Sammy Davis Jr.: Death of the Entertainer

the parts of the car were handbuilt. The wrap around windshield is cool. The curve in the glass, this is the very first of the wrap around windshields nineteen fifty three. Bottom. Neil invited me to sit behind the wheel for you to get in. These seats are what leather not final. This is one heck of a car. The height of luxury. And get this point out that, like power windows were a big deal in the late seventies, but there's a prominent design flaw. Let's talk about the steering wheel. Yeah.

One of the things he noticed is that at the center of the steering wheel of the hub, there looks like the nose cone on a missile. Almost that's right jutting out from the center of the steering wheel is a comical chrome protrusion and straight at the driver's face. It has no functional purpose. It's simply there to kind of look cool. And cool certainly describes the man who was driving his own El Dorado in the wee small

hours of November nineteenth, nineteen fifty four. Sammy Davis Junior was a twenty eight year old, fast rising nightclub performer, singer, comic and boy What a dancer heading from a show in Vegas to a recording gig in Los Angeles when he collided with another car in San Bernardino, California, and the left side of his face collided with that steering wheel.

The car had no seatbelts. This is what caused Sammy Davis Junior to lose his eye and his accident, and he did not have time to react it out of the way, so he went flying. His head came and hit against that protrusion and it went right into his left eye socket, in fact, knocked the eye out of the socket. My father had been calling the middle of the night to go to Saint Bernardine's Hospital, to take care of a man who had a very serious car

accident and injured his eye and needed some help. Nancy Gallab was the daughter of the late doctor Frederick Hall. He was the surgeon who rushed to the hospital to work on Sammy. Nancy was thirteen years old at the time, and so what my father basically did was to save Sammy from losing the other eye. But the first question that Sammy purportedly asking my dad was were his legs? Okay, wow, that's very telling, right, Yes, I thought that was pointed. Also,

the traumatic event opens Sammy's autobiography, Yes I Can. Here's a passage read by his co author Bert Boyar as I ran my hand over my cheek. I felt my eye hanging there by a string. Frantically, I tried to stuff it back in, like if I could do that, it would stay there and nobody would know. The ground went out from underman. I was on my knees. Don't

let me go blind, Please, God, don't take it all away. Now, when Sammy says don't take it all away, he's not praying for his life, at least not the way you or I might be. He's talking about his life in showbiz, all the beautiful things, all the plans, the laughs. They were lying out there, smashed, just like the car. Sammy spent almost two weeks in the San Bernardino hospital recovering.

Later on, he'd famously be fitted for a glass eye, and the outpouring of love was almost like a memorial service. There was a telegram from Marilyn Monroe which just thrilled Sammy. Two pieces, Eddie Canter, Jackie Robinson, Ella Fitzgerald. They all sent telegrams, even the waiters at the Hollywood nightclub Serros, where he'd become an overnight sensation just three years before.

The admiration of his friends and peers mattered, But in a life of dramatic ups and downs, was the adulation of audiences that would sustain him, in the words of one friend, nourish him. And he gave those audiences everything he had. I've got a lot of living. This is what he was trained to do. It was in every atom of his DNA. It's what he did. He did it well, he did it graciously, He did it gratefully, and he wasn't trying to bludgeon anybody over the head,

and he wasn't distant performance. It's just what he did, it's who he was. I gotta be me. Who's me, the world's greatest entertainer, Sammy Davis Junior. I'm Morocca, and this is mobituaries, this moment Sammy Davis Junior, May sixteenth, nineteen ninety death of the entertainer. I think that it's probably the best thing that's ever happened to me. It's

probably an odd thing to say. My friends rallied around me and convinced me that it was still a lot to be done and that I probably probably wouldn't matter. And as it turned out, that's Sammy Davis Junior talking about the crash that nearly killed him. I'm not surprised by the outpouring of love at that hospital. I've been a correspondent on CBS Sunday Morning for over ten years now.

