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• Q & A with Ms. Davis
• About Mr. Bojangles: The Ultimate Entertainer
• Sammy Davis, Jr. site

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Tavis: Altovise Davis is a former actress and dancer who was married to the legendary Sammy Davis, Jr. for twenty years until his death back in 1990. She's now executive director of a new musical about the life of her late husband. The show premiered late last month and will be on tour throughout the rest of this year. Here now a scene from fittingly titled "Mr. Bojangles: The Ultimate Entertainer.'

[A film clip is shown]

Tavis: Altovise Davis, nice to see you.

Altovise Davis: Thank you. Nice to see you too.

Tavis: I was teasing you. I guess that you didn't have to work too hard to figure out the name of the show, huh? What else would you call the show about the life and legacy of Sammy Davis, Jr. but "Mr. Bojangles?"

Davis: "Mr. Bojangles: The Ultimate Entertainer" (laughter).

Tavis: Was there anything else on the list (laughter)?

Davis: The ultimate entertainer.

Tavis: Yeah. How great was this guy? I mean, when people throw accolades around all over the place these days. But I think when you call him Mr. Entertainer, it absolutely fits.

Davis: Well, I believe it does because Jack Benny, George Burns, all of them said he's the only one man who's got so much talent in that little small body, but he's a giant of a man, that he could just do everything.

Tavis: Tell me more about the show. I'm trying to figure out how one who is Mr. Entertainer, whose life and legacy is so rich, can be contained in a show. A ninety-minute show, a two-hour show?

Davis: Ninety minutes, yeah. It's the first ever live musical of his life, musical story of his life, and Ted Levy and Darrell Moultrie play the two Sammy's and they both sing differently and they tap-dance together, so we tried to cover all the bases and it's amazing. They do very well.

Tavis: So over the course of the show, we're going to get about, what, twenty or twenty-one Sammy musical hits?

Davis: About that. Musical hits, yeah, and you'll see him live onscreen.

Tavis: I suspect that, when you decided to put again a piece about his life together and you say it's a musical, I guess you'd have to put his life around the music. It was so important to him.

Davis: It was very important. He started when he was about four or five and they passed him off as a midget, putting him in long pants. He never wore short pants. He was with his dad and uncle, the Will Mastin Trio. He adored the stage. I mean, he never had any formal education, but he was an avid reader. We're doing a Sammy Davis, Jr. Foundation for the youth, for young children, but we do stress that they go to school.

Tavis: Why Sammy, you think? I ask that without any aspersions cast on his talent. Clearly, he was an amazing talent. But there were a lot of black folk back then who were talented, but he was the one who ended up breaking through. He was the one that got to be a part of the Rat Pack. He was the one that broke down the barrier. Why Sammy, do you think?

Davis: Why Sammy? I don't know. He wrote a book called "Why Me?" (laughter). I guess because he just had it in his guts. He had it in his blood that he needed to be better than anybody could be, to do it all. He said, if I have to go in the service - which he did do. He went into the Army - he said I have to do something because I didn't go to school. I've got to be the best at whatever I do.

Tavis: Does it seem like sixteen years to you? When I was going over my research and just remembering exactly where I was. I heard the news that Sammy Davis, Jr. had passed, but I was rocked today when I looked and realized that it's sixteen years.

Davis: Sometimes it does seem long and sometimes it doesn't. It's still devastating to me because we were married for twenty years. He died five days after our twentieth anniversary.

Tavis: It's indelible for you then, I assume.

Davis: Yeah, very much so.

Tavis: How did you and Sammy meet?

Davis: We met - I auditioned for a show and he was doing "Golden Boy" on Broadway and I was doing another show called "High Spirits" on Broadway with Beatrice Lillie and Tammy Grimes. His show, "Golden Boy", was going to London. I said, oh, I've never been to London. I think I'll go and audition. So I auditioned to play the part of his sister and I got the part, so off we went to London. Then after that, he formed a nightclub show and I was the lead singer-dancer. I was going to marry a doctor, but things change (laughter).

Tavis: (Laughter) You were going to marry a doctor and I'm laughing that you went from big sister to wife. That's a metamorphosis for you right there. You were not the first, obviously, the first woman in this business who, in her own right, was gifted, in her own right was talented and ended up putting her career kind of on hold for her husband. How did you specifically make that decision and navigate that? Because I don't know that every woman could do that.

Davis: I'll tell you something. I went to the High School of Performing Arts in New York City -

Tavis:- you're from Brooklyn.

