His Way

by Kitty Kelley

  CHAPTER 11

  Background information about Ava Gardner was obtained from Higham’s book, Ava, as well as Flamini’s book, also entitled Ava, New York: Coward, McCann, and Geoghegan, 1983, and John Daniella Ava Gardner, New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1982. Other information in this chapter on Sinatra and Gardner was obtained from many sources as well as these three books, among them, interviews with Nick Sevano, Betty Burns Paps on March 11 and April 18, 1984, Anita Colby Flagen on October 17, 1985, a relative of Jack Keller’s on June 21, 1983, and Artie Shaw on December 17, 1983, and April 10, 1984. The author also had access to Michael Thornton’s interviews with Ava Gardner on November 17, 19, 20, and 28, 1982, an unpublished interview by Bill Martin of Budd Granoff on March 16, 1985, MGM legal files, and Justice Department files containing the Willie Moretti telegram to Sinatra.

  On April 25, 1984, the author interviewed Corinne Entratter, who told the author, among other things, that Sinatra had nicknamed her husband, Jack, “Jew Feet” because of orthopedic shoes he wore due to the osteomyelitis he suffered as a child. “I have watches that Frank would give Jack, ‘Stay on time to J.F.’ meaning Jew Feet,” said Corinne Entratter. “One leg of Jack’s was shorter than the other and shriveled. Even though he was six feet two inches, he walked with a limp. He wore Space Shoes, so [Frank] called him Jew Feet.”

  The story of Sinatra’s departure from MGM was obtained, in part, in interviews on March 25 and April 11, 1984, with a former MCA agent who requested anonymity and the MCA files in the Justice Department obtained by the author through the Freedom of Information Act.

  Additional information about Sinatra’s marriage and career was gathered from several sources, among them interviews with Kitty Kallen on July 18, 1983, Mitch Miller on October 24, November 1, 4, 1983, Irving Mansfield on October 26, 28, November 3, December 3, 12, 14, 1983, and April 4, 1984, and numerous newspaper and magazine articles.

  Material on Sinatra’s testimony before the Kefauver committee and questions about his Mafia connections generally were obtained from a variety of sources, including the transcript of Sinatra’s testimony in executive session as well as the testimony of others called by the committee, interviews with Joseph L. Nellis on February 17, 18, 19, 1984, and several newspaper accounts of the committee’s work. Books such as Vincent Teresa’s (with Thomas Renner) Vinnie Teresa’s Mafia, New York: Doubleday & Co., Inc., 1975, and Kefauver’s Crime in America, New York: Doubleday & Co., Inc., 1951, were also consulted.

  In 1961, Sinatra Enterprises came under scrutiny in the investigation of a Mafia-linked car dealer in Chicago. The Sterling-Harris Ford Agency declared bankruptcy after $80,000 disappeared from the agency’s treasury and 359 cars vanished from the lot. The Chicago Daily Tribune called it a “gangland mystery” and reported that at a weekend sale, “buyers, including crime syndicate gangsters, plunked down cash for autos sold far below factory prices.” Less than two weeks before the “gangland mystery,” two of the cars, white Thunderbird coupes, were found in the possession of two executives of Sinatra Enterprises, more than 2,000 miles away in Los Angeles.

  CHAPTER 12

  Information in Chapter 12 was obtained from various sources, among them, interviews with Dorothy Manners on August 8, 1951, Rene Valente on July 25, 1983, and George Jacobs on June 15, 1983. A number of articles were consulted, including those in the Los Angeles Herald Examiner, Los Angeles Daily News, New York World-Telegram, New York Post, and Modern Screen as well as Flamini’s book on Ava Gardner and Shelley Winter’s Shelley Also Known as Shirley, New York: William Morrow, 1980.

  CHAPTER 13

  Sinatra’s tumultuous relationship with Ava Gardner has been well documented in numerous articles and books consulted by the author, including Richard Gehman, Sinatra and His Rat Pack, New York: Belmont Books, 1963; Lana Turner’s Lana, New York: E. P. Dutton, Inc., 1983; Higham’s biography of Ava Gardner, and articles in the Los Angeles Herald Examiner, New York Post, Woman’s Home Companion, Variety, Los Angeles Mirror, Los Angeles Times, and Sinatra’s own two-part series in the American Weekly. Material was also supplied in interviews on March 9, 10, 12, 22 and April 3, 16, 17, 1984, with a woman who lived with Jimmy Van Heusen. Also interviewed were Nick Sevano, Rita Maritt, Joan Cohn Harvey on July 11, 1983, and Michael Thornton’s interviews with Ava Gardner were consulted. MGM legal files examined by the author provided additional information.

