Posted on 07/16/2009 3:52:41 AM PDT by Kaslin
The world's greatest entertainer died -- 19 years ago. His name is Sammy Davis Jr.
At Michael Jackson's memorial, Motown founder Berry Gordy called the late, incredibly talented Jackson "the greatest entertainer that ever lived." Someone once said that Ginger Rogers, Fred Astaire's famous dance partner, did everything he did -- except backward and wearing high heels. Well, Sammy Davis Jr. did everything Michael Jackson did -- and more, much more -- except during Jim Crow and with one eye.
Davis sang. He danced. He acted. He played piano, drums and trumpet. He did impressions of the popular celebrities of his time. Gifted with excellent timing, Davis wove comedy into his act, always writing or improvising his own material.
Davis, like Jackson, became the focal point in a group of entertainers -- except Davis started on the stage when he was 3 and fronted the Will Mastin Trio as a teen. He never attended school -- not even elementary school -- and grew up on the road, without his mother.
Jackson came up hard. Davis came up harder. Try reading Davis' best-selling (15 million copies) autobiography, "Yes I Can," written with his longtime friend and confidant, Burt Boyar. It tells the journey of an astonishingly gifted and successful performer, a highly intelligent, self-educated, voracious reader, a man both confident and insecure -- in an era of segregation, lynchings and civil rights marches.
Davis worked hard. Davis played hard. His personal life and decisions and excesses attracted and repelled both blacks and whites. Yet however Davis' audience may have felt about him, it could never question his unparalleled talent.
"Yes I Can" describes some of the horrific racism endured by the legendary performer. For example, during World War II, Davis served in one of the Army's first integrated units. Once, some white members of his unit surprisingly invited Davis, sitting alone in a bar, to come over and join them for a drink. One of the guys handed him a beer. Suspicious, Davis refused to drink it. Good thing. The liquid in the mug was not beer, but urine.
During the Jackson memorial, we heard how he brought people of different races together. While Davis headlined at The Sands in Las Vegas in the late 1950s, the NAACP threatened a strike against the casinos because they wouldn't hire blacks in more prominent, visible positions. Davis told The Sands' president, Jack Entratter, "You've got to hire more blacks up front, not hidden in the kitchen." Entratter copped out, deferring to racist owners and high rollers. Davis told him, "Then you'll be embarrassed, because I'll be right out front picketing with them." Entratter gave in, and The Sands was not struck. Davis also marched for civil rights in places like Selma and the 1963 March on Washington.
He vigorously campaigned for John F. Kennedy in 1960. At the time, Davis -- despite the danger to his career, if not his life -- was engaged to white rising-star actress May Britt. To avoid alienating voters, Davis postponed their wedding until after the election. His reward? The newly elected President withdrew Davis' invitation to the inaugural to appease those offended by the recently married high-profile interracial couple. And 20th Century Fox, to which Britt was under contract, invoked the morals clause and let her go, effectively ending her career.
A brief word about Jackson's "moonwalk." Davis performed that move -- a derivative of soft shoe -- in front of audiences long before Michael was born. Indeed, young Michael frequently visited the Davis' home to watch tapes of Davis dancing and performing. As Davis told his friend Boyar: "It's such a gas when the kids like what you do enough to copy you. It's so flattering."
Before a show, Davis would pick out his first couple of songs, and then, after getting a feel for the audience, he would ad-lib the rest -- comedic patter, songs, impressions, playing the trumpet -- sensing what the crowd wanted. Boyar once accompanied Davis to a gig where the entertainer's band failed to show. "What are you going to do?" asked Boyar. Davis replied, "If I can't go out there with a comb and tissue paper and entertain those people, then I'm not the entertainer people say I am." Davis literally went onstage with a comb and tissue paper, captivating the audience for more than two hours. He did it, as always, without choreographers, directors, backup dancers or comedy writers.
Severely injured in an automobile accident, Davis lost one eye. He performed for a while with an eye patch and then with a glass eye for the rest of his career. He never missed a beat.
He portrayed a boxer in the Broadway play "Golden Boy," receiving a Tony nomination for Best Actor in a Musical. He also appeared in numerous television shows -- receiving several Emmy nominations and one win -- and movies, including the original "Ocean's Eleven."
A photographer, Davis captured fascinating shots of the famous -- Marilyn Monroe, Frank Sinatra, Jerry Lewis -- and the not-so-famous, of the rich and of the poor. (See Boyar's coffee-table book, "Photo by Sammy Davis, Jr.," a remarkable collection of pictures taken by Davis.)
No disrespect to Michael, but come on, Sammy is in a class by himself.
You know, that's always been my attitude towards use of the "N" word. It does not apply to decent, regular folks, just to those who've earned the designation through their behavior.
Probably something I should lose, but the old dogs/new tricks thing applies.
