Sounds like the writer is disappointed. But still, he gets his digs in ......
While I was only a teenager when Sammy was in his prime, i still remember watching him on TV........The guy was a true entertainer, one of the very best and any attempt to demean his legacy is pretty much standard now a days.
> “While I was only a teenager when Sammy was in his prime, i still remember watching him on TV........The guy was a true entertainer, one of the very best ...”<
I recall an old tv show in which Sammy Davis, Jr., played a naive and gullible soldier who was often the butt of jokes. (Looking at Wikipedia, my guess is it was “The Patsy” from 1960, an episode on the General Electric Theater.) The climax of the show occurred when some other soldiers set up a practical joke in which they pretended to pull the pin on a live grenade and then panic.
[Plot spoiler, though I’ve never seen a rerun of the show] The Davis character believed it was a live grenade and was terrified, as expected, but kept trying to get them to run. When he realized it was too late for them to get away, he dove on the grenade and covered it with his body.
The image of him on the ground writhing in terror waiting for the grenade to explode was moving. Of course, the other soldiers were ashamed then of the low opinion they’d had of him. (An officer observed what happened and praised him for his bravery.)
I’m not a big fan of Davis in general, but thought his acting in that scene was excellent. I’ve remembered it for over half a century.
By the way, I don’t believe that episode was about racism (and don’t recall whether there were other black soldiers in the scene). I think it was just about him being gullible and the butt of jokes (hence the name, “The Patsy”).