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(crowd chattering)
Tina Sinatra: He was an emotionally sensitive man that night.
This was a big night for him.
(applause)
Mo Ostin: It was a fabulous event.
The who's who of celebrities were there.
Nancy Sinatra, Sr.: The night itself was exciting
and a lot of mixed emotions.
Rosalind Russell: Ladies and gentleman, Frank Sinatra.
Ostin: We are talking about the best pop singer
who ever lived.
Alex Gibney: For his retirement concert, Sinatra chose 11 songs
to represent the story of his life and career.
Terry Teachout: He used the songs to tell the story of himself
and he tells us our story
through his story.
This is what set him apart.
(orchestra concludes) (applause)
Sinatra (singing): ♪ You see a pair of laughing eyes ♪
♪ And suddenly you're sighing sighs ♪
♪ You're thinking nothing's wrong ♪
♪ You string along, boy, then snap ♪
♪ Those eyes, those sighs ♪
♪ They're part of the tender trap ♪
♪ You're hand in hand beneath the trees ♪
♪ And soon there's music in the breeze ♪
♪ You're acting kind of smart ♪
♪ Until your heart just goes wap ♪
♪ Those trees, that breeze ♪
♪ They're part of the tender trap ♪
♪ Some starry night ♪
♪ When her kisses make you tingle ♪
♪ She'll hold you tight ♪
♪ And you'll hate yourself ♪
♪ For being single ♪
♪ And all at once, it seems so nice ♪
♪ The folks are throwing shoes and rice ♪
♪ You hurry to a spot ♪
♪ That's just a dot on the map ♪
♪ And then you wonder how it all came about ♪
♪ It's too late now, there's no getting out ♪
♪ You fell in love ♪
♪ And love is the tender ♪
♪ Trap. ♪
I'm absolutely thrilled!
(Sinatra scatting)
(scatting continues)
Frank Sinatra is, well, Frank Sinatra.
In 20 years, he's traveled from Hoboken to Hollywood,
with stops in between.
The Voice has become one of Hollywood's great stars.
Recently, after a comparatively inactive period,
Variety credited him with the greatest comeback in theater history.
He is now one of Hollywood's hottest properties.
I can't imagine.
Hello?
Teachout: In 1949, Frank Sinatra is still the crooner,
the romantic ideal of the young.
By the '50s, he is a different kind of singer
and he is a different kind of screen personality.
He is a grown-up.
He is somebody who sings convincingly of suffering,
and whom we assume has himself suffered.
Sinatra: Okay, let's make a record.
(clapping) Let's go. Right.
Studio Engineer: Rolling.
Sinatra: I love recording.
I think making records is a great fun of all times
because it's current. It's right there.
When you finish a recording,
you blink your eye-- or your ear, so to speak--
and boom! (music playing)
Sinatra (singing): ♪ It was just ♪
♪ One of those things ♪
♪ Just one of those crazy flings ♪
Teachout: When he gets to Capitol,
it is a total picture of adulthood, of maturity.
And the country responded immediately.
Women said, "This is a man you could go to bed with,"
and the men said, "I'd like to be this guy."
♪ One of those nights... ♪
In the '50s, the phoenix
emerged from the ashes of a previous existence.
And the curly hair and the floppy bowties
suddenly gave way to the Cavanagh hat,
and the long, loosened tie.
♪ Just one of those things... ♪
And this was a change
that very, very few musical personalities
have been able to accomplish.
Jonathan Schwartz: Did Sinatra, and Sinatra only, select those songs?
Or did he do it in collaboration with you and with the producer?
Sinatra picked his own things,
so when you hear a Frank Sinatra album,
it's the product of Frank Sinatra's head.
♪ Was too hot ♪
♪ Not to cool down ♪
♪ So goodbye, dear... ♪
Ostin: You think about Only The Lonely,
Wee Small Hours of the Morning, you know?
♪ Here's hoping... ♪
He invented concept albums.
♪ It was great fun... ♪
What he would do is to find a mood
and then figure out what songs reflect that mood.
♪ It was just ♪
♪ Just one of those nights... ♪
And then when he walked in the studio,
he was prepared to follow the arranger's orchestration.
Sinatra: Listen, Mo...
Mo: ...must be playing the viola.
Sinatra: If there are any popping of "P's," let's stop.
Because there were too many of the "P's" popping
in the past dates we did.
Can you clear those up a little bit?
Sinatra: I may be one of the few people who performs
in the middle of the orchestra, right in the studio.
And no headphones and not a booth-- a glassed-in booth.
Because I need the drive of the orchestra.
♪ So though I'm not ♪
♪ A great romancer ♪
♪ I know that you're bound to answer... ♪
Sinatra: A good arranger is terribly vital
because he's a recording secretary.
