Frank: The Voice (120 page)

20
“The only thing”:
Lana Turner,
Lana
, p. 42.

21
“I am not in love”:
Kelley,
His Way
, p. 131.

22
“I think Frank has done his best”:
Louella Parsons,
Los Angeles Examiner
, Oct. 7, 1946.

23
“left at 2:30 to appear”:
Columbia Records Archive, Sony Music Corporation.

24
“NO CONSENT”:
Kelley,
His Way
, p. 129.

25
“I won’t be surprised”:
Barbas,
First Lady of Hollywood
, p. 269.

26
“SUGGEST YOU READ”:
Kelley,
His Way
, p. 129.

27
“JUST CONTINUE TO PRINT”:
Ibid., p. 130.

28
George Avakian remembers:
George Avakian, in discussion with the author, Oct. 2006.

29
“was relatively tense”:
Ibid.

30
“He used to call me ‘kid’ ”:
Ibid.

31
“He did them very quickly”:
Ibid.

32
“Hard work”:
Shaw,
Twentieth-Century Romantic
, p. 100.

33
“You must be glad”:
Ibid., p. 104.

34
“There can rarely have been”:
Friedrich,
City of Nets
, p. 262.

  
1.
The Brooklyn gangster born Giuseppe Doto had thus renamed himself, in the belief that he was as handsome as the Greek god. He was not.

  
2.
As opposed to Dean Martin, who was far more confident of his strength and masculinity than Sinatra, and had little use for glad-handers of every variety, especially mobsters. As a young man, Dino Crocetti had worked as a dealer in gambling joints along the Ohio River, and knew exactly which characters to avoid.

  
3.
Peter J. Levinson told the author that in the mid-1960s, over the course of many conversations with Hank Sanicola—the two were working on a book that didn’t pan out—Sanicola said he had helped Sinatra pack a suitcase full of cash to take to Luciano in Havana.

  
4.
Thirty years later, he himself would tell Pete Hamill, “It was one of the dumbest things I ever did” (Hamill,
Why Sinatra Matters
, p. 145).

  
5
“Well, Frankie and I”:
Louella Parsons,
Middletown (N.Y.) Times Herald
, Jan. 27, 1947.

  
6
“wanted Nancy to have”:
Summers and Swan,
Sinatra
, p. 129.

  
7
“to protect personal funds”:
Ibid.

  
8
“A freakish accident”:
Robert Ruark, “He Remembers Lucky Luciano,”
Winona (Minn.) Daily News
, Feb. 25, 1962.

  
9
“Shame, Sinatra”:
Shaw,
Twentieth-Century Romantic
, p. 108.

10
“Sinatra was here for four days”:
Ibid.

11
“a good kid”:
Taraborrelli,
Sinatra
, p. 90.

12
“Luciano was very”:
Kelley,
His Way
, p. 133.

13
“In addition to Mr. Luciano”:
Shaw,
Twentieth-Century Romantic
, p. 108.

14
“It was a pretty story”:
Ibid.

15
“I was brought up”:
Ibid., p. 109.

16
“the complete story”:
Summers and Swan,
Sinatra
, p. 131.

17
“Picture me, skinny Frankie”:
Shaw,
Twentieth-Century Romantic
, p. 110.

18
“WILL YOU BE”:
Modern Screen
, May 1947.

19
“She found a doctor”:
Tina Sinatra,
My Father’s Daughter
, p. 8.

20
“Don’t you
ever
”:
Ibid., p. 9.

21
“Dad made a dramatic”:
Ibid.

22
“This excellent and well-produced”:
Shaw,
Twentieth-Century Romantic
, p. 115.

23
“known in the cafés”:
Earl Wilson, “Frankie’s Fight,”
Zanesville (Ohio) Times Recorder
, April 18, 1947.

24
“shit heel”:
Summers and Swan,
Sinatra
, p. 142.

