Sinatra

by Anthony Summers

  35–36 Three Flashes/audition: (frequented bar) Sinatra, My Father, 14; (“Frank hung around”) Sciacca, Sinatra, 105, New Jersey Monthly, Feb. 1982; (Dolly role) ints. Anthony Petrozelli, James Jr. and Angela Petrozelli, Rose Tamburro, Rose Paldino, Look, May 28, 1957, citing James Petrozelli Sr.—the latter later reversed himself and said there was no pressure from Dolly (Sciacca, Sinatra, 106); (now four/“Shine”) corr. Ric Ross, New Jersey Monthly, Feb. 1982; (solo lines) Friedwald, 64; (“Night and Day”) Silver Screen, Mar. 24, 1948.

  36–37 Hoboken Four: (“fools”) New Jersey Monthly, Feb. 1982; (applause) Romero, 27; ($75) Sinatra, My Father, 15, but $50 according to Sinatra, Legend, 25; (tour route) Freedland, 31–, Sciacca, Sinatra, 106; (without rehearsal) ibid., 107; (“He got so good”) ibid., 109–; (“Frank stood out”) ibid., 107; (“He could get”) Carpozi, 206; (beatings) Sciacca, Sinatra, 107–, Evanier, 48, int. James Petrozelli Jr.; (unconscious) New Jersey Monthly, Feb. 1982; (“got homesick”) Silver Screen, Mar. 24, 1948, Sinatra, Legend, 25; (Three Flashes later) New Jersey Monthly, Feb. 1982, int. Rose Tamburro; (“made me stick”) Silver Screen, Mar. 24, 1948.

  37 further search for work: (“panic period”) Simon, viii; (Comfort’s) corr. Bill Kelly; (Union Club) Shaw, Sinatra, 15, Fred Dellar, Sinatra, His Life and Times, London: Omnibus Press, 1995, “Sinatra Tour,” Hoboken Historical Museum; (“Minstrel Show”) program, Dec. 11–12, 1936, kindly supplied to authors by Ric Ross; (Rich/WNEW/WOR/WAAT) Shaw, Sinatra, 15, Freedland, 34, ints. Tony Mottola, John Marotta, Metro Newark, Apr. 1981; (Ray Sinatra) Dwiggins, 11–, Taraborrelli, 25; (“cream cheese”) New York Post, Apr. 11, 1947; (“one basic theory”) Douglas-Home, 21.

  38 Sevano/Sanicola: (meeting Sanicola) M/G int. of Nick Sevano, int. Lucille Kirk Buccini, Billboard, Nov. 20, 1965, ed. Yarwood, 124; (banged away) Modern Screen, Jul. 17, 1947, Shaw, Sinatra, 28; (“strong arm”) Look, Jun. 11, 1957; (slippingmoney) Douglas-Home, 21.

  38 Van Heusen: Billboard, Nov. 20, 1965, LAT, Feb. 8, 1990, ints. Gloria Cahn Franks, Tita Cahn.

  38 “kolo”: Billboard, Nov. 20, 1965.

  38 Hickory House: Shaw, 52nd Street, 150.

  38 Billie Holiday: (on 52nd) ibid., 21, 84–, 110–, 246, Billie Holiday with William Dufty, Lady Sings the Blues, London: Abacus, 1975, 94–; (studied) int. Tony Oppedisano, Arlene Francis int. of FS, WOR (NY), Oct. 1, 1977, audiotape in authors’ collection; (FS temper) Romero, 65.

  39 Ethel Waters: (FS “touched”) Ebony, Jul. 1958. Sinatra also greatly admired Ella Fitzgerald and Sylvia Syms. He came to think of Fitzgerald as “the greatest of all contemporary jazz singers.” In 1983 he made an album with Syms. Sinatra and Syms were friends; he nicknamed her his “little Buddha.” Neither, however, was a regular on 52nd Street in the mid- to late 1930s (Fitzgerald—Ebony, Jul. 1958, Friedwald, 86; Syms, friends—“Sinatra and Syms,” album liner notes by Sidney Zion, 1983, Philadelphia Daily News, Apr. 5, 1962, ed. Mustazza, 241; “Buddha”—Star, May 26, 1992).

