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Personal memories of widow of bisexual Sammy Davis Jr.
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Sammy and Altovise in better days
On March 15, the widow of Sammy Davis Jr. died. She was only 65, and died of a stroke, and no doubt the stress of living with a wild bisexual celebrity contributed to her early demise.
That of course, doesn't mean that it's always tough to be married to a bisexual, but Davis was known for his philandering ways with Frank Sinatra and the Rat Pack, and he was also infamous for his sexual prowess.
I was fortunate enough to meet Altovise Joanne Gore Davis twice. Once, before Sammy died, at a charity event they were both attending after I first moved to Los Angeles in the mid-1980s, and once after his death after she was having trouble with the IRS. Each time, she knew me as an entertainment writer, and I helped research James Spada's biography on Peter Lawford "The Man Who Kept Secrets," who was a good buddy of Sammy's. Whether she was dazzling in formal wear, or near-destitute and desperate in both of the extreme situations I met her, she was always a tall, upstanding, straight-forward and seemingly brave woman.
Authors Darwin Porter and Danforth Prince who wrote "Hollywood Babylon: It's Back," declared outright that Davis was bisexual, and occasionally fooled around with Lawford. But, I also know from first-hand information from a very reliable source, that Davis particularly liked guys. In fact, a gent I know who still works for a Southern California military base, was one of the guys who helped introduce young soldiers to Davis for their secret liaisons. This guy has nothing to gain from telling his story, and in fact wrote about it himself three decades ago, so I have no reason to doubt his stories.
Of course, I didn't have the guts (or the reason) to ask Davis in person, nor did I talk about it to his wife.
Altovise loved talking about her days as a dancer, that is what I remember best. She was Sammy's third wife, and nabbed him in 1970 and stayed with him as he suffered from throat cancer and died in 1990. She died at Cedars-Sinai after her stroke.
She never talked about Davis's bisexuality—and that is a shame, because a lot of secrets died with her—and she undoubtedly did have a good relationship with him and loved him very much, but the closest thing I got from her was, "Yes, being to married to Sammy wasn't easy." And she said it with a big sigh.
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