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| Q » eo. . fo Np Ww ceseeeeee ; ‘ heferen: off Oe ey CaeS seers wm al . uae I a Cas | Sees. It = ¢ | Publicity Would Re-Shine Sinatra’s Reputation =~ By WESTBROOK PEGLER Coprright 1947 Bing Features Syndicate, Ine. , CAMPAIGN OF PROPAGANDA has been running in some areas of our press, including magazines, and on the radio, to rehabilitate the reputation of Frank Sinatga. This | reputation was impaired last Winter when Sinatra was ob-. Mal SUPERVISOR ” served in association with notorious persons including Luek PRIICHTY CLERK » Luciano, the deported Italian eriminal TAR ig Lane? Who hat served part of a long term in, | tA. hin, New York for prostituting women, but. turned up in Cuba for the social season: of the criminal scum of the North Amer- , 1 iean underworld. "1 Luciano is a gangster in the Al Ca- pone tradition and is associated with © the narcotics trade as we rel as with pres- titution. Not long after the escapade in Cuba, | Bindtra made his way to Hollywood, by , way of several Mexican resorts. In Hollywood, on April 9, he was arrested | on a charge of assault and held in $600 | bail. Pe eee Sinatra said Lee Mortimer had WESTBBOOK FEGLER = called him a vile name and that he saw red and hit him. Mortimer is a theatrical reporter and eritic about Sinatra's own size, | Mortimer said Sinatra was a liar. He said he did not even know Sinatra was present in Ciro’s restaurant, where the slugging occurred, until he was knocked down by an | assailant standing to one side of him or behind him. 1 ; N JUNE 3, MORTIMER ANNOUNCED in court that he | ’ was willing that the case be dismissed, subject to the apgroval of the judge, and said Sinatra had publicly acknowl- edged that the slugging was unprovoked. Mortimer said 4 ‘ Binatra had paid him $9,000, but explained that he felt (mz oR CONTAINED obliged to accept this settlement because otherwise Sinatra gy aIFl 4 might induce the court to grant him many postponements. ey _ Mortimer had made one return trip to California already SEP 1f 1947 end apprehended that he might have to go back there half a SRG PROM TE dozen times, neglecting his work in New York. Even then, 7 ve mx he might one day discover that, in his absence, the defendant teil. inion U had suddenly come into court and won acquittal because of | - the failure of the prosecitting witness to answer to his name, SEP 19 1947 B¥ashoh Soon after he was arrested, Sinatra’s license to Carry & | ° pistol was revoked. The fact that he had a pistol was news to the public and this incident evoked some comment on the fact that he had not carried arms against the Nazis in the war, although in the last days of the European war, and with increasing ferocity after V-E Day, Binatra had condemned aggressors, dictators and “intolerance,” . |