Arthur Silber: My name is Arthur Silber Jr. We are in my home and we are here having a visit for some people and they want to know a lot of things about Sammy Davis Jr, who was my business partner all my life. Sammy Davis Junior was not only my business partner, but my very, very best friend. We grew up together, literally grew up together. Sammy used to come to my house, which is just around the block from here, and he used to spend the night in my house, sleeping in the sleeping bag next to my bed on the house, which right now is exactly about 70 yards from where you’re sitting. There is now the train station, local train station where the track I want to say the tram, the subway now is the station where he used to come to. And I used to go or we walk through the park to the house, and then he would come and stay for a few days. He had no place to go. He was living on Fifth Street in downtown L.A., which now if you lived there, you’d be dead if you walk a block. And then then we would do what we did. An interesting thing about the walk from the train station over to here, there’s a park right across the street, and you probably saw it when you drove up. Or maybe not the case. Maybe there were picnic tables. The picnic tables were all made out of wood, naturally. Sammy’s favorite thing used to be he would pick up the gravel. Decomposed granite and throw it on top of the table. And he would do what we call in the language that I grew up with a sand dance on the gravel on top of the table. And he would he would do things like that. So interesting things that people don’t know. These are little things. I’m full of a lot of little things that Sammy did all the time. It was nothing to him, nothing to me. He was just having fun.
Interviewer It is the details we are interested in. So. How does Sammy come into your life and you into his?
Arthur Silber: All right. This is the story, how that came about. My father was one of the biggest theatrical agents in Hollywood. The list of name of stars that he handled were humungous, starring all the way back to gentlemen, Jim Corbett. All the way down to Hopalong Cassidy and Mary Martin. I could Martha Raye. I could do. I could go on and on with the name. Said You don’t mean that much, but with big age. Now the story behind. Why? During my father’s younger days, he. He was a performer, too. Did like comedy and tap dancing on the stage. During the course of that, he met Rodney Pantages. That would be the son of Pantages, owner of the Pantages Theater. And while doing that, he he connected with Will Mastin. And Will Mastin had always called them a flash act. They act that comes on between the movies. Okay. So he became with Will. Now, this was years ago. Years ago. Long before I was born. Afternoon. I’m going to jump ahead. After Sammy came out of the Army. He came out of the Army here in California. They had no place to go, nothing to do. He had been in the Army for for whatever time he was there. And Will Mastin called my father and asked if he could come over to his office, which is the crossroads of the world. Still is actually. And will and will. If I say Massi, I mean will Mastin because his habit is family to me, met with, met with my father, and my father became the agent for the Will Mastin Trio, just three dancers. That’s all they did was dance. Now, during summer vacation, in my second year in high school, my dad invited me to go to Hawaii. He was taking a small little show over the way to celebrate the the Japanese pilots that flew for us in the Second World War. It was a tribute to them, actually. While Sammy was on the bill. And when Sammy and I met with two young kids, literally young kids who were 17 years old, it just was like this. And it never has come apart. Said to this day, even though he’s not here in this room. He is here in this room. Trust me, he is. And don’t get me teary eyed because he she’ll have to come in here and make me up again.
Interviewer: What was Sam Sammy Davis senior like?
Arthur Silber: I would rather start with the head of the family. Okay. Which was not Sam Senior by far. Which was Mama.
Interviewer: Okay. Tell us about Mama.
Arthur Silber: Lacey Davis. Mama was a pirate, a heavyset woman. But she had a habit. Like she was always cooking something. And she walked around constantly with a wooden spoon. That wooden spoon ruled my life. Her son’s life. Massie’s life. Anybody else’s life. You could say the wrong thing. A bad word. If you cussed or did something wrong, you would get that spoon across your face and hard. She was the ruler of the family. A lot of people don’t know that. She just she she was she controlled it. She wasn’t a bad woman. Not the sweetest woman in the world. But just don’t say a bad word in front of her. Don’t curse in front of her. She was very much a Catholic and she wouldn’t allow that.
Interviewer: Why do you think she chose not to be a mother? Elvira Davis. Samuel Blood mother.
Arthur Silber: Elvira Davis, which was Sammy’s mother, but Sammy Davis senior. And Elvira met because she was from Cuba. And they met at a at a conveyed, I want to say, convention sacrament. They just met at a dance someplace and got together and went on from there. It was that simple. Boy meets girl. Girl meets guy. They’re both good looking and boom, they’re together. That’s the answer to that question.
Interviewer: But she but she chose not. Not to be a mother to Sami. What effect that have on Sammy?
Arthur Silber: I don’t think it had any at all because in later years when I was around Elvira a lot. And Sammy was around Elvira. She was his mother, for sure. And he respected that. But not the same way. Maybe you and I would work with the Irish. I wanted to say respected. It’s a horrible word. I would not get along. I know it’s not respect. He respected her because there was nothing in the world she wanted that she never got. Whether she wanted it or not. It was parked in front of her house or whatever it might be. He respected. But Sam Senior. Sam Senior found another woman that he married, Peewee Davis, and they were the ones who were bitter for a long period of time as man and wife. Elvira never enjoyed because she she lived. Florida. She lived in a different part of the country where the the trio were every place in the world at this particular everyplace in the country. They never were. It wasn’t a together thing at all.
Interviewer: What kind of father was Sam Senior?
Arthur Silber: Sam. Sam. Will. Sam. Hey, how do you explain that expression? He was there. He was a good looking man, a very good looking tall, very good looking man. And he liked the ladies. Pretty much so. So he wasn’t the father that the father should be. The father was Massi Will Mastin will Mastin guided everybody Will. Mastin was the one that kept Sammy as well as the father, but really will away from anything dealing with racial tolerance of any kind. It was Will Mastin that kept Sammy away. Sammy knew nothing about racial tolerance for about 30 years because he was never subjected to it. Because Will Mastin and his father, too. But it will. Mastin particularly kept Sammy away from that. I mean, that’s right. When they in Harlem, they were in Harlem, they weren’t anyplace else that mixed with white people or other races, really, except his own. And it was Willa saw that they had the right shirts with the cufflinks or white tuxedos that were pressed all the time and always cleaned. And that’s the way real ran. That’s the way Wil ran the trio because he was the driver when it comes to money things. It was Will was the head of that department. How much are we going to get or what are we going to do for etc., etc., etc..
Interviewer: Thanks. You were on the road with the Will Mastin Trio, right?
Arthur Silber: Oh, God.
Interviewer: Yeah, yeah.
Arthur Silber: Yeah. I’d say about 25 years. Yeah, I was.
Interviewer: Okay. Tell me what it was like being on the road with the Will Mastin Trio.
Arthur Silber: Now I’m going to turn this around on you a little bit, please. What do you think it would be like living with Sammy Davis Jr for 25 years?
Interviewer: Well, that’s what we’re here for. Let’s see.
Arthur Silber: Crazy. Okay.
Interviewer: All right. Describe a typical day on the road with the Will Mastin Trio.
