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Frank Sinatra — Part 17
Page 16
16 / 55
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
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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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