Kim Novak

Interviewer: Kim Novak, just introduce yourself and tell us where we are.

Kim Novak: I’m Kim Novak. I’m in California, but I don’t live in California. I live in Oregon. And I’m so happy to be there. I couldn’t live in California if you paid me no matter what you paid me now.

Interviewer: We’re so glad you’re here. I wouldn’t live here either. For the record. Okay, let’s just jump in. Who was Sammy Davis Jr?

Kim Novak: Well, that’s a complicated question. Sammy Davis Jr was was a lot of people. You know, he was certainly an entertainer. And all of those things that everybody knows. Oh, gosh. You asked me a complicated question there because he’s somebody who I got to know. I mean, when I first met him, he was an entertainer who was somebody who came in, who had a crush on me. And so I was flattered, of course. And he came and wanted to do a photo shoot. And so I said, sure, that’s fine. And so he started taking pictures and and I noticed he had the Lance cover. And I said, Are you going to take the lens cover off? And so I realized that he was very nervous, obviously, and was shooting pictures. And he said, Oh, I’m so sorry. And I took the lens cover up and started shooting pictures, and I realized how nervous he was and that I realized that he had a crush on me. And so I thought he always had a rather boyish quality. He had a very a quality of a sort of a like I say, a boyish quality about him, that he had sort of an innocence and a charming quality that I found rather attractive. And that was charming. It sort of like was somebody was sort of stumbling into things, probably like somebody who has a crush on somebody that is always sort of awkward and stumbling and doing things sort of wrong. But it was sort of funny. And so that’s sort of my first introduction to him. But then as I as I got to know him later, I were different, different ideas and opinions that I had.

Interviewer: Men do get nervous when they have a crush on a beautiful woman.

Kim Novak: Yes, it’s always funny to watch, you know, to see how they stumble around and to see how they approach somebody.

Interviewer: How did he approach you?

