Sinatra

by Anthony Summers

  224 “Bill was sitting”: ints. Maralynne Davidson and see Davidson, 13, Tosches, 313. There were other outbursts of temper and violence. On the set of Not as a Stranger, in 1954, when Sinatra threatened to “kick the shit” out of the photographer Billy Woodfield, costars Robert Mitchum and Broderick Crawford riposted by throwing him off a low terrace. In February 1957, when an airline could not provide one sleeping berth more than the two he had reserved, Sinatra canceled an entire tour to Australia. He was later obliged to settle with the tour promoter to the tune of $75,000. The same month, he got in a fight with Rex Harrison at a Hollywood party. Earlier, at a Palm Springs party, he had hit a man—with a bottle, allegedly—during a disagreement over how to mix a cocktail. The victim, businessman Jack Wintermeyer, required hospital treatment for a gashed forehead. (Stranger scrap—int. Billy Woodfield, but see Server, 337–; canceled tour— LAT, Feb. 5, 12, 1957; Rex Harrison—LAT, Feb. 19, 1957, Gehman, 180–; Palm Springs disagreement—LAT, Mar. 22, 23, 1949, Look, May 14, 1957, Carpozi, Sinatra, 99); (“should be available”) Sinatra, My Father, 119; (favorite “Angel Eyes”) corr. Lois Nettleton, 2003; (“Angel” nickname) int. Reenie Jordan; (moved into house) int. Peggy Connelly; (sign) Shaw, Sinatra, photo section at chap. 28; (house described/music/telescope) Look, May 14, 1957; (“I drove here”) Jan. 1, 1956, entry, eds. Graham Payn and Sheridan Morley, The Noël Coward Diaries, New York: Da Capo, 1982, 301; (forlorn) Bacall, 226.

  Chapter 21: Betty

  226 FS and Bogarts: (radio) Ridgway, pt. 1, 8, 31; (yacht) A. M. Sperber and Eric Lax, Bogart, New York: Wm. Morrow, 1997, 485; (boozing) Jeffrey Meyers, Bogart:A Life in Hollywood, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1997, 299; (“practically lived”) McCall’s, Jul. 1966; (“the one guy”) int. Brad Dexter and see Jacobs and Stadiem, 40.

  226 “in awe”: int. of Bacall by Peter Bogdanovich, in Süddeutsche Zeitung, Aug. 16, 2002. The authors have drawn on Lauren Bacall’s books By Myself (1978) and Now (1994), and on her Süddeutsche Zeitung interview. The actress declined the authors’ repeated requests for an interview.

  226–27 pinnacle: Though he had previously made many movies, Bogart didn’t truly become a star until High Sierra and The Maltese Falcon in 1941; (toupees) Bacall, 152; (drinkers) ibid., 149, 152; (Bogart early life) Sperber and Lax, 1–; (avoided fighting/moderated drinking) Joe Hyams, Bogart and Bacall: A Love Story, New York: David McKay, 1975, 172–, 203; (“He just didn’t”) Süddeutsche Zeitung, Aug. 16, 2002; (well read/mentor/“I think”) Gehman, 42, 55; (“adult emotionally”) Carpozi, Sinatra, 95; (“stay away”) Gehman, 55; (“enjoyed”) Bacall, 218; (“a kind of endless”) Hyams, 170; (“a whirl”) Clooney with Barthel, 219; (“We dropped”) David Niven, The Moon’s a Balloon, New York: Putnam’s, 1971, 328.

  227–28 “Frankie did sing”: Melvyn Bragg, Rich: The Life of Richard Burton, London: Hoddard and Stoughton, 1988, 381. Burton’s recollections notwithstanding, Bogart could also on occasion leap to the younger man’s defense. “Don’t you ever talk about a pal of mine like that again,” he snarled when Joan Collins said something uncomplimentary about Sinatra at a party (Sammy Davis Jr., Hollywood in a Suitcase, New York: William Morrow, 1980, 15); (“four days”) Niven, 329; (soon palled) Bacall, 223.

  228 Holmby Hills Rat Pack: (“an organization with”) Hyams, 204, and see Nathaniel Benchley, Humphrey Bogart, Boston: Little, Brown, 1975, refs.; (“The Holmby Hills”) New York Herald Tribune, Dec. 15, 1955; (pins) Gerold Frank, Judy, New York: Da Capo, 1999, 415.

