Deconstructing Sammy: Music, Money, and Madness - Softcover

Matt Birkbeck

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0061450677 ISBN 13: 9780061450679

Publisher: HARPER PAPERBACKS, 2009

Synopsis

Equal parts cultural history, celebrity biography, and brilliant investigative journalism, Deconstructing Sammy by Matt Birkbeck is a behind-the-scenes look at the disastrous fall of one of the brightest stars of Hollywood and Las Vegas Sammy Davis, Jr. A member of the infamous Rat Pack, a compatriot of Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin, and one of the most popular performers of his day, Sammy Davis, Jr. was an entertainment icon and a national treasure who earned more than $50 million over the course of his career yet ended up nearly destitute. Deconstructing Sammy tells the whole sad, sordid, fascinating true story.

About this title

Review:

"A piece of investigative journalism that unravels what happened to Davis' estate, and reveals more about the man...Birkbeck spoke to people that have never spoken before -- and the portrait of Sammy that emerges is difficult, demanding, and ultimately tragic."--NPR's Talk of the Nation

"Davis's remarkable life is certainly well-trod territory. Nevertheless, through interviews with close friends and confidants who had never spoken publicly before, Birkbeck digs up many startling details."--MICHAEL RUBINKAM, ASSOCIATED PRESS

"Tremendous. . . Birkbeck tells the epic of Sammy Davis Jr... from his Harlem boyhood to his wrenching deathbed (he died of cancer in 1990) in his Beverly Hills mansion, where various hangers-on, seeing the circling vultures, stripped his corpse even before it was a corpse."--Los Angeles Times Book Review

"Exceptionally detailed...makes tax law sexy,"--Library Journal

"With a journalist's eye toward a great story, author Matt Birkbeck leads readers through a decades-long financial mess including cover-ups... mob connections, political friendships and snubbing....Un-put-down-able...Stunning."--TERRI SCHLICHENMEYER, NATIONAL BOOK REVIEWER

"Birkbeck has killer leads, gripping kickers and sensational descriptions. This cinematic book reads more like a detective story than a traditional 'life of."--New York Times Book Review

From the Back Cover:

Adored by millions, Sammy Davis Jr. was considered an entertainment icon and a national treasure. But despite lifetime earnings that topped $50 million, Sammy died in 1990 near bankruptcy.

Years later his once-vivacious wife, Altovise, heir to one of the greatest entertainment legacies of the twentieth century, was living in poverty. With nowhere else to turn, she asked a former federal prosecutor, Albert "Sonny" Murray, to try to resolve Sammy's debts and restore his estate. For seven years Sonny probed Sammy's life and came to understand the tormented artist as a man of tragic complexity.

Deconstructing Sammy is the extraordinary story of an international celebrity whose outsize talent couldn't save him from himself.

About this edition

• Publisher: HARPER PAPERBACKS
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0061450677
• ISBN 13: 9780061450679
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 304