Sammy Davis Jr.

About

Sammy Davis Jr. first appeared in Las Vegas as part of the Will Mastin Trio, a family act with his father and his godfather, Will Mastin. UNLV historian Michael Green traces the first reference to a Review-Journal ad announcing that the trio would open at the El Rancho Vegas on May 15, 1946. They quickly became favorites and moved on to the Last Frontier and the Flamingo, with Davis emerging as a star in his own right.

Offstage, he faced the segregation that earned Las Vegas the nickname "the Mississippi of the West". In the 1950s Black headliners could perform in Strip showrooms but could not stay as guests or use the hotels' restaurants, pools or casinos, and many slept in boarding houses on the Westside. Davis recalled being punched by a security guard at a movie theater for refusing to sit in the segregated section. Frank Sinatra pressed the Sands to let Davis stay as a guest; the Las Vegas Sun dates this to 1955, and the Online Nevada Encyclopedia to the late 1950s.

Davis began playing the Sands in 1956 for $25,000 a week and was part of the 1960 "Summit at the Sands" with Sinatra, Dean Martin, Peter Lawford and Joey Bishop. That March, Strip resorts agreed to admit Black guests in an accord reached at the Moulin Rouge. Davis marched with Martin Luther King Jr. and raised money for the NAACP, and the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority credits him with helping hasten the opening of the city's resorts and showrooms to every audience.

After Howard Hughes bought the Sands, Davis moved to Caesars Palace for about a decade, and later drew big crowds performing with Jerry Lewis at Bally's. He developed throat cancer in 1989 and died on May 16, 1990, at 64. Two nights later the Strip dimmed its lights for ten minutes in his honor.

What to expect

The city of Las Vegas operates the Sammy Davis Jr. Festival Plaza, an outdoor theater on the west side of Lorenzi Park, on West Washington Avenue between Rancho Drive and Valley View Boulevard, which hosts concerts, festivals and community arts events.

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority also points visitors to the Golden Steer Steakhouse, opened in 1958, where his favorite booth (Booth 20) can be reserved; to the Venetian and Palazzo, built on the site of the Sands; and to Sammy Davis Jr. Drive west of the Strip. His centennial was marked with a year-long SDJ100 celebration through 2026.

More people who shaped Las Vegas

• Elvis Presley
• Frank Sinatra
• Liberace
• Wayne Newton
• Celine Dion

Las Vegas history

• Las Vegas history, era by era

Good to know

• Historians differ on exactly when the Sands first let Davis stay as a guest: the Las Vegas Sun says 1955, the Online Nevada Encyclopedia the late 1950s.
• He lost his left eye in a car accident while driving from Las Vegas to Los Angeles in 1954, and recuperated at Sinatra's home.
• In 1963 he, Sinatra and Martin performed together at the Sands in a show called "Three Coins in the Copa".
• He was billed to open the Thomas & Mack Center with Sinatra and Martin in 1983, but was ill; Diana Ross took his place.
• The 1960 accord was reached at a March 25 meeting, the day before a planned civil rights march on the Strip, which the NAACP then called off.

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