Sammy Lawrence

For other uses, see Sammy (disambiguation).

Sammy Lawrence
Canon  •  Novel
Biography information
Date of birth	April 18th
Date of death	Unknown
Age	Unknown (adult years)
Nationality	American
Sex	Male
Eye color	Unknown
Hair color	Brown or blonde
Career information
Occupation	Music department director
Companies	Joey Drew Studios
Appearances
Bendy and the Ink Machine Chapter 2: The Old Song (First voice debut) Chapter 3: Rise and Fall (Mentioned only) Bendy and the Dark Revival

"Sing my song and my sanctuary will open to you." — Sammy Lawrence's "My Favorite Song" audio log.

Sammy Lawrence was an award-winning musician and composer, and the director of the Music Department at Joey Drew Studios, known for writing the music for the Bendy cartoons in the studio's heyday.

History

Early life

The following contains apocryphal information from the novel continuity which was not canon to the main series' storyline. See Bendy Wiki:Canon for more information.

Samuel "Sammy" Lawrence develops his fascination with music at a young age. As a teenager, he worked for the Grand Cinema, playing the piano for films. He took notice of a particular audience member who would show up almost daily, always near the front row by himself. Later, him and Jack Fain became partners and would write songs together.

Meeting Joey Drew

The following contains apocryphal information from the novel continuity which was not canon to the main series' storyline. See Bendy Wiki:Canon for more information.

Joey was invited to the opening night party for Ira Gershwin's Girl Crazy, only a year after the stock market crashed. There, Sammy was playing the piano, and his performance impressed Joey. However, it wasn't until Jack got up to sing an original song composed by him and Sammy that Joey's interest was piqued. After the show, Joey pulls Sammy and Jack onto the terrace where he explains who he is. Sammy is unfamiliar and acts coy, but quickly remembers Joey as the lonely audience member at the Grand Cinema. Jack steps in and brings the conversation back to the present, with Joey noticing a hint towards a possible bit of strain between Jack and Sammy, and Joey offers them a job to produce original songs for the Bendy cartoons.

Sammy requests to see the studio and demands to see it that night, so Joey leads them to the studio, which at the time was only the first two floors. He leads the two upstairs and shows off the music room, which consisted of an upright piano and a music stand barely managing to fit in the space. Joey explains that an expansion is obviously planned, which would also consist of offices for the two of them, but Sammy also adds that he needs a projector to play with the movie, so Joey adds a projector booth as a top priority to a mental list. Sammy then requests to see what the studio makes, so Joey leads them to the screening room where he plays an unfinished animation of Bendy dancing. Sammy asks about other characters and says they need a female one, which Joey reports one is currently in development. After some thinking, Sammy requests full creative control over his department, to hire his own people, and good pay. Joey agrees, and Sammy leaves the room without any sort of farewell, which Jack gives instead. The two join the studio two weeks later.

Joey jokingly goes on to explain how Sammy is seen as a god by his musicians, which he told Sammy at one point. Sammy just sees it as respect, and wanting Sammy to joke around with him, Joey asks who a god worships. Sammy sighs and plays along, saying a god of such magnitude hasn't been created yet, but maybe someday.

Working at Joey Drew Studios

By mid-1935, he had grown frustrated with his tight schedule. Eventually, it got to the point where his ethics rivaled that of Joey Drew's, such as strictly ordering the Music Department staff to refrain from making loud noise.

Sammy sets up his own sanctuary room at the Music Department and his private password to use for accessing his sanctuary, but they were recorded in his audio log and sealed in his closet. Whenever he needed to have his own moment in his sanctuary, he would tell the band and the recording staff to wait in the hall in the middle of a recording session, so he can input the passwords to open his sanctuary without anyone knowing and would not resurface for a long time, much to Norman Polk's suspicion.

When Susie Campbell is hired as a voice actress for Alice Angel, Sammy once told her that Alice's popularity may rival Bendy's someday. Other than that, Sammy describes Alice's voice as so heavenly and beautiful. However, Susie later came back to the studio and is horrified at seeing Sammy from the recording booth meeting a new voice actress, Allison Pendle, intended to replace her as the new voice of Alice.

At the time when the Ink Machine was installed, Sammy and the other workers have been unable to get out of their department at least three times due to the machine's ink flowing and flooding the stairwell, so in order to drain the ink out, Joey installed an ink pump with the switch in Sammy's office, greatly frustrating him with the number of people constantly going in and out.

