0:15:00.360 --> 0:15:04.840 pool at the Sands, and guests in the fifties complained 0:15:05.000 --> 0:15:07.960 enough that the Sands agreed to drain the pool and 0:15:08.040 --> 0:15:10.920 refill it because Sammy Davis Jr. Had been using the 0:15:10.960 --> 0:15:13.280 pool And this is after he was a star already. 0:15:13.320 --> 0:15:17.000 That's how vile um the segregation was, even in a 0:15:17.040 --> 0:15:21.000 place like Vegas. All right, let's take a break and 0:15:21.040 --> 0:15:23.720 we'll come back and talk more about the candy Man 0:15:23.800 --> 0:15:50.880 right after this. So Sammy Davis Jr. Wrote a bunch 0:15:50.920 --> 0:15:53.720 of memoirs and autobiographies over the years. Uh, and one 0:15:53.760 --> 0:15:57.160 of them is a very great spinal tap choke. So 0:15:57.880 --> 0:16:00.480 I know you still haven't seen it, right, I saw, 0:16:00.600 --> 0:16:02.640 but I've only seen it once and it was a 0:16:02.680 --> 0:16:05.040 couple of years ago. Okay. So one of his his 0:16:05.160 --> 0:16:07.840 I think his first one um was called yes I Can. 0:16:08.520 --> 0:16:11.320 And there's a great scene in spinals up when Bruno 0:16:11.400 --> 0:16:15.360 Kirby as a limo driver is talking about it and 0:16:15.400 --> 0:16:17.720 he said he said something about yes I can. He said, 0:16:17.720 --> 0:16:20.160 although the real title should have been yes I can. 0:16:20.360 --> 0:16:23.080 If Frank says, it's okay because Frank called the shots 0:16:23.120 --> 0:16:26.560 for all those guys, right, I remember that. It's very 0:16:26.560 --> 0:16:28.680 funny joke, like he just keeps going off about that, 0:16:28.720 --> 0:16:31.440 doesn't it. Yeah, yeah, that's good stuff. You know. Billy 0:16:31.480 --> 0:16:34.520 Crystal and Bruno Kirby had a very famous falling out, 0:16:34.560 --> 0:16:38.600 and legend has it Billy Crystal sort of had him 0:16:38.600 --> 0:16:43.760 black bald. What is up with Billy Crystal? My impression 0:16:43.800 --> 0:16:47.360 of him is changing dramatically. He really sells it when 0:16:47.400 --> 0:16:49.840 the cameras are on. Huh. Yeah, well that's what you're do, 0:16:49.920 --> 0:16:55.240 you know? That's crazy though to be that Wow, I mean, 0:16:55.280 --> 0:16:56.800 we know the game. People think you and I like 0:16:56.920 --> 0:17:01.720 each other? Right, we got every but it's amazing. Like 0:17:02.000 --> 0:17:05.480 what were their names of the MythBusters? Like the day 0:17:05.480 --> 0:17:08.159 the camera stopped rolling, they released press statements saying we 0:17:08.240 --> 0:17:10.680 never liked each other. I know, why would why would 0:17:10.720 --> 0:17:13.080 anybody do that? Even if you didn't like each other? 0:17:13.119 --> 0:17:16.639 Why would you just let it go? You know? I 0:17:16.640 --> 0:17:20.640 don't know. But it's a Jamie and um Adam Adam, 0:17:20.720 --> 0:17:22.879 that's right. Adams a great guy. I know him a 0:17:22.880 --> 0:17:25.720 little bit. So are you implying Jamie's not so? I 0:17:25.720 --> 0:17:30.200 don't know him any Okay, I'm not citing. This took 0:17:30.200 --> 0:17:33.000 a really weird turned, inn't it. It did? So back 0:17:33.040 --> 0:17:40.159 to Sammy Davis Jr. He also started his star started rising. Um, well, 0:17:40.160 --> 0:17:42.680 his star had already risen, but in the seventies when 0:17:42.840 --> 0:17:45.760 the Variety Show came about, which was a big deal 0:17:45.800 --> 0:17:49.159 in the seventies and even into the eighties, Sammy Davis Jr. 0:17:49.280 --> 0:17:52.639 Was perfect for that medium. Well, this was this was 0:17:52.800 --> 0:17:55.720 I think even earlier than that, when TV really started 0:17:55.760 --> 0:17:59.639 to dominate. The earliest shows that they had were vaudeville shows. 