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Speaker 1: This episode is about a man who has been called

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Speaker 1: the greatest entertainer of the twentieth century. Jeez, look at that.

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Speaker 1: So naturally I wanted to talk to a car expert.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a gorgeous vehicle, beautifully restored.

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Speaker 1: I'm with my friend Matt Anderson, he's the curator of

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Speaker 1: transportation at the Henry Ford Museum, and we're in a

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Speaker 1: suburb of Detroit looking at a stunning, shiny red nineteen

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Speaker 1: fifty three Cadillac El Dorado with the car's owner, Neil Porter.

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Speaker 1: A lot of the parts of the car were handbuilt.

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Speaker 1: The wrap around windshield is cool. The curve in the glass,

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Speaker 1: this is.

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Speaker 3: The very first of the wrap around windshields nineteen fifty three.

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Speaker 4: Bottom.

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Speaker 1: Neil invited me to sit behind the wheel for you

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Speaker 1: to get in in. These seats are what leather? Leather, leather,

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Speaker 1: not leave. This is one heck of a car, the

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Speaker 1: height of luxury. And can I just point out that,

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Speaker 1: like power windows were a big deal in the late seventies,

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Speaker 1: but there's a prominent design flaw. Let's talk about the

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Speaker 1: steering wheel.

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Speaker 5: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: One of the things he's notice is that at the

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Speaker 2: center of the steering wheel the hub. There looks like

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Speaker 2: the nose cone on a missile.

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Speaker 1: Almost that's right jutting out from the center of the

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Speaker 1: steering wheel is a comical chrome protrusion, and straight at

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Speaker 1: the driver's face.

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Speaker 2: It has no functional purpose. It's simply there to kind

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Speaker 2: of look cool.

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Speaker 1: And cool certainly describes the man who was driving his

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Speaker 1: own El Dorado in the wee small hours of November nineteenth,

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Speaker 1: nineteen fifty four. Sammy Davis Junior was a twenty eight

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Speaker 1: year old, fast rising nightclub performer, singer, comic and boy

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Speaker 1: What a dancer heading from a show in Vegas to

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Speaker 1: a recording gig in Los Angeles when he collided with

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Speaker 1: another car in San Bernardino, California, and the left side

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Speaker 1: of his face collided with that steering wheel. The car

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Speaker 1: had no seat belts.

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Speaker 2: This is what caused Sammy Davis Junior to lose his eye.

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Speaker 2: In his accident, he did not have time to react

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Speaker 2: it out of the way, so he went flying. His

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Speaker 2: head came and hit against that protrusion and went right

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Speaker 2: into his left eye socket and in fact knocked the

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Speaker 2: eye out of the socket.

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Speaker 6: My father had been calling in the middle of the

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Speaker 6: night to go to Saint Bernardine's Hospital to take care

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Speaker 6: of a man who had a very serious car accident

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Speaker 6: and injured his eye and needed some help.

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Speaker 1: Nancy Gollup is the daughter of the late doctor Frederick Hall.

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Speaker 1: He was the surgeon who rushed to the hospital to

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Speaker 1: work on Sammy. Nancy was thirteen years old at the time.

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Speaker 6: And so what my father basically did was to save

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Speaker 6: Sammy from losing the other eye. But the first question

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Speaker 6: that Sammy purportedly asking my dad was were his legs?

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Speaker 1: Okay, wow, that's very telling, right, Yes, I thought that

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Speaker 1: was Poigners. Also, the traumatic event opens Sammy's autobiography, Yes

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Speaker 1: I Can. Here's a passage read by his co author

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Speaker 1: Bert Boyard. As I ran my hand over my cheek,

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Speaker 1: I felt my eye hanging there by a string. Frantically,

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Speaker 1: I tried to stuff it back in, like if I

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Speaker 1: could do that, it would stay there and nobody would know.

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Speaker 1: The ground went out from under me, and I was

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Speaker 1: on my knees. Don't let me go blind, Please, God,

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Speaker 1: don't take.

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Speaker 5: It all away.

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Speaker 7: Now.

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Speaker 1: When Sammy says don't take it all away, he's not

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Speaker 1: praying for his life, at least not the way you

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Speaker 1: or I might be he's talking about his life in showbiz,

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Speaker 1: all the beautiful things, all the plans, the laughs. They

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Speaker 1: were lying out there, smashed, just like the car. Sammy

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Speaker 1: spent almost two weeks in the San Bernardino hospital recovering.

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Speaker 1: Later on, he'd famously be fitted for a glass eye,

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Speaker 1: and the outpouring of love was almost like a memorial service.

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Speaker 6: There was a telegram from Marilyn Monroe which just thrilled Sammy.

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Speaker 1: Two pieces, Eddie Canter, Jackie Robinson, Ella Fitzgerald. They all

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Speaker 1: sent telegrams, even the waiters at the Hollywood night club Zeros,

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Speaker 1: where he'd become an overnight sensation just three years before.

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Speaker 1: The admiration of his friends and peers mattered, But in

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Speaker 1: a life of dramatic ups and downs, was the adulation

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Speaker 1: of audiences that would sustain him, in the words of

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Speaker 1: one friend, nourish him. And he gave those audiences everything

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Speaker 1: he had.

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Speaker 8: I've got a lot of living to do.

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Speaker 9: This is what he was trained to do. It was

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Speaker 9: in every atom of his DNA. It's what he did.

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Speaker 9: He did it well, he did it graciously, He did

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Speaker 9: it gratefully, and he wasn't trying to bludget anybody over

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Speaker 9: the head. And he wasn't just in his performance, it's

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Speaker 9: just what he did, it's who he was. I gotta

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Speaker 9: be me. Who's me, the world's greatest entertainer, Sammy Davis Junior.

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Speaker 1: I'm Morocca and this is mobituaries, this moment, Sammy Davis Junior.

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Speaker 1: May sixteenth, nineteen ninety death of the entertainer.

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Speaker 10: I think that it's probably the best thing that's ever

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Speaker 10: happened to me.

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Speaker 8: It's probably an odd thing to say.

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Speaker 10: My friends rallied around me and convinced me that it

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Speaker 10: was still a lot to be done and that I

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Speaker 10: probably probably wouldn't matter. And as it turned out.

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Speaker 1: That's Sammy Davis Junior talking about the crash that nearly

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Speaker 1: killed him. I'm not surprised by the outpouring of love

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Speaker 1: at that hospital. I've been a correspondent on CBS Sunday

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Speaker 1: Morning for over ten years now. I've interviewed probably over

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Speaker 1: one hundred celebrities, and there's one name that's popped up

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Speaker 1: more than any.

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Speaker 3: Other, Sammy Davis Junior.

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Speaker 1: Former San Francisco mayor Willie Brown told me about his

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Speaker 1: friend's command over an audience.

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Speaker 3: When he was on stage.

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Speaker 11: You would be overwhelmed.

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Speaker 1: Kim Novak and Nancy Sinatra each talked about what a

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Speaker 1: joy Sammy was to be around.

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Speaker 12: He was such a fun person. Sammy was part of

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Speaker 12: the family.

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Speaker 1: LeVar Burton and Ben Vereen revered Sammy as a role model.

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Speaker 13: It wasn't all the time that I saw people on

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Speaker 13: TV who look like me.

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Speaker 10: If there was a black actor on TV in those days,

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Speaker 10: we'd watched Sammy would.

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Speaker 5: Come on on The Ed Sullivan Show and.

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Speaker 14: Do everything, and I was bleed everything.

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Speaker 15: He did everything.

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Speaker 1: Yes, when the subject turns to Sammy, the superlatives start

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Speaker 1: flying easily.

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Speaker 5: The greatest.

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Speaker 1: He was everything.

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Speaker 16: He could play any instrument, he could sing, he could

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Speaker 16: dance like a maniac.

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Speaker 1: That's Broadway legend, Cheeta Rivera. Is there anyone like Sammy

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Speaker 1: Davis Junior today.

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Speaker 16: I have not ever seen anybody. I just never saw

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Speaker 16: anything like him in my life.

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Speaker 1: It says it right there on his tombstone in Hollywood's

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Speaker 1: Forest Lawn, the entertainer. He did it all.

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Speaker 10: Daddy was a new sensation, got himself a congregation, built

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Speaker 10: up quite an up ration down band.

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Speaker 1: And he did singing, dancing, acting, comedy. He was at

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Speaker 1: least a quadruple threat quintuple if you count his gun

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Speaker 1: spinning routine or upplog. It helped that he started early.

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Speaker 10: I won an amateur contest at the Stanley Theater in

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Speaker 10: Philadelphia when I was three and a half years old,

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Speaker 10: singing I'll be glad when You're dead, You rascal.

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Speaker 1: You that seven year old Sammy singing the same song

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Speaker 1: in the movie musical short Rufus Jones for President. Sammy

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Speaker 1: Davis Junior was born in Harlem, Woman in nineteen twenty five.

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Speaker 1: His mother, Elvera Sanchez, was Latin and a dancer. His

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Speaker 1: father was a hoofer. His parents split up early, and

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Speaker 1: just when most kids start school, Sammy hit the road

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Speaker 1: the vaudeville circuit with his father, Sam Senior, and Will Maston,

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Speaker 1: a family friend he called his uncle. They were billed

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Speaker 1: as the Will Maston Trio. Here's Sammy reminiscing with his

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Speaker 1: father in a nineteen seventy three TV special.

