Sammy Davis

Sammy Davis Jr., the Harlem kid whose dazzlingly versatile 60-year show- business career earned him the appellation "Mr. Entertainment," died of throat cancer yesterday at his Los Angeles home. Mr. Davis, 64, whose disease was diagnosed in September, underwent chemotherapy in the fall. In January, he sought treatment of a gum infection at Los Angeles' Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, and doctors discovered a recurrence of the cancer. He was discharged from the hospital on March 13 to rest at home.

The selling of what Sammy Davis Jr. left behind will begin Sunday, when about $250,000 worth of his belongings will be auctioned in L.A. to help defray his $5.34 million in debts, most of it taxes owed to Uncle Sam. Among his other debits - a $118,000 mortgage on a Virginia shopping center, $3,500 in groceries and $2,000 for two tuxedos he never wore. Insurance estimates show the chief assets are jewelry valued at $1.4 million and an art collection put at $219,000. This means that Davis' widow, Altovise, may also have to sell her Beverly Hills home, valued at about $2 million, and surrender the $1.8 million in life insurance she received.

It wasn't the public Sammy Davis Jr. whose reflection I saw in a mirror from an adjoining room of a reception suite at New York's Peninsula Hotel a year ago last January. He was dressed in a dark, vested business suit, impeccably tailored. He wore a white shirt and a conservative cravat - and not a scintilla of jewelry that I could see from where I sat. He seemed very sobersided . . . and, I must add, unwell, though mirrors do tend to distort at a distance. Sammy was all business that day, and uncharacteristically serious with the casual passer-by who stopped to exchange a word or two. The occasion was a press event to launch the film "Tap," in which Sammy had a supporting role and, as I recall, a hefty piece of change.

Entertainers (from left) Jerry Lewis, George Shearing, Sammy Davis Jr. and Frank Sinatra share some laughs last night after an informal show celebrating the renaming of the Golden Nugget to Bally's Grand Hotel Casino in Atlantic City last night.

Wednesday was a sad day for people who listen and clap and laugh. It brought the news that Sammy Davis Jr. - the sparkling can-do entertainer - had died after six decades of entertaining America in vaudeville, clubs, movies and television. And Jim Henson died on the same day, leaving behind his famous creations, the floppy, happy, moody, inspirational Muppets, the real-life/ make-believe stars of television's Sesame Street. With the sadness over the early passing of Mr. Henson at age 53, there is also some consolation in the reassurance that his marvelously funny and versatile creatures will live on on our TV screens, and in the hearts of the littlest among us, for scores of years to come.

Without fear of contradiction, I think that Sammy Davis Jr. was the greatest entertainer America ever produced. He was because he excelled in several fields and was so competent that he could perform with a rich variety of entertainers and beat most of them at their own game. Sammy could do it all; he could play the drums, tap his feet off, play several horns, sing with the best, impersonate his peers, and he was an unusually talented actor in films and on Broadway. It was eight years ago when I first met him. I was editor and publisher of a newspaper, The National Leader, when the telegram arrived.

From the age of 13, when he ran away from his home in Chester with a carnival, Leroy Watts Jr. was in show biz. For a half-century, Watts sang, danced, told jokes and entertained in shows starring Sammy Davis Jr., Pearl Bailey, Bill "Bojangles" Robinson and other famed black entertainers. Mr. Watts, 72, who died Saturday at his home in Northfield, N.J., was for decades a familiar figure in nightclubs in Atlantic City and Philadelphia as an all-round performer. "He was also a tap dancer and an emcee, so he did it all," his wife, Sally, recalled yesterday.

Sammy Davis Jr. - agile tap dancer, dramatic singer, able comedian - was also a world-class smoker. During a 1983 interview at the Franklin Plaza Hotel, Sammy smoked five cigarettes in an hour. In his suite, there was a big bowl brimming over with packs of cigarettes. On opening night at the Shubert Theater, he asked to be forgiven for smoking during his act. He said he had "tried everything," but couldn't break the habit. One of his record hits that year was a song called "Smoke, Smoke, Smoke That Cigarette.

In 1983, Bill Cosby and Sammy Davis Jr. invited me to Lake Tahoe to spend three days with them. I was editor and publisher of the National Leader, the nation's only national black newspaper. Both Sammy and Bill were subscribers and they wanted to show their appreciation. At the airport in Nevada, I stepped into a black chauffeur-driven Cadillac that seemed to float all the way to Harrah's, where the herculean performers were starring. I stayed in a handsome suite with telephones in every bathroom and color televisions all over the place.

A giant has died. I visited Sammy Davis Jr. last week, and afterward, I went to my study to pray and to reflect on this rare person - this performer, this world citizen. The world's greatest and most complete entertainer - Sammy Davis Jr. could do it all. When I visited with him, my heart was filled with sadness from the pain of the moment, but also filled with the joy of the memories of celebrations and achievement. I first sat and talked with Altovise, his wife of 20 years, and longtime friends.