0:18:00.080 --> 0:18:02.679 That led to variety show. He had his own variety 0:18:02.680 --> 0:18:05.080 show later in the seventies because he was so it 0:18:05.119 --> 0:18:07.639 wasn't a huge hit. But for someone who can dance 0:18:07.680 --> 0:18:10.960 and sing and do impressions and do comedy and for 0:18:11.040 --> 0:18:15.119 God's sakes, is a real deal gun slinger a variety 0:18:15.119 --> 0:18:18.840 shows pretty great. It really was so. Um he's you know, 0:18:18.960 --> 0:18:23.679 he uh, he's getting onto TV. Um, there's their Vegas 0:18:23.680 --> 0:18:26.240 gigs have really put the Will Maston trio on the map. 0:18:26.800 --> 0:18:30.520 And um, they were doing really well. Um, they had 0:18:30.520 --> 0:18:33.000 reliable work that kind of stuff. People knew who Sammy 0:18:33.040 --> 0:18:35.359 Davis Jr. Was. He was already, you know, a protege 0:18:35.400 --> 0:18:38.120 of Frank Sinatra by this time. Um, But it wasn't 0:18:38.200 --> 0:18:43.560 until ninete that the big break came through. And it 0:18:43.640 --> 0:18:45.879 really came through and like a really kind of Hollywood 0:18:46.000 --> 0:18:49.760 story kind of way where like this they that they 0:18:49.800 --> 0:18:53.080 were given this one shot and this one particular spot 0:18:53.280 --> 0:18:55.159 at just the right time, in front of just the 0:18:55.240 --> 0:18:57.920 right people, and they killed it and that was it. 0:18:58.200 --> 0:19:01.400 They Sammy Davis Jr. Was a star from that moment on. 0:19:01.560 --> 0:19:05.560 That's right. And that was at um Janice Page and 0:19:05.680 --> 0:19:11.600 a show at Zeros, which is now the Comedy Store. Um, 0:19:11.680 --> 0:19:13.639 and oh really, I didn't know that. Yeah. Yeah, it 0:19:13.720 --> 0:19:16.639 became the Comedy Store after Zeros, but was sort of 0:19:16.640 --> 0:19:19.159 a legendary place, you know, of its own in its 0:19:19.200 --> 0:19:23.320 own right. But everyone you know that. Apparently it's debatable 0:19:23.320 --> 0:19:25.639 whether or not it was an Oscar party after party 0:19:25.720 --> 0:19:28.720 or not, but regardless, there were a lot of Hollywood 0:19:28.760 --> 0:19:33.240 people there, including Bogey and his rat Pack. Sure, the 0:19:33.240 --> 0:19:37.199 the original rat Pack, which wasn't called the rat Pack, no, 0:19:37.320 --> 0:19:41.520 it was actually it was well why did well, never mind, 0:19:41.600 --> 0:19:44.560 I'm not going down the rabbit hole. What That's all right? 0:19:45.359 --> 0:19:48.320 So he uh, he kills it there. He's doing impressions 0:19:48.320 --> 0:19:51.120 of people that are in the audience. Everyone loves him. Uh. 0:19:51.160 --> 0:19:54.760 They signed with the William Moore Morris Agency, and an 0:19:54.800 --> 0:19:58.600 overnight sensation, you know, twenty thirty years in the making 0:19:58.640 --> 0:20:01.919 starts happening. Yeah, and should say so. Sammy Davis Jr. 0:20:02.320 --> 0:20:06.240 Became known for his impressions. He was groundbreaking in the 0:20:06.280 --> 0:20:09.280 sense that he would do impressions of white people and 0:20:09.440 --> 0:20:12.520 up to the time Sammy Davis Jr. Started doing impressions 0:20:12.520 --> 0:20:14.800 of white people, if you're a black performer, you could 0:20:14.800 --> 0:20:17.240 do impressions of other black people, and that was it. 0:20:17.240 --> 0:20:19.280 It was just not okay for you to do white people. 