Chapter 19: The Lonely Heart
197–99 FS and Ava Dec. 1953–54: (“will risk”) Mark Twain, Notebook, 1906, cited at www.twainquotes.com; (getting together/“Frank would call”) Gardner, 193; (“It’ll be a mess”/Christmas 1953) Hanna, 44–, Shaw, Sinatra, 182, Dwiggins, 114; (New Year’s Eve party) Hanna, 48; (“was sitting”) Bricktop with Haskins, 269; (“trying to work”) Shaw, Sinatra, 182; (“not a chance”) Hanna, 49; (Dominguín) Higham, Ava, 145, Flamini, 196, and see int. Abbe Lane; (“Tell him”) Flamini, 204; (“very masochistic”) Jacobs and Stadiem, 61–; (Bacall/cake) Lauren Bacall, Lauren Bacall: By Myself, London: Jonathan Cape, 1979, 215; (“He would call”) int. Mearene Jordan; (FS invited) int. George Jacobs, Jacobs and Stadiem, 62–; (apartment) ibid., 30; (“There were pictures”/same at Palm Springs) ibid., 46, 64; (Styne move) Taylor, 174; (“I come home”/FS tears/photograph) Sciacca, Sinatra, 170–, Look, Jun. 11, 1957, Shaw, Sinatra, 186–; (“Frank was hunched”) Lazar with Tapert, 154, 149; (statue) Hanna, 44, Shaw, Sinatra, 182, Kelley, 527; (“You’re the only”) Look, Jun. 11, 1957; (“Dad, all our love”) Sinatra, Legend, 114, Davidson, 42–; (shirts/She hoped) Sinatra with Coplon, 46, 34; (“Mr. S. was like”) Jacobs and Stadiem, 48–; (Frank told Jacobs) ibid., 202; (told elder daughter) Sinatra, Legend, 94; (wandered streets) LAT, May 16, 1998; (“Frank walked”) Kelly, 217.
200 FS and women 1954–59: (“would keep”) Sinatra with Coplon, 160; (“Sinatra’sLaw”) Look, May 28, 1957.
200 Jacobs: No one was better placed than Jacobs to tell of the traffic in and out of Sinatra’s bedroom in the 1950s and 1960s. The authors interviewed him before and after he found a publisher for his memoir, and it was clear he held his former employer in great affection. (ints. George Jacobs, 1983, 2001–04); (“the Casanova”) Jacobs and Stadiem, 67–; (“It was nightmare”) Kelley, 215; (“a pretty starlet”) Jacobs and Stadiem, 54–.
200 FS and Dinah Shore: Jacobs and Stadiem, 67–. Shore and Sinatra first sang together in 1937 on radio, then, on TV, in the 1950s and ’60s. They also appeared together in the 1970s, but then reportedly had a falling out over Shore’s handling of former vice president Spiro Agnew—a Sinatra friend—on her show. They performed together again, however, as late as 1993 (sang in 1937—Dwiggins, 12–, Bruce Cassidy, Dinah! New York: Franklin Watts, 1979, 27–; in 1970s—Where or When?, Hollywood Citizen-News, Jul. 14, 1970; falling out—int. Jean Bach, Kelley, 438, and see McCall’s, May 1973; 1993—Ridgway, pt. 2, 284, Where or When?).
200 FS and Grace Kelly: (involved) Steven Englund, Grace of Monaco, New York: Doubleday, 1984, 122; (lasting friendship) Evans tapes; (agreed to see) Englund, 122; (FS drunk) Taraborrelli, 191.
200 “He held no”: GQ, Nov. 1999. Kelly and Sinatra nevertheless remained good friends after she became Princess Grace of Monaco. Sinatra often visited Monaco and sang at the principality’s Red Cross Ball. George Jacobs suspected he and the princess had a sexual adventure during a visit in 1962. Shortly before her death, Kelly and Rainier celebrated their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary with Sinatra at Palm Springs (longtime friends—Lacey, Grace, 363, Sinatra, My Father, 112; Red Cross Balls—ed. Vare, 158, Bacon, Four-Letter Town, 259, Douglas-Home, 49; sexual adventure?—Jacobs and Stadiem, 195; anniversary—LAT, Apr. 20, 1981).
200 Ava and FS 1954: (records) Flamini, 203; (cross) Higham, Ava, 144; (Dominguín)Gardner, 201–, Higham, Ava, 145–, 148; (divorce) Higham, Ava, 149; Flamini, 212, Shaw, Sinatra, 188; (photo on mirror) Shaw, Sinatra, 189.