Kim Novak: Well, that was a very interesting thing, actually, the way it happened. Because as I say, during that photo shoot, it was strictly a photo shoot. And then he he said, Well, thank you very much, Mr. Novak. Thank you very much, you know. And he was he was so shy that he didn’t even want to call me Kim, you know. And I said, You could call me Kim. He said, Oh, really? Okay. Thank you very much, you know. But he was so being so polite and being so, so gently kind and all about it. But anyway, the way he went, way it came about after with that was interesting because we were both at an event and it was Thanksgiving Eve and it was called Cher. It was a charity event that every Christmas, I mean, not every Christmas, but every Thanksgiving Eve, Hollywood has a a charity event, and it’s called Cher. And what they do is they’re raising money for handicapped children for different different things. And so I actually had a date with Ali Khan, Prince Ali Khan. And so he was out of out of the country, but he was coming in. And so I met his airplane and I picked him up at the airport and went to the event, but he had to leave early. And so I drove him back to the airport and I went back to the party then afterwards. And I actually at the time was very much in love with my director, Richard Quine, who directed my first movie, my first screen test. And so I was there and I knew that he was married at the time, Richard Quine, and I wasn’t dating him or anything, but I’d always been in love with him for the very first time, and I knew that he was going to go to a party afterwards that Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh’s house. So I thought, Well, I just have a chance to look at him, you know, And I just had this crush on him all from the very first time. And so I thought, Well, I’d love to go to the party after. Maybe I’ll have a chance to see him from a distance, talk to him. And so I thought, Well, I’ll go to Tony Curtis’s after I took Alekhine to the airport and I thought, Well, I’ll go there. So I drove myself and my little Corvette over to Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh’s house. And I was at the party and I came I was shooting Vertigo at the time, and I went straight to pick up Ali Khan. And in my outfit still from the party, I mean, from from shooting Vertigo. And I still had on I wore my outfit from Vertigo. I had done this Kelly Green dress, I believe it was a long gown that I wore to the event. And I wore the red wig from Judy that I’ve this other part that I played. And so I was in this wig, red wig, and it was itching my head from wearing it all day at work. And I was there and and Sammy Davis came in from to the party also at at their house. And I was sitting there. I was just going nuts wearing that. And he came over and he said, We are still wearing that red wig. Aren’t you uncomfortable? I said, Yes, I am. I’ve got to take it off. He said, Let me help you. I’ll help you pull out the pins. I said, Oh, I’d love to. You help me. And so I’m taking it off. And I got this thing off and I start rubbing my head and he said, Let me massage your head. And it gave me a wonderful rub down on my head. I just felt so good. And I was drinking champagne and it was feeling just wonderful. And next thing I knew I was sound asleep on the couch. And before I knew it, I don’t remember how I got there, but I was in my apartment and had no idea how I got there. But I woke up the next day. I knew I was in my bed waking up in the apartment and no idea how I got there. And the phone rings and it’s Sammy Davis on the phone and he said, Where are you? I thought, you’re coming over for Thanksgiving dinner. Thanksgiving dinner? You said you promised you’d be here. How did I get here? Here I am. I’m in my bed, and I had no idea how I got there, how I got home. My Corvette is outside, and I’m in my apartment, and no idea. Anyway, I thought you said you promise you would be here, and I had no recollection how I got there. Anything. Anyway, I thought, Oh, my God, I promised I’d be there. So I said, Well, I guess I better get there. So anyway, I did. I got there. I met his family. I’d never met them, Never met, never had talked to him since that time. We did the photoshoot. Anyway, there I was. And he had the most wonderful family. They were just like my family. And I met his sister and I met his mother. Pee-Wee was just like wonderful, like a mom and we just had the best time. He had a tree in his backyard. We climbed up in the tree. It was just like my backyard. And suddenly it was like having a family right there. And and I found out all the things we had in common. That’s the other Sammy Davis that I got to meet. I saw. Understood. And so I said, Well, you’ve got to come. To my house for Christmas. And. And let me pay back for you. Taking care of me at Thanksgiving. And I said to his sister, I’ll take you shopping. Let’s do stuff together, you know? And I had no idea. I just had no, I just didn’t relate somehow. When I came to Hollywood, I was like, 19. And I never know how to drive a car. I mean, it was like I was really, I suppose rather I suppose I wasn’t very sophisticated, didn’t realize a lot of things anyway. So anyhow, oddly enough, Christmas was here before you know it. And I didn’t realize that he was supposed to be working in in Las Vegas. And he took off and came to Chicago. And he got in a lot of trouble in Las Vegas for it, and nobody still realized that we were friends. But it was a friendship. And suddenly it got out in the press and I didn’t know that. And oddly enough, and here’s something nobody knew and nobody still knows. You’ll be the first one to know. But I was I took I didn’t fly at the time. I didn’t like to fly. So I took the train back to L.A. and I’m taking the train back, going back to L.A. and the train stops in the middle of the night. And Sammy gets on the train in the middle of the night. I said, Sammy, what are you doing here? And he said, I had to tell you it’s out in the press that I’m seeing you. I said, What do you mean? I said, But you you came to Chicago and he came to Chicago. To Chicago. He brought all my nieces and nephews, toys and presents and all kinds of goodies. You want ice skating on the ice skating party at my sister’s house? I had no idea that they were making this into a big love affair anyway. And I said, What are you going to do there? They’re going to meet us in L.A., the press. And he stopped the train. I don’t know how he did it, but he must have known all the porters on the train. He stopped the train before it got to L.A.. He got off.

Interviewer: So when you got to L.A., you were buyers? I was.

Kim Novak: By myself. The press was all there. Everybody was there. So anyway.

Interviewer: All right, so let me set it up with a question. Oh. So what happened when you got to L.A.?

Kim Novak: Oh, my gosh. The press was all there, and it was. And then, of course, it all burst break out, you know, broke out in the press. And then it became a whole thing of the studio. Because the studio, I mean, hurricane was like a dictator at the studio. And then it became a thing that they were going to take out his other. I suddenly it was it was and I was thinking that what a what a wonderful thing. This I mean I mean, I was I was thinking that that if anything, I could help him in some ways break over this thing of of of blacks and whites and do you know, I had no idea the prejudice was the way it was. I you know, I just never I was always colorblind. And, I mean, anyway, it was so ridiculous, the whole thing.

Interviewer: Well.

Kim Novak: And of course, I wasn’t in love with Sammy, but I wanted to be friends with him. And of course, when they tried to stop us from seeing each other, I thought it was ridiculous.

Interviewer: Let’s walk me through this. Yeah. People can be cruel and the press can be really cool. Oh, yes. Just if you could maybe in some detail, tell me what that what the press did to you and Sam.