Arthur Silber: Being on the road. A in trio was not an exciting thing. It was get on the train or get in a car and go from point to point to point. Did the show, did there did there five or seven minute act dancing? And that was the end of that. And we were off to the next place. It was not it was not what it turned out to be. A few years later, when Sammy and the day became known, it was it was just plain working. This theater, this town, this theater, this town. This just like you see in the old movies. You travel the circuit, you just do the circuit. And in the case of the Wilmington Trio, you remember I mentioned there were two Pantages. Well Pantages became. Very close with my father, Rodney, the younger the son. And they became partners. And so then my father took over the booking of the pan time. Or the Pantages circuit. I’m using that. I’m using the words in his words. So they became very, very, very close. And it was my father. I’m going to throw this in here. If you want to keep it. If not, it’s okay. My father took the first American show to go to Japan, 1936. While he was in Japan. The war broke out between China and Japan, and my father and the troop had to come home because of the war. And the emperor of Japan. And I wished I had it in my hand right now. My wife wanted to. She could probably find it. My father was given the most gorgeous watch I have ever seen in my life, and I collect watches from the Emperor of Japan, which I have. And maybe before this whole thing is over, I’ll show it to you because you’ll never see a man like it, ever. It was nothing like it.
Interviewer: When did your father start representing the well-versed in Korea?
Arthur Silber: My father started representing the wool merchant trio because of the relationship. My father had previously got together with Will Mastin when they were both on the road. This was before Sammy went into the Army. Then Sammy got called into the army, and when they came out, they had no place to go. My father, being a big agent, he will. He Massi went to my father’s, see if they could get him some work. Thus started started of the Wilmington trio. I mean, there was the Will Mastin trio, but it started that we put it together.
Interviewer: When did you know that Sammy would be the breakout star from the world Mastin Trio?
Arthur Silber: Sam his whole life. What I’m about to tell you is the most important thing about Sam’s life that ever could possibly be. Sammy would never, ever. Not do what he wanted to do to be equal to everybody else. I got the goose pimples on my leg right now to prove it. He wanted to be equal. Now, how do you become equal in your part of a trio? You do things a little bit different than the other two. Sammy’s first little trickery. What? He went to a joke shop of Mac Magic Store and bought big fake cigars about that long. And one night on a stage, he did an impersonation of Edward G. Robinson. Which is what? The cigar. Went over big with the audience. After the show is over. Will. Put near killed Sammy along with his father, and Will jumped all over him for. Don’t you ever impersonate a white person again. Da da da da da da da. And he meant it. That would not stop Sammy. That just made him go by. Let’s just say another cigar. And there was another scar. It was another cigar. And that’s what grew Sammy’s voice. What grew? His mindset, I guess, to impersonate. People first. Jimmy Stewart. The easy ones. Jimmy Cagney. Etc., etc., etc.. And then came the singers. That’s what Sammy became by impersonating. Not by just wanting to.
Interviewer: You vote that originally Sammy was not a great singer. How did he become a great singer?
Arthur Silber: How he became a great singer was all within him. It just that he came that way by listening countless to two records and trying to impersonate the the voices that he hears thusly developed a singing voice. And the only person, by the way, which is kind of funny. Then one person he never could sing like he never could impersonate. True story, Frank. His idol. He would throw the coat over the shoulder, put the hat on, walk off the stage exactly like Frank, but could not sing Frank’s voice. He never got it. Ever. Dodd-Frank. Voice A little side note. This kind of interesting.
Interviewer: Here’s a Sammy quote. They’ll like me, even if they hate my guts. Can you explain that segment?
Arthur Silber: In my mind, I know exactly what I. But I don’t know how I can put that in words. They didn’t like Sammy. Because he was black. They didn’t like Sammy because he didn’t talk in the language of the black people. The Ebonics problem. However, the British were not. Sammy spoke very good English is what often people would say about him. Oh, he got he picked up the English accent and he’s using that to talk. It was natural to Sammy, and it wasn’t an English accent. It was just very good talking, a very, very good speech. Pronunciation of of his words. That’s it. That’s. That’s about as close as I can come with it. That’s true fact to.
Interviewer: Sammy was always on.
Arthur Silber: Oh, that’s a funny question. How far do you want me to carry that one?
Interviewer: What was his recreational life like?
Arthur Silber: What was it? A self-creation.
Interviewer: Of life. Life?
Arthur Silber: Now you had just gone where I told you you would probably go into a door that’s that big. Oh, boy. Okay. Sammy and growing up. Never had any kids to play with. So he never had a childhood. With childhood games. Children’s games. He never had them. All he had was tap dancing lessons from Bill Robinson. He did. That’s all he did. What he had. That was his world. So when he reached a point in his life and that was approximately when I came into his life. Sammy said, Well, let’s do this, let’s do that. Which to me was I did that ten years ago, the first thing being. Here’s where we come in. Here’s where we come in with the guns. If we’re walking by a gun store. Sam said, Oh, let’s go and take a look around. Said, This was in San Francisco. We went in. Who bought two guns? I still have. Might not be more than happy to show you the I think the belt that goes with it. Maybe Mark could get that for me in our closet, please. We started as fast dropping. And we the only thing we could do during the day. Is practice faster against one another. And that’s all we would do for hours. I mean, hours and hours that Sammy became very, very good at all the gun tricks. I do, actually. I could flip it into my holster, but he did all the gun spins and stuff. He did took to another stage. All right. That’s the kids playing with the gun, the cap, guns and all of that. I kind of allude to that next thing. Also in San Francisco, we’re walking to downtown San Francisco and we walked by Abercrombie and Fitch, Abercrombie and Fitch at that time were noted for the outfitters of people who go on safari. That was their big deal. And they were very well known for that. We were in Abercrombie and Fitch downtown San Francisco on Market Street. And so we’re walking through the store like, what do you do in the daytime? You don’t do anything We walk through. And Sammy’s eyes, of course, fell upon Foyle’s swords, if you wish. And the mask that goes with it all. We’ve got to have a couple of those. And we go in, we car with the files and the mask, which we very seldom ever use them as because we are stupid young folks and we never thought about putting out our eyes at that point in time. And we learned by ourself to be more than good at that. There’s a little story about that. Think you can use this if you want to. We used to visit the studios during the daytime. We were on. We went over to 20th Century Fox and we were watching Scaramouche. And they were fighting with the swords. And somebody there, I don’t even remember who said he said. Well, Sammy. And you are better than they are. Stuart Granger. That would be Stuart Granger. Look, I pulled a name from the past on that one, didn’t I? Uh, we started fighting, and the whole crew stopped the movie and came over and watch Sammy and I fight because we had a way of fighting with the swords where we knew what we were doing. It wasn’t like, the next time it’s coming over your head, jump for the next one. We would talk to one another and you would hear the clanking of the foils so you couldn’t hear what we were saying to one another. Now, one night, the suite we were in at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco was not enough room for us. We just wasn’t big enough to fight with a sword. So we decided to go to the hallway and we started fighting up and down the hallway, down to the seventh floor in the Fairmont Hotel. It’s a floor. All of the stars stay. Well, we started doing that and we worked our way down one hall and started down the next. And you’ll know what’s coming, don’t you? We started down the next hall and we have the right in front of the main. There’s only two elevators in the Fairmont, the main elevator, the big one, and one way in the back to the is used for going up and down. If you want to come in a small elevator. We were really going at it and the doors open and it was full of all these people, all dressed in their refinery, as people used to do back in the day. They