by James Kaplan
29 “A funny thing happened”: Leonard Lyons, The Lyons Den, syndicated column, Dec. 3, 1952.
30 “Is he good”: Hy Gardner, It Happened Last Night, syndicated column, Dec. 8, 1952.
31 “It’s pretty lonesome”: Hy Gardner, It Happened Last Night, syndicated column, Dec. 4, 1952.
32 “It’s all right”: Server, Ava Gardner, p. 257.
33 “Ava couldn’t be alone”: Ibid., p. 258.
34 “he has a prior”: Hy Gardner, It Happened Last Night, Dec. 8, 1952.
35 “was given a birthday cake”: Zanesville (Ohio) Times Recorder, Dec. 16, 1952.
36 “Frank came back”: Gardner, Ava, p. 209.
37 “Then came the death wait”: Kelley, His Way, p. 191.
38 “Fred Zinnemann … has gone”: Hedda Hopper’s Hollywood, syndicated column, Dec. 3, 1952.
39 “Frank’s still in there”: Hedda Hopper’s Hollywood, syndicated column, Dec. 10, 1952.
40 “When Frank Sinatra”: Wilson, Sinatra, p. 108.
CHAPTER 33
1. Though for the average American family in 1953, $1,000 was over two months’ income.
2. In the novel, Woltz’s racist rant is subtly different and less florid, to wit: “I don’t care how many guinea Mafia goombahs come out of the woodwork.” (Period, not exclamation point.) Strikingly, the word “Mafia” never occurs once in the movie of The Godfather, due to an agreement struck between the producer Al Ruddy and the crime-family chief Joe Colombo, the figurehead of the Italian-American Civil Rights League.
3. Appearing on Texaco Star Theater on February 3, Sinatra showed a horrified Uncle Miltie a shrunken head he had brought back from Africa. “It was Clark Gable,” Frank said. “Do you think I would leave him there with Ava?” (Server, Ava Gardner, p. 406).
4. Including the May 1952 miscarriage.
5. Ironically, in his turn as Nathan Detroit in the 1955 Guys and Dolls, Frank would find himself in a sense imitating himself imitating Maggio imitating Runyon’s original 1930s characters.
SOURCE NOTES
6 “He was delighted”: Summers and Swan, Sinatra, p. 170.
7 “Frank Sinatra, needing”: Earl Wilson on Broadway, syndicated column, Jan. 23, 1953.
8 “I wanted to tell”: Wilson, Sinatra, p. 110.
9 “Pearl, they’ve offered”: Levinson, September in the Rain, p. 111.
10 “Cohn hated Sinatra”: Rappleye and Becker, All American Mafioso, p. 132.
11 “Now listen to me”: The Godfather (Paramount Pictures, 1972).
12 “Frank Sinatra and Harry Cohn”: Thomas, King Cohn, p. 305.
13 “It was the first time”: Ibid., p. 306.
14 “He doesn’t look”: Kelley, His Way, p. 210.
15 “Frank Sinatra has been”: International News Service, Feb. 3, 1953.
16 “Talked to Frank Sinatra”: International News Service, Feb. 4, 1953.
17 “Chums say Frankie”: Dorothy Kilgallen, The Voice of Broadway, syndicated column, Feb. 20, 1953.
18 “I didn’t think”: Gardner, Ava, p. 210.
19 “He never got over it”: Server, Ava Gardner, p. 260.
20 “MONTGOMERY CLIFT”: Kelley, His Way, p. 215.
21 “DEAR HARRY”: Ibid.
22 “a kind of intensity”: James Jones, From Here to Eternity, p. 776.
23 “Because I want”: Bosworth, Montgomery Clift, p. 247.
24 “His scenes bristled”: Ibid., p. 130.
25 “Good dialogue”: Kelley, His Way, p. 217.
26 “We had a mutual”: Santopietro, Sinatra in Hollywood, p. 137.
27 “Monty really coached”: Kelley, His Way, p. 217.
28 “By his intensity”: Zinnemann, Life in the Movies, p. 122.
29 “As a singer”: Santopietro, Sinatra in Hollywood, p. 137.
30 “Sinatra here took”: Santopietro, Sinatra in Hollywood, p. 137.
31 “This outfit”: From Here to Eternity (MGM, 1953).
32 “He was scared”: Ernest Borgnine, in discussion with the author, Feb. 2009.
33 “The three of them”: Bosworth, Montgomery Clift, p. 252.
34 “got so used to carrying”: Buford, Burt Lancaster, p. 129.
35 “After we filmed”: Ernest Borgnine, in discussion with the author, Dec. 2009.
36 “box office insurance”: Wood Soanes, syndicated column, March 27, 1953.
37 “a smash success”: Ibid.
38 “We concocted a little”: Frank Morriss, syndicated column, March 26, 1953.