  39 Mabel Mercer: (FS listens) Wilson, 22, Bill Boggs int., Arlene Francis int. of FS, WOR (NY); (background) Shaw, 52nd Street, 175–, Romero, 63; (Jaffe) M/G int. of Eddie Jaffe.

  39 opera: (People in the business) New York Daily News, Jan. 17, 1982; (opera was played) Sinatra, My Father, 35; (I Pagliacci) LAT, Aug. 12, 1943; (“greatest baritone”) Bill Boggs int.; (Merrill/Pavarotti) Geoffrey Giuliano, Sinatra: A Tribute, New York: Bantam Doubleday Dell Audio, 1998, Sinatra’s Diamond Jubilee World Tour program, New York Daily News, Jan. 17, 1982, int. Tony Oppedisano, Philadelphia Enquirer, May 17, 1998.

  39 voice coaches: (Tamburro) Kelley, 41; (Sevano) M/G int. of Nick Sevano, confirmed by FS, Metro Newark, Apr. 1981; (Quinlan) Metronome, Oct. 1948, FS int. by Zion, Kelley, 41, Frank Sinatra and John Quinlan, Tips on Popular Singing, London: Maurice Music Co., 1941.

  39–40 business card: New Jersey Monthly, Feb. 1982.

  40 “I wasn’t”: New York Post, Apr. 11, 1947.

  Chapter 5: “Did I Know Those Guys?”

  41 sobbing/“I suppose”: Dwiggins, 15–.

  41 Rustic Cabin: (described) Caye and Russ Jehn, The History of Englewood Cliffs, 1964–1994, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Centennial Committee, 1995, 111, 113, Simon, ix, Friedwald, 44, ints. Rose Paldino, Mary Mane, Lucille Kirk Buccini; (“sneak joint”) Charles Pignone, The Sinatra Treasures, New York: Bulfinch, 2004, 29; (link) New York Journal-American, Feb. 27, 1956, Shaw, Sinatra, 15, John Rockwell, Sinatra, New York: Rolling Stone Press, 1984, 32, Evanier, 48.

  41 “Working with a good band”: Simon, viii.

  42 scouts: Shaw, Sinatra, 18.

  42 Cabin job: (described) Gary L. Doctor, The Sinatra Scrapbook, New York: Carol, 1991, 16, Granata, 3, “A Mother Flipping Cockroach,” broadwaytovegas.com, Jun. 21, 1999, int. John Marotta, American Weekly, Jul. 20, 1952; (Arden) Dwiggins, 15.

  42 Harry Steeper: Dwiggins, 16, Carpozi, 26, Look, May 28, 1957, int. Ethel Steeper Bolz, NYT, Sep., 26, 1943. Steeper was close to James Petrillo, who became president of the American Federation of Musicians in 1940. The union had long been penetrated by organized crime, and Petrillo—nicknamed “Little Caesar”—was known for “sending the goons in” when nightclubs or musicians failed to cooperate.

  Dolly’s version aside, it is clear Sinatra also pushed fellow musicians at the Cabin to help get him the work. He said so himself years later, and Lucille Kirk Buccini—widow of the trumpeter who played there—said “he bugged my husband constantly” (Steeper background—“A Brief History of the AFM,” afm.org, “The Struggle for an Integrated Musicians Union,” jazzinstituteofchicago.org, “The Genesis of Organized Crime in Chicago,” ipsn.org., Dan Moldea, Dark Victory: Ronald Reagan, MCA and the Mob, New York: Penguin, 1986, 22–, 28; FS “bugged”—Sinatra, Legend, 31, int. Lucille Kirk Buccini).

