Sinatra

by James Kaplan

  “neurotic, depressed”: Ibid., pp. 243–44.

  he lavished two and a half hours: Friedwald, Sinatra!, p. 250.

  CHAPTER 8

  The day before: Shaw, Sinatra, p. 231.

  “became drunk and abusive”: Bogdanovich, Who the Hell’s in It, p. 418.

  “seems to be reaching back”: Friedwald, Sinatra!, pp. 337–38.

  “He threw a huge Christmas party”: Granata, Sessions with Sinatra, p. 106.

  “he rarely socialized”: Ibid.

  “Once in a while he did invite”: Ibid., pp. 106–7.

  “We also were guests”: Leonard Slatkin, in discussion with the author, May 2013.

  “During recording sessions”: Granata, Sessions with Sinatra, pp. 133–34.

  “It’s a temptation”: Ibid., p. 134.

  For all his brilliance: Friedwald, Sinatra!, p. 252.

  “Nelson said to me once”: Ibid.

  “During their first several”: Levinson, September in the Rain, p. 135.

  “Boy, would I see”: Rosemary Riddle Acerra, in discussion with the author, Oct. 2012.

  “when Frank would walk”: Levinson, September in the Rain, p. 135.

  “I think he never”: Friedwald, Sinatra!, ibid.

  “an affable leading man”: Variety, Feb. 18, 1957.

  “the taciturn harboring”: Ibid., p. 54.

  “Dean’s mother and his father”: Jerry Lewis, in discussion with the author, June 1999.

  “If you make believe”: Lewis and Kaplan, Dean and Me, pp. 33–34.

  “Sinatra was enthralled”: Tosches, Dino, p. 267.

  “took it all so fucking seriously”: Ibid., p. 322.

  his increasing commitments: Bob Thomas, syndicated column, Oct. 1, 1957.

  And unlike Frank, Dean: Tosches, Dino, p. 311.

  “When Marlon Brando said”: Transcribed from a private recording.

  Amid much similar hilarity: Harrison Carroll, syndicated column, Aug. 16, 1957.

  When the lowly local paper: Deseret News, Sept. 16, 1957.

  “intimates”: Wire-service report, Sept. 16, 1957.

  “Everybody’s a critic”: Shaw, Sinatra, p. 231.

  “After the screening”: Ibid., p. 235.

  After leaving El Rancho: James Bacon, syndicated column, Dec. 10, 1957.

  “it was a jolt”: Wilson, Sinatra, p. 132.

  In fact, he hadn’t: Shaw, Sinatra, p. 238.

  “I understand that Sinatra”: United Press, Sept. 15, 1957.

  “There was a circusy atmosphere”: Wilson, Sinatra, p. 133.

  “no comment”: Wire-service report, Sept. 16, 1957.

  “I’m not one of those”: Hedda Hopper, syndicated column, Sept. 19, 1957.

  “I had never thought much”: Bacall, By Myself, p. 304.

  “The house had been so quiet”: Ibid., pp. 372–73.

  “If the session was”: Friedwald, Sinatra!, p. 289.

  “Billy May was the most”: Ibid., p. 290.

  “Recording with Billy May”: Granata, Sessions with Sinatra, pp. 134–35.

  “I figured”: Ibid., p. 136.

  “After the success”: Friedwald, Sinatra!, p. 287.

  “Upon learning this”: Ibid., p. 286.

  “When you hired the band”: Granata, Sessions with Sinatra, p. 136.

  In the years since: Lewisohn, Tune In, p. 396.

  “Invited to look on”: Ibid., pp. 396–97.

  “The only Edsel”: Clooney, Girl Singer, pp. 161–62.

  “When Frank started in”: Ibid., p. 161.

  “a drab mixture”: Shaw, Sinatra, p. 144.

  “If I fall on my face”: Havers, Sinatra, p. 230.

  Frank adored the idea: Ibid., pp. 231–32.

  “And that’s when”: Ibid., pp. 232–33.

