Joan Ferguson Meets Sammy Davis Jr.
Joan Ferguson, or known to the other prisoners as "The Freak" had a secret, she loved the singer and actor Sammy Davis Jr. She had been one of his biggest fans since he began singing. She actually saw a Sammy Dean and Frank Sinatra concert in the late 1960s. One day in October, Joan got to meet her favorite singer in person. Sammy had been on tour in Australia and was in Melbourne for three nights, then he was to go on to Sydney.
One afternoon, Sammy was in his limousine as it was going through Nunawading, the town that Wentworth Detention Centre was located, when the limo broke down. It was one of the hotter days and Sammy was hot and was also thirsty. The chauffer walked to the gate and asked the guard if his client could come inside and get cooled down and then he could call a repair man to come fix his limo.
"Oh yes, come on in Sir!"
Mr. Jackson, the guard told them, he was excited, he liked Sammy and had never saw a celebrity in his life, the chauffer and Sammy entered the recreation area. Joan Ferguson was standing there in awe as Sammy Davis Jr. her favorite performer was there. He was a short man, barely five feet tall, he had shiny black shoes on his tiny feet and he was a slim man, he also smelled of a very good smelling cologne. Called English Leather. Joan offered him a glass of ice water, he smiled and accepted it
"Thank you so much Miss Ferguson, I am very thirsty."
"You're very welcome Mr. Davis."
After Mr. Davis drank his ice water and went to the toilet, he asked Joan questions about the prison. As they were talking about the women that were there, the chauffer came to him and told him.
"I'm sorry Mr. Davis, but they won't be able to repair the limo for at least three more hours."
Sammy smiled and asked Joan
"I know how much you like me from your questions Miss Ferguson, how about if I gave you and the women here a free concert?"
Joan knew that she wanted to hear his songs so she told him that it would be fine, she just needed Ann Reynolds, the governor of Wentworth's permission. Ann Reynolds, a lovely woman of forty-five years old was in her office. After finding out Joan's request, she gave permission for the women to see him if they wanted to.
About thirty minutes later, the newly built auditorium that was built with the late Jeanne "Mum" Brooks money was filled with almost every woman in Wentworth. Among the women that were there from H Block was Rita Connors, Rita was a pretty woman, twenty three with blond curly hair and green eyes, Julie Egbert, a twenty year old girl with beautiful brown hair and eyes. Her best mate, Alexis Patterson, or known to the other women as Lexie, She had dark brown hair and green eyes, Lexie was twenty. Louise Kelly, a twenty five year old woman, bird thin, with short dark blond hair, very lovely with blue eyes. .Her best mate Alice Jenkins, Alice was not a raving beauty, but she was a pretty women with her curly light brown hair and green eyes.
Meg Morris was there also. Meg was a nice officer, she had short brown her and blue eyes, she lost her husband Bill Jackson five years earlier, but had remarried a man named Bob Morris, he ran off with another women, leaving Meg devastated, Meg was engaged to marry another officer there named Dennis Cruikshank, but one of the male prisoners that was there a year earlier, Frank Burke, escaped his prison camp, where they took him, hitched a ride with a young woman, then forced her at gunpoint after raping her to the flat where Dennis and his fiancée Meg lived, he then tied up the pair. Tormented them, then after giving Meg a black eye, punched Dennis in the face, then shot both his knees with his gun, then escaped. Dennis was injured, they told him that they couldn't assure him that he would be able to walk after operating on the knees. Dennis broke Meg's heart by leaving her. Joyce Barry was also there, Joyce, a woman in her late forties with her newly grown brown hair in the style she liked with hazel eyes and glasses that were thick was there, Joyce had been badly bashed by one of the prisoners named Eve Wilder. She tried to blame newly arrived and former Wentworth prisoner Rebecca Kean. Rebecca, or Reb, was a changed young woman, she had been transferred to the harshest prison in Australia called Blackmoor.
A bent screw had Reb bashed time after time, they transferred her to Ingleside Mental Institution after the girl had a nervous breakdown, Reb was a pretty girl, twenty one, with brown hair in what the American's in the 1950s called a Duck Ass style, she was a James Dean fan and the movie Rebel Without A Cause was her favorite. She had green eyes and shook all the time, because when she was at Ingleside, they gave her Electro Convulsive Therapy, this messed up her memories. After arriving at Wentworth she was told by Ann Reynolds about her beloved Father and her beloved brother, they were both dead.
Poor Reb upon hearing this burst into tears, this was something the old Reb never ever did in front of anyone, after finding out that Reb was tortured at Ingleside, and the treatment had messed up her short term memory, Reb got out of prison. The women hanged Eve one afternoon. They were not punished because they all liked Mrs. Barry. Along with Joyce was her fiancée, Mr. Mervin Pringle. Mervin was an older man in his early fifties, with brown hair and green eyes. He had proposed to Joyce after she left the hospital.
Sammy was brought out onto the stage with the women whooping and clapping, Alice even whistled.
"Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen!" How are you?"
Sammy's question was answered with more whoops and yells. He started out by singing the entire worlds favorite song Candy Man, after that, he sang, Something's Gotta Give. The he sang The Girl From Ipanema. Then he sang Hey There. Then after a break, he came back and sang What Kind Of Fool Am I. He then sang Love Me, then No One Can Live Forever. Then he sang This Dream, then for his finale
"I know my pal Dean Martin sings this, but I'm sure he won't mind me singing this song. Ladies and gentlemen Fly Me To The Moon!"
He then sang Fly Me To The Moon. Then he told the women and the men there that they had been a wonderful audience and thank you for the honor of singing to them. Another round of whooping and clapping followed. The Sammy signed autographed pictures to Joan, Meg, Ann, Joyce, Mervin, and several of the women, including Julie, Lexie, and Rita. They all said To my #1 Fan along with the woman's name Love Sammy!
They would remember this day, especially Joan, for the rest of their lives.