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Speaker 10: What Place We plainly who?

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Speaker 3: We were playing?

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Speaker 10: Minsky's Lynsky's, Yeah, Minskis Berlin's House, forty second Street, doing

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Speaker 10: jigleson right.

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Speaker 14: And I used to add a cigarette, yeah, And.

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Speaker 3: I was passing off as a midget.

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Speaker 8: I don't want midget.

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Speaker 15: With that then, but you were five.

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Speaker 1: The trio was a success, but it was the diminutive

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Speaker 1: Sammy Davis Junior even as an adult. He was just

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Speaker 1: five foot five who stood out. Shirley McLain remembered Dean

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Speaker 1: Martin and Frank Sinatra sneaking her into ceroes to see

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Speaker 1: this dynamo who.

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Speaker 17: Was dancing and singing and performing in the middle of

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Speaker 17: a trio.

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Speaker 1: She told this story on stage to Sammy had a

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Speaker 1: tribute show in his honor in nineteen eighty nine, towards

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Speaker 1: the end of his life.

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Speaker 17: The two people on either side of you were terrific.

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Speaker 17: But I could not believe my eyes and my ears

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Speaker 17: never had so much come out of something so small

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Speaker 17: for so long.

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Speaker 1: She's right, there was a light that came out of

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Speaker 1: him that made it impossible not to look at him,

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Speaker 1: that made him more than the sum of his mad

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Speaker 1: individual talents. Let's talk about his impressions, which I loved,

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Speaker 1: his Bogey perfect.

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Speaker 10: I'd like to say that it's really been a pleasure

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Speaker 10: entertaining all of you nice folks shot there.

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Speaker 11: It's really been one of the great thrills of my time.

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Speaker 1: His Cagney spot.

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Speaker 10: On yes, wing that great h all in love, that's

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Speaker 10: in you, you dirty.

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Speaker 1: Rat, and now listened to his marvelously muttering Marlon Brando A.

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Speaker 18: Baby kisses, I will personally deliver if you will only

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Speaker 18: sing this morning roof over day.

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Speaker 1: His friend, the Oscar winning songwriter Leslie Brickis told me

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Speaker 1: that growing up, Sammy spent a lot of time in

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Speaker 1: movie theaters. It became sort of his school, since he

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Speaker 1: never spent a single day in an actual school.

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Speaker 14: He used to speak along with the actors, imitating them,

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Speaker 14: you know, carry Grant or Humphy Bogat. He learned the accents.

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Speaker 14: He'd do the voice with them, and that's how he

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Speaker 14: perfected it. He couldn't let anything go by.

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Speaker 1: There's this bit I've seen from an old Julie Andrews

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Speaker 1: Variety show. Julie Andrews Variety Show. Don't you just love

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Speaker 1: the sound of that? Anyway, On the show, Sammy and

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Speaker 1: the impressionist Rich Little engage in a friendly competition.

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Speaker 16: Why don't we forget about impressions and just see?

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Speaker 1: Oh Sammy sings as an acting cole.

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Speaker 7: I've just found joy.

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Speaker 1: I'm as happy.

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Speaker 7: All you, blaye the bar.

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Speaker 1: Rich does liberacim parvised and Sammy does his Jerry Lewis

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Speaker 1: to Riches Dean Martin, You.

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Speaker 19: And the way.

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Speaker 1: Wait a minute, you know I'm watching it, and rich

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Speaker 1: Little is technically better, but Sammy is just better. I'd

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Speaker 1: rather watch Sammy. So what's happening there?

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Speaker 9: The genius of Sammy's when he imitated someone, He imitated

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Speaker 9: them from the inside out, and rich Little imitates someone

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Speaker 9: from the outside inn and Sammy gets to the essence

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Speaker 9: of that person.

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Speaker 1: This is Larry Maslon. He's the writer and co producer

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Speaker 1: of the film American Masters. Sammy Davis Junior. I've got

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Speaker 1: to be me and he's super smart.

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Speaker 9: Nobody imitated musicians and singers the way sam That's.

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Speaker 1: Really interesting because you've got to be able to have

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Speaker 1: the talent of channeling them and have their talent as well,

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Speaker 1: right right, right.

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Speaker 8: Lo Wie, where You're.

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Speaker 1: Sammy's talent as a singer is often well undersung. It's

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Speaker 1: not so much that he had a technically beautiful voice,

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Speaker 1: but cliche alert. He knew how to make a song

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Speaker 1: his own. And in this episode, we're going to use

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Speaker 1: three of the songs he famously sang to tell his story.

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Speaker 8: Whether I'm right.

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Speaker 1: Larry Maslon calls I've Got to Be Me the ultimate

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Speaker 1: Sammy song.

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Speaker 9: I mean, it's everything, and that's who he was.

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Speaker 8: I gotta be mean.

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Speaker 1: And yet the song wasn't written for Sammy.

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Speaker 9: Or Settle falls.

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Speaker 14: As long as there's not much charms.

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Speaker 1: But Steve Lawrence sang it first in a musical called

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Speaker 1: Golden Rainbow, about a single dad living in Vegas. The

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Speaker 1: musical also starred Steve's wife, Evie Gourmet incredible voice. Anyway,

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Speaker 1: Steve thought this song, written by Walter Marx might be

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Speaker 1: more powerful coming from his friend.

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Speaker 20: The lyric content was like whether I'm right, whether I'm wrong,

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Speaker 20: whether I find a place in this world or never belong.

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Speaker 20: It interpreted this black man in this society at that time,

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Speaker 20: this man who is different than everybody else. I called him.

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Speaker 20: I said, sam You're going to do this your own

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Speaker 20: way and better. It meant more coming from him than

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Speaker 20: it did from me. He recorded it, bang, he went

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Speaker 20: to the top of the chots.

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Speaker 8: We'll go it alone.

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Speaker 1: So it must now being me for Sammy Davis Junior

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Speaker 1: was a complicated matter. For one thing, he was an

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Speaker 1: African American man who would later convert to Judaism.

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Speaker 8: My mother is a Puerto Rican, so that means I'm

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Speaker 8: colored Jewish and Puerto Rican.

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Speaker 10: When I move into a neighborhood, I wipe it out.

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Speaker 1: That's a joke he told a lot when he was

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Speaker 1: performing with the rat Pack in the nineteen sixties. FYI

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00:14:40,680 --> 00:14:42,320
Speaker 1: were not spending a lot of time with the rat

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Speaker 1: Pack in this episode. It's been done to death. Throughout

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Speaker 1: his life, Sammy mined his unique identity for humor and

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Speaker 1: to diffuse tension. Remember Warren Batty announcing the wrong Best

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Speaker 1: Picture Oscar winner in twenty seventeen. Sammy was ahead of

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Speaker 1: his time. Here he is in nineteen sixty four announcing

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Speaker 1: the Oscar for movie scoring.

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Speaker 10: And the winner is John Addison for Tom Jones.

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Speaker 1: Except that it wasn't. Sammy handled his snack for me

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Speaker 1: without skipping a beat.

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Speaker 8: They gave me the wrong envelope. Wait till the NAACP

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Speaker 8: hears about this.

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Speaker 1: But earlier in his life his talent played a much

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Speaker 1: more vital role. It helped him survive.

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Speaker 5: They painted you white, they poured urine in your beer,

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Speaker 5: things of that name.

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Speaker 9: I mean, did these things really happen? Yes, they really happen.

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Speaker 1: That's Sammy talking to our senior Hall. In nineteen forty three,

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Speaker 1: eighteen year old Sammy came off the road when he

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Speaker 1: was drafted into the army and into one of the

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Speaker 1: first integrated units. Until then, his father and uncle had

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Speaker 1: tried as best they could to shell him from racism.

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Speaker 1: Now there was no one to protect him.

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Speaker 10: I was in a kind of an odd situation because

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Speaker 10: I'm going, hey, I don't know anything about.

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Speaker 8: This outside world.

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Speaker 10: I belonged to show business. Show business says, hey, I

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Speaker 10: got a bar, and let's put the show on here.

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Speaker 10: You know, all of those cliches I lived, you know,

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Speaker 10: and the other guys are going, you'll be doing that.

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Speaker 10: You gon'll get us in trouble. You know, I got

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00:16:24,200 --> 00:16:28,640
Speaker 10: my nose broke three times and it hurt, and you

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Speaker 10: couldn't do anything about it. You had nobody to back

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Speaker 10: you up.

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Speaker 1: Trips to the infirmary were regular. That's how many fights

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Speaker 1: he was getting into. But when he got transferred to

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Speaker 1: an entertainment unit, things got better for him. He once

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Speaker 1: told his daughter, talent was my only weapon.

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Speaker 10: With a white situation of a black situation, you do

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Speaker 10: it with humor. I tried to do it with entertaining,

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Speaker 10: to try to get some doors open, because all of

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Speaker 10: them were closed in those days, all of them were closed.

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Speaker 1: Well, sammy them open. Remember those impressions he did. They

302
00:17:04,080 --> 00:17:08,040
Speaker 1: weren't just funny, they were bold. Back in the late forties,

303
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Speaker 1: black performers didn't do impressions of white performers in front

304
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Speaker 1: of white audiences, that is until Sammy did.

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Speaker 10: My dad Will said, big interest, one of these days

306
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Speaker 10: you keep doing white.

307
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Speaker 1: People, you know.

