Sinatra

by James Kaplan

  “I think that in understanding”: Nancy Olson Livingston, in discussion with the author, Jan. 2013.

  Jack Kennedy, the soap flakes: Summers and Swan, Sinatra, p. 257.

  “As much as I disliked”: Jacobs and Stadiem, Mr. S, p. 135.

  “His fondness for Frank”: Kelley, His Way, p. 267.

  “Senator Kennedy is a friend”: Pietrusza, 1960, p. 234.

  In November of that year: Walter Winchell, syndicated column, Nov. 16, 1958.

  “Because it was an ‘inside’ ”: Vernon Scott, dispatch, May 14, 1959.

  And by May 1959: Lowell Sun, May 1, 1959.

  CHAPTER 12

  At the Desert Inn in March: Giancana and Giancana, Double Cross, p. 274.

  “persons of notorious”: Christopher Turner, “Nevada’s Most Unwanted,” Cabinet, Fall 2005, www.cabinetmagazine.org/issues/19/turner2.php.

  “either the number one”: United Press, June 7, 1959.

  “A handsome-type hoodlum”: United Press, June 10, 1959.

  During another lunch break: Dean Jones, in discussion with the author, Nov. 2013.

  Utterly unfazed: Ibid.

  Dean Martin and Shirley MacLaine: Hedda Hopper, syndicated column, June 30, 1959.

  Lady Beatty, after: Dorothy Kilgallen, syndicated column, May 19, 1959.

  When his work: Kuntz and Kuntz, Sinatra Files, p. 148.

  “Giancana, who appeared”: United Press, July 6, 1959.

  From Miami, Frank: Louella Parsons, syndicated column, June 23, 1959.

  “With few exceptions”: Clarke, Billie Holiday, p. 96.

  Holiday bragged: Ibid., p. 12.

  “This was a horrifying”: Ibid., p. 438.

  “A beautician was doing”: Jacobs and Stadiem, Mr. S, pp. 150–51.

  But with the police: Ibid.

  In 1946, for various: Van Meter, Last Good Time, pp. 69–77.

  “Frank’s career was just”: Ibid., pp. 97–98.

  “When Frank got to town”: Ibid., p. 106.

  And, while Frank was playing: Ibid.

  “How about August 24”: Richard Apt, “Sinatra and the Atlantic City Connection,” in Mustazza, Frank Sinatra and Popular Culture, p. 224.

  In 1959, when Frank: Hedda Hopper, syndicated column, July 19, 1959.

  Sinatra, who returned as: Leonard Lyons, syndicated column, Aug. 3, 1959.

  “Skinny often said”: Apt, “Sinatra and the Atlantic City Connection,” p. 224.

  One night, the crowd: Earl Wilson, syndicated column, July 30, 1959.

  “The smoke bothered”: Apt, “Sinatra and the Atlantic City Connection,” p. 223.

  “Kick that cigarette”: Earl Wilson, syndicated column, Aug. 10, 1959.

  In his dressing room: Earl Wilson, syndicated column, Aug. 3, 1959.

  “advised on September 16, 1959”: Kuntz and Kuntz, Sinatra Files, pp. 195–96.

  “She stated that at the age”: Van Meter, Last Good Time, pp. 145–46.

  Another FBI report claimed: Summers and Swan, Sinatra, p. 254.

  “defense attorney François”: Santopietro, Sinatra in Hollywood, p. 277.

  “Alas, this one phrase”: Ibid., p. 276.

  “Everywhere she goes”: United Press, July 8, 1959.

  “Naturally, I hope”: Ibid.

  “No plan, no itinerary”: Server, Ava Gardner, p. 376.

  “middle-aged woman”: Ibid., p. 378.

  “Movie actress Ava”: Wire-service dispatch, Sept. 17, 1959.

  “Pee Wee Marquette”: Davis, Miles, p. 237.

  “Khrushchev fever”: New York Times, Sept. 20, 1959.

  “I believe that to sit”: Carlson, K Blows Top, p. 150.

