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This digital document is an article from Siempre!, published by Edicional Siempre on June 15, 2003. The length of the article is 693 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Antwone Fisher, de Denzell Washington: cinecrítica. (Cine).(Antwone Fisher: The Triumph of the Spirit )(Reseña de película)
Author: Tomás Pérez Turrent
Publication: Siempre! (Refereed)
Date: June 15, 2003
Publisher: Edicional Siempre
Volume: 49Issue: 2609Page: 72(1)

Article Type: Reseña de película

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A biography of the African American actor who rose to the top of his profession, won an Academy Award, and was named one of the most popular movie stars in 1998. ... Read more

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He was, for decades, one of the most recognizable figures in the cultural landscape, his image epitomizing a golden age of American show business. His career spanned a lifetime, but for years he has remained hidden behind the persona he so vigorously generated, and so fiercely protected. Now, in this surprising, illuminating, and compulsively readable biography, we are taken beyond the icon, into the extraordinary, singular life of Sammy Davis, Jr.

In scrupulous detail and with stunning powers of evocation, Wil Haygood takes us back to the era of vaudeville, where it all began for four-year-old Sammy who ran out onstage one night and stole the show. From then on it was a motherless childhood on the road, singing and dancing his way across a segregated America with his father and the formidable showman Will Mastin, struggling together to survive the Depression and the demise of vaudeville itself.

With an ambition honed by poverty and an obsessive need for applause, Sammy drove his way into the nightclub circuit of the 1940s and 1950s, when, his father and Mastin aging and out of style, he slowly began to make a name for himself, hustling his way to top billing and eventually to recording contracts. From there, he was to stake his claim on Broadway, in Hollywood, and, of course, in Las Vegas.

Haygood brings Sammy’s showbiz life into full relief against the backdrop of an America in the throes of racial change. Sammy grew up trapped between the worlds of blacks and whites, with so much invested in both. He made his living entertaining white people but was often denied service in the very venues he played. Drafted into a newly integrated U.S. Army in the 1940s, he saw up close the fierce tensions that seethed below the surface.Dragged into the civil rights movement, he witnessed a hatred that often erupted into violence. In his broad and varied friendships and alliances (with Frank Sinatra; Martin Luther King, Jr.; Richard Nixon; Sidney Poitier; Marilyn Monroe, to name just a few), not to mention his romances (his relationship with Kim Novak and his marriage to the blond beauty May Britt drew death threats), he forged uncharted paths across racial lines. Admired and reviled by both blacks and whites, he was tormented all his life by raging insecurities, and never quite came to terms with his own skin. Ultimately, his only true sense of his identity was as a performer.

Based on painstaking research and more than 250 interviews, Wil Haygood brings us a sweeping and vivid cultural history of the twentieth century, chronicling black entertainment from its beginnings and the birth of popular culture as we know it. In Black and White transcends simple biography to become an important record, both celebratory and elegiacal, of a vanished America and its greatest entertainer. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (24)

YES THIS BOOK REFLECTS THE TIME OF MY CHILDHOOD...GREAT GREAT GREAT READ!!!
I loved reading IN BLACK AND WHITE!I COULD NOT PUT IT DOWN.Needless to say I wasand still am a Sammy Davis Jr. fan.He past way too early.I only wish he could have lived as long as his father and uncle.This would have given me more of Sammy's life story.DO NOT LISTEN TO ANY OF THE NEGATIVE REVIEWS...BS.I read all of the material written about the greatest entertainer that ever lived.Even Michael Jackson, although a different era, would respect Sammy as an icon in his own generation.If you are interested in Show business history and the 50's, and 60's...BUY THIS BOOK...
ISTEN TO AN AUDIO OF "IN BLACK AND WHITE"!You will be glad you did.Mr. Wonderful is truly a wonderful experience.

Not A Definitive Biography
Maybe the definitive biography of Sammy Davis Jr. can never be written.Or maybe it simply hasn't been done.This book is a mixed bag.

The book filters the story of Sammy Davis Jr. through race, everything is either black or white.As a result, you do get some interesting concepts, that Davis did not want to "be" black, as if all blacks (or for that matter, all whites) had something in common.