308
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Speaker 10: And I went on and did it now in the

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Speaker 10: Strand Theater. The first time I went, you dirty rat,

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Speaker 10: a guy in the audience said, my god, he sounds

311
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Speaker 10: just like him. What he was really saying, I'm looking

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Speaker 10: at a black man for the first time, do a

313
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Speaker 10: white man. Well, it was so good that we went

314
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Speaker 10: from opening act to closing.

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Speaker 1: Now. Imitating white performers was one thing. Dating a white

316
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Speaker 1: woman was another. His relationship with screen siren Kim Novak

317
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Speaker 1: was considered scandalous. In nineteen fifty seven, I talked to

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Speaker 1: Kim recently on her horse farm in Oregon. That was

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Speaker 1: its explosive back then.

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Speaker 12: At that time, it was it certainly was so ridiculous.

321
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Speaker 1: And what was that like for you?

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Speaker 12: At that time, Harry Conbe threatened to take his other

323
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Speaker 12: eye out.

324
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Speaker 1: Harry Khane was the much feared head of Columbia Pictures,

325
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Speaker 1: and he really did. Oh, of course.

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Speaker 12: However, we saw each other, but I was never in love.

327
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Speaker 1: Certainly it was Sammy. Do you think that he was

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Speaker 1: infatuated with you? Oh he was.

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Speaker 12: He had a good crush on a nice crush. I

330
00:18:29,960 --> 00:18:33,160
Speaker 12: mean we had such fun times together, we really did.

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Speaker 12: But it certainly not worth losing an eye over.

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Speaker 1: I'm just trying to square this sort of drive to

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Speaker 1: make an audience happy and the public happy, and then

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Speaker 1: doing these things that are really ballsy.

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Speaker 3: Well, I'm not sure he viewed them as ballsy.

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Speaker 1: That's Sammy's friend, former San Francisco mayor Willie Brown.

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Speaker 3: I'm sure he viewed them as being just Davis junior.

338
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Speaker 1: And in nineteen seventy two, being Sammy Davis Junior meant

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00:19:05,880 --> 00:19:10,760
Speaker 1: embracing President Richard Nixon during his reelection campaign. Quite literally,

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00:19:10,960 --> 00:19:14,000
Speaker 1: Sammy hugged Nixon, and let's just say much of the

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00:19:14,040 --> 00:19:15,639
Speaker 1: public did not hug back.

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Speaker 3: You've had a lot of criticism from some black groups,

343
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Speaker 3: right because I bothered you.

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Speaker 7: Yes, of course.

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Speaker 1: Do you think that he was shocked at the reaction

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Speaker 1: he got when he embraced Nixon.

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Speaker 3: Yes, I think that shocked him.

348
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Speaker 1: But Willie Brown says, Sammy knew exactly what he was doing.

349
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Speaker 3: Many African Americans in this country were Republicans. Sammy was

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Speaker 3: conscious of that because some of them were his friends.

351
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Speaker 1: And contrary to most tellings of this story, Brown says,

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00:19:46,960 --> 00:19:50,520
Speaker 1: it wasn't primarily African American fans who were outraged.

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Speaker 3: They were basically white liberals who could not understand how

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Speaker 3: such as symbolic black could be embracing somebody like Richard Nixon.

355
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Speaker 1: So most of the disapproval you think came from white liberals.

356
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Speaker 3: I know it came from white liberals. Black people didn't

357
00:20:11,359 --> 00:20:13,400
Speaker 3: give a shit about whether or not he embracings.

358
00:20:14,200 --> 00:20:17,320
Speaker 1: Yeah, Sammy still felt the need later that year to

359
00:20:17,400 --> 00:20:21,639
Speaker 1: address a less than warm audience at Jesse Jackson's Push Conference,

360
00:20:22,040 --> 00:20:24,360
Speaker 1: a gathering of social justice activists.

361
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Speaker 10: Man, disagree if you will with my politics.

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Speaker 1: It was a dramatic appearance.

363
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Speaker 10: But I will not allow anyone to take away the fact.

364
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Speaker 8: That I am black.

365
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Speaker 9: It's moving because he's honest with his audience.

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Speaker 1: That's Larry Maslon again.

367
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Speaker 9: Basically, he's saying, whatever you think of me and Richard Dixon.

368
00:20:47,480 --> 00:20:49,000
Speaker 9: You know I'm a black man. You know what I've

369
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Speaker 9: been through in the last forty years.

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Speaker 8: I'm right, ah, rather wrong.

371
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Speaker 9: If you don't want to take me, fine, but I'm

372
00:20:58,880 --> 00:21:01,080
Speaker 9: going to put me out there. I gotta be me.

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Speaker 9: What more of a statement can you have than that?

374
00:21:05,920 --> 00:21:11,520
Speaker 8: I gotta be me, gotta be me?

375
00:21:14,240 --> 00:21:16,080
Speaker 4: What else can I be?

376
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Speaker 21: It seems like showbiz for him was kind of like

377
00:21:20,240 --> 00:21:24,119
Speaker 21: a rocket ship that took him on a voyage and

378
00:21:24,840 --> 00:21:27,920
Speaker 21: helped him sort of overcome so many obstacles.

379
00:21:28,440 --> 00:21:30,840
Speaker 9: His talent is a rocket ship, but gravity was being

380
00:21:30,880 --> 00:21:33,760
Speaker 9: black in America, and that's what brought him back to

381
00:21:33,800 --> 00:21:36,600
Speaker 9: Earth time and time again. This is his own words.

382
00:21:36,600 --> 00:21:38,200
Speaker 9: I want to be so good that no one will

383
00:21:38,240 --> 00:21:43,040
Speaker 9: notice I'm black. That's not really possible, is it?

384
00:21:43,119 --> 00:21:44,560
Speaker 5: What kind no.

385
00:21:46,160 --> 00:21:47,240
Speaker 8: Lives are they?

386
00:21:48,920 --> 00:21:49,000
Speaker 15: Do?

387
00:21:49,040 --> 00:21:50,720
Speaker 1: You have a favorite Sammy song?

388
00:21:51,040 --> 00:22:00,440
Speaker 7: That whispered Empty were Birds?

389
00:22:01,720 --> 00:22:05,520
Speaker 1: What kind of fool am I? That's Dion Warwick's favorite

390
00:22:05,520 --> 00:22:09,520
Speaker 1: Sammy song. It's about someone unable to find lasting love.

391
00:22:12,040 --> 00:22:15,720
Speaker 19: That's the story he tells from the very first note.

392
00:22:16,080 --> 00:22:19,200
Speaker 19: I mean, you cannot but believe every single word he's

393
00:22:19,280 --> 00:22:22,320
Speaker 19: giving you. He floored me with that.

394
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Speaker 14: What time because he was forever on tour and on

395
00:22:32,200 --> 00:22:35,840
Speaker 14: the road. He never could sustain the relationship because he

396
00:22:35,920 --> 00:22:37,919
Speaker 14: was never there for more than two weeks.

397
00:22:38,600 --> 00:22:41,080
Speaker 1: Leslie Brickis wrote what kind of fool Am I? With

398
00:22:41,200 --> 00:22:44,440
Speaker 1: Anthony Newley for the musical Stop the World? I Want

399
00:22:44,440 --> 00:22:48,600
Speaker 1: to Get Off? But Sammy made it famous when he

400
00:22:48,680 --> 00:22:51,400
Speaker 1: sings it. There's a great performance in nineteen sixty two

401
00:22:51,400 --> 00:22:56,280
Speaker 1: on Andy Williams Show, and it's just so plaintive, almost anguished.

402
00:22:56,960 --> 00:22:57,120
Speaker 4: What.

403
00:23:00,600 --> 00:23:06,480
Speaker 14: Am well? He wasn't good act to too. But it

404
00:23:06,600 --> 00:23:09,640
Speaker 14: also may have been a little bit of autobiography in there.

405
00:23:09,680 --> 00:23:13,520
Speaker 1: You know, why can I cast away.

406
00:23:14,640 --> 00:23:17,000
Speaker 14: This mask of play.

407
00:23:18,320 --> 00:23:25,119
Speaker 10: And live my life? How do you make it thresh?

408
00:23:25,200 --> 00:23:29,560
Speaker 10: Whatever I walk on that stage with that night, I

409
00:23:29,720 --> 00:23:34,560
Speaker 10: try to translate into that rendition of the song, and

410
00:23:35,359 --> 00:23:37,080
Speaker 10: it's a true, honest feeling.

411
00:23:37,760 --> 00:23:52,480
Speaker 1: I Sammy's romantic history was tumultuous. After Kim Novak. There

412
00:23:52,560 --> 00:23:56,679
Speaker 1: was a short marriage to the African American actress Lay White,

413
00:23:56,760 --> 00:24:00,000
Speaker 1: and then he married the white Swedish model and actress

414
00:24:00,480 --> 00:24:04,040
Speaker 1: My brit That wedding was such a scandal he got

415
00:24:04,080 --> 00:24:07,880
Speaker 1: disinvited from the JFK inaugural. Yes, that might have had

416
00:24:07,880 --> 00:24:11,040
Speaker 1: something to do with his hugging Nixon. Later on, he

417
00:24:11,080 --> 00:24:13,680
Speaker 1: and my had two kids before splitting up.

418
00:24:14,119 --> 00:24:15,159
Speaker 3: My wife left me.