  “There was a total frenzy”: Ibid., p. 233.

  “A Sinatra album”: Jonathan Schwartz interview, July 11, 2013.

  “Sinatra has bounced back”: “The Frank Sinatra Show, Season 1, Episode 1,” TV.com, www.tv.com/shows/the-frank-sinatra-show/bob-hope-kim-novak-and-peggy-lee-56545.

  “When he was singing”: Ibid.

  “There’s no disputing”: Havers, Sinatra, p. 233.

  “We prefer the Sinatra”: Jack O’Brian, syndicated column, Oct. 19, 1957.

  “What is wrong”: Charles Mercer, syndicated column, Dec. 6, 1957.

  “I couldn’t escape”: Kelley, His Way, p. 252.

  “It fosters almost totally”: Associated Press, Oct. 28, 1957.

  “I admire that man”: Havers, Sinatra, p. 233; Associated Press, Oct. 29, 1957.

  In a piece headlined: Variety, Nov. 6, 1957.

  All kinds of stars: “The Short Happy Ad Career of Ernest Hemingway,” Knopf Notes, www.knopfnotes.com/articles/the-short-happy-ad-career-of-ernest-hemingway [website is no longer active].

  “The ‘live’ Frank Sinatra”: Jack O’Brian, syndicated column, Dec. 2, 1957.

  Variety primly declared: Variety, Dec. 4, 1957.

  “Frank Sinatra hasn’t worked”: Hedda Hopper, syndicated column, Dec. 15, 1957.

  “For starters”: Server, Ava Gardner, p. 348.

  “She was thrown”: Ibid., p. 349.

  CHAPTER 9

  “Today”: New York Times, Jan. 6, 1958.

  “Frank got paid”: Ed Walters, in conversation with the author, Sept. 2013.

  “I would rather be a don”: Summers and Swan, Sinatra, p. 183.

  “By the thirties and forties”: Seymour M. Hersh, Dark Side of Camelot, p. 138.

  “a high, almost girlish voice”: Jacobs and Stadiem, Mr. S, p. 101.

  “I thought he was”: Robert Wagner, in discussion with the author, Nov. 2013.

  “He really was”: Betsy Duncan Hammes, in discussion with the author, June 2011.

  “He could give you”: Summers and Swan, Sinatra, p. 253.

  “He had a look”: Gloria Franks, in discussion with the author, June 2011.

  Frank sang at a charity event: Giancana and Renner, Mafia Princess, p. 86.

  At some point in the mid-1950s: Levy, Rat Pack Confidential, p. 136.

  “He even hired”: Jacobs and Stadiem, Mr. S, p. 100.

  The main topic of discussion: Ibid., pp. 104–5.

  “Gross Casino wins”: United Press, May 8, 1957.

  That $651,284, as it turned out: Levy, Rat Pack Confidential, p. 93.

  “At least part of the reason”: United Press, May 8, 1957.

  “Pieces of the hotel”: Levy, Rat Pack Confidential, p. 86.

  “If mob figures”: Kraft, Vegas at Odds, pp. 17–18.

  “But it wasn’t the facilities”: Rose, Agency, p. 181.

  “Get off my stage”: Lewis and Kaplan, Dean and Me, p. 60.

  “unwavering demand”: Baggelaar, Images of America, p. 88.

  Top-billed talent: Levy, Rat Pack Confidential, p. 84.

  “There wasn’t nothing”: Ibid., p. 88.

  At the end of December: Finstad, Natasha, p. 244.

  “The affection”: Hollywood Roundup, syndicated column, Jan. 5, 1958.

  As late as the ninth: Wire-service report, Jan. 9, 1958.

  Woodfield claimed: Summers and Swan, Sinatra, pp. 239–40.

  He paid for the lost: Havers, Sinatra, p. 239.

  “As a singer, there’s no one”: Shaw, Sinatra, p. 246.

  “As a couple we were”: Bacall, By Myself, p. 377.