Ink addiction and transformation

The following contains apocryphal information from the novel continuity which was not canon to the main series' storyline. See Bendy Wiki:Canon for more information.

Around late July of 1946, Sammy discovers ink bottles and a pipe in his music sheet closet. The pipe bursts open on him, covering him in ink and cutting him with glass. Sammy screams out and stumbles his way into the music room where he tackles Buddy Lewek, who was lost after being tasked with delivering a folder to the Music Department. Buddy gives him water and a cloth to help clear his face, and once cleared off Sammy questions Buddy. He introduces himself as the new gofer for the Art Department, and Sammy laughs before asking him why ink is being stored in his sheet music closet and why Joey is running a pipe through it. Buddy is confused so Sammy drags him to the closet to show him the mess and then furiously orders him to clean it up.

When covered in the studio's ink, Sammy accidentally swallowed some and became addicted to it. Over the next few weeks, Sammy sneaks around Thomas Connor's work station and the Ink Machine. He also attempts to ask Gent workers where the ink is kept. This leads to a heated argument between Sammy and Thomas, which was overheard by Buddy. Sammy attempts to deny the claims but Thomas refuses to listen, having seen Sammy sneaking around and was made aware of Sammy asking his worker where they kept the ink last Friday. Eventually the two go their separate ways and Buddy is able to sneak out of the closet. Later on, Buddy is sent on an actual task to the Music Department. Buddy notices a half-empty bottle of ink beside Sammy as he's dropping off the folder and when he turns back to ask him about it the ink bottle is empty. Sammy turns his attention to Buddy briefly and he notices a small black smudge at the right-hand corner of his mouth.

Sammy's addiction to the ink begins to drive him insane, with him frantically drawing symbols, phrases, and the Ink Demon in his own notes. A few weeks later, Sammy storms into the Art Department and approaches Abby Lambert, demanding to know where the ink is. Abby is confused and asks if he's wanting to borrow some of the Art Department's, but he violently shakes his head and demands to know where the ink from their supply closet is. Abby explains that their ink is not kept in the supply closet, which Sammy responds to with a strange gurgle. Abby continues to explain that their ink is kept under her desk in a safe and offers to give him some, but Sammy shakes his head and storms off.

In September of 1946, Sammy mysteriously disappears and the musicians are locked out of the music room. People do not notice until a week later when police show up to investigate the disappearance. Shortly after, the studio is closed down for two days after the Music Department is vandalized.

Following Buddy's conversation with Thomas and Allison, he leaves Joey Drew's party to look for Dot and Jacob. He arrives at Duke's Bar only to be told that they had left about an hour prior to investigate the studio. Buddy panics and runs into the studio. He arrives on the Music level and begins looking for them but instead finds "He Will Set Us Free" written in the ink splatters, which reminds him of the disturbing sketches and notes written in Sammy's notebook. He concludes that Sammy wasn't missing but instead hiding, and he turns around only to be knocked out.

Buddy wakes up and found himself on the stage of the music room restrained in a chair next to Richie, who tells him that Sammy took Jacob while Dot got away. They hear a door open and a completely transformed Sammy Lawrence enters the room and approaches his music stand. Buddy asks what happened to him, but Sammy laughs and says Buddy already knows as he was there. Still, Sammy goes on to explain that on the day they first met he had accidentally swallowed a few drops of ink, and he became addicted to consuming ink, resulting in him going insane and eventually transforming. Sammy begins pacing the room and laughs at the two, asking why one would please a man when they could please a god. Buddy demands to know where Jacob is, and Sammy responds that he took him to where everything began, but does not elaborate further. He stops walking, but before he can do anything else he is knocked out by Dot, who had managed to get into the projector booth and push a large projector on Sammy.

Aftermath

Main article: Sammy Lawrence (ink realm)

Sammy Lawrence, in his deranged ink form, ends up in the Cycle where he spend his eternity performing every attempts to appease the Ink Demon.

Characteristics

Physical appearance

Sammy once had a flowing cascade of brown or blonde hair, not remembering which one. Alice Angel describes Sammy as once a "very handsome man", meaning that Sammy used to look attractive in appearance.

The following contains apocryphal information from the novel continuity which was not canon to the main series' storyline. See Bendy Wiki:Canon for more information.

As described by Buddy, Sammy was a very "pointy" man. Buddy comments on his "pointy" nose, eyebrows, and chin, even saying that he looked like a bird when he was at his conductor stand. Buddy also mentions that Sammy "always" wore trousers and suspenders.

