The Sinatra Files (3 page)

    
1939

February 4: Marries Nancy Barbato.

June: Joins Harry James and His Orchestra.

First recordings with the James band, including “All or Nothing at All.” James later releases Sinatra from contract so he can join the Tommy Dorsey Band.

    
1940

January: Joins the Tommy Dorsey Band.

May 23: Records “I’ll Never Smile Again,” his first major hit, crystallizing the yearning and despair of a generation torn apart by World War II.

June 8: Birth of first child, Nancy Sandra.

    
1941

Voted Outstanding Male Vocalist by
Billboard
and
Downbeat
.

First of nearly sixty film appearances:
Las Vegas Nights
.

    
1942

January: First solo recordings (with Axel Stordahl arranging) on RCA’s subsidiary label Bluebird, including “Night and Day.”

September: Last appearance with Dorsey band.

December 30: Appears at Paramount Theatre for the first time as an “extra added attraction” with Benny Goodman’s band.

    
1943

Lead singer on
Your Hit Parade
radio show (until 1945).

June: First Columbia recording session, including “Close to You.” Sinatra is backed by a vocal chorus because of a musicians’ strike.

August 13: The FBI opens its first file on Sinatra, “for the purpose of filing miscellaneous information” on the star.

    
1944

January 10: Birth of second child, Franklin Wayne Emmanuel.

February: The FBI opens a “limited inquiry” into whether Sinatra had bribed his way out of the draft.

Spring: Moves family to California.

October: Columbus Day riot by fans at the Paramount.

    
1945

Signs with MGM and makes
Anchors Aweigh
.

Makes the film short
The House I Live In
, a plea for ethnic and religious tolerance.

December 12: The FBI begins tracking Sinatra’s alleged Communist ties.

    
1946

Wins special Oscar for his role in
The House I Live In
.

    
1947

February 11: Flies to Havana with the Fischetti brothers of Al Capone’s Chicago gang and socializes there with Lucky Luciano, father of the modern Mafia. Columnist Robert Ruark sees Sinatra with mobsters in Havana and reports about it.

February: Soon thereafter, the FBI files begin to note Sinatra’s mob affiliations.

April 8: Sinatra assaults a hostile columnist, Lee Mortimer, outside Ciro’s nightclub in Hollywood.

    
1948

June 20: Birth of third child, Christina (Tina).

    
1950

May: Television debut on
The Star-Spangled Revue
.

September 7: According to an FBI memo, a Sinatra go-between conveys the singer’s offer to become an FBI informer.

October: First television series,
The Frank Sinatra Show
.

    
1951

Divorces Nancy Barbato.

August: Columnist Lee Mortimer alleges that in 1947 Sinatra delivered $2 million in cash to Lucky Luciano, a charge never proven.

November 7: Marries Ava Gardner in Philadelphia.

    
1952

September: Final Columbia recording session.

    
1953

From Here to Eternity
(wins Oscar for Best Supporting Actor the following year).

Separates from Ava Gardner (and is later divorced).

April: Signs with Capitol Records and begins collaboration with the arranger Nelson Riddle.

    
1954

“Young at Heart” (song).

Buys a 2 percent interest (later increased) in the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas.

Army denies clearance to Sinatra to entertain troops in Korea, citing alleged Communist affiliations.

    
1955

The Man With the Golden Arm
(Academy Award nomination for Best Actor).

Guys and Dolls
(film).

September: Plays the Stage Manager in TV production of Thornton Wilder’s
Our Town
, which produced the hit song “Love and Marriage.”

    
1957

Pal Joey
(film).

The Joker Is Wild
(film).

“All the Way” (song).

October: Second TV series,
The Frank Sinatra Show
.

    
1959

Wins Grammy Awards for Album of the Year
(Come Dance With Me!
) and Best Solo Vocal Performance.

    
1960

Forms Reprise Records.

Ocean’s Eleven
(first film with the Rat Pack).

February 7: Sinatra introduces Senator John F. Kennedy to a former girlfriend, Judith Campbell, after a Rat Pack performance at the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas. They soon begin an affair.

March: Sinatra introduces Campbell to the mobster Sam Giancana at the Fontainebleau in Miami Beach. She and Giancana later had an affair.

March: FBI begins tracking Sinatra’s socializing with John F. Kennedy.

    
1961

First Reprise album:
Ring-a-Ding-Ding
.

January: Produces John F. Kennedy’s inaugural.

February: J. Edgar Hoover memo to Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy on Sinatra and the mob.

    
1962

The Manchurian Candidate
(film).

March: JFK changes arrangements for trip to Palm Springs, staying at Bing Crosby’s home rather than Sinatra’s.

November 26-December 2: The Rat Pack performs at the mobrun Villa Venice in suburban Chicago, in what the FBI calls a “command performance” for Sam Giancana.

    
1963

January 16: The FBI interviews Sinatra about his request for a Teamsters loan to expand the Cal-Neva Lodge in Lake Tahoe, a casino in which he has a major interest.

