Sammy Davis Jr(37)

“I always thought the divorce was because Uncle Frank was divorcing Mia Farrow at the same time?” I joked.

“Ha. Trace, I loved your mom. Always will. In ’66, I even named a little recording company after her: MBD for May Britt Davis,” Pop said lovingly.

“I remember your mother announced to the Las Vegas press that we would do a trial separation after seven years of marriage. The press hounded me with questions. All I could tell them was ‘May told me she wanted a trial separation, and I must admit it comes as a big blow to me.’ I was hoping we could reconcile, but deep down I knew it was futile,” Pop said sadly.

Mom and Dad were very close. When Dad dragged the divorce on for months—his lawyers refusing to answer any calls—it was because he never wanted to divorce my mother. “I was hoping she would change her mind,” he always told us.

“I moved out and left her with you kids in the old Selznick estate for a spell. Later, I moved the family down the street to a house I bought your mother on Angelo Drive around Benedict Canyon Drive. I moved into this house, 1151 Summit Drive. I bought me a house on Harridge Drive at the top of Summit, too, you know,” Pop said.

“But we grew up in Lake Tahoe,” I said.

“We vacationed there every summer. Your mother loved Lake Tahoe, it reminded her of Sweden. By 1970, your mother felt it was important to move to a quiet place where you children could see me as much as possible. Your Mom chose to raise you there, knowing that—two times a year, for extended runs—I would do a show in Tahoe and two in Reno, in addition to trips to Vegas and vacations. I got myself one of those Harrah’s villas in Tahoe for a spell, but it was so quiet there by the lake. Do you remember how I hated that place?”

“Too peaceful for a city boy?” I chuckled.

“No joke. So I moved to the sixteenth floor of the Harrah’s hotel, the ‘Sammy Davis, Jr. Suite,’” Pop explained. “Your Mom was kind enough to let me move Lessie Lee into this house here on Summit Drive—so when you kids came down from Tahoe to visit, you would have a nanny. She said, I needed a nanny more than she did.” Pop chuckled. “I imagine I did.”

“Lessie Lee loves it here because she has her own quarters,” I said.

“Uh-huh,” Pop impersonated Lessie Lee. We both laughed.

“I remember Lessie Lee flew everywhere with us on vacations. If I was scared she would lay in bed with me. What a gem,” I added. “You know, Pop, Mom never said a bad word about you after the divorce.”

In a three-minute hearing on December 19, 1968, Mom got an uncontested divorce in Santa Monica Superior Court.” She told Judge Ritterband, “I asked my husband to stay home but he never could because of his hectic schedule. There was no family life to speak of.” She was awarded custody of the children. I was seven; Mark, eight; and Jeff, four.

Over the years Pop recounted to me and in many published interviews, that it took him years to do a 360, to watch his life change, come around and realize, “Boy, I’ll never make that mistake again.” When my parents were married and my brothers and I were young, Dad was one of the most famous and in-demand entertainers in the world. We didn’t stand a chance. At that time in his life, he just felt this intense desire to get out there and be the best. Being the best had always been his best weapon to fight ignorance and intolerance. He had to keep going.



Dame Margot Fontayn hands Pop a mini statue (of himself!) as a thank you from the Royal Academy of dancing in 1968.





My father in his element, singing and dancing. He gave everything in him to each performance.

“See, if I walked on the stage,” Pop told me, “I could fight the prejudice in everyone’s mind—that was my thinking. Boy, I’ll stay out here till I get ya. In Vegas, I would do a two-and-a-half-hour show and think nothing of it. Folks in the audience were looking at their watches. The manager would tell me, they don’t come to see you; they come to gamble, so get off the stage! Ha! I didn’t even realize the time passing. I had captured my audience and gained their respect. Then, after the show, I still felt the need to keep the audience—have a big party, have them around me.”

“By the late ’80s, everything changed. My great joy in life was to go home, have Altovise fix me a little something, warm up some soup or something in the kitchen, lie with my feet up, grab my clicker, and talk back to the television. Click, click, click. Now that is joy. Pure joy!” Pop laughed.

Whenever Dad came to Tahoe or Reno for work, Mom was there. She would go with friends to see my father’s show. Dad frequently hung around our house with good friends—the Apocotos’ and Louise Hames. Mom looked forward to my father coming and so did we. During each visit, Mom would go off and have dinner alone with Dad. I caught a glimpse once backstage in the dressing room and my father had his hand on Mom’s cheek. I will never forget the look he gave her. Everyone should have someone look at them like that—just once. Although she had many offers, Mom did not remarry for twenty years after the divorce and three years after my father’s death.