0:20:19.440 --> 0:20:21.960 Sammy Davis Jr. Just started doing white people and the 0:20:21.960 --> 0:20:24.840 white people loved it. And at that show at Zero's, 0:20:25.040 --> 0:20:27.119 he was doing impressions of some of the people in 0:20:27.160 --> 0:20:30.439 the crowd, like he did a killer Carrie Grant and 0:20:30.520 --> 0:20:33.200 Carry Grant was a member of Humphrey Bogart's rat Pack 0:20:33.480 --> 0:20:36.040 and he was probably there that night. Um, so there 0:20:36.040 --> 0:20:38.320 were a lot of people who were getting impressions done 0:20:38.320 --> 0:20:41.399 of them. They just loved it. Killed and um, I 0:20:41.400 --> 0:20:44.280 think Janice Page said I was the headliner tonight. I 0:20:44.320 --> 0:20:46.320 think these guys should be the headliner from now on, 0:20:47.160 --> 0:20:49.080 which was pretty cool of her to do that. You know, 0:20:49.119 --> 0:20:52.720 it's amazing. Yep. So he gets a record deal after that, 0:20:53.400 --> 0:20:57.399 he's putting out like show Chins, Old Standards. Uh. He 0:20:57.480 --> 0:20:59.720 does a pilot in the mid fifties with his father 0:20:59.760 --> 0:21:04.080 and cool about a trio of black entertainers that are 0:21:04.119 --> 0:21:06.800 kind of struggling called We Three. Yeah, I would love 0:21:06.840 --> 0:21:09.000 to see that. Well, there's another probably we'll talk about 0:21:09.040 --> 0:21:12.080 later that you definitely need to see. I haven't checked 0:21:12.080 --> 0:21:13.800 it out yet, but I know I know the one. 0:21:14.200 --> 0:21:18.399 It's pretty legendary. So uh. A big thing happened that 0:21:18.440 --> 0:21:22.120 same year in nineteen four is Sammy Davis Jr. Had 0:21:22.240 --> 0:21:26.119 a wreck in his Cadillac. And the Cadillac and this 0:21:26.160 --> 0:21:29.840 is just horrific to think about because I've seen these, 0:21:29.920 --> 0:21:31.639 you know, in the middle of the steering wheel, they 0:21:31.680 --> 0:21:35.240 had these little decorative cones that stuck out. His left 0:21:35.280 --> 0:21:38.639 eyeball hit that thing and he lost it and warren 0:21:38.680 --> 0:21:41.400 eyepatch for a while and then a glass eye. Yeah, 0:21:41.440 --> 0:21:45.040 apparently he remembers coming out of the car um with 0:21:45.240 --> 0:21:48.159 holding his eye in his hand, and then that's the 0:21:48.240 --> 0:21:50.120 last thing he remembers. The next thing he remembers after 0:21:50.200 --> 0:21:52.280 that was waking up in a hospital bed and when 0:21:52.359 --> 0:21:54.480 he woke up and realized that he lost his eye 0:21:54.520 --> 0:21:58.200 for life as I was gone. Um, he was really 0:21:58.800 --> 0:22:01.520 really scared that his rear was over. This is n 0:22:02.800 --> 0:22:06.360 He'd just gotten his big break three years before and 0:22:06.600 --> 0:22:08.000 was on his way up and now all of a 0:22:08.040 --> 0:22:10.399 sudden he loses his eye. And the thing about losing 0:22:10.400 --> 0:22:13.439 your eye in addition to say, you know, having to 0:22:13.480 --> 0:22:16.639 sit for publicity photos and try to be a leading 0:22:16.680 --> 0:22:20.840 man in movies or on Broadway or that kind of thing. Um, 0:22:21.080 --> 0:22:27.119 you have to relearn spatial awareness. You're going from binocular 0:22:27.200 --> 0:22:30.520 vision to monocular vision and that has all sorts of 0:22:30.560 --> 0:22:33.320 weird tricky effects on you. So if you're a dancer 0:22:33.600 --> 0:22:37.119 or a gun slinger or doing some old soft shoe 0:22:37.240 --> 0:22:40.960 or whatever you're doing, you have to relearn how to move. 0:22:41.320 --> 0:22:44.359 And apparently one of the things that Sinatra did that 0:22:44.400 --> 0:22:47.439 was really stand up for Sammy Davis Jr. Was he 0:22:47.480 --> 0:22:52.240 had him basically come convalesc at Sinatra's place and really 0:22:53.359 --> 0:22:57.360