For instance, if you brought a song to me
and I said, "It's very good, maybe we'll record it,"
then we'd bring in-- in those days it was Axel,
and then we went to Billy May and Nelson,
and then Gordon Jenkins.
We would sit down and we would pick the key,
and I would give him my thoughts
on what the background should be
from eight measures to eight measures.
And then I would say, "How wrong am I?"
(man laughs)
(orchestra playing)
Nelson Riddle: Well, he would conduct the orchestra sometimes.
That's a lot of fun.
But if not, say, comfortable with it,
I became accustomed to it.
Some of it was his need to assert himself.
That was part of his performance.
He was a showman.
Sinatra respected Nelson Riddle so much,
his musical talent.
They made something in excess of 300 songs--
300 separate arrangements in the years
that they worked together,
including the song called "I've Got You Under My Skin."
Sinatra (singing): ♪ I've got you ♪
♪ Under my skin... ♪
Riddle: I stayed up at night to write that arrangement.
I remember bringing it to the recording,
and everybody was very impressed.
Sinatra, Jr.: When they finished the first run-through,
the entire orchestra applauded for Nelson Riddle
and whistled because it was so gorgeous.
♪ I've got you... ♪
Riddle: That was according to Frank's specifications.
He said, "I want a long crescendo."
♪ Sacrifice anything, come what might ♪
♪ For the sake of having you near ♪
♪ In spite of a warning voice ♪
♪ Comes in the night ♪
♪ It repeats, it repeats, it repeats, it repeats ♪
♪ Don't you know, you fool ♪
♪ Not gonna win? ♪
♪ Use your mentality ♪
♪ Wake up to reality ♪
♪ And each time I do, just the thought of you ♪
♪ Makes me stop before I begin ♪
♪ 'Cause I've got you ♪
♪ Under my skin... ♪
Go get 'em.
Hit it!
Ha!
♪ I would sacrifice anything, come what might ♪
♪ For the sake of having you near ♪
♪ In spite of a warning voice ♪
♪ That comes in the night ♪
♪ It repeats-- how it yells in my ear ♪
♪ Don't you know, you fool ♪
♪ You ain't never gonna win? ♪
♪ Why not use your mentality? ♪
♪ Wake up, step up to reality ♪
♪ And each time I do ♪
♪ Just the thought of you ♪
♪ Makes me stop just before I begin ♪
♪ 'Cause I've got you ♪
♪ Under my skin ♪
♪ And I love you ♪
♪ Under my skin. ♪
(applause)
Thank you.
The first act was called "The Daily Life,"
and this act is called "Love and Marriage."
And since we're doing a little singing here tonight,
Mr. Leader, if you please.
(orchestra playing)
♪ Love and marriage ♪
♪ Go together like the horse and carriage ♪
♪ This I tell you, brother ♪
♪ You can't have one without the other ♪
♪ Love and marriage ♪
♪ It's an institute you can't disparage ♪
♪ Ask the local gentry ♪
♪ And they will say it's elementary... ♪
That period in America was the greatest growth
of individual wealth in the history of Western Civilization.
♪ Try, try... ♪
There was money. There was money to buy records.
There was money for kids to have their own subculture.
♪ Love and marriage ♪
♪ Go together... ♪
Teachout: For large numbers of white middle class Americans,
they never had it so good as in the '50s.
But they also knew the whole thing
could go bust if the bomb got dropped.
TV Announcer: Let us face, without panic,
the reality of our times--
the fact that atom bombs may some day be dropped on our cities.
Teachout: That is a very awkward,
uncomfortable set of oppositions,
and it shapes American culture in the Eisenhower era.
There's a tremendous amount of economic stability,
but it is accompanied by a tremendous amount of ferment.
Speaker: We continue all the protests.
TV Announcer: We are at war with the Communist half of the world.
A man is either loyal or he's disloyal.
McCarthy: Are you a member or have you ever been a member
of the Communist party?
( gavel pounding ) (jazz playing)
Reporter: Mr. McCarthy, do you believe, sir,
that at least 5,000 American soldiers
have been slaughtered by the Reds?
I shall go to Korea.
Sinatra: I called the head of the U.S.O.
I said to him, "I'd like to get over there
to do some shows for these guys."
Because Hope had already been there,
and then they were sending over vaudeville actors
and that kind of stuff.
I said, "They need some names over there."
The next thing I know, he calls me
and he said, "There seems to be a problem in Washington,
"in intelligence, about your being involved
"with some youth organization, and the Roosevelt campaign.
They're inclined to think that you're a part of the Communist party."
And I said, "What? We're going to Washington."
I said, "I ain't going to let them off the hook."
(horn playing)
Sinatra: So I went in the Pentagon building.
