Sammy Davis Jr.: singer, dancer, actor … photographer!

When Sammy Davis Jr. died at the age of 64 in 1990, he was known as "the world's greatest entertainer." It is easy to see why.

If you saw him tap dance, you can still hear his perfectly timed steps echoing in your mind. If you ever heard him sing, you remember a unique voice that soared. And if you ever saw him perform on screen or stage, you saw depth of character. He was an integral member of the brazen "Rat Pack," whose members included Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin. Peter Lawford and Joey Bishop.

But a little-known fact about Davis is that he also was a prolific photographer. Today, some of those images have been brought to light in a spectacular new photography book, PHOTO BY SAMMY DAVIS, JR. (Regan Books, $49.95), with text by Burt Boyar, a former syndicated columnist who became Davis' friend and traveling companion.

"Sammy did not go out of his way to keep photography a secret," Boyar tells EBONY in response to a question about the lack of publicity, for Davis' photography. "He often wore a camera around his neck, taking pictures of people, street scenes and friends in restaurants. I think it's just that he was so vibrant a personality, so famous for being the world's greatest entertainer, that being a photographer hardly got noticed, except by his close friends who saw him at it so much."

PHOTO BY SAMMY traces Davis' impecunious origins in Harlem to his raft of rich experiences in show business, which took root during racially divided times in the United States. He was an activist in his own right. In 1968, he was recognized by the NAACP for his contributions to the Civil Rights Movement.

"Racism had the most profound effect on Sammy's life," Boyar says. "It made him a star. It was his spur that made him work harder and harder, to get bigger and bigger, so that he would finally become bigger than Jim Crow. And he did ... "

Boyar decided to produce the photo book a few years ago while developing a documentary based on Davis' critically acclaimed memoir, YES I CAN (1965). "Sammy's wife, Altovise, said, 'I have a lot of memorabilia in a warehouse, why don't you go out there and see if there's anything you can use.'"

He says exploring the memorabilia was "like opening a cave in some ancient land, filled with treasure, except instead of piles of gold and silver, there were boxes and boxes of photographs, negatives and contact prints, thousands of them. They had been there since Sammy died in 1990. Nobody had ever seen his photography, except those of us to whom he would send a picture he liked. He took pictures for his own pleasure." Boyar says to his knowledge, Davis never tried to publish the photos. "Although he did say, when we were planning our second book, WHY ME?(1989), 'It would be nice to have a photo section. God knows I've got a huge collection of Frank and Dean.' But it never materialized," Boyar says.

But Boyar sifted through the treasure trove of images and selected the best. Believe it or not, the task was not as daunting as it sounds.

"Selecting the photos was easier than you would imagine because the best were of the people he was closest to and had complete access--Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sidney Poitier, Jerry Lewis, Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, Louis Armstrong, Cicely Tyson and, of course, his family," Boyar says. "And plenty more major movie stars, taking a look at a golden age of entertainment that seems to be gone, a time, as a friend of mine put it, 'when real grown-ups roamed the earth, and elegance and fun and real joy were possible.' Sammy's brilliant pictures do that ..."

COPYRIGHT 2007 Johnson Publishing Co.
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning