In Black and White: The Life of Sammy Davis Junior (89 page)

The interviews that proved most helpful for this chapter: Elvera Sanchez Davis, Tara Arthur, Lorelei Fields, Gloria Williams, and Virginia Capehart.
1:
“My mother was”:
Playboy
, 12-66;
2:
“My mother was born”: ibid.;
3:
“I am Cuban”: Lorelei Fields interview;
4:
“the spectacle of”: Morris,
The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt
, 607;
5:
“have this war”: ibid.;
6:
“Now, Senator, may”: ibid., 608;
7:
“within five years”: Courtney,
The Intimate Biography of Laurette Taylor
, 129;
8:
“We don’t serve”: Lorelei Fields interview;
9:
“One day I”: Hatch-Billops, 31;
10:
“bloodthirsty black men”: Lewis,
When Harlem Was in Vogue
, 4;
11:
“The tide of”: ibid., 5;
12:
“Before Jim Europe”: Ward and Burns,
Jazz: A History of America’s Music
, 70;
13:
“You knew”: ibid., 142;
14:
“Up in Harlem”: Anderson,
This Was Harlem
, 157;
15:
“ ‘Gladys Bentley’ was”: ibid., 169;
16:
“a sociological El Dorado”: Lewis,
When Harlem Was in Vogue
, 164;
17:
“Right around the”: Hatch-Billops, 30;
18:
“We’d go there”: ibid.;
19:
“In some places”: Lewis,
When Harlem Was in Vogue
, 103;
20:
“We would do”: Hatch-Billops, 32;
21:
“I don’t want”: ibid., 31;
22:
“Little kids would”: ibid., 31;
23:
“Sharp as he”: ibid.;
24:
“emboldens bad Negroes”: Gates and Appiah,
Africana
, 2002;
25:
“Our experience”: ibid.;
26:
“Negro life is”: Anderson,
This Was Harlem
, 202;
27:
“almost an addiction”: Douglas,
Terrible Honesty
, 288;
28:
“Get the fuck”: Lewis,
When Harlem Was in Vogue
, 183;
29:
“Damn it man”: ibid., 99;
30:
“How do I”: Buckley,
The Hornes
, 84;
31:
“ ‘Where is the’ ”: Lewis,
When Harlem Was in Vogue
, 35–36;
32:
“Look for me”: Evans,
The American Century
, 195;
33:
“a little monkey”: Virginia Capehart interview.

Chapter 2: Long Shadows

Anyone writing about vaudeville—especially Negro vaudeville and blackface minstrel performers—owes a great debt to Henry Sampson. He has written several books—they are mostly tucked away in the special-collections archives of select libraries—about early Negro performers. His
Blacks in Blackface
has been extraordinarily helpful to me. Sampson has tracked various early twentieth-century vaudeville troupes back and forth across the country. One hopes his books reach a wider audience, though that does not seem to be the joy of his mission. He simply wants to provide a road map into the lost pages of history, which he has done.

