Edward Z. Epstein - Frank & Marilyn: The Lives, the Loves, and the Fascinating Relationship of Frank Sinatra and Marilyn Monroe

A POST HILL PRESS BOOK

Frank & Marilyn:

The Lives, the Loves, and the Fascinating Relationship of Frank Sinatra and Marilyn Monroe

2022 by Edward Z. Epstein

All Rights Reserved

ISBN: 978-1-63758-586-3

ISBN (eBook): 978-1-63758-587-0

Cover design by Cody Corcoran

Interior design and composition by Greg Johnson, Textbook Perfect

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author and publisher.

Post Hill Press

New York Nashville

posthillpress.com

Published in the United States of America

A heartfelt thank you to my sister and brother, Vivian and Steve, for their unwavering, unconditional love and support; and to our late parents, Rose and Leonard.

Contents

Shelley Winters

Vincent Sardi Jr.

Gwen Verdon

Frank Sinatra

Joe DiMaggio

Hal Schaefer

Betty Spiegel

Vivian Matalon

Martin Rackin

Frank Sinatra

Old Irish Proverb

Dore Schary

Lana Turner

Alice Hughes

Tony Randall

Dr. Ralph Greenson

Patrick ONeal

Betty Spiegel

Gene Allen

Frank Sinatra

Bob Rains

Frank Sinatra

Glenn Ford

Garson Kanin

Shelley Winters

T hey called each other Frankie and Norma Jean.

I saw them together in Las Vegas, recalled dapper nightclub entrepreneur Ralph Watkins, whose famed Basin Street East was one of Manhattans top clubs and whose connections reached deep into the music and show business worlds. In 1961, Watkins was in Las Vegas, and of course I went to see Sinatra at the Sands. I knew there was a good chance Monroe would be there, because [columnist] Dorothy Kilgallen, a Basin Street regular, told me shed heard that Marilyn might be a blushing bride againthats how she phrased itand the groom would be Frank.

Sinatra and Monroe were going to be married ? She asked me if I knew anything about it, and I said no. We laughed, because we knew anything was possible with Frank. Or Marilyn. If its true, she said, I wonder how Ava and DiMaggio will feel about that!

How indeed! Sure enough, the night Watkins was at the Sands to catch Franks act, Marilyn was front and center. High drama was in play. When she walked into that room, he recalled, it was like a bolt of lightning struck the place. Watkins heard that she was acting a little crazy, but she looked spectacular. Very, very sexy in a lowcut black dress. She seemed a little drunk, but who wasnt?

She sat ringside, swaying back and forth to the music, exposing maximum dcolletage. Her face was lit with excitement as Frank wove his musical magic, but shed violated a cardinal Sinatra rule against a woman appearing drunk in public. Later on, after the show, he was furious.

She didnt care. I could see Franks face getting redder and redder, recalled Watkins, and, at one point, Marilyn looked like she was gasping for air.

Frank knew she was having a rough year. But she usually came to life when she was in public. It was in private that her problems surfaced and took over.

Not unlike Frank.

They had been on-and-off intimate friends, a secret that was well keptno easy taskfor over seven years, and their relationship had finally developed into a serious affair. Those who saw Frank and Marilyn together that summer in Las Vegas knew that something important was up. Renowned singer Peggy Lee, one of Basin Street Easts star attractions, an artist greatly respected and admired by Sinatra, told Ralph Watkins shed heard about Frank and Marilyn and believed the marriage rumors to be true.

To fully understand the couples fascinating and unconventional relationship, which had developed gradually, in private, over time, one must flash back to the year when Marilyns rise to superstardom, and Franks fabled comeback, were on parallel paths. It was 1953, which was, to quote a line from one of Franks signature songs, a very good year indeed.

A normal life, by then, was out of reach for both of them; each had experienced how difficult and challengingand, at times, frighteningit was to be Frank Sinatra and Marilyn Monroe, constantly looked at but seldom really seen. They were living their lives on several levels at once; superstardom was a wild, strange country that one could never be adequately prepared for.

The Voice and the Goddess had not yet met, but it was inevitable they would. Think of Hollywood as one giant aquarium, where all the fish eventually get to know one another, whether they like it or not, noted Hollywood wit Oscar Levant. Most of them like it.

Frank, the boy from Hoboken, New Jersey, and Marilyn, the girl from Los Angeles, California, were dominating the entertainment scene, with career-changing films due for summer release.

It was a nerve-racking time. For Frank, the successor failureof From Here to Eternity would determine if he would remain a movie star. For Marilyn, the successor failureof Gentlemen Prefer Blondes would determine if she became a star.

Dont worry, Frank, itll be great, enthused what was left of his entourage. How many times, recently, had he heard that, or words to that effect?

Lets see what happens, Marilyn. You never know in this business, was what Monroe had to contend with from her pals. Optimism was not the daily currency.

Marilyn had been warned about FrankI told her to stay away from him!by her friend and former roommate, actress Shelley Winters. Id made a movie with Frank, Meet Danny Wilson , she recalled. Talk about Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde! He can scare the hell out of you. There were priests on the set. Chaos. Clashes. We exchanged insults. I think I called him a no-talent Hoboken idiot. At one point, I thought he was gonna hit me. I think he ended up by hitting Ava instead.

Marilyn didnt scare easily, and she respected Franks talent. His reputation? Well, that was another story, and she was intrigued. The most recent notorious incident had occurred late in 1952, in Palm Springs, around the time Monroe was contending with two potentially calamitous scandals of her own.

Exactly what had happened in Palm Springs that had Marilyn, Shelley, and everyone else in town talking?

Frank had gone on a jealous rampage. It was real-life film noir, with an all-star cast: Sinatras current wife, Ava Gardner, his former girlfriend Lana Turner, and others. Frank had lent Ava his home and surreptitiously parked nearby to see what she was up to. Finally, losing control, he burst into his home and a noisy brawl ensued. A neighbor called the police.

Never reported, until now, was the fact that Frank, having learned that Ava was pregnant and not believing the child was his, hit her in the stomach. She lost the baby. Lana Turner revealed this to her collaborator on her autobiography, noted film critic Hollis Alpert, after instructing him to turn off his tape recorder. This bombshell never appeared in Lanas memoir.

Shelley Winters recalled that Marilyn felt very sorry for everyone involved, especially Frank. Like Frank, Marilyn sympathized and identified with those who were regarded as underdogs, and, at this point, Frank certainly qualified. Poor Frank was the biggest loser in the Palm Springs debacle.

Enduring and rising above nasty headlines and public humiliation was an experience that could only be truly understood and shared with others whod survived it, and Sinatra and Monroe would always have that in common.