39 “Crooner Frank Sinatra”: International News Service, April 7, 1953.
40 “I told him”: Kelley, His Way, p. 216.
41 “Isn’t Frank Sinatra”: Earl Wilson, syndicated column, March 2, 1953.
CHAPTER 34
1. Not to be confused with Lucy’s El Adobe Café, which opened just a few doors away on Melrose, years after the original Lucey’s closed.
2. A decade later, Dexter would go on to another form of infamy when, as head of the label’s Capitol of the World division, he turned down the Beatles—twice—as Capitol artists.
SOURCE NOTES
3 “Alan, we’ve just”: Friedwald, Sinatra! p. 206.
4 “Really?”: Havers, Sinatra, p. 171.
5 “He was meek”: Friedwald, Sinatra!, p. 207.
6 “Frank Sinatra was signed”: Associated Press, March 14, 1953.
7 “We had every salesman”: Friedwald, Sinatra! p. 207.
8 “All hair restorers”: Newspaper Enterprise Association, March 16, 1953.
9 “Salient factors”: Harold Heffernan, syndicated column, April 2, 1953.
10 “It was late”: Havers, Sinatra, p. 174.
11 “Could they have been”: Hedda Hopper, syndicated column, April 2, 1953.
12 “Sinatra appears”: Hal Humphrey, syndicated column, April 15, 1953.
13 “The singer said”: Associated Press, April 15, 1953.
14 “Deborah Kerr and me”: Nancy Sinatra, American Legend, p. 109.
15 “Sinatra was at his best”: Zinnemann, Life in the Movies, p. 124.
16 “Frank was very”: Wagner, Pieces of My Heart, p. 123.
17 “Every night, after work”: Nancy Sinatra, My Father, p. 97.
18 “Frank Sinatra, who tossed”: Dorothy Kilgallen, The Voice of Hollywood, syndicated column, April 24, 1953.
19 “He was very, very good”: Zinnemann, Life in the Movies, p. 130.
20 “Frank and Monty”: Kelley, His Way, p. 218.
21 “His fervor, his anger”: Nancy Sinatra, American Legend, p. 112.
22 “I was on the sidelines”: Kelley, His Way, p. 218.
23 “Sinatra delivered”: Zinnemann, Life in the Movies, p. 130.
24 “I can’t blame him”: Ibid. 616 “got the string”: Lyrics from “I’ve Got the World on a String,” words by Ted Koehler, music by Harold Arlen (1932).
25 “Who wrote that”: Levinson, September in the Rain, p. 113.
26 “He couldn’t help”: Ibid., p. 24.
27 “Riddle was still”: Friedwald, Sinatra! p. 216.
28 “Now we have”: Ibid., p. 217.
29 “ ‘South of the Border’—I thought”: Havers, Sinatra, p. 176.
30 “Jesus Christ”: Levinson, September in the Rain, p. 113.
CHAPTER 35
1. The previous December, while she and the children were away, she’d received a visit of another kind: from a burglar, who took some $30,000 worth of her jewelry.
2. Though some people were listening. “What are they talking about in Hollywood?” wrote Bob Thomas of the Associated Press, on July 18. “The amazing comeback of Frank Sinatra on his new records. He sings zingy like the old Frankie-boy.”
3. One wonders if he was thinking, consciously or unconsciously, about the magic Sinatra had once worked at the Capitol with Miss Grant Takes Richmond.
SOURCE NOTES
4 “Sinatra was at his”: Friedwald, Sinatra! p. 218.
5 “Nelson was standing”:
Ibid.
6 “Crooner Frank Sinatra”: Associated Press, May 4, 1953.
7 “Nancy Sinatra’s steadfast date”: Walter Winchell, syndicated column, Nov. 4, 1953.
8 “There was no way”: Jacobs and Stadiem, Mr. S, p. 50.
9 “I’d rather swim the Channel”: Kelley, His Way, p. 222.
10 “Sinatra has been a flop”: Havers, Sinatra, p. 177.
11 “Agence France Presse”: International News Service, May 31, 1953.
12 “FRANK SINATRA HAS COLLAPSE”: United Press, June 1, 1953.
13 “We came back”: Gardner, Ava, p. 336.
14 “Sinatra is still”: Shaw, Twentieth-Century Romantic, p. 176.
15 “Imagine”: Friedrich, City of Nets, p. 90.
16 “Cohn had decided”: Zinnemann, Life in the Movies, p. 131.
17 “came up from the lobby”: Wilson, Sinatra, p. 111.
18 “Dialogue between Ava”: Frank Morriss, syndicated column, Aug. 12, 1953.
19 “Looking through my”: Jimmie Fidler, syndicated column, Aug. 19, 1953.
20 “For the first time”: Shaw, Twentieth-Century Romantic, p. 177.
