Yes I Can: The Story of Sammy Davis, Jr.

by Davis, Sammy

  “No. The ceremony is ours and we’ll keep it that way. When it’s over, we’ll invite them in, have a round of champagne, answer some questions and let them take a few pictures.” I put my hand on hers. “Darling, weighing the good against the bad, thank God that the people are enough interested in me so there’s even a question of should we let the press in.”

  Frank took the mike and waited for all the guys to be quiet. “Okay … now you’ve all come to hear some dirty words and to say a little kaddish for one of our boys. You’re all chums who respect and love him—otherwise you’d be out in the parking lot. Now, this first fella who’s going to sing for you only dumped the next President of the United States to be here. You can’t show more friendship than that!” Peter got up and did a duet with Tony Curtis and for half an hour they and the others kidded me mercilessly. Milton Berle sauntered in dressed like May on the Blue Angel posters with the black net stockings, the strapless top and high heels plus a fantastic blonde wig and make-up job.

  Frank took the mike again. “Well, nobody’s going to follow that, so we’ll close the evening by letting our buddy know how we really feel about him. Come on up here, Sam.”

  He put his arm around my shoulder and sang, “Goodbye, Sammy … goodbye, Sammy …” The guys all joined him, “Goodbye, Sammy … we’re sorry to see you go …” They were smiling at me, standing in a group, in strength, singing to me, as much as saying, “Here we are. We’re your buddies and we’re behind you.” I’d planned some bits for this moment, some sharp lines—but I didn’t feel sharp, I just felt grateful. “I’m sorry if I’m getting a little sickening. I just never knew that so many guys gave a damn about me … thank you very much.”

  Frank followed me out of the room to an empty corner table and sat with me while I pulled myself together. “Charley, about our deal for Soldiers Three. I’m changing it so instead of the straight hundred and a quarter in salary you’ll be getting $75,000 in cash and seven per cent of the profits. After a while that seven per cent piece should be worth over a quarter of a million. You can sell it for a capital gain. You’re going to have a wife and you want kids and you’ve got to build something for them. To hell with your own self; you can’t let them down, Charley.”

  He stood up and smiled, “I’ll go see if there’s any drunks to throw out.”

  I dressed slowly, then drove leisurely across to Sunset Boulevard. There was no final, sentimental reflection on my bachelor days, no nostalgic last-looks. I felt only relief at leaving them behind.

  People were leaning out of windows all the way up the hill, with telescopic lenses trained on my house, and hundreds of them were crowded onto the porches of the houses above us as if they’d bought tickets for a ball game. Reporters and newsreel men clustered in front of the door. Photographers were perched in trees to get a free line of sight to the doorway. I waved and spoke to the press guys for a minute, then slipped past them into the house.

  I walked down the outside stairs and into the Playhouse and as I saw the guys waiting there a wave of sentiment swept through me. Their presence was like a gathering of the good things I’d acquired along the way.

  Frank was completely in character, a cigarette in one hand, a glass in the other, intense, yet with a casual air in the way he punctuated his sentences with the familiar Sinatra hand gesture. I thought of him at the theater in Detroit: “Hi’ya, my name’s Frank.” I watched him, thinking what it took for him to be my best man. It’s easy enough for others who sit in a relatively obscure corner of fame to say, “It’s only right for him to be there, he’s your friend, isn’t he? He should be there!” But it’s not that simple. He’s also a man who commands the absolute top money in everything he does, and he depends on the hater as well as the liberal to keep him in that position. With all his independence, still he knows where it comes from, and how quickly a career can go down the drain on the whim of the public. For him to publicly say, “This is my friend and in your ear if you don’t like it,” means putting in jeopardy everything that he’d lost once and regained and must fight to hold onto, not only for himself but for his family. It was not a minor thing for Frank to be my best man, nor for Peter and Pat, the President’s sister and brother-in-law to be in the wedding party.

