Sammy Davis, Jr. was a true giant of entertainment. For nearly half a century, he was a Las Vegas fixture.Davis was born in Harlem in 1925. His parents were vaudeville dancers. When they separated, Sammy was three. His father took him on the road. He and Davis’s godfather, Will Mastin, taught the child how to dance. Sammy quickly showed he could do more than that. He made his first movie in 1933, and toured with the two older men. He went into the army during World War II and said that’s when he first encountered serious racism.
The first reference to him performing in Las Vegas appears to be in the Review-Journal, saying the Willie Mastin Trio would open on May 15, 1946, at the El Rancho Vegas. The ad called them a “comedy team” and got the name wrong. But they quickly established themselves as favorites in Las Vegas, and moved on to other hotels, including the Last Frontier and the Flamingo.
Sammy Davis, Jr., was becoming a star in his own right, though he continued to bill himself with the trio. But Las Vegas became known as the Mississippi of the West, and he was one of its victims. He later recounted going to a movie and being punched by a security guard for not sitting in the segregated section. Harvey Deiderick, a longtime Las Vegas publicist, remembered taking Sammy to a skeet shooting event at the Last Frontier, thinking the participants would be thrilled to be around the showroom star. They weren’t, to Deiderick’s surprise. The night the Last Frontier reopened as the New Frontier, Davis’ family was allowed to sit in the front row of the showroom, but had to exit through the side. And he said it was no better when he played the Mapes in Reno.
The year before opening the New Frontier, Davis was driving back to Los Angeles from Las Vegas when he was in an auto accident. He ended up losing his left eye. He also got attention for two other actions. One was that he converted to Judaism. The other was that he began dating actress Kim Novak. Interracial marriage was illegal in about half the states. Apparently, Columbia Pictures mogul Harry Cohn feared the effect on his studio and one of its movie stars. According to one account, gangster Johnny Rosselli kidnapped and threatened Davis. Another was that another gangster, Mickey Cohen, took the threat to Sammy Davis, Sr. Reportedly, when the younger Davis asked Sam Giancana for help, the Chicago boss told him he could protect him in Chicago or Las Vegas but not in California. Davis married a Black woman, soon divorced her, and a few years later married May Britt, a white Swedish actress. The mob said nothing, but apparently it was why he was not allowed to be part of the entertainment at John F. Kennedy’s inaugural in 1961.
The producer of that event was Frank Sinatra. He and Davis were close friends. When Davis was injured in the accident, he recuperated at Sinatra’s home. Sinatra demanded that the Sands give Davis a suite befitting his status as a great entertainer. They would do some other things important to Las Vegas ...
