VICE: Sammy Davis Jr.’s Relationship With Kim Novak Sparked Threats, Rumors and an Alleged Kidnapping
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Sammy Davis Jr.
Samuel George Davis Jr. was an American singer, actor, comedian and dancer. Known as "Mr. Entertainment" and "Mister Show Business", Davis was regarded as one of the most popular entertainers of the 20th century and as a black entertainer, he helped to break racial barriers in several venues, including nightclubs, music, film and television.
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entertainment · American singer and actor (1925–1990) · television actor · film actor · autobiographer · jazz musician · stage actor · television presenter · singer · actor · dancer · comedian · also Sammy Davis Jr., Samuel George Davis Jr., Jr.
Born 8 December 1925 · Died 16 May 1990 · Q297816
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2026· 2 entries
Yahoo: Sammy Davis Jr. at Home: 7 Photos of “Mister Show Business” Off Duty
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2025· 2 entries
Yahoo: Sammy Davis Jr.'s Friends Celebrate the Barrier-Breaking Entertainer, 100 Years After His Birth: 'A Light You Couldn't Look Away From' (Exclusive)
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BroadwayWorld: Sammy Davis Jr. Tribute Show Returns to D.C. for One-Night-Only Performance at Sid Gold's
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2024· 1 entry
Released album “Essential Classics, Vol. 288: Sammy Davis Jr.”.
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2022· 1 entry
Released album “The Singles Collection 1949-62”.
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2021· 1 entry
Released album “Simply… Mister Wonderful!”.
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2019· 1 entry
That Davis was a devil worshipper who personally told him that "Satan is as powerful as God
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2017· 2 entries
Released album “The Rat Pack”.
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Davis was inducted into the National Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame
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2016· 1 entry
Released album “I’ve Gotta Be Me: The Very Best of Sammy Davis Jr.”.
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2015· 2 entries
Released album “The Very Best Of”.
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Released album “Best of the Rat Pack”.
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2013· 1 entry
Released album “Coleção Folha grandes vozes, Volume 25: Sammy Davis Jr.”.
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2011· 1 entry
Released album “New York, New York”.
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2009· 1 entry
Their son Manny was named executor of the estate and majority-rights holder of his intellectual property
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2008· 3 entries
Released album “American Voices & Crooners”.
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Released album “The Rat Pack (The Big Three)”.
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By Keith Powell in an episode of 30 Rock titled "Subway Hero"
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2007· 1 entry
Released album “The World of Sammy Davis Jr.”.
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2006· 3 entries
Released album “The Definitive Collection”.
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Released album “The Collection”.
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Released album “An Evening With the Rat Pack”.
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2005· 3 entries
Released album “Where Is Love?”.
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Released album “Hey! Won’t You Play?”.
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Released album “Boy Meets Girl / Porgy and Bess”.
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2004· 9 entries
Released album “Introducing the Rat Pack”.
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Released album “California Suite”.
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Released album “The Nat King Cole Songbook”.
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Released album “Salutes the Stars of the London Palladium”.
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Released album “The Goin’s Great”.
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Released album “Swinging Together”.
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Released album “If I Ruled the World”.
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Released album “All-Star Spectacular”.
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Released album “Up, Up and Away”.
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2003· 4 entries
Released album “The Rat Pack: 56 Great Songs From the Kings of Cool”.
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Released album “Greatest Hits”.
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Released album “My Greatest Songs”.
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Released album “With a Song in My Heart”.
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2002· 6 entries
Released album “20th Century Masters: The Millennium Collection: The Best of Sammy Davis, Jr.”.
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Released album “The Essentials”.
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Released album “The Candy Man Swings”.
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Released album “I've Gotta Be Me: Greatest Songs”.
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Released album “Lounge Legends”.
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Released album “What I’ve Got On My Mind”.
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2001· 3 entries
Awarded Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award (2001).
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Released album “Ten Golden Greats”.
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Released album “At the Cocoanut Grove”.
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2000· 1 entry
Released album “Sammy & Friends”.
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1999· 3 entries
Released album “Yes I Can! The Sammy Davis Jr. Story”.
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Released album “The Song & Dance Man”.
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Released album “The 20th Century Music Collection”.
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1998· 2 entries
Released album “Mr. Bojangles”.
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Released album “It’s All Over but the Swingin’ / I Gotta Right to Swing!”.