I've interviewed probably over a hundred celebrities, and there's one name that's popped up more than any other, Sammy Davis Junior. Former San Francisco mayor Willie Brown told me about his friend's command over an audience when he was on stage. You would be overwhelmed. Kim Novak and Nancy Sinatra each talked about what a joy Sammy was to be around. He was such a fun person. Sammy was part of the family. LeVar Burton and Ben Vereen revered Sammy as

a role model. It wasn't all the time that I, you know, saw people on TV who looked like me. If there was a black actor in on TV in those days, we'd watched Sammy would come on on The Ed Sullivan Show and do everything. And I was everything. He did everything. Yes, when the subject turns to Sammy, the superlatives start flying easily. The greatest. He was everything. He could play any instrument, he could sing, he could dance like a maniac. That's Broadway legend, Cheetah Rivera. Is

there anyone like Sammy Davis Junior today? I have not ever seen anybody. I just never saw anything like him in my life. It says it right there on his tombstone in Hollywood's Forest Lawn, the entertainer. He did it all. Daddy was a new sensation, got himself a congregation, built up quite an operation down band. He did singing, dancing, acting, comedy. He was at least a quadruple threat quintuple if you count his gun spinning routine a plus. It helped that

he started early. I won an amateur contest at the Stanley Theater in Philadelphia when I was three and a half years old, singing I'll be glad when You're dead, You rascal. You that seven year old Sammy singing the same song in the movie musical short Rufus Jones for President. Sammy Davis Junior was born in harle One in nineteen twenty five. His mother, Elvera Sanchez, was Latin and a dancer.

His father was a Hoffer. His parents split up early, and just when most kids start school, Sammy hit the road the vaudeville circuit with his father, Sam Senior, and Will Maston, a family friend he called his uncle. They were billed as the Will Maston Trio. Here's Sammy reminiscing with his father in a nineteen seventy three TV special What Place Leo? Who were playing minsks Miss Berlin's House forty second Street doing Jilson right And I used to have a cigar and I was passing off as a midget.

Imitet did but you were five. The trio was a success, but it was the diminutive Sammy Davis Junior even as an adult. He was just five foot five who stood out. Shirley McClain remembered Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra sneaking her into ceros to see this dynamo who was dancing and singing and performing in the middle of a trio. She told this story onstage to Sammy had a tribute show in his honor in nineteen eighty nine, towards the end of his life. The two people on either side of

you were terrific. But I could not believe my eyes and my ears never had so much come out of something so small for so long. She's right. There was a light that came out of him that made it impossible not to look at him, that made him more than the sum of his mad individual talents. Let's talk about his impressions, which I loved, his Bogey perfect. I'd like to say that it's really been a pleasure in attaining all of you nice folk. Shot. It's really been

one of the great thrills for my time. His Cagney spot on yashwing, that great h all, A love that's in you, you dirty rat. And I've listened to his marvelously muttering Marlon Brando a million baby kisses. I will personally delive if you will only sing this morning roof all the day. His friend, the Oscar winning songwriter Leslie Brickis told me that growing up, Sammy spent a lot of time in movie theaters. It became sort of his school, since he never spent a single day in an actual school.

He used to speak along with the actors, imitating them, you know, Carrie Grant or Humphrey Bogat. He learned the accents. He'd do the voice with them, and that's how he perfected it. He couldn't let anything go by. There's this bit I've seen from an old Julie Andrews Variety show. Julie Andrews Variety Show. Don't you just love the sound of that? Anyway? On the show, Sammy and the impressionist