  “I recall a wire-service man”: Ibid., p. 379.

  “Sinatra counseled Tony Curtis”: Shaw, Sinatra, p. 238.

  “had a lovely Christmas eve”: Bacall, By Myself, pp. 377–78.

  “Don’t cut the corners”: Kaplan, Frank, p. 643.

  “in the deep freeze”: Louella Parsons, syndicated column, Jan. 23, 1958.

  “almost as though nothing”: Bacall, By Myself, p. 379.

  “wildly attentive”: Ibid., p. 380.

  “thought it a ‘great idea’ ”: Ibid., pp. 380–81.

  based solely on his ability: K
untz and Kuntz, Sinatra Files, p. 113.

  “The Fontainebleau”: Walter Winchell, syndicated column, March 19, 1958.

  In the meantime: Bob Thomas, syndicated column, March 12, 1958.

  “Why don’t you ask him”: Bacall, By Myself, p. 381.

  “I saw enormous black letters”: Ibid., pp. 381–82.

  “We had one person”: Ibid., p. 383.

  “He looked right at me”: Ibid., p. 384.

  In early May: Levinson, September in the Rain, p. 140.

  Ironically, Sinatra initially planned: Friedwald, Sinatra!, p. 246.

  “While the orchestrations”: Granata, Sessions with Sinatra, p. 139.

  “We had so many”: Friedwald, Sinatra!, p. 245.

  “to contemplate the luxury”: Riddle, Arranged by Nelson Riddle, p. 48.

  “I’d be painting”: Nelson Riddle, interview by Jonathan Schwartz, 1982.

  “The Frank Sinatra that”: Only the Lonely liner notes.

  Nat King Cole had thrown down: Ashley Kahn, “ ‘Lush Life,’ a Self-Portrait in Song,” www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7200812.

  “Put it aside”: Private recording of “Lush Life” outtakes.

  “I felt only relief”: Shaw, Sinatra, p. 246.

  CHAPTER 10

  that his marriage plans: Vernon Scott, syndicated column, May 3, 1958.

  that there had been a rift: Harrison Carroll, syndicated column, May 7, 1958.

  that he had had a severe: Shaw, Sinatra, p. 247.

  No one subbed: Wire-service report, March 27, 1958.

  A prominent New York specialist: Wire-service report, June 1, 1958.

  “He laughed when”: Wire-service report, June 3, 1958.

  Whatever hopes: Louella Parsons, syndicated column, April 17, 1958.

  Frank and Lauren Bacall had split: Bacall, By Myself, p. 384.

  To the detriment: See Kilgallen, syndicated column, Sept. 30, 1964.

  but the far less interesting: Reading Eagle, May 22, 1952.

  Rumor had it that: Erskine Johnson, syndicated column, July 11, 1958.

  In early June: Earl Wilson, syndicated column, June 16, 1958.

  “she took the dog back”: Server, Ava Gardner, pp. 354–55.

  “re-engagement”: Jacobs and Stadiem, Mr. S, p. 198.

  “To set those nosey minds”: Hedda Hopper, syndicated column, June 30, 1958.

  “Even though I was only”: Jones, Q, p. 130.

  “I didn’t know what”: Quincy Jones, in discussion with the author, Feb. 2013.

  “I was curious to see”: Jones, Q, p. 131.

  “I was still mouthing”: Ibid.

  “It’s a big oblong room”: Jones, discussion.

  “Never once a breach of taste”: Britt, Frank Sinatra: A Celebration, p. 121.

  “One of the reasons”: Art Buchwald, syndicated column, July 1, 1958.

  “Ella Fitzgerald is the only”: Private 1959 interview, courtesy of Ed O’Brien.

  The crowd went nuts: Shaw, Sinatra, p. 248.

  “Make yourself comfortable”: Rickles, Rickles’ Book, p. 64.

  On the other hand: Life, Feb. 3, 1958.

  “Remember the good old days”: Wire-service report, June 22, 1958.