went out, women went out in gowns. And when we went out in tuxedos and what have you. And there we were. Click, click, click, click, click, click. Oh. Oh, it was just one of those times. The owner of the hotel, they come to me in the mirror, called us in naturally and says, No Dick Swig, no more fighting in the hallway in front of the elevators. Go to the roof. And we went to the roof. We have the entire roof of the Fairmont Hotel. And we used it. And I have pictures of us on the roof. So what have you. So now we’re we’re not finished yet. Next thing I think I know. We haven’t gotten to the guns yet, have we? No. We were in. I want to say to comparing New Mexico, but it wasn’t to compare with another wave. Walk by the gun store. Had to have guns. It kind of ties in with the trap I was telling you about how the fast draw, if you want to change it around a can, do it, change it around if you can. We’ve got the guns. Everything. The six guns, the rifles, 3030s, the pack that go over the horses behind with the pack, your clothes in what you could imagine using those. And we got them. Now what’s the next thing we want to do? Well, let’s try the guns out. So I have went to the owner of the club and I said, Do you know anybody that could take us out and out outside of town where we could fire these guns? And we’re talking about a Colt 45. They shoot a very big bullet and make a lot of noise. So guys, he fixed it up with one of the guys, his his like his right hand guy, the owner of the place. He was an Indian and he had a ranch just outside of town. So making the story a little shorter, he took us to the ranch one morning. He picked us all up. We went. We had a beautiful ranch breakfast there. And then we went to the stables while we were standing in front of the stables, a young couple of young guys walking horses out of the stables, already saddled and with what? Bringing them into the corral. To walk around. I didn’t want to. The time was right, he said. Okay, let’s go. Sammy, that’s your heart. And Sammy said very badly, this almost. I probably couldn’t say what he said. You’re not going to get me on any African horse. I guess he was scared of dogs. He wouldn’t go near a horse. Lo and behold, we talked Sammy into getting on this horse. Well, he got on the horse. The guy had given him a gentle horse, and they started walking around the corral. All of a sudden, Sammy Davis entertainer Sammy Davis became Hopalong Cassidy. Just like that. And we were on our way out of the corral and into the desert and shooting everything we could shoot. That’s how Sami really got good with the guns because get very familiar with the guns. Now, those are the things that we did because he didn’t have this is my value, really my valid opinion. Sami didn’t have a child hood. He didn’t have the kids to play kickball with or soccer or whatever you want to call it. Never did it. So he did it with me. I was the one that we did that we did that with. And I have movies to prove. This proves something. All about what I’m telling you. I guess that’s about as far as I can go with things we’re used to by other than golf clubs. Just don’t get started on the golf club because you get started on the golf clubs and now we’re into the golf club and now we’re into where are we going to play golf? Well, I’m better than you know. You’re not. Sam. You can’t hit the ball as good as I can. Yes, you can. No, you can’t. It just went on to Sammy. Lost his eye. Well.
Interviewer: Actually, let’s talk about that. That was my next question.
Arthur Silber: Oh.
Interviewer: The car accident.
Arthur Silber: That’s a whole that’s a whole episode in itself.
Interviewer: You were the first one there. Tell me. Tell me what happened.
Arthur Silber: I was on my. I had my father had passed away and I was running his office, closing it down. And I was coming home from my father’s office at Crossroads in Hollywood. I was in the car and I had my radio on. Just playing music. I got out of the car and I heard the phone ringing in the house. I was still in the driveway right here. I heard the phone ringing and it kept ringing and there was no answering machine. There was this data. So I jumped on the phone. It was my father’s secretary saying, Have you had the radio? And I said, Yeah, we’ve been listening to the music. Did you hear about Sammy’s accent? I said, What are you talking about? Probably, He said, in a little different words than that, but I got it, you know. What do you mean, though? What do you mean by that? And he said, Would you assume he’s in the terrible accident and he might be dying? And that’s the about that far in the conversation. And those days, I had a Ford convertible hot rod. Very fast car. And Highway ten was just built between Los Angeles and San Bernardino. That’s all the further it went at that point in time. That gave me an open highway. I swear to you, I was from my house in San Bernardino, which is actually 50 miles away. Not quite, but close. I was there within at least no more than 40 minutes or less. Broke every speed record there was. That’s where I that’s why I was the first one there. There was nobody else there. With me.
Interviewer: What did you find when you arrived?
Arthur Silber: When I got to the hospital, there was nobody there but hospital staff. And of course, I came running in the door. And could that hospital, the very small hospital, San Bernardino community hospital. Back in those days, it was a small hospital. It was the hospital I would like today. We would call in an urgent care hospital. It was very small. Anyway, I went out yelling for somebody who were Sammy Davis Jr. And the nurse pointed me to another nurse and then she said No. Just around the corner, he says, But he’s in the operating room right now. You can’t go in there. No. And I said, Yes, I can imagine it. But I could see the glass there, two glass doors. I could see movement behind the doors. And then comes Sam Senior and will match and would be the next ones to arrive. Now, if we all wish we all were there until we got the result that Sammy had. The Dr. Hall came out and said. We’re very you know, I’m very whatever his words were, we’re very sorry that Sammy had lost his eye, which hit us all like a ton of bricks right in the face and in our, you know. And he may not have other either. We’re trying to save that eye. Well, there there is a capper to his story. So that was it. He will drive. He went right by us just a just before that. Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh had arrived at the hospital. You know what? I’m telling the truth. When I get the goose pimples, that’s when you know I’m telling the truth. The same day they arrived as Sammy was wheeled by them. Janet put something in Sammy’s hand. And it’s like I’m holding this. He held that and was wheeled off. I had no idea what that was. I didn’t know. Only Janet and Tony knew about their. They had given him a medallion like about this size with the cross on one side and the Jewish star on the other side. Sammy held that so tight for almost an entire day that when he opened his hand, the impression. Of the star. The David was in his hand. And he would never let go of that for days. He wouldn’t wouldn’t let it get out of his hand for days. He was just because so much was going through his head at that time about things like, I’m going to deviate. And if it stopped me, if I go or not, because I’m going in a kind of another direction. Sammy was lying in bed, couldn’t see out of either I. Because they had taken advantage of it in order to be able to save the guy. And the thoughts he was having at that time was. Will I ever be able to dance again? Will I ever be able to sing again? What will. He would say, What’s Messi and my dad going to do without me? These were the thoughts, the very first thoughts that started coming through his head. And now it’s kind of interesting if you know why.
Interviewer: What what did when he was aware that you were there, what did he say to you?
Arthur Silber: Actually, we hugged one another. And we both cried. He just said, I love you, man. I love you. Or words to that effect. And that was about as far as it went. And you don’t want me to get emotional today? I’m very close to it right now. The last time I did this, I did that. It was emotional. You know, when you have a relationship with a person. Surely the relationship that Sammy and I had, it was more than close. It was one like one. His worry was, like I said, about performing. Now that he knew that his eye was going to is going to be all right, He had to wear a kind of a safety patch over where he could see through it. But it wasn’t the regular patch to be wore for his bad. I mean, the bad. I was gone. It was gone. He worried because Will danced on his left. Sam Senor danced on his right. Sammy was so concerned about. Not being able to see anything on his left side. And his first thought was he’s going to knock Will over or he’s going to duck into into will or he is going to fall off the stage. Now I’m just telling you things. I guarantee you nobody has told you these stories. I would be very surprised if they did because they didn’t know they weren’t there. Uh, but that was his main concern.