  “the unpardonable sin”: Associated Press, Sept. 24, 1959.

  “What do you have, rocket”: Van Nuys News, Sept. 20, 1959.

  When a reporter asked: New York Times, Sept. 20, 1959.

  “lascivious, disgusting”: Daniel O’Brien, Frank Sinatra Film Guide, p. 126.

  “being condemned by Khrushchev”: Ibid.

  “Their colloquy may”: Harriet Van Horne, syndicated column, Sept. 30, 1959.

  “Of course, a meeting”: Fred Danzig, syndicated column, Sept. 30, 1959.

  “One of the brightest”: Cynthia Lowry, syndicated column, Oct. 20, 1959.

  “Fortunately, the trio”: Fred Danzig, syndicated column, Oct. 20, 1959.

  “Oh, you’re a colorful”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDHX4Bw1pHs.

  “Gee. Dean is the only”: Fred Danzig, syndicated column, Nov. 4, 1959.

  “If the boys keep up”: Cynthia Lowry, syndicated column, Nov. 4, 1959.

  “some disciplinary problems”: Fred Danzig, syndicated column, Nov. 4, 1959.

  Brown, who seemed a shoo-in: Los Angeles Times, Oct. 30, 1959.

  “grew visibly warmer”: Relman Morin, dispatch, Nov. 6, 1959.

  Governor Brown, who attended: Los Angeles Times, Oct. 30, 1959.

  “The harsh facts”: Los Angeles Times, Nov. 3, 1959.

  “Sinatra! Sinatra!”: Michael O’Brien, John F. Kennedy, p. 198.

  “1. Women get starry eyed”: Morin, dispatch, Nov. 6, 1959.

  “in a divine Sophie”: Hedda Hopper, Los Angeles Times, Nov. 4, 1959.

  “that Kennedy and Frank took”: Summers and Swan, Sinatra, p. 260.

  “bursting with awe”: Angie Dickinson, in discussion with the author, July 2006.

  “They both loved women”: Ibid.

  “I’d say she was”: Seymour M. Hersh, Dark Side of Camelot, pp. 296–97.

  “For the first time”: Exner, My Story, p. 61.

  “I just was aware”: Gloria Franks, in discussion with the author, June 2011.

  “I was working at the El Mirador”: Betsy Duncan Hammes, in discussion with the author, June 2011.

  “The first indication”: Exner, My Story, p. 49.

  “I brought them over”: Summers and Swan, Sinatra: The Life, p. 260.

  “He had a big success”: Morin, dispatch, Nov. 6, 1959.

  “folksy stroll”: Associated Press, Nov. 4, 1959.

  All Earl Wilson: Earl Wilson, syndicated column, Nov. 5, 1959.

  “We stayed with Frank”: Kelley, His Way, p. 267.

  “The Los Angeles Office”: Kuntz and Kuntz, Sinatra Files, p. 125.

  “John F. Kennedy slept here”: Kelley, His Way, p. 286.

  “A few nights later”: Exner, My Story, pp. 49–50.

  “I took the midnight”: Ibid., p. 50.

  Frank Sinatra was a major depositor: Russo, Supermob, pp. 141–42.

  “We sat in the sun”: Exner, My Story, p. 54.

  “Their favorite words”: Ibid., pp. 57–58.

  “Everybody around Frank walks”: Ibid., p. 58.

  “For some reason”: Ibid., p. 54.

  “I didn’t even want”: Ibid., p. 59.

  “Cheap, weak”: Jacobs and Stadiem, Mr. S, p. 126.

  “I felt kind of sad”: Jones, discussion.

  “I was a halfway”: Quirk, Kennedys in Hollywood, p. 175.

  “Frank Sinatra’s big”: Variety, Nov. 30, 1959.

  “Schweitzer said because”: Ibid.

  “I wanted to see him”: Exner, My Story, pp. 60–61.

  “It was nice and comfortable”: Ibid., pp. 61–62.

  “alleged Lake County”: Associated Press, Aug. 25, 1960.

