{"product_id":"deconstructing-sammy-music-money-madness-and-the-mob-isbn-9780061450662","title":"Deconstructing Sammy: Music, Money, Madness, and the Mob","description":"\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"COLOR: black\"\u003eEqual parts cultural history, celebrity biography, and brilliant investigative journalism, \u003cem\u003eDeconstructing Sammy\u003c\/em\u003e by Matt Birkbeck is a behind-the-scenes look at the disastrous fall of one of the brightest stars of \u003c?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = \"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags\" \/\u003e\u003cst1:city w:st=\"on\"\u003eHollywood\u003c\/st1:city\u003e and \u003cst1:city w:st=\"on\"\u003e\u003cst1:place w:st=\"on\"\u003eLas Vegas\u003c\/st1:place\u003e\u003c\/st1:city\u003e: Sammy Davis, Jr. A member of the infamous Rat Pack, a compatriot of Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin, and one of the most popular performers of his day, Sammy Davis, Jr. was an entertainment icon and a national treasure who earned more than $50 million over the course of his career yet ended up nearly destitute. \u003ci style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal\"\u003eDeconstructing Sammy \u003c\/i\u003etells the whole sad, sordid, fascinating true story. \u003c?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = \"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office\" \/\u003e\u003co:p\u003e\u003c\/o:p\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e | \u003cp\u003eSammy Davis Jr. lived a storied life. Adored by millions over a six-decade-long career, he was considered an entertainment icon and a national treasure. But despite lifetime earnings that topped $50 million, Sammy died in 1990 near bankruptcy. His estate was declared insolvent, and there was no possibility of itever using Sammy's name or likeness again. It was as if Sammy had never existed. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eYears later his wife, Altovise, a once-vivacious woman and heir to one of the greatest entertainment legacies of the twentieth century, was living in poverty, and with nowhere else to go, she turned to a former federal prosecutor, Albert \"Sonny\" Murray, to make one last attempt to resolve Sammy's debts, restore his estate, and revive his legacy. For seven years Sonny probed Sammy's life to understand how someone of great notoriety and wealth could have lost everything, and in the process he came to understand Sammy as a man whose complexity makes for a riveting work of celebrity biography as cultural history.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMatt Birkbeck's serious work of investigative journalism unveils the extraordinary story of an international celebrity at the center of a confluence of entertainment, politics, and organized crime, and shows how even Sammy's outsized talent couldn't save him from himself.\u003c\/p\u003e | \u003cp\u003e“A piece of investigative journalism  that unravels what happened to  Davis’ estate, and  reveals more about the man...Birkbeck spoke to people that have never spoken before -- and the portrait of Sammy that emerges is difficult, demanding, and ultimately tragic.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eNPR's Talk of the Nation\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Exceptionally detailed…makes tax law sexy,” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eLibrary Journal\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Davis’s remarkable life  is certainly well-trod territory. Nevertheless, through interviews with close friends and confidants who had never spoken publicly before, Birkbeck digs up many startling details.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eMICHAEL RUBINKAM, ASSOCIATED PRESS\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Tremendous. . . Birkbeck tells the epic of Sammy Davis Jr... from his Harlem boyhood to his wrenching deathbed (he died of cancer in  1990) in his Beverly Hills mansion, where various hangers-on, seeing the circling vultures, stripped his corpse even before it was a corpse.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eLos Angeles Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Birkbeck has killer leads, gripping kickers and sensational descriptions. This cinematic book reads more like a detective story than a traditional ‘life of.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eNew York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“A fascinating read” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eSacramento Bee\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“With a journalist’s eye toward a great story, author Matt Birkbeck leads readers through a decades-long financial mess including cover-ups… mob connections, political friendships and snubbing.…Un-put-down-able…Stunning.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eTERRI SCHLICHENMEYER,  NATIONAL  BOOK REVIEWER\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Amistad","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44889162809573,"sku":"NP9780061450662","price":25.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780061450662.jpg?v=1730230654","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/deconstructing-sammy-music-money-madness-and-the-mob-isbn-9780061450662","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}