1:
“a true copy”: Hughes and Meltzer,
Black Magic
, 24;
2:
“NATIONAL THEATRE”: ibid., 37;
3:
“a passel of darkies”: ibid., 33;
4:
“On Billy Kersands”: Sampson,
Blacks in Blackface
, 391;
5:
“State all that”: ibid., 60;
6:
“ ‘Tommy’ meant prostitute”: Stearns,
Jazz Dance
, 128;
7:
“His name was”: ibid., 254;
8:
“Is we all”: Douglas,
Terrible Honesty
, 328;
9:
“I have no”:
New York Age
, 12-29-18;
10:
“Give me ten”: Cantor,
My Life Is in Your Hands
, 160;
11:
“Bert Williams was”:
Amsterdam News
, 5-30-23;
12:
“He was the”: Cantor,
My Life Is in Your Hands
, 159;
13:
“We greet you”:
Amsterdam News
, 4-18-23;
14:
“Many theatres have”: Muse,
Way Down South
, 22–23;
15:
“five times as”: Anderson,
This Was Harlem
, 242;
16:
“By 1930, Harlem”: ibid., 243;
17:
“as if reluctant”: Douglas,
Terrible Honesty
, 464;
18:
“A night club”: Lewis,
When Harlem Was in Vogue
, 266;
19:
“The West Coast”: Douglas,
Terrible Honesty
, 467;
20:
“Sammy used to”:
Boston Globe
, 8-2-55;
21:
“I think the”: undated Earl Wilson column in
Porgy and Bess
archives (Robert Breen Collection, folder #2), Ohio State University;
22:
“You’re Just a”: Courtney,
The Intimate Biography of Laurette Taylor
, 27;
23:
“You see a”: William C. Young,
Famous Actors and Actresses on the American Stage
, vol. 2 (New York: R. R. Bowker, 1975), 1042;
24:
“Sometimes on a”: Short,
Black and White Baby
, 82;
25:
“My spine tingled”: Davis,
Hollywood in a Suitcase
, 39;
26:
“We moved from”: Davis,
Yes I Can
, 20;
27:
“When I was”: Sampson,
Blacks in Blackface
, 404;
28:
“talented”: Sampson,
Black and White
, 422;
29:
“I never was”: Waters,
His Eye is on the Sparrow
, 1;
30:
“Only the details”: Davis,
Yes I Can
, 17;
31:
“coon shouting from”: Stearns,
Jazz Dance
, 254;
32:
“The melancholy spirituals”: Sampson,
Blacks in Blackface
, 23;
33:
“Momma, squeeze me”: Virginia Capehart interview;
34:
“Little Florence, so”: Sampson,
Blacks in Blackface
, 402;
35:
“There is a”: Evans,
The American Century
, 248;
36:
“I wasn’t invited”: Gates,
Africana
, 1472–73.

Chapter 3: The Kid in the Middle

The vaudeville dancers who shared their memories of watching the young Sammy dance were Billy Kelly, Paul Winik, Pudgy Barksdale, Prince Spencer—who became famous in his own right—and Leroy Meyers. I thank them all. I found Abe Ford, one of the earliest of the agents for the Will Mastin Trio, in Boston. He was still working out of his theatrical office on Tremont Street in 2001.(Ford died, at the age of eighty-nine, in 2002.) Other interviews that proved helpful: Mabel Robinson, Elvera Davis, and Abe Lafferty.
1:
“Hey! Here they”: Earley,
Sammy Davis Reader
, 468;
2:
“A couple of”:
Providence Journal Bulletin
, 3-25-40;
3:
“I used to”: Davis, Hatch-Billops, 35;
4:
“You had a”: ibid.;
5:
“Those were good”:
Montreal Gazette
, 8-24-77;
6:
“And we were”: ibid.;
7:
“a mecca for”: ibid.;
8:
“persuade, embarrass, compel”: Gates,
Africana
, 2029;
9:
“You say we’re”: ibid.;
10:
“the right to”: ibid., 2027;
11:
“You niggers were” ibid., 2028;
12:
“We look to”: Morris,
The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt
, 453;
13:
“executive lynch law”: Louis R. Harlan,
Booker T. Washington, The Wizard of Tuskegee
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1983), 311;
14:
“I ain’t arguin’ ”: Davis,
Yes I Can
, 52;
15:
“How many white”: ibid., 55;
16:
“Awww, don’t carry”: ibid., 57;
17:
“Overnight, the”: ibid.;
18:
“My talent was”: ibid., 54;
19:
“I dug down”: ibid., 75;
20:
“It was the”:
New York Times
, 5-16-98.

Chapter 4: And Sammy Shall Lead Them

Others—in addition to the aforementioned Amy Greene—who were quite helpful in this chapter were Judy Balaban, Steve Allen, Timmie Rogers, Keely Smith, and Lionel Hampton.
1:
“Now that’s a”: Davis,
Yes I Can
, 99;
2:
“I don’t know”: Rooney,
I.E., An Autobiography
, 50–51;
3:
“
OPEN CAPITOL THEATRE
”: Davis,
Why Me
, 37;
4:
“I’ll never forget”: Kelley,
His Way
, 115;
5:
“I can lick”: ibid., 117;
6:
“You sound too”:
Down-Beat
, 8-56.

