Sinatra

by Anthony Summers

  98 broadcasts in Italian: PM, Nov. 5, 1944, NYT, Oct. 28, Nov. 4, 1944, “Administrative Page,” FBI 100-26603—C72 and 100-26603-3485. It is not clear whether these were broadcasts for Italian Americans in the United States who spoke no English, or propaganda for transmission to Italy at this point of the war. Sinatra reportedly did make broadcasts for Italy on behalf of the government, but after the war, in 1948 (Los Angeles Examiner, Apr. 5, 1948); (Astor rally) Dwiggins, 71; (drinking with Welles) New York Post, Feb. 5, 1945; (hoisting FS) Sinatra, Legend,64.

  98 “When I go”: PM, undat. 1945, MHL.

  98–99 FDR inauguration/death: (not able to attend) Modern Screen, Jul. 17, 1947, and see guest list for Jan. 19, 1945, luncheon, Frank Sinatra file, Franklin D. Roosevelt Library; (FS reaction to death) Wilson, Show Business, vii; (memorial service) corr. Raymond Teichman to authors, Apr. 17, 30, 2003—Teichman is archivist of Roosevelt Presidential Library, NYT, Apr. 12, 1946, Shaw, Sinatra, 91; (cheered FDR’s passing) Morgan, 765.

  99 criticism of FS politics: (“third of the nation”) “Fireside Chat on Reorganization of the Judiciary,” Mar. 9, 1937, Franklin D. Roosevelt Library; (“Poverty”) PM, undat. 1945, MHL; (admired Wallace) Kelley, 110, and see New Republic, Jan. 6, 1947; (Wallace “communist”) e.g., Morgan, 76, Atlantic Monthly, Aug. 1948; (PAC) Morgan, 738–, 740, “Labor Wants Out of the Limelight after Glare of Probes,” cnn.com, Mar. 31, 1998; (limerick) cited at http://historymatters .gmu.edu; (ICCASP) Kahn, 32; (“We should keep”) “Summary Memorandum re Francis Albert Sinatra,” Sep. 29, 1950, FSFBI, referring to scrawl on WashingtonDaily News, Mar. 11, 1946.

  100 election night incident: (Welles drinking) Simon Callow, Orson Welles, London: Vintage, 1996, 283–; (“beat up”) New Yorker, Oct. 26, 1946, referring to Drew Pearson report, Nov. 1944; (Pegler denied) Washington Times-Herald, Jan. 30, 1945; (“shrieking drunk”) New York Journal-American, Dec. 10, 1947; (“Are you that?”) Look, May 28, 1957; (Welles said) New York Post, Feb. 5, 1945; (Frank admitted/ignoring warning) Kelley, 99; (at PAC headquarters) WashingtonTimes-Herald, Jan. 30, 1945, New York Journal-American, Dec. 10, 1947; (“The way I saw it”) PM, undat. 1945, MHL.

  Chapter 10: Citizen of the Community

  101 liberal Hollywood: (“All phases”) Brownstein, 67; (“the dank air”) Kenneth O’Reilly, Hoover and the Un-Americans, Philadelphia: Temple, 1983, 91.

  101 “popular front”: In 1935, from the Soviet Union, Stalin called on the world communist movement to join with liberals of all stripes in a “popular front” to fight fascism. In the United States, “Popular Front” became the umbrella title used to describe both the periods of such cooperation and the many Left organizations involved (Brownstein, 49–, Denning, refs., Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed., cited at www.bartleby.com); (card-carrying members) Brownstein, 53, Larry Ceplair and Steven Englund, The Inquisition in Hollywood, Garden City, NY: Anchor Press, 1980, 145; (“something like”) Brownstein, 65; 515–.

  102 FS political philosophy: (“the forgotten man”) Morgan, 346; (“The thing I like”) PM, Oct. 2, 1944; (“a little guy”) Shaw, Sinatra, 80; (“ordinary guys”) PM, undat. 1945, MHL; (“heavy thinker”) New Yorker, Oct. 26, 1946; (“not the kind of guy”) PM, undat. 1945, MHL.

