Research Catalog

Deconstructing Sammy : music, money, madness, and the mob

Title
Deconstructing Sammy : music, money, madness, and the mob / Matt Birkbeck.
Author
Birkbeck, Matt
Publication
New York : Amistad, ©2008.
Supplementary Content
  • Contributor biographical information
  • Publisher description

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Available - Can be used on site. Please visit New York Public Library - Performing Arts Research Collections to submit a request in person.

TextUse in library *MGYB (Davis) 18-6518Performing Arts Research Collections - Dance
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Available - Can be used on site. Please visit New York Public Library - Schomburg Center to submit a request in person.

TextUse in library Sc E 08-1550Schomburg Center - Research & Reference

Details

Description
280 pages : illustrations, [8] pages of plates; 24 cm
Summary
"Sammy Davis Jr. lived a storied life. Adored by millions over a six-decade-long career, he was considered an entertainment icon and a national treasure. But depite lifetime earnings that topped $50 million, Sammy died in 1990 near bankruptcy. His estate was declared insolvent, and there was no possibility of it ever using Sammy's name or likeness again. It was as if Sammy had never existed. Years later his wife Altovise, a once-vivacious woman and heir to one of the greatest entertainment legacies of the twentieth century, was living in poverty, and with nowhere lese to go, she turned to a former federal prosecutor, Albert "Sonny" Murray, to make one last attempt to resolve Sammy's debts, restore his estate, and revive his legacy. For seven years Sonny probed Sammy's life to understand how someone of great notoriety and wealth could have lost everything, and in the process he came to understand Davis, a man whose complexity makes for a riveting work of celebrity biography as cultural history. Matt Birkbeck's serious work of investigative journalism unveils the extraordinary story of an international celebrity at the center of a confluence of entertainment, politics, and organized crime, and shows how even Sammy's outsized talent couldn't save him from himself."--Dust jacket.
Alternative Title
Sammy
Subjects
Genre/Form
  • Biography.
  • Biographies.
Bibliography (note)
  • Includes bibliographical references (pages 263-267) and index.
Call Number
*MGYB (Davis) 18-6518
ISBN
  • 9780061450662
  • 0061450669
LCCN
2009277176
OCLC
191930066
Author
Birkbeck, Matt, author.
Title
Deconstructing Sammy : music, money, madness, and the mob / Matt Birkbeck.
Imprint
New York : Amistad, ©2008.
Edition
1st ed.
Type of Content
text
Type of Medium
unmediated
Type of Carrier
volume
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 263-267) and index.
Connect to:
Contributor biographical information
Publisher description
Research Call Number
*MGYB (Davis) 18-6518
Sc E 08-1550
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