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1996· 3 entries
Released album “The Sounds Of '66”.
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Released album “I've Gotta Be Me: The Best of Sammy Davis Jr. ON REPRISE”.
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Released album “Collection”.
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1995· 3 entries
Released album “My Special Choice”.
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Released album “That Old Black Magic”.
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Released album “Just for Lovers”.
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1994· 2 entries
Released album “The Wham of Sam”.
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Released album “Lena Horne & Sammy Davis Jr.”.
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1993· 1 entry
Released album “The Best of Sammy Davis Jnr.”.
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1992· 1 entry
Released album “The Very Best of Sammy Davis Jr.”.
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1990· 6 entries
Two days after his death, the neon lights of the Las Vegas Strip were darkened for ten minutes as a tribute
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Died 1990-05-16.
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Released album “Greatest Hits, Vol. II”.
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ABC aired the TV special Sammy Davis, Jr
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Released album “Greatest Songs”.
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Released album “I Got Plenty o’ Nuttin”.
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1989· 3 entries
Davis returned to film in what would be his last box office role with Gregory Hines in the film, Tap, where he played an aging hoofer who owned a dance studio; Davis's role was praised by critics
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Don Cornelius, host of the nationally syndicated dance show, Soul Train, named his "Entertainer of the Year" award after Davis, with fellow American entertainer Michael Jackson being the first recipient
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Released album “The Country Side of Sammy Davis Jr.”.
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1987· 4 entries
Awarded Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame (1987).
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And in 2001, he was posthumously awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award
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Started to make a comeback after he reunited again with Sinatra and Martin in what was to be the comeback of the original Rat Pack titled the Together Again Tour; though when Martin and Sinatra had a falling out in 19
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Davis toured with them and Liza Minnelli internationally before his death from lung cancer in 1990
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1986· 2 entries
Famously visited the Network 10 studios in Melbourne
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Released album “Best 20 Songs”.
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1984· 1 entry
But Davis continued to perform Satanic rituals into his final days
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1981· 2 entries
Davis reunited with his fellow Rat Pack member Dean Martin in the film, Cannonball Run, which was a financial success and was followed by Cannonball Run II, which included a cameo appearance by Frank Sinatra, two years l
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Released album “Closest of Friends”.
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1980· 1 entry
Davis made a cameo appearance on General Hospital and had a recurring role as Chip Warren on One Life to Live, for which he received a 1980 Daytime Emmy Award nomination
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1978· 1 entry
Released album “The Sound of Sammy (From The Candy Man to Plop Plop Fizz Fizz)”.
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1977· 1 entry
Released album “In Person '77”.
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1976· 2 entries
Released album “The Song and Dance Man”.
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Davis performed the popular theme song for the Baretta television series, "Baretta's Theme (Keep Your Eye on the Sparrow)"
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1975· 1 entry
Davis starred in his own talk show, Sammy and Company, which lasted three years
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1973· 1 entry
The first time African Americans were invited to do so
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1972· 3 entries
Davis's appearance on All in the Family was memorable for Davis kissing the cheek of Carroll O'Connor's role of Archie Bunker, which led to uproarious laughter from the audience and produced one of the biggest laughs in
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Released album “Portrait of Sammy Davis, Jr.”.
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Released album “Sammy Davis Jr. Now”.
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1971· 2 entries
Released album “Something for Everyone”.
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And had an unexpected number-one hit with "The Candy Man" in 1972
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1970· 2 entries
By Jesse Jackson and adopted a son, Manny, in 1989
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Released album “Mr. Show-Business”.
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1968· 6 entries
Won Spingarn Medal (1968).
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Davis started dating Altovise Gore, a dancer in Golden Boy
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Released album “I’ve Gotta Be Me”.
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Released album “Lonely Is the Name”.
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After Davis admitted to an affair with singer Lola Falana
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Davis had his most successful single in years when he released the ballad, "I've Gotta Be Me", which peaked at number 11 on the Billboard Hot 100 and topped its adult contemporary chart
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1967· 4 entries
NBC broadcast a musical-variety special featuring Nancy Sinatra, titled Movin' with Nancy
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Released album “Sammy Davis, Jr. Sings the Complete "Dr. Dolittle"”.
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After the musical finished that anti-miscegenation laws in all states were ruled unconstitutional via the 14th Amendment adopted in 1868 by the U
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Released album “That’s All!”.