25
“degenerate”:
Kelley,
His Way
, p. 136.

26
“I’ll kill you”:
Ibid.

27
“For two years”:
Ibid.

28
“Every time Frank”:
Ibid., p. 135.

29
“Jeez, I think”:
Ibid., p. 137.

30
“SINATRA ARRESTED”:
Los Angeles Times
, April 10, 1947.

31
“Frankie … was met”:
Ibid., Jan. 31, 1947.

32
“Frank came in”:
Wilson,
Sinatra
, p. 72.

33
“[giving] the story headlines”:
“Words & Music,”
Time
, April 21, 1947.

34
“1. Mr. Mortimer said he had”:
Kuntz and Kuntz,
Sinatra Files
, p. 26.

35
“arrest on a sex offense”:
Ibid., p. 31.

36
“I talked this afternoon”:
Ibid.

37
“It was a right-hand punch”:
Wilson,
Sinatra
, p. 73.

38
“Frank taught me to swim”:
Gloria Delson Franks, in discussion with the author, May 2006.

  
1.
She would name names to HUAC in 1952, and regret it the rest of her life.

  
2.
Weirdly enough, considering Sinatra’s future history, Tarantino’s first brush with the law in California revolved around the apparently staged 1945 kidnapping of his son, James junior, and his wife. Tarantino charged that the kidnapping had been engineered by the right-wing demagogue Gerald L. K. Smith in retaliation for Tarantino’s bold editorial stands against anti-Semitism and Fascism in … 
Hollywood Nite Life
. Sinatra telegraphed the district attorney on his behalf.

  
3.
Mostly. A photograph from a late-1940s Los Angeles radio appearance shows Frank and Nat “King” Cole sitting and looking at each other: while Sinatra is grinning with undisguised pleasure at being in Cole’s presence, the latter’s expression is wary and haughty.

  
4
“I couldn’t stand kissing”:
Kelley,
His Way
, p. 141.

  
5
“I wanna house”:
Christopher Reed, “E. Stewart Williams: Architect Whose
Design for Frank Sinatra’s House Launched a Style of Desert Modernism,”
www.guardian.co.uk/news/2005/nov/01/
.

  
6
“The show is alternately dull”:
Havers,
Sinatra
, p. 126.

  
7
“A campaign of propaganda”:
Westbrook Pegler, King Features Syndicate, Sept. 10, 1947.

  
8
“I insist the ‘Communist Party’ ”:
Victor Riesel, “Plot—Not a Party,”
Chester (Pa.) Times
, Sept. 10, 1947.

  
9
“of many writers”:
Westbrook Pegler, King Features Syndicate, Sept. 10, 1947.

10
“impugned the professional integrity”:
Ibid.

11
“Sinatra has several”:
Kahn,
Voice
, p. 23.

12
“Kahn writes also”:
Westbrook Pegler, King Features Syndicate, Sept. 11, 1947.

13
“From time to time”:
Westbrook Pegler, King Features Syndicate, Dec. 8, 1947.

14
“The crooner”:
Shaw,
Twentieth-Century Romantic
, p. 116.

15
“Broadway whispers”:
Ibid., p. 115.

16
“I hurried around”:
Davis,
Yes I Can
, p. 82.

17
“I can speak”:
Ibid., p. 86.

18
“always has a colored act”:
Ibid., p. 106.

19
“There’s a kid”:
Ibid., p. 110.

  
1.
In fact, this may have been the moment when, as a tribute to the great love of his life, Frank Albert became Francis Albert for all time.

  
2.
He had rewritten the script for
Gone With the Wind
on the same condition.

  
3.
Yes, the very tune with which Dean Martin would score a huge hit sixteen years later, toppling the Beatles from the number-1 spot on the
Billboard
charts.

  
4
“I don’t want her”:
Lyrics from “Too Fat Polka,” words and music by Ross MacLean and Arthur Richardson (New York: Shapiro, Bernstein, 1947).

