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women. To list all of Sinatra's girls would be an endless task, but in recent years Lauren Baca]! was the fi unner, as fer-as the Hdllywood gue. 5 were concerned, whenever anyone happened to ask, “Will Sinatra marry again?” Sinatra met Miss Bacall while her husband, Humphrey alive. Bogart then | called “The Holmby, ffi which met regularly , stafly Hollywood socitty. Sinatra became a member i in good standing. “He's a hell of a guy,” Bogart once said to me. “He tries to live his own life. If he could only stay away from broads and devote some _time to developing himself #s an actor, he'd be one of the best in the business.” Sinatra was around the Bo gart house frequently, not only when the Rat Pack was in executive session but at other times. He some- times stopped in the morn- ing; other times he would drop by in the afternoon, stay for dinner, and sit ground until Tate at night. areund until rate af i “{ don't know what it is about this Joint; it seems to be a kind of home for him,” Bogart told me. “It’s as though he doesn't have a home of his own. We seem to he parent symbols or something. Or maybe it's just that he likes a place where he can relax com. pletely.” After Bogart died, per- haps it was only natural for Lauren Bacall te turn to Sinatra for companionship, but their relations rapidly progressed upward from mere sociability. One eve ning, while the relationship was at its warmest. I had a drink with her in Beverly Hills. She was awaiting a telephone call from Sinatra. who was in Florida. Her eyes danced in anticipation. After she came from speaking to him on the phone, she was radiantly happy. “Are you going to marry him?” I asked bluntly. She gave me a mysterious smile and changed the subject. Later Louella Parsons broke the news that they were to be married. Some men close to Sinatra have told me he was in- (uriated; they say he blamed Miss Bacall for the renort and farthwith hrake off their relationship. Others say she was troubled by rumors she kept hearing of Sinatra's herculean interest in the oppo- site sex and decided that he could not take Bogart’s place as a father for her children. Whatever happened, a month or so later, when they brushed near each olher at « party, they scarcely spoke. The romance had lasted a year. Recently Miss Bacall told me that Sinatra still calls her occasionally. Others have re- ported that he calls his first wife, Nancy, 184 Last year, Sigatra was involv Lady Adelle Béatty, the American-bo-- ex-wile of ' Beatty, son of Adm Beatty, hero of Jutland. Sné visited h. in the United States, at Palm Springs, and also went to see him when he was making his annual pilgrimage to_Miami Beach. He visited her in London (where . -. he demonstrated to British reporters that his hatred of the press is not limited by national boundaries: “He appeared to loathe us just as much as he loathes Americans,” said Gerald McKnight of the Sunday Dispatch). Sinatra was annoyed by reports that he was about to marry Lady Beatty; he KID STUFF TOESURY do Rite “What a glorious morning to collect my allowance!” told an audience (which included Prin- cess Margaret), “I did not come here to ect married.” One friend of Lady Beatty's recently told me, “She felt he was too. mercurial for marriage.” Sinatra's reason for the eventual breakup has not been registered for posterity, Sinatra. as a dover. is a bit like an avalanche. Not long age a starlet, whe wes his girl for 2 full four dave (thereby es his girl for a full four days (thereby setting some sort of tenure record), de- scribed his courtship. “First. there were the incessant calls,” she said. “Funny calle—joky, kookie calls. You know, Frank is a real wit.” (Unfortunately, she could not remember anything funny he had said to her.} “Then there were all the flowers and champagne and presents hy the dozen. And then, when he finally got back to town (he'd been away). there were the nights at his favorite restau- rants.” She stopped. I prodded her to bewilderment. stopped. I mi Some girls last hatra's current ; Juliety the dancer. (That is, she is*2P im ing. By the time this is read, she have been replaced.) — . INATRA’S friends say his roman ardor is an indication of his fund4 mental zest for life and experience. P chiatrists might have different views, tak ing into consideration the fact that is fantastically meticulous, He. takes: at shower two or three times a day, changes’ = clothes more often than that, and is fiend- a ishly insistent that his quaie“¢ ters _kept_ immaculate He will not listen’ to erith--; ae cism of any kind. — Such behavior could: su gest that Sinatra. wes wounded emotionally whé he was very young and has: not been able to heal the ©’ wounds with the salve of. a maturity. Like his relations ..~ with women, the saga of his =: aa formative years has been ™ set down so many times -. that to repeat it except : briefly would only waste = space. He was born in Brees boken, New Jersey, ‘the - only child of a mother who = was a minor politician and; Bi a father who was the sec 2 af ondary character in the:2: connubia) drama. Variou relatives and friends helped : raise him. Skinny and’ me slight-muscled, he made | for his lack of stature wi a compensating cockinésa he hes never lost. Evidently, “=. as events have shown, lie™ did not make up for ee, enough, and still hasn't. - Indication that this back" - ground may have left e natra emotionally torn cin | be found in recent accounis _ of his life written by bidé- raphers not strongly inffa-. enced by him, his clique or his agents. Once Sinatra told « reporter that he hid gone to see a psychiatrist for a time bit ©. then he had given it up; he had found < out “what he wanted to know,” he ‘said. ©. The resulting combination of his be” havioral tendencies and of his vast ‘and-- growing personal power should he ‘a: cause of concern to all who watch and listen to popular records, radio and tele: vision shows, movies, and nightclub acts... It would be disturbing indeed even it. this enormous power were in the han of a completely stable and predictable” human being. When it is in the hands’ of a man torn by emotions that he appar. ~ ently either cannot or docs not care to” contro], it is something to view with‘ alarm. As Lord Acton's famous law, states: “Power tends to corrupt and db: solute power corrupts absolutely.”.- Tue End . PATETED in THE U.S. A. BY THE CUNEO FREES, :