  CHAPTER 14

  The story of Sinatra and From Here to Eternity was obtained from the author’s interviews with several people, among them, Abe Lastfogel on June 10, 1983, Corinne Entratter on April 25 and September 24, 1984, Joan Cohn Harvey, Eli Wallach on November 28 and December 5, 1984, Daniel Taradash on July 6, 1983, Walter Shenson on June 1, 1984, John J. Miller on December 12, 16, 1983, and law enforcement sources. Books including Shaw’s and Wilson’s on Sinatra, Flamini’s on Gardner, Patricia Bosworth’s Montgomery Clift, New York and London: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1978; Robert Laguardia’s Monty, New York: Arbor House, 1977; William Goldman’s Adventures in the Screen Trade, New York: Warner Books, 1983; and Leonard Katz’s Uncle Frank: The Biography of Frank Costello, New York: Drake, 1973, were also consulted. MGM legal files provided additional information.

  Sinatra’s letter to producer Leland Hayward signed “Maggio” is on file in the correspondence collection at the Performing Arts Research Center at the New York Public Library. It reads: “Dear Leland—my paisan Mr. Sinatra is still on cloud nine and the bum refuses to come down.… He’s so thrilled, he’s ridiculous. … I wish I had as many nice friends and relatives as he has—Thanks for making him happy. Maggio.”

  The author obtained FBI files on agent George Wood under the Freedom of Information Act that illustrate Wood’s association with gangsters. One file showed that Wood visited Frank Costello in prison more than ten times.

  CHAPTER 15

  Some of the information in Chapter 15 comes from published sources such as Billboard, Modern Screen, New York Post, Los Angeles Times, New York Journal-American, Los Angeles Herald Examiner, Lee Israel’s book, Kilgallen, New York: Delacorte Press, 1979; Verità Thompson and Donald Shepherd’s Bogie and Me, New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1982; Sammy Davis, Jr.’s, Hollywood in a Suitcase, New York: Berkley Books, 1980; and Wilson’s Sinatra. The author also interviewed Nick Sevano, Peter Lawford on May 15 and June 2, 1983, Marvin Moss on March 9, 1984, a girlfriend of Jimmy Van Heusen’s on November 18, 1983, Abe Lastfogel, Nelson Riddle on July 15, 1983, Norma Ebberhart on March 15, 1985, Vanessa Brown on June 22, 1983, Ketti Frings on February 6, June 26, and December 27, 1980, Peter Darmanin on November 22, 1980, and Shecky Greene on August 4, 1983. In a December 1982 interview with Mike Douglas, the author was told that Douglas “went to look at Frank’s house years ago and there was a shrine to Ava. So help me God, there was actually a statue of her in the backyard.” A 1958 Walter Winchell column in the Los Angeles Herald Examiner also said, “We visited Sinatra’s beautiful castle-in-the-air home on top of a movie town mountain. On the lawn is a statue of Ava Gardner.”

  CHAPTER 16

  Material in Chapter 16 was obtained from a variety of sources. The author examined arrest records in the Hudson County Courthouse as well as local news articles relating to Sinatra’s uncles Augustus Garavante and Lawrence Garavante. The author also obtained a copy of an August 3, 1962, Justice Department FBI report entitled “Francis Albert Sinatra, a/k/a Frank Sinatra.” She examined the Oral History of Robbins E. Cahill at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas. Many published sources were also consulted, including the New York Daily News, New York Post, New York Herald-Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Mirror News, Look, and Sammy Davis, Jr.’s, Yes I Can, New York: Pocket Books, 1966.

  In the late 1940s, Frank gambled at the Cove, an illegal club in Palm Springs run by Bobby Garcia. “At that time, I thought Frank Sinatra was one of the nicest guys I ever met,” Garcia told Ovid Demaris in 1979. “He was gambling, and the way he was gambling he didn’t have a prayer. …
He used to come down on weekends. At that time he was married to Nancy. He owed the joint a marker for about $5,800…. One night Sinatra came in and he’s telling me about Mickey Cohen. He’d met the top man in the state of California.” Frank told Garcia that he had given Cohen $5,000 for a magazine called Hollywood Nightlife.

  “Frank was so enthused about meeting Mickey Cohen, the bigshot of the underworld,” said Garcia. A few weeks later, Sinatra told Garcia that Mickey Cohen wanted another $5,000 for his magazine, but Garcia advised him not to lend the money. “They are going to keep five-thousanding you to death, you stupid son of a bitch,” he told Frank. “I’ll tell you what I’ll do. I’ll tear up your marker if you quit gambling. Sinatra said, ‘Can you do that?’ I said, ‘Never mind.’ I got his markers and I tore them up. Frank quit gambling in the joint from then on.”