  One by one my beginnings with each of these men flashed before me, and as I remembered things that had passed I knew that it had all contributed toward bringing me to this day, and even the bad moments were marked paid-in-full.

  Rudy called on the intercom. “They’re ready to start the ceremony.”

  I took my place in the living room under the canopy of flowers which had been built in front of the wall of windows. Frank was at my side. Peter was next to him. Mama and my father and Will—all the “family” were gathered around us.

  May appeared from the next room with her father, walking toward me. She was every fine and lovely, precious thing that God ever put into a woman. Her father kissed her and smiled at me as I stepped forward. She put her arm in mine, we turned, and the rabbi began the ceremony.

  “Almighty God, supremely blessed, supreme in might and glory, guide and bless this groom and his bride.

  “Sammy and May, you are standing in front of me to join your lives even as your hands are joined together, and custom dictates that I, as your rabbi, give you some advice.

  “Your marriage is something more than just the marriage of two people in love, and it is most certainly that or I have never seen two people in love in twenty years of the ministry. But, as you come together as man and wife something more is involved. You are people without prejudice. You represent the value of the society that many of us dream about but, I suspect, hesitate to enter. As such, because you are normal in an abnormal society—society will treat you as sick. To be healthy among the sick is to be treated as sick as if the others were healthy.

  “Through no fault of your own except your love, because both of you are greater than the pettinesses that divide men, you become not simply a symbol of marriage, but because you both have accepted Judaism equally as your own you become representatives of Judaism because you are in the public eye; you are part of that from which the public gets its response and its value systems—either by acting along with or reacting to.

  “Also, because of the circumstances of your love, there is a symbolic representation to the fact that you are of different racial stocks originally and that now you merge your love as in a sense all mankind is merging its genes and chromosomes to the oneness which is inevitable. It’s not really fair that your love should have so much imposed upon it but it must be a mark of the greatness of your love to know that you must not only continue to love each other because you do love each other, but because circumstances beyond control, and all circumstances involved in real love are beyond control, make you representatives of Judaism and marriage to a world that watches with curiosity, with eagerness, almost with a will to see failure rather than success.

  “An additional pressure is on you in knowing that because of the different racial backgrounds you are a symbol, too, of the success that must come from such unions. If you are true to the story of your love then your social role in our times will be an important one. Important for the future of the amity of races.

  “What I pray for you, May, and for you, Sammy, is the strength that you may fulfill either the public role or the private role, because if you can do either you will be doing both. If you are true to that which you have called upon yourselves or which has been thrust upon you by society, then your love will be a love story to join the immortal love stories of the ages.

  “May the blessings of the patriarchs and the prophets, may the blessings of God Almighty be upon you and may you be worthy, my dear friends, of an historic trust and a great love.

  “Standing here in the presence of God the guardian of the home, and in the hearing of these the witnesses and your dear ones, answer the question which I now put to you. Do you, Sammy, of your own free will and consent, take this woman, May, to
be your lawful wife? Do you promise to love, honor and cherish her throughout your life?”

  “I do.”

  “Do you, May, of your own free will and consent, take this man, Sammy, to be your lawful husband?”

  “I do.”

  “Praised be Thou, oh Lord our God, who has blessed these children of Israel with holy matrimony. And now I take in my hands the cup of wine and pronounce over it the blessing of our people …

  “Sammy, take this cup, offer a sip first to your bride and then partake of it yourself.

  “As together you have shared this cup of wine so may your lives be entwined, may you always be aware of the Presence Divine, may you always address each other and each other alone, Thou art mine.’

  “This cup of wine which you have shared is a symbol of life’s twin cups. One is a cup of joy, the other is a cup of sorrow. Sammy and May, when you share together the cup of sorrow, because you are two become one may your sorrows be cut in half, and please God, through the magic of a good marriage when you share together the cup of joy, because you are two become one may your joys become doubled.

