Rat Pack Confidential

by Shawn Levy

  But Frank was so angry at having to give Capitol one more moneymaker that he virtually had to be talked into the dates by his lawyers. And when he was there his demeanor was poisonous. After greeting the orchestra collegially, he raced through the sessions, not even stopping to make sure the recordings would be usable on an album. “We were doing one take on everything, and that’s the way it went,” said trombonist Milt Bernhart. “After an hour he was through with six numbers, and he said goodbye and was out the door—and he did that two nights in a row. We got no more than one or, tops, two takes on everything. On several, [producer Dave] Cavanaugh came out of the booth and said, ‘Frank, we had a little trouble with the bass on that last take,’ but by that time Frank had torn up the sheet. ‘I’m sorry,’ was the way he put it. ‘Next number.’ You had to be there to see it.”

  The album turned out beautifully, actually, with the lush, mournful ballads of Frank’s youth revisited in the deeper, more rueful tones of his mature voice. In fact, all four of the albums he whipped off for Capitol after the advent of Reprise—Nice ‘n’ Easy, Sinatra’s Swingin’ Session!, Come Swing with Me, and Point of No Return—would have to be rated highly among his career’s work. The fact was that while he was in the midst of all the commotion he’d orchestrated around himself—the hustle, the furor, the pettiness, the glory—he was in such good voice and had such marvelous commercial and artistic instincts that he could almost, as a singer, do no wrong.

  He was one talented son of a bitch.

  I feel dirty

  Adele Beatty

  Alora Gooding

  Altovise Gore

  Amy Rea Andre

  Boyer Angie Dickinson

  Anita Ekberg

  Ann Sheridan

  Ava Gardner

  Barbara Marx

  Betty Furness

  Betty McDonald

  Candy Toxton

  Carol Lynley

  Catherine Mae Hawn

  Celeste Holm

  Claire Kelly

  Dani Crayne

  Debbie Reynolds

  “Like the food at a party, flashy girls come in a variety of shades and sizes, but it’s always the same variety. They are presented as ‘actresses,’ that’s the standard line whether they are starlets or hookers. In New York, the term is model.”—Judith Campbell Exner

  “The women, who didn’t seem to mind being referred to as ‘broads,’ sat up straight with their legs crossed and little expectant smiles on their carefully made-up faces. They sipped white wine, smoked, and eyed the men, laughing at every joke.… A long time would pass before any of the women dared to speak, then under the main male conversation they talked about their cats, or where they bought their clothes; but more than half an ear was always with the men, just in case. As hours passed, the women, neglected in their chairs, drooped; no longer listening, no longer laughing.”—Mia Farrow

  “Could they see women as real beings with needs and intelligence? Did they ever communicate on a fulfilling level? I was secretly grateful that I didn’t really see them as potential lovers. Had anything like that developed, I would have been in real trouble.”—Shirley MacLaine

  “It seemed to me that the married men were worse than the single ones. They were always looking, always hunting. You’d see them at parties with different girls and every once in a while you’d see them at a party with their wives. As far as I was concerned, I had made up my mind that if I got married again, I’d have to accept the fact that my husband would cheat.”—Judith Campbell Exner

  Deborah Gould

  Diana Trask

  Dorothy Dandridge

  Dorothy Provine

  Edie Goetz

  Elizabeth Taylor

  Evie Lynn Abbot

  Eva Gabor

  Gail Renshaw

  Geri Crane

  Gina Lollobrigida

  Gloria Vanderbilt

  Gregg Sherwood

  Hope Lange

  Ira von Fustenburg

  Irene Tsu

  Irma DiBendetto

  “What is it Sammy’s got that the girls go for? Ask that sexy redhead from Phenix City Story—or read it here!”—Confidential Magazine

  “WHAT MAKES AVA GARDNER RUN FOR SAMMY DAVIS JR.? Some girls go for gold, but it’s bronze that ‘sends’ sultry Ava.”—Confidential Magazine