Interviewer: What was your concern?
Arthur Silber: But same as his. My concern was for his health, really. Now we’re going to get in a touchy spot in a moment. I’m going to see whether I’m right or whoever I’m going to tell is right. Well, hold on. I got to put my mind back into this. You’re the first major star to come out there other than Tony and Janda. What came and went? The reason for Sammy being in the hospital was because he was on his way in to sing the title song to Six Bridges, Six Bridges to Cross, which was Tony’s picture. He was making it and Sammy was coming in town to do the soundtrack to the song. That’s how the whole accent started. The first what I would call major star, not the Tony Curtis. And Janet Leigh weren’t big stars, but nothing to the likes of Eddie Cantor. I mean, when Eddie Cantor came to the hospital, the whole hospital came to see Eddie Cantor. I guarantee you they did. The reason why Eric Cantor played such an important part in Sammy’s life is this. Now I’ve got to back up a little bit. The reason Eddie Cannon was so big. Eddie Cannon with the Colgate Comedy Hour couldn’t get any bigger than that. And Sammy was on his show as Sammy finished dancing. They show Eddie Cantor walked out. And took his handkerchief out of his pocket and he mopped Sami’s brow. The South took arms. And what happened was. The people resented the fact to the fact that it was huge, huge news that a white man would map the brow of a black man. How dare they do that? This hit Eddie Cantor in the wrong place as far as everybody else was concerned. Naturally, Colgate Palmolive called him into the office and said, Oh, no, we can never do that again. And he said, I’ll use the words, not the words that he actually used, because we probably couldn’t play it, he said. Told them what they could do with their show because he was that big. He was a bigot in his his time as a Carson was at his time that powerful. And he’s you can take your show and you can show it. Not only that, Sammy will be on my show next week doing a solo number by himself. Or I’m gone. Do you think that Colgate-Palmolive people would take a chance like that? No, they didn’t. They had to live with it and they did. And Sammy was next the next week on that show. Now during rehearsal for that show. Cantor wore just a pair of slacks and a man’s white T-shirt. Just a T-shirt. He was wearing around his neck a mezuzah. Sammy asked him What? What was that? He told me it was a minister, sir. And he says, What does that mean? And they went outside the door. Outside the stage door, and. Kanter went outside with Sammy and explained to him what it was, what the mezuzah was, and what it meant to Jewish families and what have you. So Sammy understood that. Well, we spent the day, we finished the day and we went back to our hotel at the Sunset Strip, the Colonial Hotel. By the way, nobody can remember the name of the hotel. I just gave it to you. The phone rang. No, I’m sorry. We went back to the Colonial Hotel. In case nobody remembers the name of the hotel where we stayed. Sammy comes through, he says, Call Mr. Kanter. Mr. Cantor not call Eddie Cantor? Mr. Cantor. Because that’s the way Sammy talked, which reverts back to what I was talking about, the way Sammy spoke to people. Never at this level, ever. Always up here. So I said, What do you want me to do? He says, I got to apologize to Mr. Cantor. Mr. Cantor, I said, For what? I says you had a long talk outside. What did you guys talk about? I just know I have to apologize to him. It just so happens at that point in time, it’s locked away in a safe now. But I had an address book to everybody in Hollywood. There was nobody I couldn’t call. That’s truth. So I said, Sam, what are you going to say? What are you apologizing to him for? You didn’t do anything wrong, nor did he, if anything, anybody did anything to mix up the world. You can live with the weather. Wipe your brow. Get Mr. Carter on the phone for me now. Not his voice. Sami’s voice has changed. I should do this now or I’ll slap your face or something. So I got Carter on the phone. I got his. His men worked for him in the house. And I asked for him. And he asked who was calling. And I told him it was Sammy Davis Jr. So he handed the phone to Cantor. Carter answered the phone. Very polite. Wonderful man. Wonderful man. God, he talked to Sammy, and Sammy started to apologize to him. And he wouldn’t accept the apology. Just wouldn’t accept the apology at all. He said, Sammy, there’s no need all those kind of words. There’s no need. You have no need to apologize to me for anything. On and on and on. Except it ends as with I’m inviting you over to my house. Can you come over today? And Jeremy turns to me because I’m the one with the car. He says he just invited us to go to his office. Well, then, let’s go. Just down the Sunset Strip. And we went. We came in and he and and Eddie Cantor is sitting in his den in a man’s robe, sitting in his debt. And we go in All Hallows with their this and that. Would you like something to drink? And everything was fine. So we had a little chat. I came to apologize and he said it again. And candor was almost to the point of getting mad at Sammy saying, I want to apologize to you. He wouldn’t accept. He just wouldn’t accept that phrase. He wouldn’t accept it. He did do it and it did nothing to. Has Sammy apologized for. So I knew we had our chat and he was very low keyed. Man and very nice man. And then we got to came time to go because we didn’t Sammy didn’t want to stay too long and take up Eddie Canter’s time for him. And so Eddie reaches over like this, and he picks up a little box. He says, I want you to have this. And now I’m starting to get emotional. I want you to have this. Sammy opened it up and it was amazing. So. And Sammy started to get teary eyed. And was hugging him. You have. Let’s excuse me for a minute, because if I don’t, I’m going to come to face. I want to say you almost had to be there. It was one of those moments in time that everything just stopped in the world. Stop the world. I want to get off. There we go. That’s another story for another two. We left. Now, here’s the funny part about this. Sammy never took that mezuzah off, just like I don’t take off this medallion. Except. The night he was going to come to Hollywood to record this song for Tony Curtis, his picture. He went into it, did two shows. He went in to take a shower, never did what he did. He took this off and set it on the top of his dresser right in front of the shower door, went in, took a shower and took off. The measure slipped to the floor. Later down the line, just by a week or two or three. Sammy confessed to Eddie Cantor, who came back there, and you couldn’t keep him away from the hospital. He blamed himself. Sammy blames himself that if he had not taken that mezuzah off his neck. The accident would never have happened. And he tell his dying day, he blamed that on himself, Sammy, that he took Thomases off. That’s a true story.
Interviewer: How did. How did Sammy find Judaism?
Arthur Silber: Sammy found Judaism. I’ve heard that question asked me a thousand times. One. I guess the first time was in every hospital, almost every hospital. There is some kind of clergy in the hospital. Always. Later, I have found. Just so happened that the clergy in the hospital, the San Bernardino Hospital, happened to be Jewish. And he got talking with Sammy. The rabbi got talking with Sammy. Sammy? Now, remember I said a while ago that Sammy was raised Catholic for he didn’t practice it, but the family did. But Sammy had many questions about Catholicism, about all of the statues and all of the things that represent Catholicism. He didn’t agree with it in his mind. He never could see why this statue meant more than that statue. These are some of his words, too. But when he talked to the rabbi and he had questions for the rabbi about certain things. Statue, statues, this stays in my head was one of them. I don’t know why. It just did. He got a different answer than he would have gotten from a priest. The Catholic. He answered his call that a rabbi answered his question in a different way. He understood that way. That was the drop. That was the drop of sugar in the cup of coffee that started him thinking about Judaism. So he would had daily while he was in that hospital, would have a meeting with the rabbi and he would ask more questions, more question. And he he believed the answers and he understood, I should say he understood the answers that he was being given. And that was the start of Sammy to becoming Jewish, because he believed he believed what this man was telling him, more so than what the other man had to say. So it was really that simple. And of course, with any cancer on top of it, you know, where do you go from here? Just, you know, that’s it. That was that was his start. That was his start.
