description: Sammy Davis, Jr was one of the most recognisable showbiz entertainers of the twentieth dancer, singer, hyperactive cabaret performer, film star and hard-drinking, high-living bad-boy member of Las Vegas's legendary Rat Pack along with Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Peter Lawford. But his story was also one of contradiction and a black man trying to make his name as a star during a time of racial prejudice and even segregation, Sammy Davis, Jr never came to terms with the complexities of his situation. He endured patronising humiliation from his fellow Rat Pack members; he marched with Martin Luther King while, notoriously, cozying up to President Nixon and conducting numerous affairs with white women. Above all, he made his name as a vaudevillian entertainer by arguably accepting the role of honorary white man. This is the definitive portrait of the Rat Pack's most interesting and maverick member.
language: English
title: In Black & White
titlecomplete: In Black & White
genres: Nonfiction, Music, Biography, Biography Memoir
ratings_count: 159
awards: awardedAt: 1072944000000
name: Hurston/Wright Legacy Award
category: Nonfiction
publisher: Aurum Press Ltd