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Frank Sinatra — Part 17

55 pages · May 09, 2026 · Document date: Jul 18, 1960 · Broad topic: Public Figures · Topic: Frank Sinatra · 54 pages OCR'd
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a Jewish musician, Sinatra cracked him with a bottle, and when a coun’erman in a diner refused to serve ETO, Sinatra slugged him. “Nothing b.._gs out Frank’s temper as quickly as bigotry,” his press agent, Warten Cowan, says. In view of this, some recent develop- ments are incomprehensible. For example, what I heard during a performance of Si- natra’s Summit Meeting in Miami Beach in March made me wonder if my ears were working properly. Not only antirace and sntireligion jokes but also open pro- fanity cascaded from the stege. GINATRA demands—and gete—atrict obedience frem those around him. While he was working in Las Vegas, he decreed that none of his gang should set foot inside a certain club; nobody would have considered defying him. He insists on absolute loyalty, even to the point that none of his cronies may say any- thing remotely critical of him. For ex- ample, in the winter of 1959, Sammy Davis, Jr.. in an interview conducted by Jack Eigen, a disk jockey in Chicago, said, “Talent is not an excuse for bad I love Frank, but there arc many things he does that there is no ex- cuse for... .”»Word at once came to him that Sinatra was furious. Sinatra is said to have got a tape of the program. He took action promptly. He had previously had the screenplay of Never So Few re- Written so that there would be u part for Davis. He ordered the Negeo pari wrilten out and hired actor Steve McQueen in- stead, Earl Wilson, the Broadway re- porter, later said, “"Twas reported that Sammy was ready to hurl himself pros- trate on the stage to ask Frank's forgive- ness.” Later Sinatra did relent, and since then Davis has seemed determined never to fall from favor again, using only the most glowing terms when he speaks of the Leader. On March 25, 1959, while Davis was appearing at the Copacabana in Man- hattan. [ interviewed him in his suite in the Hotel New Yorker. He fidgeted con- stantly, moving from chair io chair, leap- ing to the huge sofa and squatting there on his haunches; he was like an excitable nuthatch. When I asked Davis about Sinatra’s reactions to his Chicago com- ments, he ssid he could not discuss the incident. Presently I asked him what it was about Sinatra that caused him and other members of the Clan ta be so slavish in their adoration. Davis locked shocked. He glanced over his shoulder nervously, then zaid solemnly. “Why. Le- cause Frank is a very. very. very great man.” Dean Martin later echoed this to me in an interview. “That Frank's the greatest,” he said. “A great. great man, that Frank.” With his new preat success, Sinatra has taken an the lash Hving habits of the sery. very rich, Harry Kurnitz, the screen writer and humorist, told af the time he was a guest an a vacht Sinatra had chartered for 2 group of friends for a cruise down ihe California coast. 1&2 Manners. exhaustible energy and ability to stay up until all hours, Kurnitz added, “You knov Frank is the only person in the wor. who will invite you to a black-tie dinner and tell you to bring your sunglasses.” Qn that same cruise, according to actor Martin Gabel, husband of TV personality Arlene Francis, Sinatra hired a seaplane. to follow the yacht, “to take guests home and bring aboard new waves of them.” Once, last spring in Miami Beach. when he needed a haircut, Sinatra had his own harber flown in from New York and gave him a hundred-dotlar tip; when his throat was bothering him. he had his physician brought down. When he gam- _ bles, he plunges like the legendery Bet- a-Million Gates. “P’ve seen him go up to the baccerat table with ten thousand dol- lars, sit down, pat the bundle on the table, ride it up to thirty thousand, lose YES, WE po REFUND YOUR MONEY Hf you bey any preduct advertised in our pages and it does not per- form as promised, please tell us about it. Let us know what the problem is, the name of the prod- uct, where you bought it, and You will hear from ws