419
00:24:15,600 --> 00:24:17,240
Speaker 5: You know, I took the kids.

420
00:24:17,840 --> 00:24:19,800
Speaker 10: Nothing was more important than being a star.

421
00:24:19,960 --> 00:24:21,240
Speaker 8: So I've lost them.

422
00:24:21,760 --> 00:24:24,320
Speaker 10: I lost every ounce of what was valuable.

423
00:24:25,400 --> 00:24:26,639
Speaker 8: I'd made the wrong choices.

424
00:24:27,119 --> 00:24:30,360
Speaker 1: Sammy was married three times in all, and dated plenty

425
00:24:30,400 --> 00:24:33,800
Speaker 1: in between. Cheeta Rivera met Sammy when they worked together

426
00:24:33,880 --> 00:24:35,680
Speaker 1: on the musical Mister Wonderful.

427
00:24:36,280 --> 00:24:38,639
Speaker 16: And I was a snob when they asked me to

428
00:24:38,680 --> 00:24:42,640
Speaker 16: do it. I went, he's from nightclubs. I mean, what's

429
00:24:42,640 --> 00:24:44,120
Speaker 16: he going to do on a stage?

430
00:24:44,400 --> 00:24:44,680
Speaker 1: You know?

431
00:24:45,280 --> 00:24:49,000
Speaker 16: And boy did I did? I eat my words?

432
00:24:49,040 --> 00:24:51,560
Speaker 1: And you were lovers? You were boyfriends and friend and

433
00:24:51,720 --> 00:24:53,560
Speaker 1: what was that like? It was fabulous.

434
00:24:53,840 --> 00:24:56,520
Speaker 16: He's as talented in that area as he was as

435
00:24:56,520 --> 00:24:57,879
Speaker 16: he was otherwise.

436
00:24:58,960 --> 00:25:01,520
Speaker 1: But things got he did on one occasion.

437
00:25:01,840 --> 00:25:06,080
Speaker 16: I know this doesn't sound too crude, but we must

438
00:25:06,080 --> 00:25:10,720
Speaker 16: have had some words which I don't remember ever having

439
00:25:10,760 --> 00:25:13,280
Speaker 16: with him, but I remember he took his.

440
00:25:13,280 --> 00:25:15,840
Speaker 1: Eye out, that would be his glass eye.

441
00:25:16,320 --> 00:25:19,879
Speaker 16: The words that are in my head are is this

442
00:25:20,000 --> 00:25:24,960
Speaker 16: what you want now? That sounds like an hour interview

443
00:25:25,080 --> 00:25:28,439
Speaker 16: in itself. I know how dramatic that sounds, but I

444
00:25:28,480 --> 00:25:33,080
Speaker 16: do remember that, and I'm not even sure that we

445
00:25:33,080 --> 00:25:34,280
Speaker 16: were alone.

446
00:25:34,760 --> 00:25:38,840
Speaker 1: Okay, sidebar. I was obsessed with glass eyes growing up.

447
00:25:39,080 --> 00:25:41,639
Speaker 1: A relative of mine actually had one, or maybe his

448
00:25:41,800 --> 00:25:44,320
Speaker 1: was rubber, I can't remember. It was a fake eye anyway.

449
00:25:44,600 --> 00:25:48,640
Speaker 1: Recently I spoke with the fabulous Sandy Duncan. She performed

450
00:25:48,640 --> 00:25:51,440
Speaker 1: with Sammy but never dated him, and she talked about

451
00:25:51,440 --> 00:25:53,800
Speaker 1: the rumors that she had a glass eye.

452
00:25:54,080 --> 00:25:57,560
Speaker 22: Contrary to urban myth, I do not have a glass eye,

453
00:25:57,800 --> 00:25:59,200
Speaker 22: so that'll put this to rest.

454
00:25:59,720 --> 00:26:03,200
Speaker 1: But she did lose sight in one eye, and Sammy

455
00:26:03,240 --> 00:26:04,120
Speaker 1: reached out to her.

456
00:26:04,760 --> 00:26:08,000
Speaker 22: She was very concerned about my having lost my vision

457
00:26:08,280 --> 00:26:11,919
Speaker 22: through a brain tumor when I was twenty four, and

458
00:26:11,960 --> 00:26:13,640
Speaker 22: he made contact immediately.

459
00:26:13,720 --> 00:26:17,240
Speaker 1: Do you think that there is something in the recovery

460
00:26:18,000 --> 00:26:21,840
Speaker 1: for him and for you that, actually, I don't know,

461
00:26:22,160 --> 00:26:24,080
Speaker 1: made you even better as an entertainer.

462
00:26:24,680 --> 00:26:27,280
Speaker 22: I don't know if any better as an entertainer, but

463
00:26:27,320 --> 00:26:32,880
Speaker 22: I certainly developed a discipline that nothing stops you. I've

464
00:26:32,920 --> 00:26:35,879
Speaker 22: never missed a show in my life. I just didn't

465
00:26:35,960 --> 00:26:38,720
Speaker 22: let it bother me. I had to get up and

466
00:26:38,760 --> 00:26:39,560
Speaker 22: get out and do it.

467
00:26:39,600 --> 00:26:40,920
Speaker 6: So he was very helpful.

468
00:26:44,040 --> 00:26:51,520
Speaker 10: What kind of fool am I?

469
00:26:52,119 --> 00:26:57,480
Speaker 1: Well, of course Sammy did fall in love and stay

470
00:26:57,520 --> 00:27:01,400
Speaker 1: in love with his audience. I know it's a cliche.

471
00:27:01,440 --> 00:27:05,399
Speaker 1: Well here comes another one. He's just so at home

472
00:27:05,520 --> 00:27:08,720
Speaker 1: on stage. If you look at videos of him performing

473
00:27:08,760 --> 00:27:11,959
Speaker 1: on variety shows, he does this thing where he'll end

474
00:27:12,000 --> 00:27:14,760
Speaker 1: a big number and then he just sort of doubles

475
00:27:14,800 --> 00:27:18,200
Speaker 1: over with laughter. He's had that much fun, almost like

476
00:27:18,280 --> 00:27:28,160
Speaker 1: a kid showing off to his friends. But make no mistake,

477
00:27:28,400 --> 00:27:31,359
Speaker 1: it might all look and sound off the couff. He

478
00:27:31,480 --> 00:27:34,760
Speaker 1: knows exactly what he's doing with your.

479
00:27:34,720 --> 00:27:35,320
Speaker 8: Kind of mission.

480
00:27:35,359 --> 00:27:39,280
Speaker 10: May I simply stated how very wonderful and thrilled and.

481
00:27:39,320 --> 00:27:40,399
Speaker 9: Scared I am.

482
00:27:40,600 --> 00:27:46,359
Speaker 19: You had to see this man's own a stage and

483
00:27:46,520 --> 00:27:51,800
Speaker 19: an audience. He actually owned you. He put you into him.

484
00:27:52,920 --> 00:27:56,720
Speaker 1: Dion Warwick wasn't just his friend. She studied him. Well,

485
00:27:56,760 --> 00:27:58,720
Speaker 1: that is a really interesting word when you say he

486
00:27:59,000 --> 00:28:00,920
Speaker 1: owned the audience. What does that mean?

487
00:28:02,600 --> 00:28:06,520
Speaker 19: When he worked on that stage, he knew that we

488
00:28:06,520 --> 00:28:08,000
Speaker 19: were in the palm of his hand.

489
00:28:10,400 --> 00:28:11,480
Speaker 8: People have to trust you.

490
00:28:12,240 --> 00:28:16,160
Speaker 1: For Sammy, this relationship with the audience was deeply personal.

491
00:28:16,840 --> 00:28:19,160
Speaker 8: People don't trust you. You ain't got to shut it

492
00:28:20,000 --> 00:28:23,199
Speaker 8: and They've invested years in me, so I'm part of

493
00:28:23,240 --> 00:28:26,360
Speaker 8: the family as long as I don't let them down.

494
00:28:27,720 --> 00:28:30,280
Speaker 1: Do you think that he was pretty much always happy

495
00:28:30,320 --> 00:28:31,119
Speaker 1: on stage?

496
00:28:31,840 --> 00:28:33,480
Speaker 19: Yeah, that was just domain.

497
00:28:34,160 --> 00:28:40,720
Speaker 14: We heard the bereze through the Trees.

498
00:28:42,200 --> 00:28:43,920
Speaker 1: Here's Leslie Brickis again.

499
00:28:44,560 --> 00:28:48,080
Speaker 14: Nineteen seventy seven New Year's Eve and he and Eliza

500
00:28:48,120 --> 00:28:52,040
Speaker 14: Manelli did it at midnight New Year's Eve act, which

501
00:28:52,120 --> 00:28:55,840
Speaker 14: went on for three hours. We went up to Sammy's

502
00:28:55,840 --> 00:29:00,560
Speaker 14: Sweet afterwards and he said, let's do it all again,

503
00:29:00,920 --> 00:29:04,120
Speaker 14: and they did the whole show again for just four

504
00:29:04,240 --> 00:29:06,520
Speaker 14: people and it was another three hours.

505
00:29:06,840 --> 00:29:07,360
Speaker 4: What is that?

506
00:29:07,600 --> 00:29:10,600
Speaker 1: Was that a need to perform or was that just pure.

507
00:29:10,480 --> 00:29:13,200
Speaker 14: Joy or was it joy more than anything?

