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  HIS WAY

  THE UNAUTHORIZED BIOGRAPHY

  OF FRANK SINATRA

  The whole story of his childhood, which is far different than the one he invented.

  His beginnings as a skinny kid crooner who caused a bobby sox craze.

  His relationships with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey.

  His climb to the top as a singer and movie star—and the scandal, violence and moodswings that followed.

  His trail of broken marriages to Nancy Sinatra, Ava Gardner and Mia Farrow.

  His on-going womanizing with the famous and unknown.

  The inside story of the rise and fall of the Rat Pack.

  His friendships with powerful Mafia figures.

  His public and private displays of verbal and physical abuse, both with and without his notorious bodyguards.

  His wildly lavish displays of generosity toward friends and charities.

  His vast influence that extends into the White House, today more than ever.

  The magnetism that still draws huge audiences worldwide.

  THE NO-HOLDS-BARRED INSIDE LOOK

  AT THE MAN, THE LEGEND, AND THE LIFE

  OF FRANK SINATRA

  HIS WAY: THE UNAUTHORIZED BIOGRAPHY OF FRANK SINATRA

  A Bantam Nonfiction Book

  Bantam hardcover edition / October 1986

  Bantam paperback edition / September 1987

  Grateful acknowledgment is made for permission to reprint the following:

  “The Man That Got Away (The Gal That Got Away)” by Harold Arlen and Ira Gershwin. Copyright 1954 Harwin Music Co. © renewed 1982 Harwin Music Co. International Copyright Secured. All Rights Reserved. Used by permission.

  “Richard Cory” by Edward Arlington Robinson. Originally published by Charles Scribner’s Sons.

  The still photograph from the motion picture Ship Ahoy copyright 1942 by Loew’s Incorporated. Copyright renewed 1969 by Metro-Golawyn-mayer Inc.

  The still photograph from the motion picture Anchors Aweigh copyright 1945 by Loew’s Incorporated. Copyright renewed 1972 by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc.

  All rights reserved.

  Copyright © 1986 by H.B. Productions, Inc.

  No part of this hook may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. For information address: Bantam Books.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Kelley,

  Kitty.

  His way.

  Bibliography: this page

  I. Sinatra, Frank, 1915- 2. Singers—United

  States—Biography. I. Title.

  ML420.S565K4 1986 784.5’0092’4 [B] 85-48264

  eISBN: 978-0-307-76796-7

  Bantam Books are published by Bantam Books, a division of Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc. Its trademark, consisting of the words “Bantam Books” and the portrayal of a rooster, is Registered in U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and in other countries. Marca Registrada. Bantam Books, 1540 Broadway, New York, New York 10036.

  v3.1

  To Stanley Tretick,

  whose tireless efforts on behalf of this book

  disprove his theory that photographers are a shiftless lot.

  “Reputation is what men and women think of us; Character is what God and angels know of us.”

  —Thomas Paine

  Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Author’s Note

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Disgography

  Filmography

  Author’s Chapter Notes

  Bibliography

  About the Author

  Photo Insert

  AUTHOR’S NOTE

  I tried several times to interview Frank Sinatra for this book. Over a period of four years, I sent him several letters but received no response. I began calling and writing his publicist, Lee Solters. Again, no response. I then made several phone calls to Mr. Sinatra’s lawyer, Milton Rudin, and sent him several letters. On August 26, 1983, Mr. Rudin wrote me, saying he “would be willing to arrange an appointment” in his law office in Los Angeles. Apparently, he changed his mind.

  On September 21, 1983, Frank Sinatra sued to stop this book from being published before a word was ever written. He filed suit in California seeking two million dollars in punitive damages from me for presuming to write without his authorization. He claimed that he and he alone, or someone he anointed, could write his life story, but no one else was allowed to do so. As he stated in his complaint: “Sinatra has, on numerous occasions, informed his friends and publicly stated that at such time as he decides is appropriate, he will ‘set the record straight’ as to many aspects of his life.”