  “We made love”: Exner, My Story, pp. 63–64.

  As of that day: Salt Lake City Tribune, Dec. 8, 1959.

  “Dad was more than”: Seymour M. Hersh, Dark Side of Camelot, p. 138.

  CHAPTER 13

  “The Rat Pack embodied”: Brownstein, The Power and the Glitter, p. 155.

  “You come to my summit”: Wilson, Show Business Nobody Knows, p. 14.

  “everybody knew each other”: Shecky Greene, in discussion with the author, Nov. 2012.

  “Frank opened the first”: Ed Walters, in discussion with the author, Nov. 2012.

  “The audience just loved it”: Ibid.
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br />   At one point in early: Levy, Rat Pack Confidential, p. 108.

  “Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr.”: Hedda Hopper, syndicated column, Feb. 11, 1960.

  “I thought it was plain”: Greene, discussion.

  “The earliest call”: Levy, Rat Pack Confidential, p. 108.

  “Frank looked upon”: Santopietro, Sinatra in Hollywood, p. 285.

  “certainly knew exactly”: Ibid.

  “Milestone had a very loose”: “The Rat Pack Photographer,” Los Angeles Times, Dec. 12, 2001.

  “Hey, where are you”: Zehme, Way You Wear Your Hat, p. 44.

  “Some eastern press”: Walters, discussion.

  “He was hanging around Frank”: Ibid.

  “We’ve worked together”: Levy, Rat Pack Confidential, p. 76.

  Drinking buddies and hangers-on: Zehme, Way You Wear Your Hat, p. 4.

  “All the guys would”: Los Angeles Times, Dec. 12, 2001.

  “He was not like the rest”: Exner, My Story, p. 82.

  “There is no way anyone”: Ibid., p. 83.

  “was the first American president”: Gould, Can’t Buy Me Love, pp. 205–6.

  “Sinatra thought Kennedy”: Walters, discussion.

  “He was not a grown-up”: Nancy Olson Livingston, in discussion with the author, Jan. 2013.

  “There was no goddamn”: Martin, Hero for Our Time, p. 199.

  “Ladies and gentlemen, Senator”:“ ‘The Jack Pack,’ 1958–1960,” The Pop History Dig, www.pophistorydig.com/?p=9361.

  “at ten o’clock Sunday”: Exner, My Story, p. 86.

  “The lights were low”: Summers and Swan, Sinatra, p. 264.

  “She’s a hooker”: Ibid.

  “was always kind of like”: Betsy Duncan Hammes, in discussion with the author, Dec. 2013.

  “because we sensed”: Martin, Hero for Our Time, p. 199.

  “tremendously impressed by”: Exner, My Story, p. 87.

  Livingston claims that: Livingston, discussion.

  “Don’t worry, I plan”: Exner, My Story, p. 94.

  “He was extremely solicitous”: Ibid., p. 99.

  “I called him up”: Havers, Sinatra, p. 252.

  in return for giving Capitol: Cornyn, Exploding, p. 47.

  “lightly swinging love”: Alan and Marilyn Bergman, in discussion with the author, Nov. 2012.

  The rest of the music: Friedwald, Sinatra!, p. 256.

  Frank and the screenwriter: Kelley, His Way, p. 110.

  “It was a total downer”: Jacobs and Stadiem, Mr. S, p. 144.

  That January, though: New York Times, Jan. 20, 1960.

  “Frank said that he had been”: Kelley, His Way, p. 272.

  “I asked him openly”: Ibid.

  And that Steve McQueen: Associated Press, March 22, 1960.

  “This marks the first time”: New York Times, March 20, 1960.

  “STARS SCORN”: United Press, March 23, 1960.

  “I wonder how Sinatra’s crony”: Munn, John Wayne, pp. 216–17; Kelley, His Way, p. 273.

  “What kind of thinking”: Kelley, His Way, pp. 272–73.

  “On returning from New York”: Hedda Hopper, syndicated column, April 8, 1960.

