Read Online In Black and White: The Life of Sammy Davis Junior by Wil Haygood - Free Book Online Page B

of running alone into the streets of New York City, young Luisa Aguiar—a beauty, her skin a soft milky white—couldn’t help but hope she’d meet someone to take her away from her foster family. That person was Marco Sanchez, himself of Cuban ancestry. Marco Sanchez sold Cuban cigars. Sometimes he bartered them for liquor, which he sold—and drank in heavy quantities, as well. Their marriage was tempestuous. Still, Luisa gave birth to four children, but only two—Julia, born in 1899, and Elvera, born in 1905—survived beyond infancy. The heavy-drinking Marco Sanchez didn’t survive long either—he died of cirrhosis of the liver, leaving behind a young widow and two daughters.
    First her father, now her husband. Once again, feelings of being abandoned and left adrift washed over Luisa Sanchez. But she was determined that such feelings would neither overwhelm nor defeat her.
    By 1915, Luisa had found an apartment in Harlem, at 47 West 129th Street. Waves of Negroes had recently started migrating to upper Manhattan. It wasn’t that Luisa followed the plight—or the momentum—of the Negro in New York. In fact, Luisa Sanchez did not keep company with Negroes. Her move to Harlem was purely for economical reasons. The rents were cheaper than in lower Manhattan. Sanchez found work as a personal maid and dresser for Laurette Taylor, a much-admired Broadway actress. Born, like Sanchez, in New York City in 1884, Taylor had made her New York stage debut at the age of nineteen in a production of
From Rags to Riches
. For years she toured the country in stock companies, honing her craft. On December 21, 1912, she opened on Broadway at the Cort Theatre—it was that theater’s grandopening—in
Peg o’ My Heart
, an Irish family drama written by Hartley Manners. Taylor played Peg, and the role made her a star. Sarah Bernhardt, the great French actress, came to see it and predicted that “within five years” Taylor would become “the foremost actress” in America. The play ran for 1,250 performances. Taylor had other memorable roles, in
The Devil
,
The Great John Ganton
, and
The Ringmaster
. Her reputation soared. Directors wooed her; she was an incandescent presence on a stage.
    Being a personal maid for Taylor came with perks: Sanchez traveled with the actress, dined with her in fine restaurants. There was just enough color in Luisa’s complexion that there were times she’d be mistaken for a nonwhite—perhaps Mediterranean. She took being called Negro or Puerto Rican as the worst kind of insult. “We don’t serve Negroes,” a restaurateur once said to Sanchez. “I don’t speak English,” she replied, unrolling her stock answer. “I’m Cuban.”
    Meeting other actors and actresses—John Barrymore had seemed taken with her beauty—delighted Luisa. Still, she was not one to swoon easily over men or their advances. Her physical beauty was one thing, but inside she seemed possessed of something hard and impenetrable. She did not have a timid tongue, and she was noticeably temperamental. Suitors found out quickly enough she was fiercely independent. Two men, on separate occasions, had each provided Luisa Sanchez with the services of an automobile. Grateful though she may have been, she married neither man, though both had hoped their generosity might move her heart. Relatives believed she had been so shaken by her first marriage that she forever lost faith in the institution.
    Luisa Sanchez arrived home early evenings with stories of Broadway glitter, sometimes bearing gifts from Laurette Taylor for her daughters. It is little wonder, then, that sisters Julia and Elvera became wide-eyed when it came to the world of entertainment. They gazed longingly at pictures of show folk. Talk of show business seeped inside of them.
    By the time Elvera Sanchez celebrated her tenth birthday, it was apparent that she was becoming the opposite of Julia, her shy older sister. In fact, the characters of the Sanchez girls could not