  
5
“If you looked down”:
Cahn,
I Should Care
, p. 95.

  
6
“I looked at him”:
Gardner,
Ava
, p. 219.

  
7
“one of the greatest”:
Ibid.

  
8
“On this trip”:
Nancy Sinatra,
My Father
, p. 59.

  
9
“We’d had a few other governesses”:
Ibid.

10
“When the Crosby kids”:
Gary Giddins, in discussion with the author, Oct. 2006.

11
“I remember her”:
Crosby and Firestone,
Going My Own Way
, p. 76.

12
“When Bing realized”:
Giddins, discussion.

13
“Right now”:
Shaw,
Twentieth-Century Romantic
, p. 125.

14
“Pompous and funereal”:
Bosley Crowther, “Miracle of the Bells,”
New York Times
, March 17, 1948.

15
“Frank Sinatra, looking”:
“The New Pictures,”
Time
, March 29, 1948.

16
“a hunk of religious”:
Santopietro,
Sinatra in Hollywood
, p. 100.

17
“the worst single”:
“Last Year’s Movies,”
Life
, March 8, 1948.

18
“I just couldn’t”:
60 Greatest Old-Time Radio Shows Starring Frank Sinatra and Friends
(Radio Spirits, 2000). Set of thirty compact discs.

19
“It’s been a long time”:
Gardner,
Ava
, p. 220.

20
“A lot of silly stories”:
Ibid., p. 221.

21
“We drank, we laughed”:
Ibid.

22
“We met for dinner”:
Ibid.

23
“How you feeling”:
Spotlight Review 48
(Radio Spirits, 2000). Set of thirty compact discs.

24
“Mr. Sinatra’s performance”:
Bosley Crowther, “Frank Sinatra, Kathryn Grayson Head Cast of Lavish ‘Kissing Bandit’ at the Capitol,”
New York Times
, Nov. 19, 1948.

25
“Frank and my father”:
Arthur Marx, interview with Steve Glauber,
CBS Sunday Morning
, October 2007.

26
“It was nothing”:
Jane Russell, in discussion with the author, Sept. 2009.

27
“IS SINATRA FINISHED?”:
Modern Television & Radio
, Dec. 1948.

28
“so many things”:
Nancy Sinatra,
American Legend
, p. 87.

29
“not only can’t”:
Shaw,
Twentieth-Century Romantic
, p. 124.

30
“to be nearer”:
Nancy Sinatra,
American Legend
, p. 91.

31
“up in the world”:
Tina Sinatra,
My Father’s Daughter
, p. 20.

32
“It seems my friends”:
Lyrics from “Comme Ci Comme Ça,” words by Alex Charles Kramer and Joan Whitney, music by Bruno Coquatrix (New York: Paris Music, 1949).

33
“It wasn’t a very”:
Nancy Sinatra,
American Legend
, p. 87.

  
1.
Yet another easy target. Frank may have convinced Buddy Rich that he could handle himself pretty well, but that was long before Rich—who was as diminutive as Sinatra—had earned his black belt in karate.

  
2
“One day while”:
Nancy Sinatra,
My Father
, p. 75.

  
3
“The moment Candy”:
Tormé,
It Wasn’t
All
Velvet
, p. 64.

  
4
“I found [him]”:
Wilson,
Sinatra
, p. 83.

  
5
“Okay, kids, the part’s”:
Gardner, Ava, p. 217.

  
6
“a car sped”:
Ibid.

  
7
“I’m going to marry”:
Kelley,
His Way
, p. 138.

  
8
“I’d say”:
Jerry Lewis, in discussion with the author, March 2008.

  
9
“How can I be”:
Ibid. 387
“Don’t be surprised”:
Bosley Crowther, “Frank Sinatra and Gene Kelly in ‘Take Me Out to the Ball Game,’ at Loew’s State,”
New York Times
, March 10, 1949.