About the Author
My parents spent all of their lives in show business. My father started out as a song and dance man in vaudeville and later became one of the most well known and respected talent agents and managers in the business. He was president of the Theatrical Agents Association for t1welve years and managed such stars as William Boyd (Hopalong Cassidy), Martha Raye, Ann Miller, Nat King Cole, Mary Martin, Dorothy Dandridge and her sister Ruby, and Sammy Davis Jr., just to name a few. My mother was a world famous dancer who ended her professional dancing career in Seattle, Washington. There, she owned her own dance studio and among her students were Gypsy Rose Lee and her sister. Mother later moved to Hollywood where she met my father and worked in motion pictures for thirty-five years. I was an only child who traveled constantly with my father. When I was fourteen years old, traveling with Dad in Hawaii, I met Sammy Davis Jr. and we became lifelong friends. In high school! I studied aeronautical engineering and stage crew. At Los Angeles City College I took the first television production course ever offered. At seventeen I enlisted in the U.S. Naval Air Reserve and was a plane captain (now known as flight engineer), for eleven years. My first big professional break came when I was twenty and Sammy Davis Jr. hired me as his personal assistant and lighting director, a position I remained in for over twenty-two years. It would be impossible to measure everything I learned from Sammy about show business. He was the consummate professional, a genius at his craft. During that time we became business partners and formed Samart Enterprises, which I still own to this day. Some of the highlights of my years with Sammy were when I staged and produced his portions of three Royal Command Performances. The first was for Queen Elizabeth in London 1960. Then, in 1961 I staged and produced Sammy's portion of Princess Grace Rainier Red Cross Gala in Monaco for their Royal Family, and finally, a performance for Englandís Queen Mother. Over the years I produced and co-produced many of Sammy's shows including Englandís Best TV Show of the year, 1961, Sammy Meets The British, and the following year Sammy Meets Girls. For eleven years I was company manager, production manager and lighting director for the Lettermen during the height of their popularity. Since leaving the Lettermen twenty-two years ago I have been company manager, production manager and lighting designer and director for Vikki Carr. A few of the highlights of my years with Vikki have been as production design and lighting director of an NBC special, A Very Special Evening With Vikki Carr (! that won the IRIS Award in 1979), the UNICEF All Children Show in Vienna, Austria and last, but certainly not least, production design of her shows for Presidents Jerry Ford, Jimmy Carter and a special show for President Reagan. At the same time I have worked in one or more of these capacities for Bob Hope, Bill Cosby, Charo, Debbie Reynolds, Sammy Davis Jr., Danny Thomas, and Marco Antonio Muniz (known as the Bing Crosby of Mexico), to name a few. To date I continue to work for Vikki Carr as well as some of the biggest and most famous Mariachi groups in the world, including Mariachi Sol de Mexico, Mariachi Reyna de Los Angeles, Mariachi Cobre, and Mariachi Vargas. Writing and recording my Christmas stories has been a dream of mine for long time. In addition, I have written two cookbooks, Grandma's Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner & Things and Grandmaís Kitchen Cooking. I am now ready to publish a biographical memoir of my years with Sammy called, Sammy Davis Jr. Me and My Shadow.! Planned for the future is another book with highlights and anecdotes from the numerous stars I have worked with during my fifty years in show business. Although my writing experience is somewhat limited I did create (among other things), the story for television Seven Saddles From Secoro, created the story for television Legends of
