I am wrapping up Sammy Davis Jr. Month. This has been an interesting month, because it took a while for me to really feel like I was starting to understand Sammy Davis Jr. as a performer. I started out the month watching two films: Ocean's 11 (1960) and Robin and the Seven Hoods (1964). Both films were entertaining, but I realized that I didn't really get much sense of Sammy Davis Jr. as a performer or entertainer. He didn't have a leading role in either film. Instead, his contributions were mostly limited to one or two musical numbers, as well as some minor elements to help further the plot.


So, instead, I turned to watching clips of Sammy's performances on YouTube (I already listed several of them in a previous post). He is quite astounding in his talent as a dancer, singer, and comic. His impressions are so impressive! These clips helped me to get a better sense of his work as an entertainer, both as an individual and in his work with the Will Mastin Trio. For much of his career he worked with his father and "uncle" Will Mastin, and their earlier work (like the "Boogie Woogie" performance from 1947) is entertaining, although his father and Will Mastin seem a lot less entertaining or relevant as Sammy's career takes off (see a clip of them on the Milton Berle show). Sammy really outshone his father and "uncle," but I think it's impressive that he still chose to evenly split the money between them three ways.

As for music, I listened to several songs by Sammy Davis Jr. throughout this month. As I was listening to his voice o The Very Best of the Rat Pack album, I realized that his tone and timbre are much more listenable to me than Frank Sinatra (particularly Frank's older, rougher, "living large" sound). Sammy has much more of a smooth, consistent delivery. These are some songs that I particularly liked listening to:

• Eee-o-Eleven (I like this recording better than the version that appears in Ocean's 11)
• Too Close for Comfort (a song from from Mr. Wonderful, which he performed on Broadway in 1956)
• I've Got a Lot of Livin' To Do 
• What Kind of Fool Am I?

As an individual and a person, I sometimes found Sammy Davis Jr. a bit hard to relate to as a person. And this is kind of a surprising thing to admit, because this month I read a six hundred page autobiography, Yes I Can! (1965) this month, as well as a memoir written about Sammy by his daughter Tracey Davis. In truth, I did have a lot of sympathy for the struggles that he faced as a black entertainer during the Civil Rights Era. But it was hard for me to relate to his spending habits and fixation with purchasing luxury items, etc. I did get the sense that he was a very generous person, though: his "love language" seems to be through giving gifts, and it was important for him to give nice gifts to give to his friends and family.

Perhaps Sammy was less appealing to me as a person because my patience wore thin after reading a couple hundred pages of his autobiography. That book was about twice as long as it needed to be! I never had enough time to read his second autobiography, Why Me? (which is also six hundred pages long), but I'm alright with that. Instead, I watched The Kid in the Middle BBC documentary to help fill in details of his life that I would have missed otherwise. That documentary also helped me to realize how Yes I Can doesn't give readers a full picture of Sammy's life - he only tells the narrative that he wants to tell, and he also tries to protect people too. For example, the extent of his relationship with Kim Novak wasn't revealed in his autobiography, nor the real reasons for why he hastily married Loray White due to a threat from the mob due to his relationship with Kim. Loray White was a woman that Sammy hardly knew, but she was a desirable choice because she was black.


Sammy's second marriage, to the Swedish-born actress May Britt (who wasn't that great of an actress, in my opinion, see this clip of her in Blue Angel), was interesting to learn about because it was so controversial. Interracial marriages were still illegal in several states, and Sammy and May received a lot of negative publicity and threats as a result. In fact, Sammy was un-invited to the inaugural celebration for JFK at the White House (despite his efforts in campaigning for JFK and despite that his friend Frank Sinatra would be leading the entertainment) due to the negative attention that Sammy and May were receiving during their engagement.


One of the most impressive things to me about Sammy Davis Jr. was the role that he played in helping black entertainers to be more fully integrated into Hollywood and the entertainment industry. I saw several clips and read quotes by black entertainers who felt like they would not have achieved the opportunities that they did without Sammy Davis Jr. helping to pave the way. (And Sammy Davis Jr. did a lot for equality, not only in working with Martin Luther King, Jr., but also the standards that he held as an entertainer - he refused to accept gigs at clubs that had segregated audiences.) Michael Jackson even composed his own song, You Were There, to share at a tribute celebration of Sammy's sixtieth year in show business. (Michael's song and performance are overwrought, but the sentiment is nice!)

Last month, during Audrey Hepburn Month, I wrote an email to Sean Ferrer (Audrey Hepburn's son) to secure permission to post one of Audrey Hepburn's paintings on my art history blog. Sean Ferrer wrote back within a few hours, saying that it was fine with him, but he needed to secure permission and get back to me. I tried to follow up with him a few weeks later, but I still haven't received a response. Tonight I decided to just post what I have written on my art history blog, and I'll update the post if I ever receive a definitive response back from Mr. Ferrer. Even if he doesn't write back, I still am a little bit tickled that I did correspond with Audrey Hepburn's son. The post on my art history blog is about Audrey Hepburn's interest in art, both as a collector and amateur artist.