Davis: From Brooklyn, New York. I studied four years. We had majored in dance and then we also had acting and music and drama. When I met Sammy, he said I know you still want to act. You still want to do it. And I still want to do that. I'd like to still act and do something. But at that time, he needed me to be there and he wanted somebody who could be there and uphold him too, so I just put it on hold. Every once in a while, I do a movie or two. You know, with Bill Shatner, I did a movie called "Kingdom of the Spiders.' I did a movie with The Village People (laughter).

Tavis: (Laughter) We ain't going to talk about that. It was fun to watch. You never felt in those twenty years any regret about making those decisions to put your career on hold from time to time?

Davis: I did once in a while, but I thought at that time it was more important that I be with him. Then I joined a charity called SHARE that kept me going and they still do the show every May out in Los Angeles and it's kind of great to get together with all the girls and the celebrities and do all that. Now I miss it, so now I want to go back.

Tavis: How did you find your way fitting into his world? Because by the time you came along, Sammy was obviously well-established, a legend in his own time, and you got to, I assume, fit into his world, his life, that whole celebrity culture.

Davis: It was a shock. I mean, I'd see people that I'd watched on television like meeting Lucy and I'd go, "Oh, what do I say? I love Lucy" or meeting the Rat Pack.

Tavis: Frank Sinatra. What do you say to Frank Sinatra (laughter)?

Davis: (Laughter) Exactly. We hung out with him, so to speak, at this compound in Palm Springs. But it was kind of hard. They always called me "the kid" because I was the youngest one and they were very nice to me.

Tavis: You talked, though - you have been very honest and very frank about talking about the fact that there was a lot of good times and a lot of good memories, but there were some difficult days as well.

Davis: Yes, there were some hard days. There were things like - I think you mentioned it too - about the Nixon hug and those were hard days. He went to be a recluse and got away. For a while, the Black people, most of them, put him down. But they didn't know what Nixon was saying to him. They said you can't buy Sammy Davis, Jr. At that time, he was just for the person, not depending on the party. So there was a lot of hurt for him, but then, you know, he did a lot of marches too. He did a lot of good things and opened the doors for a lot of other Black entertainers.

Tavis: How do you navigate in your life? I mean, it's fascinating to me by listening to you talk about how you had to fit into his life then, but if that wasn't difficult enough, then Sammy goes and leaves you and now you have to navigate life without him. So how do you do that every day? How do you get up every day and create a life for yourself beyond Sammy Davis, Jr.?

Davis: Well, it was very hard when he first passed because there were problems with the IRS and things were taken from me and I didn't know what I was going to do. I was really miserable. Now that I have my manager with me and he's telling me to get Sammy's life -

Tavis: - back out there.

Davis: Yeah, back out there. So now I see it's something, you know, opening up and something for me to do and carry on his legacy.

Tavis: So how big can this thing be? I assume that you can make this thing travel all around the country from place to place. People have to see it because it's got such great music in it.

Davis: Oh, yes. I think when we did it in Connecticut at the Mohegan Sun Casino there, it was very well received. They still have some of his guns and holsters and some of his clothes to show it like a tour. To see him on the screen is great.

Tavis: All right, so your favorite? I'll tell you mine after you tell me yours. I don't want to embarrass myself. So your favorite Sammy song after all these years, all the hits? Your favorite one?

Davis: My favorite.

Tavis: You had to pick one. I know it's an unfair question. If you had to pick one, which one would it be?

Davis: I love the way he does "Shelter of Your Arms" and -

Tavis: - you want one more. Go ahead. I hear you. You want one more. Come on, come on, come on. I'll give you one more right quick. What is it?

Davis: "I've Got To Be Me.'

Tavis: "I've Got To Be Me", all right. You know where I'm going.

Davis: Where you going?

Tavis: I can't help it. It's the kid in me.

Davis: Oh, "Candy Man" (laughter).

Tavis: "Candy Man.' I feel loved. It's still my favorite. You cannot fade the "Candy Man.' I love it. It's a great show and I'm glad it's getting a chance to move around the country and I'm glad that you are doing well and looking well. I'm glad you came to see me.

Davis: Oh, thank you. I'm glad I came to see you too. I watch you all the time.

Tavis: And I thank you. You keep watching. Appreciate it.

Davis: Okay.

Tavis: That's our show for tonight. You can catch me on the weekends on PRI, Public Radio International. Check your local listings. I'll see you back here next time, though, on PBS. Until then, good night from Los Angeles. Thanks for watching and, as always, keep the faith.