  42 mob: (Some believed) Look, May 28, 1957, Dwiggins, 95–; (Mortimer) New American Mercury, Aug. 1951; (“Did I know?”) New York, Apr. 28, 1980.

  42 usage of “Mafia”: Strictly speaking, “Mafia” refers to the crime network that originated in Sicily. American organized crime rapidly came to include individuals of other ethnic origins, and has been given different names at different times—Cosa Nostra, the Outfit, the Syndicate, the mob, and so on. The authors are aware of the specialist distinctions between the various titles, and that Italian-American mafiosi are said to have stopped using the term “Mafia” as of the 1930s. “Mafia,” however, has become common parlance to describe organized crime— hence its use in that general context in these pages.

  43 CBS interview: NYT, Nov. 28, Newsweek, Nov. 29, 1965, Don Hewitt, Tell Me a Story, New York: Public Affairs, 2001, 94–, Walter Cronkite, A Reporter’s Life, New York: Knopf, 1996, 329–, CBS News special. When shooting resumed, Sinatra described “accusations that I was consorting with mobsters” as “ridiculous” (CBS News special); (evasive) e.g., exchange with Kefauver Committee attorney Joseph Nellis, cited in Hank Messick with Joseph Nellis, The Private Lives of Public Enemies, New York: Dell, 1974, 236.

  43 “I’ve met”: American Weekly, Jul. 27, 1952.

  43 Caruso/gangsters: Henry Greenfeld, Caruso, New York: Putnam, 1983, 153–, 238.

  43 Crosby/money demands: Gus Russo, The Outfit, New York: Bloomsbury, 2001, 123–, “Bing Crosby’s Secret Life,” americanmafia.com, Dec. 22, 1999, Donald Shepherd and Robert Slatzer, Bing Crosby, New York: Pinnacle, 1981, 100–.

  43 Lanza and underworld: Raymond Strait and Terry Robinson, Lanza, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1980, 162–, 145–, Parade, Jan. 12, 1964, “Memorandum Report,” Bureau of Narcotics, District 17, Nov. 12, 1957, and “In re Thomas Lucchese,” Nov. 27, 1956, Harry Anslinger Papers, Box 4, File 13, University of Pennsylvania Special Collections. In a 1957 interview with the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, Lanza said that over the years he had been approached by Frank Costello, one of the Fischetti brothers, and Chicago Mafia boss Tony Accardo. Tommy Lucchese, a longtime associate of Lucky Luciano, had threatened him in 1955. The latter threat, and an exchange in 1959 with L
uciano himself, will be covered in detail in chapter 17 (Bureau of Narcotics, District 17, Nov. 12, 1957, and “In re Thomas Lucchese,” Nov. 26, 1956, Harry Anslinger Papers, Box 4, File 13, University of Pennsylvania Special Collections).

  43 Martino deal: “About Al Martino,” almartino.com, Mean, Sep. 2001.

  43 Tormé: Mel Tormé, It Wasn’t All Velvet, New York: Viking, 1988, 118–.

  43–44 entertainers close to FS manipulated: Sinatra was an admirer, personal friend—and reportedly at one point a business partner—of Durante, who dubbed him “Moonlight Sinatra.” Raft, too, became a family friend and went gambling with Sinatra. He told reporters Sinatra offered to do “anything in the world to help” at the time of his tax trial—and sent him a blank check. Lewis went to Sinatra family celebrations, traveled abroad with Sinatra, shared a hotel suite with him, and drank with him in the company of mob chieftain Santo Trafficante. Sinatra performed in Lewis’s place when he was sick, cared for him personally, and paid his medical bills. He had portrayed Lewis in The Joker Is Wild, the 1957 movie based on the comic’s life (“Moonlight”—“The Best of Person to Person,” Edward R. Murrow int. of FS, Sep. 14, 1956; Durante—Sinatra with Coplon, 94, Memo to File, Mar. 1, 1955, “Summary Memo on Frank Sinatra,” FBI 100-41713-4, int. Tony Oppedisano; Raft—Sinatra with Coplon, 131, Billboard, Nov. 1965, Director, FBI, to Attorney General, Feb. 10, 1961, FSFBI, radio int. of Paul “Skinny” D’Amato, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, audiotape in authors’ collection, Look, Nov. 30, 1965, Hank Messick, The Mob in Show Business, New York: Pyramid, 1973 220; Lewis—Sinatra with Coplon, 94, 135–, LAHE, Jul. 6, 1964, Life, Apr. 23, 1965, Frank Ragano and Selwyn Raab, Mob Lawyer, New York: Scribner’s, 1994, 215, Art Cohn, The Joker Is Wild, New York: Random House, 1955, 249, JazzTimes, May 1998, Irv Kupcinet with Paul Neimark, Kup, Chicago: Bonus, 1988, 208).

