The Sinatra Files (11 page)

REQUESTED THAT THE FBI IMMEDIATELY MAKE AVAILABLE TO HIM PHOTOGRAPHS OF SINATRA’S HOODLUM ASSOCIATES SO THAT HE,
, MIGHT VIEW THEM IN AN EFFORT TO IDENTIFY THE INDIVIDUALS WHO BEAT HIM.

WAS TACTFULLY ADVISED THAT THIS WAS NOT A MATTER WITHIN THE INVESTIGATIVE JURISDICTION OF THE FBI, AND THAT IT WAS PURELY A MATTER FOR LOCAL POLICE AUTHORITIES. AT THIS POINT
BECAME VERY ARROGANT AND OBNOXIOUS AND DEMANDED THAT THE FBI ENTER HIS CASE. IT SEEMED THAT
WAS MAKING EVERY ATTEMPT TO STAMPEDE THE FBI INTO HIS CASE.

AFTER CLEARLY POINTING OUT THE POSITION OF THE FBI IN A MATTER SUCH AS THIS, THAT WE WILL COOPERATE WITH LOCAL POLICE AUTHORITIES IN EVERY WAY POSSIBLE, THAT IT IS A MATTER FOR POLICE INVESTIGATION THE CALL WAS TERMINATED IN WHAT APPEARED TO BE A FRIENDLY TONE.

“Mrs. Roosevelt in pants”

For many years, the FBI was much more concerned with combating the then ominous-seeming threat of communism than with fighting organized crime, the very existence of which Hoover questioned until the late 1950s. From the dawn of the cold war, the FBI intensively monitored the domestic activities of not only the Communist party, but also groups deemed too left-wing by Senator Joseph McCarthy, the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), and conservative Sinatra antagonists in the press like Lee Mortimer and Westbrook Pegler.

Sinatra was among the first of many entertainment figures whose patriotism was thrown into doubt by the red-baiting of the anti-Communists. His ardently liberal New Deal politics, of course, made him an obvious target. And Sinatra wasn’t shy about collaborating with outspoken leftists, including Albert Maltz, the screenwriter for Sinatra’s acclaimed pro-tolerance film short
The House I Live In
(1945). The film, which won him a special Academy Award, was a mixed blessing at cold war’s outset: It made him a darling of the American left.

It is clear, however, that the FBI was overstating the case when, in internal reports from the period, it referred to Sinatra as a “communist sympathizer” or a “CP fellow traveler.” In the end, it had nothing on him but the ordinary activities of a liberal celebrity.

Moreover, the singer was more nimble than Maitz and others who were blacklisted; he at first belittled charges that he was a Communist sympathizer, then confronted them head-on. And at one point an intermediary told the FBI that Sinatra was willing to spy on certain groups for the bureau. Thus Sinatra emerged from the McCarthy era with his career, if not his reputation, more or less intact.

    
A few months after World War II ended and just after the release of
The House I Live In,
Sinatra made headlines trying to diffuse racial tensions in Gary, Indiana, where white high school students were boycotting classes to protest a desegregation effort
.

Confronting a rowdy and antagonistic audience in the school auditorium, Sinatra stood center stage, his arms folded, staring down the crowd for two anxious minutes until the catcalls and stomping gave way to absolute silence. Then he stepped up to the microphone and announced, Hoboken-style, “I can lick any son of a bitch in this joint.” Hostility gave way to cheers, but his impassioned plea for tolerance ended up insulting some locals and failed to end the strike. It also cemented the boyish singer’s status as a hero to American liberals of every stripe, including Communists
.

This excerpt, from a 1950 report in the FBI files, summarized the incident
.

GARY, INDIANA, SCHOOL STUDENTS STRIKE INCIDENT, NOVEMBER 1, 1945

On October 18, 1945, the white students at the Froebel School in Gary, Indiana, went on strike for a second time. The first walkout occurred during September, 1945, when several hundred white students demanded that the school be made an all white school. The Indianapolis Office reported that the trouble between the white and colored races at this school dated back at least to the spring of 1944 when there had been an attempt to establish an all white Parent Teachers Association in opposition to the Association then functioning under the presidency of Beatrice Lawrence, wife of Howard Lawrence, a Communist Party organizer for Lake County, Indiana. This move was defeated and the PTA, including both white and Negro members, continued with Mrs. Lawrence as President. On November 1, 1945, Frank Sinatra appeared at the Memorial Auditorium in Gary, Indiana, at which time he made an appeal to end the school strike. During his speech Sinatra charged that the strike had been fomented by adults under the leadership of Joseph Lach, a prominent citizen and undertaker in Gary, Indiana. Sinatra referred to Lach as a small time politician who had never been
elected to office. Sinatra also attacked Julius Danch and referred to him as a man of shady character, opposed to whites and Negroes associating together, and said that he would personally ask the Mayor to throw Danch out of his office as City Hall Custodian. Sinatra also said that he had talked with the student strike leader, Leonard Levenda, who had refused to meet with him, but that he would try again to talk with Lavenda before leaving Gary. Levenda reportedly denied Sinatra’s charge and claimed that he had talked with Sinatra before the meeting and told him that Lach and Danch had no part in the school strike.

Danch was identified as the Editor of a monthly Catholic bulletin, the president of the Hungarian Political Club in Gary, and City Hall Custodian since January, 1943.

As a result of Sinatra’s attack on Lach and Danch, Father Lawrence T. Grothaus, Pastor of the Saint Anthony’s Church and Director of the Catholic Youth Organization in Gary, left the stage in disgust. Father Grothaus told Sinatra’s manager, George Evans, that Sinatra should not have delved into personalities. Evans reportedly replied that Sinatra’s information was in part, at least, received from the confidential files of the FBI. He later stated that he could not recall who had made the statement regarding FBI files; however, Evans’ statement pertaining to FBI files was witnessed by Police Captain Peter Billick and Patrolman
of the Gary, Indiana Police Department.

Relative to Sinatra’s source of information, Captain Billick advised that a check of Sinatra’s contacts from the time he arrived until he left the same evening revealed that Sinatra had no opportunity to obtain the information concerning Lach and Danch while he was in Gary.

The meeting on November 1, 1945, which was addressed by Frank Sinatra had been arranged by the Anselm Forum. It was said that many of the leaders of the Anselm Forum were CIO leaders and “so-called liberals.” The Indianapolis Office advised that they had no record of this group. No evidence was developed from informants of the existence of any subversive activities in connection with the
Froebel School strike which, in the opinion of Captain Billick, was brought about by the students acting on their own. He further reported that Julius Danch viciously fought the Communists; however, the Communists did seize upon this strike to charge that it was a plot by the steel mill interests in Gary to divide the colored people against the whites and thereby cause friction between the unions and the mills, in order to defeat a wage increase which the CIO was then demanding. The Communists also charged in a Daily Worker article on September 29, 1945, that Julius Danch had started the move two years ago when he attempted to form an all white PTA. In addition, the American Youth For Democracy organization in Gary distributed pamphlets on one occasion concerning the strike situation….

It was reported that there had been indications that the appearance of Frank Sinatra at Gary, Indiana, on November 1, 1945, “was perhaps induced by the AYD or by the Communist Party…. ”

But an unidentified outside source reported that Frank Sinatra paid his own expenses in coming to Gary.

    
Six weeks following the Gary incident, the special agent in charge (SAC) of Philadelphia told Hoover that an informant had identified Sinatra as a Communist
.