  “Now take this ring, a symbol of holy wedlock, and place it on the finger of your bride. Help him, May, like a good wife. Face her, Sammy, and repeat after me: ‘Be thou made holy unto me by this ring as my wife in accordance with the laws of Moses and the faith of Israel.’

  “May, take this ring and place it upon Sammy’s hand. Face him and repeat after me: ‘Be thou made holy unto me by this ring as my husband in accordance with the laws of Moses and the faith of Israel.’

  “Now, Sammy, with your foot break the glass which I have wrapped in cloth and placed on the floor. It is symbolic of the destruction of the temple and of the sorrows of Israel. By tradition, the breaking of the glass in the midst of your great happiness serves to remind the bridal couple of the sorrows of life and of your responsibilities.

  “Praised be Thou, oh Lord, who has blessed these children of Israel and all mankind with the covenant of holy wedlock beneath the canopy of marriage.

  “And now, you have said the words, you have performed the rites which bind your lives together, the one to the other. Therefore by the power vested in me under the laws of the State of California, with the blessings and good wishes of our mutual friend, Doctor Max Nussbaum who so wanted to be with you today, I, Rabbi William Kramer, as a rabbi, preacher, and teacher of Israel, do declare you the members of my congregation in Temple Israel to be groom and bride, and I now pronounce you man and wife and ask that you bow your heads for the blessing.

  “May the Lord bless you and keep you, may the Lord make the light of His countenance shine upon you and be gracious unto you. May God grant that you find within your hearts love, that you find in your fulfillment toward each other, peace. May your marriage prosper in a world where the nations are at peace and where peace and amity come among all groups of mankind.”

  The street looked normal again, the house was quiet and May was propped up in bed when I returned from the reception. She pressed the remote control button on the television set, cutting off the sound. “I’ve been watching the news reports. We’ve been on all of them.”

  “How are you feeling?”

  “I’m feeling rotten that I couldn’t go to my own wedding reception. When I think of all the silly parties I went to in the last year …”

  “Look, it was a rough break but that’s it.” I sat on the bed beside her and told her all about it. “There was an air of happiness that you could almost hold in your hand. I’d figured I’d have a rough time getting away, but even people I hadn’t seen in a year, people who’d flown across the country, who’d come all the way from London, from South America, were telling me, ‘Go home to your wife. That’s where you belong. You don’t have to sit with us.’ It was beautiful.”

  There were tears in her eyes. “Poor Sharlie Brown had to go alone to his own wedding party.”

  I held her in my arms. “ ‘Alone’ is a word I’ve lived with since I went into the army, for over fifteen years it was an inescapable state of mind, but it has no claim on me any more. Do you know what I mean?”

  Her eyes were closed and she was smiling. “I think so. But tell me anyway.”

  35

  “Do you think I’ll need this dress?” She was holding an orange wool dress against her, waiting for an opinion.

  I put down the camera I’d been cleaning. “Darling, I’ll make a deal with you: you won’t ask what clothes you should wear and I won’t ask what numbers I should sing.”

  “But you’re my husband. What if you don’t like something?”

  “Your clothes didn’t stop me from falling in love with you, did they? Now, I believe in togetherness but just ‘cause we’re married doesn’t mean we should throw away that great thing of when we’re getting dressed to go out and I don’t know what you’re wearing and all of a sudden you appear and it’s like ‘Yeah.’ Isn’t that more exciting than if we stand around and brush our teeth together till there aren’t any surprises any more? Let’s keep a little of the mystery swinging for us.” She nodded begrudgingly and went over to the suitcase and pushed the clothes down, testing for space. She went back to the closet, got another dress, hid it under her robe and did a whole comedy number of sneaking it past me. I gave her a round of applause and turned back to my camera, but out of the corner of my eye I saw her racing back and forth between the closet and the suitcase like a madman, dropping dresses into it like she was in a potato race.

  I jumped up. “You’ve got to be joking. We’re not moving there, we’re just visiting!”

