When There was a considerable amout of controversy over Davis’ romance with actress Kim Novak. Davis says of the romance, “I was impressed by the glamour of a movies tar and shew as impressed by my talent, but she hadn’t thought about me anymore than I had thought about her until it was forbidden. Then we became conspirators, darwn together by the single thing we had in common –defiance.” Rumours that Harry Cohn, Columbia titan, asked the Mafia to break up the relationship as the publicity wasn’t good for Novak or the studio. They broke up and Sammy converted to Judiasm.

Sammy proposed to actress May Britt, the pair received death threats, bomb scares, racial hatred notes, hate mail, and threats that included being shot on stage. May was subject to even crueler attacks when she announced she’d retired from the screen to marry Sammy. In 1960; as one of the first interracial couples in Hollywood, Sammy and May were the target of nasty jokes, vicious slurs and death threats throughout their engagement and marriage, but both survived the ordeal thanks to the strong and protective support of industry friends. Unfortunately, the marriage broke up in 1968, at which point May all but disappeared from public view.

The friends that gave him support in his romance with May, also stabbed him in the back. Sammy postponed his wedding to May until after the Presidential election, as he didn’t want to hurt JFK’s chances of victory, even though he was a friend of JFK’s and he campaigned for him. The night before the inaugural, there was a staged gala and Sammy wasn’t invited as the President's aid thought that his presence would offend south politicians.