I added: “I remember reading about the Motown gig, Pop. Sy said, ‘the world’s number one record producer, who’s black, has signed the world’s greatest entertainer, who’s also black.’”
“Two black cats made in heaven—I wish.”
Gordy told Sy he didn’t think Pop had the Motown sound. They got out of the deal, left Motown. He did a studio album with MGM, and in June 1972, “The Candy Man” became his signature song. For three weeks it placed #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 list.
“Pop, how did you ever find time for your hobbies, like your photo work or watching daytime soaps?” I asked my dad.
“There’s a lot of sit-around-and-wait time in Hollywood, you know. I always loved to take photos of the family, of friends. Jerry Lewis gave me my first important camera, my first 35 millimeter, during the Ciro’s period—early ’50s. He hooked me. Later on I would use a medium format camera. The nice thing about being an avid photographer is that nobody interrupts a man taking a picture to ask, ‘What’s that nigger doin’ here?’” Pop explained.
Joey Heatherton, Frank Sinatra, my father, and Edie Adams on a ’60s TV special.
Pop’s photo work was compiled in a book by Burt Boyar published in 2007, titled, Photo by Sammy Davis, Jr. In the book are rare photos of Robert Kennedy, Jackie Kennedy, and Martin Luther King. Intimate shots of close friends like Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Marilyn Monroe, Jerry Lewis, Nat King Cole, and even James Dean are in the book. There are pictures of his father dancing with Will Mastin and beautiful snapshots of the family, my white mom and her three black kids bouncing about. It is a lovely photographic representation of Pop’s life and his favorite off-stage-and-screen hobby.
Pop sure had style! Here he is performing in London in January 1973.
My dad, an elder statesman of the entertainment industry, in the early ’80s
CHAPTER 5
ELDER STATESMAN
My father looked gaunt, tired. “Want me to help you to bed, Pop? Maybe you can catch a General Hospital rerun,” I said.
“I loved being on that show,” Pop whispered. He was falling fast asleep—until Altovise’s dogs came flying out of the house, jumped all over him, and got tangled in his medical tubes.
Pop was livid, “I’m a superstar, you f’in dogs! See, Trace, no one pays me any attention!” We both laughed. “Don’t make me laugh, Trace Face!” I called the strong and loving Lessie Lee to help me with the dogs and to take Pop in.
“Pop, remember when you won that Daytime Emmy Award for One Life to Live? [In which he had a recurring role.],” I said as we climbed my father and his IV up to his bedroom.
“I was nominated, never won, that was 1980. But I loved that show, too. Also nominated but never won for The Cosby Show in 1987,” Pop said as we tucked him into bed and turned on the television.
Dad, Princess Grace, and Cary Grant in 1971
My father loved game shows, too. He appeared on Family Feud in 1979 on ABC. He made a cameo on Card Sharks in 1981 on NBC. He and Altovise also appeared as panelists on Tattletales in the 1970s.
Dad, Liza, and Frank doing promo for their “comeback” concert, 1989
Performing with two of his favorite people, Frank Sinatra and Liza Minnelli, in 1989
In the 1980s, Pop performed in the Cannonball Run movies and continued his stage and film work. But after his hip surgery in the late 1980s, my father started to slow down. He was last seen onstage with Uncle Frank and Liza Minnelli in The Ultimate Event. In 1989, my father made his final film, Tap, which was a tribute to the legends of the tap dancing era.
I sat with my father as he fell asleep with the television on full blast. I watched him sleep and thought about all the wonderful trips we had gone on together after his divorce from my mother. Monaco, in the south of France, was the most memorable.
Monaco was the most beautiful place my husband and I had ever seen. Pop’s rules were simple: “You and Guy get here, and I will take care of everything else.” We happily agreed.
Upon arrival we were whisked to Monte Carlo through a tiny winding road of countryside that unfolded into one word: stunning. In the Principality of Monaco, the houses were small yet grand, the Côte d’Azur spectacular and, of course, the Palace. It didn’t seem quite real. Someone lives there? Holy cow!
We arrived at the Hôtel de Paris. I had stayed in some ritzy hotels but this one took the cake. The awe-inspiring lobby with crystal chandeliers and marble colonnades spoke of majestic sovereignty.
Cannonball Run II: Burt Reynolds, Dean Martin, Shirley MacLaine, Dad, and Frank Sinatra