Kim Novak: Oh, well, of course, the press made it like we were like it was a big love affair and I was in love with someone else. But, I mean, it was not a relationship even there. I mean, I was going out with all kinds of people because I was not married and I was in love with a married man. As a matter of fact.

Interviewer: We were the top Hollywood stars. Well, you were one of the top actresses in the world.

Kim Novak: Yeah.

Interviewer: How bright is that spotlight? On your personal life.

Kim Novak: The press could be very cruel at that time. And the studio, of course, Harry Cohn was a dictator, really, and he was the head of the studio. So I had the press of being. Of wanting to control everything and wanting to expose everything and wanting to make things other than they really were. They were wanting to. The one who really broke the story was Earl Cousin in Chicago, who was a dear friend of mine. But friendship didn’t matter then because then it was a matter. I mean, because that was in Chicago. Here I was. I had no idea that he was leaving, that he he left. I mean, after all, Las Vegas is run by gangsters. And I didn’t know he he because he wanted to come in. I mean, he he wasn’t. I mean, he had a crush on me. Let’s face it. I mean, it was in love, probably, but he had a big crush on me. But he. I didn’t know he was leaving Las Vegas. His job in Las Vegas to come, because you know that. But bottom line is, he came to Chicago bringing all the presents for the kids, my sister’s kids, and was roller skating. I mean, ice skating with us on the ice skating pond and doing all of this while he was should be appearing in Las Vegas. And so Irv cops and it got ahold of the story which all of this I didn’t know and goes and instead of telling me he writes this big story that Kim and Sammy are in love and and I didn’t know it. So he tells me when he comes gets on the train. And here I am about to get off in L.A. and the press are all waiting to tell. And Carrie Cohen is about to. He, in the meantime, has a bad heart. And when I get off, he’s popping nitroglycerin like crazy. And he is telling me I must never see him again. And I mean, I’m not even I’m not having a relationship with him. But on the other hand, I’m not about to say I’m not going to see my friend just because the studio and because the newspapers are going to write some terrible story. I’m not going to have someone tell me I’m not going to do something. I mean, I was very I’m not about to someone who’s told me what name I should have and what I should. I’m not about I’m a stubborn bohemian. I’m about to have someone tell me what to do or not to do.

Interviewer: I love it. I love it. However, that is a very romantic gesture on Sammy’s part. Coming to see you in Chicago. Surprising you on the train.

Kim Novak: And he brought a beautiful bottle of champagne.

Interviewer: Well, we’re Sammy’s feelings for you.

Kim Novak: Well, I mean, he was in love with me, and that’s the way he thought he felt at the time for him. And it was very real and very beautiful.

Interviewer: And for you.

Kim Novak: For me? You know, I was flattered, of course, you know, And we were having a great time. I mean, it was great fun, ice skating. And he was, you know, I mean, he was charming. He had such a boyish, beautiful quality about him, you know, who could not be charmed by a man in love with a woman, you know? But at the same time, also, as I say, I understood the the I understood the quality of of somebody who I mean, I was charmed by him.

Interviewer: What? You’re an artist. He’s an artist. You’re both talented on many, many levels. Both You have talents on many, many levels. What did you. What did you admire most about Sammy?

Kim Novak: Actually I admired. I admired his daring, for one. I admire that. And I admired I admired Sammy. I admired it. I admired. I admire Sammy.

Interviewer: When would you have to see each other secretly, though? Because of the scrutiny, Because of the media. Did you feel you had to see each other secretly?

Kim Novak: Well, I did feel the need because I felt I did. I would drive from the studio to his house because I felt I needed to apologize to his sister. I couldn’t take her shopping. I promised I’d come over, help you take your Christmas shopping. And I felt I needed to. But at the same time, and to see him, I felt the need to do that. But at the same time, it was like difficult, too difficult to you know, it was difficult because I felt I was wanted to be there for him and at the same time, it was hurting him and helping him. It’s a bittersweet relationship to have.

Interviewer: By seeing him. What kind of jeopardy that puts you in.