So I was brought into a sumptuous room.
They looked like a jury when I walked in.
There were three or four grey-haired men,
all true military guys, and a plainclothesman.
He was from what was then the OSS, rather than the CIA.
Nobody smiled. One guy said to me,
"You belong to a youth organization that you joined."
I said, "I never joined a youth organization."
Witch hunting-- that's what they were doing.
- They were witch-hunting. - (Man) Yes, yes.
Because after that came the blacklist.
And I started to get pissed off at these guys.
I said, "Look, gentlemen. Has anybody run a check on me?"
Frank Kuntz: General Kastner explained that over a period of years,
many items had appeared in the public press
which identified Mr. Sinatra with the communist line.
As a result, serious questions existed
as to Mr. Sinatra's sympathies with respect to communism,
communists, and fellow travelers.
Said this to Sinatra's face.
Sinatra: I said, "Gentlemen, if you feel that I'm a risk,
"then you can stick the Korean War in your ass.
And that goes for all of you," I said.
And I got up and I walked out.
"Fuck you. You think I'm a risk to my nation?
Who the hell needs you?" I said, "I don't need you."
Sinatra (singing): ♪ Baby, you went and broke ♪
♪ Your faithful promise... ♪
Kuntz: Frank Sinatra invited attention.
♪ How could you do a thing like that to me? ♪
He always complained that he was unfairly tagged as a Commie.
♪ Didn't I give you everything I promised? ♪
To his credit, he deftly avoided
some of the more horrible things that happened
to entertainers in those days.
He was mentioned in the infamous
House on Un-American Activities Committee Hearings,
but never called to testify.
♪ When my back ♪
♪ Was turned on you... ♪
He was just a liberal, left-wing entertainer
who was far ahead of his time in the positions that he took,
one of which was speaking out against racism
at a time when no one was speaking out against racism,
let alone a white crooner from Hoboken, New Jersey.
(applause) Sammy Davis, Jr.: Thank you, ladies and gentlemen.
Here's a couple of people we've never done on TV before.
The first gentleman, Mr. Frank Sinatra.
♪ It was just ♪
♪ One of those things... ♪
(applause) ♪ Yeah, it was just ♪
♪ One of those crazy things... ♪
Yeah, Dad.
♪ One of those bells... ♪
Tina: People had helped Dad.
Dad would help other people, you know, ascend.
It wasn't easy.
It was most difficult for Sammy, for obvious reasons.
Sinatra, he did not like segregation.
He didn't like that black people were treated
as creatures of inferiority.
He always rebelled against that.
Davis, Jr. (singing): ♪ Fabulous flights ♪
♪ It was a trip to the moon ♪
♪ On gossamer wings... ♪
Sinatra: I really became conscious of segregation
when I got involved in the entertainment business.
I found that going through parts of the United States,
traveling constantly, and doing one-nighters
with orchestras that were comprised of Negro musicians,
there were a lot of problems.
And not only the South, but in some quarters in the border states.
And I began to resent it.
I think it's vile.
I think it's--
it's the most indecent way to believe.
I think that we're all created equal.
It's just-- it's wrong. It's basically wrong.
Sinatra felt that, important to his life
and to his art and to his whole style,
was what he had learned from black culture
and black people.
He was very, very close to the African-American scene.
His closeness was never really fully recognized historically
because he did that quietly behind the scenes.
Davis, Jr.: He opened up more doors than any other individual,
black or white, in this business for me.
He set my motion picture salary.
He also was there for me on a personal basis
when I needed him, and without being asked.
He was always there for me.
Edward R. Murrow: Sammy is now only 29 years old,
but he spent most of his life in show business,
from Harlem to Hollywood,
with its attendant successes and crises,
the worst about a year ago.
Sinatra: He was coming back from Vegas
in the latter part of the night, after his show,
in order to get some sleep in LA and do a title song
for a picture at Universal.
He was coming around the turn on the highway
and two old gals backed a car out of a driveway.
And in order not to hit them,
he went across the road and hit a tree.
He had the old Cadillac with the egg in the middle of the steering wheel.
- You know the thing that...? - (man) Yeah, sure.
Sinatra: The egg, it hit him right in here
and his eye just popped right out of his head.
God damn, it was tragic.
I never said goodbye to anybody.
I jumped in my car and I drove to San Bernardino.
I flew down there. And it's a colored hospital.
And I found out later that they drove around
for 40 minutes to...
Man: Looking? To get a hospital to take them?
...to get a hospital to take them.
Davis, Jr.: I went to his place in Palm Springs
and recuperated with friends, chums.
Sinatra: Sammy never learned to swim in his life--
deathly afraid of the water.
So I taught him to swim.