  228–29 “goddamned rat pack”/white rats: Niven, 329. There were other versions of how the group got its name. Sammy Davis, who said he was part of the Bogart-era Rat Pack, said: “In those days teenagers hung around in ‘rat packs,’ and Bogie said we were the rat pack of Beverly Hills.” According to the author Gerry Romero, the Bogarts’ late-night guests at first referred to themselves as the “Free-loaders,” but later changed to Rat Pack. A 1999 television documentary suggested that Hollywood studio bosses—exasperated by the Bogart group’s aspirations to artistic freedom—dubbed them “the Rat Pack.” The New York Herald Tribune list of founding members also included Judy Garland’s husband Sid Luft, David Niven, Michael Romanoff, and Jimmy Van Heusen. Others who claimed or were said to be members included Spencer Tracy and Peter Viertel (“In those days”— Star, Dec. 15, 1981; “Freeloaders”—Romero, 120; 1999 documentary—The Rat Pack, New York, Praeses Productions for A&E, 1999, video in authors’ collection; other members —New York Herald Tribune, Dec. 15, 1955, Davis, Hollywood, 13, Bacall, 222, Viertel, 238); (“adults who”/“I see the rat pack”) Joe Hyams, Bogie, New York: New American Library, 1966, 122; (racing cars) Howard Greenberger, Bogey’s Baby, New York: St. Martin’s, 1976, 122; (“Rats are for”) High Times, Jun. 1978; (“against the PTA”) Bogart, 55; (“that you and your”) Greenberger, 123; (“People have worked”) Kelley, 239; (Barrymore/Flynn) Michael Freedland, Dino: The Dean Martin Story, London: W. H. Allen, 1984, 91; (only a joke) Hyams, Bogie, 123; (friends learned) Bacall, 229.

  229 Bogart illness/death: (FS visited) Bogart, 283, 288, Hyams, Bogart and Bacall, 221; (phoned) Bacall, 231, 244, 277; (telegrams) Look, May 14, 1957; (“He cheered”) Bacall, 244; (“I’ve slimmed”) Charles Hamblett, The Hollywood Cage, New York: Hart, 1969, 62; (“If Sinatra lost”) Bacon, Made in Hollywood, 67; (watched FS movie) Bacall, 254—but see Süddeutsche Zeitung, Aug. 16, 2002, which suggests the Sinatra movie was On the Town; (canceled performances) Davis, Boyar, and Boyar, 362, Sperber and Lax, 517; (avoiding calls) Greenberger, 156; (funeral) Bacall, 261, 267; (“He never”) int. Peggy Connelly.

  230 Verita Thompson: Thompson’s book about the affair is filled with persuasive detail, and Bogart biographers have treated her claim seriously (int. Verita Thompson, Verita Thompson with Donald Shepherd, Bogie and Me, New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1982, Jeffrey Meyers, Bogart: A Life in Hollywood, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1997, refs., A. M. Sperber and Eric Lax, Bogart, New York: William Morrow, 1997, refs.).

  230 FS relationship with Bacall: (Ray) Nicholas Ray, I Was Interrupted, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1993, 159 and refs.; (“infatuation”/“His flirtatiousness”) Bacall, 204, 209; (“very attracted”) ibid., 217; (“If Lenny and I”) Lauren Bacall, Now, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1994, 168; (“I never dared”) Bacall, By Myself, 217; (“Frank loved Bogart”) int. Peggy Connelly; (“It was no secret”) Kelley, 240; (Bogart did not know) int. Verita Thompson; (“That’s the way”) Sperber and Lax, 462.

  230–31 birthday in Vegas: According to Bacall in her 1978 memoir, Kim Novak was Sinatra’s “date” during the birthday celebration at the Sands. There were rumors, never substantiated, that he and Novak had an affair. They had worked together on The Man with the Golden Arm the previous year and would work together again in 1957, on Pal Joey. Novak dismissed the gossip about her and Sinatra at the time as “nonsense.” According to Tina Sinatra, she was one of her father’s “flames.” As late as 2004, however, on Larry King Live, Novak was saying nothing to support the notion that they were lovers (“date”/birthday—Bacall, By Myself, 241; rumors/“nonsense”—Brown, 52, 56, 120, Los Angeles Examiner, Oct. 6, 1957, and see O’Brien, 86; “flames”—Sinatra with Coplon, 114, and see Jacobs and Stadiem, 68; 2004—Novak int. on Larry King Live, CNN, Jan. 5, 2004); (“edgy”/“He was somewhat”) Bacall, By Myself, 240–; (“represented physical”/“wildly attractive”/“There must have always”) Bacall, By Myself, 277; (going out) ibid., 275; (yacht/“After that”/“remote”) ibid., 280, Süd deutscheZeitung, Aug. 16, 2002; (“Frank would feel”/rented house) Bogart, 77–; (clivia) Bacall, By Myself, 281.

