Director Sam Pollard digs deep, offering film clips of Davis as a child performing in a movie alongside Ethel Waters in 1933. (SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "SAMMY DAVIS JR.: I'VE GOTTA BE ME")īILLY CRYSTAL: Sammy is such a unique blend of talent and insecurity.ĭEGGANS: Crystal, who performed a famous impersonation of Davis on "Saturday Night Live," joins a slew of compelling voices in PBS' "American Masters" documentary "Sammy Davis Jr.: I've Gotta Be Me." A central theme of this poignant film - how Davis struggled to live on his own terms while coping with the realities of life as a black entertainer in a racist America.
had it all - a master dancer, musician, actor and singer who hung with Frank Sinatra's Rat Pack and made a hit out of a soaring anthem for perseverance and individuality, "I've Gotta Be Me."ĭEGGANS: But as comic Billy Crystal notes in the film, there was self-doubt and pain behind his dazzling facade.
NPR TV critic Eric Deggans has this review.ĮRIC DEGGANS, BYLINE: On the surface, Sammy Davis Jr.
That's according to a new biography airing tonight as part of the "American Masters" series on PBS. GREENE: But that song about a song and dance man who fell on hard times also summed up Davis' worries about being left behind as a performer. And he could belt out pop hits like this. Raed Al-Rajabi’s pancreatic cancer research.The artist Sammy Davis Jr. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that memorial contributions be made to KU Endowment to benefit Dr. Wayne is survived by three children - Laurel, Joseph and Jason - and five grandchildren. The documentary screens on PBS in the USA on 19th February 2019. She was also present at its screening at the Miami Jewish Film Festival. documentary I’ve Gotta Be Me, for which she gave an interview – her delightful remarks provide some of the film’s best moments. You are able to see Paula Wayne in the American Masters Sammy Davis, Jr. Upon moving to South Florida she became a teacher and mentor at the New World School of the Arts in downtown Miami. In her wider career, Wayne appeared on several television shows, recorded singles for Columbia Records (on their Colgems label), and headlined in nightclubs across the country. He told me the only way to deal with hatred is not to dignify it. I never expected such vitriolic things would be said to me. Paula recalled: “I never expected such hatred. All the principal people in the production received bodyguard protection. The Act II kiss between Lorna and Joe had scandalised audiences during tryouts, and the show received numerous bomb and death threats right from its opening days in Philadelphia until its close on Broadway in March 1966. Running at the height of the civil rights era, Golden Boy had a fully integrated company, and not everyone was pleased to see an interracial romance on stage in New York in 1964. in Golden Boy, playing Lorna Moon, the love interest of Sammy’s character Joe Wellington. Her most famous Broadway role was opposite Sammy Davis, Jr. The Oklahoma native was brought to New York by the Metropolitan Opera to study at Julliard, but found her calling on the Broadway stage instead, making her debut in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1957. Broadway star and award-winning actress Paula Wayne passed away this week, on 9th November 2018, six days after her 84th birthday.