21 “ACADEMY AWARD RACE”: Lubbock (Tex.) Avalanche-Journal, Aug. 30, 1953.
22 “Frank Sinatra has been receiving”: Jimmie Fidler, syndicated column, Aug. 31, 1953.
23 “Those dark cheaters”: Lee Mortimer, syndicated column, Aug. 31, 1953.
24 “Ava, honey, you do know”: Gardner, Ava, p. 336.
25 “A close friend”: United Press, Sept. 9, 1953.
26 “FRANKIE AND AVA FEUDING”: United Press, Sept. 10, 1953.
27 “I saw a picture”: Kelley, His Way, p. 224.
28 “You start with love”: Ibid.
29 “Every big star”: Earl Wilson, syndicated column, Sept. 11, 1953.
30 “Electrifying”: Fisher, Eddie, p. 226.
31 “Frank let loose”: Havers, Sinatra, p. 182.
32 “Frank Sinatra’s intimates”: Dorothy Kilgallen, syndicated column, Sept. 16, 1953.
33 “As a Cupid”: Earl Wilson, syndicated column, Sept. 12, 1953.
34 “She kissed me”: Kelley, His Way, p. 224.
35 “The Voice unleashed a torrent”: Server, Ava Gardner, p. 226.
CHAPTER 36
1. Humphrey Bogart had given Lazar the slightly needling nickname—which the agent hated—as a double-edged tribute to the rapidity with which Lazar executed his not always strictly kosher deals.
2. The apartments have long since been razed.
3. Although apparently the switch had been effected with the tacit cooperation of Lazar, the ultimate cynic when Sinatra was down and the ultimate sycophant when he rose again.
4. Perhaps thinking or saying some variation of the Nevada senator Pat Geary’s speech to Michael Corleone in The Godfather, Part II: “I don’t like your kind of people. I don’t like to see you come out to this clean country in your oily hair, dressed up in those silk suits, and try to pass yourselves off as decent Americans.”
SOURCE NOTES
5 “Isn’t it a little late”: Kelley, His Way, p. 225.
6 “When he was down”: Shaw, Twentieth-Century Romantic, p. 175.
7 “Almost since their marriage”: Dorothy Kilgallen, syndicated column, Sept. 30, 1953.
8 “devastating”: Dorothy Kilgallen, syndicated column, Oct. 1, 1953.
9 “Together again”: Associated Press, Oct. 2, 1953.
10 “Don’t believe a word”: Server, Ava Gardner, p. 267.
11 “They’re together”: Shaw, Twentieth-Century Romantic, p. 178.
12 “If Frankie goes”: Harrison Carroll, syndicated column, Oct. 12, 1953.
13 “Two intimates of Frank Sinatra”: Jimmie Fidler, syndicated column, Oct. 6, 1953.
14 “a footloose and fancy-free”: Dunning, Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio, p. 582.
15 “Hi, I don’t know”: Havers, Sinatra, p. 183.
16 “He was always”: Jacobs and Stadiem, Mr. S, p. 90.
17 “For Chrissakes”: Ibid., p. 53.
18 “Politics has nothing”: Bosworth, Marlon Brando, p. 141.
19 “Frank Sinatra would”: Ibid., p. 153.
20 “Frank Sinatra’s now practically”: Earl Wilson, syndicated column, Sept. 30, 1953.
21 “Frank Sinatra has decided”: Louella Parsons, syndicated column, Oct. 10, 1953.
22 “In what would become”: Jacobs and Stadiem, Mr. S, p. 90.
23 “I slept in the same room”: George Jacobs, in discussion with the author, March 2009.
24 “He’s a dead man”: Jacobs and Stadiem, Mr. S, p. 21.
25 “head down, all alone”: Ibid., p. 36.
26 “When I opened”: Ibid., p. 46.
27 “who didn’t seem ex”: Ibid., p. 48.
28 “rococo New Jersey style”: Ibid.
29 “The correct way”: Ibid.
30 “There’s nothing like”: Associated Press, Oct. 12, 1953.
31 “Everything is fine”: Louella Parsons, syndicated column, Oct. 20, 1953.
32 “I can’t eat”: Kelley, His Way, p. 225.
33 “Hollywood’s still betting”: Erskine Johnson, syndicated column, Oct. 21, 1953.
34 “Ava Gardner and Frank Sinatra”: Kelley, His Way, p. 226.
35 “When Sinatra is in Las Vegas”: Pignone, Sinatra Treasures, p. 104.
36 “The object was”: Kelley, His Way, p. 241.
37 “Frank! Is your marriage”: Ibid., p. 227.
38 “There is positively”: Shaw, Twentieth-Century Romantic, p. 180.
CHAPTER 37
SOURCE NOTES
1 “I was a stranger”: Lyrics from “Foggy Day,” words by Ira Gershwin, music by George Gershwin (New York: Gershwin, 1937).
