Gonna Do Great Things by Gary Fishgall

Author:Gary Fishgall
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: SCRIBNER
Published: 2003-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 19

That’s All!

The demise of The Sammy Davis, Jr. Show did little to tarnish Davis’ reputation. It had not been a ratings success, but it was a noteworthy effort. Likewise A Man Called Adam. Meanwhile, he had scored impressively with Golden Boy and Yes I Can. Indeed, one could argue that he was at the top of his game in the years between 1964 and 1966. Looking back, Gerald Early, editor of a 2001 compilation of writings by and about the entertainer, asserted that in the mid-sixties, Sammy was “arguably the most famous black man in the United States, his only possible rivals being Martin Luther King and Muhammad Ali.”

But as Davis’ career was cresting, his personal life wasn’t. May was as unhappy as ever. Thoughts of divorce were more frequent, but as Sammy’s time in New York drew to an end, she wasn’t yet ready for such a drastic move. A few weeks before Golden Boy closed, she took the kids and returned to California to find a place for the family to live, because Sammy had sold the house on Evanview Drive while living in the East.

Curiously, May chose a very grand place, the former home of movie mogul David O. Selznick, for which Sammy paid approximately $320,000 (according to his daughter, Tracey, it is now worth in excess of $6.5 million). Located on Summit Drive in the hills off Benedict Canyon, the Georgian-style brick edifice had four bedrooms, a study, a large family room with Dutch doors leading to a generous backyard, a den, a breakfast room, a huge kitchen, a sauna, and an office. “I still remember the first day I saw that grand and wonderful house,” Tracey noted in her 1996 memoir. “It was like being in a fairy tale.”

Sammy joined the family after taping his final show at the end of March. But he barely had time to settle into his new digs when he was off again for an engagement at the Sands in early May. To mark his first appearance in the Copa Room in two years, he brought along a team of five dancers headed by Lola Falana.

Davis was delighted to be back in the element he knew best and in the showroom where he had enjoyed twenty-nine previous engagements. “A performer realizes the first day here that he has everything going for him,” he said at the time, “the best bands, the best lighting. If people come to see you, they come to be entertained. It’s a definite plus factor for an entertainer.”

Present on opening night, Variety noted that Sammy gave “the audience a show to remember.” Thanks to Reprise, listeners at home were able to get a good sense of what transpired in Vegas that spring; producer Jimmy Bowen had recorded six shows during the run. The result was a two-album set called Sammy Davis, Jr.: That’s All!, which was released in January 1967.

As far as the material was concerned, Sammy Davis, Jr.: That’s All! didn’t contain many surprises.

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