Kim Novak: By seeing him? It was it was a bittersweet relationship because by seeing him, it it it it put my career in jeopardy and it put me in jeopardy, too. But I also did not want to give in to what I didn’t feel was right. It was not right, but I wanted to help the situation. And I felt it was an I would have liked to be able to help the human rights a lot, but at the same time, I felt it was too much of a jump to make it once, obviously, because it wasn’t ready for it. And yet I wanted to be able to I wanted to be able to help people to understand. But it was not it wasn’t possible.

Interviewer: What kind of danger did it put him in?

Kim Novak: It did put him in danger. I thought it good. I felt I could help. And yet it was. It was hindering as well as I could not help him. I mean, it put him in danger. Yes. The relationship put him in danger. People were not ready to understand or to forgive and forget it. It put both of us in danger. It was a threat to his life and his health.

Interviewer: Okay. Explain that. Just set it up. Set it up to tell me where the threat came from.

Kim Novak: While seeing him. I didn’t. I mean, somehow I thought that I could help that seeing him. A white woman seeing a black man should have been able to help bridge the gap. But yet it didn’t. It didn’t. At that time, the world was not ready for that change. The world was not ready to accept that. I couldn’t help the situation. I made the situation worse.

Interviewer: And one of the Harry Cohn do to Sammy. What what have to tell me what he did.

Kim Novak: Harry Cohn was involved with with the Mafia and Harry Cohn threatened to take out his other I. Yeah. I mean, that’s what I heard. And I and that’s pretty scary. And it was true.

Interviewer: Well, how did your friendship end it?

Kim Novak: I didn’t want it to end. Really. I didn’t, I. I tried to every now and then go see him. He played on Broadway, and I slipped into the theater and I went backstage and, you know, instead of him being happy to see me, he was angry, oddly enough. It was like. Don’t you know? Hee hee hee hee hee hee hee! It was like, Don’t you know you’re hurting me? And I. And I didn’t. And I was like, Wow, I didn’t want to do that. I was trying to be friends, you know? But it was like at that point, he he was so torn. You know, So it’s like a wow. It’s like I was in such a funny spot, such a funny position because I wanted to be there for him. But his like is like, it’s like somehow he got got mixed up himself. It was like, just like somehow he got mixed up feeling like, But you made me like you. And now I know you’re hurting me. Yet I never meant to hurt him because, I mean, he’s the one who fell for me. I didn’t, you know, But somehow he. He got so hurt that he got mixed up in the whole thing because, well, you know, he they made him a black woman in order to make it right for him. And so he went through all kinds of stuff, grief over this whole thing.

Interviewer: How did it how did you feel when he married?

Kim Novak: Well, I mean, at that time, I mean, it you know, it just all got so mixed up. However, you know, it’s so funny in life. It’s so funny in life. Oh, he had to then marry somebody in order to make it seem right. And it got into all kinds of trouble. And yet, isn’t that funny? How so? You can mean so much to try to help somebody and you can hurt somebody and trying to. It’s so it’s so funny how.

Interviewer: You know.

Kim Novak: Things can go so wrong when you mean so right.

Interviewer: Yes. I feel you both. That’s right.

Kim Novak: Yeah.

Interviewer: He was in love with you. Yeah.

Kim Novak: Well, I don’t know where you’re going from there, but.

Interviewer: Well, I was going to say you’re here to celebrate Sammy’s.

Kim Novak: Talent and. Yeah, but your struggles. Yeah.

Interviewer: So let’s get to the talent part.