  He further claimed that I was misrepresenting myself as his official biographer to get “inside knowledge of the private aspects or events of [his] life.” Asserting that I was misappropriating his name and likeness for commercial purposes, he asked the court to issue an injunction.

  Fortunately a national coalition of writers’ groups rose up to protest this action, claiming that Frank Sinatra’s lawsuit against me was an assault upon all writers’ constitutionally protected freedom of expression and should be dismissed on its face. In a joint statement they said: “The apparent goal behind Sinatra’s filing of this suit is to scare Ms. Kelley away from her investigation and, ultimately, to force her to scrap the book. Abuses of the judicial system such as these pose a serious threat to all writers.”

  Calling Sinatra’s lawsuit “a chilling example of how a powerful public figure using money and influence can orchestrate what the public shall know about him,” the coalition focused public attention on the rights guaranteed to all Americans under the First Amendment, even those people not approved of by Mr. Sinatra.

  For one year, Sinatra pursued his lawsuit. His allegations proved groundless, and on September 19, 1984, he dropped the matter.

  The writers groups applauded his action. “The court’s dismissal of this meritless suit—at the request of Mr. Sinatra—is a victory for all writers and the public,” stated their press release. “It reaffirms the right of the public to be informed about the lives of influential public persons whether or not they approve of the writer and his or her approach.”

  This coalition, which included the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, Sigma Delta Chi (Society of Professional Journalists), the Newspaper Guild, PEN, the American Society of Journalists and Authors, the National Writers Union, the Council of Writers Organizations, and Washington Independent Writers, mobilized quickly and effectively to offer their support. Without them, I could never have written this book.

  I am also grateful for the editorial support I received from the New York Daily News and the B
altimore Sun as well as Jules Feiffer’s brilliant cartoon in The Village Voice. Joseph Foote and Ronald Goldfarb in The Washington Post, Liz Smith in the New York Daily News, and William Safire in The New York Times wrote eloquently that censorship, no matter how you dress it up, is constitutionally impermissible. Such distinguished commentary deploring Mr. Sinatra’s attempt at prior restraint emphasized how important the press considers its right to cover public figures without restriction. As the Baltimore Sun stated: “If all the public can learn of the person is what the person himself wants it to learn, then ours will become a very closed and ignorant society, unable to correct its ills, quite unlike what the drafters and subsequent generations of defenders of the free-speech First Amendment had in mind.”

  During this time I received the good counsel of several lawyers, including my father, William V. Kelley, his law partner, Duane Swinton, and his former associate, Irene Ringwood, of Witherspoon, Kelley, Davenport & Toole in Spokane, Washington; my personal attorney, Benjamin L. Zelenko of Landis, Cohen, Rauh and Zelenko in Washington, D.C.; and my California attorneys, William W. Vaughn and Robert C. Vanderet of O’Melveny & Myers in Los Angeles.

  To research my subject as thoroughly as possible, I began by trying to read everything ever written about Frank Sinatra, an enormous task considering a career that spans over forty years. Heather Perram, my research assistant, spent months gathering books, magazine articles, and newspaper clippings, which she diligently filed and cross-referenced. Later, Patti Pancoe helped index the 857 interviews I conducted, while Maya Picado tried to give my office some semblance of order.

  Librarians across the country contributed their skills, and I am especially grateful to William Hifner of The Washington Post, Sunday Orme Fellows, formerly of The New York Times, Joe Wright of the Miami News, John Hodgson and Fred Schmidt of the New York Daily News, Homer Martin of the Bergen County Record, Marcy Marchi of Playboy, Judy Gerritts of the San Francisco Chronicle, Tom Lutgen, Nancy McKinney, Joyce Pinney, and Cecily Surace of the Los Angeles Times, Kay Shepard of the Los Angeles Herald Examiner, Vera Busanelli of the Paterson News and Hudson Dispatch (New Jersey), Judy Marriott of the Chicago Tribune, June Paramore of the Las Vegas Sun, Glenda Harris of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Nan Stoddard of the St. Louis Post Dispatch, Merle Thomason of Women’s Wear Daily, Cecelia Weaver of the Sacramento Bee, Woody Wilson of Variety, Beryl Costello of the Brockton, Mass., Enterprise, Andy Eppolito of Newsday, Lucy Forcucci of the Palm Springs Public Library (Reference Room), Arlene Nevens of the Great Neck (New York) Library, Joyce Miller and Jeanne Smith of the Information Office of the Library of Congress, Virginia C. Lopiccolo of the College of Journalism of the University of South Carolina, and Joan Doherty of the New Jersey Room in the Jersey City Public Library.