What on earth does that story that you linked to on Obama and Sotomayor have to do with anything on this thread?
He was also Jewish.
I recall a joke by Sammy about a bigot or Klan type saying something like "get him- he's all of 'em"!
David Daniel Kaminsky
AKA Danny Kaye
Samuel George "Sammy" Davis, Jr. was born in New York City, New York to Elvera Sanchez (1905-2000), a tap dancer, and Sammy Davis, Sr. (1900-1988), an African-American entertainer. During his lifetime, Davis, Jr. stated that his mother was Puerto Rican and born in San Juan; however, in the 2003 biography In Black and White, author Wil Haygood writes that Davis, Jr.'s mother was born in New York City to Cuban American parents, and that Davis, Jr. claimed he was Puerto Rican because he feared anti-Cuban backlash would hurt his record sales.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sammy_Davis,_Jr.
But, you left out the fact that Elvis was forbidden by many parents. And, that kids did not have buying power in the 50’s.
My brother's biggest regret in life was that he was born after Davis died.
Davis really was a genius.
Leonardo Di Caprio is 35. When Charlton Heston was 28 he played Moses.
Times have changed.
Lol! One can hardly compare what Elvis did on stage to what Jackson did.
ie:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2293792/posts?page=29#29
He absolutely was!
He was excellent at whatever it was he did. I really enjoyed him with Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra and other members of the Rat Pack but the thing about Sammy Davis I'll always remember was a show he did at one of the casinos in South Lake Tahoe in the 70's.
A group of us went to it and he was wonderful. He did the approx. 2 hour show solo, there wasn't another soul in it and he had the crowd on the edge of our seats it was so good. He did a little of everything and was terrific, I believe it's the best show I've ever seen.
Other than a personal fondness for Solon.com, is there a reason you posted that link in a conversation about Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers?
I think it was Sinatra who said he was the greatest entertainer in the World.
I don't think I said anything about Raquel Welch's abilities as a performer, let alone 'complete performer'. She just 'happened' to be included in the Bob Hope-USO piece I excerpted. :) She won an award for supporting/entertaining the troops in Vietnam with Bob Hope.
I can’t find the exact quote, but a fellow golfer once asked Sammy Davis Jr. “What’s your handicap?”
Without missing a step Sammy replied “I’m a half blind black jew. What’s yours?”
btt
It turns out that the parents of that time were right. Elvis lead to Michael Jackson and worse is coming.
Excerpt:
...Many described his [Elvis] act by comparing it to a striptease. Jack Gould of The New York Time declared, “Mr. Presley has no discernible singing ability,” while John Crosby of the New York Harald Tribune called Elvis “unspeakably Untalented and vulgar”. The criticism prompted parents, religious groups from the North and South, and the Parent-Teacher Association to condemn Elvis and rock n roll music by associating both with juvenile delinquency...
Dear Larry:
Where are you? When are you going to run for something?
P.S. I don’t mean to disagree with you, but the anniversary of the loss of the greatest entertainer in the world is exactly one month from today.
It’s true that Sammy was remarkable and overcame huge obstacles, though.
Relevant passage found using standard text search:
“But Sotomayor’s vainglorious lecture bromide about herself as “a wise Latina” trumping white men is a vulgar embarrassment — a vestige of the bad old days of male-bashing feminism when even the doughty Ann Richards was saying to the 1988 Democratic National Convention: “After all, Ginger Rogers did everything that Fred Astaire did. She just did it backwards and in high heels.” What flatulent canards mainstream feminism used to traffic in! Astaire, idolized even by Mikhail Baryshnikov, was one of the most brilliant and peerless dancers and choreographers of the 20th century. The agile but limited Ginger Rogers, a spunky, smart-mouthed comedian, is only a footnote. Get real, girls! This is the kind of mushy balderdash I doggedly had to plow through for five years in trying to find a good feminist poem for my collection, “Break, Blow, Burn.” I never found one. Rule of art: Cant kills creativity!”
Relevant passage found using standard browser text search:
“But Sotomayor’s vainglorious lecture bromide about herself as “a wise Latina” trumping white men is a vulgar embarrassment — a vestige of the bad old days of male-bashing feminism when even the doughty Ann Richards was saying to the 1988 Democratic National Convention: “After all, Ginger Rogers did everything that Fred Astaire did. She just did it backwards and in high heels.” What flatulent canards mainstream feminism used to traffic in! Astaire, idolized even by Mikhail Baryshnikov, was one of the most brilliant and peerless dancers and choreographers of the 20th century. The agile but limited Ginger Rogers, a spunky, smart-mouthed comedian, is only a footnote. Get real, girls! This is the kind of mushy balderdash I doggedly had to plow through for five years in trying to find a good feminist poem for my collection, “Break, Blow, Burn.” I never found one. Rule of art: Cant kills creativity!”
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