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

Book

Deconstructing Sammy : music, money, madness, and the mob / Matt Birkbeck.

Summary:

Sammy Davis Jr. lived a storied life. Adored by millions over a six-decade-long career, he was considered an entertainment icon and a national treasure. But depite lifetime earnings that topped $50 million, Sammy died in 1990 near bankruptcy, His estate was declared insolvent, and there was no possibility of ever using Sammy's name or likeness again. It was as if Sammy had never existed. Years later his wife Altovise was living in poverty when she turned to a former federal prosecutor, Albert "Sonny" Murray, to make one last attempt to resolve Sammy's debts, restore his estate, and revive his legacy. For seven years Sonny probed Sammy's life to understand how someone of great notoriety and wealth could have lost everything, and in the process he came to understand Davis, a man whose complexity makes for a riveting work of celebrity biography as cultural history.--Publisher description.

Record details

ISBN: 9780061450679
ISBN: 0061450677
Physical Description: 280 pages : illustrations, [8] pages of plates ; 24 cm
Edition: First Amistad paperback edition published 2009.
Publisher: New York : Amistad, ©2008, 2009.

Content descriptions

Bibliography, etc. Note:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 263-267) and index.

Search for related items by subject

Subject:

Davis, Sammy, Jr., 1925-1990.
Entertainers > United States > Biography.
African American entertainers > Biography.
United States.

Genre:

Biographies.

Available copies

1 of 1 copy available at Missouri Evergreen. (Show)
1 of 1 copy available at Livingston County.
1 of 1 copy available at Livingston County Library - Main Library. (Show preferred library)