And then, I said to him, "Sam, I'm not a physician,
"but the loss of your eye is going to cause you
"to have an imbalance.
I think you ought to teach me the time step."
And he's looking at me from behind the patch.
Toe, heel, toe, heel, toe, heel.
Next afternoon, I said to him,
"Okay, it's your turn."
And you know, he had trouble for about a half hour,
because he was trying to make moves and he was tilting.
He was going. Yeah, he was tilting.
I took a guess. I didn't know.
What the hell did I know?
Davis, Jr.: If your friends rally around you,
psychologically there's a time when that can happen
and it picks you up and gives you the strength
you need to take that second start.
The timing is everything, and he knew that.
Sinatra (singing): ♪ Just remember that sunshine ♪
♪ Always follows the rain ♪
♪ So wrap your troubles and dreams ♪
♪ And dream ♪
♪ Dream your troubles away. ♪
Frank, you do have a great presence.
There's no question about it.
You seem to be in command of yourself and the situation.
Is that a facade? Do you feel in command?
Are you ever in a situation where you feel inadequate?
Oh, I think that happens to me about 10 times a day.
Announcer: No matter where she might appear,
they all worshipped the face, the fame, the figure
of the world's most beautiful animal.
Ava Gardner: It wasn't much of a secret.
Frank had heard about it in New York.
He knew I was dating Luis Miguel Dominguín.
Luis Miguel was the most famous bullfighter in the world.
He was still in love with Ava Gardner.
It was the first and only time that someone else
had done the leaving.
Sinatra (singing): ♪ I'm a fool ♪
♪ To want you... ♪
Gloria Romanoff: We were sort of reluctant to go.
I mean, he had been building such a head of steam
for this visit with Ava
that it seemed sort of intrusive.
♪ To want a love ♪
♪ That can't be true ♪
♪ A love that's there ♪
♪ For others too... ♪
And she arrived with three or four men,
none of whom spoke English, dressed to the nines.
She looked smashing.
♪ Such a fool... ♪
And she and your father disappeared
with much giggling and carrying on.
This was clearly going to be a romantic night.
♪ To seek a kiss ♪
♪ Not mine alone ♪
♪ To share a kiss ♪
♪ The devil has known... ♪
So after due time, they rejoined us.
Dinner was wonderful.
Then she left the table after the first course,
excused herself.
And her purse was there and her gold cigarette box,
and I guess I thought she was going to the powder room.
Well, she didn't come back.
She didn't come back, she didn't come back.
So someone went to check. "Oh, she left!"
She just walked out.
And when he caught on, it was devastating.
I mean, devastating.
♪ Pity me ♪
♪ I need you... ♪
Pete Hamill: When his music finally evolved into "After Ava,"
it's got a note of stoicism in it.
"All right, I've lost you. I got knocked on my ass.
I'm getting up now."
♪ I can't get along ♪
♪ Without ♪
♪ You. ♪
Charlie Rose: Why don't you want to talk about Sinatra?
Well, I don't want to talk about Sinatra
because Frank and I
have not had a relationship
since 1959.
I think that's quite a while ago.
Bacall: I can't really remember how it all began.
There must have always been a special feeling alive
between Frank and me from earlier days.
Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall
are among the better-known husband-and-wife
acting teams in Hollywood.
Bacall: Bogey always liked Frank.
He enjoyed his fighting windmills.
And Frank made him laugh.
When Bogart passed away,
Dad was devastated because he loved him so much.
He felt loss harder than anyone else I know,
and maybe it made him
face his own mortality, you know?
♪ She may be weary ♪
♪ Women do get weary ♪
♪ Wearing the same shabby dress... ♪
Bacall: Toward the very end of Bogey's illness,
Frank seemed instinctively to be there at the key moments.
♪ And when she's weary ♪
♪ Try a little tenderness ♪
Having lived the better part of a year
in the atmosphere of illness,
I guess I not only began to depend on his presence,
but look forward to it.
I wanted something to look forward to.
I hated feeling that my life was over at 32.
♪ Things ♪
♪ She may never possess... ♪
Certainly, he was then at his vocal peak
and was wildly attractive, electrifying.
In 1958, he proposed marriage and she accepted.
They agreed to keep it a secret,
but word leaked out and it hit the headlines.
(camera bulb flashes )
Bacall: Clearly, he thought I'd given it away.
♪ It's not just ♪
♪ Sentimental ♪
♪ She has her grief and her care ♪
Bacall: Foolishly, I was pleading to be forgiven for something
I'd had no part in.
He couldn't deal with the press.
They were driving him crazy. His attitude-- remote.
And under this circumstance, the pressure was too great.
He felt trapped.
♪ Easier to bear ♪
Do you think your boiling point is low?
Always. Always.