  In addition, the author interviewed Mel Tormé, Mrs. Lee J. Cobb on April 28, 1984, Mitch Miller, Lor-Ann Land, Beans Ponedel on July 15, 1983, Mrs. Ralph Greenson on April 27, 1984, and Charlotte Austin on March 20, 21, 28, 1984.

  CHAPTER 17

  In obtaining information about Sinatra’s film career in the 1960s, the author interviewed a number of people, including Sam Spiegel on November 4, 1983, Jim Byron on October 8, 1985, Mitch Miller, Richard Condon on April 10, 1984, Beans Ponedel, Ketti Frings, Sam Shaw on April 3, 1984, Jeannie Sakol on December 12, 1984, Ronnie Cowan on June 23, July 13, 25, 1983, Jacqueline Park on May 8, 20, 1983, March 15, April 6, and May 20, 1985, and an assistant to Stanley Kramer who requested anonymity on December 13, 1984.

  In an interview with Paul Chandler on April 10, 1984, Chandler, who once worked for Sinatra, told the author that “Swifty Lazar, one of Frank’s houseguests, would not get out of bed without a towel on the floor.”

  In an interview with a friend of Sam Spiegel’s on September 25, 1983, the author was told of this incident:

  On March 27, 1958, the night before the Academy Awards, Spiegel and his wife, Betty, walked into Romanoff’s in Hollywood with Billy and Audrey Wilder and Rita Hayworth and Jim Hill. Sitting on a banquette, Frank said hello to the group. Spiegel looked over. “Hello there,” he said. A few minutes later, according to one of the Spiegel party, Sinatra said, “Hey, Sam.”

  “Yeah,” said Spiegel.

  “Good luck.”

  “Thanks.”

  “Hey, Sam.”

  “Yes, Frank?”

  “You are going to sweep the boards.” [Spiegel’s film, The Bridge on the River Kwai, was nominated for and won the award for best movie of the year.]

  “Thanks, Frank.”

  “Hey, Sam.”

  “Yes, Frank,” said Spiegel, growing increasingly irritated.

  “You deserve ’em. Bridge was a great film.”

  “Thank you very much.”

  “Hey, let me tell you something, pal. My name is Frank. Frank Sinatra. And when you see me, you say, ‘Hello, Frank’ or ‘Hello, Mr. Sinatra.’ You just don’t say, ‘Hello there.’ ”

  “Under the circumstance, you are lucky that I even bothered to speak to you at all,” said the producer.

  “Let me tell you something, you wise guy. The day you don’t speak to me is the day you get your fucking teeth knocked in.”

  “Mr. Sinatra, if you don’t mind, we are in the middle of dinner and you are disturbing my wife.”

  Frank glared at Betty Spiegel. “Look, doll,” he said. “You got a pretty puss. You want to keep it that way and shut up.”

  “Frank, you were not invited and you are disturbing us,” said Betty Spiegel.

  “Well, you’re stuck with him,” said Frank. Turning to Spiegel, he yelled, “Hey, fat man.”

  Rita Hayworth sprung toward Sinatra. “Let me at him. Let me at him,” she said. Audrey Wilder said, “Hey, Frank. Hey, Frank.” Spiegel tried to restrain his rage. “Frank, if you have the guts to join me outside without your bodyguards, let’s go.”

  Everyone waited for Frank to lunge, but he got up and left the restaurant without saying another word.

  The author consulted articles in the New York Post, as well as several books, including Graham Payne and Sheridan Morley’s The Noel Coward Diaries, New York: Little Brown and Co., 1982; Lauren Bacall’s By Myself, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1979; Ezra Goodman’s The Fifty Year Decline and Fall of Hollywood, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1961; and Gerald Frank’s Judy, New York: Harper & Row, 1975. The author also examined documents in Stanley Kramer’s papers in the Special Collections Department of the UCLA Library.

  CHAPTER 18

  Some of the information in this chapter was obtained from published sources, including the New York World-Telegram and Sun, Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Examiner, Chicago Sun-Times, and The Star.

  Lester Velie reported in the Reader’s Digest that Capone gangster Charley “Cherry Nose” Gioe once introduced Sidney Korshak to Willie Bioff, panderer and labor racketeer, this way: “I want you to pay attention to Korshak. When he tells you something, he knows what he’s talking about. Any message he might deliver to you is a message from us.” Bioff testified to this introduction in a million-dollar movie shakedown trial of 1943 that sent seven Capone mobsters to jail.