  102 FS causes: (Yugoslav Relief) “Memorandum re Frank Albert Sinatra,” Jul. 6, 1950, and “Correlation Summary,” Jun. 8, 1964, FSFBI, “File Review and Summary Check,” Mar. 1, 1955, FBI 100-41713-4; (Croatian committee) Rosen to Director, Feb. 26, 1947, and “Summary Memorandum,” Sep. 29, 1950, FSFBI; (anti-Franco) “Summary Memorandum,” Sep. 29, 1950, FSFBI, “Subversive References, Francis Albert Sinatra,” Mar. 28, 1955, FBI 100-80275, Shaw, Sinatra,99; (World Youth Conference) “Memorandum re Frank Albert Sinatra,” Feb. 26, 1947, FBI O & C File 125, “Summary Memorandum,” Sep. 29, 1950, and SAC Washington to Director, May 23, 1955, FSFBI.

  102 AYD: “Summary Memorandum,” Sep. 29, 1950, SAC Detroit to Director, Apr. 8, 1955, SAC New York to Director, Jul. 21, 1955, “Francis Albert Sinatra, Security Matter—C,” Nov. 8, 1955, SAC Philadelphia to Director, Mar. 31, 1955, and SAC Washington to Director, May 23, 1955, FSFBI, New York Journal-American, Apr. 16, 1947, David Caute, The Great Fear, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1978, 172. In 1947, after allegations against him to the House Un-American Activities Committee, Frank would say he “knew nothing” of the AYD and that if the group had listed him as a sponsor it was without his consent (Gerald L. K. Smith testimony, Jan. 30, 1946, 17, Hearings, Committee on Un-American Activities, U.S. House of Representatives, 79th Cong., 2nd sess., New York Post, Apr. 10, 1947); (Radio Artists) “Summary Memorandum,” Sep. 29, 1950, FSFBI; (ICCASP/HICCASP) Ceplair and Englund, 225–, 393; (FS and ICCASP/HICCASP) “Summary Memorandum,” Sep. 29, 1950, FSFBI, “Summary Memo on Frank Sinatra,” Mar. 1, 1955, FBI LA 100-41413.

  102–103 “The Commies are boring in”: Steven Vaughn, Ronald Reagan in Hollywood,New York: Cambridge University Press, 1994, 122–. Future president Ronald Reagan was a member, and would soon become an FBI confidential informant—code number T-10—phoning in reports on HICCASP from the pay phone at the Nutburger stand on Sunset Boulevard (FBI 100-382196, 100-338892, 62-56921, 100-15732, Athan Theoharis and John S. Cox, The Boss, Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1988, 255, Garry Wills, Reagan’s America, Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1987, 246); (liberals resigned) ibid., 123; (FS still vice chairman) SAC Washington to Director, May 23, 1955, FSFBI; (a quarter of FBI file) Gerald Meyer, “Frank Sinatra: The Popular Front and an American Icon,” Science & Society, Fall 2002. The total file consists of 1,275 pages.

  103 Falcone: SAC Philadelphia to Director, Mar. 31, 1955, FSFBI. Falcone was chairman of Local 301 of the Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (“Summary Memorandum,” Sep. 29, 1950, SAC Philadelphia to Director, Dec. 12, 1945, SAC Los Angeles to Director, Oct. 11, 1955, FSFBI, SAC Los Angeles to Director, Apr. 21, 1955, FBI LA 100-41413).

  103 intercepted letters: “Correlation Summary,” Jun. 8, 1964, and “Memorandum re Francis Albert Sinatra,” Feb. 26, 1947, FSFBI.

  103 Weinstein: (Bentley case) Nigel West, Venona, London: HarperCollins, 1999, 219–, Allen Weinstein and Alexander Vassiliev, The Haunted Wood, New York: Random House, 1999, 87–, John E. Haynes and Harvey Klehr, Venona, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999, 97–, 153–; (Clever Girl) West, 227—but also perhaps Mirna and Good Girl, Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokin, The Mitrokhin Archive, London: Penguin, 1999, 145; (FBI/FS and Weinstein) “Re Abraham Benedict Weinstein,” Dec. 15, 1945, FBI 65-56402-36, “Gregory-Espionage,” Jan. 28, 1947, Jun. 7, 1947, FBI 65-56402, “Subversive References, Francis Albert Sinatra,” Mar. 28, 1955, FBI 100-80275, SAC New York to Director, Jul. 21, 1955, FSFBI; (FS capped teeth) Kahn, 37; (no credible evidence/investigation) “Summary Memorandum,” Sep. 29, 1950, and “Francis Albert Sinatra—Security Matter—C,” Nov. 8, 1955, FSFBI.