  43 Durante/gangsters: Lewis Yablonsky, George Raft, New York: McGraw-Hill, 1974, 31–, Stephen Fox, Blood and Power, New York: William Morrow, 1989, 82–, Dean Jennings, We Only Kill Each Other, New York: Penguin, 1992, 20, Frank Rose, The Agency, New York: HarperBusiness, 1995, 93, 108, 146, 230, 241, Russo, 126, 171, 294, Antoinette Giancana and Thomas Renner, Mafia Princess, New York: William Morrow, 1984, 94–.

  43–44 Raft/mobsters: (Siegel) Jennings, 20, Ed Reid and Ovid Demaris, The Green Felt Jungle, New York, Trident, 1963, 20; (booze trucks) Gage, 80–, Yablonsky, 37, 246–; (Capri) Vincent Teresa with Thomas C. Renner, My Life in the Mafia, London: Grafton, 1974, 223–, Legal Attaché Havana to Director, Jan. 14, 1958, FBI 62-75147-210-109, “Supplemental Correlation Summary,” Feb. 25, 1969, “Subject: Frank Sinatra,” FSFBI; (IRS/shot) Hank Messick, The Mob in Show Business, New York: Pyramid, 1973, 216–; (Vegas) Dennis Eisenberg, Uri Dan, and Eli Landau, Meyer Lansky, New York: Paddington, 1979, 267; (barred) House Assassinations Committee review of FBI files, obtained by author, Gage, 81.

  44 Lewis/gangsters: (tenor) Art Cohn, The Joker Is Wild, New York: Random House, 1955, 30, 41; (slashed) ibid., 3–, 35–; (“sandpaper”) NYT, Jun. 5, 1971; (continued) Messick, The Mob in Show Business, 53, “Title of Case: Samuel M. Giancana,” Chicago Field Office Report, Jul. 27, 1964, FBI 92-3171-1447.

  44–45 mob and entertainers: (King) ints. Sonny King; (Teresa) Teresa with Renner, 123–, 121–; (jukeboxes) Steve Schoenherr, “Recording Technology History,” www.history.acusd.edu., Russo, 187–, Dwiggins, 11, Robert F. Kennedy, The Enemy Within, New York: Harper and Row, 1960, 247–, Messick, Show Business, 162, M/G int. of Ed Jaffee; (“We’re gonna”) M/G int. of Artie Shaw.

  45 Luciano background: (shoplifting) Sifakis, 200; (narcotics/revolver, etc.) “Memorandum re Charles Luciano” (with aliases), Aug. 28, 1935, FBI 39-2141-3, “Agent Benjamin Fitzgerald Report on Luciano,” Jun. 13, 1951, Lucky Luciano Files, LLBN, Sciacca, Luciano, 23, Harry Anslinger and Will Oursler, The Murderers, New York: Farrar, Straus and Cudahy, 1962, 102–, Rodney Campbell, The Luciano Project, New York: McGraw-Hill, 1977, 71–; (twenty murders) Sciacca, Luciano, 14; (“sadistic”) Wolf with DiMona, 9; (“wily”) Campbell, 3; (distanced) Sciacca, Luciano, 47, 50, Katz, 57, 89.