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1966· 4 entries
Davis starred in his own variety series, The Sammy Davis Jr
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Released album “The Sounds of ’66”.
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Released album “Sammy Davis Jr. Sings and Laurindo Almeida Plays”.
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Davis starred in his first non-Rat Pack film in seven years with A Man Called Adam
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1965· 5 entries
Released album “Sammy Davis & Count Basie: Our Shining Hour”.
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Released album “When the Feeling Hits You!”.
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Released album “The Many Faces Of Sammy Davis, Jr.”.
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Released album “The Sammy Davis Jr. Show With Surprise Guest Stars”.
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Released album “Sammy’s Back on Broadway”.
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1964· 5 entries
Released album “Sings the Big Ones for Young Lovers”.
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Returned to Broadway in the musical adaptation of Clifford Odets's Golden Boy, which featured the first interracial kiss in a Broadway play and won Davis a Tony Award nomination
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Released album “The Shelter of Your Arms”.
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Released album “Sings Mel Torme’s California Suite”.
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Davis successfully headlined solo at the Copacabana
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1962· 1 entry
Released album “What Kind of Fool Am I: And Other Show‐Stoppers”.
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1961· 2 entries
Davis signed with Sinatra's Reprise Records and found renewed chart success a year later with the album, What Kind of Fool Am I and Other Show-Stoppers, which included the leading single, "What Kind of Fool Am I
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Released album “As Long as She Needs Me”.
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1960· 3 entries
Released album “I Gotta Right to Swing”.
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There was another racially charged public controversy when Davis married white Swedish-born actress May Britt in a ceremony officiated by rabbi William M
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Davis converted to Judaism, finding commonalities between the oppression experienced by both African Americans and Jewish Americans
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1959· 3 entries
Released album “Porgy and Bess”.
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Davis had "a short, stormy, exciting relationship" with Nichelle Nichols
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Due to American TV refusing to book a special for him due to his skin color, the entertainer hosted a special in Canada titled Sammy's Parade, on the Canadian network CBC
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1958· 4 entries
Released album “Mood To Be Wooed”.
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Davis was hired to crown the winner of the Miss Cavalcade of Jazz beauty contest for the famed fourteenth Cavalcade of Jazz concert produced by Leon Hefflin Sr
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Released album “It’s All Over but the Swingin’”.
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To protect himself from mob violence; Davis had previously dated White, who was 23, twice divorced, and had a six-year-old child
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1957· 4 entries
Released album “Sammy Swings”.
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Davis was involved with actress Kim Novak, who was under contract with Columbia Pictures
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Released album “Sammy Jumps With Joya”.
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Released album “Boy Meets Girl”.
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1955· 2 entries
Released album “Starring Sammy Davis Jr.”.
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Where his performance received thunderous applause and ovations
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1954· 2 entries
Near San Bernardino, California, as he was driving to Los Angeles from Las Vegas
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At the age of 29, Davis lost his left eye in a car accident
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1951· 2 entries
The Will Mastin Trio appeared at the Los Angeles nightclub Ciro's as the opening act for headliner Janis Paige just prior to the 23rd Academy Awards
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Davis's career breakthrough came after he and the Will Mastin Trio opened for Janis Paige the week before the 23rd Academy Awards at the Hollywood nightclub Ciro's
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1949· 1 entry
Davis was given a contract with Capitol Records
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1947· 1 entry
The trio appeared in the short musical film, Sweet and Low, marking Davis's first film appearance since the 1930s
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1946· 1 entry
Becoming one of the first African American acts to perform at the city, though the trio weren't allowed to stay at the hotel like most performers due to the color of their skin
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1941· 2 entries
15-year-old Davis first became acquainted with Frank Sinatra, then just 25, when Sinatra was the lead singer of Tommy Dorsey's band and the Will Mastin Trio opened for Dorsey during several performances at the Michigan T
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The name of the troupe was changed to the Will Mastin Trio with just Mastin, Sammy Davis Sr
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1933· 1 entry
Davis caught the attention of filmmakers who were seeking to find child performers for the short film, Rufus Jones for President, easily gaining the role of Rufus Jones
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1925· 2 entries
In the Harlem district of Manhattan in New York City, the son of African-American entertainer and stage performer Sammy Davis Sr
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Born 1925-12-08.
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