view raw text
INSIDE HOLLYWOOD By Herb Stein HOLLYWOOD Cal May 1 LOOKIN The May 14 Look on the stands now carries a sizzling opener for a threepart series on Frank Sinatra his talent tantrums and torment Its author is Bill David ¬ son whom Frank re ¬ fused any interviews Back in November when we visited with Frankie in his dressing room during the shoot ¬ ing of The Joker Is Wild at Paramount he told us that his life story would be Denned by Jimmy Cannon as planned This Can ¬ nonSinatra bio was for Look Then came some kind of scramble Cannon was either ill or Frankie too busy with his work In any case Look was worried because it wanted to go with the yarn was fearful Frankie might change his mind and shift the story to Life The Cowles mag assigned Davidson to the story he was on it for months Theres plenty Frankie wont like but theres much too that Frank will ap prove in the nine pages of the initialer herewith are some excerpts from the first installment There is a generous Sinatra and a cruel Sinatra There is a Sinatra who fights for the underdog and a Sinatra who bullies his underlings There is a cocky Sinatra a scared Sinatra a gay Sinatra a brooding Sinatra There is Sinatra the devoted fam ¬ ily man and Sinatra the libertine Even his friends are confused by his many faces They call him The Man with the Golden Charm but they also call him The Mon ¬ ster He is completely unpredictable but his predominant moods seem to be those of anger and selfdoubt His best friend Jim ¬ my Van Heusen says His boiling point is close to the surface A doctor who knows him says He suffers terrible depressions from loss of selfesteem Even now at the peak of his career he keeps asking himself Did I go over tonight Despite his self doubts there is no question that Sinatra at 41 is at the peak of his Ca Davidson says the fluctuations in Sina ¬ tras mood and character take place in him whether he is in Spain Hoboken Las Vegas New York or Hollywood The great natural acting and singing talent is always there But otherwise Sinatra isa chame ¬ leon He can change a dozen times in 24 hours His career is studded with inci ¬ dents where he snubs big names coldly It is also studded with occasions where he has acted with incomparable grace and wit toward such personages as Mrs Franklin D Roosevelt who considers him one of the most charming men she has ever met Sinatra has been known to enthrall people like Leland Hayward and David Selznick with his knowledge of politics electronics and literature He visits art gal ¬ leries and has a superb collection of sym ¬ phonic records on which he can discuss with expertness He is just as con ¬ versant with bigtime gambling and the seamier side of prizefighting He seems to get as much thrill out of fraternizing with thugs as with eggheads The same contradictions occur in Sina ¬ tras attitude toward women When he considers a woman a lady he becomes fur ¬ ious if anyone utters an offcolor word in her presence On the other hand when he was at MGM he posted a list of various movie actresses inside the door of his dressing room Then he began a methodi ¬ cal campaign of conquest checking off each name as he succeeded By the time he left MGM in 1950 practically every name had a check mark next to it Sinatra has a penchant for giving lav ¬ ishly inscribed expensive jewelry to his friends Each of the foregoing personalities carries at least one gift on which is written in letters of gold some such message as To my dearest buddy Ill never forget you Frank There are perhaps 50 people to whom Sinatra is no longer speaking walk ¬ ing around Hollywood and New York with similarly inscribed jewelry Some of his old eccentricities are be ¬ coming more and more pronounced One of these is his abnormal fastidiousness showers two or three times a day clothes are always impeccably clean cant stand to see an ash tray with cigarette butts in it refuses to handle dirty mon ¬ ey carries nothing but brand new 100 bills in his pocket constantly washing his hands Sinatra today is trying to lose himself in his work He finishes a picture or a nightclub engagement and the next day he starts on something else He told a friend I dont want to have time to think