Chapter 5: White Sammy, Black Sammy

In distilling the dual worlds in which Sammy Davis, Jr., operated—he was truly one of our earliest crossover artists—it was crucial that I find those who pulled him into their (white) world. Inasmuch as Sammy hungered for female acceptance, these women were of great interest to me. Those interracial assignations also offered powerful hints of danger. As mentioned earlier, I’m thankful for the time Helen Gallagher and Peggy King chose to spend with me—Gallagher in New York City, and King in Philadelphia. (King appears in
Chapter 6
.) Both women also shared illuminating photographs. Others who were important to this chapter were Tony Curtis, Janet Leigh, Jess Rand, Bonnie Rand, Arthur Penn, Eartha Kitt, and Francis Taylor. As well, I will not soon forget my hours-long session with Jerry Lewis on his houseboat in the San Diego harbor.
1
:
“The resemblance of”:
The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language
, 3d ed. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1992);
2:
“I just don’t”:
Ebony
, 12-50;
3:
“Hollywood is”:
Vanity Fair
, 4-98;
4:
“I knew it”: Reed,
Hot from Harlem
, 169;
5:
“Once in a”: Davis,
Yes I Can
, 132;
6:
“I’m not saying”:
Ebony
, 12-50;
7:
“My format for”: Cantor,
My Life Is in Your Hands
, 246;
8:
“the whitest black”: ibid., 159;
9:
“We started in”: Kitt,
Thursday’s Child
, 190;
10:
“As Sammy Davis’ ”: letter dated May 5, 1954, in personal files of Jess Rand;
11:
“Results offered sharp”: Bogle,
Prime Time Blues
, 9;
12:
“Hazel Scott has”: ibid., 16;
13:
“We should not”: Wil Haygood,
King of the Cats: The Life and Times of Adam Clayton Powell, Jr
. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1993) 162;
14:
“white folks kitchen”: Bogle,
Prime Time Blues
, 25;
15:
“There are three”: Watkins,
On the Real Side
, 278;
16:
“I done told”: ibid., 317;
17:
“An entire race”: ibid., 322.

Chapter 6: Through a Glass Eye Brightly

It seemed improbable to be sitting in the San Bernardino living room of Dr. Fred Hull, the eye surgeon who removed Sammy’s eye back in 1954. But there we were. I am grateful to Dr. Hull for the long interview, as well as his allowing me to look at the notes he wrote on a yellow pad immediately following the Davis surgery. (It seemed a bit haunting to me when Hull picked up a large magnifying glass to read: “I’m losing my sight,” the eye surgeon said, matter-of-factly.) It was Virginia Henderson, the admitting nurse that night in 1954, who led me to Hull. She, too, was of immense help in piecing together Sammy’s hospital stay. Others who were quite helpful in this chapter: Frank Military, Jess Rand, Cindy Bitterman, Eileen Barton, Jerry Lewis, Janet Leigh, Judy Balaban, Keely Smith, Roxanne Carter, Amy Greene, Maurice Hines, and Peggy King.
1:
“And what is”: Cadillac ad, owned by author;
2:
“I had no”: Davis,
Yes I Can
, 7;
3:
“I just got”: ibid., 29;
4:
“Onstage he”: Greene interview;
5:
“Let us not”: Evans,
The American Century
, 447;
6:
“The truth”: Halberstam,
The Fifties
, 568;
7:
“The show is”: Stott,
On Broadway
, 244;
8:
“You see, young”: Branch,
Parting the Waters
, 119;
9:
“Whenever he’s”:
San Bernardino Sun
, 11-25-54;
10:
“No longer did”: Salamon,
Facing the Wind
, 83;
11:
“Fainting, which”: Herr,
The Big Room
, 131;
12:
“Ava does strange”: Rooney,
I.E.
, 126;
13:
“The night we”: ibid., 144;
14:
“When he was”: Gabler,
An Empire of Their Own
, 305;
15:
“When I met”: ibid., 306;
16:
“Let me caution”: Davis,
Yes I Can
, 292;
17:
“Though the notion”: Baldwin,
The Price of the Ticket
, 7;
18:
“It is part”: ibid., 8;
19:
“too damned old”: Davis,
Yes I Can
, 233;
20:
“It was Sammy”:
Variety
, 1-11-55;
21:
“Never dug you”: telegram in Rand personal files;
22:
“In a time”:
Time
, 4-18-55;
23:
“Photographs, which”: Sontag,
On Photography
, 68;
24:
“It is as”: Brontë,
Wuthering Heights
, viii (Modern Library edition).