508
00:29:13,360 --> 00:29:14,200
Speaker 7: Joy joy?

509
00:29:15,480 --> 00:29:19,600
Speaker 14: He was so high on the audience reaction that the

510
00:29:19,920 --> 00:29:23,080
Speaker 14: only way he could come down was to perform more.

511
00:29:23,440 --> 00:29:27,480
Speaker 1: I want to hear it one moon Dion Warwick told

512
00:29:27,560 --> 00:29:30,840
Speaker 1: me that he described applause as nourishment.

513
00:29:31,760 --> 00:29:35,080
Speaker 14: Yes, that was that. That was breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

514
00:29:35,560 --> 00:29:51,280
Speaker 1: Wo You know, people romanticize the entertainer who just gives one,

515
00:29:52,880 --> 00:29:55,840
Speaker 1: but then the cliche is, you know, they give, they give,

516
00:29:55,920 --> 00:29:58,440
Speaker 1: they give, but there was nothing left for themselves, and

517
00:29:58,680 --> 00:29:58,880
Speaker 1: you know.

518
00:29:59,040 --> 00:30:01,760
Speaker 3: But no, no, no, no no no, he gay, but

519
00:30:01,880 --> 00:30:07,200
Speaker 3: he used. He enjoyed every penny that he ever earned.

520
00:30:08,080 --> 00:30:11,120
Speaker 3: Sammy Davis Junior enjoyed it period.

521
00:30:11,320 --> 00:30:14,360
Speaker 1: That's Willie Brown again. Now it turns out that what

522
00:30:14,600 --> 00:30:17,800
Speaker 1: kind of fool am I might also describe Sammy Davis

523
00:30:17,880 --> 00:30:19,880
Speaker 1: Junior's relationship with money.

524
00:30:20,760 --> 00:30:26,480
Speaker 3: My most expensive pocket watch with the chain came from

525
00:30:26,560 --> 00:30:27,720
Speaker 3: Sammy Davis change.

526
00:30:28,920 --> 00:30:30,760
Speaker 1: And that's you think it just made him feel good

527
00:30:30,800 --> 00:30:31,640
Speaker 1: to be that generous.

528
00:30:32,480 --> 00:30:34,680
Speaker 3: I think it was that way. I think he wanted

529
00:30:34,760 --> 00:30:36,720
Speaker 3: to share his wealth.

530
00:30:37,280 --> 00:30:39,840
Speaker 15: Sammy Davis was one of the worst people I ever

531
00:30:39,960 --> 00:30:43,200
Speaker 15: saw him any kind of money. He had no idea

532
00:30:43,280 --> 00:30:45,320
Speaker 15: what money was and what it was worth.

533
00:30:45,840 --> 00:30:49,800
Speaker 1: That's Sammy's former agent Larry Auerback. He told me a

534
00:30:49,920 --> 00:30:53,200
Speaker 1: lot of things, including an amazing story about Elvis that

535
00:30:53,240 --> 00:30:54,440
Speaker 1: I'm not allowed to repeat.

536
00:30:54,160 --> 00:30:57,280
Speaker 15: It my whole life story for his cut on anything

537
00:30:57,360 --> 00:31:01,360
Speaker 15: You're doing. It's a podcast that's even worth Okay.

538
00:31:02,080 --> 00:31:05,720
Speaker 1: One thing he made incredibly clear Sammy was bad with money.

539
00:31:06,360 --> 00:31:10,120
Speaker 15: I was going to London on vacation. Next thing I know,

540
00:31:10,280 --> 00:31:14,320
Speaker 15: he put a lovely leather case and then it was

541
00:31:14,360 --> 00:31:17,120
Speaker 15: a night time chamer, which was the highlight of the day,

542
00:31:18,600 --> 00:31:20,000
Speaker 15: and I said, well, am I going to do it this?

543
00:31:22,240 --> 00:31:25,120
Speaker 15: I literally felt that he had no idea what he

544
00:31:25,280 --> 00:31:27,680
Speaker 15: was spending or it was what it meant.

545
00:31:28,240 --> 00:31:30,760
Speaker 1: Almost everyone I talked to had a story about Sammy

546
00:31:30,840 --> 00:31:33,960
Speaker 1: giving them a ridiculously expensive present, and.

547
00:31:34,760 --> 00:31:36,480
Speaker 14: I already had a go Watch. I didn't need a

548
00:31:36,520 --> 00:31:39,200
Speaker 14: go watch. He had this impulse to spend money.

549
00:31:39,840 --> 00:31:40,760
Speaker 9: Are you bad with money?

550
00:31:41,880 --> 00:31:41,920
Speaker 1: No?

551
00:31:42,120 --> 00:31:43,240
Speaker 8: I think I'm pretty good with it.

552
00:31:44,640 --> 00:31:48,160
Speaker 1: Sammy himself talked about his spending habits with Dick Cabot.

553
00:31:48,040 --> 00:31:52,280
Speaker 10: And I'm entitled to blow maybe five ten thousand dollars

554
00:31:52,360 --> 00:31:52,920
Speaker 10: out of the year.

555
00:31:53,600 --> 00:31:54,120
Speaker 7: Just blow it.

556
00:31:54,280 --> 00:31:56,160
Speaker 8: Yeah, where are you going to do that?

557
00:31:56,320 --> 00:32:01,600
Speaker 9: Next day? When he died, he owed more money to

558
00:32:01,720 --> 00:32:04,480
Speaker 9: the Irs than any single individual in history up to

559
00:32:04,560 --> 00:32:04,920
Speaker 9: that point.

560
00:32:06,120 --> 00:32:09,760
Speaker 14: He had to impress people on stage, on off. You know,

561
00:32:09,840 --> 00:32:14,080
Speaker 14: he'd wear the most outrageous clothing. He had six rings

562
00:32:14,160 --> 00:32:16,040
Speaker 14: on his hand. You saw the pictures.

563
00:32:16,200 --> 00:32:18,400
Speaker 1: Sure, some people are going to hear that and think

564
00:32:18,560 --> 00:32:20,240
Speaker 1: was he compensating for something?

565
00:32:22,240 --> 00:32:25,360
Speaker 14: Yes? I think he was compensating for what he wasn't

566
00:32:25,440 --> 00:32:28,760
Speaker 14: given at the beginning, that he had no start in life,

567
00:32:29,360 --> 00:32:32,600
Speaker 14: and it was largely show he was showing off.

568
00:32:33,240 --> 00:32:36,920
Speaker 15: I think he was sheltered by his uncle and his father.

569
00:32:38,160 --> 00:32:42,840
Speaker 15: He was now had some freedom, and he saw an

570
00:32:42,920 --> 00:32:46,080
Speaker 15: opportunity to give gifts. Why not?

571
00:32:46,800 --> 00:32:50,400
Speaker 1: Okay, that's interesting though, giving extravagant gifts. I mean, what

572
00:32:50,480 --> 00:33:02,280
Speaker 1: do you think he wanted from that? Nothing? I grew

573
00:33:02,400 --> 00:33:05,840
Speaker 1: up with the Sammy of the nineteen seventies. Artistically, this

574
00:33:06,080 --> 00:33:08,160
Speaker 1: wasn't a high point for him, But what.

575
00:33:08,240 --> 00:33:08,640
Speaker 15: Did I know?

576
00:33:10,960 --> 00:33:14,400
Speaker 14: Oh, fast, fast fast.

577
00:33:15,360 --> 00:33:17,520
Speaker 1: I loved hearing him sing commercial jingles.

578
00:33:17,840 --> 00:33:20,520
Speaker 3: They can laugh, but put an extra wing on the house.

579
00:33:21,840 --> 00:33:24,480
Speaker 1: This was the Sammie of Talk to the Animals, my

580
00:33:24,600 --> 00:33:27,440
Speaker 1: favorite single on my Sammy Greatest Hits album. I still

581
00:33:27,520 --> 00:33:28,640
Speaker 1: dance around my apartment to.

582
00:33:28,720 --> 00:33:30,040
Speaker 5: It with a cheetah.

583
00:33:30,480 --> 00:33:32,160
Speaker 10: What an it would be.

584
00:33:32,800 --> 00:33:39,560
Speaker 1: And of course candy Man. Now, at first Sammy didn't

585
00:33:39,640 --> 00:33:42,200
Speaker 1: like Handy Man. It was originally from the movie Willy

586
00:33:42,280 --> 00:33:45,360
Speaker 1: Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, but he liked that it

587
00:33:45,440 --> 00:33:48,920
Speaker 1: went to number one. He's only number one. Let's just

588
00:33:49,120 --> 00:33:56,920
Speaker 1: say Sammy knew how to turn lemons into groovy lemon pie, make.

589
00:33:56,840 --> 00:33:58,240
Speaker 10: A groovy lemon pie.

590
00:33:58,720 --> 00:33:59,560
Speaker 4: The candy Man.

591
00:34:02,040 --> 00:34:04,920
Speaker 1: He does something I think is very brave, which he

592
00:34:05,080 --> 00:34:09,360
Speaker 1: never makes fun of the material. It's total commitment. I

593
00:34:09,440 --> 00:34:11,759
Speaker 1: see that he did a cover of Chico and the

594
00:34:11,880 --> 00:34:13,960
Speaker 1: Man of the cheeko on the Man These song, And

595
00:34:14,080 --> 00:34:15,759
Speaker 1: that's one of the things where you go, oh God,

596
00:34:15,920 --> 00:34:18,160
Speaker 1: and then you start listening. It's really good.