Rich Little engage in a friendly competition. Why don't we forget about impressions and just see Sammy sings as Nat King Cole. I just found joy. I'm happy all you lay the bar. Rich does Liberacci, I'm Parabi and Sammy does his Jerry Lewis to Riches, Dean Martin, you and me, you know watching it, and Rich Little is technically better, but Sammy is just better. I'd rather watch Sammy, So

what's happening there? The genius of Sammy's when he imitated someone, He imitated them from the inside out, and rich Little imitates someone from the outside end, and Sammy gets to the essence of that person. This is Larry Maslon. He's the writer and co producer of the film American Masters, Sammy Davis Junior. I've got to Be Me, and he's

super smart. Nobody imitated musicians and singers the way sam is really interesting because you've got to be able to have the talent of channeling them and have their talent as well, right right right where you're Sammy's talent as a singer is often well undersung. It's not so much that he had a technically beautiful voice, but cliche alert. He knew how to make a song his own. And in this episode, we're going to use three of the

songs he famously sang to tell his story. Whether I'm right, Oh, whether I'm Larry Maslon calls I've got to Be Me the ultimate Sammy song. I mean, it's it's everything, and that's who he was. I gotta be And yet the song wasn't written for Sammy or settle for us as long as there's a much. Steve Lawrence sang it first in a musical called Golden Rainbow, about a single dad living in Vegas. The musical also starred Steve's wife, Evie

Gourmet incredible voice. Anyway, Steve thought this song, written by Walter Marx, might be more powerful coming from his friend. The lyric content was like whether I'm right, whether I'm wrong, whether I find a place in this world will never belonged. It interpreted this black man in the society at that time, this man who is different than everybody else. I called him. I said, sam You're going to do this your own way and better. It meant more coming from him than

it did from me. He recorded it, bang, he went to the top of the chase. I'll go it alone now. Being me for Sammy Davis Junior was a complicated matter. For one thing, he was an African American man who would later convert to Judaism. My mother is a Puerto Rican, so that means I'm colored, Jewish and Puerto Rican. When I move into a neighborhood, I wipe it out. That's a joke. He told a lot when he was performing

with the rat Pack in the nineteen sixties. FYI, we're not spending a lot of time with the rat Pack in this episode. It's been done to death. Throughout his life, Sammy mind his unique identity for humor and to diffuse tension. Remember Warren Baby announcing the wrong Best Picture Oscar winner in twenty seventeen. Well, Sammy was ahead of his time. Here he is in nineteen sixty four announcing the Oscar for movie scoring and the winner is John Addison for

Tom Jones. Except that it wasn't. Sammy handled his snare for him without skipping a beat. They gave me the wrong envelope. Wait till the NAACP hears about this. But earlier in his life his talent played a much more vital role. It helped him survive. They painted you right, they poured urine in your beer. Things of that name. I mean, did these things really happen? Yes, they really happen.

That's Sammy talked into our senio hall. In nineteen forty three, eighteen year old Sammy came off the road when he was drafted into the army and into one of the first integrated units. Until then, his father and uncle had tried as best they could to shell to him from racism. Now there was no one to protect him. I was in a kind of an odd situation because I'm going, hey, I don't know anything about this outside world. I belonged to show business, show businesses. Hey, I got a barn.

Let's put the show on here. You know all of those cliches I lived, you know, and the other guys are going will be doing that. You won't get us in trouble. You know. I got my nose broke three times and it hurt, and you couldn't do anything about it. You had nobody to back you up. Trips to the infirmary were regular. That's how many fights he was getting into. But when he got transferred to an entertainment unit, things got better for him. He once told his daughter, talent

was my only weapon. With a white situation or a black situation, you do it with human I tried to do it with entertaining to try to get some doors open, because all of them were closed in those days. All of them were closed. Well, sammy them open. Remember those impressions he did, they weren't just funny, they were bold back in the late forties, black performers didn't do impressions of white performers in front of white audiences. That is until Sammy did My Dad and Will said they got

in inches. One of these days you keep doing white people, you know. And I went on and did it now in the Strand Theater. The first time I went you Dirty Rat, a guy in the audience said, my god, he sounds just like him. What he was really saying, I'm looking at a black man for the first time to a white man. Well, it was so good that we went from opening act to closing. Now, Imitating white performers was one thing. Dating a white woman was another.