  “What’s New?”: Levinson, September in the Rain, p. 140.

  In the middle of July: Redlands Daily Facts, July 16, 1958.

  As the resort’s name indicated: Van Meter, Last Good Time, p. 175.

  It was an ideal hideaway: Ibid.

  Around this time: Denton and Morris, The Money and the Power, p. 184.

  “The principal owner”: Nasaw, Patriarch, p. 719.

  Wingy Grober was the front: Denton and Morris, The Money and the Power, p. 184.

  “There was nothing very remarkable”: Nasaw, Patriarch, pp. 719–20.

  Robert F. Kennedy was the chief counsel: Seymour M. Hersh, Dark Side of Camelot, p. 135.

  He and Bobby Kennedy argued: Ibid.

  “Committee counsel Robert F. Kennedy”: Wire-service report, July 7, 1958.

  after MCA muscled Tony Randall: McDougal, Last Mogul, p. 236.

  Dean was to play Bama: Kelley, His Way, p. 226.

  “Nothing so exciting”: Time, Aug. 25, 1958.

  “This place is worse”: Ibid.

  “but back of the sound-killing glass”: Ibid.

  The clerk cried: Ibid.

  “The violent displays”: Santopietro, Sinatra in Hollywood, p. 254.

  “He did not return”: Ibid.

  “Outside Frank’s door”: Shaw, Sinatra, p. 250.

  “We were virtual prisoners”: Ibid.

  “on the lam”: MacLaine, My Lucky Stars, pp. 64–65.

  “One evening during a night shoot”: Ibid.

  “some gambling joints”: Ibid., pp. 65–66.

  “I wore sunglasses”: Ibid., pp. 68–69.

  “Frank Sinatra was met”: Kuntz and Kuntz, Sinatra Files, p. 113.

  “We wouldn’t talk”: Summers and Swan, Sinatra, p. 244.

  “If people wanted”: Tosches, Dino, p. 322.

  Accordingly, the new: Shaw, Sinatra, p. 251.

  the album hit number 1: O’Brien and Sayers, Sinatra, p. 260.

  “Of course, he’s prone”: Minnelli, I Remember It Well, p. 339.

  “He cannot communicate”: Tosches, Dino, p. 263.

  “Dean doesn’t have”: Ibid., pp. 263–64.

  Jerry Lewis, like Frank: Lewis and Kaplan, Dean and Me, p. 20.

  In September, Frank: American Weekly, May 31, 1959.

  “But within minutes”: United Press, Oct. 19, 1958.

  The Daily Express ran: Wire-service report, Oct. 20, 1958.

  Sinatra sent a friend: American Weekly, May 31, 1959.

  “I’m here in London”: Shaw, Sinatra, p. 252.

  The photographer was taken: Associated Press, Nov. 5, 1958.

  When Frank arrived in Miami: Shaw, Sinatra, p. 254.

  the New Frontier paid her: Clarke, Get Happy, p. 329.

  “It’s a disheartening”: Billboard, March 31, 1958.

  In July, she clawed back: Frank, Judy, p. 444.

  She arrived ten days: Louella Parsons, syndicated column, Oct. 1, 1958.

  “Judy Garland has no”: Variety, Oct. 7, 1958.

  “go up there”: Robert Wagner, in discussion with the author, Nov. 2013.

  “put on a comedy routine”: Louella Parsons, syndicated column, Oct. 11, 1958.

  “Frank and Dean joked”: Wagner, discussion.

  “I’m just gonna sing”: MacLaine, My Lucky Stars, pp. 57–58.

  “He was as sharp”: Lewis and Kaplan, Dean and Me, p. 33.

  “Does Sinatra know”: Capra, Name Above the Title, p. 449.

  “Sinatra is a great singer”: Ibid., p. 455.

  “a performer first”: Ibid., p. 458.

  “Frank always worked well”: Santopietro, Sinatra in Hollywood, p. 264.