You do get extensive thoughts about his love for blonde women, and his affairs with Kim Novak is given a prominent amount of space.

You also have a wonderful portrait of Will Mastin, a man who is ignored in every other book about Davis.

But other things are glossed over, his drug and alcohol abuse, his Rat Pack days, even his marriage to May Britt.

Oh, do not expect anything about his music in here, absolutely nothing about any of his records.

A Biography filled with Historical Landscapes
A must read!Wil Haygood's book, In Black and White, The Life of Sammy Davis, Jr. not only captures the mesmerizing and oftentimes daunting physical movement of the man- Sammy- in the seemingly separate worlds of black and white but unapologetically captivates the reader with Sammy's human quest for love and approval.

The author skillfully provides the reader with a historical landscape to navigate the multidimensional aspects of the making of "Sammy" from his vaudeville childhood days to the inscription on the headstone of his final resting place--
Sammy Davis Jr. "The Entertainer" He Did It All...and indeed he did.

After reading the book, I can't wait to see Sammy "in living color" thanks to Denzel Washington's insight to purchase the screen rights.

Written by Deleso Alford Washington, J.D., LL.M.

Not the real story...
This book does not reflect the spirit of the life of Sammy Davis, Jr. I'm afraid that it relects the spirit of the life that the author, Wil Haygood, unfortunately must have led.

I am very familiar with the details of Sam's life, I have heard it in his own words. Sam was a very pragmatic optimist who imagined the world in a very color-blind way. This is where Mr. Haygood leads the un-informed reader very far away from Sam's actual beliefs.

Sam didn't want to be white, he wanted to be the best. That is what he constantly strived for. Sam stood up to racism so many times, in so many ways. How many times was his nose broken in race baited fights from his hitch in the Army ? Sam experiencedthe ignorance of racism many, many times, from many different people. But for every racist he had to battle, he also saw many more people who he loved, trusted & repected, and who he knew felt the same way towards him.

Almost all of the material in this book is 'lifted' from the books co-written by Sam and Jane & Burt Boyar. These works are the true story. These people were there when these events happened, they witnessed them first hand. Not only has Mr. Haygood taken what actually transpired and twisted it to fit his agenda, he berates the people who daily lived through these experiences with Sam.

excellent
This is well written, thorough, entertaining, and really a superb history lesson.Great Job Mr. Haygood. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Entertainment Weekly on AVATAR
Well worth the effort in obtaining. Like OBie's Kong atop the Empire State Building, Mr Crichton's tyrannosaur stepping through the electrified fence in 1993, BLADE RUNNER, Mr Lang's METROPOLIS -- Mr Cameron's Jake, learning to fly, will become a pivotal moment in scinematic history.
STEPHAN PICKERING / Chofetz Chayim ben-Avraham
Heretic spiritist ... Read more

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Featuring DENZEL WASHINGTON, Marina Hands, Conrad Black, Giovanna Mezzogiorno, Gram Parsons, John Barrymore + fashion layouts, and more! ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from Winnipeg Free Press, published by Thomson Gale on November 2, 2007. The length of the article is 620 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Black and white; Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe square off in a nuanced crime story that exposes shades of grey.(Movies - Reviews)(Movie review)
Author: Gale Reference Team
Publication: Winnipeg Free Press (Magazine/Journal)
Date: November 2, 2007
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Page: d1

Article Type: Movie review

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John McCain: Saint or Senator? + Life and How to Live It: Lessons From James Caan+The Truth About Cloning+Denzel Washington Talks About Famil, Basketball, and Hope. ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from Transplant News, published by Transplant Communications, Inc. on February 27, 2002. The length of the article is 695 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Movie John Q draws ire of the US insurance industry; public flocks to see Denzel Washington.(Brief Article)
Publication: Transplant News (Newsletter)
Date: February 27, 2002
Publisher: Transplant Communications, Inc.
Volume: 12Issue: 4Page: NA

Article Type: Brief Article

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This is a well-established and successful publication of the Johnson Publishing Co. which began in the mid 50s and is orieted towards Blacks the World over. Featured in this issue is the story of Malcolm X as told through the film produced by Spike Lee, with award-winning actor Denzel Washington playing the part of Malcolm. ... Read more