Sammy Davis Jr(18)

Dad had many supporters in Hollywood after his comeback. Here he is with James Cagney.



With Milton Berle

As my father convalesced, Frank Sinatra and others came by to console him. Flowers and cards from fans poured in. Dad’s friend, actor Jeff Chandler, offered one of his own eyes if it would keep Pop able to perform. But medically, there was nothing to be done. Pop would have to wear an eye patch for at least six months and later be fit with an artificial eye that he would wear from then on. As an entertainer, my father would have to master a balancing act with one eye, so as not to dance right off the stage.



Pop joining the party after a performance with the Will Mastin Trio.

As my father recovered from the removal of his left eye at the Community Hospital of San Bernardino back in 1954, he did a lot of deep and painful self-analysis about his rise to stardom. He examined his belief systems, his needs, desires, and the undercurrent of his own human spirit.



With Jack Carter in Mr. Wonderful, Dad’s first Broadway show



My father and Eartha Kitt in Anna Lucasta, 1958


He dwelled on the fact that the only time he did not wear his mezuzah from Eddie Cantor was the night of the car accident. It turns out it had fallen behind the hotel bed before he left for the drive to Los Angeles. He didn’t even realize at the time that a mezuzah was not traditionally worn around the neck, but the self-scrutiny of not wearing his “good luck charm” was enough to trigger my father to meet with a rabbi in the hospital.

My father’s family was Baptist and until the accident he had not paid religion much thought. As my father spoke with the rabbi, he was enlightened by the abundance of spiritual and historical parallels between his own embattled identity as an African American and the oppression of the Jews. He learned that Judaism taught justice for everyone, particularly those who had been oppressed for centuries. It gave Pop an exhale of “I get this, I am a part of this.”

A year later, in one of the first satellite interviews on the Edward R. Murrow Show, Pop said that the accident made him a better person, that it was the best thing that ever happened to him. Maybe an odd thing to say, but as a rising entertainer, doors opened up for him, and he got wrapped up in himself prior to the accident. He came to the realization that there were more important things than stardom—essential fellow goodness, generosity, kindness. His friends rallied around him and supported him through his recovery.

In the hospital, from his conversations and readings with the rabbi, Dad discovered more similarities that Jewish and black cultures both faced. Dad learned that in the early twentieth century, Jewish publications spoke of violence against blacks, and often compared the black racism in the South to pogroms, the violent mob attacks against Jews.

Dad also discovered that Jews played a major role in the founding of the NAACP in 1909. Dad learned that leaders in the American Jewish community used their economic resources, time, and energy to fight for black civil rights. The more he read, the deeper his conviction became to become Jewish.

Dad made his final decision to convert to Judaism after the hospital rabbi gave him Paul Johnson’s A History of the Jews to read. One passage hit home with Pop: “The Jews would not die. Three centuries of prophetic teaching had given them an unwavering spirit of resignation and had created in them a will to live which no disaster could crush.”





Dad singing his heart out in Porgy and Bess, 1959


My father never allowed himself to stay in a gloomy reality for long, no dark clouds over his head. Pop recovered from the 1954 car crash at Frank’s place in Palm Springs. Frank drove seventy miles to bring my father to his home to recuperate and get his stride back. Frank was determined not to let his handicap stop him from being a star. Pop’s talent was once again his weapon, the only way out of this madness. He wore his eye patch for at least six months and almost fell off the stage a few times, but eventually learned to keep his balance again as he danced. He even appeared on What’s My Line? wearing the patch.

He was fitted with an artificial eye and rolled on to become a bona fide star. Pop always combatted horror with humor, and continued to joke onstage about being the only “black, Puerto Rican, one-eyed Jewish Entertainer” in the world.

In 1954, the same year as the accident, Pop sung the title track for the Universal Pictures film Six Bridges to Cross. In April 1955, my father’s first LP, Starring Sammy Davis, Jr. rose to #1 on the charts.

Mr. Wonderful was a musical comedy written specifically to showcase my father’s talents as a Las Vegas nightclub entertainer. The story focused on the entertainer Charlie Welch’s struggles in the industry. The cast brought together the Will Mastin Trio, and Sammy recorded a sixteen-track vocal jazz album highlighting the staged play.