Sammy Davis Jr. Me And My Shadow - Softcover

Arthur Silber Jr.

9780965567558: Sammy Davis Jr. Me And My Shadow

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0965567559 ISBN 13: 9780965567558

Publisher: Samart Enterprises, 2003

Arthur Silber Jr., Sammy's best friend relives the twenty-two years of their intimate journey together. Experience the glamour and the glitz, the tears and heartbreak of those times. Arthur is there to report on the real story of the devastating auto accident that cost him his eye, Sammy's suicide attempts, his affair with Kim Novak, his close relationship with Eddie Cantor, breaking the color barrier in Miami, inside stories of the Rat Pack and of course Sammy and May Britt. There's no living person who knows more about Sammy Davis Jr. than Arthur Silber Jr. Silber's book is a must read for every Sammy Davis Jr. fan.

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About the Author:

My parents spent all of their lives in show business. My father started out as a song and dance man in vaudeville and later became one of the most well known and respected talent agents and managers in the business. He was president of the Theatrical Agents Association for t1welve years and managed such stars as William Boyd (Hopalong Cassidy), Martha Raye, Ann Miller, Nat King Cole, Mary Martin, Dorothy Dandridge and her sister Ruby, and Sammy Davis Jr., just to name a few. My mother was a world famous dancer who ended her professional dancing career in Seattle, Washington. There, she owned her own dance studio and among her students were Gypsy Rose Lee and her sister. Mother later moved to Hollywood where she met my father and worked in motion pictures for thirty-five years. I was an only child who traveled constantly with my father. When I was fourteen years old, traveling with Dad in Hawaii, I met Sammy Davis Jr. and we became lifelong friends. In high school! I studied aeronautical engineering and stage crew. At Los Angeles City College I took the first television production course ever offered. At seventeen I enlisted in the U.S. Naval Air Reserve and was a plane captain (now known as flight engineer), for eleven years. My first big professional break came when I was twenty and Sammy Davis Jr. hired me as his personal assistant and lighting director, a position I remained in for over twenty-two years. It would be impossible to measure everything I learned from Sammy about show business. He was the consummate professional, a genius at his craft. During that time we became business partners and formed Samart Enterprises, which I still own to this day. Some of the highlights of my years with Sammy were when I staged and produced his portions of three Royal Command Performances. The first was for Queen Elizabeth in London 1960. Then, in 1961 I staged and produced Sammy's portion of Princess Grace Rainier Red Cross Gala in Monaco for their Royal Family, and finally, a performance for England�s Queen Mother. Over the years I produced and co-produced many of Sammy's shows including England�s Best TV Show of the year, 1961, Sammy Meets The British, and the following year Sammy Meets Girls. For eleven years I was company manager, production manager and lighting director for the Lettermen during the height of their popularity. Since leaving the Lettermen twenty-two years ago I have been company manager, production manager and lighting designer and director for Vikki Carr. A few of the highlights of my years with Vikki have been as production design and lighting director of an NBC special, A Very Special Evening With Vikki Carr (! that won the IRIS Award in 1979), the UNICEF All Children Show in Vienna, Austria and last, but certainly not least, production design of her shows for Presidents Jerry Ford, Jimmy Carter and a special show for President Reagan. At the same time I have worked in one or more of these capacities for Bob Hope, Bill Cosby, Charo, Debbie Reynolds, Sammy Davis Jr., Danny Thomas, and Marco Antonio Muniz (known as the Bing Crosby of Mexico), to name a few. To date I continue to work for Vikki Carr as well as some of the biggest and most famous Mariachi groups in the world, including Mariachi Sol de Mexico, Mariachi Reyna de Los Angeles, Mariachi Cobre, and Mariachi Vargas. Writing and recording my Christmas stories has been a dream of mine for long time. In addition, I have written two cookbooks, Grandma's Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner & Things and Grandma�s Kitchen Cooking. I am now ready to publish a biographical memoir of my years with Sammy called, Sammy Davis Jr. Me and My Shadow.! Planned for the future is another book with highlights and anecdotes from the numerous stars I have worked with during my fifty years in show business. Although my writing experience is somewhat limited I did create (among other things), the story for television Seven Saddles From Secoro, created the story for television Legends of

From Publishers Weekly:

According to Silber, Davis was one of the greatest entertainers the world has ever seen. Perhaps this claim is true, but readers would never know why from this amateurishly written memoir. Silber, who spent 20 years as Davis's personal agent, offers a reminiscence that tells us much more about Silber than Davis. From the late 1940s almost until Davis's death, Silber shepherded the entertainer through the vicissitudes of the show business world. During his early travels with Davis, Silber sees the ugly face of racism and grows incensed over the practice of prejudice in the South and other places that consigned Davis to second-rate hotels and derogatory treatment in spite of his star status. Silber devotes a disproportionate amount of space to boastful discussions of his sexual exploits, giving the impression that opportunities for sex with innumerable women was the major reason he enjoyed being associated with Davis. Silber ranges briefly over Davis's relationship with Kim Novak, his interracial marriage to May Britt (which made Davis a target of vicious attacks by the Nazi Party in America) and his relationship with the Rat Pack. Silber's ragged memoir reports one event after another in such breathless fashion that it provides a pastiche more appropriate to a scrapbook than a memoir. Moreover, the book lacks any connective tissue for the discrete stories of his and Davis's escapades, which then lack any particular significance or temporal context. 250 photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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