While I was do research for the post, I found a few fun promotional images for the film How to Steal a Million, in which Audrey Hepburn plays the daughter of an art forger. I'm including them here. How to Steal a Million is a very fun film, and I realized during my Audrey Hepburn Month that this is one of the few films in which Hepburn plays opposite a leading man (and romantic interest) who is actually close to her own age.

Sammy Davis Jr. Month is going pretty well, although I'm still working my way through Sammy Davis Jr.'s first autobiography (it is 600 pages long, and his second autobiography is about the same in length!!!). I've also been watching more YouTube clips of his stage and television performances, to get a better sense of him as an entertainer. These are some of my favorite clips that I have seen thus far:

 I can't find the source of this clip, but I'm pretty sure that this is from a 1973 episode of The Julie Andrews Hour. Julie serves as a moderator between an "impression contest" between Rich Little and Sammy Davis Jr. I especially love at 5:25 in this clip, when Sammy Davis Jr.'s impression of Frankie
Laine makes Julie Andrews lose it. It's also fun to have two Dean Martins performing at the same time (even with a "Dean and Jerry" moment).



Probably the best compilation of Sammy Davis Jr. clips is this one, which includes not only his impressions but dancing, singing, and some of his on-stage work with the Rat Pack:


Here is one more BBC clip. I especially like the impressions that begin around the middle of the clip, starting with Fred Astaire (at 6:41):

This past weekend was really perfect in a lot of different ways. J had a three-day weekend due to Presidents' Day, so we were able to go on a little family vacation. Before we left, though, Sam gave the family a really sweet valentine (see above). I love that the sweet sentiment that he expressed there.

I wanted to have the family go on at least one snowshoeing trip this year, especially since I'm not sure if we will be able to go snowshoeing next year (since Lucy might be too big for the backpack but to small to walk on her own by then). So far, every single time we've been able to go it has been rainy. J did some research and found a small strip of land in central Washington that wasn't expecting rain or snow, so we quickly packed up and headed out that direction. It was quite snowy in a few places along the way, but we made it without difficulty. We ended up staying at a small, cheap motel in Pateros, Washington and we pulled into the motel when it was dark. The rooms weren't anything special, but in the morning we were surprised to see that the motel was right on the bank of the Columbia River, with an absolutely gorgeous view!





We went snowshoeing along "The Shoe" trail at Echo Ridge (see map of trails HERE), which is in the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest outside of Lake Chelan. This trail was a loop and it offered really lovely, expansive views of Lake Chelan and the Cascades. The trail took us a little longer to hike than we anticipated, just because of the snow.





We finished off that fun day by throwing rocks in Lake Chelan, dining at Rivers Restaurant in Pateros, and watching Paddington together as a family in the motel room. It was such a fun, memorable day.

Yesterday, while I was filming the clips below, I had the distinct realization that Lucy is no longer a baby. She really is a little toddler person. I was scrubbing the bathroom (right after I changed Lucy's diaper, which explains her simple outfit), and Lucy brought a book and her stuffed Pooh bear into the bathroom so she could be near me while I worked.

You'll have to forgive the filming location (in the bathroom) and her undershirt onesie, but I had to capture this scene as it was occurring. She already had been "reading" to Pooh for a few minutes before I started to film. On one hand, it was really neat to see her entertaining herself (especially because I could get some work done!). But I really loved seeing her play with her Pooh bear and "read" him books. Now I just need to teach her to not identify the green witch figure in her book as a "mommy" - oh dear!

Most people won't be able to understand what she is saying (and I can't understand everything myself), so I'll include a transcript of her dialogue below:



Lucy: Momma! Yeah, good job! Good job!
Clap!
Color? Yeah! Color!
Spider? Pooh [pause, to show she is asking a question]: [Where is] Spider?
[Lucy helps Pooh "point"]
A spider? Yeah! Spider!
Momma?
[Lucy helps Pooh "point"]
Good job! Good job!
Baby! See? Baby!
Fishies! Fishies! Yep, yep!
Mommy! Eyes, eyes, eyes! Nose.
Yep! Baby! Shirt [Lucy points to onesie}


Momma? Momma? Momma?
Witch!
Pooh - lap! Lap!
[Pooh points to witch]
Good job! Good job!
Fishies!
All done! All done! All done!
Baby!
Bubbles! [she sees her bubbles just beyond the camera]

I feel like Lucy's vocabulary is growing at an exponential rate. She is saying new words almost on a daily basis. It is fun to have her be so interactive and chatty, and I think she has gained a newfound confidence that she can really express herself. She feels like she can say the words that we say to her, so she is constantly trying to repeat words back to us. Yesterday evening we could hardly get her to stop talking so she could go to bed!

My little sister C sent me a link with a clip of a "football dance" from I Love Melvin (1953), which stars Debby Reynolds and Donald O'Connor. In this musical number, Debby Reynolds is dressed like a football, and she is tossed between the male football dancers players. I think this is such an interesting take on football: the men are crowding around the ball, like they are vying for a moment with a lady on the dance floor. Is it really that dissimilar to the actual sport?



