Sammy Davis Jr. — Black and White On the Silver Screen?

The life story of a Black star in a White world, a man who arguably was the world’s greatest entertainer, will not be coming to a theater near you anytime soon. If ever.

During a recent interview on my radio program “The Andrea Shea King Show”, Hollywood conservative Burt Boyar, longtime friend and biographer of the late great Sammy Davis, Jr., said he’s concerned that the true story about the talented entertainer who fought and broke through racial barriers will never be seen on the silver screen. Two years ago, Boyar had negotiated a deal to sell his two biographies to filmmakers who were all set to tell the story on celluloid.

Reflection: Sammy Davis Jr. snaps a photo of himself and Jerry Lewis posing in the reflection of a mirror.

What entanglements are keeping the former member of the Rat Pack’s compelling life from being made into a movie?  A life studded with Tinseltown’s glittering constellation of stars whose orbits intersected his?   Luminaries like Sinatra, Peter Lawford, Joey Bishop, Dean Martin, Tony Curtis, Jerry Lewis, Liz and Burton, Paul Newman, Berle, Bacall, Bennett, Damone… when Hollywood was at its most glamorous?

Who is Burt Boyar? And why does he care?

(more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: Al Jolson, Bacall, Bennett, Berle, broadway
Posted Jun 14th 2009 at 7:04 am in Entertainment, Featured Story | 1584142 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/asking/2009/06/14/sammy-davis-jr-black-and-white-on-the-silver-screen-2/Sammy+Davis+Jr.+%E2%80%94+Black+and+White+On+the+Silver+Screen%3F2009-06-14+14%3A04%3A43Andrea+Shea+King

Margot Tenenbaum Would Not Approve

Should the Motion Picture Association of America retroactively slap an “R” rating upon To Have and Have Not (1944)? After all, the classic film famously depicts silver-screen debutante Lauren Bacall and future husband Humphrey Bogart–gasp!–smoking. The American Medical Association Alliance demands that films featuring smoking characters be given an “R” rating by the Motion Picture Association of America. The MPAA already takes into consideration the tobacco habits of celluloid characters in determining a film’s rating. The AMAA’s demand would take that consideration from the MPAA, automatically assigning an “R” to any film depicting an ordinary, everyday activity normally conducted in the open when the cameras aren’t rolling. The ACLU hasn’t voiced objection, but what about Margot Tenenbaum? The Smoking Man? The Man with No Name? (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: ACLU, AMAA, Bacall, bogart, MAPP
Posted May 29th 2009 at 10:01 am in Entertainment, Politics | 146418No Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/dflynn/2009/05/29/margot-tenenbaum-would-not-approve/Margot+Tenenbaum+Would+Not+Approve2009-05-29+17%3A01%3A03Daniel+J.+Flynn