Kim Novak: Well, no, but wait, I don’t know, because I don’t know if you know. Before he died. Before he died, I just. I, I we did have we. Thank goodness I. Before I died, I knew he was in the hospital, and I made a point to go see him in the hospital. And so I’m so glad we had a chance to be able to say goodbye, you know, and get together, you know? And be able to. Be able to know that we were there for each other. Oh, well, before that. Let me tell you one other thing. So interesting to me how our lives, how life changes and our paths had gone separate ways. And and we happened to be at an event at the at the Oscars one time. And he was at the Oscars And I was at the Oscars. And I think it was a good friend of his. And good friend of mine was Haley, Jack Haley, Jack Kennedy Jr. And Jack did the show. And Sammy was there with Altovise, who is a wonderful woman he married after. And and so we got together afterwards and had a chance to talk and be friends again and and have a chance to to talk about different things and meet with Al Davis, who I adored so much. And she was a wonderful woman. And we talked afterwards. And after Sammy said, now things are different between blacks and whites, and now they can get together and people look at people different. He said, Can we have a can we dance, have a dance together? And he asked me to dance. And that, yeah, let’s do. And we got up and danced. And he said, Isn’t it interesting? Nobody even noticed because here we are, black and white dancing and nobody even care. And we danced together and it was so nice to people that, you know, and we had a chance to be friends again. And so that’s before the time we met in the hospital and talked. But it was so beautiful to be able to talk. And Altovise had a chance to look at a two of us, as all of us being friends together, you know, and and all of us just held hands together and and just, you know, felt good about having a relationship, all of us. And she was a wonderful woman. I loved Al Davis. She was a fine woman. And and it was such an interesting thing to see a different time and different relationships. And now it was okay for black and whites to be together. And I just wanted to share that with you because it was like suddenly times had changed and that was all okay. But then we also I went in the hospital when he was dying and he had the mask on and it was like, there we were. But it was like we had a chance to sort of reminisce and look at all those times that we had of where where there was the love and the sort of where he sort of felt bad and felt felt almost like, Oh, God, I wish you hadn’t come into my life because I loved you so much. And and then all this awful stuff had to happen and I had to marry because of you and blah, blah, blah, you know? But then it came full circle. I came full circle and it was. It was. We had a chance to say goodbye and it was good. I just want to share that with you.

Interviewer: It’s a beautiful story in that dance at the Academy Awards. The gap was bridged. Yeah. Yeah. Was that the first time you had danced with Sammy?

Kim Novak: Yeah. Yes. Or any time. Any time. Any time. Huh? Yeah.

Interviewer: All right.

Kim Novak: And with his wife there, which was so nice out of his, which she was a beautiful woman. I loved her, and Sammy loved her. She was a real friend. Yeah.

Interviewer: When was the first time you saw Sammy perform?

Kim Novak: Oh. You know, I don’t think I ever saw him perform. I don’t think I ever did. Although he he sent me some of his tapes. And so I heard him perform. And so I’ve I’ve and I’ve heard him I heard him do some numbers Christmas Christmas recordings that he did just for me, that he’s that he sang Christmas carols that he made just for me. And they were very, very special.

Interviewer: He sang a lot of romantic songs in the fifties. Yes. Do you think he was thinking of you?

Kim Novak: Yes.

Interviewer: What would you like people to remember most about Sammy?

Kim Novak: Sammy? To me, the thing that I remember most that I wish people know he has such a warm, sensitive, genuine sort of boyish quality that he had all his life because he had such a innocence about him that I remember to me at a sort of an innocent, wonderful that I loved about him. That was a sort of a pure innocence about him that I loved that was so, so special. Yeah.

Interviewer: As you know, our show is called. The many lives of Sammy Davis Jr. I’m going to play a word association about those different aspects of life and just comment, as you will, to just just share your thoughts on all these different words. Singer.

Kim Novak: Yeah. Yeah. There again is He poured his heart out. He, he, he just. He, he gave from the inside out. And that’s what a singer, you know, that opened up from inside and gave his all. He just, Yeah. His vocal chords were there and of course that’s what did him into, you know. Yeah.

Interviewer: Survivor.

Kim Novak: For sure. Survivor Yeah, I identify with that a lot. Yeah. Yeah.

Interviewer: Provocateur.

Kim Novak: Sure he did. He challenged it, challenged the world a lot. Anyway. He did. I did that. Yeah.

Interviewer: Mascot.

Kim Novak: Yeah I don’t like that. But I, he, he, he was I suppose he learned that a lot. Yeah. Know, I don’t like that he was, I mean, because a mascot to me is like a, like a dog in a to a human, you know. Yeah. I think he sort of was a mascot. I don’t like to think of him as that.

Interviewer: Actor.

Kim Novak: Well, see, I don’t I don’t like actors either. I’m an I don’t like to think of myself as an actor. I like to be a reactor. I don’t I don’t ever wanted to be an actor. I want to be reactor. I don’t like a real actor. I’m to me, an actor is a little belittling, too, because you’re an actor is somebody who’s trying to to to pretend. And to me, a pretender is second class. I’d rather be a reactor. So there. Now you have my opinion over an actor.

Interviewer: That’s fantastic.

Kim Novak: It’s a little. It’s a little second class to me.