I've apologized a great many times in my life.
And I will continue to do so.
Obviously, because the blow-ups
are just valves going off here and there.
I suppose they have to go off. I suppose it's necessary.
♪ All so easy ♪
♪ Try a little tenderness... ♪
Bacall: Well, needless to say,
I mean, if I had ended up with Sinatra,
we would have lasted for about 20 minutes.
(piano playing)
♪ She gets too hungry ♪
♪ For dinner at 8:00 ♪
♪ She likes the theater ♪
♪ And never comes late ♪
♪ She'd never bother ♪
♪ With people she'd hate ♪
♪ That's why the lady ♪
♪ Is a tramp ♪
Frank Sinatra, Jr.: "Lady Is a Tramp" he did,
as Nelson Riddle said, with a particular kind of salaciousness,
which fit the image that he was wearing in 1957.
♪ Dressed up in ermine and pearls ♪
♪ She won't dish the dirt ♪
♪ With the rest of those girls ♪
♪ That's why this chick ♪
♪ Is a tramp... ♪
Bacall: Frank was a womanizer.
He wanted to be in the sack with everybody.
♪ Wind in her hair ♪
♪ Her life's without care ♪
♪ She's broke, but it's oke... ♪
Sinatra: I think the public is constantly putting itself
in the position of the performer.
They want to think about him as they believe him to be
or they'd like to be.
♪ That's why the lady is a tramp ♪
♪ She gets much too hungry, babe ♪
♪ To wait there for dinner at 8:00... ♪
Do you think that moral standards have dropped,
lowered considerably in this country?
Yes, I do.
Cronkite: Have you had any part to play,
do you think, in that, by any chance?
Sinatra: I don't believe so.
What I do with my private life, having been divorced--
I don't think lent that much to the demoralization of a nation.
♪ Never makes a trip up to Harlem ♪
♪ Pushin' shiny Lincolns and Fords ♪
♪ And she doesn't mess ♪
♪ With those other broads ♪
♪ That's why this chick ♪
♪ Is a tramp ♪
♪ She loves the free, fine wild groovy knocked-out ♪
♪ Mmm, wind in her hair ♪
♪ Her life's without care ♪
♪ She's broke, eh, (speaks Italian) ♪
♪ She's hates California ♪
♪ Because it's cold and it's damp ♪
♪ That's why the lady ♪
♪ That is why the lady ♪
♪ That's why the lady ♪
♪ Is a tramp! ♪
(applause)
Thank you.
♪ When they said you was high class ♪
♪ Well, that was just a lie ♪
♪ Yeah, they said you was high class ♪
♪ Well, that was just a lie ♪
♪ Yeah, you ain't never caught a rabbit ♪
♪ And you ain't no friend of mine ♪
♪ You ain't nothing but a hound dog ♪
♪ Cryin' all the time ♪
♪ You ain't nothin' but a hound dog ♪
♪ Cryin' all the time... ♪
Frank Sinatra was never a fan of rock music.
Not at any time.
Rock n' roll was on the ascendency,
and of course the kind of music
that Frank was identified with was on the decline.
Singers: ♪ Ooh ooh ooh... ♪
He didn't like the songs. He thought they were silly.
He didn't like the rhythms.
Presley: ♪ Well, they said you was high class... ♪
Cronkite: You don't see a danger then
that that little grey-haired couple in 1995
is going to grab hands and weep a little tear
when they're playing "Nothing But a Hound Dog"
- and say, "That's our song." - No, no. I don't think so.
Sinatra: There's a market for that, and the kids like it fine.
My kids are the same way. They buy all the records.
Ostin: Years later, when I first brought him "Yesterday,"
he threw it on the floor.
"The Beatles! You must be kidding!"
You know?
So contemptuous you couldn't believe it.
("Hound Dog" ends)
Reporter: Mr. Sinatra, over a period of time,
even from your very early days, you still carry out this policy
of singing the standards.
Have you found that this has paid off?
Sinatra: I know that by the sales of our albums,
it's really paid off. It's been marvelous.
Ostin: He was such a big artist at Capitol,
and of course that got him thinking about
maybe doing his own thing and starting a record company.
Sinatra (singing): ♪ Blue moon ♪
♪ You saw me standing alone ♪
♪ Without a dream in my heart ♪
♪ Without a love... ♪
Ostin: He was very, very, unhappy with the way
then existing labels treated their artists.
He wanted to create an environment,
which would be creatively and economically
attractive to artists.
Reporter: Frank, I understand that you're going to release
a new record label out here. Is that correct?
Sinatra: Reprise, yes. Reprise Records.
Ostin: I met with Frank's manager.
And he asked me to head up Reprise,
but I also had to get approval from Frank.