  103–104 FS liberal attitudes and associates: (“The Committee was”) Daily Worker, May 21, 1946; (Tom Clark) FS/Clark corr., Nov. 11, 14, 1947, Aug. 4, 1949, Tom C. Clark Papers, Harry S. Truman Library; (income dipped/ radio/Paine) New Yorker, Oct. 26, 1946; (“George Evans and I”) Kelley, 106–, the quote comes from Keller’s oral history tapes, and see int. Phil Evans; (Evans/Weinstein) “Summary Memorandum,” Sep. 29, 1950, FSFBI; (“better world”) Taraborrelli, 78.

  104 Davidson: (Evans introduced) Kelley, 106, and see int. Phil Evans; (background)int. Jacques Davidson, NYT, Jan. 3, 1952, Jo Davidson, Between Sittings, New York: Dial, 1951, refs., Davidson bio, Hofstra Museum of Art; (ICCASP chairman) Vaughn, 123, Science & Society; (FS esteem) FS int. on Suzy Visits; (counsel) Cosmopolitan, May 1956; (FS bust) New Yorker, Oct. 26, 1946, HollywoodReporter, Oct. 10, 1946; (at United Nations) Newsweek, Apr. 22, 1946; (“veering”) Los Angeles Examiner, Apr. 10, 1947, citing Lee Mortimer; (Goldman) Emma Goldman, Living My Life, New York: Knopf, 1931, chap. 31, Anthony Summers, Official & Confidential, New York: Putnam, 1993, 38.

  104 Davidson one of “dupes”: Life, Apr. 5, 1949. Davidson’s so
n Jacques told the authors that he could vouch for the fact that his late father was “not a Communist, card-carrying or otherwise” (corr. Jacques Davidson, 2003).

  104 PM/left-wing: Michael Denning, The Cultural Front, London: Verso, 1998, 16, 146, 95, 158.

  104 communists/liberal artists: (“earthbound”) Brownstein, 98; (“innocents”) ibid., 114; (“We were mostly”) ibid., 98.

  104–105 FS/friends and right: (Welles) Callow, 557, ed. Mark Estrin, Orson Welles: Interviews, Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi, 2002, vxi–, Orson Welles and Peter Bogdanovich, This Is Orson Welles, New York: Da Capo Press, 1998, 364; (Kelly) “Summary Memo on Frank Sinatra,” Mar. 1, 1955, FBI LA 100-41413; (Bogart/Bacall) Denning, 62, Vaughn, 146, Paul Buhle and Dave Wagner, Radical Hollywood, New York: New Press, 2002, 437; (Peck) Gerard Molyneaux, Gregory Peck, Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1995, 24–, Variety, Dec. 14, 1995; (Garland) Vaughn, 124, Buhle and Wagner, 437; (Gardner) ibid., 438, and copyrighted int. of Ava Gardner by Peter Evans by permission; (Smith) David Margolis, “Gerald L. K. Smith Revisited,” www.davidmargolis.com, Gerald L. K. Smith testimony, 17, 47; (“If that means agreeing”) “Summary Memo on Frank Sinatra,” Mar. 1, 1955, FSFBI; (“political beliefs don’t”) “Summary Memorandum,” Sep. 29, 1950, FSFBI; (“The minute anyone”) Daily Worker, May 21, 1946; (letter to Wallace) New Republic, Jan. 6, 1947—Wallace was then the magazine’s editor, Science & Society; (Wallace call for softer line) Robert Vexler, The Vice Presidents and Cabinet Members, vol. 2, Dobbs Ferry, NY: Oceana, 1975, 589; (“inimical”) “Bills to Curb or Outlaw the Communist Party of the US,” Mar. 24–28, 1947, Hearings, Committee on Un-American Activities, U.S. House of Representatives, 80th Cong., 1st sess., 299.

  105–106 FS to be called to testify by HUAC: (NY) Daily Mirror, New York Journal-American,Apr. 13, 1947, Shaw, Sinatra, 113. One can only surmise why Sinatra was never subpoenaed by the Un-American Activities Committee, nor blacklisted in Hollywood. It has been noted that the committee never did corral a major movie star—and also that it tended to target Jews (Science & Society); (FS and othersmet) Science & Society; (“Once they get the movies throttled”) “Francis Albert Sinatra—Security Matter—C,” Nov. 8, 1955, FSFBI; (liberals backed away) Ceplair and Englund, 290–; (FS began to steer) Washington Times-Herald, Nov. 14, 1947.

