Sammy Davis Jr(15)

He was a guest on Eddie Cantor’s The Colgate Comedy Hour and Ed Sullivan’s Toast of the Town. Eddie Cantor and Pop were old friends and on the air Cantor had no qualms about showing off their friendship by hugging him and wiping my father’s brow with his own handkerchief. NBC protested the broadcast and threatened to pull their backing from the show. Cantor reacted by booking Pop for the rest of the season. God bless him.



The Mastin Trio, led by my father.



The Mastin Trio together in Mr. Wonderful on Broadway, 1956



The Mastin Trio marquee at the Apollo in New York, 1954


By September 1954, Pop had found his singing voice thanks to a new recording contract with Decca Records, and his first single, “Hey There” climbed to #1 on the Cashbox record charts. The Trio headlined to rave reviews at the Copacabana in New York City the same year. Table by table at the Copa, the audience stood, clapped, roared, and demanded encores. It brought my grandpa, Uncle Will, and my father to tears right on the stage. On closing night, Pop gave the staff at the Copa gold watches engraved: THANKS, SAMMY DAVIS, JR. Pop was a bona fide class act.

The following day, the Trio, Mama, Morty, and Pop’s entourage all headed to Hollywood to rent a house—no easy task given the racial tension of the day. No one wanted “niggers” as neighbors, even if they were superstars.

When the crew arrived in Los Angeles after their success at the Copa, my grandfather and Uncle Will bought my father a brand new Cadillac convertible to cruise around the Hollywood Strip in.

As tacky as it sounds, yes, the car had “SD Jr.” painted on the door. My father told me and recounted in his autobiography, Yes I Can, that he would never forget the first time they all rode in that new Cadillac.

Pop was smoking like a chimney, filling up the ashtray, and said to his father and Uncle Will, “Hey, guys, what do we do when this thing gets filled up?” His father smiled and said, “Son, we throws this car away and gets us a new one!” Uncle Will laughed and roared, “You boys keep up those old jokes and we’ll be back riding in the back of the bus!”

After more than twenty years of performing, Pop was becoming a superstar.

Twenty-five or so years later, he was a superstar who was not going in a bedpan.

“God, I hate it here . . . ,” Dad muttered as the nurse assisted him back into his hospital bed.

Pop always detested hospitals. It started from his 1954 nearly fatal car accident that took his left eye. During the mid-1970s, Pop’s addictive lifestyle gave him liver and kidney trouble that sent him to the hospital for several months. Uncle Frank cut off his friendship with Dad for a short period to force him to clean up his act. Dad turned to cooking to fight his own addictions, and it worked. My father became a gourmet cook.

In 1974, Pop suffered a heart attack, but recovered and continued his relentless work pace. From 1975 to 1977, Pop hosted the television variety show Sammy and Company, performed in the Broadway musical Stop the World—I Want to Get Off, cut more singles, and continued to perform in casinos and nightclubs across the nation. Pop was back in the hospital in 1985, when he had reconstructive hip surgery (so he could dance again).

The hip recovery coincided with his birthday in December 1985, and the only thing that cheered Pop up was a letter from the President of the United States himself, Ronald Reagan. It read:





Eventually the Will Mastin Trio became the “Will Mastin Trio—Starring Sammy Davis, Jr.”


Dear Sammy,


Nancy and I understand that Altovise has planned a wonderful surprise birthday party for you. We send our warmest congratulations and our special hope that you are well along the road to recovery from your recent surgery.

If this occasion brings some reflection on your part you should have a fine time musing over the fullness of your life. From childhood on you have been a dynamic force in the entertainment industry. Whether it be singing, dancing or acting, you have done it with rare talent and dazzling energy. You have given audiences some of the finest performances they have ever seen. So, when you think about your accomplishments, don’t forget all those fans—including Nancy and me—who are captivated and delighted by “Mr. Entertainment.”

Happy birthday, Sammy, and may God bless and keep you.

Sincerely,

Ronald Reagan


Now here he was back at Cedars-Sinai, in the hospital—with carcinoma growing behind his vocal cords. Pop was beyond ready to go home.

“Just think of it this way, Pop. Hospitals are one place where laziness is rewarded,” I said.

“I was always lousy at being lazy . . . ,” Pop replied.

“So your ex-wives claim.” I chuckled.