Frank was doing The Devil at 4 O'Clock
with Spencer Tracy.
And they took me out on the set to meet him for the first time.
Well, you could imagine
how anxious and nervous I was.
And when I walked upon the set,
there was Frank engaged in an enormous argument
with the director.
I mean, Frank in a tantrum, displaying all of his anger--
it's scary. (laughs)
And I then went on to Frank's dressing room
and waited for him.
And he came in, and he did like a 180 degree turn around.
He was up. He was positive.
He was charming.
He could not have been more excited
about the prospect of the record company.
Sinatra: And then I went around and I began to talk to all my chums
and suddenly we had a stable of names this long.
I mean, it was crazy. Each person who came along with me
had an option to buy their own masters.
We have on the label Sammy Davis
and Mort Sahl and Joe E. Lewis,
the nightclub comic in the States, and myself...
Ostin: We started Reprise primarily
with a lot of Frank's friends--
people who were out of the big-band era
who did the same kind of music that Frank did.
Davis, Jr. (singing): ♪ Like the wallpaper sticks to the wall... ♪
Frank forbade us to sign any rock 'n' roll artists,
and so we were struggling
because we weren't being competitive.
♪ Your shadow ♪
♪ You'll never get rid of me... ♪
And finally, I said to him, "Frank, unless we end up
"signing artists from the rock 'n' roll scene,
"we're not going to compete
and I don't think we're going to be able to survive."
And to his credit, even though he hated that kind of music,
he had good enough business instincts
to recognize that what I was saying
had some validity.
(applause)
Announcer: "The Frank Sinatra Timex Show"!
Elvis, right in the thick of his up-and-coming fame,
was put into the army.
And that was the welcome-back show, 1960.
♪ When the kissing starts ♪
♪ A team of wild horses couldn't tear us apart... ♪
Elvis, I tell you something-- it was great.
It was great and I'm glad to see
the army hasn't changed you. Wasn't that great?
That was the first time I ever heard a woman
screaming at a male singer. (audience laughs)
Don't you remember me there, Charlie?
Mr. Presley, would you think it presumptuous of Frank
if he joined you in a duet?
Well, yeah. That would be great.
Frank, Jr.: It was a great coup to put
the heartthrob of the new generation
and the heartthrob of the current generation
on television together.
You do "Witchcraft," okay?
And I'll do one of the other ones. Okay?
Nelson? (orchestra playing)
We work it the same way, only in different areas!
♪ Love me tender, love me sweet ♪
♪ Never let me go ♪
♪ You have made my life complete ♪
♪ And I love you so ♪
♪ Those fingers in my hair ♪
♪ That slight come-hither stare ♪
♪ That strips my conscience bare ♪
♪ It's witchcraft ♪
♪ Love me tender ♪
♪ Love me true ♪
♪ All my dreams fulfill ♪
♪ For my darling, I love you ♪
♪ And I always will ♪
♪ It's such an ancient pitch ♪
♪ One I wouldn't switch ♪
♪ 'Cause there's no nicer witch ♪
♪ Than you ♪
♪ I love you ♪
♪ And I always will ♪
♪ For my darling ♪
♪ I love you... ♪
Man, that's pretty.
♪ And I always ♪
♪ Will. ♪
We have this notion that when Elvis Presley came along,
the world changed.
But Sinatra had a really good run in the early '60s.
Sinatra: Las Vegas, Nev.
You know why I fly up there so often?
I go to look at money. And here's living proof.
The place-- The Sands,
the time-- in the wee small hours of.
Sinatra (singing): ♪ Luck be a lady ♪
♪ Tonight ♪
♪ Luck be a lady tonight ♪
♪ Luck, if you've ever been a lady ♪
♪ To begin with ♪
♪ Luck be a lady tonight... ♪
Frank put a flavor to that town
and practically made Vegas.
And because he went, others went.
We said, "Hey, let's go to Vegas! Frank's there!"
Davis, Jr.: There's Frank. There's Dean,
Bing Crosby, and somebody else. Oh yeah, me.
We have Frank Sinatra and Ernie Kovacs,
Eddie Fisher, Sammy Davis, Jr., and Tony Curtis.
Every celebrity in the world and VIP was there.
They were in Las Vegas on opening night
with their friends, on home ground.
And it's what the Rat Pack,
or the clan, as Sinatra called it, was all about.
♪ Luck be a lady... ♪
There was a Rat Pack prior to the Sinatra Rat Pack.
Humphrey Bogart and his cronies, including Sinatra,
had been in Las Vegas for a kind of debauched weekend.
And Lauren Bacall walked in on them
after they'd been partying for a few days and said,
"Jeez, you all look like a rat pack."
After Bogart's death, Sinatra drew on that energy
and put together his own coterie of friends.