  I also received excellent research help from Simon Nathan and Heidi Stock in New York; Jerry MacKenzie, Michael May, and Louis Raino in New Jersey; Gloria N. Christopher in Minnesota; Miki Jameson in California; Jamie Raskin and Thomas F. Timberman at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Brandon Brodkin in Chicago.

  Editors, writers, and reporters across the country contributed help and advice throughout the project, and I’m most grateful to Nathan Adams of Reader’s Digest; Jennifer Allen; Hollis Alpert; Larry Ashmead of Harper & Row; Lissa August of Time magazine in Washington; Jim Bellows of ABC-TV; Lowell Bergman of CBS-TV; Winnie Bonelli of the Hudson Dispatch; Myram Borders of the Reno Gazette Journal; Patricia Bosworth; Arlene Bouras of Playboy; William Brashler; Norma Lee Browning; Herb Caen of the San Francisco Chronicle; Barney Calame of the Wall Street Journal; Tony Capaccio, a Jack Anderson staff associate; Ben Cate, senior correspondent of Time magazine; Charles Champlin of the Los Angeles Times; Garry Clifford, Washington bureau chief of People; Robert Carl Cohen; Patsy Collins of KING-TV (Seattle); Morton Cooper; Bill Davidson and the late Muriel Davidson; Ned Day of KLAS-TV in Las Vegas; Al Delugach of the Los Angeles Times; Digby Diehl of the Los Angeles Herald Examiner; Mary Ann Dolan, executive editor of the Los Angeles Herald Examiner; Jim Drinkhall of the Wall Street Journal; Harlan Ellison; Mike Ewing; Larry Fields of the Philadelphia Daily News; Roland Flamini of Time magazine (Beirut); the late Ketti Fringe; Tom Frisbie of the Chicago Sun-Times; Nicholas Gage; Jeff Gerth of The New York Times; Vera Glaser of the Washingtonian; Norman Glubok of CBS News; Albert Goldman; Fred Laurence Guiles; Joyce Haber; Jim Harrington of the Brockton Enterprise (Mass.); Pete Hamill; Seymour Hersh; Paul L. Hoch; A. E. Hotchner; Beverly Jackson of the Santa Barbara News-Press; Jody Jacobs, former society editor of the Los Angeles Times; Orr Kelly of U.S. News & World Report; Arthur Knight; Larry Leamer; Barney Leason; Bettijane Levine of the Los Angeles Times; Peter Maas; Scott Malone; Waits May of Time magazine in Washington; Arthur Marx; Peter McKay of the London Daily Mail; Marianne Means of Hearst newspapers; Hank Messick; Dan Moldea; Roy Newquist; Phil Nobile of Forum; Mel Opotowsky and Jerry Uhrammer of the Press-Enterprise (Riverside, Calif.); Tom Pryor of Variety; St. Clair Pugh; Peter Ross Range; Barbara Raskin; Wendall Rawls; Rex Reed; Thomas C. Renner of Newsday; David Richards, drama critic of The Washington Post; John Riley; Jerome D. Rowland, formerly with the Chicago American; Mann Rubin; Murray Schumach; Vernon Scott of United Press International; Barbara Seaman; Art Seidenbaum of the Los Angeles Times; Martin Short; Nancy Siracusa of the Hudson Dispatch; Martha Smilgis of People magazine (Los Angeles bureau chief); Martin Smith of the Sacramento Bee; Malvina Stephenson of Knight-Ridder; Anthony Summers; Basil Talbott, Jr., of the Chicago Sun-Times; Gay Talese; Jack Tobin of Sports Illustrated; Wallace Turner of The New York Times; Denny Walsh of the Sacramento Bee; Wayne Warga; Benton J. (Jack) Willner, Jr., formerly with the Chicago Daily News; Paul Witteman of Time magazine (San Francisco bureau chief); and Maurice Zolotow.