201–202 FS and Gloria Vanderbilt: (“craved class”) Jacobs and Stadiem, 113; ($27 million) authors’ conversion from $4 million figure in Barbara Goldsmith, Little Gloria, Happy at Last, London: Macmillan, 1980, 585, and see NYT, Feb. 21, Mar. 1, 1945; (forty-two years her senior) Carol Matthau, Among the Porcupines, New York: Turtle Bay, 1992, 85; (Van Heflin) Gloria Vanderbilt, Black Knight, White Knight, New York: Fawcett, 1987, 41; (Hughes) ibid., 46–; (De Cicco) ibid., 124, 197; (painting, etc.) ibid., 208, 274–, 179, 227–, 290–; (“Stop!”/years earlier/“It was what”) ibid., 308, 229, 310–; (stepped out) (Bridgeport, CT) Telegram, Dec. 31, 1954, Los Angeles Examiner, Jan. 1, 1955, Shaw, Sinatra, 194–, New York Journal-American, Feb. 29, 1956; (St. Clair Pugh thought) int. St. Clair Pugh; (not true) Matthau, 114; (“Very Good Year” conscious reference) int. St. Clair Pugh, 7, see O’Brien with Wilson, 136, Hi Fi/Stereo, Nov. 1965.
202 “during which”: Gloria Vanderbilt, It Seemed Important at the Time, New York: Simon and Schuster, 2004, 73–; (“I cannot imagine”) Vanderbilt, 312. Gloria Vanderbilt declined the authors’ interview request in 2003, explaining that she was completing a further memoir. According to Sinatra’s valet George Jacobs, Vanderbilt and Sinatra were on friendly terms in the 1960s (Jacobs and Stadiem, 221); (star in a movie?) Los Angeles Examiner, Oct. 27, 1955, O’Brien, 91, Howlett, 94, Dwiggins, 117, Woman’s Home Companion, Jun. 1956.
202 Ekberg: New York Journal-American, Feb. 29, 1956, O’Brien, 153–, People, Dec. 7, 1987, and see int. Ekberg, (London) Daily Mail, Dec. 27, 1999.
202–03 FS and Jill Corey: (FS at Copacabana) Washington Post & Times-Herald, Jan. 12, 1955; (“I noticed”) int. Jill Corey; (Corey background) Life, Nov. 9, 1953, liner notes, Sometimes I’m Happy, Sometimes I’m Blue, CD, Collectables Records, 2003.
203 FS took pains: Jacobs and Stadiem, 50; (discovery) Sinatra, My Father, 107, Sinatra, Legend, 120, and Sinatra with Coplon, 58, FS introduction of colleagues, Melbourne concert, Jan. 1955, audiotape in collection of Alf Batchelder, Batchelder monograph.
203 Ava 1954–55: (“Sinatra”/“my old man”/“greatest”) Hanna, 132; (affair cooled) Higham, Ava, 155, Hanna, 109; (“They’d be fighting”) M/G int. of George Jacobs, and see Gardner, 193; (talking of moving) Viertel, 233.
203–204 FS sex/women: (women to “do”) Jacobs and Stadiem, 110; (Van Heusen) ibid., 110, 59–; (“Get me a goddamn”) ibid., 68; (Renay background) Ed Reid, Mickey Cohen, Mobster, New York: Pinnacle, 1973, refs.; (Renay and FS) int. Liz Renay and see Liz Renay, My Face for the World to See, New York: Lyle Stuart, 1971, 162, Liz Renay, My First 2,000 Men, Fort Lee, NJ: Barricade, 1992, 192–, and Dwiggins, 119.
204 FS and Dietrich: (“Sinatra was half”) Clooney with Barthel, 247; (“keeping happy”) Riva, 632.
204–205 Dietrich diary entries: ibid., 658–, 680–. In Blue Angel, his 1992 book about Dietrich, Donald Spoto cited a diary entry that—he said—reflected Sinatra’s fear that he was “sexually out of practice.” Dietrich, Spoto wrote, “soothed his fears.” A Dietrich entry for the day in question, as published the same year by Dietrich’s daughter, however, does not say quite this. It appears, moreover, to refer not to Sinatra but to Yul Brynner (Spoto, Blue Angel, 237, Riva, 686, entry for September 4).