  “I’ve never had a day-to-day relationship with a woman, to the extent that I’ve never even spent a whole night in bed with a woman. Never. When it was time to sleep either they’d go home or I’d fall asleep on the couch or the floor. I haven’t slept in bed with anyone since I was a kid.”—Sammy to May

  “There was some sex going on, switching partners, group sex, it was there to be had if you wanted it, any kind, any way. It was free-form, and when living got too depressing, hanging out with a group like that got your mind off it, for that moment at least it fogged your brain and you didn’t feel so bad.… Sex wasn’t the point, though. You didn’t want to be alone. Two or three people would get into bed with you and you’d fall asleep. You had physical companionship, that’s what you needed, a quiet, friendly body lying next to you, and you’d sleep.”—Sammy

  Jacqueline Park

  Janet Margolin

  Jean MacDonald

  Jean Seberg

  Jeanne Carmen

  Jeannie Biegger

  Jill Corey

  Jill St.

  John Jo Ann Tolley

  Joan Arnold

  Joan Blackman

  Joan Cohn Harvey

  Joan Crawford

  Joi Lansing

  Joni Anderson

  Judy Campbell

  “On December 17, 1946, [he] had contacted [a] well-known call-house madam in an effort to talk to one [of her] call house girls. [She] was not in at the time and Lawford requested that she call him back at the Mocambo Night Club. On another occasion, information was developed that a call house girl … was ‘reportedly a frequent trick for movie actor Peter Lawford.’ Another Los Angeles prostitute reportedly ‘bragged’ that she knew the movie star, Peter Lawford, and on several occasions (our informant) had overheard her attempting to reach Lawford by phone.”—FBI report

  “He was into oral sex. He could and did do the other, but he preferred oral sex. That’s what the Cepacol was for, because most girls of my generation thought oral sex was dirty. I flatly refused to do it when we were together. That’s what ended our physical relationship.”—a Santa Monica beach friend of Peter’s

  “Peter was the whore’s delight. Every time we traveled, every place we went, there were all these hookers. It was cheaper for him to do that. You have to wine and dine girls. Peter never wanted to get involved. It was easier to have call girls than to try and romance somebody.”—Milt Ebbins

  “Sammy had found this beautiful little model, a white girl. He fell in love with her, and they were living together while they were filming Salt and Pepper. Peter stole her away. Sammy came to me and said, ‘That fucker, I’ll never talk to him again.’ I asked Peter, ‘What did you do?’ And Peter replied nonchalantly, ‘I stole his girl.’”—Milt Ebbins

  “If Peter didn’t want to get laid, he’d get a girl to suck his cock. Every night of his life. That doesn’t sound like a homosexual to me. I’d be with a girl, and the next thing I knew she’d be with him.”—surfing buddy Joe Naar

  Judy Garland

  Judy Holliday

  Judy Meredith

  Juliet Prowse

  June Allyson

  Kathy McKee

  Keenan Wynn

  Kim Novak

  Lana Turner

  Lauren Bacall

  Layte Bowden

  Lee Remick

  Lisa Ferraday

  Lois Nettleton

  “Dino used to fuck every human he could.”—a Steubenville friend

  “He was a bastard: all wine and candlelight, then a pat on the ass in the morning.”—a conquest of Dean’s

  “Dean was too beautiful, too handsome. The women, I mean. One had t
o accept that.”—Jeanne Martin

  “The two of us walked into Sammy’s dressing room, Frank Sinatra was there. Sammy had to leave for a few minutes, and when we were alone, Sinatra told me Dean Martin was due at any moment. He suggested that, as a gag, I should strip down to my underwear to greet him. I was hesitant at first, but I thought I was being put to a test to see if I could play in the big leagues. So I slipped out of my black-and-white polka-dot jumpsuit and greeted Dean Martin wearing my black bra, matching bikini panties, and white go-go boots. ‘Wonderful, charming,’ said Martin, who told me to get dressed again, ‘because Frank is an asshole.’”—a conquest of Sammy’s