  231 marriage proposals/breakup: (Christmas) Süddeutsche Zeitung, Aug. 16, 2002, referring to Fontainebleau appearance, which was December; (“like a maniac”/“he’s really acting”) ibid.

  232 no contact: Süddeutsche Zeitung, Aug. 16, 2002. Bacall heard nothing from Sinatra until the second week of February 1958, when he was on the East Coast for the funeral of Manie Sacks, his old mentor at Columbia
(Sacks’s death— Gettysburg Times, Feb. 10, 1958—the death is misdated in Sinatra, Legend, 136); (proposed again & sequel) ibid., and Bacall, By Myself, 283–; (newspapers trumpeted) Los Angeles Examiner, (LA) Mirror, Hollywood Citizen-News, Mar. 12, 1958; (story leaked) Bacall, By Myself, 284–, Lazar with Tapert, 156–, Los Angeles Examiner, Mar. 12, 1958; (“I don’t know”) Hollywood Citizen-News, Mar. 12, 1958; (“Sinatra Won’t Say”) LAT, Mar. 13, 1958; (“What for?”) Chicago Sun-Times,Mar. 19, 1958; (“My humiliation”/“like a complete shit”/not speak) Bacall, By Myself, 285–; (“because that’s”) “Sinatra’s Song,” by John Lahr, Sinatra Music Society, 2000; (“married to a grown-up”) Bogart, 77–; (“incredibly juvenile”) ibid.

  232 “couldn’t have lived”: Süddeutsche Zeitung, Aug. 16, 2002. According to Bacall’s 1978 memoir, she and Sinatra eventually got back on to “some sort of friendly basis.” Three years later, however, she told Barbara Walters that she did not see her former lover. “One of us is bound to leave, and it would probably be him. He has about as much humor as this floor. . . . No humor . . . I wish he’d just shut up and sing” (The Barbara Walters Specials, Jun. 2, 1981, ABC News, Liz Smith column, New York Daily News, April 23, 1981); (“a cross between”) Lazar with Tapert, 158.

  Chapter 22: Leader of the Pack

  233 Rock ’n’ roll/Presley: (“An electric guitar”) Time, Jun. 18, 1956; (half the records) Manchester, 724.

  233 “Sh-Boom”/Haley: Evanier, 90. The Crew Cuts were a white group. A black group, the Chords, had been first out with “Sh-Boom” in April 1954. The Chords’ version went to number five (Evanier, 90); (not below waist) Manchester, 759.

  233–34 Dorsey introduced: Levinson, 124, Rose, 204. A better-known early television appearance by Presley was on Ed Sullivan’s Toast of the Town show. His appearance on the Dorsey Brothers’ Stage Show on January 28, 1956, however, preceded the Toast of the Town show by more than six months (Sullivan—Halberstam, 478–).

  234 Dorsey death: Simon, 176, Shaw, Sinatra, 34. Frank, for his part, appeared again with Dorsey in August that year, at the Paramount in New York. He had not forgotten the rancorous parting with the bandleader in 1942, and declined to take part in a television tribute when the bandleader died three months later. In 1958, though, he devoted one of his own CBS shows to Dorsey. Then, at a concert as late as 1979, he railed against the way Dorsey had resisted his departure from the band back in the 1940s (declined/devoted—Friedwald, 113; railed—Kelley, 64); ($75,000) David Halberstam, The Fifties, New York: Villard Books, 1993, 478.

  234 FS and rock ’n’ roll: (FS letter) Simon, vii; (“hated”) Jacobs and Stadiem, 124–; (“the most brutal”) AP, Oct. 29, 1957, Kelley, 254—, the magazine was Western World; (FS worried) FS interview, Suzy Visits.

  234 songs that rocked: In 1955 Sinatra recorded two “doo-wop” singles, “Two Hearts, Two Kisses” and “From the Bottom to the Top.” “Can I Steal a Little Love,” an uncomfortable offering, got to No. 20 on Billboard’s singles chart for 1957 (“doo-wop”—Friedwald, 230; “Can I Steal?”—Rednour, 20, Frank Sinatra Jr. commentary, As I Remember It).