205 behaving callously: (“He showers”) unid. article by Joyce Simmons, MHL; (Miss Ceylon) LC Information Bulletin, vol. 55, Oct. 21, 1996; (abandoned Corey) Wilson, Sinatra, 320; (“Open up!”) People, Dec. 7, 1987, ( London) Daily Mail, Dec. 27, 1999, and see Dwiggins, 121; (FS and Zsa Zsa Gabor) Zsa Zsa Gabor with Wendy Leigh, One Lifetime Is Not Enough, New York: Delacorte, 1991, 161–.
205–206 Sandra Giles: (background) www.dancersandromancers.com (Giles’s Web site); www.glamorgirlsofthesilverscreen.com; Life, Jun. 16, 1958; (“This is Frank”) int. Sandra Giles.
206–207 FS and Shirley Van Dyke: ints. Stan and Bob Levey, LAT, May 24, 1957.
207–208 FS and Eva Bartok/daughter: (main sources) transcript of 1976 taped interview of Bartok by Peter Evans, courtesy of Mr. Evans, ints. Peter Evans, Deana Sinatra, (London) Sunday Mirror, Nov. 7, 14, 1976, (London) Mail on Sunday,Aug. 14, New York Daily News, Aug. 16, People, Sep. 5, 1994, (London) Daily Mail, May 10, 1997; (London charity) main sources, Dwiggins, 123–, Sinatra, Legend, 139.
208–209 name used/letters 1976 & 1994: Deana changed her name to Deana Sinatra after Sinatra’s death. She had previously used either her mother’s name, Bartok, or Jurgens—her mother was divorced from the actor Curt Jurgens about a year before
Deana’s birth. That both the 1976 and 1994 letters to Sinatra existed is confirmed by Peter Evans, the writer Bartok first told about her child’s alleged paternity. Evans supplied the authors with copies of the drafts of both letters, which he helped Eva Bartok and her daughter compose. He also supplied a delivery confirmation slip, dated July 5, 1976, showing that the 1976 letter was received by Sinatra’s attorney Milton Rudin. Another Sinatra attorney, Harvey Silbert, confirmed that his client had received the 1994 letter and had discussed it (name change—Deana Sinatra letter to authors, Jan. 7, 2004; Bartok letter to FS—carbon copy of original, Jul. 5, 1976, with Red Arrow courier delivery slip 298437, courtesy of Peter Evans; Deana letter to FS is a draft, May 11, 1994, faxed to Peter Evans, and see (London) Mail on Sunday, Aug. 14, 1994; Silbert’s comments—People, Sep. 5, 1994).
209 FS and Jeanne Carmen: (“Nobody loved Frank”) ints. Jeanne Carmen, 1983, 2001.
209 affair intermittently/“on-off”/“a stand-by”: George Jacobs and Brad Dexter remembered Carmen as having been a Sinatra girlfriend over a long period. The relationship is also documented to some extent. Ints. George Jacobs, Brad Dexter, Jacobs and Stadiem, 76–, 155; Twentieth Century-Fox release, 1959, Harrison Carroll column, May 22, 1961, undat. Carroll column, undat. Gene Carter column, circa 1963, MHL.
209–10 Carmen background: (London) Sunday Mirror magazine, Jun. 8, 1952, unid. article, circa 1952, “She Sells Shares . . . ,” MHL, Los Angeles Mirror-News, Aug. 1, 1957, TV Guide, Jan. 11, 1958, brochure for “The Greatest Golf Show.” Jack Redmond Enterprises—covers of magazines such as Carnival, Gala, Dare, She, etc. Anthony Summers’s research for his book Goddess indicated that Carmen also became a friend of Marilyn Monroe, and that they occupied neighboring apartments at 882 Doheny Drive in West Hollywood. An old telegram sent to Carmen at that address confirms that she lived there (Summers’s research—Summers, Goddess, 306, 394, 591, ints. Jeanne Carmen, 1983, 2001; telegram—Western Union message dated Jul. 31, 1961, in collection of Jeanne Carmen); (“We saw each other”) int. Jeanne Carmen. (“There was a ‘Frank woman’ ”) int. Brad Dexter.
Chapter 20: Peggy
211–12 Peggy Connelly: (background and all quotes on FS relationship) ints. and corr. Peggy Connelly, 2002, 2003, 2004; (Club for Girls) Peter Brown, Kim Novak, Reluctant Goddess, New York: St. Martin’s, 1986, 49; (“There’s a Flaw” background) NYT, Oct. 7, 1990, Granata, 126.