  I’m especially grateful to those writers who gave me their unpublished interviews for this book. My thanks to Ovid Demaris for his interview with Bobby Garcia; to David Horowitz for his interview with Milt Ebbins; to Bill Martin for his interview with Budd Granoff; and to Michael Thornton for his interviews with Ava Gardner. I’m also very grateful to Dick Partee for the hundreds of tapes he gave me of Frank Sinatra’s “tea breaks”—the intervals during his performances when he addresses personal remarks to his audience.

  My thanks also to the presidential libraries of Franklin D. Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, and Lyndon B. Johnson, as well as the archivists of Hubert Humphrey’s papers at the Minnesota Historical Society. The oral histories at Columbia University and the University of Nevada-Reno in Las Vegas were most helpful, as was the assistance I received from the Mugar Memorial Library at Boston University. The information provided by the American Film Institute and the Margaret Hedrick Library of the Motion Picture Academy of Arts and Sciences in Los Angeles, the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at the University of Texas in Austin, and the Performing Arts Research Center of the New York Public Library was invaluable. I’m grateful to the staff at the University of Southern California for providing access to the Warner Bros, collection, to the Special Collections Office at the University of California at Los Angeles for the Stanley Kramer papers, and to Herbert Nusbaum, legal counsel of MGM/UA, for giving me access to the studio’s legal files. Patrick F. Healy, executive director of the Chicago Crime Commission, was most helpful, as were Virgil Peterson, former executive director of the Chicago Crime Commission; David Schippers, former chief of the organized crime and racketeering section, U.S. District Attorney’s Office in Chicago; Terrance A. Norton, assistant director, Better Government Association, Chicago; and Joe A. Nunez of the U.S. District Court, Los Angeles. My thanks also to the family of Thomas Thompson—his brother Larry, his former wife, Joyce, and his two sons Kirk and Scott—for giving me unrestricted access to Tommy’s papers.

  Backed by extensive research, I began my interviews in Hoboken, New Jersey, where Frank Sinatra was born and raised. I tried to locate people who had known him and his family, and could speak with authority about his childhood. I made several trips to
the area and talked to neighbors, friends, and classmates. I’m grateful to Anthony DePalma for his orientation to the mile-square city, to playwright Louis LaRusso, who lives in Hoboken and wrote Lamppost Reunion, and to all who shared their recollections, including Vinnie Amato, Bob Anthony, Mary Caiezza, Steve Capiello, Connie Cappadona, Minnie Cardinale, Anne Cardino, Rose Bucino Carrier, Fran Capone Ciriello, Doris Corrado, Josephine DeAngelis, Sister Mary Consilia Dondero, O.S.F., Ed Fitzsimmons, Laurence Florio, Frank and Minnie Garrick, Ellen Gates, Agnes Carney Hannigan, James Lanzetti, Joseph Lanzo, Joe “Gigi” Lissa, Eileen Clancy Lorenzo, Mike Losito, Tony Macagnano, Jerry Malloy, Johnny Marotta, Mike “Don” Milo, John Pascale, Tony “Skelley” Petrazelli, Joseph Romano, Joan Crocco Schook, Marion Brush Schreiber, Adam Sciarea, Richard Shirak, Fred “Tamby” Tamburro, Jimmy Trombetta, Frank “The Barber” Viggiano, Dominick Vitólo.

  Others in New Jersey who were helpful include Al Algiro, Grace Barenris, Jean Cronan, Danny Figarelli, J. Owen Grundy, Judge Roger Hauser, Sam Lafaso, Elaine Lopez, Dolly Molla, Jimmy Roselli, Lud Shebazian, Thomas F. X. Smith, Bill Tonelli, Irv Wagen, Adeline Yacenda.