  234–35 FS work in 1957–59: (songs released 1957–59) Rednour, refs., O’Brien and Sayers, refs.; (“Only the Lonely”) Rockwell, 132; (best-selling albums) ibid.; (124 songs) O’Brien and Sayers, 71–; (TV/performances) entries for 1957–59, Where or When?; (movies) O’Brien, 99–; Kings Go Forth was a clear failure, and the box office fate of Pal Joey remains unclear; (“the most fantastic”/“the love voice”) Shaw, Sinatra, 237, 256; (Beatty) Hollywood Citizen-News,( LA) Mirror-News, Oct. 21, 27, LAT, Oct. 22, 28, Nov. 4, Los Angeles Examiner, Oct. 27, Newsweek, Nov. 3, 1958, int. Shirley MacLaine, Gehman, 212–, 214, Dwiggins, 122–; (Prowse) int. Shirley MacLaine; (one-night stands/hookers) e.g., int. Jack Cione, Levy, 201, Star, Feb. 17, 1976.

  235 Australia/Ava wanted to see: Gardner, 240, Higham, Ava, 195, Hanna, 254. Gardner was on location in Australia for the movie On the Beach; (“We wanted to talk”) Gardner, 240; (“Come home”/key) Evans tapes; (watch) Rocky Mount Telegram, Nov. 12, 2003.

  235 “One for My Baby”: Sinatra first recorded an unremarkable version of “One for My Baby” in 1947. It bears no comparison with the virtuoso recording of 1958. The detailed history of the song as performed by Sinatra is in O’Brien with Wilson, 98; (“I’ve experienced”) LAT, Oct. 31, 1993; (“I wonder”) David Halberstam article, Playboy, Apr. 1998; (“Top male Singer”) Down Beat, poll results, Dec. 1956–59, Howlett, 101, Shaw, Sinatra, 258.

  235–36 TV deal: The TV deal with ABC—for twenty-six half-hour shows plus some hour-long specials—got poor ratings (Shaw, Entertainer, 61, Shaw, Sinatra, 233); ($7 million/“highest paid”) NYT Magazine, Feb. 10, Variety, Nov. 13, 1957, citing NYT—but see Newsweek, Oct. 21, 1957, Los Angeles Examiner, Nov. 29, 1956, suggesting lower figure; (“the hottest”) ibid., 259; (“the world’s greatest”) Chicago Sunday Tribune, May 18, 1958.

  236 Sinatra Rat Pack: Richard Gehman, author of the 1961 book that remains the most informative source on the subject, identified several others as members of the “Rat Pack Proper”: Tony Curtis, who has described himself as a “mainstream player” in the group, Jimmy Van Heusen, Sammy Cahn, Irving Lazar, and the novelist and screenwriter Harry Kurnitz. Life reported that Judy Garland was a member, though Gehman did not. “Affiliates,” Gehman wrote, were to include Eddie Fisher and Elizabeth Taylor, the comedian Milton Berle, Mike Romanoff of Romanoff’s restaurant—and eventually President Kennedy. Orson Welles claimed a “sort of dim, out-of-town membership” (Gehman, 52–, Tony Curtis and Barry Paris, Tony Curtis, New York: William Morrow, 1993, 147, Life, Dec. 22, 1958, Welles and Bogdanovich, 27).

  236–37 Dean Martin: (Feb. 19 ’57 appearances/three more) 1957 entries, Where or When?; (“There is something”/“simple”) Look, Dec. 26, 1967; (background) ibid., Tosches, refs., Life, Dec. 22, 1958, Esquire, Jul. 4, 1978; (Steubenville gambling) Messick, 192–, Messick with Nellis, 120; (dabbled in gambling) Tosches, 21; (“Your son’s gonna”) Look, Dec. 26, 1967; (bootleg whiskey) Esquire, Jul. 4, 1978, Tosches, 47; (met boss/record clean) ibid., 51, 64; (Martini) NYT, Dec. 26, 1925; (Riobamba) Wilson, Show Business, 325–; (early successes/Lewis) Tosches, 102, 98, 109–, 120, 125; (“I’m no singer”) Esquire, Jul. 4, 1978; (not real work) Look, Dec. 26, 1967; (FS first met) int. Mort Viner, Van Meter, 97.