212 Guys and Dolls: (“half destroyed”/Brando preferred over FS) Jacobs and Stadiem, 51–, New Choices, Dec. ’93/Jan. ’94, New Jersey Monthly, Feb. 1982; (refused “Good morning”) Sidney Skolsky, Don’t Get Me Wrong, I Love Hollywood, New York: Putnam, 1975, 41; (“most overrated”) Look, Jun. 11, 1957. In 1986, however, Sinatra acknowledged that Brando was “great . . . a tremendous performer” (FS int. by Zion); (Method/“when Mumbles”/walked off set) Bacon, Four-Letter Town, 190, Charles Higham, Brando, New York: New American Library, 1987, 158–.
212 Tender Trap: O’Brien, 82–.
213 “Nembutal”/“Dexedrine”: ibid., 94.
213 “I have to go”: New Yorker, Jun. 1, 1998.
213–15 FS physical characteristics/clothing: (others on makeup) e.g., Jacobs and Stadiem, 56; (new home) int. Peggy Connelly, Sinatra, My Father, 108–, Sinatra, Legend, 322; (lawn furniture) unid. article by Eleanor Harris, c. 1945, MHL; (shirts) Batchelder monograph; (sweaters/blazers) Jacobs and Stadiem, 46, 185; (handkerchiefs) Philadelphia Daily News, May 18, 1998, Vanity Fair, Dec. 1993; (not ties) Paris Match, May 28, 1998; (apartment) LAHE, Jan. 28, 1988; (plane) ints. pilot Johnny Spotts, Bob Neal, Farrow, 81; (phone) int. Bob Neal; (“He hated”) Jacobs and Stadiem, 186.
216 “Take the hand off”: Look, May 14, 1957, Shaw, Sinatra, 229–, Gehman, 21, Human Events, May 4, 1963. The Look story had it that the politician in question was Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn, an allegation Sinatra was able to refute by citing a supportive telegram from Rayburn himself. A later report, however, suggests the encounter did indeed occur but involved not Rayburn but U.S. Senator Theodore F. Green (Green—Chicago Tribune, Jan. 7, 1961).
217 “We’d been out”: int. Peggy Connelly. Nancy Sinatra, citing her father and pianist Joe Bushkin, wrote of an incident at Palm Springs in which—having arrived drunk—a woman “fell” through a window. Bushkin told the authors she “put her hand through a glass door” when thrown out by Sinatra. Peter Lawford was reported as saying he was present when Sinatra “got so mad . . . that he slammed her through a plate glass window. . . . Frank paid her off.” Sammy Cahn’s widow, Tita, said she understood Sinatra “got into a beef with the girl, threw her across the room, and she fell into plate glass” (Sinatra, Legend, 302–; int. Joe Bushkin; Lawford comments in Kelley, 256; int. Tita Cahn).
217–18 The Man with the Golden Arm: (FS enthused) FS comments, 1987 Italian tour, RAI UNO, Hamill, 29; (lobbied) Shaw, Sinatra, 207, O’Brien, 85; (medical specialists) FS comments, 1987 Italian tour, RAI UNO; (peephole) Bill Boggs int.; (FS earned) O’Brien, 89, and see FS at New York Daily News, Jan. 24, 1978, Bill Boggs int., FS int. by Arlene Francis, Oct. 1, 1977, WOR (NY); (Connelly on awards) Shaw, Sinatra, 213; (“manic-depressive”) Playboy, Feb. 1962.
218 caïd: In north Africa, the word caïd described a headman or leader, a man who kept order and dispensed justice (ed. Paul Vogé, Larousse Universel, Paris: Librairie Larousse, 1948, 267).
219–21 Spain episode: (Ava left U.S.) Gardner, 219; (FS during Pride & Passion) O’Brien, 95–, Look, May 14, 1957, Shaw, Sinatra, 217–, NYT Magazine, Feb. 10, 1957, Hanna, 180–, Nancy Nelson, Evenings with Cary Grant, New York: Wm. Morrow, 1991, 192–; (Ava looked forward/viewing) Shaw, Sinatra, 212–; (car/ records) ibid., 213, 219, Flamini, 228, and int. Peggy Connelly.
221 FS flew back: Shaw, Sinatra, 218. Remaining scenes involving Sinatra would be filmed later, on a Hollywood soundstage. They looked phony compared to the authentic Spanish footage, and the movie suffered accordingly (O’Brien, 96).