  “The most beautiful broads went crazy for Dean.”—Jerry Lewis

  “He was a good sex man, but his big interest was golf.”—Herman Hover, proprietor of Ciro’s, on Dean

  Loray White

  Marie Roemer

  Marilyn Maxwell

  Marilyn Monroe

  Marion Dixon

  Marlene Dietrich

  Martha Hyer

  Mary Lou Watts

  Mary Rowan

  May Britt

  Meg Myles

  Melissa Weston

  Mia Farrow

  Miriam LaVelle

  Molly Dunne

  “Frank is just plain broad nuts. He can no more not look at a dame than he could stop singing.… It’s pathetic in a way. Once I heard him talking about a girl he’d been out with the night before. She wasn’t much better than a hooker. The way he talked about her, you’d have thought she was the greatest broad in Hollywood. He was like a kid. He said, as though he couldn’t begin to understand it, ‘You know, I think that girl really did like me.’ How do you figure it? Here he’s had broads after him by the thousands all these years and he doesn’t even know what they see in him.”—a friend

  “Everyone made more money when Frank played the Strip, especially cab drivers and hookers. Frank loved hookers and used them a great deal. He preferred them because he didn’t have to deal with them emotionally. And he always paid them well.”—Mrs. Jack Entratter

  “He’s a little twisted sexually. There are a lot of odds and ends in his sex life. He loved call girls for orgies and he liked to see women in bed for kicks, but not all the time.”—a conquest of Frank’s

  “The girls were no more than toys to him. Some mornings I’d get to the house and find four or five of them in the bed at the same time, and all colors of girls, too, let me tell you.”—Frank’s Palm Springs houseboy

  “He liked to make love lying on the floor listening to his own records. It was great!”—a conquest of Frank’s

  “He was real good to his girls. He gave them all parts in his movies.”—Frank’s longtime makeup man, Beans Ponedel

  “Before bed, he would be so charming. The girl was ‘mademoiselle this,’ ‘darling that,’ and ‘my sweet baby.’ He was [a] cavalier, a perfect gentleman. You never saw anything like this man in your life. He’d jump across the room to light a cigarette. He’d fill her glass with champagne every time she took a sip.… It was the next day that we’d always find the other Frank, the one who wouldn’t speak to the girl, who had been the most beautiful woman in the world the night before. Sometimes he wouldn’t even go near her, nor would he tolerate any affectionate overtures from her. Humped and dumped. The minute the conquest was achieved, kaput. The girl could pack her bags. I saw so many of them leave his house in tears.”—Jimmy Van Heusen

  “There were a lot of women who fell in love with Frank but he’d reject them and throw them over. There’s a monster in him who wants to screw the world before it screws him—hurt people before they hurt him. Then he feels guilty about being so ugly and that guilt makes him a Mr. Nice Guy and so he does favors for some of the girls he’s used or rejected.”—a conquest of Frank’s

  “I kept coming back to Frank because there is something compellingly attractive about him that draws you like a magnet. I think that’s why so many stick to him even when he grinds his heel into their very soul.”—Judith Campbell Exner

  “I feel dirty. I’m going to take a shower.”—Frank, after being smothered with kisses by a female fan

  Mona Freeman

  Nan Whitney

  Nancy Barbato

  Nancy Gunderson

  Nancy Reagan

  Nancy Seidman

  Natalie Wood

  Pamela Hayward

  Patricia Kennedy

  Patricia Seaton

  Peggy Connelly

  Peggy Crosby

  Phyllis Elizabeth Davis

  Phyllis McGuire

  Rhonda Fleming

  Rita Hayworth

  “I am very much surprised what I have been reading in the newspapers between you and your darling wife. Remember you have a decent wife and children. You should be very happy.”—telegram to Frank from New Jersey don Willie Moretti regarding press accounts of the Ava Gardner romance

  “You fucking no good bastard, you were going to get married and not even tell me, weren’t you?”

  “You know I can’t tell you because you always give me hell, Mama.”—Frank and Dolly

  “Ava, why don’t you tell the governor what you see in this 120 pound runt you’re married to.”