597
00:34:18,360 --> 00:34:19,120
Speaker 9: Yeah, it's really good.

598
00:34:19,920 --> 00:34:23,959
Speaker 8: Chico, it's good.

599
00:34:25,120 --> 00:34:25,319
Speaker 15: Yeah.

600
00:34:25,400 --> 00:34:26,160
Speaker 7: He did Maud too.

601
00:34:26,239 --> 00:34:27,719
Speaker 9: He covered the themes on to mad I.

602
00:34:27,800 --> 00:34:29,719
Speaker 1: Have to listen to that. Lady Could Diver was a

603
00:34:29,760 --> 00:34:30,400
Speaker 1: freedom ride up.

604
00:34:30,480 --> 00:34:34,960
Speaker 14: Yeah, Lady godive Or was a freedom right up.

605
00:34:35,719 --> 00:34:37,720
Speaker 3: She didn't care of the whole world.

606
00:34:37,880 --> 00:34:40,799
Speaker 1: Look, I check any cynicism at the door.

607
00:34:40,840 --> 00:34:44,760
Speaker 9: When he starts performing, well, you check your cynicism because

608
00:34:44,760 --> 00:34:47,440
Speaker 9: you know immediately he's bearing his soul to you. It's

609
00:34:47,520 --> 00:34:50,839
Speaker 9: not an act. He's not too cool for school, right.

610
00:34:50,960 --> 00:34:53,480
Speaker 9: Sinatra had that right, a little bit of a distance,

611
00:34:53,960 --> 00:34:55,359
Speaker 9: there's no distance there.

612
00:34:55,840 --> 00:34:56,440
Speaker 7: I don't think.

613
00:34:56,320 --> 00:34:59,239
Speaker 9: Sammy had an ounce of irony in him, that kind

614
00:34:59,280 --> 00:35:02,920
Speaker 9: of detached look at me irony. He was like all

615
00:35:03,040 --> 00:35:05,880
Speaker 9: in as a performer. And maybe the problem is not

616
00:35:06,040 --> 00:35:12,440
Speaker 9: Sammy's enthusiasm, but certain generations skittishness about enthusiasm.

617
00:35:12,680 --> 00:35:17,360
Speaker 1: Right, fear that will make them look uncool. Right. And

618
00:35:17,480 --> 00:35:21,200
Speaker 1: Dion Warwick says he was as enthusiastic and playful off

619
00:35:21,320 --> 00:35:22,440
Speaker 1: stage as on, and.

620
00:35:22,680 --> 00:35:27,359
Speaker 19: I started having in my rider a misspact Man.

621
00:35:27,280 --> 00:35:29,600
Speaker 1: Machine, Miss pac Man, which is much better than pac

622
00:35:29,719 --> 00:35:30,279
Speaker 1: Man by the way.

623
00:35:30,440 --> 00:35:33,759
Speaker 19: Yeah, it was the cocktail table type, the.

624
00:35:33,800 --> 00:35:36,000
Speaker 1: One the flat one, so that right, you can sit

625
00:35:36,040 --> 00:35:36,879
Speaker 1: across from each other.

626
00:35:37,400 --> 00:35:37,600
Speaker 7: Yep.

627
00:35:42,160 --> 00:35:45,960
Speaker 1: Turns out Dion Warwick and Sammy Davis Junior both loved

628
00:35:46,040 --> 00:35:51,040
Speaker 1: playing Miss pac Man and I beat him up. That

629
00:35:51,280 --> 00:35:52,160
Speaker 1: is fantastic.

630
00:35:52,480 --> 00:35:55,319
Speaker 19: He would get up and stop around how to be.

631
00:35:57,280 --> 00:35:57,880
Speaker 7: Very easily.

632
00:36:00,160 --> 00:36:03,279
Speaker 1: But the Sammy of the seventies also had edge. When

633
00:36:03,320 --> 00:36:05,640
Speaker 1: he kissed Archie Bunker on the cheek on all in

634
00:36:05,719 --> 00:36:09,719
Speaker 1: the family, it made headlines. What I hadn't seen until

635
00:36:09,800 --> 00:36:13,279
Speaker 1: recently was his appearance from nineteen seventy five on the

636
00:36:13,400 --> 00:36:16,160
Speaker 1: Carol Burnett Show. And this is a sketch where you

637
00:36:16,280 --> 00:36:18,280
Speaker 1: play a woman eleanor Simpson.

638
00:36:18,719 --> 00:36:20,320
Speaker 4: You let's not talk.

639
00:36:20,200 --> 00:36:23,600
Speaker 7: About poor little o me. That's right, that's the.

640
00:36:23,640 --> 00:36:25,880
Speaker 1: One Carol told me all about it on the phone.

641
00:36:26,239 --> 00:36:30,560
Speaker 7: Well, she's was a passive, aggressive racist.

642
00:36:30,640 --> 00:36:32,000
Speaker 10: Johnny, your diction.

643
00:36:32,880 --> 00:36:34,360
Speaker 4: It was just perfect.

644
00:36:34,560 --> 00:36:38,880
Speaker 7: Sammy plays this entertainer, so she was in the audience.

645
00:36:39,239 --> 00:36:42,480
Speaker 7: Now he's this big star and she's all excited but

646
00:36:42,640 --> 00:36:45,880
Speaker 7: still has that underlying prejudice.

647
00:36:47,040 --> 00:36:50,400
Speaker 18: And I tell you you just tossed off those polysyllables

648
00:36:50,480 --> 00:36:51,759
Speaker 18: like you were born to them.

649
00:36:53,440 --> 00:36:57,839
Speaker 7: They grew up together because his mother was their maid.

650
00:36:58,560 --> 00:37:01,880
Speaker 9: I know she just couldn't wait to come back in

651
00:37:01,920 --> 00:37:02,880
Speaker 9: and work for you again.

652
00:37:03,080 --> 00:37:06,200
Speaker 7: She was talking about when they were kids, and she said, Oh,

653
00:37:06,400 --> 00:37:08,719
Speaker 7: and we used to play hide and go seek. Oh

654
00:37:08,880 --> 00:37:11,000
Speaker 7: that was such fun. But it wasn't good in the dark.

655
00:37:11,239 --> 00:37:11,600
Speaker 8: Honey.

656
00:37:12,160 --> 00:37:14,160
Speaker 7: You could just be standing right in front of me

657
00:37:14,200 --> 00:37:15,320
Speaker 7: and I never would have known it.

658
00:37:17,480 --> 00:37:18,240
Speaker 10: Lash you smile.

659
00:37:19,520 --> 00:37:22,360
Speaker 1: Sammy doesn't actually talk much during the scene. He doesn't

660
00:37:22,360 --> 00:37:26,680
Speaker 1: really need to. His look says it all. Mostly he's

661
00:37:26,800 --> 00:37:31,000
Speaker 1: just biting his tongue, struggling to be gracious until he's

662
00:37:31,080 --> 00:37:33,160
Speaker 1: finally hot enough. O Gee.

663
00:37:33,840 --> 00:37:36,160
Speaker 7: But Sammy loved that sketch.

664
00:37:36,360 --> 00:37:38,120
Speaker 1: And do you think he loved it because he could

665
00:37:38,160 --> 00:37:39,200
Speaker 1: relate to it somehow?

666
00:37:39,560 --> 00:37:42,040
Speaker 7: Perhaps you remember all.

667
00:37:41,960 --> 00:37:44,280
Speaker 1: The fun we used to have when we was kids.

668
00:37:45,320 --> 00:37:45,960
Speaker 7: Do you remember that?

669
00:37:47,520 --> 00:37:50,160
Speaker 8: I am beginning to remember a lot of things.

670
00:37:52,000 --> 00:37:54,120
Speaker 1: Hey, let me ask you. There's gotta be a reason

671
00:37:54,200 --> 00:37:56,320
Speaker 1: you remember that sketch in such detail.

672
00:37:56,960 --> 00:38:00,040
Speaker 7: It was because there were no jokes in there. It

673
00:38:00,080 --> 00:38:00,800
Speaker 7: was all character.

674
00:38:01,200 --> 00:38:04,839
Speaker 8: You know, something Melani. I think you're right.

675
00:38:05,000 --> 00:38:08,680
Speaker 7: I am a little tight, oh that there was an

676
00:38:08,880 --> 00:38:10,439
Speaker 7: underlying truth.

677
00:38:19,480 --> 00:38:22,160
Speaker 3: Some people would say that the one great hit he

678
00:38:22,239 --> 00:38:27,960
Speaker 3: had was keny Man, But mister bo Jingles is this

679
00:38:28,440 --> 00:38:30,080
Speaker 3: definition of Sammy Davis.

680
00:38:30,800 --> 00:38:34,279
Speaker 1: That's Willie Brown. I have to confess I always thought

681
00:38:34,360 --> 00:38:39,640
Speaker 1: mister Bojangles, our third SAMI song was about Bill Bojangles Robinson,

682
00:38:40,120 --> 00:38:43,440
Speaker 1: the great African American tap dancer who died penniless in

683
00:38:43,520 --> 00:38:47,480
Speaker 1: nineteen forty nine. In fact, mister Bojangles, and you may

684
00:38:47,520 --> 00:38:54,000
Speaker 1: have known, this was originally a country music song. The

685
00:38:54,040 --> 00:38:57,000
Speaker 1: writer Jerry Jeff Walker says it's about a guy he

686
00:38:57,120 --> 00:39:00,319
Speaker 1: met in a New Orleans prison, and Walker never really

687
00:39:00,360 --> 00:39:01,680
Speaker 1: thought the song would go anywhere.