  “Font’s Ben Novack”: Variety, March 30, 1960.

  “hard hit with the failure”: Ibid.

  “Frank Sinatra’s new talent”: Earl Wilson, syndicated column, March 28, 1960.

  “flew to Palm Springs to try”: Kelley, His Way, p. 274.

  “That’s when old Joe”: Ibid.

  “Both Joe and Bobby”: Tina Sinatra, My Father’s Daughter, p. 78.

  “It was reported, but without”: New York Times, March 20, 1960.

  “I went home in tears”: Tina Sinatra, My Father’s Daughter, p. 79.

  “killed him to have to eat”: Jacobs and Stadiem, Mr. S, p. 145.

  “It’s mighty puzzling”: Dorothy Kilgallen, syndicated column, April 18, 1960.

  “He’d get on the phone”: Spada, Peter Lawford, p. 226.

  “If he asked people”: Los Angeles Times, Aug. 13, 2000.

  “We’d spread out”: Davis, Boyar, and Boyar, Why Me?, p. 111.

  “He’d met Jack Kennedy”: Levy, Rat Pack Confidential, p. 155.

  Parker drove a legendarily: Guralnick and Jorgensen, Elvis Day by Day, pp. 146–47.

  “Mr. S hated Elvis”: Jacobs and Stadiem, Mr. S, p. 125.

  First, though, Sinatra: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngQbGj8aSWs.

  “It made a man of me”: Redlands (Calif.) Daily Facts, March 9, 1960.

  “Frank asked me”: Summers and Swan, Sinatra, p. 269.

  “a dangerous game”: Ibid.

  “deliberately fudged”: Seymour M. Hersh, Dark Side of Camelot, p. 299.

  “I paid a terrible price”: Exner, My Story, p. 122.

  “In March, when Mooney”: Giancana and Giancana, Double Cross, p. 282.

  “Come here, Judy”: Exner, My Story, p. 116.

  “Fischetti and other hoodlums”: Summers and Swan, Sinatra, pp. 268–69.

  “the singer’s initial reaction”: Friedwald, Sinatra!, p. 256.

  “Sinatra finally asked”: Ibid.

  “Frank said, ‘I don’t like’ ”: Alan and Marilyn Bergman, in discussion with the author, Nov. 2012.

  “Hollywood is talking”: Louella Parsons, syndicated column, April 24, 1960.

  “Welcome Home Elvis”: Havers, Sinatra, p. 255.

  “Elvis Presley hasn’t changed”: Variety, May 16, 1960.

  “You seem to disagree”: Kelley, His Way, pp. 275–76; Associated Press, May 15, 1960.

  CHAPTER 14

  “squalid, corrupt”: Theodore H. White, Making of the President, 1960, p. 97.

  “spent at least $2 million”: Seymour M. Hersh, Dark Side of Camelot, p. 90.

  “Giancana sent Skinny”: Van Meter, Last Good Time, p. 172.

  Even by his friends’ estimation: Ibid., p. 173.

  “spreading money around”: Summers and Swan, Sinatra, p. 271.

  “not for direct bribes”: Seymour M. Hersh, Dark Side of Camelot, p. 100.

  The bureau also overheard: Ibid., p. 101.

  “If you want to see”: Davis, Boyar, and Boyar, Why Me?, p. 108.

  “I’m positive it never”: Ed Walters, in discussion with the author, Jan. 2014.

  One estimate has: Seymour M. Hersh, Dark Side of Camelot, p. 98.

  “Each girl in Frank’s life”: Exner, My Story, p. 113.

  “I dig the sake”: Associated Press, May 30, 1960.

  The Democratic National Convention was: Theodore H. White, Making of the President, 1960, p. 151.

  “Smogless and milk-blue”: Ibid., p. 150.

  “The Biltmore [was]”: Mailer, Mind of an Outlaw, p. 117.

  Predictably, if defensibly: Los Angeles Times, July 11, 1960.