2 “If I wasn’t conducting”: Kelley, His Way, p. 232.
3 “Ava taught him”: Hamill, Why Sinatra Matters, p. 177.
4 “I AM DESPERATELY”: Server, Ava Gardner, p. 270.
5 “Yeah, he’s here”: Ibid., p. 272.
6 “Eventually they got”: Ibid.
7 “Ten years ago”: International News Service, Nov. 9, 1953.
8 “Melissa Weston Bigelow”: Dorothy Kilgallen, syndicated column, Nov. 13, 1953.
9 “Well, that washes”: Hal Humphrey, syndicated column, Nov. 11, 1953.
10 “You would not pick”: James Kaplan, “The King of Ring-a-Ding-Ding,” Movies Rock (a supplemental publication of Vanity Fair), Dec. 2007.
11 “Sinatra’s father says”: Walter Winchell, syndicated column, Nov. 24, 1953.
12 “I would rather write”: Kaplan, “King of Ring-a-Ding-Ding.”
13 “When Frank ate”: Kelley, His Way, p. 229.
14 “RUMOR MILL IS MUM”: Wire service report, Nov. 21, 1953, transcribed from Huntington (Pa.) Daily News, Nov. 23, 1953.
15 “I was happier”: Jordan, “Living with Miss G.”
16 “F. Sinatra will spend”: In New York with Walter Winchell, syndicated column, Nov. 19, 1953.
17 “Ava Gardner on Thanksgiving”: Dorothy Manners, syndicated column, Nov. 26, 1953.
18 “You know, Harold”: The Golden Years of Classic Television: The Colgate Comedy Hour, Vol. 1 (Miracle Picture, 2005), DVD.
19 “ev’ry time your lips”: Lyrics from “That Old Black Magic,” words by Johnny Mercer, music by Harold Arlen (New York: Famous Music, 1942).
20 “SINATRA ADMITS HURTING WRIST”: Lubbock (Tex.) Morning Avalanche, Dec. 10, 1953.
21 “I think it’s a good song”: Nancy Sinatra, American Legend, p. 114.
22 “Fairy tales”: Lyrics from “Young at Heart,” words by Carolyn Leigh, music by Johnny Richards (New York: Sunbeam Music, 1954).
23 “I could have told you”: Lyrics from “I Could Have Told You So,” words by Carl Sigman, music by James Van Heusen (New York: Music Sales, 1953).
CHAPTER 38
SOURCE NOTES
1 “The breakup of the sultry”: Holland (Mich.) Evening Sentinel, Nov. 11, 1953.
> 2 “F. Sinatra is taking”: Edith Gwynn, syndicated column, Dec. 1, 1953.
3 “Of all Greenson’s”: Spoto, Marilyn Monroe, p. 427.
4 “Special Problems in Psychotherapy”: Ibid., p. 426.
5 “It wouldn’t surprise me”: Louella Parsons, syndicated column, Dec. 16, 1953.
6 “I’ll be so happy”: United Press, Dec. 23, 1953.
7 “I’m going to spend”: Ibid.
8 “She was not a little”: Server, Ava Gardner, p. 283.
9 “AVA GARDNER”: Newport (R.I.) Daily News, Dec. 30, 1953.
10 “trying to work”: Shaw, Twentieth-Century Romantic, p. 182.
CHAPTER 39
1. Who, to complete the slightly absurd polygon, would marry Walter Chiari’s former fiancée, Lucia Bosé, later that year.
SOURCE NOTES
2 “You may have heard”: Earl Wilson, syndicated column, transcribed from Zanesville (Ohio) Times Recorder, Jan. 23, 1954.
3 “in a chilly studio”: Wilson, Sinatra, p. 115.
4 “He literally moved”: Kelley, His Way, p. 233.
5 “I come home”: Ibid., p. 235.
6 “Nancy Sinatra’s pals”: Erskine Johnson, syndicated column, Jan. 24, 1954.
7 “You’re the sittin’-est”: Gardner, Ava, p. 221.
8 “I like a little”: Server, Ava Gardner, p. 284.
9 “On the morning”: Ibid. 693 “I saw Frankie”: Louella Parsons, syndicated column, Jan. 30, 1954.
10 “craved class”: Jacobs and Stadiem, Mr. S, p. 50.
11 “Sinatra was like”: Ibid., p. 40.
12 “I stayed a night”: Bacall, By Myself and Then Some, p. 241.
13 “I had to perform”: Gardner, Ava, p. 348.
14 “When we got there”: Sciacca, Sinatra, p. 171.
15 “Frank Sinatra—who’s collecting”: Earl Wilson, syndicated column, Feb. 8, 1954.
16 “There’s a tug-of-war”: Earl Wilson, syndicated column, Feb. 12, 1954.
17 “QUADRANGLE”: New York Daily News wire report, Feb. 16, 1954.