  106 appeal to voters in Italy: Los Angeles Examiner, Apr. 5, 1948, Science & Society. Details of the project remain unclear. Some reports said Sinatra organized it, and one suggested he came up with the idea in the first place. Official records indicate that a proposal by him and others that there should be a tour—rather than a radio broadcast—was turned down. U.S. intelligence almost certainly played a role in arranging the broadcast, but there is no evidence that the celebrities involved were aware of that (FS organized?—Kupcinet with Neimark, 213; tour—Diplo matic History, Winter 1983; U.S. intelligence—Christopher Simpson, Blowback, New York: Collier, 1989, 91fn); (“If they don’t”) NYT, Jun. 9, 1949.

  106 FS emissary to FBI: “Summary Memorandum,” Sep. 29, 1950, FSFBI.

  106 Kastner/FS discussion: “Memorandum for the Record,” Sep. 17, 1954, FSFBI.

  107 FBI probe: (investigation) see 1954–55 corr. at FBI 62-83219-28 through 62-83219-37X15; (nine offices) Science & Society; (FS passport application) “Francis Albert Sinatra—Security Matter—C,” Nov. 8, 1955, FSFBI—application was apparently for Australia tour, Sinatra, Legend, 120; (refusing passports) Ceplair and Englund, 403; (intermediary) Brennan to Sullivan, Mar. 31, 1966, FSFBI.

  107 “Many of the friends”: int. Jo Carroll Dennison.

  107 “My first recollection”: Hubert Humphrey to Nancy Sinatra, Dec. 10, 1969, Interim files, Misc. Corr., Sf-S1, 148.A.9.4F, Minnesota Historical Society.

  Chapter 11: “What Is America?”

  108–109 FS experience of prejudice: (“niggers,” etc.) Science & Society, and Los Angeles Examiner, Sep. 30, 1945, Dwiggins, 2; (mother pestering) Sinatra, My Father, 7–; (father “hating”) Motion Picture, Jun. 16, 1947; (Klan) Kahn, 87, Hamill, 72; (“One of the questions”) Motion Picture, Jun. 16, 1947; (52nd Street) Shaw, 52nd Street, 16, 20, 110, 254, 258; (black resentment grew) ibid., 265–; (clubs) Robert Parker, Capitol Hill in Black and White, New York: Dodd, Mead: 1986, 17; (hotels/Holiday/Ellington) Rosemary Clooney with Joan Barthel, Girl Singer, New York: Random House, 1999, 191; (Ellington friend) Friedwald, 301.

  109 FS and Hazel Scott: Scott’s career was promoted by New York nightclub owner Barney Josephson, a left-winger who featured in the FBI investigation of Abraham Weinstein, the Sinatra dentist and espionage suspect mentioned in chapter 10. After testifying to the Un-American Activities Committee in the early 1950s, Scott would be blacklisted (New York Post, Apr. 6, 1943, Denning, 325, 335, 338–, 347, Bill Reed, “The Smokin’ Life of Hazel Scott,” for msnbc.com); (“When I was a kid”/“Let anybody”) ed. Yarwood, 80, PM, Oct. 2, 1944; (numerous occasions) ints. Lee Solters, Tony Mottola, Bricktop with James Haskins, Bricktop,New York: Atheneum, 1983, 215–.

  109 “Jew bastard”: Down Beat, Oct. 1, 1941, Dwiggins, 30–. A contemporary newspaper account indicated the remark was directed at Benny Goodman’s brother Harry, a bassist. The Goodmans were Jewish. Author Don Dwiggins’s version, which suggests the insult was aimed at Tommy Dorsey himself, is almost certainly in error (Down Beat, Oct. 1, 1941, Dwiggins, 30–); (“Sinatra went”) New York Post, Feb. 5, 1945; (“you’ve got to”) ed. Yarwood, 80.