  “Well, there’s only 10 pounds of Frank, but there’s 110 pounds of cock.”—John Ford and his star on the set of Mogambo

  “He always told me one of the things that fascinated him about Ava was that there was no conquest. He couldn’t conquer her. That is where the respect comes. He never got her.”—Sheckey Greene

  “Frankie is enchanting as usual and, as usual, he has a ‘broad’ installed with whom he, as well as everyone else, is bored stiff. She is blond, cute and determined, but I fear her determination will avail her very little with Betty Bacall on the warpath.”—1/1/56 diary entry of Noel Coward

  “Some of the wives of his friends were strangely possessive toward him and not crazy about me.”—Lauren Bacall

  “Frank really dropped the curtain on me. A chilling experience. I still don’t know how he did it, but he could behave as though you weren’t there.”—Lauren Bacall

  “It is a known fact that the Sands Hotel is owned by hoodlums, and that while the Senator, Sinatra and Lawford were there, show girls from all over the town were running in and out of the Senator’s suite.”—Justice Department document

  “Teddy says it’s all Frank Sinatra’s fault and he is nothing but a procurer of women for these guys. Sinatra is the guy that gets them all together. Meyer says it’s not Sinatra’s fault and it starts with the president and goes right down the line.”—Meyer Lansky and his wife, Teddy, discussing the sex lives of the Kennedys, as reported by an FBI surveillance agent

  “I pictured myself in Las Vegas sitting with the hookers as I had so many times before. It is 4 a.m. Frank and the other men are telling jokes and laughing loudly. A jaded piano plays the cocktail songs. The women are apart, we are wearing our best dresses, our faces are fixed right. We chat about cats, and we wait.”—Mia Farrow

  “If I had as many love affairs as you’ve given me credit for, I’d now be speaking to you from a jar in Harvard Medical School.”—Frank to an audience of Hollywood press agents

  Rita Maritt

  Robin Raymond

  Romy Schneider

  Ronnie Cowan

  Sal Mineo

  Sandra Giles

  Scottie Singer

  Sharman Douglas

  Shirley MacLaine

  Shirley Van Dyke

  Sophia Loren

  Sylvia Ruzga

  Toni Anderson

  Toni Delia Penta

  Vanessa Brown

  Victoria Principal

  Zorita

  And a cast of thousands …

  I’m a whore for my music

  It would be late, Frank would be holding court.

  Maybe they had played a show earlier in the evening, and it was getting on 3:00 or 4:00 a.m., and they were in a roped-off area of a casino or a
hotel or in a back room of a saloon or the most private area of a nightclub.

  Maybe they had eaten dinner at his house—Italian food cooked by Frank and served on tiptoes by George Jacobs, or takeout from some showbiz clubhouse like Chasen’s or Puccini.

  It could be someplace on the regular route—Beverly Hills or Palm Springs or Las Vegas or Miami or New York or Chicago—or someplace on the road like London, Paris, New Orleans, San Francisco. Frank Sinatra was a movable feast, after all, and very au courant. “Frank knew piano bars that no one else knew,” Shirley MacLaine remembered.

  But wherever, exactly, it would be late: 3:00, 4:00 a.m.

  Frank would be telling stories and needling people, teasing the women with a hint of sexual tension or the men about their clothes or their hair or their lineage, whatever.

  Around him would be a group. On a good night, it would include Dean, Peter, Sammy. It would include a couple of big guys, invariably: Hank Sanicola, Jilly Rizzo, Andy Celentano, Mack Gray, and worse and more sinister. It would include showbiz buds like Don Rickles, Tony Curtis, Eddie Fisher, Buddy Lester, Richard Conte. Broads, of course—wives, even. And there’d be these adjuncts, these supernumeraries, swelling the scene with the regularity of a stock company, friends to everybody but nevertheless not quite the real thing themselves: Sammy Cahn, Jimmy Van Heusen, Swifty Lazar, Harry Kurnitz, Mike Romanoff.