Lindsay Lohan 's P.R. rehab continues apace with a sweet coup: LiLo on Thursday chatted on no less a forum than Today , a preamble to an even bigger score - hosting Saturday Night Live this weekend. Much heart, truth, sorrow, and joy poured forth over Today cohost Matt Lauer . "I still need to go through the process of proving myself," LiLo told Matt, "you know, with SNL , being on time [for rehearsals], being, you know, keeping my . . . stuff together.

Tommy Hilfiger , who has put the pep in preppy for a quarter-century, will be here April 30 to pick up Philadelphia University's Spirit of Design Award, during the school's annual fashion show at the Academy of Music. Hilfiger, who happens to be a self-taught designer, will follow a line of distinguished recipients. Geoffrey Beene got the first, in 2002. Others include Francisco Costa , Mary McFadden , William Calvert , and Jay McCarroll . On the tube Thrift-vintage fashionistas Sammy Davis (SammyDVintage.

FORMER PRESIDENT Bill Clinton may have come to the Atlantic City Hilton recently, but the White House is coming to Trump Taj Mahal. Next spring is the target date for the opening of a White House Sub Shop along Spice Road, the Taj's second-level dining and retail corridor. That a casual-dining food outlet will be doing business in a gaming hall is generally not that big of a deal. After all, Atlantic City's gambling dens boast a slew of Hooters, Johnny Rockets and the like.

When Stephen Sondheim's songs are collected for a revue, the natural, catchall setting is a chic cocktail party full of smart facades and empty souls. With William Finn, it's families that are both extended and nuclear (in every sense of the word), all struggling for a day-to-day truce. So it is in Heart & Music: An Evening With William Finn, which opened the Philadelphia Gay and Lesbian Theater Festival on Thursday at the Arden. Inevitably, many of the songs performed by the five-member cast were drawn from Finn's Falsettos trilogy, through which he shambled into theater history nearly 30 years ago by dramatizing the tortured dynamics of a family in which a husband's roving eye turns to other men. Though Finn has since written bigger hits (The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee)

On one wall at the beautiful, relatively new House of Blues music room in Atlantic City is a mural of Sammy Davis Jr. performing. When Davis was in his prime in the 1950s and 1960s, there weren't many opportunities for Puerto Ricans (and yes, Sammy was Puerto Rican) to achieve pop music success doing Puerto Rican music. How'd he do, anyway? In 2006, things are substantially different. Reggaet?n, one of the hottest forms of international pop, has boomed worldwide thanks to musicians from Puerto Rico, and one of its hottest stars, Don Omar, greeted his East Coast fans warmly on Sunday night.

I will never forget Aug. 26, 1962. I was 24 at the time and after having the good fortune of seeing Dean Martin's appearance at the 500 Club in Atlantic City on Aug. 19 - his first solo gig since his split with Jerry Lewis - the following week gave me an added treat. Thanks to a drawing I did of Dean, I was able to see his opening shows and also attend rehearsals. And 500 Club owner Skinny Damato introduced me to Dean, who autographed my drawing, which still hangs on my living room wall.

Fred Snead is a man with three names, each a chapter in a life of tumult and transformation. His story begins in 1969, long before Snead made amends to the North Philadelphia community where he grew up and rumbled. Back then, he was known as Big Monte, 14, a "midget" in the notorious Morrocco's Gang that ruled - and terrorized - the streets of Francisville and beyond. Three years ago, the old gang was reborn as the New Morrocco's, a civic organization out to better the old 'hood.

Every fan seems to have a favorite memory of the Chairman of the Board. Here are some of them. MAYOR RENDELL: "He was an entertainer who had the greatest impact of anyone in my lifetime. Even now, though he hasn't done new records in 10 years, he's more popular than the Beatles. " LEONARD TOSE, former Eagles owner: "I liked him and you'll know how much when I tell you I gave him a Super Bowl ring. He always wore it. He used to bet on our games and that was in the years when we never won. He must have lost a fortune.

Clint Holmes goes back almost to the very beginning of casino gambling in Atlantic City, when Resorts International opened its doors for the first time 20 years ago during Memorial Day Weekend. "Bob Newhart was the second act booked into the Superstar Theater, and I was his opening act," Holmes said. "I'm sure when I was announced, everyone in the audience said, 'Who?' I worked for practically nothing, but it was the best thing that could ever happen for my career. "When you're starting out in this business, everyone looks for that big break, and that break can happen in a lot of different ways.

Here's the latest chapter of the Halle Berry-David Justice divorce saga, in which Berry applies for a restraining order against her estranged husband: The actress filed the request on Oct. 1, alleging the Atlanta Braves outfielder ranted and raved outside her Los Angeles home for four hours the previous day. Berry says Justice, from whom she has been separated since late 1995, arrived at the home they used to share and "demanded entry to...