Two immortal performers who were best of friends in real
life celebrated their birthdays four days apart. Sammy Davis Jr., born on December 8, 1925, and Frank Sinatra, born on December 12, 1915, were two of the greatest entertainers whose successful careers saw few equals in the music world. It was said that when the two jointly celebrated their birthdays with the notorious Brat Pack, the entire Hollywood got drunk. And Dean Martin remained inebriated for days that he slurred and burped as he sang.
Sammy Davis was the total entertainer. He was a singer, dancer, actor and vaudevillian. He was one of the world’s greatest tap dancers that mesmerized the crowd while performing with his father and his adopted uncle Will Mastin, starting at age 3, as part of a vaudeville act called “Holiday in Dixieland”. He toured the US and he became the darling and star of the show. He started appearing in musical pictures until he was drafted into the US Army in 1943 at age 18. He starred in a movie, Rufus Jones for President, at a tender age of 7. While in the army, he suffered abuse and discrimination from the white soldiers. Sammy was dragged into a fight almost every other day where his nose was broken a number of times and permanently flattened. He was later reassigned to the Special Services branch where he entertained the troops. This further honed his versatile talents, which served him well after the war. He received two war decorations for his services and retired as a private.
At the height of his career, he had an affair with famous American actress Kim Novac, which scandalized Hollywood. Novac was under exclusive contract with Columbia Pictures and the president of the movie company worried that the relationship would damage the studio’s reputation. The organized crime stepped in and threatened Sammy Davis and ordered him to stop seeing the actress. The mobster’s head in California told Davis that he would lose his other eye and his leg would be broken unless he weds a black woman within a couple of days. He briefly married a black dancer, Loray White, who was twice divorced and had a child. He paid her a paltry sum to agree to the sham marriage. A friend visited him in his honeymoon suite and found him dead drunk and trying to kill himself. He told his friend, “Why don’t they let me live my life?” The couple never lived together during their marriage.
Actor Peter Lawford, a brother-in-law of President John Kennedy, was a member of the Brat Pack and was a close friend of Davis. Davis strongly supported Kennedy when he ran for President in 1960. Davis had just married another white actress, Swedish-born May Britt, which again generated a storm of protests among the white community. During the lavish inaugural parties hosted for the new president, Davis was scheduled to perform at his inauguration but at the last minute Kennedy cancelled his participation to avoid creating another controversy. However, Davis remained friendly to the Kennedy family even after Kennedy’s assassination and even supported Robert Kennedy on his campaign for presidency. When Robert Kennedy was killed by an assassin’s bullet, he supported Richard Nixon’s successful bid in 1972. President Nixon sent Davis to Vietnam as observer of Nixon’s drug treatment program in Vietnam and to entertain the troops. Nixon also invited Davis and his wife, Altovise Gore, to sleep in the White House in 1973, the first African-American to be given such an honor.
After the war, Sammy Davis rejoined his performing group. Their splendid performance at the 1951 Academy Awards made them an instant celebrity. He became a recording artist and released hit records. When the elder members of his group retired, Sammy Davis went solo and became a sought after entertainer in Las Vegas. In 1954, while returning from Las Vegas to California, he had a car accident where he almost lost his life but lost his left eye. Actor Jeff Chandler said that he would give Sammy his one eye if it would save the other. The publicity given him following his accident made Sammy more famous. When he returned to his Las Vegas show some weeks later after the accident, Sammy, wearing an eye patch, received a standing ovation and thunderous applause. He used a glass eye, which he wore until he died.
A friend from the movie, Eddie Cantor, introduced him to Judaism. Sammy converted and became a Jew after noting the same sufferings endured by the Jews and the blacks and the similarities of their cultures.
When Sammy died on May 16, 1990 at age 64, the neon lights of Las Vegas were turned off for 10 minutes to pay him its tribute. The city of lights has darkened but the place up to now is brightened every time the sounds of his immortal songs are played. Despite all the challenges that he had undergone, Sammy did not lose heart. One day, while playing golf, his partner asked him: “Sammy, what’s your handicap?” And Sammy sportingly replied, “Handicap? Talk about handicap. Well, I’m a one-eyed Black who’s a Jewish.”
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The Chairman of the Board, Frank Sinatra, needs no further introduction. He is a performer nonpareil whose soothing voice has lifted the spirits of people of all ages for all times. I’m certain that Sinatra, Davis, Martin, Lawford and the other members of the rowdy Brat Pack are giving St. Peter a taste of hell in heaven.