For an explanation of the inclusion of this story, SEE BELOW ...

"The Desperate Hours"
starring Sammy Davis Jr.
Produced & Directed by Buddy Bregman
Hollywood Center Theater
Hollywood, California

Sammy Davis Jr. had first met Buddy Bregman when visiting his friend, Frank Sinatra, at a Hollywood recording session. Buddy was producing the legendary crooner's next album, and Sammy grabbed a seat next to Bregman, behind the mixing board, to observe the proceedings. The pair found they shared mutual musical interests, and personal interests as well. The up and coming singer/dancer/actor and the young producer, bonded instantly. Their friendship grew quickly, both personally and professionally. Due to the fact that Sammy was signed to Decca Records, when Bregman recorded with Sammy, he was restricted to serving as orchestra leader, arranger, etc., due to his position as record producer at Verve Records.

Davis' young entertainment career had suffered a setback on November 19, 1954, when he almost died in an automobile accident. Sammy was on a return trip from Las Vegas to Los Angeles. The accident occurred on a bend in U.S. Highway 66, just outside Victorville, California . Luckily, Davis survived, but he suffered the loss of  his left eye as a result of the carnage. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sammy_Davis,_Jr.

After his discharge from the hospital, and rehabilitation therapy, Davis rejoined the dance act with whom he performed prior to his accident. They returned with performances at a variety of clubs and theaters around Portland, Oregon. He soon began to achieve success on his own when he was singled out for praise by critics and fans alike. By the end of the year, Sammy's solo act was gaining in popularity, plus he had also released his second record album. His career was back on track, but it took a giant leap forward when he landed a role in the Broadway spectacular, "Mr. Wonderful" in 1956.

The musical comedy played the Broadway Theatre in New York City. The production opened March 22nd, 1956 and ran for 383 performances. The musical starred SAMMY DAVIS, JR. and THE WILL MASTIN TRIO and featured CHITA RIVERA, KAY MEDFORD, JACK CARTER, and SAMMY DAVIS SR.

It was soon after the "Mr. Wonderful" run that Sammy and Buddy Bregman realized that they both shared aspirations in theater. Sammy cherished his Broadway experience as an actor-singer-dancer, and Bregman wanted to expand his successful music career into the fields of directing and production. The talented pair decided to mount a production, on a smaller scale, to mutually gain the experience necessary for both to grow to the next level. Wanting to showcase Sammy's acting, they agreed to avoid musicals entirely, and look for a stronger, entirely different role, for Sammy to portray.

Bregman suggested the recent Humphrey Bogart thriller, "The Desperate Hours" with Davis reprising the Bogart role of the bad-assed escaped convict. Sammy loved the idea, and Buddy was enthused because it was not only written as a play, it too had enjoyed an award-winning Broadway run.
Author's Note:  I think another factor for the choice was that, although Sammy was being fitted for his glass eye during this period, I only remember him with his eye patch. The transition took quite a long time and I think Buddy & Sammy agreed that the character of escaped convict, Glenn Griffin, could be played with the eye patch if necessary. ALSO:
If I remember correctly, Bregman was also going to be featured in the cast of the production but that idea was scrapped prior to the play's opening.

The pair decided to present the popular stage production in "Little Theater" (non-equity, 99 seat limit), at the popular Hollywood Center Theater. Located around the corner from Hollywood's famed "Hot Rod Drive-In" (& actor hangout), "STAN'S", the local theater had been refurbished for 'theater-in-the round', and had always enjoyed a loyal following within the acting & entertainment industry. All parties involved agreed that the Buddy Bregman/Sammy Davis Jr. production would further broaden the little theater's exposure and increase its popularity.

As a testament to the power of the script, it was later updated and renamed -

AUTHOR: My role in this production was miniscule, but at the time (age 13-14) it did have an effect on me, as it would have been my first professional acting experience. After four years in Southern California, I was now in Junior High School and had befriended several "child-actors" (another story) and enrolled in Drama class. I had decided I wanted to be an actor and finally convinced my mother and reluctant father that I was serious about this and to allow me to take professional acting lessons. Thanks to the support of my 8th Grade Drama Instructor, Mrs. Edith Heckman, I auditioned for, and was accepted by, Yvonne White, a well-known teacher of young aspiring actors.

 After a couple months of some pretty intense classes,      Miss White  - W/Parents - Jed Duane 

 Climate of Eden - to - The Desperate Hours

  DATE ?   -            THE DESPERATE HOURS  

Recognized throughout much of his career as "the world's greatest living entertainer", Sammy Davis, Jr. was a remarkably popular and versatile performer equally adept at acting, singing, dancing and impersonations -- in short, a variety artist in the classic tradition.

A member of the famed Rat Pack, he was among the very first African-American talents to find favor with audiences on both sides of the color barrier, and remains a perennial icon of cool.

Born in Harlem on December 8, 1925, Davis made his stage debut at the age of three performing with Holiday in Dixieland, a black vaudeville troupe featuring his father and helped by his de facto uncle, Will Mastin; dubbed "Silent Sam, the Dancing Midget," he proved phenomenally popular with audiences and the act was soon renamed Will Mastin's Gang Featuring Little Sammy.

