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BOOK REVIEW: THE SAMMY DAVIS, JR. READER
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The Sammy Davis, Jr. Reader (Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 2001) Perhaps I'm not the best person to review this book (that compiles dozens of articles, book excerpts, facts and fictions about the great SDJ) because as a Sammy obsessive I own far too much of the material compiled here. But if for some reason you don't have every Ebony with a Sammy interview, or Oriana Fallaci's book where she keeps telling Sammy how ugly he is, or a healthy collection of porn starlet memoirs that feature Sammy sex tales, then run, don't tap, to the bookstore to grab this amazing tome.
Gerald Early has done a remarkable job crafting a complicated portrait of a difficult, convoluted, contradictory icon. In addition to editing this book, Professor Early contributes a piece, expanding upon his stellar liner notes that appeared in the Sammy box set by adding extensive endnotes that reveal how much scholarship and investment have been allocated to this project.
I've always had a hard time knowing what to do with Sammy's autobiographies. They are sort of like the Bible; you don't believe that most of the stuff actually happened the way it's written up, but you have faith that it's all in there for a reason. In a notable note Early takes this skeptical worship to the next level, connecting the dots of Sammy's various versions of the story of an army officer introducing him to the joys of reading. By pointing out inconsistencies (sometimes the man is white, sometimes the man is Black, depending on the interviewer) Early murkys an important piece of Sammaphilia, but he introduces new ways of thinking about Sammy's self-mythology.
In addition to his essay, Early introduces each section (one compiles interviews and autobiography, one deals with press coverage, one deals with the Rat Pack, etc.) and the fact that he can bring more clarity to pieces that stand so well on their own is impressive. To be more specific, they stand on their own by being utterly fascinating, not by making sense, but just as Sammy lived for excess, the real way to get a portrait of this bizarre, amazing man is to read TOO MUCH about him. Every inconsistency (regarding race, family, drugs, fame, and everything else) and every boast that sounds like a cry-for-help coexists in the classy chaos that was Sammy's life. America in the last couple of centuries has loved its stars too much, and Sammy is our ultimate star; a man blessed and cursed with remarkable talent and even more remarkable insecurities that make him beg the audience to love him more than they can.
The centerpiece of the book is the intense Playboy interview he did with Alex Haley in 1966. Fatigued from his insane schedule, Sammy is groggy enough to let his guard down, as he rages at the world. It's one of the most telling pieces ever done on Mr. Entertainment (I understand Early really had to work to get this piece, it was worth whatever he paid). Get this book and you won't need to track down the back issueŠthough you miss out on the "Girls Of Tahiti" pictorial. I loved re-reading the pieces I've read before, and I should also mention that the things I'd never seen (Sammy ragging on a record he hates in Down Beat, Sammy telling People Magazine about a gay experience in the army, and a nice series of heated volleys between Sammy and Satchmo supporters when Davis took Louis Armstrong to task for playing in front of segregated audiences). Most importantly, I appreciate being able to read this in one handsome volume. For a book that is overstuffed with content and focused on obscene excess, this thing is, amazingly, just right.