(drumbeat strikes)
Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr.,
Peter Lawford, and Joey Bishop.
It was dizzying-- the glamour of it all.
Announcer: Ladies and gentlemen, Frank Sinatra!
Wynn: When they started to perform,
they were masters of the universe--
they sucked the air out of the room.
(orchestra playing)
- ♪ This is my first affair ♪ (Dean Martin) - ♪ I've got you ♪
- ♪ Please be kind ♪ - ♪ Please be kind ♪
♪ Wait for me, wait for me... ♪
(all laughing)
♪ You got a beat like a cop ♪
♪ Please be kind ♪
♪ 'Cause if you leave me, dear ♪
♪ I know my heart ♪
♪ Will lose its mind ♪
♪ If you love me ♪
- ♪ Please be kind ♪ - ♪ If you-- Oh, yeah! Oh, yeah! ♪
♪ Yeah! ♪
♪ This is my first affair ♪
♪ So ♪
♪ Please be kind ♪
♪ 'Cause if you leave me, babe ♪
♪ I know my heart's gonna lose its mind... ♪
You already lost it! You lost it!
Yeah, yeah! (laughing)
♪ Baby... ♪
♪ Please ♪
♪ Be kind! ♪
Dean Martin: Yeah, yeah!
Sing it again! I didn't hear it!
How many more do you think he's going to do, Sam?
Davis, Jr.: I don't know, but he sure sing good
for a white fellow, don't he?
Frank doted on Dean--
thought he was the funniest guy in the world.
Dean was like water running downhill--
cool and relaxed, no ego.
This is only a gag-- I don't drink anymore.
I freeze it now and I eat it like a popsicle.
You know, I wanted to say one thing in all seriousness,
I feel sorry for you people that don't drink.
I mean it, because when you wake up in the morning,
that's as good as you're going to feel all day.
Joey Bishop: Not only we were onstage--
while we were on stage, such notables as Rickles,
Red Skelton, Milton Berle, all came and got up onstage with us.
James Lipton: Well, the crowd must have gone wild.
Bishop: Oh, they went, they went crazy.
(all singing at once)
Sinatra: And people, comics of all sorts,
came to see what we were doing. We never had a writer.
We didn't have anybody do jokes, written for us.
It all came together.
Davis, Jr.: We always had the room to adlib onstage,
but, for instance, Dean picking me up, saying...
I'd like to thank the NAACP for this wonderful trophy.
Put me down!
Davis, Jr.: Well, that was an adlib.
That night when we came off, we all turned to each other.
I said, "Dynamite!" Frank said, "Lock it in!"
So that's how we found the material
since our minds were fertile at that time
and everybody was thinking, What can I do? This, that, and the other.
What can we do to break them up?
If you speak to old-timers in Vegas,
they all credit the Rat Pack with saving the town.
In the mid-'50s, Vegas became built up very quickly,
but the tourism wasn't matching the construction.
And suddenly, there was this big tourist attraction in Las Vegas--
the Rat Pack.
And these guys would walk around the casino.
The idea that you could go to Las Vegas
and maybe Sammy would show up at the Riviera,
and get onstage with the lounge act
drew a lot of people to the city.
It was also, on a serious basis,
it was the very first time that we saw the decline
of racism in Vegas.
Harry Belafonte (singing): ♪ Day O ♪
♪ Day O... ♪
At the beginning, you just were not permitted
to play there, period.
And then eventually,
when the star power became so inordinate,
they knew that they had to begin
to invite black stars to participate.
Because the revenue was not to be ignored.
But, they laid down very strict rules.
Lena Horne and Fats Domino had to eat in the kitchen.
They couldn't go in the casino.
They had to live across town, because it was racist as hell.
Frank wasn't having that.
So he was assigning one goombah to each guy.
He said, "If anybody looks at them funny,
break both of their legs." (laughs)
Sinatra: When I found that all of the black performers
were living on the other side of the town,
I began to make noise about it.
A few threats like, "I'll walk, I'll go back to LA."
And I think a few other entertainers
began to pick up on that too, and they hollered.
But I guess I was the loud-- the biggest mouth in the town.
Belafonte: When asked about it, he said,
"Any of my Negro friends have a right to live where they want.
"And especially if they're bringing in the pokey,
why shouldn't they live there?"
Frank was always there to give a boost to our cause.
He stepped to the table
and not only gave money for the civil rights movement,
but he went to the mob and they gave money
because he said so. That was no secret to anybody.
Even the KGB knew about the mob and the Rat Pack.
They boasted about it.
♪ And my gun will hum while I'm blasting ♪
♪ Some rival gang out ♪
♪ 'Cause no one I know ♪
♪ Gets oh such a glow ♪
♪ Out of bang bang ♪
♪ Like me! ♪
What he said to me was, "Look, did I know these guys?"
