After getting so much hate from the black community, he decided that maybe they were right about some of the things he’d been doing.
This prompted him to alter his lifestyle in a few ways; one of which included marrying his new wife, Altovise Gore. The couple first met when they worked together on Golden Boy in 1964. They tied the knot several years later in 1970, and it was all love, according to Altovise.
In the Mail
Many of the threats on the entertainer were from people that were angry he was a black man who supported this Republican, white president. But this wasn’t the first time Sammy Davis Jr. would receive aggressive threats in his mail.
After he coupled up with Kim Novak in ’57 he started receiving them left and right from the mob. But no matter what came at him, the entertainer kept trying to simply live his life and push through all of the racial barriers that society had set in front of him.
Booed off the Stage -
There were loads of black people who were angry that Davis Jr. supported, and spent so much time with white people like Nixon, living what they viewed as a “white lifestyle.” In fact, they were so fed up with him that he was booed off of the stage in Chicago when he tried to perform in support of Jesse Jackson.
Needless to say, it did not go over well, and the flustered entertainer left after doing just one number. He also made sure to add that he would never again “extend myself.”
Oscar Bloopers
Unlike a blooper reel at the end of a film, mistakes that happen live on stage aren’t exactly able to be edited out. In 1964, he was invited to perform as an announcer at that year’s Academy Awards. His job was to announce the winner for Best Music Score – simple enough, right? Unfortunately, someone handed him the wrong envelope, which led to him announcing the wrong name.
Whoops! Luckily, he was able to jokingly move past it and everything turned out to be just fine. In fact, the audience seemed to think it was hilarious, as evidenced by their roaring applause and laughter.
Forbidden Love
The entertainer first met his first love, Kim Novak, in 1957. At the time, she was already a huge star, created to be such by the head of Columbia Pictures. She was this beautiful blonde movie star, and he was moving on up just as quickly in the industry. But in Hollywood’s Golden Age, interracial relationships were strictly forbidden.
Thus, the two entered into a sort of sneaky love affair, where they’d run around and hide everything so as not to cause a public stir. Unfortunately, word would get out and when it did – it resulted in such extreme backlash it resulted in a mob hit being ordered.