Kim Novak: this dangerous affair which almost cost the life of her lover

Between actress Kim Novak and black artist Sammy Davis Jr., love at first sight was undeniable. The two met in the fall of 1957, while clubbing in Chicago. Kim Novak was seated at a table near the stage and Sammy Davis Jr. happened to sing there. After the show, the artist told his friends Janet Leigh and Tony Curtis that he absolutely wanted to meet the actress. Tony Curtis then immediately invited her to continue the evening with them, in his apartment.

Kim Novak and Sammy Davis Jr. thus spent the whole evening together, literally glued to each other. Love at first sight was immediate and all the guests were able to testify to it. One of them also informed the people press of this budding love and the next day, the rumors were rife: “Which star has a serious relationship with a famous performer?” headlined one of the magazines.

A love story made dangerous

Although the actress laughed at the repercussions that their relationship could have on their career and on the studios, Harry Cohn, who was the head of Columbia Pictures studios, disagreed. This last categorically refused to allow the star actress of the moment to date Sammy Davis Jr. to avoid a big loss of money. Madly in love, Kim Novak refused but Harry Cohn did not stop there and hired bodyguards to prohibit entry to the singer when the latter wanted to visit his beauty. The couple still managed to thwart Harry Cohn’s schemes and managed to see each other in secret, thanks in particular to Arthur Silber Jr., one of Novak’s lover’s best friends, who drove the two lovers to a house. private in Malibu.

At the end of 1957, a journalist published an explosive scoop on the couple: the actress and the artist would have filled out a marriage request. Hearing the news from New York, Harry Cohn, beside himself, had a heart attack but ended up getting back on his feet. At the beginning of 1958, the man decided to appeal to his relations in the mafia in order to put a definitive end to this liaison. Quickly, the father of Sammy Davis Jr. was contacted by the patriarch of the Cohens, an important family in the underworld. He explained to him that his son had to marry a black woman within 48 hours or he would lose an eye and both legs. The artist then complied and married a singer with whom he had briefly gone out, offering her the sum of 25,000 dollars to praise his love for a year. They were married on January 10, 1958 and finally divorced six months later. After this terrible threat, Kim Novak thus agreed never to see her lover again, and their love story ended there, despite themselves.

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