Overview

The untold story of Sammy Davis, Jr.: This incisive biography and sweeping cultural history conjures ""the many worlds [Davis, Jr.] traversed, and shows how the issue of race, in his own mind and in the minds of his fans and detractors, shaped his career and life"" (The New York Times). For decades one of America’s most recognizable stars, the real Sammy Davis, Jr. has long remained hidden behind the persona the performer so vigorously generated—and so fiercely protected. Here Wil Haygood brings Davis’s life into full relief against the backdrop of an America in the throes of racial change. He made his living entertaining white people but was often denied service in the very venues he played, and in his broad and varied friendships—not to mention his romances—Davis crossed racial lines in ways few others had. In Black and White vividly draws on painstaking research and more than two hundred and fifty interviews to trace Davis, Jr.’s journey from the vaudeville stage to Broadway, Hollywood, and, of course, Las Vegas. It is an important record of a vanished America—and of one of its greatest entertainers.

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9780804172516

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Reviews

Winner of the Hurston-Wright Legacy Award in Nonfiction, the ASCAP Deems Taylor-Timothy White Award for Outstanding Musical Biography, and the Nonfiction Book of the Year Award from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association Portray[s] Davis' Herculean achievements and epic decline in intimate detail while also putting them in historical and social context. -Los Angeles Times [Haygood] does a vivid, immediate job of conjuring the many worlds [Davis, Jr.] traversed, and shows how the issue of race, in his own mind and in the minds of his fans and detractors, shaped his career and life. -The New York Times A chilling portrait of a complex man who came to personify Las Vegas' flash as well as its lost soul. -Entertainment Weekly Haygood's rich and layered biography illuminates the world into which Sammy Davis, Jr. was born-Cuban American, Harlem and vaudeville-and the elite, mostly white world in which Davis yearned to live. -Minneapolis Star Tribune One of the real strengths of In Black and White is Haygood's skill as a social and cultural historian, his eye for the significant detail, as he chronicles Davis's sometimes halting, sometimes pathetic attempts to refashion himself in response to new social, cultural, and political conditions. -The Boston Globe Wil Haygood's unflinching biography of Sammy Davis, Jr. is a portrait of the artist as a lost soul. -Time Haygood is . . . a vivid and provocative writer, with a knack for setting the scene and making atmosphere double as analysis. -The Washington Post [A] nuanced portrayal of Davis' conflicted sense of self. -People Haygood writes with great power and great compassion, and he has created a book that I couldn't put down and that I will never forget. -Robert A. Caro Of all the books I have read on fame and its discontents, this is the most revelatory, the most insightful, not least because it affords us a sustained glimpse of a famous life lived amid the often conflicting crosscurrents of race, fame, sex and crime. -Sean O'Hagan, The Observer [A] moving, exhaustive life of one of America's greatest entertainers. . . . Haygood's reporting and powerful prose reveal Davis's career against the backdrop of the swinging '60s and the Rat Pack . . . and Davis as a tragically complex man. -Publishers Weekly (starred review) A fascinating read. . . . In Black and White does splendid justice to its subject while brilliantly touching on the larger theme of race in 20th century America. -Variety A dazzling, hard-to-put-down examination of [Davis, Jr.'s] life and times. . . . Exhaustively researched and written with the assured and snappy style of one of Sammy's own shows. -BookPage