His relationship with screen siren Kim Novak was considered scandalous. In nineteen fifty seven. I talked to him recently on her horse farm in Oregon. That was blosiph back then. At that time it was it certainly was so ridiculous, and how did what was that like for you? At that time, Harry Cone threatened to take his other eye out. Harry Cone was the much feared head of Columbia Pictures, and he really did. Oh. Of course, however, we saw each other, but I was never in love certainly it

was Sammy. Do you think that he was infatuated with you? Oh, he was. He had a good crush on man, nice crush. I man, we had such fun times together, we really did. But who certainly not worth losing eye over. I'm just trying to square this sort of drive to make an audience happy and the public happy and then doing these things that are really ballsy. Well, I'm not sure he viewed them as ballsy. That's Sammy's friend, former San Francisco

mayor Willie Brown. I'm sure he viewed them as being just a Davis Julia, And in nineteen seventy two, being Sammy Davis Junior meant embracing President Richard Nixon during his reelection campaign. Quite literally, Sammy hugged Nixon, and let's just say much of the public did not hug back. You've had a lot of criticism from some black groups because I bothered you. Yes, of course. Do you think that he was shocked at the reaction he got when he

embraced Nixon? Yes, I think that shocked him. But Willie Brown says, Sammy knew exactly what he was doing. Many African Americans in this country were Republicans. Sammy was conscious of that because some of them were his friends, And contrary to most tellings of this story, Brown says, it wasn't primarily African American fans who were outraged. They were basically white liberals who could not understand how such a

symbolic black would be embracing somebody like Richard Nixon. So most of the disapproval you think came from white liberals, I know it came from white liberals. Black people didn't give a shit about mother than not he embraced Nixon. Yeah, Sammy still felt the need later that year to address a less than warm audience at Jesse Jackson's Push Conference, a gathering of social justice activists. Disagree if you will

with my politics. It was a dramatic appearance, but I will not allow anyone to take away the fact that I am black. It's moving because he's honest with his audience. That's Larry Maslon again. Basically, he's saying, whatever you think of me and Richard Nixon, you know him, a black man, you know what I've been through in the last forty years. I'm right. Oh, if you don't want to take me, fine, but I'm gonna put me out there. I gotta be me. What more of a statement can you have than that?

I gotta be me, gotta be me? What else can I be? It seems like showbiz for him was kind of like a rocket ship that took him on a voyage and helped him sort of overcome so many obstacles. His talent is a rocket ship, but gravity was being black in America, and that's what brought him back to earth time and time again. I mean, this is his own words. I want to be so good that no one will notice I'm black. That's not really possible, is it? What kind of lives are these? Do you have a

favorite Sammy song? What kind of fooling ice that whispered empty words? What kind of fool am I? That's Dion Warwick's favorite Sammy song. It's about someone unable to find blasting love. That's the story he tells from the very first note. I mean, he cannot but believe every single word he's giving you. He floored me with that. What time? Because he was forever on tour and on the road, he never could sustain the relationship because he was never

there for more than two weeks. Leslie Brickis wrote what kind of fool Am I? With Anthony Newley for the musical Stop the World I Want to Get Off? But Sammy made it famous when he sings it. There's a great performance in nineteen sixty two on Andy Williams Show, and it's just so plaintive, almost anguished. What God well, he wasn't good at Toto. But it also may have been a little bit of autobiography in there. You know, why can I cast away this mask of play? I

live my life? How do you make it fresh? Whenever I walk on that stage with that night I tried to translate into that rendition of the song, and it's a true, honest feeling. Sammy's romantic history was tumultuous. After Kim Novak. There was a short marriage to the African American actress Lay White, and then he married the white Swedish model and actress My brit That wedding was such

a scandal he got disinvited from the JFK inaugural. Yes, that might have had something to do with his hugging Nixon. Later on, he and my had two kids before splitting up. My wife left me. You know, I took the kids. Nothing was more important than being a star. So I lost. I lost every ounce of what was valuable. I'd made the wrong choices. Sammy was married three times in all,

and dated plenty in between. Cheeta Rivera met Sammy when they worked together on the musical Mister Wonderful, and I was a snob when they asked me to do it. I went on, he's from nightclubs. I mean, what's he going to do on a stage? You know? And boy did I did? I eat my words? And you were lovers, you were boyfriend's friend? What was that like? It was fabulous. He's as talented in that area as he was he was otherwise. But things got he did on one occasion.