  “From the sounds and sights”: Theodore H. White, Making of the President, 1960, p. 154.

  “He had the deep orange-brown”: Mailer, Mind of an Outlaw, pp. 120–21.

  “from Marlborough and”: Theodore H. White, Making of the President, 1960, p. 148.

  “Since the First World War”: Mailer, Mind of an Outlaw, p. 121.

  “He was born into”: Seymour M. Hersh, Dark Side of Camelot, p. 139.

  a bash for Jack’s sister: Los Angeles Times, July 8, 1960.

  “For the candidates, the hour”: Los Angeles Times, July 11, 1960.

  “still trying hard to sink”: Ibid.

  The other performers included: Associated Press, July 11, 1960.

  Edward G. Robinson got: Earl Wilson, syndicated column, July 15, 1960.

  “Those dirty sons”: Kelley, His Way, pp. 276–77.

  “I don’t know why they”: United Press, July 12, 1960.

  “Sinatra is for Sen. John F. Kennedy”: Ibid.

  Sinatra, Peter Lawford: Shaw, Sinatra, p. 273.

  “When the Democrats convene”: Milwaukee Journal, July 11, 1960.

  “Conscious of telev
ision”: Kelley, His Way, p. 277.

  “Every morning after”: Jacobs and Stadiem, Mr. S, p. 56.

  “spent the rest of the afternoon”: Theodore H. White, Making of the President, 1960, pp. 168–69.

  Frank was also there: Kelley, His Way, p. 277.

  “the high point of drama”: Theodore H. White, Making of the President, 1960, p. 165.

  He gave his friend Green: Kelley, His Way, p. 278.

  “ ‘Wyoming,’ chanted Tracy S. McCraken”: Theodore H. White, Making of the President, 1960, p. 169.

  “We’re on our way”: Kelley, His Way, p. 278.

  At the convention, Johnson: Los Angeles Times, July 11, 1960.

  who had all but called: Seymour M. Hersh, Dark Side of Camelot, p. 123.

  “You know we had never”: Ibid., pp. 125–26.

  “during the campaign, even”: Ibid., p. 129.

  The decision was tortuous: Caro, Passage of Power, pp. 117–40.

  “It is my earnest”: Inez Robb, syndicated column, July 18, 1960.

  “Sen. Jack Kennedy passed”: Drew Pearson, syndicated column, July 15, 1960.

  Not long after the convention: Shaw, Sinatra, p. 274.

  “[Nevada Gaming Control] Board”: United Press, July 13, 1960.

  Frank—whose application: Kelley, His Way, p. 279; Summers and Swan, Sinatra, p. 289.

  “Frank Sinatra is extremely”: Van Meter, Last Good Time, p. 182.

  On July 20, Frank arrived: Earl Wilson, syndicated column, July 26, 1960.

  From the twenty-second: Earl Wilson, syndicated column, Aug. 3, 1960.

  “It wasn’t a big room”: Bill Boggs, in discussion with the author, Nov. 2006.

  Over the nine nights: Earl Wilson, syndicated column, Aug. 5, 1960.

  “A new arrival joined us”: Leonard Lyons, syndicated column, Aug. 6, 1960.

  “Their horsing around”: Levy, Rat Pack Confidential, pp. 118–19.

  “an experience difficult”: Bob Thomas, syndicated column, Aug. 5, 1960.

  “ ‘Ocean’s Eleven’ figures”: Variety, Aug. 5, 1960.

  “inject some sorely needed”: Santopietro, Sinatra in Hollywood, p. 285.

  “depended for its vitality”: T. H. Adamowski, “Love in the Western World: Sinatra and the Conflict of Generations,” in Mustazza, Frank Sinatra and Popular Culture, p. 36.

  “what Gore Vidal has called”: I could find no such quotation by Vidal; see, however, Eric Spitznagel, “Harold Ramis,” Believer, March 2006.

  “He told me that Frank instructed”: Nelson Riddle, interview by Ed O’Brien; O’Brien, e-mail to author, Jan. 27, 2014.