Interviewer: Activist.

Kim Novak: Activist. I don’t ever thought of it. He was not an activist enough for me. No, I an activist. Sammy, I think he could have been much more of an activist. You know, he got too much into show business for me to be an activist. Yeah, he was too. Show business. Yeah, he got too much into show business, I think. To me. Yeah. Hipster hipster. He got to be a hipster. Yeah. Yeah, he was a hipster.

Interviewer: Patriot.

Kim Novak: Patriot Art. He was not a patriot. No, Joe, No. Sammy was not a pitcher. I’m very political, and I know he was not. He was not. He let me down.

Interviewer: Do you feel politicians from Kennedy to Nixon used him?

Kim Novak: They used him. Yeah.

Interviewer: Can you say they definitely.

Kim Novak: Oh, Sammy got used. He got used by politicians. He got used by everybody. You got used? He was used. Yes, Sammy was used. That’s what I mean. He was very vulnerable. Sammy was very vulnerable. Very vulnerable. And he got use. He was. That’s. He was. Yeah, That was part of his business. He he, he was taken advantage of and got used. And he was. Oh, the mobsters used him. He was he. I felt so sorry for him. When I went to the hospital, I looked in his eyes and I felt so sorry for him. He had the mask on him, you know, So he didn’t get germs. And his eyes were like that little boy that I saw the very first time. It was like all his life he had been used, you know, been taken advantage of. I mean, he was, again, that survivor that. But never survived. That never survived. You know, he was still being used. And he it was like it was like they always took advantage of him and he could never pay his private dues. It was like it was like he was still trying to pay back his you know, he is like they were always giving him enough money to to to get what they wanted out of him. But he never could catch up on what they owed, what he owed. It was so sad. It was so sad. Sammy was. Sammy stood for sad. Sammy sad Sam. Oh, I was always wanting to be there to help him, you know, to help him. But. And I wanted. That’s why he got mad when I went to see him backstage. And it was like, you’re coming to backstage and someone’s going to see you, and you’re not helping me. You’re not helping me. And, oh, you know, it’s like I wanted to help him ice skate. Not that I could see. I skate myself. Very good. I have a lousy ice skater. I get I roller skate good, but I don’t. I’m not a good ice skater. I wanted to help them. I wanted to help him.

Interviewer: You know you did.

Kim Novak: I want. Everybody probably. I don’t know. You want to help somebody? I wanted to help in human rights to. I was never one to go out and praise do with that kind of help or hold up signs, do that kind of help. But I wanted to help. But. But. But I wanted to help. I want to help, but. But but my example. I wanted to help. But my example. Hello. Just what I wanted to help, But that’s the way I want to help it. By setting an example. I what I believe in, you know, politically and everything else. What I believe is what I believe in. Harry Cohn and everything else. I you know, I just believe what I believe. And I try to say what I believe and do what I believe in it. And you can only do that, you know, and you can do it in your time and the way you say it and where you mean it and you do what you can. But you know.

Interviewer: Legend.

Kim Novak: Yeah. Legend, of course, is a legend. I think anybody who does what they believe and stands up for what they believe is right becomes a legend. Because? Because. Because they are what they believe and they do what they believe and they stand up for it. And if they hold on long enough, you know, hold out long enough, you know, But but, you know, he did the right thing. He made some bad moves. He’s made bad moves. Sammy Davis is a legend and will always be a legend. Because he was a great man and what he did. But we all make mistakes and he’s made some big mistakes. He made some big mistakes. He made some big mistakes by. Like we all do. But in all, I think that he he’s he was a good man, you know. And he’ll live on because he was a great man, because he did some great things. He was a good man. He had a really good.

Interviewer: And just. We want to be. Like I told you, I’m in search of truth. And to set the record straight.

Kim Novak: Yeah.

Interviewer: Did. Did you love him?

Kim Novak: I loved him in my way. I was never in love with him. No, no, I loved him. I. I loved Sami in my way. I was never in love with Sammy. Never. But I loved him as as you do a friend. And as you do a somebody who. Is a good person that you care about and that. That deserves respect. And caring. And protection.

Interviewer: Is there anything else you want to say?

Kim Novak: I’d like to say I hope that God watches over him and I know he’s in a good place. And I hope we get to see him again and hold his hand and tell him I love him.