At the opening night party for Ira Gershwin's Girl Crazy, as described by Joey, Sammy was wearing a neat simple black evening suit and other appropriate attire for the event, although his hair could have been slicked back a bit more as it was, and still was after, long and floppy on the top. Joey also notes that Sammy was a few years younger than him, and he had an angular face that in certain lighting could make him look "insect-like."

Personality

Overworked and abrasive but doing everything within his power to maintain his composure, Sammy's main interest is writing music and songs, as he started this career in his young years.

In tapes, Sammy is shown to be a frustrated songwriter, with what seems to be a blunt and sarcastic disposition. With the addition of the numerous leaking pipes in his department, the ink pumps and all of the constant distractions when writing music for the Bendy cartoons, Sammy is irritated with Joey Drew's project as it keeps setting him back in his work. The only person he has kind words to say about is Susie Campbell, the former voice actress of Alice Angel, that he refers her as a very charming woman, suggesting that he was infatuated with her.

It can be inferred from the voice recordings that he found it hard to focus on his work when there were distractions present, which was likely the reason he needed a private "sanctuary".

Sammy had even criticized Joey for his poor planning skills, which caused him to work constantly to compose songs by a quick deadline, referring to this planning as Joey's typical planning. This constant increase in work caused him to slowly go insane at the constant sight of Bendy, who he claimed to have seen in his sleep and would expect himself to go insane after a few months. He claimed Bendy is "always watching", and states how something seems wrong about his smile to him, but couldn't confirm the reason for his suspicion. Although he decides to shake off these observations for the sake of his department and Bendy.

The following contains apocryphal information from the novel continuity which was not canon to the main series' storyline. See Bendy Wiki:Canon for more information.

He is relatively neutral towards most others (albeit rude and condescending), especially Buddy Lewek, when the former forced the latter to clean an ink spill, which also means that he is also somewhat bossy towards his workers.

Joey's The Illusion of Living memoir claims that Sammy is not a fan of attention and putting on a big show, in contrast to his partner Jack Fain. Sammy is always suspicious of people and is always looking to see if something deeper is going on. As a result, Joey struggles to read Sammy based on his facial expressions, something Jack struggles with as well.

Documents

Audio logs

• "The Prayer" - Found in Chapter 2: The Old Song of Bendy and the Ink Machine.
• "Distractions" - Found in Chapter 2: The Old Song of Bendy and the Ink Machine.
• "My Favorite Song" - Found in Chapter 2: The Old Song of Bendy and the Ink Machine.
• "Shake It Off" - Bendy and the Dark Revival teaser only.

Memos

TBA

Behind the scenes

Sammy Lawrence is one of the recurring characters of the Bendy franchise while his ink form appears in the games as an antagonist, making his first debut in Chapter 2: The Old Song of Bendy and the Ink Machine.

Inspirations

Sammy and Jack Fain's names could be respectively references to Sammy Fain and Jack Lawrence, both of whom were music composers. In addition, Sammy could be a reference to the Fleischer Studios' music composer Sammy Lerner, who was known for composing the "I'm Popeye the Sailor Man" song for Popeye cartoons and other pieces of music from the studio.

Other information

Sammy's birthday, April 18th, is a reference to the DLC release date for the second Bendy and the Ink Machine chapter. His suspect ID number, 418,<ref>Bendy and the Dark Revival. Chapter 4: Factory of Horrors. Developed and published by Joey Drew Studios Inc on November 15, 2024.<ref> is also a same reference.

Dialogue

Main article: Sammy Lawrence/dialogue

• "But, love requires sacrifice. Can I get an amen?"
• "Thanks, Joey. Just what I needed. More distractions. These stupid cartoon songs don't write themselves, you know."
• "Sing my song and my sanctuary will open to you."
• "Every time I turn around there's more work to do. Four cartoons almost complete and all of them need a tune by tomorrow. Typical Joey planning. I’m working so much I’m starting to see Bendy in my sleep. That smile… he’s always watching me. Few more months of this, I wouldn’t be surprised if that grinning demon drove me completely insane. That smile... something's just wrong with that smile. Can’t put my finger on it. Shake it off, Sammy. Best get back to your songs. Someone has to keep the little devil happy..."

See also

• Sammy Lawrence (ink realm), an ink incarnation of Sammy Lawrence.