I know this doesn't sound too crude, but we must have had some words which I don't remember ever having with him, but I remember he took his eye out, that would be his glass eye. The words that are in my head are is this what you want now? That sounds like an hour interview in itself. I know how dramatic that sounds, but I do remember that. And I'm not even sure that we were alone. Okay, sidebar

I was obsessed with glass eyes growing up. A relative of mine actually had one, or maybe his was rubber, I can't remember. It was a fake guy anyway. Recently I spoke with the fabulous Sandy Duncan. She performed with Sammy but never dated him, and she talked about the rumors that she had a glass eye. Contrary to urban myth, I do not have a glass eye, so that'll put this to rest. But she did lose sight in one eye,

and Sammy reached out to her. She was very concerned about my having lost my vision through a brain tumor when I was twenty four, and he made contact immediately. Do you think that there is something in the recovery for him and for you that, actually, I don't know, made you even better as an entertainer. I don't know if any better as an entertainer, but I certainly developed a discipline that nothing stops you. I've never missed a show in my life. I just didn't let it bother me.

I had to get up and get out and do it. So he was very helpful. What kind of fool am I? Of course, Sammy did fall in love and stay in love with his audience. I know it's a cliche, Well here comes another one. He's just so at home on stage. If you look at videos of him performing on variety shows, he does his thing where he'll end a big number and then he just sort of doubles over with laughter. He's had that much fun, almost like a kid shown off to his friends. But mcno mistake. It might all

look and sound off the cuff. He knows exactly what he's doing. With your kind permission, May I simply stayed, how very wonderful and thrilled and scared I am you had zee this man own a stage and an audience. I mean he actually owned you, prought you into him. Dion Warwick wasn't just his friend. She studied him. Well, that is a really interesting word when you say he owned the audience. What does that mean When he woke on that stage, he knew that we were in the

palm of his hand. People have to trust you, for Sammy, This relationship with the audience was deeply personal. People don't trust you. He ain't got a shot at it, and they've invested years in me. S I'm part of the family as long as I don't let them down. Do you think that he was pretty much always happy on stage? Yeah? That was just domain we heard the Berees trees. Here's Leslie Bricus again, nineteen seventy seven New Year's Eve and he and Lizam and Ellie did at midnight New Year's Eve,

at which went on for three hours. We went up to Sammy's Sweet afterwards and he said, let's do it all again, and they did the whole show again for just four people and it was another three hours. What is that? Was that a need to perform or was that just pure joy? Or was it joy more than anything? Joy? Joy? He was so high on the audience reaction that the only way he could come down was to perform more. Dionne Warwick told me that he described applause as nourishment. Yes,

that was that was breakfast, lunch and dinner. You know, people romanticize the entertainer who just gives one hundred and ten percent. But then the cliche is, you know, they give, they give, they give, but there was nothing left for themselves. And you know, but no, no, no no, no no, no no, no, he gave, but he used. He enjoyed every penny that he ever earned. Sammy Davis Junior enjoyed it period. That's Willie Brown again. Now it turns out that what kind

of fool am? I might also describe Sammy Davis Junior's relationship with money. My most expensive pocket watch with the chain came from Sammy Davis, Jennie, and that's you think it just made him feel good to be that generous. I think it was that way. I think he wanted to share his wealth. Sammy Davis was one of the worst people I ever saw him any kind of money. He had no idea what money was and what it

