Altovise Davis was Sammy Davis Jr.'s third wife, the willowy ex-dancer who accompanied him through the swinging, swapping Seventies, his incredible renaissance in the Eighties and, ultimately, to the end of his life in 1990. Twenty years of marriage to the entertainer was a wild ride, but the two decades remaining until her death yesterday were not so high-flying. Widowhood was not good to Alto. She did not enjoy the dower and philanthropic autumn of a Barbara Sinatra or Jeanne Martin, as Sammy spent it all and left her deeply in debt, forcing her to sell not only their home on Summit Drive in Beverly Hills, but his awards, mementos, and everything except whatever she could hide in a storage unit. The hidden cache was taken as well. Alto invited us to Sammy's funeral. She invited us into her home, where we did admit in Tabloid Baby that we searched the medicine cabinet for glass eyes. Chapter 9.
I loved Sammy more than any other entertainer, ever! I was so angry that the government treated her like this and that no one in Hollywood could get it together to raise the money to pay his back taxes so she could lead a normal life and not have to give up everything he had ever given her. She was a lovely woman who should have had a LOT more from the last years of her life.
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