At the age of seven Davis made his film debut in the legendary musical short Rufus Jones for President, and later received tap-dancing lessons courtesy of the great Bill "Bojangles" Robinson. In 1941, the Mastin Gang opened for Tommy Dorsey at Detroit's Michigan Theater; there Davis first met Dorsey vocalist Frank Sinatra -- the beginning of a lifelong friendship.

  By 1959, Sammy Davis Jr. had officially been accepted as a charter member of the "Rat Pack", which was led by his old friend, Frank Sinatra. This loosely-knit, hard-partying group of Hollywood performers (Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Joey Bishop, & Peter Lawford) were renowned for their wild Hollywood lifestyle, lavish parties, and political connections (actor Lawford was married to the sister of John & Bobby Kennedy). Both Dean Martin & Joey Bishop had their own network TV shows, and, in addition to being the most popular crooner in America, tales of Frank Sinatra's alleged gambling & mob ties were legendary. Sammy's inclusion in this elite group did much more than just guarantee him movie roles and Headlining Las Vegas Shows. In 1959, racial integration was not yet a political issue and this act between a group of influential white entertainers and their black buddy, caused people to take notice. Future social arguments surrounding Sammy's love for the blond, Swedish beauty, May Britt, were eclipsed by their marriage, which resulted in social and political reverberations, felt as far as the White House itself.

One could argue that Sammy Davis Jr. (w / help from a Limey, two Wops, & a Jew),
 played a larger role in the U.S. civil rights movement than Miss Rosa Parks herself.

In 1943 Davis joined the U.S. Army, where he endured a constant battle with racism; upon his return from duty, the group was renamed the Will Mastin Trio. Three years later they opened for Mickey Rooney, who encouraged Davis to begin including his many impersonations in the Trio's act; where previously they had exclusively performed music, the addition of comedy brought new life to the group, and by the beginning of the next decade they were headlining venues including New York's Capitol club and Ciro's in Hollywood.

In 1952, at the invitation of Sinatra, they also played the newly-integrated Copacabana. In 1954 Davis signed to Decca, topping the charts with his debut LP Starring Sammy Davis Jr; that same year he lost his left eye in a much-publicized auto accident, but upon returning to the stage in early 1955 was greeted with even greater enthusiasm than before on the strength of a series of hit singles including "Something's Gotta Give," "Love Me or Leave Me" and "That Old Black Magic."

A year later Davis made his Broadway debut in the musical Mr. Wonderful, starring in the show for over 400 performances and launching a hit with the song "Too Close for Comfort."

In 1958 Davis resumed his film career after a quarter-century layoff with Anna Lucasta, followed a year later by his acclaimed turn in Porgy and Bess. Also in 1959 he became a charter member of the Rat Pack, a loose confederation of Sinatra associates (also including Dean Martin, Peter Lawford and Joey Bishop) which began regularly performing together at the Sands casino in Las Vegas.

In 1960 they made Ocean's Eleven, the first in a series of hip and highly self-referential Rat Pack films; although Davis' inclusion in the group was perceived in many quarters as an egalitarian move, many black audiences felt he was simply a token -- the butt of subtly racist jokes -- and declared him a sell-out. His earlier conversion to Judaism had been met with considerable controversy within the African-American community as well; still, nothing compared to the public outcry over his 1960 marriage to Swedish actress May Britt, which even elicited death threats. Still, Davis remained a major star, appearing in the 1962 Rat Pack film Sergeants 3 and scoring a major hit with "What Kind of Fool Am I?" Two years later he returned to Broadway in the long-running Golden Boy, scoring a Tony nomination for his performance.

In 1964, the third Rat Pack film, Robin and the Seven Hoods, was released; two years later, in the wake of the publication of his 1966 autobiography Yes I Can, Davis was also among a number of musical luminaries, including Sinatra and Louis Armstrong, who co-starred in the jazz drama A Man Called Adam. In 1968 he and Lawford teamed as Salt and Pepper; the picture was a hit, and a sequel, One More Time, appeared in 1970. In between the two Davis delivered one of his most memorable screen performances in Bob Fosse's 1969 musical Sweet Charity; he also appeared in a number of television features, including The Pigeon, The Trackers and Poor Devil.

In 1972 Davis topped the pop charts with "The Candy Man", from the film Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory; from 1975 to 1977, he hosted his own syndicated variety show, Sammy and Company, and in 1978 starred in the film Sammy Stops the World.

However, in the late 1970s and through much of the 1980s Davis's profile diminished, and he was primarily confined to the casino circuit, with a 1988 comeback tour he mounted with Sinatra and Martin largely unsuccessful. His appearance in the 1989 film "Tap" was much acclaimed, but it was to be his last screen performance. A heavy, lifelong smoker, Davis died  from oral/throat cancer on May 16, 1990, leaving the entertainment world bereft of a pioneer whose breadth of talent and determination to succeed in the face of racial adversity inspired many artists who followed.

JEFF CHANDLER

ESTHER WILLIAMS

MARVIN MILLER

SCRIPT

Drunk?

SAMMY -

BUDDY BREGMAN