December kicked off a year-long celebration of Sammy Davis Jr., one of Las Vegas’s most important entertainment entertainers and cultural icons.
Sammy Davis Jr. would have turned 100 on December 8, 2025, and in Las Vegas, that birthday isn’t a single night—it’s the opening curtain on SDJ100, a year-long centennial celebration with monthly showcases, a national book tour, public art, and a new awards show, The Sammys, honoring performance excellence in the city he helped define.
It's also an ideal moment to remember him as Las Vegas’s ultimate showman: singer, dancer, comic, Rat Pack spark plug, and co-star of the original Ocean’s 11—as well as barrier-breaking entertainer whose contributions hastened opening Las Vegas’s casino hotels and showrooms to every audience and performer and had a crucial impact on the U.S. civil rights movement.
The All-Around Entertainer
Sammy arrived in Las Vegas with the Will Mastin Trio in the 1940s, quickly earning a reputation as a one-man variety show who could sing standards, tap dance, joke, and mimic other stars in a single set. By the late 1950s, he was an A-list solo headliner, essential to the rise of Las Vegas as a national entertainment capital. At the Sands Hotel’s Copa Room, he joined Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Joey Bishop, and Peter Lawford in the early 1960s, and those Rat Pack shows (they referred to themselves as “The Summit”) became the hottest ticket in town. Onstage photos from the Copa Room show Sammy center or just off-center, trading quips and songs that turned a nightclub act into controlled chaos. Their run at the Sands hard-wired the idea that Vegas headliners could be informal, unscripted, and a little subversive, a template modern residencies still chase.
Sammy carried that same Vegas cool to the screen in the 1960 film Ocean’s 11, where he played garbage-truck driver Josh Howard, part of the World War II buddy crew plotting to rob five casinos in one night. The Las Vegas portion of the film was shot on location at the Sahara, Riviera, Desert Inn, Sands, and Flamingo, so his performance is literally embedded on The Strip. During production, the Rat Pack performed two shows nightly—often at 8 p.m. and midnight—and then filmed between 3 a.m. and dawn on the casino floors and streets. That blur of showroom work and movie-set antics helped cement Las Vegas as both a real nightlife destination and a larger-than-life backdrop on film.
A Quiet and Lasting Influence on Civil Rights
Even while he was dazzling crowds, Sammy used his star power to push for fair treatment of Black performers and guests, refusing gigs at venues that insisted on segregation. His stance, taken once he had real box-office leverage, helped convince both Miami Beach clubs and Las Vegas casinos that integration would not ruin business; if anything, it would broaden the audience. Offstage, he pushed for the same access for other Black entertainers, and, over time, Black guests and workers, lending his drawing power to the broader effort to integrate Nevada’s resorts. The audience he built—diverse, national, and willing to fly in just to see him—made it easier for activists and allies to argue that equal treatment wasn’t a concession—it was simply good business.
Where He Played and Dined (and What’s There Now)
Even though the classic Sands and some of Sammy’s other playgrounds are no longer here, you can still visit key spots among his stomping grounds. The Sahara, where Ocean’s 11 was filmed and the Rat Pack appeared onstage and at the gaming tables, still anchors the north Strip. Flamingo Las Vegas, another of the five Ocean’s 11 casinos, was a regular backdrop for Rat Pack mythology—neon-heavy, raucous, and always in the movie’s frame—and still emphasizes that classic Strip feel, with showrooms, burlesque-inflected revues, and headliners. Walking its casino floor and outdoor promenades, you can still feel the compact, neon-dense intensity that Ocean’s 11 captured in wide shots. Although the original Sands and its Copa Room are gone, Tuscany Suites & Casino now hosts “The Rat Pack Is Back,” a tribute that recreates a night at the Copa, complete with a Sammy stand-in who riffs with Sinatra and Dino impersonators. If you want to visit where the Sands’ Copa Room stood, head to The Venetian and Palazzo, which sit on the footprint of his most famous showroom. In the city’s Historic Westside neighborhood, Harrison Guest House became a haven for Black stars, including Sammy Davis Jr. and Nat King Cole among others, turning the modest guest house into an unofficial Black celebrity hotel. You can book his favorite booth (Booth 20) at Golden Steer Steakhouse, opened in 1958 just off the Strip. Davis, Sinatra, and Dean Martin were among its regulars during the Rat Pack years, cementing its status as a dining room where entertainment and civil rights history intersected over late-night meals.
Honoring Sammy Davis Jr. in Today’s Las Vegas
Historic Westside neighborhood, the Sammy Davis Jr. Festival Plaza in Lorenzi Park functions as an outdoor theater and event space. Sammy Davis Jr. Drive is located just west of The Strip, running roughly from Sahara Ave. down to where it intersects with Frank Sinatra Drive and Dean Martin Drive. Various businesses, including MGM Grand, are located on or accessible from Sammy Davis Jr. Drive. SDJ100 extends throughout 2025 and 2026 with monthly artist showcases and special events celebrating his impact on Las Vegas entertainment and American popular culture. Events include an eight-city reading tour celebrating the re-release of his autobiography Yes I Can, now with a forward by Questlove. A monumental, 15-foot bronze sculpture of Sammy Davis Jr. by sculptor Tina Allen is set to be completed and installed. SDJ100 culminates in December 2026 in Las Vegas with the inaugural edition of The Sammys, a new awards ceremony honoring excellence in performance and entertainment. For event updates, tickets, and program details, visit thesammys.net. You’ll find event announcements at @officialsammydavisjr and @thesammyawards on social media.