  I took her by the arm and led her to the bed. “What you wear in San Francisco isn’t nearly as important as the fact that you’re still not a hundred per cent and you’re knocking yourself out. Now, we’ve only got a few hours before the plane and I think you should get some rest.” I drew the blinds. As I was tucking her in, the phone rang. I kissed her on the forehead. “I’ll take it in the other room. Sweet dreams.”

  Rudy had his hand over the mouthpiece. “It’s the manager of the Geary Theater in San Francisco.”

  “Mr. Davis, I don’t mean to alarm you but you have the right to know that in the last few days we’ve had a number of bomb threats and threats against your life. It’s probably just cranks, nevertheless the police are rounding up every known arsonist and bomber in the city. As for yourself, we’ve arranged for complete protection at the theater….”

  When I hung up Rudy asked, “Trouble?”

  I nodded. “Make me a drink will you please, baby?”

  Obviously there could be no more hoping that the commotion at the Hartford was merely a flurry before the wedding. This was the tipoff that they’d be waiting for me all across the country, that it was going to be toe to toe all the way.

  I stared into the glass, at the water the ice cubes had become. I opened the bedroom door quietly. The blankets were covering all but the top of her head. I looked at her suitcase packed and ready to go.

  She sat up. “I’m too excited to sleep.”

  I closed the door and sat on the edge of the bed. “Darling …” She stopped smiling, sensing something serious. I forced the words out. “I’m sorry, but you can’t come to San Francisco.”

  “You don’t mean because of the flu?”

  I shook my head and she listened without interrupting as I explained what was going on. “We can say it’s wrong, it’s lousy, but that’s not going to change it. In the days of chivalry and King Arthur, or the days of the Romans they’d accuse a guy of something and they’d have a trial by ordeal: they’d say ‘We’ll put him in with a hungry lion,’ and if he survived he was set free. It’s going to be something like that with us. The first year will be the tough one. If we can survive that then I think we’ll have it made.”

  “Do you really believe it will take a whole year before they’ll leave us alone?”

  “I don’t know. I’m sure that in some cities we’ll have no trouble at all, in others we’ll ha
ve to be careful. But I do know that until they get off our backs I have to protect what I hold dear. We’ll have to adopt a routine, a strict procedure that we’ll follow until the pressure is off. You will not arrive in any city with me. I’ll get there first and get a feeling of what’s up, the atmosphere. If it looks safe I’ll wait a few days to be sure and then I’ll be on the phone telling you to grab the first plane.”

  “Okay.”

  “Meanwhile, I’ve hired someone who’ll move in and stay here while I’m gone. Naturally, Rudy’ll be here, too, but it won’t hurt to have another man around the house.”

  “A guard?”

  “He’s a private detective.”

  “Do you think … do I really need that?”

  “Frankly, no. By the same token I don’t expect the house to burn down but I carry fire insurance against the remote chance that it might.”

  “That’s true.”

  “And if by being here he does nothing else but ease your mind, it’s worth it. We’ll take every precaution and when it turns out we didn’t need them then crazy, we spent a little money and effort for a lot of peace of mind.” I looked at my watch. “I’ll go downstairs and say good-bye to Mama.” I stopped at the door and walked back to her. “May? Thank you for not making a fuss over something I can’t change.” I took her hand in mine. “I want you to know how sorry I am about all this and how much I appreciate you.”

  She smiled, embarrassed, “Do you think I’m marvelous?”

  I gave her a look. “I think you know how to take a simple compliment and milk it into a three-act play. Let’s face it: I’m going to San Francisco, not Australia by paddle boat.”

  When I got back to the bedroom she was dressed in slacks and a sweater. “I’ll go with you to the airport.”

  “No. Let’s not take any unnecessary chances. Get your rest so that when I call and tell you the coast is clear, you don’t have to say I’m back in bed with the flu. We’ll say good-bye here.”