was worth. That's Sammy's former agent, Larry Auerbach. He told me a lot of things, including an amazing story about Elvis that I'm not allowed to repeat. Tell him my whole life story for this cuckamything you're doing. It's a podcast that's even worth Okay. One thing he made incredibly clear Sammy was bad with money. I was going to London on vacation. Next thing I know, we put a lovely leather case, and then it was a night on camera, which was the high item of the day, and I said, well,

am I gonna do it this. I literally felt that he had no idea what he was spending or what it was what it meant. Almost everyone I talked to had a story about Sammy giving them a ridiculously expensive present, and I already had a god watch. I didn't need to go watch. He had this impulse to spend money. Are you bad with money? No? I think I'm pretty good with it. Sammy himself talked about his spending habits with Dick Cabot and I'm entitled to blow maybe five

ten thousand dollars out of the year. Just blow it. Yeah, you know where are you going to do that? Next day? When he died, he owed more money to the irs than any single individual in history up to that point, saying he had to impress people on stage and off. You know, he'd wear the most outrageous clothing. He had six rings on his hand. You saw the pictures. Sure, some people are going to hear that and think was

he compensating for something? Yes? I think he was compensating for what he wasn't given at the beginning, that he had no start in life, and it was largely show he was showing off. I think he was sheltered by his uncle and his father. He was now had some freedom, and he saw an opportunity to give a gifts. Why not? Okay, that's interesting though, giving extravagant gifts. I mean, what do you think he wanted from that? Nothing? I grew up

with the Sammy of the nineteen seventies. Artistically, this wasn't a high point for him, But what did I know about fish Whenever he made his fast, fast fast. I loved hearing him sing commercial jingles. Ugh, but it put an extra wing on the house. This was the Sammy of Talk to the Animals, my favorite single on my Sammy Greatest Hits album. I still dance around my apartment to it with and Cheetah. What a data chieve it would be. And of course candy Man. Now, at first

Sammy didn't like Candy Man. It was originally from the movie Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. But he liked that it went to number one. He's only number one. Let's just say Sammy knew how to turn lemons into groovy lemon pie. He does something I think is very brave, which he never makes fun of the material. It's total commitment. I see that he did a cover of Chico and the Man of the Cheeko on the Man theme song, and that's one of the things where you go, oh God,

and then you start listening. It's really good. Yeah, it's really good. Chico d it's good. Yeah, he did Maud too. He covered the themes on to mad I have to listen to that. Lady Couldivo was a freedom rider. Lady Godiva was a freedom ride. She didn't care the whole world. I check any cynicism at the door. When he starts performing, well, you check your cynicism because you know immediately he's bearing his soul to you. It's not an act. He's not

too cool for school, right. Sinatra had that right, a little bit of a distance. There's no distance there. I don't think Sammy had an ounce of irony in him, that kind of detached look at me irony. He was like all in as a performer. And maybe the problem is not Sammy's enthusiasm, but certain generations skittishness about enthusiasm, right, fear that will make them look uncool. Right, and Dion Warwick says he was as enthusiastic and playful offstage as on.

And I started having in my rider a Miss pac Man machine Miss pac Man, which is much better than pac Man by the way. Yeah, and luc the cocktail table type, the one, the flat one, so that right, you can sit across from each other. Yep. Turns out Dion Warwick and Sammy Davis Junior both loved playing Miss pac Man and I beat him up. That is fantastic. He would get up and stop. How to do this to me very easily. But the Sammy of the seventies also had edge. When he kissed Archie Bunker on the

cheek on all in the family, it made headlines. What I hadn't seen until recently was his appearance from nineteen seventy five on The Carol Burnett Show. And this is a sketch where you play a woman eleanor Simpson. Yo, he happens. Let's not talk about poor Lilo me. That's right, that's the one Carol told me all about it on the phone. Well, she was a passive, aggressive racist, Johnny ur diction. It was just perfect. Sammy plays this entertainer.

