Antonio G.Pereira © 2019 Antonio G. Pereira
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SAMMY An Autobiography by Sammy Davis Jr. and Jane and Burt Boyar, is the revised edition by Burt Boyar, of the previous autobiographies, 'Yes I Can' and 'Why Me?'. Boyar (his wife Jane passed away in 1997) added additional unpublished interviews to SAMMY An Autobiography https://www.amazon.com/Sammy-Autobiography-Davis-Jr/dp/0374293554 Published in 2000 (with a small selection of carefully chosen black and white photographs), and a newly written Prologue and Epilogue, Boyar added a final touch to his close friend's life story. We are left with memories (and apart from Burt Boyar's subsequent, gorgeously extravagant collection of Sammy Davis Jr's photography, 'Photo' https://observer1984.blogspot.com/2014/12/photo-by-sammy-davis-jr-with-burt-boyar.html , as well as his contributions to Davis' daughter Tracy's book, 'Sammy Davis Jr. A Personal Journey with My Father by Tracey Davis with Nina Bunche Pierce, https://www.amazon.com/Sammy-Davis-Jr-Personal-Journey/dp/0762450177 , which also has a wealth of beautiful photographs, along with a detailed Discography and Filmography), QUESTIONS; the answers to which, Sammy Davis Jr. took with him, in the end. QUESTIONS, like what did he think about how his acquaintance Sam Giancana, ended his life; murdered by the Mafia, before he could testify before The Senate Intelligence Committee On Organized Crime. https://www.vanityfair.com/news/1997/04/The-Man-Who-Kept-The-Secrets What did he think about how his acquaintance Jean Seberg (the actress he was friendly with and whom he dated after his divorce from May Britt), was treated by a lot of his 'peers' in Hollywood, and smeared by gossip columnists like Joyce Haber (author of 'The Users'), and whose life became a nightmare and a living hell, thanks to J. Edgar Hoover; eventually ending in a supposed suicide. What did he think about how his good friend Peter Lawford (at one time, an In-Law to the Kennedys) ended his life. {The last time I remember seeing Sammy and Peter together on television, was (if I remember correctly) in 1975, when they both participated in a Special (I think Sammy was hosting and Peter was a guest), on the ABC Television Network. The Special focusing on the life and career of James Dean (whom they both had known, especially Sammy; and during which he spoke with fondness of how much James loved his grandmother Rosa Davis' cooking, when he would come over to visit Sammy at home.) They both looked great, healthy, and quite handsome. Life, apparently treating them well. This was before Peter's steep and sad decline.} And one can only imagine what Sammy Davis Jr. was thinking as the complete picture of what happened to Elvis Presley (another good friend), began to unfold. Some of this, while Sammy was still alive. Starting with a dying Gladys Presley's warning to her impressionable son Elvis, of any continued involvement with the man running around calling himself 'the Colonel' (who she apparently never trusted from the beginning, along with the fact that Presley's original manager Bob Neal, ended up despising him) and the apparent premonition that her son was headed for doom, if he did.
So there was the spoon-fed version of Elvis Presley....
https://www.elvis.com.au
https://www.elvispresleymusic.com.au/elvis-presley-1953-1955.html
And the reality....
https://me.me/i/cacag-elvis-presley-eating-at-a-segregated-lunch-counter-in-7302673
https://www.elvisinfonet.com/spotlight_thedarksideofcolonelparker.html
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/colonel-parker-managed-elvis-career-but-was-he-a-killer-on-the-lam-108042206/
Because of the times in which he grew of age, Sammy Davis Jr., like other key people of his generation (like Paul Robeson, Joe Louis, Jackie Robinson and Gordon Parks), realized what his true weapon was; his talent. Throughout his autobiographies, Sammy never hesitated when it came to people who helped him along the way. A lady named Helen Bannister, who fed a child (Sammy) and his father Sam Sr. and Will Mastin, one bitterly cold night, after they had been turned away from accommodations at a racist hotel; and gave them a warm place to stay in her home, so they wouldn't freeze to death on the segregated Vaudeville Circuit. People in Show Business who helped him, Billy Eckstine, Frank Sinatra, Mickey Rooney, Eddie Cantor, Humphrey Bogart, Jerry Lewis, Jeff Chandler, Ava Gardner, Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh, among others. He also didn't hesitate when it came to the brutality he experienced. The several times he got his nose broken in fights. Twice while serving in one of the first integrated units in the army during World War II, by the crackers in his outfit. Once in a fight after having served in the army, by a racist bellhop in a hotel, when he and his father and Will Mastin were working the last remnants of the dying Vaudeville Circuit. And finally, Sammy's lifelong friendship with actress Kim Novak. She was one of the last people to visit him, when he was dying. Burt Boyar has rounded the whole story up now, and done a hell of a job!
In conclusion, one should not pass up Sammy Davis Jr's very rare second book, 'Hollywood In A Suitcase' https://www.amazon.com/Hollywood-Suitcase-Sammy-Jr-Davis/dp/0688037364 Authored by Sammy Davis Jr. solo, and Published in 1980 by William Morrow and Company Inc., it is full of his thoughts, anecdotes and observations; and packed with an amazing collection of photographs (most of them, only published in this book!). Well worth searching for!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWZWrce7fpY
