About book Deconstructing Sammy: Music, Money, Madness, And The Mob (2008)
I admit I was taken for a loop with the continuing saga of Sonny Murray and the Hillside Resort but quickly grasped to the importance of the mention in this gripping tale of the 'Altovise Davis Syndrome' so to speak. Many emotions arise inside me enduring the fact of my love and admiration for Sammy Davis but also now coping with the reality of this man's actual life and history. This book allows many informative facts and statistical references which keep me asking this question: "Why Sammy, why? Yes, I highly recommend this to all of SDJ Fans around the world who really want some answers to why our legend is not recognized as he ought. I can't help but feel anger, remorse, sadness and total disgust all wrapped in one. This book now leaves me with a bitter yet tearful memory of the dark, morbid life and death of a great legacy. This was a decent book if you're at all interested in Sammy Davis, Jr. and the Rat Pack. Contrary to the title, the book's main character in this non-fiction story is not SDJ, but the lawyer Sonny Murray, who tried to sort out the estate of SDJ after his death for his beleaguered widow Altovise (who besides being an alcoholic Hollywood wife basket case was also an ingrate) and salvage his legacy of one of the greatest entertainers of the 20th Century. It's a pretty sad story. Sammy blew millions of dollars on partying and stupid "investments," and was awful to his children and wives. There is so many stupid and nasty behaviors recounted by all the main characters in the book that one gets very weary and just wants it to end. I was interested in this book because I was a SDJ fan. In fact, when I was 16 I saw him in "Stop the World, I Want to Get Off." He was amazing singing, "What Kind of Fool Am I." Such a tiny guy with so much stage presence you couldn't take your eyes off of him and not jump to your feet applauding when it was all over. Reading this book...my feelings in a nutshell were "Stop this Book, I Want to Get Off."
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Fascinating account of a complex and talented entertainer.
—andsisc111
A cautionary tale to anyone in the arts.
—Mossy_belle
