McIntyre is reborn as Sammy Davis Jr.

by Sandra Miller
Beacon Hill Times
Sammy Davis Jr. is alive and well in the Beacon House, where The Showman entertains residents and Back Bay Station commuters.
The Showman is actually Eric McIntyre, who not only lives there, but organizes talent shows for appreciative residents. There’s only one Showman on the Hill – he’s the one who wears spats and a three-piece suit, his hair neatly tied in a ponytail under a showman’s hat.
At 66, McIntyre is thankful for the opportunity to make people smile. One of 10 kids in New York, he left his crowded home at 16 to hitchhike around the country and pick up odd jobs. “I’ve lived in over 50 cities,” he said. “I’ve been a longshoreman, a stevedore, done construction…I did everything from dishwashing to warehouses, to a shoe factory. Whatever they threw at me, I did it.” More recently he was doing security for Verizon here, until he was laid off three years ago. He has a son who is 38, and family around the country.
He always liked to tell people funny stories about things that happened to him, like the time he was slapped by a monkey when he was a kid. But he was in his 40s when he discovered he was funny, and worked for years as a standup comedian around town and in New York, as “Rick the Flip”. He performed at Catch A Rising Star, the Famous Blue Note, Boston Comedy Club in Greenwich Village, the Cantab, and others, and shared the stage with Harold Melvin’s Blue Notes and George Benson.
But for years, people kept telling McIntyre that he looked like Sammy Davis Jr., so when he was 58, he gave in and learned how to imitate the star. “I was sort of forced into doing it,” said McIntyre. “I was doing construction, and everywhere I went they said I looked like Sammy Davis Jr. I didn¹t even know if I could sing.”
To his surprise, he found he could. He started studying Sammy Davis Jr.’s voice, and soon he not only looked like him, he sounded just like him. “I got it down to a science,” he said. “I enjoy doing it.” In an odd coincidence, McIntyre is actually blind in the same eye that Sammy Davis Jr. was, although instead of a glass eye, McIntyre used an eye patch for a while.
He used to do his Bojangles act around town, sometimes with Rat Pack look-alikes, and even auditioned for “America’s Got Talent”. As the “Candy Man” and “Mr. Bojangles,” he’s appeared at fundraisers and Vegas style events, even on Horizon’s Edge casino cruises of Lynn, along with an Elvis impersonator. “I never got around to getting over to Vegas,” he said.
You can also hear him perform at Back Bay Station, where he sets up an amplifier, microphone, and CD player, usually on Mondays and Fridays. “I do my little thing there, to keep a couple dollars in my pocket,” he said.
Otherwise, he only performs now for charity. A pious man who always travels with his small Bible and a rosary around his neck, he’s a regular at Beacon Hill Baptist Church, which helped find him a room at the Beacon House when he needed it. “The good Lord comes through for me in my life,” he said. “Entertainment is secondary. The church is a big part of my life. I was going through a hardship, and the Beacon House came through for me. Hanging out with my pastor is like hanging out with Jesus Christ. My dream is to become a deacon.”
He had been trying to run a talent show for years at Beacon House, where he’s active on the Tenant’s Board, and finally got it off the ground in October. His recent show on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve drew about 60 residents, and they want more of his Sammy Davis Jr. impersonation. “A lot of people showed up,” he said. “I had 12 performers, a poet, singers - they gave me some money to give out for the winners for first, second and third, and I let the audience choose the winners to take the weight off me,” he said. Poet Bill Barnham won first place.
“I’m just trying to put a smile on their faces. I put some music on in the building and make people feel better. It worked - now they won¹t leave me alone. They want me to do another one,” he said, adding that he¹s working on it.
“I love performing,” he said. “I do it because it keeps me going, instead of sitting around the building. The audience is the biggest part of my performance, putting a smile on their faces and making them happy. Sammy did all these happy songs, like ‘Singing in the Rain,’ and ‘The Candy Man,’” which he said little kids just love to hear.
To hear Eric McIntyre online, go to his website, www.theshowmanofboston.com.