Interviewer: Did Jerry Lewis and others encourage his conversion? What did people think when he converted? Whether those who.
Arthur Silber: Oh, there was well, let’s just take virtually the black community. They already didn’t like them. Anyway, we’ll get to that later on down the line. But that didn’t work with them. They didn’t they didn’t understand what Sammy understood because Sammy’s sources were different than the guy living in Harlem. Some people took some Jewish people in Hollywood, old boy, Hollywood, everybody’s Jewish. Well, there are a few that aren’t. But some of them couldn’t understand why. And this is with women within all of this life. Why is this white man telling me I should be Jewish or or how do I dare to be Jewish? Is probably a better way to phrase that. They just didn’t understand. And of course, they went back to the William Morris age that they were all Jewish, and it just didn’t work until they believed it. Even Frank, when I was getting ahead of myself were my started to go learn about Judaism. Frank called him up on the telephone in London. I was in a room when he called him. Don’t do that, Sam. Don’t do that, Sam. Because it’s going to bring the world down on you. But Frank Lloyd, Sammy was his own man. Like I said before, if it’s going to be, I’m going to live my life like I want to like the average. I want to be still. I want to be the average person just like everybody else. Don’t make a difference what color my skin is. That’s that he lived his life that way. Why? He wrote the book. Why me? I mean, that was basically the thought behind that.
Interviewer: Let’s talk about some of the women in Sammy’s life. What? These women.
Arthur Silber: You ain’t got enough time in this week to do that.
Interviewer: Just put some names out there. And briefly tell us what his relationship was with these women. Ava Gardner.
Arthur Silber: How did you find out about any of that? Well-kept secret. Hmm. Sammy’s relationship with Ava Gardner did not go as far as everybody thinks it did. It didn’t go any further than this. I know. Because I’m the man that drove the car to the house and drove. Drove to the house and picked him up and took him home. It was just another fling. It wasn’t because it was Ava Gardner. Probably in Sammy’s mind, it was Ava Gardner. But what? Married with red blood. An event is going to turn down Ava Gardner. Come on. That has a lot to do with Sam. These girls, by the way, that phrase, I’ll I’ll roll on to that as we go along. But it was not a big romance at all. It was a one night stand. I mean, that’s the only way I can tell. You may have been two nights and that would that would have stretched it out just to get that far, because I happened to be see the whole thing with me as opposed to all the people that were going to do this thing with. I have one thing over everybody. Everybody. I was there personally 24 seven for 27 years, thereby.
Interviewer: I’m sorry I interrupted you. I was there when I was there.
Arthur Silber: I was there for what? For how many years? That the phrase you want me.
Interviewer: Or I.
Arthur Silber: Draw the back and forth.
Interviewer: I stepped on your line. Just say what you saw by saying the one thing. What is badge? I have everybody. Oh, yeah? What was Sammy’s relationship with Chita Rivera? Great.
Arthur Silber: Four great show, show business relationships, you know, great dancer. He was a great dancer. There were a lot of those.
Interviewer: Eartha KITT.
Arthur Silber: Sally was a little bit more about some of these other people. Let’s take Eartha KITT, for example. He had a pretty strong relationship with Eartha KITT. First of all, she was a first. He she was a star in the first movie he ever made with her. She was the star and he was the star. David, Eartha KITT and Sammy with the stars in the movie. But Eartha KITT is a very strange lady. Eartha KITT has a really has a brain on her head. And I remember one conversation in San Francisco where she was up there. She came up to see Sarah, as they had, because I was at the table. They had a conversation about Sammy spending money so recklessly, living so recklessly, and she gave him quite a lecture on how to handle his money, how what he should be doing with his money, how he should live his life, not having anything to do romantically in that conversation and that saying there was none of that there. It was there. But Eartha KITT is a very smart woman and she had a lot to say to him. Too bad Sam didn’t listen. I heard her, too. He. I heard her. He didn’t even know I was there. I mean, this in this specific conversation, I heard what she was trying to tell him, as was everybody that knew that was close to him, including Frank. Including. Well, there are names you would know, Don. Joe Medal of the people like these are mobsters.
Interviewer: Let’s stick with the women.
Arthur Silber: If you say.
Interviewer: So. What was that Little bit a better question? What was average relationship with Kim Novak?
Arthur Silber: The relationship between Kim and Sammy was like Catholics relationship with the church. That sounds funny coming from anybody. But when that started. How it started. Where it started, when it started. When all of this is over, all of this filming is over. I want to hear the answers. You got to that question because there are going to be different answers. I can tell you with my hand to God, they’re going to be different answers. How it came about, how long it lasted, what happened while it lasted. You’ve got to hear here stories I can tell you. You are.
Interviewer: Can we start with you?
Arthur Silber: The relationship between Kim and Sam. He started as a little party at Tony Curtis and Janet Lee’s house. Just a few people. That’s it. She just happened to be there. And he happened to be there. They just met about 10 seconds, and that was over. That was just really. I want to use the phrase little cocktail party, but it was just about a small party. But that’s how it met. Now what happens? Between them. I happened to be there, but I didn’t see anything. I didn’t see any bullets gone back and forth. None of that, says Shea. Kim Novak is a gorgeous woman, so naturally you’re attracted to her, whether you’re Sammy or not. On the way. On the way back from the party to the hotel, Sammy says to me, Well, we’re all set for tomorrow night. Well, he told me it’s all set for tomorrow night. I said, What the hell are you talking about? And he says, Well, I’m going to Kim’s house for dinner. And I said, Like hell you are. Are you f ing crazy? You just don’t know. It’s all set up. I got it all set up. I said, How do you have it set up? I don’t know where this woman lives. I haven’t the slightest idea. What do you mean? You’re going to his house? Yeah, I’m going to her house. And where does she live? She lives over in Beverly Hills. I said, Oh, you want me to take you in my. Convertible Ford. To Beverly Hills when you’re riding in the car and dropping you off at Kim’s house? He says, Yeah. He says, No, I got it all figured out. He says, I’m going to wear Levi’s and a Levi jacket and you’re going to drive down the street. And as we go by her house, I’ll just jump out of the car and run up the steps and you just keep going. I said, Are you f ing crazy? You are going to get out of the car, walk down her, drive to her front door, as I would have just dropped you off. And I was on my way. Yeah. And then at I think he said 10:00, but I don’t remember the exact time. He said, you come back down the street, you dress up in Levi’s and everything, and you come back down the street again. And as we go by the house, I’ll just run and jump into the back of the car. I again said, Are you f ing crazy? I’m not going to do that, Sam. Well, naturally, I did it. What am I gonna say? No. But I did it. Now, that’s how that part of their relationship really started. Because whatever clicked in that room with Tony Curtis in general is that I did not see and I do not know what made it happen, because after that dinner. But it happened again over and over again until it finally got squashed. A little bit by some people. The mob, they thought they squash it completely, but they didn’t.