Winner of the Hurston-Wright Legacy Award in Nonfiction, the ASCAP Deems Taylor-Timothy White Award for Outstanding Musical Biography, and the Nonfiction Book of the Year Award from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association “Portray[s] Davis’ Herculean achievements and epic decline in intimate detail while also putting them in historical and social context.” —Los Angeles Times “[Haygood] does a vivid, immediate job of conjuring the many worlds [Davis, Jr.] traversed, and shows how the issue of race, in his own mind and in the minds of his fans and detractors, shaped his career and life.” —The New York Times   “A chilling portrait of a complex man who came to personify Las Vegas’ flash as well as its lost soul.” —Entertainment Weekly “Haygood’s rich and layered biography illuminates the world into which Sammy Davis, Jr. was born—Cuban American, Harlem and vaudeville—and the elite, mostly white world in which Davis yearned to live.” —Minneapolis Star Tribune “One of the real strengths of In Black and White is Haygood’s skill as a social and cultural historian, his eye for the significant detail, as he chronicles Davis’s sometimes halting, sometimes pathetic attempts to refashion himself in response to new social, cultural, and political conditions.” —The Boston Globe   “Wil Haygood’s unflinching biography of Sammy Davis, Jr. is a portrait of the artist as a lost soul.” —Time   “Haygood is . . . a vivid and provocative writer, with a knack for setting the scene and making atmosphere double as analysis.” —The Washington Post   “[A] nuanced portrayal of Davis’ conflicted sense of self.” —People   “Haygood writes with great power and great compassion, and he has created a book that I couldn’t put down and that I will never forget.” —Robert A. Caro   “Of all the books I have read on fame and its discontents, this is the most revelatory, the most insightful, not least because it affords us a sustained glimpse of a famous life lived amid the often conflicting crosscurrents of race, fame, sex and crime.” —Sean O’Hagan, The Observer   “[A] moving, exhaustive life of one of America’s greatest entertainers. . . . Haygood’s reporting and powerful prose reveal Davis’s career against the backdrop of the swinging ‘60s and the Rat Pack . . . and Davis as a tragically complex man.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)   “A fascinating read. . . . In Black and White does splendid justice to its subject while brilliantly touching on the larger theme of race in 20th century America.” —Variety   “A dazzling, hard-to-put-down examination of [Davis, Jr.’s] life and times. . . . Exhaustively researched and written with the assured and snappy style of one of Sammy’s own shows.” —BookPage

Reading this book is a very moving experience: because of the power of Wil Haygood's prose; because of the compassion with which he writes about his complex and tortured subject; and because of the penetrating historical insight -- indeed brilliance-with which he weaves Sammy Davis Jr.'s life and the poignant and fascinating story of black entertainment in America into the whole tragedy of race relations in our country. Mr. Haygood writes with great power and great compassion, and he has created a book that I couldn't put down and that I will never forget. -Robert A. Caro In this moving, exhaustive life of one of America's greatest entertainers, Haygood (King of the Cats: The Life and Times of Adam Clayton Powell Jr.) casts Sammy Davis Jr. as a man shifting between identities, between the worlds of black people and white people. -Starred PW Review An American life considered with art and understanding in a major work of biography. -Starred Kirkus Reviews A fascinating American life story, brilliantly told. -Booklist, Starred and Boxed Review IN BLACK AND WHITE... presents a full picture of one of the most recognizable entertainers of the last century---a picture with all the shades of gray. In reading IN BLACK AND WHITE, it becomes clear why author Wil Haygood not only has won honors for his journalism, but also high praise for his work in biography. -Ebony ... [Haygood] does a vivid job of conjuring the many worlds [Sammy Davis, Jr.] traversed, and shows how the issue of race, in his own mind and in the minds of his fans and detractors, shaped his career and life. -Michiko Kakutani, New York Times [Haygood] writes like a demon, with perspective, understanding and compassion to burn. It's a pleasure not to be missed. -Jan Herman, Chicago Sun-Times One of the best showbiz biographies in a long while... IN BLACK AND WHITE does splendid justice to its subject while brilliantly touching on the larger theme of race in 20th century America... a fascinating read. -Eric Monder, Weekly Variety

Author Information

Wil Haygood is currently visiting distinguished professor in the department of media, journalism, and film at Miami University, Ohio. For nearly three decades he was a journalist, serving as a national and foreign correspondent at The Boston Globe, where he was a Pulitzer Prize finalist, and then at The Washington Post. He is the author of The Butler: A Witness to History; Tigerland: 1968-1969: A City Divided, a Nation Torn Apart, and a Magical Season of Healing; Showdown: Thurgood Marshall and the Supreme Court Nomination That Changed America; Sweet Thunder: The Life and Times of Sugar Ray Robinson; In Black and White: The Life of Sammy Davis Jr.; Two on the River; King of the Cats: The Life and Times of Adam Clayton Powell Jr.; and The Haygoods of Columbus: A Family Memoir. The Butler was later adapted into the critically acclaimed film directed by Lee Daniels, starring Forest Whitaker and Oprah Winfrey. Haygood has received a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship, a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship, and the 2017 Patrick Henry Fellowship Literary Award for his research for Tigerland. He lives in Washington, D.C.

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