So she was in the audience. Now he's this big star because she's all excited but still has that underlying prejudice. I tell you, you just tossed off those poles syllables like you were born to them. They grew up together because his mother was their maid. I know she just couldn't wait to come back in and work for you again. She was talking about when they were kids, and she said, oh, and we used to play high and go seek. Oh that was such fun, but it wasn't good in the

dark hobby. You could just be standing right in front of me and I never wouldn't known it less she smile. Sammy doesn't actually talk much during the scene. He doesn't really need to. His look says it all. Mostly he's just biting his tongue, struggling to be gracious until he's finally had enough. Okee. But Sammy loved that sketch. And do you think he loved it because he could relate to it somehow? Perhaps you remember all the fun we used to have when we use kids. What do you

remember that? I am beginning to remember a lot of things. He let me ask you. There's got to be a reason you remember that sketch in such detail. It was because there were no jokes in. There was all character. You know something, Melanie, I think you're right. I am a little tight. Oh that there was an underlying truth. Some people would say that the one great hit he had was Kennyby, But mister Boujingles is this definition of

Sammy Davis. That's Willie Brown. I have to confess I always thought mister Bojangles, our third Sammy song was about Bill Bojangles Robinson, the great African American tap dancer who died penniless in nineteen forty nine. In fact, mister Bojangles, and you may have known, this was originally a country music song. The writer Jerry Jeff Walker says it's about a guy he met in a New Orleans prison, and

Walker never really thought the song would go anywhere. When I got to Atlantic Records, they said, who'd held would want a four and a half minute song about a old drunk and a dead dog? And six to eight times right right? Apparently everyone dagle the song spoke to Sammy. He'd been struggling for years with drugs and alcohol, back and dance, dance, dance, please dance. I got the fear

that that's how I was going to die. I was going to wind up like mister Beaujang, a drunk but recognition about anything, and the song helped motivate three hundred and sixty mister bag Goose when he was on stage, totally dalk on stage. Why can't you wear a boat and all you'd get is the spotlight, and then the light go out and you'd see him take two or three steps and he'd be him another circle of light, still continuing and tell them the story until he dance, dance, dance.

Nothing could be to that, you would be, I mean, just overwhelmed. After Sammy was diagnosed with cancer, the doctors told him he needed surgery, but surgery would involve removing his voice box. As far as Sammy was concerned, that wasn't an option. So I'm just okay watching cartoons. I come down to get a soda from the living room. That's Manny Davis, Sammy's son, with his third wife, Alchabz. He remembers the procession of dignitaries coming through their home

during Sammy's final months. They got Jesse Jackson the living room, they got Franks and I just come over to say hello. You just have all these celebrities coming around all the time because they knew what was happening to Sammy and I didn't. Here's Kim Novak again. When is the last time that you saw him? Well, when it was sick, you know, and I went to the hospital to see him and what was that like? Oh, it was hot.

I didn't know what. I don't know what to say. Really, always sat there and looked at each other and what do you say. In November nineteen eighty nine, his best friends, no surprise, they included some of the greatest living performers, rushed to organize a tribute show. A very gaunt Sammy sat in the front row. He was sixty three years old,

making this his sixtieth anniversary in showbiz, sixty years. And I knew that you would amount to something, but I didn't feel that you were going to amount to everything. That's Frank Sinatra and I say, here's to you. Sam. You know I love you. I can't say it any more than that. You're my brother. Michael Jackson is there too. As a young boy, Michael had stood in the wings studying Sammy. On this night, he sang a song specially written for the occasion before we came. You took the hurt,

you took the shame. I am here because you were there. It was too lucky. I'm free as a performer to do what I want because you made it happen before me. There's now a duel we all walk through and halfway through the show, the great tap dancer Gregory Hines comes on. It's hard to put into words. I feel so much love for you that I'm gonna try to dance to that for you. Hines dances and the crowd goes wild.