Interviewer: What was Carlos Cohn’s response to Novak? Harry Cohn.
Arthur Silber: The studio hated to took care of autism.
Interviewer: Well, we’ll start with Kim.
Arthur Silber: Harry Cohn was so mad at Kim, he put her like on parole. He had. A private detective following her wherever she went. When they could still see where she worked. That would help as far as Sammy was concerned. He had. The death threat put on Sammy. Now, let me tell you about how heavy that gets. You are dealing with a mob man, right? Sammy is a mob person, as were 90% of the entertainers in show business either belong to the Chicago mob. The Miami mob. The. The the New York mob didn’t make any difference. If you are a star, you belong to one. And you were one of those people. Now I can get into a long story on how you become that way and how the mob gets paid and all of that. The whole the whole book. But it’s not a book, I can tell you. But any rate, I stay with this. So the word the word got out right away. Of course, it got a lot of rain. Kim certainly knew what the word was. Sammy knew what the word was. But let me tell you how Sammy found out what the word what they had been without. We were out and around in Hollywood doing whatever. I don’t even remember what we were doing on that day. Somebody and I’ll give you his name before I’m through. Was given the message. Get this message to Sammy. The message was Mary, a black girl within 48 hours or you’re dead. That’s it. That was the message. Now, how does that message get to Sammy? Everybody was trying to get a hold of Sammy. We was trying to go Sammy Massey Senior trying to get a hold of Sam. Everybody was trying to get a hold of me or show me, either one of us. We were out in the town doing something. I knew nothing. Probably in the magic store doing something. I don’t know. I don’t remember. However. Mickey Cohen was told that story. Now, do we know who Mickey Cohen is? Okay. We know who Mickey Cohen it. He was given the story. He was the one that got a hold of Will Mastin and told Will Mastin what was going to happen. It was Will Mastin who got a hold of Sammy and me and Sam Senior and told him the story. Panic obviously set in like you wouldn’t believe. However, before the whole story got to me personally. I’m we. Sammy and I were sitting at the Sands Hotel. Our bedrooms faced one another. The doors were both open so I could see him. I was sitting on my bed shining my cowboy boots. As a matter of fact. And I’m looking at Sammy and he’s got his address book and he’s going through his address book like this, you know, line by line by line by. So I. I was paying attention. I was shining my boots. Finally getting the bug me why he was doing that. I said, What the f are you looking for? I says, I got everybody’s number in this whole town. What are you looking for? This. I’m looking for somebody to marry. I says, Of course you are. Everybody is. It was a joke. He says no matter what he called me. Man, that was serious. No, man, this ain’t no joke. What’s going down. That’s when the whole story came to me. Right to my face.
Interviewer: Wow. That’s a pitcher.
Arthur Silber: Yep.
Interviewer: I’m nuts. I’ve not read that article. What is that?
Arthur Silber: When we were going through the part about finding out about the hit with put out, remember this? Well, I tell you now, wherever we do from now on or ever again. Whatever happens to Sammy happens to me. He gets put in a hole in the desert. Arthur, get put in a hole right next to him in the desert. I am the fly, the legitimate fly on the wall. I’m the guy in the steam room when Dean and Frank and everybody else you can think of was in the steam room because the Sands Hotel was the only hotel on the entire block in those days that had a steam room. But I gave you a little bit of information. Didn’t know about that either. I’m sure. So everything that went on could imagine being in a room with these guys and their jokes. If it was in there. I had one spot up in the corner at the top level and that just sit in the corner and I would chime in when I wasn’t like being pushed away at all. I was just accepted. I always had that with Frank. And then in the, I want to say, the mob with Frank and the Rat Pack and everything, I was just. I was there. I was part of it. I was. I was just there. It’s okay. Oh, hi. It’s okay. Don’t worry about it, you know? Go on.
Interviewer: Well, I thought you brought up Sammy’s relationship with. With the mob and every entertainer at that time, every night, club entertainer had some relationship with the mob. What was Savage’s relationship with them up?
Arthur Silber: Sammy’s relationship with the mob is like anybody else with the mob on its head. You can use this if you want to use it. Tell me. Tell you how the mob makes money. In those days the mob had and entertainers are tied up within each one. Each group had their own entertainers. Here’s how it comes down. This is how I tell the story. Somebody comes to Sam. And says, Sam, we’ve got a booking for you at the Paramount Theater. You’re going to get paid. $5,000 a week. I come to my father or whoever to come. And they go to the the day comes by and the mob gets. 4000. Sammy gets 4000 of that 5000. The mob got the other fourth. And that’s how it works. The mob takes the money that they want and the personality gets the rest. And they did it for over a year now. You can imagine the figures, the amounts of money that pass through hand through the years. It is humongous. But that’s how the mob operates now. Also. First thing Sammy ever taught me when we first got kick rubbed, rub up a little with the mop a. Arthur, let me tell you something. Seriously. Don’t ever do the mob a favor. I naturally would say, why not? He says, the minute you do them a favor. Their indebted to. You’re indebted to them for doing it a favor and you will be indebted to them for the rest of your life. I never did a favor for the mob. He did. And he died broke. He meaning, Sammy? I don’t. We broke. Broke. You know what I mean? Could you know the stories? That’s what you do. There was a time in Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. We did a small club owned by the mob just outside of Pittsburgh. And. We went in after the show. And a gambling hall. I mean, you know, over the table, the crap tables, the outcomes, the guns all over the tables, all the crap table, the blackjack take of the roulette table. The guns come out all over the place. Sammy and I was we were in the office of the owner of the club, and we heard a hit being put out on somebody’s. And we’ve got, as I said, what they after we do now, he says we do nothing. We say nothing, We know nothing. We forget something. And I believe I told that story in the book. He said, You do not want to get mixed up, you and whoever was going to be hit. Was hit and I have never mentioned the name. I have not even to my wife, I have not mentioned to anybody, could I? Not in years. They all did not close close to it, mentioning my name. I wouldn’t dare. I just wouldn’t dare do it. It’s just whatever. A little side story.
Interviewer: So I going to lighten things up a little.
Arthur Silber: You asked me dropping Sammy off, picking Sammy up as we drove down the street, etc., etc.. After this thing went on about the relationship between Sammy and Kim, we had to be very careful what we did about who could be seen with who. So it ended up being three people that really knew about this relationship. For first hand, me. Sammy and the lady I was engaged to at the time, Patsy Rose, I give you a phone number. She still alive and she live in Florida. She’ll back me up. But we would not talk. But more importantly, though, we, Cameron and I, of this time, Sammy and I would never we had a pact of I would never take a picture. Of any of that three or four of us. I, Sammy and I, if you probably may or may not know, were I passed by this story earlier, I don’t know why. Were ferocious camera bugs. And I have the pictures to prove it. And in a few moments, I’m going to show you just a little something just for your own. Fun. But we became picture books and that’s why there’s so many pictures out. Sami I personally have some that nobody has ever seen. They’re right there, which you’ll see before you go.