  45 Luciano emerged: Fred Cook, The Secret Rulers, New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1966, 99; Luciano was apparently present at the murder scene after Arnold “the Brain” Rothstein was shot dead in 1928, was certainly present when New York Mafia boss Joe Masseria was killed three years later, and was reportedly one of those who, the same year, organized the murder of the first and only “Boss of Bosses,” Salvatore Maranzano (Rothstein—Katz, 79; Masseria—ibid., 83, Sciacca, Luciano, 97–; Maranzano—ibid., 101, Katz, 87); (Waldorf Towers) Sciacca, Luciano, 121, Martin Gosch and Richard Hammer, The Last Testament of Lucky Luciano, Boston: Little, Brown, 1974, 148; (Durante/Lewis/Raft) ibid., 152, Parade, Jan. 12, 1964, Cohn, 339, Yablonsky, 246, Cusack to Anslinger, Mar. 2, 1961—Jimmy Durante’s name appears repeatedly in Luciano’s address books, examined by Italian police and supplied to the U.S. Bureau of Narcotics in 1949 and 1951, LLBN; (musicals) Sciacca, Luciano, 51; (stage employees’ union) Russo, 135, 140.

  45 Luciano imprisonment: (Public Enemy) Sciacca, Luciano, 126; (“brilliant criminal executives”) Alfred McCoy, The Politics of Heroin, New York: Lawrence Hill, 1991, 28, Cook, 99, Time, Mar. 12, 1951.

  46 Costello/Moretti: (visits) (NY) Daily Mirror, Apr. 7, 1954, Sciacca, Luciano, 166, 170, 182; (Moretti “idolized”/loyal) “Summary Report on Thomas Eboli,” Jul. 13, 1962, LLBN, SAC New York to Director, May 1, 1950, FBI 62-75147-34-106; (Costello/Moretti/Luciano) Gosch and Hammer, 24–, 51–, 94, Wolf with DiMona, 193, Katz, 43, 138–, 193; (Moretti record) Cook, 152, Gosch and Hammer, 51, Time, Dec. 25, 1950, Jack Lait and Lee Mortimer, Washington Confidential, New York: Crown, 1951, 303, “Willie Moretti aka Willie Moore,” Willie Moretti File, Alpha Names File, Kefauver Committee Papers, NA; (Moretti family man) Life, Dec. 25, 1950, Katz, 194; (murderer) Peterson, The Mob, 387, Sifakis, 225, Gosch and Hammer, 49, Cook, 153–; (Costello record) Wolf with DiMona, 31–, Katz, 39–, Sifakis, 91–; (Costello adviser) Cook, 101–; (killer) Wolf with DiMona, 93, 95, Sifakis, 92; (Moretti controlled) Sifakis, 225; (Riviera) ibid., Cook, 172, “General Crime Survey,” May 13, 1944, FBI 62-75147-31-2, Tosches, 149, Rose, 162, int. Joe Nellis; (Sinatra stop by) Bill Boggs int.

  46 Costello and Copacabana: Parade, Jan. 12, 1964, Katz, 132, Sifakis, 300, Fisher with Fisher, 30–. Costello had been subpoenaed during a 1944 probe into the Copacabana’s links to mobsters. He refused to testify. The club management, meanwhile, stated that it would sever any connection “it may now have or have had” with the mobster. In fact, things continued as before under a new city administration (Tosches, 158); (Stork) Collier’s, Apr. 12, 1947; (Tropicana) Pete Earley, Super Casino, New York: Bantam, 2000, 46, Wallace Turner, Gamblers’ Money, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1965, 21; (Lewis) Katz, 251, Cohn, 295; (Lanza) “Memorandum Report,” Bureau of Narcotics, District 17, Nov. 12, 1957, Harry Anslinger Papers, Box 4, File 13, University of Pennsylvania Special Collections; (Cohn/Warner) Rose, 92, Katz, 140, 225.

