Beyond The Candelabra

Happy Monday everyone! Today marks 100 years since Liberace’s friend and fellow show business extraordinaire Sammy Davis Jr. was born in New York City. 🎂

Davis was an accomplished singer, dancer, actor, and comedian who began his career as a child performer in the 1930s.¹ In 1936, Davis would formally join his father and uncle’s Vaudeville dance troupe, the Will Mastin Trio, before striking out on his own to inspire generations of superstars from Michael Jackson to Richard Pryor.²

Liberace likely first met Sammy Davis Jr. in the early 1950s when the two were both performing at popular West Coast venues like Ciro’s and The Riviera. After Davis lost his eye in a car accident in 1954, Liberace was one of many celebrity friends who attended his much-anticipated comeback show at Ciro’s on January 12th, 1955.³ “[Davis] put on a great one-man show, imitating everyone from Cary Grant and Arthur Godfrey to Vaughn Monroe and Jerry Lewis,” the San Francisco Chronicle’s Bob Thomas reported. “He danced like the late Bill Robinson and did a piano imitation of Liberace, who enjoyed it in a ringside seat.”⁴

In the spring of 1960, Liberace would travel with Sammy Davis Jr. to London to give a Royal Command Performance for Queen Elizabeth.⁵ Writing about the experience year later, Liberace recalled that while the British people “absolutely adored” Davis’ effortless talent and charisma, the British press remained mired in their racially-motivated obsession with his 1959 marriage to Swedish actress May Britt.⁶ Comparing the ordeal to his own experiences with tabloid homophobia in the 1950s, Liberace wrote that he “felt very sorry for Sammy because [he] knew what he was going through.”⁷

In 1967, Liberace would guest star on an episode of The Hollywood Palace hosted by Sammy Davis Jr.⁸ In a cheeky homage to Liberace’s love for bedazzled costuming, Davis would appear on stage in a red, bejeweled suit coat and joke to Liberace that they “look[ed] like a dance team in a Tiffany’s window.”⁹ “If there’s anything I can’t stand Sammy,” Liberace bat back with a grin, “[it’s] an overdressed performer.”¹⁰

Following Liberace’s death from AIDS in 1987, Sammy Davis Jr. was quick to tell United Press International that while he would certainly miss Liberace “the entertainer,” he would miss Liberace “the human being even more.”¹¹

Happy 100th Birthday Sammy!

1. “Early Life on the Road,” SammyDavisJr.Info, accessed December 1, 2025, https://sammydavisjr.info/biographical/about-sammy/1925-50/. ↩︎
2. Ibid. ↩︎
3. Bob Thomas, “An Eye Lost…A Triumph Gained: Stars Hail Sammy Davis’ Comeback,” San Francisco Chronicle, January 13, 1955. ↩︎
4. Ibid. ↩︎
5. Earl Wilson, “It Happened Last Night,” The Daily Report, May 10, 1960. ↩︎
6. Liberace, Liberace: An Autobiography (Don Mills, Ontario: Longman Canada Limited, 1973), 246. ↩︎
7. Ibid. ↩︎
8. “Sammy Davis on ‘Palace,’” News Journal, February 11, 1967. ↩︎
9. Sammy Davis Jr. Hosts Hollywood Palace with Liberace (Youtube, 2009), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kt849a8iqNM&t=391s ↩︎
10. Ibid. ↩︎
11. Vernon Scott, “Hollywood, Vegas Stars Lavish Praise on Legendary Showman,” The Fresno Bee, February 5, 1987. ↩︎