When did Sammy first come to Las Vegas?
Sammy came there in the late 1940s with the Will Mastin Trio, which consisted of Sammy, his father and this old vaudevillian named Will Mastin. Sammy, like the earliest black entertainers in Las Vegas, had high hopes and wanted to be part of the scene. But he was rather crudely treated because of the racial walls of the days. So, he found it a tough town and he really didn't stick around very long.
But how, by the '60s, did he become the toast of the town?
Things had changed. His real genuine way in there was with the Rat Pack. But ever thereafter, he would come back to Las Vegas as a solo entertainer. Like much in Sammy's life, he would peer inside one door and not be invited in, and he would find a side way.
Why do you think audiences identified so strongly with Sammy?
Of course, he was so very giving. But he was also very intelligent about getting the audience to think of him as family. Here is something little: He rarely wanted to be introduced, he would just walk out on stage, and people would look up and there would be Sammy. You could always see him up close. He was far more humble than Dean Martin, and especially Frank Sinatra, and far more approachable. Of course, Sammy had a real understanding, too, of his star power.
What did Sammy bring to the Rat Pack?
He gave the Rat Pack energy, but he also gave it a certain social dynamic that it would not have had if he were not there. In 1960 to '61, we saw very few blacks on TV and working in integrated situations. Then, bam, right on the eve of the Civil Rights movement, there was Sammy Davis Jr. with the Rat Pack.
But how did Sammy handle all the politically incorrect racial humor thrown obsessively at him by the others in the Rat Pack?
Well, America was very immature at that time when it came to racial sensitivity. Sammy thought that, by going along with much of the joking, that he could make little, itty-bitty inroads into people's racial psyche.
One result was that Sammy was far less popular among blacks after the Civil Rights movement started. But though it was little known at the time, in your book, you document how dependent and grateful Dr. Martin Luther King was for Sammy's financial contributions. Why was it kept secret?
Sammy was one of the secret financial weapons of the Civil Rights movement. Sammy would often send money to Dr. King or pay for lawyers. But Sammy was very naïve as far as what he might have done, PR-wise, to help himself when it came to black folk and civil rights.