688
00:39:03,520 --> 00:39:06,399
Speaker 8: When I got to Atlantic Records, they said, who held

689
00:39:06,400 --> 00:39:08,080
Speaker 8: would want a four and a half minute song about

690
00:39:08,120 --> 00:39:11,359
Speaker 8: a old drunk and a dead dog and six eight

691
00:39:11,480 --> 00:39:12,600
Speaker 8: times right right?

692
00:39:12,880 --> 00:39:15,480
Speaker 7: Apparently everyone dan.

693
00:39:18,239 --> 00:39:21,799
Speaker 1: The song spoke to Sammy. He'd been struggling for years

694
00:39:21,880 --> 00:39:29,880
Speaker 1: with drugs and alcohol and dance, dance, dance, please dance.

695
00:39:31,360 --> 00:39:33,200
Speaker 4: I got the fear at that time I was going

696
00:39:33,280 --> 00:39:36,680
Speaker 4: to die. I was going to wind up like mister Buchang,

697
00:39:37,120 --> 00:39:42,399
Speaker 4: a drunk without recognition without anything, and the song helped

698
00:39:42,560 --> 00:39:46,000
Speaker 4: motivate the three hundred and sixty mister.

699
00:39:47,040 --> 00:39:48,800
Speaker 1: Jang Goose.

700
00:39:51,160 --> 00:39:56,080
Speaker 3: When he was on stage, totally dark on stage, Why

701
00:39:56,200 --> 00:39:59,920
Speaker 3: can't you wear in a bullet And all you'd get

702
00:40:00,640 --> 00:40:03,440
Speaker 3: it is a spotlight and then the light would go

703
00:40:03,520 --> 00:40:06,200
Speaker 3: out and you'd see him take two or three steps

704
00:40:06,480 --> 00:40:11,120
Speaker 3: and he'd be in another circle of light, still continuing

705
00:40:11,840 --> 00:40:12,840
Speaker 3: and tell them the story.

706
00:40:13,320 --> 00:40:20,080
Speaker 11: And mister James until he danced, dance, dance. Nothing for

707
00:40:20,280 --> 00:40:26,960
Speaker 11: me to that you would be, I mean, just overwhelmed.

708
00:40:36,400 --> 00:40:40,319
Speaker 1: After Sammy was diagnosed with cancer, the doctors told him

709
00:40:40,360 --> 00:40:44,960
Speaker 1: he needed surgery, but surgery would involve removing his voice box.

710
00:40:45,880 --> 00:40:48,800
Speaker 1: As far as Sammy was concerned, that wasn't an option.

711
00:40:49,840 --> 00:40:52,000
Speaker 13: So I'm just okay watching cartoons. I come down to

712
00:40:52,040 --> 00:40:53,839
Speaker 13: get a soda from the living room.

713
00:40:54,560 --> 00:40:58,520
Speaker 1: That's Manny Davis, Sammy's son with his third wife, Alchevi's.

714
00:40:59,360 --> 00:41:02,919
Speaker 1: He remembers the procession of dignitaries coming through their home

715
00:41:03,120 --> 00:41:04,560
Speaker 1: during Sammy's final months.

716
00:41:04,920 --> 00:41:07,279
Speaker 13: They got Jesse Jackson in the living room, they got

717
00:41:07,320 --> 00:41:09,440
Speaker 13: Franks and I just come over to say hello. You

718
00:41:09,600 --> 00:41:12,000
Speaker 13: just have all these celebrities coming around all the time

719
00:41:12,080 --> 00:41:15,200
Speaker 13: because they knew what was happening to Sammy, and I didn't.

720
00:41:16,160 --> 00:41:19,360
Speaker 1: Here's Kim Novak again. When is the last time that

721
00:41:19,440 --> 00:41:20,000
Speaker 1: you saw him?

722
00:41:20,760 --> 00:41:23,960
Speaker 12: Well, when it was sick, you know, And I went

723
00:41:24,040 --> 00:41:25,759
Speaker 12: to the hospital to see him.

724
00:41:27,760 --> 00:41:28,560
Speaker 4: And what was that like?

725
00:41:31,560 --> 00:41:31,680
Speaker 15: Oh?

726
00:41:31,680 --> 00:41:34,160
Speaker 1: It was hot. I didn't know what. I don't know

727
00:41:34,200 --> 00:41:34,719
Speaker 1: what to say.

728
00:41:34,840 --> 00:41:38,000
Speaker 12: Really, he sat there and looked at each other, and.

729
00:41:41,760 --> 00:41:48,640
Speaker 1: What did he say? In November nineteen eighty nine, his

730
00:41:48,840 --> 00:41:52,200
Speaker 1: best friends, no surprise, they included some of the greatest

731
00:41:52,320 --> 00:41:56,920
Speaker 1: living performers, rushed to organize a tribute show. A very

732
00:41:57,040 --> 00:42:00,400
Speaker 1: gaunt Sammy sat in the front row. He was sixty

733
00:42:00,440 --> 00:42:05,120
Speaker 1: three years old, making this his sixtieth anniversary in showbiz.

734
00:42:05,440 --> 00:42:06,200
Speaker 15: Sixty years.

735
00:42:07,520 --> 00:42:09,520
Speaker 10: And I knew that you would amount to something, but

736
00:42:09,640 --> 00:42:11,960
Speaker 10: I didn't feel that you were gonna amount to everything.

737
00:42:13,360 --> 00:42:16,440
Speaker 1: That's Frank Sinatra and I say, here's to you.

738
00:42:17,360 --> 00:42:21,000
Speaker 8: Sam You know I love you. I can't say it

739
00:42:21,120 --> 00:42:23,520
Speaker 8: any more than that. You're my brother.

740
00:42:25,719 --> 00:42:29,280
Speaker 1: Michael Jackson is there too. As a young boy, Michael

741
00:42:29,360 --> 00:42:32,839
Speaker 1: had stood in the wings studying Sammy. On this night,

742
00:42:33,120 --> 00:42:36,360
Speaker 1: he sang a song specially written for the occasion.

743
00:42:38,960 --> 00:42:40,080
Speaker 11: Before he came.

744
00:42:42,080 --> 00:42:46,480
Speaker 9: You took the hurt, you took the shame.

745
00:42:48,160 --> 00:42:49,799
Speaker 14: I am here because you were there.

746
00:42:51,200 --> 00:42:52,480
Speaker 16: It was too lucky.

747
00:42:53,000 --> 00:42:55,239
Speaker 14: I'm free as a performer to do what I want

748
00:42:55,719 --> 00:42:57,400
Speaker 14: because you made it happen before me.

749
00:42:58,080 --> 00:42:59,239
Speaker 1: There's now a dude.

750
00:43:02,000 --> 00:43:03,920
Speaker 9: We all dude.

751
00:43:06,760 --> 00:43:10,160
Speaker 1: And halfway through the show, the great tap dancer Gregory

752
00:43:10,280 --> 00:43:11,040
Speaker 1: Hines comes on.

753
00:43:12,440 --> 00:43:13,880
Speaker 15: It's hard to put into words.

754
00:43:14,680 --> 00:43:19,480
Speaker 8: I feel so much love for you that I'm going

755
00:43:19,520 --> 00:43:21,279
Speaker 8: to try to dance to that for you.

756
00:43:23,560 --> 00:43:33,880
Speaker 1: Heinz dances and the crowd goes wild. Then he approaches Sammy,

757
00:43:34,400 --> 00:43:38,400
Speaker 1: who isn't scheduled to perform. He looks so weak, but

758
00:43:38,560 --> 00:43:43,560
Speaker 1: out of these pulls out Sammy's tap shoes. Sammy can't resist.

759
00:43:44,480 --> 00:43:47,200
Speaker 1: He puts them on and gets up on stage.

760
00:43:50,800 --> 00:43:53,960
Speaker 9: Greg Hines whispers to Sammy, says, what do you want

761
00:43:54,040 --> 00:43:57,200
Speaker 9: to do? And Sammy says, greg just make it easy

762
00:43:57,239 --> 00:44:09,440
Speaker 9: on yourself, and.

763
00:44:09,520 --> 00:44:10,840
Speaker 1: They bring him the tap shoes.

764
00:44:10,880 --> 00:44:11,040
Speaker 8: There.

765
00:44:11,080 --> 00:44:14,399
Speaker 1: It's clearly planned it. You don't think it's fine.

766
00:44:14,480 --> 00:44:23,759
Speaker 14: No, this beautiful little guet together and it tore the

767
00:44:23,800 --> 00:44:24,400
Speaker 14: place apart.

768
00:44:31,520 --> 00:44:34,360
Speaker 1: Well, it's impossible to tell that this was all pre arranged.

769
00:44:35,120 --> 00:44:40,360
Speaker 1: But frankly, who cares same comes alive in that sequence.

770
00:44:40,960 --> 00:44:43,520
Speaker 1: I swear when you watches, you forget that he's dying.

771
00:44:46,120 --> 00:44:48,280
Speaker 14: That's the last step seventy of the Dons.

