Blessed

by Burt Boyar

An amazing life. As a New Yorker brought up in the world of Broadway theater, the author, Burt Boyar, became a child radio actor earning $1000 a week in the late 1930’s, early 40’s, playing Archie on Archie Andrews, Billy Batson on Captain Marvel, Dexter Franklin on Corliss Archer, etc. etc. Then he became a caviar taster, a polo player, a widely syndicated Broadway columnist, close friend and biographer to Sammy Davis, Jr. with the worldwide Best Selling book, Yes I Can. Then, an intimate of the world’s greatest tennis players, Rod Laver, Ken Rosewall, Lew Hoad, etc. which brought him and beloved wife, Jane, to Spain where they lived for 28 glorious years in a beach house in Marbella as close friends of Chief of State General Francisco Franco’s family, among other European dazzlers, until Jane’s untimely death brought their idyllic 44 year marriage to an end. Burt returned to the U.S., to Los Angeles, where he is living yet another extraordinary life.

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First published July 19, 2012

About the author

Burt Boyar, born in New York in 1927, was thrown into the limelight at an early age. His father, Benjamin Boyar, worked for acclaimed Broadway producer Max Gordon, and Burt grew into the showbiz environment, eventually nabbing the lead role of Archie Andrews at age 12, and starring in various other radio dramas and commercials.

A passion for the literary arts caused him to drop out of school, and pursue his career as a showbiz columnist. He met Sammy Davis Jr. while scheduling an interview, and the two became firm friends, leading Burt to co-write and publish Davis` autobiography, “Yes I Can” and its follow up “Why Me?”, as well as the compendium of photographs “Photo By Sammy Davis, Jr.”, concluding Boyar´s work as his best friend`s historian.

Burt is currently pursuing a long-awaited film adaptation of “Yes I Can”, in order to put to rest the rumors and misconceptions about his dear friend Sammy.

Since then, Boyar has written several historic boos and memoirs, partnered by his late wife Jane, who passed away in 1997.

Reviews

[Scott Skipper · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Blessed" is the memoir of a truly remarkable person. Burt Boyar has led an enviable life. After serendipitously becoming close friends with Sammy Davis, Jr., Burt abandoned a successful career as a Broadway columnist to form a three-way collaboration with his wife, Jane, and the ground-breaking entertainer, the fruit of which was the autobiography of Sammy Davis, Jr. Horror stories of five years of toil and more years of editorial battles sent chills through this writer's veins, but eventually, the result was a bestseller, "Yes, I Can".

Then a nine-month sojourn in the south of Spain to research a new book led the Boyars into the bizarre coincidence of having the daughter of the fascist dictator, Franco, for their landlady. Spain captured their hearts, as it does to so many, and nine months turned into twenty-eight years, the product of which was a novel about Franco putting a stop to Hitler's designs on Spain and Gibraltar. The source of the material for "Hitler Stopped by Franco" came from the extraordinary access that the Boyars had with the Franco family—talk about luck!

As an afterward, "Blessed" ends with a posthumous letter to Sammy in heaven wherein Burt details the frustrations he is experiencing in his attempt to turn "Yes, I Can" into a major motion picture. Again my blood ran cold.

Memoirs seldom grab my interest, but "Blessed" tells a great story. I had the enormous good fortune to meet Burt when he graciously received my wife and me in his West LA home. Rarely have I had the opportunity to meet a person so full of wit and charm. He shared anecdotes from his amazing life with us for a fascinating hour, at the end of which it wasn't Burt who rushed us to the door, like fools, we had to be elsewhere. "Blessed" brims with joy, frustration, a little sadness, humility, warmth and all of the heavy hitters of the post-war era. I got to meet Burt in the flesh. Now, I invite everyone to meet him in "Blessed"