8 December—Sammy Davis Jr. was born on this day 98 years ago; he died in 1990. Before I relate how I met him, if you need to be reminded, he was a song-and-dance man (i.e., immensely talented actor, singer, dancer, and comedian) of color. Well, in the interest of scientific accuracy, not of color at all; Sammy was black, and black is actually the absence of color. He lost an eye in an automobile accident in 1954 (a bullet-shaped horn button on his Cadillac performed the enucleation) and converted to Judaism in 1961.

Sammy was a member of what’s sometimes referred to as the second iteration of the celebrated or notorious Rat Pack, an informal group of entertainers in the fifties and sixties—Frank Sinatra (the reputed capo), Sammy Davis Jr., Dean Martin (né Dino Crocetti), Joey Bishop (né Joseph Gottlieb), and Peter Lawford (né Peter Aylen)—who acted together in movies, appeared together in Las Vegas casinos, and did whatever else they did.

(The original Hollywood Rat Pack, by the way, is said to have originated in the late forties as a group of show-biz friends who got together at the home of Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart to do whatever they did. Frank Sinatra was in the group.)

The Rat Pack of the sixties was known to have wasted lots of time on golf courses. (We all know people like that.) And in his autobiography Sammy recounted what he’ll probably be best remembered for. When he was teeing off one day, he was asked what his handicap was. “Talk about handicap,” he replied, “I’m a one-eyed Negro who’s Jewish.”

Well, nobody’s perfect.

So now you’re wondering how I met Sammy Davis Jr. Never happened. You must admit it was a good hook, though. But I did see him and his father—Sammy Davis Sr., if you’re wondering about that—in “Mr. Wonderful,” an eminently forgettable Broadway musical in 1956 that was allegedly written to showcase his talents, which it did very well.

In 1956, it must be noted, Sammy Davis Jr. suffered only two handicaps . . .