- Jun 24, 2007
- 3,282
- 102
- Occupation
- HR/Finance
Article
September 19, 2008
For all the grief that Sammy Davis Jr. took in life — remember the uproar over his embrace of Richard Nixon? — he's getting it even worse in death.
Eighteen years after the legendary entertainer succumbed to throat cancer at age 64, his estate is in tatters, burdened by debt and infighting among family members and business associates. Despite recording hundreds of songs, starring in dozens of movies and TV shows, and giving countless live performances, his posthumous earning power is dwarfed by the likes of Elvis Presley and fellow Rat Packer Frank Sinatra.
"This is one of the most dysfunctional situations, and they still can't get it together," says Albert "Sonny" Murray Jr., who should know.
Murray, a lawyer based in the Poconos, was hired by Davis's widow to resolve his staggering $7 million IRS tax debt and restore the legacy of one of the 20th century's greatest showmen.
His Herculean efforts, stretched out over seven years, are chronicled in "Deconstructing Sammy: Music, Money, Madness, and the Mob," a book by journalist and author Matt Birkbeck that reveals Murray as a man of stubborn tenacity — and Davis as one of extraordinary complexity. [...]
"He was much more than the Stepin Fetchit that he appeared to be," Murray said in a recent interview at the Hillside. "He went through struggles as a black man, he went through struggles with his own identity, he went through all of the things that we go through as minorities. At the same time, he gave of himself as an entertainer. And yet at the end of his life, there was nothing to show for it."
Full Article
September 19, 2008
For all the grief that Sammy Davis Jr. took in life — remember the uproar over his embrace of Richard Nixon? — he's getting it even worse in death.
Eighteen years after the legendary entertainer succumbed to throat cancer at age 64, his estate is in tatters, burdened by debt and infighting among family members and business associates. Despite recording hundreds of songs, starring in dozens of movies and TV shows, and giving countless live performances, his posthumous earning power is dwarfed by the likes of Elvis Presley and fellow Rat Packer Frank Sinatra.
"This is one of the most dysfunctional situations, and they still can't get it together," says Albert "Sonny" Murray Jr., who should know.
Murray, a lawyer based in the Poconos, was hired by Davis's widow to resolve his staggering $7 million IRS tax debt and restore the legacy of one of the 20th century's greatest showmen.
His Herculean efforts, stretched out over seven years, are chronicled in "Deconstructing Sammy: Music, Money, Madness, and the Mob," a book by journalist and author Matt Birkbeck that reveals Murray as a man of stubborn tenacity — and Davis as one of extraordinary complexity. [...]
"He was much more than the Stepin Fetchit that he appeared to be," Murray said in a recent interview at the Hillside. "He went through struggles as a black man, he went through struggles with his own identity, he went through all of the things that we go through as minorities. At the same time, he gave of himself as an entertainer. And yet at the end of his life, there was nothing to show for it."
Full Article
