Sammy Davis, Jr. will forever be remembered as one of America's finest entertainers. An all–around performer who could sing, dance, and act, Davis broke racial barriers in the entertainment world and became the only non–white member of the Rat Pack. Only now, however, is Davis's talent as a photographer finally being recognized. In this previously unpublished collection of black and white photography, readers will be fascinated by Davis's portrayals of A–list performers, iconic world leaders, and scenes from everyday life. Davis's subjects include dozens of classic celebrities–such as Frank Sinatra, Marilyn Monroe, Paul Newman, and James Dean–who are often photographed at their most casual and revealing moments.
Accompanying the pictures is an assortment of remembrances by Burt Boyar, a longtime friend and traveling companion of Davis who collaborated with the entertainer on both of his autobiographies. Through a series of memorable anecdotes, Boyar reflects on Davis's many achievements as well as the private moments they shared as friends. Along with Davis's candid shots of ordinary life–from a group of children laughing to a baseball game at the Washington Monument–these stories reveal a side of the performer far removed from his Rat Pack persona.
The release of this book will also coincide with the release of Burt Boyar's upcoming documentary, Sammy Speaks, created from his extensive archive of taped conversations with the star.

Photo by Sammy Davis, Jr.

Arts & Photography

Boyar, Burt

Individual Artists

It Books

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

When Sammy Davis, Jr. published his autobiography in 1965, it was an immediate long-running bestseller as well as a revelation. Yes I Can describes Sammy Davis's personal conviction, the view of success that both propelled him to stardom from ghetto obscurity and served as his armor against racism.

Biographies & Memoirs

Davis Jr., Sammy

Boyar, Jane

Eddie Murphy

Arts & Literature

Farrar. Straus & Giroux

Sammy Davis, Jr. (1925-90) rose from childhood stardom on the vaudeville stage to become one of the most famous African American entertainers of the 1950s and '60s (and the only black member of Frank Sinatra's Rat Pack). At the same time, he spent most of his career surrounded by controversy and ridicule--over his affairs with white film stars, his 1960 marriage to Swedish actress May Britt, his conversion to Judaism, his closeness to the Kennedys (and later Richard Nixon), and his problems with alcohol and drugs. When Davis published his first memoir, Yes, I Can, in 1965, it was a critical and popular success--acclaimed for a candor and thoughtfulness rare in celebrity autobiographies and for its painful evocation of life as a black peformer in segregated America. Davis's 1980 memoir, Why Me?, laid bare Davis's troubled relationship to the Kennedys, his ambivalence toward the Black Pride movement, the end of his marriage to Britt (and his complex open marriage with Altovise Davis), and his flamboyant, self-loathing misbehavior, from ruinous extravagance to flirtations with Satanism. Davis's co-writer Burt Boyar has revised Davis's memoirs, incorporating material from unpublished interviews, and has added a new introduction and epilogue. The result is a testament to an unacknowledged--often uncomfortable--leader in the struggle for racial equality.

Sammy: The Autobiography of Sammy Davis, Jr.

Humor & Entertainment

Farrar. Straus and Giroux

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

Davis, Sammy

World Class

Sports & Outdoors

Miscellaneous

Marbella House

Meet the ten best tennis players in the world, a group of ruthless competitors who probe one another's weaknesses on the court but are loyal comrades off it - a band of brothers who know how to work, to live and how to enjoy life. This is a book about winning - not only at sport but at life.

An amazing life. As a New Yorker brought up in the world of Broadway theater, the author, Burt Boyar, became a child radio actor earning $1000 a week in the late 1930’s, early 40’s, playing Archie on Archie Andrews, Billy Batson on Captain Marvel, Dexter Franklin on Corliss Archer, etc. etc. Then he became a caviar taster, a polo player, a widely syndicated Broadway columnist, close friend and biographer to Sammy Davis, Jr. with the worldwide Best Selling book, Yes I Can. Then, an intimate of the world’s greatest tennis players, Rod Laver, Ken Rosewall, Lew Hoad, etc. which brought him and beloved wife, Jane, to Spain where they lived for 28 glorious years in a beach house in Marbella as close friends of Chief of State General Francisco Franco’s family, among other European dazzlers, until Jane’s untimely death brought their idyllic 44 year marriage to an end. Burt returned to the U.S., to Los Angeles, where he is living yet another extraordinary life.

Blessed

Memoirs

New York City, the 1950s and 60s was the Happening Time, the Happening Place and the Happening People: millionaire playboys, debutantes,, Hollywood starlets, press agents. A solid gold chain stopping the Nobodys from entering the legendary Stork Club where the Somebody's played, as they did at El Morocco, El Borracho, Billy Reed's Little Club and Armando's. Bill invited the best looking hookers to be his guests every night at the bar and everyone was happy and beautiful and life itself was glorious and glamorous.

Low Society: Fables of the 50s’ and 60s’ Café Society New York City

CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

YES I CAN is the self-portrait of one of the extraordinary men of our time, who became a figure of controversy because he dared to live his life not as a Negro but as a man. "I've got to be a star like another man has to breathe," write Sammy Davis. "I've got to get so big, so powerful, so famous that the day will come when they'll look at me and see a man, and then somewhere along the way they'll notice he's a Negro." YES I CAN is: ..".one of the most candid, engrossing and important American autobiographies of our time," wrote the N.Y. Herald Tribune Book Editor and Critic Maurice Dolbier. "One of the really great autobiographies ever written." Brother Judd . Audible.com

Yes I Can: The Story of Sammy Davis Jr.

Rare Bird Books, A Barnacle Book

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Books by Boyar, Burt