  109 “Ol’ Man River”: The word “darkies” occurs on only two Sinatra recordings, according to Sinatra scholar Will Friedwald, the August 14, 1943, performance of “Ol’ Man River” at the Hollywood Bowl, and in “Without a Song,” recorded in 1941 (Friedwald, 317–, 23, New Yorker, Oct. 26, 1946, FS retirement concert, Jun. 13, 1971, videotape in authors’ collection).

  109–110 FS action re prejudice: (told FDR) Photoplay, Oct. 1945; (Bronx) Friedwald, 323–; (World Youth Rally) Science & Society, PM, undat. 1945, MHL; (thirty speaking appearances) Science & Society, Friedwald, 323, Dwiggins, 73; (“The surprising element”) Minidoka (WS) Irrigator, May 19, 1945; (“The next time”) Scholastic, Sep. 17, 1945.

  110 The House I Live In: (“You could reach”) Movie Land, Jun. 11, 1945, Dwiggins, 75.

  110–111 “House” background: Friedwald, 322–. Written in 1942, the song was performed by the black gospel group Golden Gate Quartet in the movie Follow the Boys. Sinatra recorded gospel songs with another black group, the Charioteers, in 1945 (Friedwald, 323, Howlett, 36, and see Earl Robinson with Eric Gordon, Ballad of an American, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 1998, 151–); (“Look, fellas”) O’Brien, 209, Dwiggins, 76; (“Let’s use”/humming) “Summary Memo on Frank Sinatra,” Mar. 1, 1955, FBI 100-41713-4; (well received/“a sincere”) Shaw, Sinatra, 86–.

  111 FS Oscar: The award was shared with director LeRoy, screenwriter Albert Maltz, and producer Frank Ross (www.oscars.org); (proud) Edward R. Murrow video.

  111 “House” and Cosby/others: Hartford Courant, Sep. 8, 2002. The song Sinatra audiences heard never did contain all the lyrics its writer Abel Meeropol had intended. The second verse, which was meant to include the line “My neighbors white and black,” was dropped from the movie, as was a line about “the worker and the farmer.” Apparently such wording was considered too explicit and populist for a general audience, and the omission enraged Meeropol. “House” had certainly lost its original cast by 1991 when Sinatra—by then long since perceived as being more right than left—sang it in support of U.S. troops engaged in the first Iraq conflict (Science & Society ).

  111 Benjamin Franklin High: NYT, Sep. 29, 30, Oct. 1, 2, 9, 1945, Daily Worker, Oct. 27, 1945, Science & Society, New York, Aug. 10, 1998, eds. Jennifer Guglielmo and Salvatore Salerno, Are Italians White? New York: Routledge, 2003, 161–. Nat “King” Cole also visited the school.

  111–12 Gary: (FS arrived) Life, Nov. 12, 1945, Kelley, 107–, “Summary Memorandum,” Sep. 29, 1950, FSFBI, ( Gary, IN) Post-Tribune, undat., www.post-trib.com; (“three secretar
ies”) The Worker, Nov. 25, 1945; (“I kinda gave”) Dwiggins, 1–; (“in a way”) Ebony, Jul. 1958; (“not spontaneous”) The Worker, Nov. 25, 1945.

  112 communist contacts/insinuations: (Robinson, Meeropol) Science & Society, (San Jose, CA) Mercury News, Apr. 7, 2003, Hartford Courant, Sep. 8, 2002. Meeropol, who wrote under the pen name Lewis Allan, was also the author of the anti-lynching song “Strange Fruit,” sung most memorably by Billie Holiday (Michael Denning, The Cultural Front, New York: Verso, 1998, 327).

  112 Maltz: Buhle and Wagner, 381–, Vaughn, 145–. Maltz would be the focus of fierce controversy involving Sinatra in 1960. As reported in a later chapter, political pressure was to force Sinatra to drop him as screenwriter on the movie The Execution of Private Slovik. The project was abandoned. The screenwriter on three other Sinatra movies of the forties, Isobel Lennart, was a Sinatra friend and also a member of the Communist Party. Lennart, the writer on Anchors Aweigh, It Happenedin Brooklyn, and The Kissing Bandit, was pressured into testifying to the House Un-American Activities Committee (Lennart—O’Brien, 22, Hedda Hopper int. of FS, Chicago Tribune–NY News syndicate, undat. 1947 draft, MHL, “Isobel Lennart” entry at www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk); (“spoke like”) The Worker, Nov. 25, 1945.