Interviewer: So what was the wedding like between the way.
Arthur Silber: They had a regular wedding, just like any other wedding with the families were there. We’re all there. And I was there and her family was there. Everybody was there. It was just like it was just that easy. For Sammy. Now you’ve just. Now you have turned a table now. That was probably the one of the worst, I will have to say, other than maybe the loss of his eye or something. That was the worst day in Sammy’s life. Because one he wanted. I want to tell you this.
Interviewer: You were going just fine.
Arthur Silber: That was the day that the afternoon of the wedding. We were on our way walking from our hotel room, which is outside of the hotel, over to the sand, to the Camellia Room. Pee wee. Now, Sam, my stepmother had a big box. And she as we’re walking down the aisle to Sammy, we’re already down. I have to be down. What he’s going through, trying to stay alive, gives him this box and in a bag. A box about this big animal back, he opens up the box and he screams. Oh, for Christ’s sake. Why did you do this? Talking to his stepmother. In the box was a blanket. A car. A car blanket. For the sake of size. Which is the blanket that they used when I used to drive them around to and from the beach or wherever we have to go. Sammy was in the back seat with this blanket covered over him so nobody could recognize him. And he saw the blanket. But they had one other little thing. They had a little silver pin of a dove. That meant I don’t even remember how that came about at the time, but that was their kind of love thing, something or other that. Pee wee. Sammy Steadman had pinned on the top of the blanket. Sammy went. Absolutely hysterically crazy. How could. And he was yelling at his stepmother, How could you possibly give me this on my way to go over to get married to another woman that I don’t give a damn about, Joe. And it went and then it grew from there into a huge thing because this is who this by the end of that day, this is the day that I have to sell it. We did the wedding. We went over for the the party after the wedding over at the Moulin Rouge Hotel. Not the big one they had are there on the black side of town, the nice place. But this is where Sammy started drinking heavily, real heavy liquor out of ice buckets, drinking to getting so drunk he didn’t know he was even alive. It took two of us to get him to the car. Big John, his bodyguard, a man twice my size. We put him in the car. I had my car. I drove the car. Sammy was sitting next to me, screaming, crying, and Lorraine was sitting right next to him, also doing the same thing. And now I’m driving them through town back to the hotel. I get to the hotel. The hotel had given them the bridal suite for the night, even though Sammy Harris had had a whole end of a building at the other end. We went into the She got out. Lori got out. Ran into the room. I got that. Sammy’s just screaming all over the place. I picked him up because, you know, he was only as big as, you know, nothing. 100 and £124 and. Yeah, I didn’t wait. I picked him up to carry him into the suite he tore. He was grabbing. Why won’t they leave me alone? Why won’t they let me live like anybody else? Why must I go through there? Die, Die, Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! And he tore the whole top of my sleeve off of my jacket. I carried him in and she was on the couch in the front room. I carried him into the bedroom and I dropped him on the bed. And I went back to see her. As I went back to see her. Something clicked in my head to go back to Sammy. I walked back to the bedroom just as Sammy was putting the gun to his head. I jumped on top of him and knocked the gun out of his hand. Before he had a chance to pull the trigger. And I laid on top of him with my knees on his shoulders until I completely was out, until I had somebody, John, and somebody else come over and help me out because I couldn’t had this a situation. I can’t leave him alone with a gun. There’s too many guns in the dress. Remember, the faster we had guns everywhere. Back in the main room. And I couldn’t let him loose to go get a gun. In the vat. In the VAT story.
Interviewer: Well, he did have happier days to come. Let’s talk a little bit about. When Sammi and Mae met. And. Give me some.
Arthur Silber: Funny. You use the word me.
Interviewer: My four, seven, my.
Arthur Silber: I know, I know. I know what you’re going through. Because I knew she was right. She was one of my closest friends my age. She and I used to hang out all the time.
Interviewer: All right, well, let’s let’s talk about that. Why were you friends with me?
Arthur Silber: Why was I friends with May? Mai Mai May. Well, because of the circumstances, the circumstances being when my. And that’s a very that’s the name I’m going to have to you as well. This was my they were so close when they got engaged. It started with the engagement when it went public. Well, she was. She was in London. And she was coming off of the crash. Her family was coming over to London to meet the fam to meet Sammy. So she and I used to hang out a lot together because I was. She looked upon me as never was said and never was spoken as, Nobody’s going to hurt me as long as Arthur’s around because I was the big guy then, bigger than I am now. £250, six foot tall. No, I did not have that. 260, £70. Right. Nothing would happen to me as long as Arthur was around, which is true. Nothing could possibly happen to her unless I would come shot as both. Nothing. Whatever happened to her wouldn’t get near her because I had ways of brushing people away who want autographs or things like that. So we became. Very close friends, because wherever Sammy went during this short period of time and we were in London, it was my and I and I have pictures of us sitting in. Sitting together in different places, the two of us sitting together. That’s how we became friends. We just became friends as well. Have you interviewed by yet? No. You’re going to interview a very nice lady. Trust me.
Interviewer: How the hell did Sammy meet my.
Arthur Silber: How Sammy met and why we were we were in a cafeteria and I was doing Blue Angel filming Blue Angel, and she came in by herself. Sammy and I were sitting with Barbara Lewin at a table and my walks in while of course, when my walks come to your face, you definitely will stop and look. She is one gorgeous lady. And she came and sat down at the table. Sammy turns to Barbara Luna, he says. Who is she and how do I get her phone number? And Barbara says, No, Sam, and that I’m not going to do it to her. I’m not going to introduce you to her. Barbara Lewin, a very close friend. And still is one of mine. At any rate, she said that. Long story a little bit shorter. Naturally, he got the phone number and they started a bit of. It’s funny. We were driving down Sunset Boulevard near Schwab’s Drugstore, the famous Schwab Drugstore. We were in a convertible. I was driving. My happened to pull up in a convertible right next to us in front of Schwab’s. And it was. Hi. Hi. Hi. And I started to pull over into the little pervert conversation. What’s the big deal, then? But that’s how that started. They all started to build from there. And believe me, we built a tower out of all of this. The trips in the cars and the back and forth, you have no idea. I don’t know how. Part two I don’t want to get too personal, but a funny stories about the train station. I mean, the year anybody told me, they couldn’t have told you that you weren’t there.
Interviewer: The news.
Arthur Silber: We end up going back to sugar as far as relationships go. This was I kind of had the funny not in your head, a funny part to it. Sammy was at the Sands when we were appearing at the set. My had gone back for Thanksgiving to Chicago where she lived. They have a farm just outside of Chicago. Oh, Kim. Kim. Forget what I just said. I just turned the whole thing all around in my head.
Interviewer: Two beautiful blonds.
Arthur Silber: Oh, God. We’re talking about mine, not Kim.
Interviewer: We have.
