Sammy Davis Jr.’s incredible A-list address book failed to draw a winning auction bid in California on Thursday, despite offering potential buyers an intimate look at the Rat Packer’s circle of world-famous pals.
The minimum bid was $4,000, but when the final hammer came down — after more than two weeks of open bidding — at 8 p.m. ET Thursday, that reserve hadn’t been met.
Auctioneers said they received phone calls about the book but no one was willing to shell out $4,000. They’ll listen to other offers for Davis’ well-worn book.
“That was disappointing,” said Laura Yntema, auction manager for the Nate D. Sanders auction house. “It’s a cool piece. It’ll find a home.”
All the numbers are landline phones and the auction house believes they’ve all been disconnected for years. The entries include the biggest who’s-who names of Davis’ contemporaries in a wide range of fields:
- Fellow Rat Packers: Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Joey Bishop
- Acting greats: Liz Taylor, Gene Kelly, Rock Hudson, Jack Lemmon, Jerry Lewis, Burt Reynolds, Sidney Poitier and Mickey Rooney
- Music stars: Michael Jackson, Barbra Streisand, Neil Diamond and Lionel Richie
- Famous athletes: Muhammad Ali, Sugar Ray Robinson, O.J. Simpson, Bruce Jenner, Bjorn Borg and Lee Elder
- Politicians and social activists: Jesse Jackson, Donald Rumsfeld and late Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley
“When you open it, you’re just struck by all the names, “ said Yntema. “It’s amazing how much reach he had, not just in entertainment.”
Sellers don’t have exact dates of when Davis maintained the book. But they believe it was started in the early 1970s and used at least into the mid-1980s.
For example, Simpson is listed along with his second wife Nicole Brown, who he married in 1985. They later divorced and the football great-turned-actor was tried and acquitted in her grisly murder.
Davis passed away in 1990 at the age of 64.