  237 Martin knew Fischettis: The Fischettis’ involvement with Martin and Lewis is reported at some length in Nick Tosches’s biography of Martin. Columbia producer Morris Stoloff said he “knew that Martin had a set of heavy boys who tried to get him jobs. They came knocking at my door.” The Amalgamated Meat Cutters union boss, Max Block, said the mob “made” Martin and that he later remained under mob control. FBI files indicate that Martin and Sinatra—accompanied by Joe Fischetti—visited a top Chicago Mafia boss in 1958. The FBI learned in 1960 that Fischetti was talking of getting Martin to make a record. There were more such references, showing for example that Martin was still playing golf with mobsters as late as 1977 (Fischetti brothers—Tosches; Stoloff— Freedland, 189; mob “made”—Block with Kenner, 129; visited Mafia boss—“Correlation Summary re Francis Albert Sinatra,” Jun. 8, 1964, FSFBI; make record?—log of Oct. 20, 1960, Misc. ELSUR Refs., “Frank Sinatra,” vol. 1, HSCA Subject Files, JFK Collection, NA.; more references—“Report re Samuel Giancana,” Apr. 12, 1961, FBI 92-3171-185, HSCA staff log of FBI surveillance, Sep. 3, 1963, Demaris, 384); (Moretti wedding) Patterson (NJ) Call, Sep. 22 1947; (careful not to flaunt) int. Sonny King, Shawn Levy, Rat Pack Confidential, New York: Doubleday, 1998, 131.

  237–38 Wild oats/Martin self-control/drinking/marriage/golf: Look, Dec. 26, 1967, Ricci Martin with Christopher Smith, That’s Amore, New York: Taylor, 2002, 58, 3, int. Jeanne Martin, Rev. Robert Perrella, They Call Me the Show Biz Priest, New York: Trident, 1973, 143. Martin did resort to violence, he told Oriana Fallaci in 1967, when confronted with insults about his Italian heritage. He cited two incidents, one of them a notorious frac
as in which Sinatra was also involved—to be covered later. He admitted having been a heavy drinker during his years with Lewis, but said that was in the past. Sinatra’s valet, George Jacobs, however, has written of Martin having consumed “massive” amounts of alcohol in the late 1950s. Witnesses who knew Martin well said his stage “drunkie” image was just an act. The glass he clutched in his hand onstage was usually apple juice (“massive” drinking—Jacobs and Stadiem, 85; drinking just an act—ints. Jeanne Martin, Mort Viner, Jeanne Carmen, Martin with Smith, 55, MacLaine, 78, Michael Freedland, Dino, London: Allen, 1984, 92); (Bogart’s social circle) int. Jeanne Martin, Tosches, 254; (FS friend) Look, Dec. 26, 1967; (“Uncle Dean”) Sinatra with Coplon, 93; (“Theirs was”) int. Jeanne Martin.

  238 “Those who entered”: Wil Haygood, In Black and White, New York: Knopf, 2003, 180; The Haygood biography and another by Gary Fishgall were published in 2003. Davis himself wrote or contributed to three autobiographical books, but they are not always reliable. An excellent additional source is a compendium of writing on Davis published in 2001 (Gary Fishgall, Gonna Do Great Things, New York: Scribner, 2003, Davis, Boyar, and Boyar, Yes, I Can, Davis, Hollywood in a Suitcase, Davis, Jane and Burt Boyar, Why Me? New York: Warner, 1989, ed. Gerald Early, Sammy Davis Jr. Reader, New York, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2001).

  238–39 Sammy Davis, Jr.: (father fled) Haygood, 47; (early life) ibid., 50—the childhood movie role was Rufus Jones for President; (first FS meetings) Ebony, Jul. 1958, Star, Dec. 15, 1981, Down Beat, Aug. 1998; (New York theater) May 1947 entry, Where or When? Shaw, Sinatra, 118; (“All the great”) Shaw, Sinatra, 118; (“Sammy might never”) int. Marilyn Sinatra.

  239 FS visited hospital ’54: Davis, Boyar, and Boyar, Yes, I Can, 220–, Davis, Boyar, and Boyar, Why Me?, 58. One of Sinatra’s girlfriends, Cindy Bitterman, has said he delayed going to see the injured Davis and went only when shamed into doing so—Sinatra loathed hospitals (Haygood, 168, and see re FS/hospitals, Jacobs and Stadiem, 69); (stay Palm Springs) Jacobs and Stadiem, 69; (took to parents) Haygood, 180.