218 FS/Ava divorce: (Ava announced) Shaw, Sinatra, 219; (hinted Chiari) Flamini, 229, and see Shaw, Sinatra, 176–, Carpozi; (“like a wild man”) Look, Jun. 11, 1957; (“like a whipped dog”) Shaw, Sinatra, 224; (“Mr. Sinada”) ibid., 212.
221 Ellie Graham: Sinatra began an affair with Ellie Graham Goldfarb, a fashion model, when she came to Las Vegas in late 1955 to establish the necessary residency to obtain a Nevada divorce. According to Graham in her 1994 book, Sinatra greeted her at the Sands—even before being introduced—by kissing her fingertips and saying, “I love you.” After what she described as an “amiable” affair, of which neither of them expected much, she found herself pregnant and had an abortion. She continued to see Sinatra from time to time, but eventually met and married the actor David Janssen (Ellie Janssen, David Janssen, My Fugitive,Hollywood, FL: Lifetime, 1994, 1–, Star, undat. article, 1994).
221 end of Connelly affair: Sinatra did not readily accept the fact that Peggy Connelly had ended the affair. He came knocking at her door several times and later, when her marriage to Dick Martin broke up, telephoned repeatedly. Later still, just before Sinatra’s marriage to Mia Farrow in 1966, they had dinner in New York. They last saw each other in about 1971 in Palm Springs (int. Peggy Connelly); (“I’m a Fool”) Sayers and O’Brien, 47, Rednour, 47; (Ava in Mexico) Higham, Ava, 179–, Flamini, 229–; (“almost panicky”) Viertel, 318; (Ava sued) Hollywood Citizen-News, Jun. 15, 1957, Shaw, Sinatra, 231; (decree issued) Newsweek, Jul. 15, 1957, Flamini, 231–.
222 FS 42/PR people: Sinatra was born on December 12, 1915. A 1942 press release from George Evans stated that Frank had been born on that day in 1917. In 1947, in the wake of the Lee Mortimer episode, Frank gave his age as twenty-nine— when in reality he was thirty-one. His first Who’s Who entry, in 1948, gave the incorrect 1917 birthdate. Entries are normally compiled on the basis of information supplied by the person listed (1942 press release in MHL, and see Metronome, May 1943, Dwiggins, 92).
222 “My father”: Sinatra with Coplon, 160.
222 To
ne Poems: Sickel had done rewrite work on the scripts for Sinatra’s 1953–54 radio series, Rocky Fortune. They apparently got on well, for in 1956 Sinatra reportedly asked Sickel if he had an idea for a “different” sort of album. Tone Poems of Color was recorded on February 22 and 28 and March 7 and 15, 1956 (Sickel background and rewrite work—Dwiggins, 138, liner notes, Tone Poems of Color, CD, Capitol Records reissued, 1999; recording dates—Sayers and O’Brien, 238–, but see Sinatra, Legend, 126); (Gigliotti) Gilbert Gigliotti, A Storied Singer: Frank Sinatra As Literary Conceit, Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2002, 22–; (orange “happiest”) Paris Match, May 28, 1998.
223–24 FS emotional void: (dump) e.g., the Lauren Bacall affair covered in chapter 21; (“lost a great”) FS int. by Zion; (“a lot of”) FS int. on Suzy Visits; (“like my shadow”) Newsday, Jul. 24, 2002, draft article; (refuge) LAT, Jul. 26, 1992, Jacobs and Stadiem, 50, Ladies’ Home Journal, Dec. 1993; (fast asleep) ibid., Sep. 1966; (allowed in Nancy’s bed?) Sinatra with Coplon, 108; (Chevrolet) Woman’s Home Companion, May 1956; (“One night”) Kelley, 260; (“no sleep”) Sinatra, My Father, 112–; (FS downed) Look, May 14, 1957; (Kilgallen gushing) Kahn, 105, Shaw, Sinatra, 73; (series) New York Journal-American, Feb. 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, Mar. 1, 2, 1956; (“ghastly likenesses”) int. Armand Deutsch, Deutsch, 115; (abusing in public) Look, May 14, 1957, ints. Sonny King, Tony Montana, M/G int. of Jay Bernstein, Israel, 275; (long after dead) Sinatra monologue, Caesars Palace, May 5, 1978, videotape in authors’ collection; (Sunset Strip incident) Look, May 14, 1957, Davidson, 22–, Dwiggins, 117, int. Bob Neal, Shaw, Sinatra, 193—the journalist was Jim Byron, also described as a “publicist”; (sued publisher) ibid., 229–.
Sinatra Page 62