How Sammy Davis Jr. unexpectedly became a CBC interviewer
“I didn’t expect this to happen today, and I’m gassed by it!”
You'll never see Ellen or Jimmy surprise a celebrity like this.
Sammy Davis Jr. — singer, dancer and card-carrying member of the Rat Pack — was the special guest on CBC talk show The Way It Is on this day in 1968. Upon arriving in Toronto, the entertainer and Second World War vet told the press he was strongly against the United States' involvement in the Vietnam War. Draft dodgers had been fleeing to Canada since 1964, and Davis wanted nothing more than to meet some of those young Americans while he was in the city.
CBC granted his wish. And he didn't see it coming.
After a short conversation about performing for the troops stationed in Vietnam — a dream Davis would eventually fulfil in February 1972 — interviewer Barbara Frum introduced Davis to the surprise guests on set. They were Dominic Covey and Gene Friotte, young men who'd crossed the border into Canada to escape the draft.
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Davis, expressing his surprise, gives them a warm welcome — and is overcome with questions for the men.
"You just don't get a chance to talk about these things at home," Davis says in the clip. "And if you talked, who would you talk to?"
Watch their full conversation about war, race and all the political and emotional challenges faced by Davis and these draft dodgers in 1968:
For more throwbacks like this one, visit the CBC Digital Archives.