The studio was very much upset by it. I resisted because I didn’t believe that was correct. While people were feeling a certain way, I also felt people needed to change. And I felt that by seeing Sammy and Sammy seeing me, that we could help people understand and accept interracial relationships of any kind.
I was feeling like I was on the edge of being able to help people to be more accepting of all races and relationships of all kinds. I felt I was doing the right thing by doing that. I felt that Sammy and I were at the start of helping people understand that this is not wrong. A man is a man, no matter what skin color he has. A woman is a woman, no matter what skin color she has.
By: Kim Novak
Context:
During an interview about her career, actress Kim Novak reflects on her romance with legendary entertainer Sammy Davis Jr. It was a relationship that almost cost her career and Davis his life, because of Columbia Pictures boss Harry Cohn, who was one of Hollywood’s most feared executives at the time.