Then he approaches Sammy, who isn't scheduled to perform. He looks so weak, but out of these pulls out Sammy's tap shoes. Sammy can't resist. He puts them on and gets up on stage. Greg Hines whispers to Sammy, says, what do you want to do? And Sammy says, greg just make it easy on yourself, and they bring him the tap shoes there. It's clearly planned. It's you don't think it's fine? And they did this beautiful little duet

together and it tore a place apart. Look, it's impossible to tell if this was all pre arranged, but frankly, who cares. Samy comes alive in that sequence. I swear when you watch this you forget that he's dying. That's the last step seven of the dunce. He made a statement to that we were open, and one night he felt that he wants to die on stage. He wanted to end his life right there on stage. So how could you think that Jesus, that's my life and you

think he really meant it. I know he did. If there's a little less spring in the American step today, it is because Sammy Davis Junior is gone. As you know, Dad has heard Sammy Davis Junior pass away yesterday after it was born in a Hurlem into a family of vaudeville performers, working from age three in a world where white's expected blacks to dance. Funeral services will be held tomorrow, smile.

Sammy Davis Junior was sixty four to know their place and Hollywood flowers stand guard over Davis's star on the Walk of Fame, New York. His name, Sammy Davis Junior died at home in Beverly Hills on May sixteenth, nineteen ninety I would like to think of myself as the entertainer whatever it takes to make the people happy. If Hollywood ever does produce a biopick about Sammy Davis Jr. It's hard to imagine who could play him. I mean, who's around today who can do it all? Maybe it's

because of the world that created Sammy is gone. Fronteville. It was a fraternity of performance, and you saw the greatest performances in the world out there playing that trade. And you could learn just by standing in the wings and watching very special and I was lucky enough to catch it. Sammy's was a time when the most exciting performers were proud to be known as more than just singers or comics or television personalities. They aspired to be

remembered as entertainers. Every once in a while, and running the Donal O'Connor, Mickey Rooney, we all have the same upbringing, and we talk about it. You remember the old days, you remember the second such a Ack, you remember the Zach And sometimes I look at the young people today and I go, I wonder what they'll talk about. Who will they remember? Gonna build a mountain from the little the hill. We hope you'll join us as we raise the curtain on the next episode of Mobituaries. Our topic

Meanderthals with special guest my friend Michael ian Black. If they had told me only how much Neanderthal I am, I would have paid the amount for the test. I certainly hope you enjoyed this episode. For more great content, please visit mobituaries dot com or follow us on Facebook, Instagram, or follow me on Twitter at Morocca. If you like Mobituaries, please subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. I promise it's free. This episode of Mobituaries was produced by Alison Byrne and

Gideon Evans. Our team of producers also includes Megan Marcus, Kate mccauliffe, Megandetree, Justin Hayter, and Me Morocca. It was edited by Alison Byrne and engineered by Bart Warshaw. Indispensable support from Hilary Dan Genius, Tnski, kiro wardlow Zach Gilcrest, the team at CBS News Radio, and Richard Rohrer. Special thanks to Matt Anderson, Manny Davis, Michael Cantor, Neil Porter, and Alberto Robina. Our theme music is written by Daniel Hart.

Exclusive interview outtakes of Steve Lawrence plus Cheeter There's amazing glass Eye story. We're from American Masters, Sammy Davis Jr. I've Gotta Be Me, Premiering Tuesday, February nineteenth at nine pm on PBS. Check local listings and as always, undying thanks to Rand Morrison and John Carbon Without whom Mobituaries couldn't live CBS views. I don't care where you are you, I am not given the rights today. It was Presley's story. Hi, it's MO. If you're enjoying Mobituaries the podcast, may I

invite you to check out Mobituaries the book. It's chock full of stories not in the podcast. Celebrities who put their butts on the line, sports teams that threw in the towel for good, forgotten fashions, defunct diagnoses, presidential candidacies that cratered whole countries that went caput. And dragons, Yes, dragons, you see. People used to believe the dragons were real

until just get the book. You can order Mobituaries the Book from any online bookseller, or stop by your local bookstore and look for me when I come to your city. Tour information and lots more at moobituaries dot com