Two authors of books on Sinatra, Donald Clarke and Michael Freedland, helped generously with guidance. Our friend Sally Denton, coauthor of The Money and the Power, the seminal book on Las Vegas, let us roam in her files. Gus Russo, fresh from writing The Outfit, his authoritative book on the Chicago mob, swapped informational gold once again. So did the eclectic author Dick Russell, a colleague on whom we can always rely, and Douglas Valentine, who shared Mafia morsels picked up while writing his history of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, The Strength of the Wolf. Murray Dubin, a journalist with expertise on the Philadelphia mob, led us to Angelo Bruno’s daughter. In the midst of preparations for the movie The Aviator, which draws on his work, Charles Higham made time to discuss the background to his biography of Ava Gardner. Robert Lacey, always collegiate, helped us leapfrog from material in his book Little Man, on Meyer Lansky, to living sources on the old mobsters. Peter J. Levinson, author of authoritative books on Harry James and Nelson Riddle, told us of his encounters with Sinatra. In London, Gavin MacFadyen and Michael Gillard shared the files they built while preparing their two Sinatra programs for Hart Ryan Productions, shown by ITVMeridian Broadcasting in the UK in 2000. John J. Binder, author of The Chicago Outfit, provided us with photographs from his extensive collection. Alf Batchelder sent us material on Sinatra’s visits to Australia. Sylvia Schmitt gave us welcome help in Palm Springs.
Librarians, essential to all biographers, too often remain faceless. We thank especially the energetic staff of the Margaret Herrick Library at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, David Schwartz and Joyce Marshall at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas, James Hastings and Fred Romanski of the Textual Reference Branch at the National Archives, Sharon Kelly at the John F. Kennedy Library, Tim Noakes at the Department of Special Collections at Stanford, the Palm Springs Historical Society, and Frank Prain, library manager at the MelbourneAge, in Melbourne, Australia. Jim Lesar, our attorney for Freedom of Information Act requests, again moved the immovable. The talented team at Paladin InVision, in London, fought and won the effort to make a major TV documentary arising from our work, at a time when funding is excruciatingly hard to raise. It should air on A&E, the BBC, and other networks, coincidental with publication of this book.
We thank our agents, Sterling Lord and his assistant Robert Guinsler in New York, and Jonathan Lloyd, who heads Curtis Brown in London. Also in London, Patrick Janson-Smith and Marianne Velmans, and the team at Transworld, gave us new heart when they came on board. We have enormous admiration for the Knopf team who wrestled the book to publication, publicity director Paul Bogaards, Victoria Gerken, and Lydia Buechler.
Four good friends, especially, helped. The hospitality of Henry Ehrlich and Tamara Glenny in New York, and Robert Dorff and Padrick Peper in Los Angeles, made it possible to avoid some devastating hotel expenses. In Iowa, for the third time, Sondra Feldstein applied her scholarly mind to reading and annotating some of the more than five hundred books consulted. Here in Ireland, no fewer than fifteen people contributed one way or the other. Murphy Media, in Waterford, performed wonders with photographs. Pauline Lombard, Ciara Guiry, and Sally and Sam Brittain kept order in a system of 1,500 files, tapes, and a monster chronology. Jeanette Woods and Angela Daly logged taped interviews, and Ger Killalea kept the machines going. James Ronayne once again drove thousands of miles for us, and Jenny Barlow and Ann Dalton managed our brood of children.
Our personal assistants, first Michele Sheehan and then Sinéad Sweeney, were key to the project. Sinéad brought to the job her keen intelligence and commitment, and we owe her special thanks.
Our love and gratitude to our neglected children, who when they grow up will know better than to be nonfiction authors. On the other hand, they may have noticed that—however challenging the work—we think ourselves lucky in our chosen profession.
Anthony Summers and Robbyn Swan
Ireland, 2005
Anthony Summers and Robbyn Swan
SINATRA
Anthony Summers, a former BBC journalist, is the author of six bestselling books, including The File on the Tsar, on the fate of the Romanovs; Not in Your Lifetime, on the assassination of President Kennedy; Official and Confidential, on J. Edgar Hoover; and The Arrogance of Power, on Richard Nixon. He won the Golden Dagger, the Crime Writers’ Association’s top nonfiction award, for Not in Your Lifetime. Robbyn Swan worked with Summers on the Hoover and Nixon biographies, and both authors have contributed to Vanity Fair and PBS’s Frontline. They are married, have five children between them, and live in Ireland.
ALSO BY ANTHONY SUMMERS
The Arrogance of Power: The Secret World of Richard Nixon
(with Robbyn Swan)
Not in Your Lifetime: The Definitive Book on the JFK Assassination
Official and Confidential: The Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover
Honeytrap: The Secret Worlds of Stephen Ward
(with Stephen Dorril)
Goddess: The Secret Lives of Marilyn Monroe
The File on the Tsar
(with Tom Mangold)
FIRST VINTAGE BOOKS EDITION, JUNE 2006
Copyright © 2005, 2006 by Anthony Summers and Robbyn Swan
Vintage and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
Owing to limitations of space, permission to reprint previously published material can be found following the Photographic Credits.
The Library of Congress has cataloged the Knopf edition as follows:
Summers, Anthony.
Sinatra: the life / Anthony Summers, with Robbyn Swan.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Sinatra, Frank, 1915–1998. 2. Singers—United States—Biography.
I. Swan Robbyn. II. Title.
ML420.S565S86 2005
782.42164’092—dc22
2005040922
www.vintagebooks.com
www.randomhouse.com
eISBN: 978-0-307-42776-2
v3.0
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