772
00:45:00,880 --> 00:45:05,319
Speaker 19: He made a statement that my mouth year open. One

773
00:45:05,440 --> 00:45:08,680
Speaker 19: night he felt that he wants to die on stage.

774
00:45:08,760 --> 00:45:11,720
Speaker 19: He wanted to end his life right there on stage.

775
00:45:12,200 --> 00:45:16,440
Speaker 19: How could you think that he's just that's my life and.

776
00:45:16,560 --> 00:45:17,600
Speaker 1: You think he really meant it.

777
00:45:18,600 --> 00:45:19,279
Speaker 19: I know he did.

778
00:45:30,280 --> 00:45:32,680
Speaker 5: If there's a little less spring in the American step today,

779
00:45:32,800 --> 00:45:34,400
Speaker 5: it is because Sammy Davis.

780
00:45:34,280 --> 00:45:35,799
Speaker 8: Junior is gone, as you no doubt.

781
00:45:35,800 --> 00:45:36,080
Speaker 10: I've heard.

782
00:45:36,120 --> 00:45:38,240
Speaker 12: Sammy Davis Junior passed away yesterday after.

783
00:45:38,040 --> 00:45:39,759
Speaker 1: A w I was born in a Harlem into a

784
00:45:39,840 --> 00:45:43,320
Speaker 1: family of vaudeville performers, working from age three in a

785
00:45:43,400 --> 00:45:45,800
Speaker 1: world where whites expected blacks to dance.

786
00:45:45,960 --> 00:45:47,440
Speaker 5: Funeral services will be held tomorrow.

787
00:45:47,560 --> 00:45:47,920
Speaker 15: Smile.

788
00:45:48,440 --> 00:45:50,680
Speaker 5: Sammy Davis Union was sixty four to know their place

789
00:45:51,440 --> 00:45:54,239
Speaker 5: in Hollywood. Flowers stand guard over Davis's star on the

790
00:45:54,280 --> 00:45:56,279
Speaker 5: Walk of Fame in New York.

791
00:45:56,560 --> 00:46:00,200
Speaker 1: His name, Sammy Davis Junior died at home in Billy

792
00:46:00,320 --> 00:46:03,080
Speaker 1: Hills on May sixteenth, nineteen ninety.

793
00:46:06,880 --> 00:46:09,200
Speaker 8: I would like to think of myself as the entertainer

794
00:46:10,520 --> 00:46:12,680
Speaker 8: whatever it takes to make the people happy.

795
00:46:14,719 --> 00:46:18,360
Speaker 1: If Hollywood ever does produce a biopic about Sammy Davis Junior.

796
00:46:19,080 --> 00:46:22,400
Speaker 1: It's hard to imagine who could play him. I mean,

797
00:46:22,440 --> 00:46:26,480
Speaker 1: who's around today who can do it all? Maybe it's

798
00:46:26,560 --> 00:46:29,640
Speaker 1: because the world that created Sammy is gone.

799
00:46:30,120 --> 00:46:35,920
Speaker 8: Vaudeville was. It was a fraternity of performers, and you

800
00:46:36,120 --> 00:46:38,920
Speaker 8: saw the greatest performance in the world out there applying

801
00:46:39,000 --> 00:46:42,640
Speaker 8: their trade. And you could learn just by standing in

802
00:46:42,719 --> 00:46:48,000
Speaker 8: the wings and watching very special and I was lucky enough.

803
00:46:47,880 --> 00:46:48,279
Speaker 15: To catch it.

804
00:46:49,440 --> 00:46:53,200
Speaker 1: Sammy's was a time when the most exciting performers were

805
00:46:53,280 --> 00:46:56,200
Speaker 1: proud to be known as more than just singers or

806
00:46:56,440 --> 00:47:03,800
Speaker 1: comics or television personalities. They aspired to be remembered as entertainers.

807
00:47:05,480 --> 00:47:08,560
Speaker 8: Every once in a while I run into Donald locottor

808
00:47:09,520 --> 00:47:10,200
Speaker 8: Micky Rooney.

809
00:47:11,239 --> 00:47:12,360
Speaker 15: We all have the same.

810
00:47:13,680 --> 00:47:17,919
Speaker 8: Upbringing, and we talk about it. You remember the old days,

811
00:47:17,920 --> 00:47:20,160
Speaker 8: You remember the sudden such an act, you remember the dact.

812
00:47:22,320 --> 00:47:24,560
Speaker 8: And sometimes I look at young people today and I go,

813
00:47:25,640 --> 00:47:30,080
Speaker 8: I wonder what they'll talk about. Who will they remember?

814
00:47:38,400 --> 00:47:42,879
Speaker 8: Gone a build a mountain from a little the hill.

815
00:47:44,160 --> 00:47:46,560
Speaker 1: We hope you'll join us as we raise the curtain

816
00:47:46,680 --> 00:47:52,440
Speaker 1: on the next episode of Mobituaries. Our topic Neanderthals with

817
00:47:52,640 --> 00:47:55,440
Speaker 1: special guest my friend Michael ian Black.

818
00:47:56,080 --> 00:47:58,880
Speaker 9: If they had told me only how much Neanderthal I am,

819
00:47:59,239 --> 00:48:01,040
Speaker 9: I would have paid one the amount for the test.

820
00:48:02,280 --> 00:48:05,720
Speaker 1: I certainly hope you enjoyed this episode. For more great content,

821
00:48:05,880 --> 00:48:10,400
Speaker 1: please visit mobituaries dot com or follow us on Facebook, Instagram,

822
00:48:10,640 --> 00:48:14,920
Speaker 1: or follow me on Twitter at Moroka. If you like Mobituaries,

823
00:48:15,040 --> 00:48:18,839
Speaker 1: please subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. I promise it's free.

824
00:48:19,600 --> 00:48:23,440
Speaker 1: This episode of Mobituaries was produced by Alison Byrne and

825
00:48:23,719 --> 00:48:27,920
Speaker 1: Gideon Evans. Our team of producers also includes Megan Marcus,

826
00:48:28,040 --> 00:48:32,600
Speaker 1: Kate mccauliffe, Megandetrie, Justin Hayter, and me Moroka. It was

827
00:48:32,840 --> 00:48:38,080
Speaker 1: edited by Alison Burn and engineered by Bart Warshaw. Indispensable

828
00:48:38,120 --> 00:48:43,200
Speaker 1: support from Hillary Dan Genius, Tenesski, Kira Wardlow, Zach Gilcrest,

829
00:48:43,440 --> 00:48:47,280
Speaker 1: the team at CBS News Radio, and Richard Rarer. Special

830
00:48:47,360 --> 00:48:51,359
Speaker 1: thanks to Matt Anderson, Manny Davis, Michael Cantor, Neil Porter,

831
00:48:51,600 --> 00:48:55,520
Speaker 1: and Alberto Robina. Our theme music is written by Daniel Hart.

832
00:48:56,200 --> 00:49:00,279
Speaker 1: Exclusive interview outtakes of Steve Lawrence plus Cheetah. There is

833
00:49:00,360 --> 00:49:04,239
Speaker 1: amazing glass eye story. We're from American Masters. Sammy Davis

834
00:49:04,400 --> 00:49:08,120
Speaker 1: Junior I've Got to Be Me, premiering Tuesday, February nineteenth

835
00:49:08,280 --> 00:49:12,280
Speaker 1: at nine pm on PBS. Check local listings and as always,

836
00:49:12,760 --> 00:49:16,960
Speaker 1: undying thanks to Rand Morrison and John carp without whom

837
00:49:17,320 --> 00:49:19,200
Speaker 1: Mobituaries couldn't land.

838
00:49:19,960 --> 00:49:20,920
Speaker 15: But you got to promise.

839
00:49:20,960 --> 00:49:21,960
Speaker 1: We're CBS News.

840
00:49:22,120 --> 00:49:24,440
Speaker 15: I don't care where you are. You I am not

841
00:49:24,600 --> 00:49:26,880
Speaker 15: given the rights. Today I vis Presley Story.

842
00:49:28,760 --> 00:49:33,040
Speaker 1: Hi, It's mo. If you're enjoying Mobituaries the podcast, may

843
00:49:33,120 --> 00:49:36,839
Speaker 1: I invite you to check out Mobituaries the book. It's

844
00:49:37,000 --> 00:49:41,279
Speaker 1: chalk full of stories not in the podcast. Celebrities who

845
00:49:41,320 --> 00:49:44,239
Speaker 1: put their butts on the line, sports teams that threw

846
00:49:44,320 --> 00:49:49,400
Speaker 1: in the towel for good, forgotten fashions, defunct diagnoses, presidential

847
00:49:49,480 --> 00:49:55,280
Speaker 1: candidacies that cratered whole countries that went to put and dragons, Yes, dragons,

848
00:49:55,440 --> 00:49:57,520
Speaker 1: you see. People used to believe the dragons were real

849
00:49:57,640 --> 00:50:01,560
Speaker 1: until just get the book. You can order Mobituaries the

850
00:50:01,600 --> 00:50:04,879
Speaker 1: Book from any online bookseller, or stop by your local

851
00:50:04,920 --> 00:50:07,680
Speaker 1: bookstore and look for me when I come to your city.

852
00:50:08,120 --> 00:50:12,160
Speaker 1: Tour information and lots more at mobituaries dot com