Arthur Silber: No, it’s it’s a whole different world will hold it when it went down a different road that the same kind of road, but it went down entirely different road and an entirely different way. It was the relationship between Kim and my. Ow, ow, ow, ow! The relationship with Sammy and my. Was very much above board. Sammy was when it when it was when the engagement was announced. We were in London. It so happened that the London press was having a big meeting about Sammy because he was we were over there to do the first Royal command performance of Chap with Sammy coming to London. That was a huge deal. There were plenty of pictures and movies of that. The whole show, at any rate, Frank called Sammy from London. I picked up the phone, but it was Frankie he was furious at Sammy, Called him every name in the book. Don’t do this. You’re crazy. And all the facetious things that would come after that. He did not want Sammy to do what Sammy was going to do, but Sammy was going to do it good. Sammy was going to live his life the way he wanted to. Along with everybody. He wasn’t dragging anybody with him. It was just it was a mutual thing, but on a friendly basis. As opposed. To Kim, which was friendly, but. I want to say facetious for Satan is probably the wrong word. It is the wrong word. It was a little. Sexier. There was more sex emotions involved in that relationship. That was a different kind of a relationship. That was a dirty one. This was the real clean one. This is a girl from high school. This was the other girl to play with all the guys. And I don’t mean to say anything derogatory about Kim because I love her dearly because she and I also were very good friends. I got to get. I got to get back. It’s hot. I got to get back to buy my again.
Interviewer: I want I want to change gears a little bit.
Arthur Silber: Okay, good. Thank you. You got me out of old guy.
Interviewer: We just mentioned Frank. I’ll just to say it. What was your relationship and Frank really like?
Arthur Silber: The relationship between Sammy and Frank is a it’s difficult to explain love hate relationship for sure. More love than hate. But Frank could get very vicious. And some of the things he did with and about Sammy, along with their friend Dean Martin. Because Dean comes in there, too, a little bit. As far as loving, as far as loving two guys, loving one another. No question about that. No question at all. But, Frank, when Frank is in a mood and he has them. He can get vicious. Pretty vicious. Really, really vicious. I was witness to a lot of that only because of this weird relationship between me and Frank and the gang. He didn’t say anything. He could call Sammy every dirty thing in the book. But I’m still Arthur. He never call me or call me Arthur. Arthur, do this. Arthur, do that. You know, there’s always. Arthur, do this. Arthur, do that. I was never involved in any bad. He would never say, Sammy is a daddy. Daddy dirty. So and so and so. He made me go by me. But I wasn’t involved. I was still that fly on the wall. I’ve been that fly on the wall for almost 78 years. He loved Frank. Couldn’t love me anymore. Now there are probably three times more than me of a different kind of relationship. He adored Frank. They adored one another. But Frank would get turned on him like they’re announcing the engagement and things like he would get very, very hard. And Frank can get very hard. Believe me, he can. In a lot of ways. But all in all, the relationship was still. As good as it could possibly be. The last thing. I don’t think anybody’s told you what I’m about to say. It’s not a long story there. Murphy. Bennet was Sammy’s man. Have you anybody mentioned Murphy Bennet to you? But I won’t go. I won’t go into Murphy better with Murphy, Bennet, myself and my wife. We’re very tight as well. But Murphy came to my wife at Sammy’s funeral. And said, Come with me to the casket, please. You have to hide me from anybody else. Because the one piece of jewelry that the IRS never got was Frank Gold. Golden Watch. Murphy had taken it from the house when the IRS came and Murphy got to go through it. But now, you know I’m telling the truth. Ask my wife. She she got up from place in a chapel. And what was worse, they stood next to one another so Murphy could put Frank’s watch on his hand so he could be buried with his watch. That’s about as long as that story goes. Look at me. Almost goosebumps. But after true story, though.
Interviewer: Al Franken. Franken Sammy created magic. At the Sands. You were there the whole. For the audience. Just tell us. Tell us about that magic. Well, tell me what happened at the Sands.
Arthur Silber: The relationship at the Sands Hotel between Sammy. Sammy, Sammy, Dean. Anne Frank with the summit at the Sands. David, Where that came from, I know not, but it came up. Was something you had to have an awful lot of money to go see that show. A lot of money. A $2,000 tip to the waiter at the door would just about get you just through the door. People were paying tens of thousands of dollars to see that show seriously. And it was so funny. It was funny If you watch it. Did you know Sammy would be singing in there and Dean would walk across the stage and back to him with just his shorts on, carrying his pants over his arm. All kinds of stupid things like that. But. One thing that got me absolutely mad at Frank and Dean, so mad at Hollywood. And if you’ve seen a lot of these clips because they’re all around where you see Dean picking up Frank and saying, I want to thank the NAACP for this award. It’s on film and a lot of places you can find it. It’s easy to get. That just hit me. It made me so mad. I wanted to I was in a light booth because I do light. That’s what I do. I want to go out and just just tackle Frank and tackle them all. Because over the microphone, Sammy is singing whatever it might be. You hear smiles st showing your teeth. So they can all see you. Sam, The watermelon is back, is getting warm from all the hate. All those racial things that may be funny to the 2000 people sitting in that chairs. But it wasn’t funny to Sammy. Now, if you see pictures of Sammy, you’ll see a stool offstage. There’s lots of them where she. Frank and you see Dean and you see Sammy sitting on a little white stool this high. Now, Sammy would never cry in front of anybody except me. He would cry in front of me. He would go back to the room. Grab me by the pants of a shirt and say, What goes into the whole thing about why do they treat me this way? Why must I live like this? And all of those kind of things? And he was in tears like you would believe, because it was coming from Frank and Dean. Not some loudmouth in the audience yelling out some racial remark.
Interviewer: How. How would you respond?
Arthur Silber: Mad.
Interviewer: How would you respond when Samwu was confronted with racism?
Arthur Silber: Mad. Very mad. More than mad. Angry as all hell. To tell you the truth, because it was. I felt like I became Sammy for that moment. And I wanted to go jump out of the light booth where I was and go and start knocking heads together because I big enough to do that. But, you know, I had a job and it did it and they did it, and Sammy didn’t put a stop to it. He never told them, Stop, don’t talk to me that way. Or so he would have anybody else except those two guys, especially Frank. He would not do that. And it’s to my hand, to God he never did in my presence, ever apologize or say anything like that to Sammy. His love he gave him endlessly his affection to Sammy. It was endless. No bounds at all. It’s just that there’s certain things happen that hit me hard, almost as hard as it hit him, but it hit his heart very, very hard. And the big thing that has hit his heart the worst was the thing of Kennedy being nominated for president. And Frank built this whole thing in his home. And then had to go back and tell Sammy who who was going to sing at the inaugural inauguration. Tell him he couldn’t sing. I won’t want to see it. That’s almost the worst thing to say. Could ever hear worse than the other things I’ve just spoken. Because he couldn’t go. Frank had to tell him he couldn’t go. Frank had to tell him he couldn’t go. Why couldn’t he go? Because. His father hates. And that’s his expression, not mine. And wouldn’t have Sammy on the show. That was the end of that.
Interviewer: Well, it sounds like you were a better friend to Sammy than than Frank was. Oh. And it all goes back to your sword fight, it sounds like. Do you want to pick up with that story? Because we’re going to we’re going to have to end it there.
Arthur Silber: I wanted to get to the pictures that we were not just short Fighting wasn’t the big thing. The the guns weren’t the big thing. Nothing. Taking photos was the big thing for Sammy. And I have hundreds of pictures to prove. It never went any place without a camera anyplace. That’s what I meant. Except when Cam was around.