April 24: An FBI agent proposes bugging Sinatra’s Palm Springs home. Hoover says no.

Fall: Sinatra gives up his Nevada gambling license and his interest in the Cal-Neva Lodge after the mobster Sam Giancana is seen at the casino.

November 22: JFK is assassinated.

December 8: Kidnapping of Frank Sinatra, Jr.

December 12: Frankie is released on his father’s birthday.

    
1964

June 27: A Catholic prison chaplain writes to Sinatra asking him to forgive his son’s convicted kidnappers. A month later, Sinatra angrily rejects the priest’s suggestion as “presumptuous” and corresponds with Hoover about the matter.

    
1965

November: Wins Grammy awards for Best Album of the Year
(September of My Years)
and Best Solo Vocal Performance (“It Was a Very Good Year”).

November: TV special
Sinatra: A Man and His Music
, wins Emmy and Peabody awards. Laudatory CBS TV News special
Sinatra: An American Original
, hosted by Walter Cronkite.

Von Ryan’s Express
(film).

    
1966

July 19: Marries Mia Farrow.

Wins Grammys for Album of the Year
(Sinatra: A Man and His Music)
and Record of the Year (“Strangers in the Night”).

“That’s Life” (song).

    
1967

“Something Stupid” (duet with daughter Nancy).

    
1968

Divorces Mia Farrow.

    
1969

“My Way” (song).

January 24: Death of his father, Martin Sinatra.

A New Jersey commission subpoenas Sinatra to testify about organized crime in the state.

    
1971

March: Announces retirement.

June 13: “Final” performance at Los Angeles Music Center.

    
1972

House panel subpoenas him to testify about an old investment in a mob-controlled racetrack in Massachusetts.

    
1973

Sinatra sings “The House I Live In” at the Nixon White House.

November: Ends retirement with TV show and album:
Ol’ Blue Eyes Is Back
.

    
1974

October: The Main Event tour (televised).

    
1975

June 19: Giancana is murdered the night before an interview with Senate staff members about the mob’s connections to the Kennedy administration and plots on Fidel Castro.

    
1976

July 11: Marries Barbara Marx (divorced from Zeppo).

Sinatra is photographed backstage with New York mobster Carlo Gambino.

    
1977

January 6: Death of his mother, Dolly, in a plane crash.

    
1980

“New York, New York” (song).

    
1981

Nevada gambling license restored. President Ronald Reagan is a character reference.

    
1983

Receives Kennedy Center Honors Award for Lifetime Achievement.

    
1985

January: Produces Ronald Reagan’s second inaugural.

March: Last entry in Sinatra FBI files, a death threat from a mentally disturbed woman.

May 23: Receives honorary degree from Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, N.J.

May 23: Awarded Medal of Freedom.

    
1988

Goes on The Ultimate Event tour with Sammy Davis, Jr., and Dean Martin (later replaced by Liza Minnelli).

    
1990

Launches the Frank Sinatra Diamond Jubilee tour to commemorate his seventy-fifth birthday.

    
1993

October: Records the album
Duets
in collaboration with well-known vocalists who tape their parts separately, including Bono of the rock group U2.

    
1998

May 14: Dies at the age of eighty-two.

Most of the documents excerpted in this book were partly and in some cases extensively censored by the FBI, usually to comply with privacy laws and protect investigative sources. Many documents contained material that duplicated material elsewhere in the files.

For these reasons, the editors have taken some very limited liberties in a few cases. For example, the editors at times compiled portions from multiple similar memos into composites that contain the most noteworthy paragraphs from each of the originals. In those cases, the editors also excluded as much duplicative and less-noteworthy material as possible, but didn’t note each and every deletion. And the transcripts of electronically monitored conversations have been edited for clarity. The editors have disclosed such techniques where appropriate in the explanatory material preceding each excerpt.

In most other cases, three asterisks (
) denote the deletion of whole sections of intervening text, while ellipses (…) indicate lesser deletions. Text blacked out (redacted) by the FBI is noted with black bars (
). Throughout, clearly extraneous material—such as page numbers, time-and-date stamps, numerical file references, letterheads, miscellaneous unimportant handwritten notations, and memo-routing information—has been deleted without use of the denotations mentioned above. Most errors in spelling and grammar have been corrected, too. Also, because of copyright issues, several letters from private citizens, including Frank Sinatra, have been paraphrased with only limited excerpts, in compliance with legal fair use restrictions.

Numerous documents on Frank Sinatra in the FBI files open with a short biography of the singer. Below is a typical one, from about 1950
.

BIOGRAPHICAL DATA

Francis Albert Sinatra, generally known as Frank Sinatra, was born December 12, 1915 or 1916, according to his Selective Service file, and on December 12, 1917, according to public source material. He was reportedly born in Hoboken, New Jersey, the son of Martin (also reported as Anthony) and Natalie Garavante Sinatra, who were both born in Italy. His father has been a professional bantam weight boxer, boilermaker, shipyard worker during World War I, and subsequently became a Captain in the Hoboken Fire Department.