promptly, ond if an adjustment when, is in order, we will replace the product or refund your money, as we promise in our Consumers’ Guaranty on page & of this Issue. Address: Advertising Director, Gaod Housekeeping, 57th Street at Sth Avenue, New York 19, New York. it, and walk away from the table with « shrug,” says Red Norvo. At Monte Carlo, columnist Leonard Lyons once watched Sinatra place oa packet of ten-thousand-franc’ notes (ap proximately two thousand dollars) os the red, lose with one turn of the wheel. then take out another packet of bills of the same denomination, sad another, and: keep playing until the place closed and he was shead by around three thousand dollars, He walked out jauntily, leading his entourage to a nightclub named the Ali Baba. where he suddenly was moved to sing. The piano player did not suit him. He gave the man ten thousand francs to Jet his own accompanist take over, HE Clan. evidently believing thet imi- tation is the most desirable form of flattery, does its best to emulate ite Leader in his gaudy ways. All members—- with the possible exception of two female members, Shirley MacLaine and Judy Gariand (ine laiier has been iii and in- They wear clo theirs from a Sy Devore; REE Devire’ * 3 screen credit on his TV shows), and the. even drive cars like Frank's. His isa Dual-Ghia, a custom-made model -with an American meter and an Italian body, - costing around ten thousand dollars. 4 Martin once told me, regretfully, he had . | tried to buy a Dual-Ghis but could not, -“ find anybody who would sell him one: | He now drives a Jaguar hatd-top road- | ster, evidently with Sinatra’s approval. I The Clan also tries to emulate Si-= i natre’s own peculiar speech habits. All .? secret societies have secret languages, but - 2 4 the Clan’s is so obscure that a lady re {-*"! porter once complained, after Sinatr: had granted her a few minutes of his: time, “For years I tried ta get an excl” : sive interview . . . and when I got one, : * I couldn’t understand a word he said.” - — - wong (ONCE Sinatra has put his stamp of ap- proval on a slang word; it is obliga-' tory for the members to use it on all occasions. “Ring-a-ding” was for a time _ the number-one word, Sinatra would in-- ; ote Le. wAoaee fe whan terject it ints ms songs rtrity se au war - ever he wanted to express spproval, as). in: “Shirley MacLaine is a ring-a-ding _ { Sfoad.” “Broad,” of course, is the stand-. _ ard Clan word for “woman,” even a te * f spectable woman, although Sinatra some-— times applies it to women he docs not - like. A girl who especially pleases him } is a “‘gasser,” and enything that is fun 2.3 or thrilling is a “gas. ” The synonym for; ‘ almost any word is “clyde,” which orig. inally had an off-color meaning amen show folk, ae in “Kick him in the clyde.” 7} Sinatre and his cronies now use it for! >. nearly everything. “Hand me the clyde.”.-: aE 7 Sinatra might say, asking for the tele... phone book {in the unlikely event he“ oe ever looks up a number in the telephone * book) ; : or, “Let's go to the clyde,” mean-: ing, “Let's go into the dining room” or: “Let's go to the party.” si At a party, when Sinatra becomes -_ bored. he often says, “I think it's going © to rain.” This means that the Leader esl wishes to go elsewhere. Sinatra is always going elsewhere; he once said to director | * Vincente Minnelli, “I can’t help it. | - Nobody seems to be able to help me with - <2 it, I've got to go! T have to move!” «©. <> He was gripped by this” compulsion -- A the night of the reception following Jack “1. Benny's daughter's first wedding. The Bennys are topflight Beverly Hills so-. we cialites, loved and respected members of, -* a community thet prizes talent even above riches. They had given their: daughter such an elaborate party thet’ ~5: their peers talked about it for weeks: x afterward. Sinatra became bored soon * after he and his group. had arrived. “T: think it’s going to rain,” he muttered. : Those who did not hear him nevertheless party departed. Sinatra's war with the press hes now: become familiar to the public. He a insisted that the press
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