  The author also interviewed Richard Condon, Bill Davidson on May 23, June 12, 1983, and April 9, 1984, and the publicist on June 13, 1984. In an interview on August 4, 1984, Mrs. Griffin Dunne told the author: “It was at a party upstairs in the Bistro for the authors of Is Paris Burning? Frank was very drunk and insulting everyone. He told me to lose my husband [writer Dominick Dunne]; he called Gloria Romanoff “Miss Busybody” and told her to stay out of his life. Then Betty Bacall let him have it and he said, ‘I never liked you anyway. I was never in love with you.’ He was just awful.”

  CHAPTER 19

  The author interviewed a number of people who contributed information in this chapter, among them Maurice Manson on July 14, 1983, Sandra Giles on July 12, 13, 20, 1983, Peter Lawford, Joseph Shimon on November 5, 6, 1984, and January 5, 1985, Doug Prestine on June 21, 1983, Rona Barrett on May 10, 1983, and George Jacobs. Articles in the New York Post, Chicago Sun-Times, New York Times, and Variety were also consulted, along with several books.

  CHAPTER 20

  The material concerning Sinatra’s relationship with Sam Giancana and with the Kennedys was obtained from a wide variety of Justice Department and FBI files, surveillance records and wiretaps, interviews, and published books and sources.

  The author obtained Sam Giancana’s Justice Department file through a Freedom of Information Act request. She also read William Brashler’s book, The Don: The Life and Death of Sam Giancana, New York: Harper & Row, 1977; Antoinette Giancana and Thomas C. Renner’s Mafia Princess, New York: William Morrow and Co., Inc., 1984; My Story by Judith Exner as told to Ovid Demaris, New York: Grove Press, 1977; The Boardwalk Jungle by Paul “Skinny” d’Amato as told to Ovid Demaris, New York: Bantam Books, 1986; John Davis’s The Kennedys: Dynasty and Disaster, New York: McGraw Hill Book Co., 1984; Michael Hillman and Thomas C. Renner’s Wall Street Swindler, New York: Doubleday & Co., 1977; Collier and Horowitz’s The Kennedys: An American Drama, New York: Summit Books, 1977; and Kenneth O’Donnell and David E. Powers’s Johnny, We Hardly Knew Ye, New York: Pocket Books, 1973.

  Transcripts of federal wiretaps and Justice Department files on John F. Kennedy were examined by the author as were oral histories of David McDonald, president of the Steelworkers Union, and Representative Tom Rees (both available at the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston, Mass.).

  The author conducted extensive interviews with many people, including Peter Lawford, Victor LaCroix Collins on June 4, 1984, William Reed Woodfield on July 9, 10, 19, 1983, Joseph Shimon, Dave Powers on January 22, 1982, George Jacobs, former Senator George Smathers on February 22, 1978 (who told the author, “Jack used to tell me how much Frank liked making it with colored girls”), Judith Exner on June 5, 1983, Albert Maitz on May 9, 1983, Nick Sevano, John Sigenthaler on February 4, 1986, Paul Corbin on March 24, 198
5, and Shelly Davis on July 5, 1983. In an interview on April 3, 1985, Professor Paul Blakey of Notre Dame told the author, “I was a trial attorney in Justice and defending a case in Reading, Pennsylvania, against another attorney from New Jersey, Angelo Melandra, who said during the recess: ‘Tell the Attorney General [Robert Kennedy] hello for me. I was in West Virginia with him.’ I asked Dave Walker about it and he said that Melandra had Sinatra’s money in West Virginia and that it was mob money. Dave Walker knew it from electronic surveillance.”

  The author interviewed Mort Sahl on May 30, 1983, and his wife on June 5, 1983. Sahl told the author that he was not invited by Sinatra to participate in the Kennedy inaugural. “The Kennedys started ruling and I started attacking.” In 1974, Sahl attacked Sinatra. “Once you get Sinatra on your side in politics, you’re out of business.” Sahl made jokes about the billing at Caesars Palace featuring Frank and his two singing children. “Coming attractions: the Daughter, The Son, The Father, and the Holy Ghost.” Frank sued him for $10,000; he claimed Sahl still owed him part of an old $20,000 loan. “Frank used that lawsuit as a way to get back at Mort,” Mrs. Sahl told the author. “Frank got Mort writing for the Kennedys and then there was trouble between the Kennedys and Mort.… Frank threatened Mort all over town. … I hate him. Frank Sinatra is scum of scum.”