Sammy Davis Jr. Me and My Shadow: A Biographical Memoir

According to Silber, Davis was one of the greatest entertainers the world has ever seen. Perhaps this claim is true, but readers would never know why from this amateurishly written memoir. Silber, who spent 20 years as Davis's personal agent, offers a reminiscence that tells us much more about Silber than Davis. From the late 1940s almost until Davis's death, Silber shepherded the entertainer through the vicissitudes of the show business world. During his early travels with Davis, Silber sees the ugly face of racism and grows incensed over the practice of prejudice in the South and other places that consigned Davis to second-rate hotels and derogatory treatment in spite of his star status. Silber devotes a disproportionate amount of space to boastful discussions of his sexual exploits, giving the impression that opportunities for sex with innumerable women was the major reason he enjoyed being associated with Davis. Silber ranges briefly over Davis's relationship with Kim Novak, his interracial marriage to May Britt (which made Davis a target of vicious attacks by the Nazi Party in America) and his relationship with the Rat Pack. Silber's ragged memoir reports one event after another in such breathless fashion that it provides a pastiche more appropriate to a scrapbook than a memoir. Moreover, the book lacks any connective tissue for the discrete stories of his and Davis's escapades, which then lack any particular significance or temporal context. 250 photos not seen by PW.