I don't think I have ever seen I Love Melvin, but I know that it was made the year after Singing in the Rain. From what I read, though, it seems like Donald O'Connor ends up being the love interest in I Love Melvin, which is a role reversal from Singin' in the Rain (in which he played Gene Kelly's sidekick and funnyman). I remember reading that Gene Kelly wasn't that kind to Reynolds during the filming of Singin' in the Rain, who felt like she was an inferior starlet in comparison to him. It seems like Reynolds and O'Connor got along well off-screen.

This online biography for Donald O'Connor says that I Love Melvin was pretty much a dud of a film, but there is this really great scene (in addition to the football scene, naturally) in which O'Connor tap dances in roller skates:



I kind of wish I had chosen Donald O'Connor for one of the celebrities that I am studying this year. I guess I'll leave him for next year...

For the first time ever, J has been given Martin Luther King, Jr. Day off as a paid holiday. We had hoped to take advantage of the holiday by going on a snowshoeing trip, but our plans were foiled by the rain. So, we decided to take an impromptu trip to Oregon. My Ant Bee and her family were so kind to make time to visit with us (especially on such short notice), and we were glad we got to visit with them.

A couple of weeks ago, the weather was really lovely over the weekend and we were able to go out and explore Lord Hill Regional Park for the first time. This park is up on Monroe, but we felt it was well worth the drive. There were lots of different trails to take (see map). We went along the Beaver Lake Trail, and then went along the Pipeline trail and a Pipeline Cutoff trail, until we got to the Main trail. Eventually we took another Pipeline Cutoff trail to get to a viewpoint, which had a 630' elevation. There is another viewpoint in the park with a 650' elevation, and maybe we will try to do that one later this year.

The sunlight was so gorgeous while we were outside; I was so happy to be outside, in the sun, with my family. When we were hiking, I told Sam that I feel most alive when I am outside in nature, hiking with my family. I like to feel my heart beating while I hike, because it reminds me that I am just as alive as the plants that I see thriving around me. J chimed in and said that he likes to be reminded of how much nature there is in the world, and that there are a lot of places that manmade or affected by mankind. I hope that sharing these types of comments help to instill a love of hiking (or at least of nature) in Sam and Lucy.




Sam was a trooper, and I think that we hiked around four miles altogether. I think that it was really fun for him to reach that view point, because he could visually see how far he had climbed through the spectacular vista.

I learned today that George Clooney is Rosemary Clooney's nephew. How did I not put this together before?!? And I can totally see the familial resemblance now, too, with the spacing of their eyes and the shapes of their faces. I love that George Clooney feels a connection with his aunt's music, too: he had Rosemary's recording "Why Shouldn't I?" playing in the background on the night that he proposed to his wife Amal (and the song was also played for the couple's first dance at their wedding celebration).

I have just barely started Sammy Davis Jr. Month, but I am already struck with how different he and Audrey Hepburn are. Audrey Hepburn was the daughter of a baroness, went to boarding school in England, lived through horrors of enemy occupation during World War II, and tried to keep aspects of her life private from the public. She also wanted to be a ballerina, and only came into the world of modeling and acting after her dancing career didn't pan out. In contrast, Sammy Davis Jr. didn't receive a formal education, grew up on the vaudeville stage performing acts with his father, and was very public about his personal life and feelings (he wrote two autobiographies: Yes I Can (1965) and Why Me? The Sammy Davis Jr. Story (1989)).

Physical appearance also affected these two individuals' careers. Audrey Hepburn was considered the epitome of fashion, and her attractive European face caused her to receive a lot of leading roles in Hollywood films. While Sammy Davis Jr. appeared in a lot of films, I don't believe that the ever scored a role as a leading man. Undoubtedly, race tied into the roles which Sammy Davis Jr. received. He also was quite short and small to be a leading man (weighing 115 pounds, which was just a few pounds more than the slim Audrey Hepburn). Sammy Davis Jr. used to actually joke about his physical appearance (while also hinting at issues of race). Once, when he heard someone commenting about discrimination, he said, "You got it easy. I'm a short, ugly, one-eyed, black Jew. What do you think it's like for me?"

Interestingly, though, it seems like both Audrey and Sammy Davis Jr. wanted to use their public image to evoke change in society. Audrey focused on work with UNICEF, and Sammy Davis Jr. was involved with politics and the Civil Rights Movement. I especially liked this quote I read in Yes I Can last night, when Sammy Davis Jr. was writing about using his talent to bring about change in regards to discrimination: "My talent was the weapon, the power, the way for me to fight. It was the one way I might hope to affect a man's thinking" (p. 72).

Another similarity is that Sammy Davis Jr. and Audrey Hepburn both were smokers. Sammy Davis Jr. was a chain smoker (he died of throat cancer in 1990) and Audrey Hepburn also was a heavy smoker - she especially seemed to have smoked when nervous, and there are instances in her biographies when she is described as having "chain-smoked her way" through interviews.

I couldn't find a photograph of Audrey and Sammy Davis Jr. together, so it could be that they never met (or perhaps never interacted with each other very much). They did have mutual acquaintances, though, which is why I included the photograph above of Audrey Hepburn with Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. (You can see more pictures of Audrey with Dean and Jerry at this webpage and this webpage.)