  “He really didn’t treat”: Eddie Hodges, in discussion with the author, Oct. 2013.

  “was the only woman”: MacLaine, My Lucky Stars, pp. 62–63.

  “the biggest new blue-chip”: Life, Dec. 22, 1958.

  “As soon as I go out”: Ibid.

  “He’s always had that”: Wagner, discussion.

  “the girls said that”: Kelley, His Way, p. 257.

  “The greatest indignity”: English, Havana Nocturne, p. 305.

  CHAPTER 11

  Metro originally offered: Spada, Peter Lawford, p. 212.

  “Frank, there were”: Levy, Rat Pack Confidential, p. 73.

  “Dear Dago”: Variety, Jan. 16, 1959.

  “Sinatra had a marvelous”: Server, Ava Gardner, p. 187.

  Martin caught the 10:00 p.m.: Variety, Jan. 22, 1959.

  “Dean Martin, another”: Variety, Jan. 30 and Feb. 4, 1959.

  “Things are going”: Alec Wilder correspondence, New York Public Library.

  The Herald had sent a reporter: Server, Ava Gardner, p. 369.

  “She’s a
vid to grasp”: Stanley Kramer, “The Many Moods of Ava,” American Weekly, Jan. 24, 1960.

  He was like a rougher: Jack Eigen obituary, Milwaukee Journal, Jan. 26, 1983.

  “I love Frank”: Kelley, His Way, pp. 255–56.

  “Why is it that most stars”: “Sammy and Frankie Feuding over Chicago Radio Interview,” Jet, March 12, 1959.

  “Bigger than Frank?”: Levy, Rat Pack Confidential, p. 73; Taraborrelli, Sinatra, p. 482.

  “Who’s better than Sinatra”: Taraborrelli, Sinatra, p. 482.

  “That was it for Sammy”: Kelley, His Way, p. 256.

  “But by the time”: Server, Ava Gardner, p. 372.

  “to a packed house”: Hedda Hopper, syndicated column, Feb. 18, 1959.

  “Even when they were”: Server, Ava Gardner, p. 372.

  “That was the unforgivable part”: Ibid.

  “Both Frank Sinatra”: Army Archerd, syndicated column, Variety, March 4, 1959.

  “one with a ‘we’re with you’ atmosphere”: Variety, March 11, 1959.

  The second week was projected: Ibid.

  “Sinatra has a revised act”: Ibid.

  “While listening to Norvo’s group”: Will Friedwald, liner notes, Frank Sinatra with the Red Norvo Quintet, Live in Australia, 1959.

  “she had come to think”: Server, Ava Gardner, p. 374.

  “After one particularly”: Friedwald, liner notes, Frank Sinatra with the Red Norvo Quintet, Live in Australia, 1959.

  “I don’t think he ever”: Ibid.

  “The scene afterward”: Server, Ava Gardner, p. 375.

  “He said, ‘Yeah, that’s’ ”: Summers and Swan, Sinatra, p. 206.

  but not with his eleven-year-old: Eddie Hodges, in discussion with the author, Oct. 2013.

  “He yelled”: Ibid.

  George Jacobs maintains: Jacobs and Stadiem, Mr. S, p. 129.

  “Let’s just say”: Ingham, Rough Guide to Frank Sinatra, p. 64.

  “had had an admitted”: Jacobs and Stadiem, Mr. S, p. 129.

  “I wish Mr. Kennedy”: Margaria Fichtner, “A National Treasure,” Chicago Tribune, March 15, 1989.

  “For Sinatra”: Brownstein, The Power and the Glitter, p. 159.

  “We’re going to sell Jack”: Thomas, Robert Kennedy, p. 48.

  “unsubstantiated, usually”: Nasaw, Patriarch, p. 80.

  “He had disposed of”: Ibid., pp. 719–20.

  “I was instructed to go”: Summers and Swan, Sinatra, p. 258.

  “Sheenie rag traders”: Jacobs and Stadiem, Mr. S, pp. 117–18.