  My sources made the most important contribution to this book. Some were too afraid of reprisals from Frank Sinatra to speak on the record; others, because of their positions in the entertainment industry, law enforcement, and the White House, cannot be thanked by name, but I’m grateful to all of them for their help. Only by interviewing as many people as possible, and some several times, with a tape recorder running, did I come to know my subject. Not every interview could be used in the book, but I appreciate the time and consideration of everyone who cooperated, including several of Frank Sinatra’s relatives, who so generously shared their recollections.

  My thanks to: Jay Allen, Steve Allen, Mrs. Ted Allen, Louise Anderson, Joe Armstrong, Charlotte Austin, Pat Babineau, Seth Baker, Rona Barrett, Ben Barton, Arthur Bell, Kevin Bellows, Sandra Grant Bennett, Nancy Berg, Mr. Blackwell, G. Robert Blakey, Neil Blincow, Bob Block, Rosalie Garavente Blumberg, Joan Benny Blumofe, Peter Borsari, Jean Israel Brody, Dick Brooks, Edmund G. “Pat” Brown, Vanessa Brown, Buck Buchwach, Jessica Burstein, Jim Byron, Sammy Cahn, Tita Cahn, Joe Canzeri, Irene Carmi, Randy Carmichael, Hoagy Carmichael, Jr., Anna Carroll, Paul Chandler, Isolde Chapin, Eleanor Churchin, Blair Clark, Mrs. Lee J. Cobb, Victor LaCroix Collins, David Patrick Columbia, Richard Condon, Bill Connell, Carol Conners, Ruth Conte, Pat Cooper, Paul Corbin, Tony Costa, Ronnie Cowan, Jean Cronan, Joan Crosby, Pat Cuda, John Daly, Peter Darmanin, Norma Ebberhart Dauphin, Shelly Davis, Lorna Dawkins, Arlene Demarco, Sally Denton, Iris de Reyes, Armand S. Deutsch, Joan Dew, Brad Dexter, Dennis Diamond, Phyllis Diamond, Maria DiMartini, John Dinges, Stanley Donen, William Dozier, Henry Dressel, Lenny Dunne, Fred Dutton, Les Edgley, George Eels, Larry Eisenberg, Corinne Entratter, Richard Epstein, Louis Estevez, Laura Eustace, Norman Evans, Phil Evans, Alice Everett, Dan and Katherine (Judith) Exner, Irving Fein, Michael Feinstein, Dennis Ferrara, Anita Colby Flagler, Heather and Tom Foley, Sue Foster, Franklin Fox, John Frankenhiemer, George Franklin, Emily Friedrich, Fred Froewiss, Katherine Foster Galloway, Joe Garafolo, Betty Garrett, Elio Gasperetti, Sondra Giles, Dizzy Gillespie, Edith Mayer Goetz, Vic Gold, Jerry Goldsmith, Harry Goodman, Harry Gossett, Currie Grant, Eleanor Roth Grasso, Kathryn Grayson, Johnny Green, Stephen Green, Shecky Greene, Elizabeth Greenschpoon, Mrs. Romy Greenson, Leo Guild, Richard Gully, Mel Haber of the Ingleside Inn in Palm Springs, Connie Haines, Corky Hale, Tom Hanlon, William Harnevious, Larry Harris, Robin “Curly” Harris, Joan Cohn Harvey, John Hearst, William Randolph Hearst, Jr., James P. Hoffa, Jr., Sam Holt, Karen Homewood, Allen Horowitz, William G. Hundley, Joe Hyams, George Jacobs, Marcia Jacobs, Eddie Jaffe, Kitty Kallen, Joanne Kane, Lee Kendall, Maggie Kilgore, Nick Kostopolous, Joel Kozol, Kris Kristofferson, Helyne Landres, Jules Levine, Christine and Joe Lai tin, Richard Lamparski, Lor-Ann Land, Abe Lastfogel, Tom Lauria, Esther Burns Lauter, the late Peter Lawford, Dr. Gordon Letterman, Marvin Lewis, Sr., Perry Lieber, Muriel Lipsey, Debra Davis Lipson, Kurt Ludtke, Sid Luft, Judy Lynch, Dick Lyneis.