The sixties were swinging indeed when the Rat Pack was in town.
They are all in this book, as are other Rat Pack intrigues: Sinatra expelling Lawford or Davis for perceived slights, the raucous hotel parties at the Sands and elsewhere. So many stars from so many spheres were at table with the core of "the clan" (as the boys actually called themselves): Shirley MacLaine, Jackie Gleason, Bing Crosby, President Kennedy, maybe the mob. Dominis's hundreds of images are, today, something of an historical or sociological document. John Dominis was sent out on the Sinatra beat, and grew to know and appreciate the singer, an avocational photographer who eventually allowed Dominis into his world-the world of the Rat Pack. LIFE was there to document all of the fun and frolic. In Las Vegas, a city that really did never sleep, and in Hollywood, where they teamed up in matinee movies highlighted by the original Ocean's Eleven, they cut quite a swath through the '60s: a martini-fueled "adult" answer to the Beatles and all else that was happening. In Las Vegas, a city that really did never sleep, and in Hollywood, where they teamed up in matinee movies hig They weren't the original bad boys-Humphrey Bogart's Rat Pack of nocturnal revelers came before Frank Sinatra's-but they were the famous ones: Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Joey Bishop, Peter Lawford and a host of hangers-on and wannabes, male and female. He died months later.They weren't the original bad boys-Humphrey Bogart's Rat Pack of nocturnal revelers came before Frank Sinatra's-but they were the famous ones: Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Joey Bishop, Peter Lawford and a host of hangers-on and wannabes, male and female. Frail at 64, Davis still came up on stage for an impromptu, mind-blowing tap dance exhibition, ever the performer.
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At the film’s end, Davis is honored with a TV special celebrating his 60 years in show business. And he became revered by scores of performers. “I’ve Gotta Be Me” showcases Davis’s vast talents, but it also shines a light on his need for acceptance, his inability to curb indulgences, the groundbreaking aspects of his career and his hunger for applause.ĭavis eventually returned to the liberal fold. Which is likely because he wasn’t home much. “I’ve Gotta Be Me” is stuffed with archival footage and Davis interviews, as well as interviews with close friends (Novak, Jerry Lewis, Billy Crystal, Harry Belafonte), although there’s not much discussion of Davis’s wives (three) or home life. So how did he end up a tone deaf Richard Nixon supporter? That probably grew out of his support for the troops fighting in Vietnam, itself considered somewhat uncool at the time.
Which is about the time he took to marching for, and funding, the Civil Rights movement. Kennedy was elected president, Davis wasn’t invited to the inauguration. Davis had gotten to the top of the cool heap, but he was never fully integrated.
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In the early ’60s, he and the Rat Pack were making Las Vegas America’s playground.ĭavis by then had lost an eye in a car accident and converted to Judaism, and the Rat Pack act was full of jokes about the one-eyed Jewish Negro. In 1960, he married white Swedish-born actress May Britt.īut home life wasn’t for Davis.
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Supposedly a movie mogul threatened to have him killed unless he broke it off, which he did. After a stint in the Army, he worked his way up, appearing on (th e white) Eddie Cantor’s TV show, becoming pals with Frank Sinatra, constantly touring.ĭavis had a well-publicized affair with the white actress Kim Novak in 1957, when mixed race relations were fully taboo in Hollywood. Instead, Davis went on the road and really never came off it. He never went to school in an interview he says he has the writing skills of a second-grader. By the age of 7, he was singing in a movie with Ethel Waters. Davis began dancing professionally in a vaudeville act with his father and godfather at the age of 3. There was nothing less cool in 1972 than Richard Nixon.īut then Pollard reviews the incredible life that led up to that awkward moment. Pollard starts out his documentary “Sammy Davis Jr.: I’ve Gotta Be Me” with what was surely Davis’ most uncool moment - his hugging of Richard Nixon at a campaign rally in 1972. was a fan), he was the coolest of the cool. A charter member of the swinging Rat Pack in the early ’60s as well as a civil rights activist (Martin Luther King Jr. He could dance, he could sing, he could play instruments, he could act. was a lifelong sponge he absorbed technique and turned it into artistry.
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