  46 Sinatra and Luciano: (chance encounter) New York Daily News, Apr. 11, 1947, American Weekly, Jul. 27, 1952; (“Had he heard”) “Hedda Hopper’s Hollywood,” Apr. 9, 1947.

  46 Sinatra and Costello: (“Hello”) transcript, FS questioning by Kefauver Committee investigators, Gallery, Sep. 1978, Messick with Nellis, 235, American Weekly, Jul. 27, 1952; (“those guys”) int. Nick Sevano; (“Sinatra and Frank C.”) Kelley, 194, 526—Miller was indeed close to Costello, see Katz, refs.

  46–47 Sinatra and Moretti: (FS versions) American Weekly, Jul. 27, 1952, FS testimony, Nevada State Gaming Control Board, Feb. 11, 1981, and see excerpt, Feb. 17, 1970, FS testimony to New Jersey State Investigation Commission, Kelley, 393.

  46–47 “Our backyards”: int. Angela Marrocco. The Sinatras owned a home at 220 Lawrence Avenue in Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey, in 1943 and 1944. Moretti appears to have used two different houses in Hasbrouck Heights during the 1940s. One of them, at 201 Bell Avenue, was only a fe
w hundred yards from the Sinatra home. The other, at 301 Roosevelt, is a little over a mile from the Sinatras’ house. Since Sinatra himself described Moretti as a “neighbor,” it is likely the mobster was using the closer—Bell Avenue—address at the relevant time (Lawrence Avenue—Sinatra, My Father, 46, 56, Dwiggins, 54, property records for 220 Lawrence Avenue, Block 84, Parcel no. 45-47, 1944, Hasbrouck Heights, NJ; Moretti houses—Paterson (NJ) Call, Sep. 22, 1947, “Guarino W. Moretti,” background memo, Willie Moretti File, Alpha Names File, Kefauver Committee, NA Newark to Director, Jul. 31, 1943, FBI 100-215961-2; property records for 201 Bell Avenue, Block 84, Parcel no. 32-35, 1944, Hasbrouck Heights, NJ, and ints. Office of Tax Assessor); (at Copacabana) handwritten notes of George Evans int., Sep. 10, 1947, Pegler Papers, Kelley, 146; (Pignatello) Las Vegas Review-Journal, Dec. 14, 1995, Aug. 11, 2001, int. John Smith—Pignatello was the chef of Chicago’s Sam Giancana; (“all his life”) Sinatra with Coplon, 73— Tina said he also knew people like Johnny Formosa, a henchman of Chicago Mafia boss Sam Giancana.

  47 De Carlo: (“laid-back”) Evanier, 67; (background) “Petition for Commutation of Sentence,” Apr. 4, 1972, “Application for Executive Clemency of Angelo De Carlo,” Jul. 7, 1972, J. Keith to Mr. Cleveland, Apr. 2, 1973, Angelo De Carlo Cross References, FBI, Cook, 207, Evanier, 67, Mountainside (NJ) Echo, Oct. 25, 1973, Elizabeth (NJ) Daily Journal, Oct. 22, 1973, NYT, Sep. 16, 1924, int. Jack Clarke; (“executioner”) David Scheim, Contract on America, New York: Shapolsky, 1988, 231, 304–, Life, Sep. 1, 1967, Jonathan Kwitny, Vicious Circles, New York: Norton, 1979, 60, Evanier, 75–; (Luciano/in touch) White to Anslinger, Feb. 5, 1951, “Agenda Personale di Lucania Salvatore” attachment to Cusack to Giordano, Jun. 20, 1962, LLBN; (“My grandfather”) int. Joseph Sullivan; (De Carlo/Moretti) “General Crime Survey,” Oct. 19, 1948, FBI 94-419-84, “General Crime Survey,” May 13, 1944, FBI 62-75147-31-2, “CAPGA: Crime Survey,” Aug. 8, 1946, FBI 62-8861-153; (De Carlo and Dolly) int. Joseph Sullivan—De Carlo’s grandson.