(From the
Guestbook page and the online book
Frank Sinatra: An American Legend by Nancy Sinatra
)
NOVEMBER 26, 1984: The Boy Scouts of America honored
FS with the Distinguished American Award at the Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles.
NOVEMBER 25–28, 1983: Worcester, Massachusetts, Hartford, Connecticut, and Nassau Coliseum in Long Island, New York.
NOVEMBER 23–30, 1975: Former vice president Agnew accompanied Dad and Barbara Marx to Tehran, where Frank was to perform. Then it was on to Israel for two charity shows on behalf of the Frank Sinatra Youth Center for Arab and Jewish Children.
NOVEMBER 25–27, 1971: Spiro Agnew and his family spent Thanksgiving weekend with Dad in Palm Springs.
NOVEMBER 26–DECEMBER 19, 1968: Returning to Las Vegas for the first time since his fight with Carl Cohen at the Sands, Frank moved down the Strip to his new home, Caesars Palace. The big Circus Maximus at Caesars offered him the opportunity to reach a bigger audience and to command a bigger salary. Caesars must have added rooms every time Sinatra appeared there. The place always seemed to be under construction. The marquee occasionally read "Guess Who." This finally evolved to a simple "He's Here." Nothing else needed to be said. The waiters, the bellmen, the guests, the whole place took on 10,000 volts of energy with each new Sinatra appearance. They called him "The Noblest Roman of Them All," and said so on the medallions they gave the guests. He packed every show, sometimes to the distress of the Las Vegas Fire Department, whose inspectors were constantly moving people out of the aisles and off stairways. And the bedlam spilled over to the other hotels. When Frank was in town, the whole town felt it.
NOVEMBER 26, 1963: A benefit for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. starring Dad, Frank Jr. and the Count Basie band at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium was canceled in the aftermath of the Kennedy assassination.
NOVEMBER 26–DECEMBER 2, 1962: Frank, with Dean and Sammy, played the Villa Venice in Northbrook, Illinois, a nightclub owned by Sam Giancana. The shows were Dad's way of paying back Giancana for the help he provided to the Kennedy family. During the engagement, 10 shows and several comedy skits were recorded on 59 reels of audiotape for an album to be called
At the Summit, but the entire project was scrapped until much later when two bootleg CDs appeared in the stores.
THE RING-A-DING-DING SIXTIES: Dad's sometimes rowdy inner circle, in addition to Jilly Rizzo, included actors Henry Silva, Brad Dexter and Dick Bakalyan. Dick once laughingly told me, "You travel with your dad, you see every jail in the world." He once recalled the time he accompanied my father to Cortina, Italy, on a film project: "I made the mistake of going to bed early. Frank said, 'No, no, we must stay up.' I said, 'You stay up, I'm going to bed.' The next day, while I was at work, Frank and the others broke into my room and threw all my clothes out the window." Dad bought him an entire new wardrobe. Soon afterward, ensconced in a Rome villa, Brad Dexter kept talking about needing a new pair of shoes. Tired of hearing about these shoes, Jilly conspired with Dad to rig Dexter's old pair with cherry bombs. He blew them 20 feet in the air! When the gang arrived by yacht at Portofino, Dexter decided to get even. He whispered to Dad. "I'm going to get Jilly in the water, and when I do, blow up his shoes." Dad agreed that it was a great idea. But when Dexter gave the signal, my father blew up Brad's shoes—again! He replaced them with even better shoes, of course—but he'd made his point.
NOVEMBER 26, 1950: He did another guest shot on
The Bob Hope Show, which was a holiday special.
NOVEMBER 13–DECEMBER 3, 1947: Dad played up to eight shows a day in a 17-day engagement at New York's Capitol Theater.
NOVEMBER 7–DECEMBER 17, 1945: Back in New York, Dad ran the gamut of audiences from...
[See November 7th]
NOVEMBER 26, 1938: After his closing set at the Rustic Cabin, Frank was arrested by two constables from Hackensack, New Jersey, and taken to the county courthouse, where he was released after posting $1,500 bail. The charge was breach of promise. According to FBI files later released under the Freedom of Information Act, the claim read: "On the second and ninth days of November, 1938, under the promise of marriage, Frank Sinatra had a sexual relationship with a single female of good repute named Antoinette Della Penta." The complaint was quickly dropped when it was learned that Della Penta was in fact already married to a man named Edward Franke. She filed a new complaint on December 22, this time charging Frank with "committing adultery." He posted a bond of $500 and the case was sent to a jury.
[Dates of new entries highlighted in blue]