Of course I knew these guys.
I worked in saloons in the '30s and '40s.
They were the old bootleggers
who now were doing legitimately what used to be illegitimate.
He kept knowing them
because of Las Vegas.
I don't think Sinatra's the kind of guy
who would have loved hanging around with a dope peddler,
but that old bootlegger,
I think he liked them.
Reporter: What were the qualities about him that you liked, Frank?
Sinatra: Strange kind of warped sense of humor, and funny jokes.
Yeah, right. And a nice guy.
Generous, generous as a son of a bitch.
"You like it? Boom!"
He'd give you the ring off his finger, a sapphire.
Right, right. They were all like that, all those guys.
Davis, Jr.: We were all individually
as big as we were to ever get.
And when we did the summit meetings
while we were working on Ocean's Eleven,
it created something that the town still takes bows for.
Peter owned Ocean's Eleven.
He found it, brought it to Frank.
Frank bought it. You know, that kind of thing.
Tina Sinatra: They knew each other under contract at MGM.
Davis, Jr.: MGM-- they were friends.
Sergeant Ocean.
This is our objective-- Las Vegas, Nevada.
Mission-- to liberate millions of dollars.
The movies were very disciplined.
I mean, these guys came on set--
nobody blew a line.
It's just that the energy was a teenage energy.
It was, "Let's have fun!"
And then in the evening after they did their shows,
they stayed up gambling and playing,
and making the casino guys go crazy,
and-- and never ever sleeping.
All these girls would walk up to give us their room key.
God, it was good.
When the movie was cut together, he enjoyed it.
He would screen it in his house over and over again
for all his friends.
And he really loved it because this was the first film
that was kind of his production.
I think that's why it was so close to him.
It really did depict America at the time--
pretty happy, pretty optimistic about, perhaps,
a young beautiful new president.
When he started running for president,
Jack Kennedy came to Las Vegas to do some fundraising,
but ended up hanging out with Sinatra at The Sands.
Sinatra (singing): ♪ I've got the world ♪
♪ On a string ♪
♪ And I'm sittin' on a rainbow ♪
♪ Got the string around ♪
♪ My finger ♪
♪ What a world, what a life, I'm in love... ♪
Edward Murrow: His grandfather was mayor of Boston.
His father was ambassador to London.
Studied at Harvard, football star, Navy skipper,
newspaper reporter, senator,
married to a most attractive bride.
♪ What a world ♪
♪ This here is life ♪
♪ Hey, now ♪
♪ I'm ♪
♪ In love! ♪
I met, uh,
the then Senator Kennedy,
and of course I had known Pat Lawford,
Mrs. Lawford, a good many years.
Kuntz: From early on, Sinatra was introduced to Kennedy
by Peter Lawford, who was a Kennedy in-law.
This is in the late 1950s.
Sinatra: And eventually I got to know the rest of the family
and Mr. Kennedy Senior,
and we became rather close friends.
Consequently, I did what I could for the election of Kennedy.
(orchestra playing)
Sinatra (singing): ♪ Everyone is voting for Jack ♪
♪ 'Cause he's got what all the rest lack ♪
♪ Everyone wants to back Jack ♪
♪ Jack is on the right track ♪
♪ 'Cause he's got high hopes ♪
♪ He's got high hopes ♪
♪ 1960's the year ♪
♪ For his high hopes ♪
♪ Come on and vote... ♪
The Kennedy motorcade was preceded
by a soundtrack playing Frank's revised recording
of his hit "High Hopes."
News Reporter: This particular year,
you've taken a very strong stand in favor of Kennedy.
Don't you run a career risk in taking a political side?
Sinatra: I don't think so, Paul.
Every individual has a right to say what he thinks
and speak up for the candidate of his choice.
Tina: Dad gets a phone call from the old man, Joe Kennedy.
He said, "I need a favor. I'm going ask you
to give me some help in Illinois and West Virginia."
They needed those two states. And he said,
"I want you to talk to the guys that you know--
"the mob-- to get the unions in both states
"to vote for John Kennedy."
Dad got it, and he went off and called Sam Giancana.
As a boss, no one promoted Giancana
because they liked his blue eyes,
or his personality, or anything like that.
It was because he had simply killed enough people
that he moved up through the mob
and eventually got to the top.
He was, in almost every respect,
a savage.
The mobster liked to hang out with Sinatra because he was famous,
and Sinatra liked to hang out with mobsters
because he was a bad boy.
Sinatra (singing): ♪ Should I reveal ♪
♪ Exactly how I feel? ♪
♪ Should I confess I love you? ♪
Giancana had a vested interest in courting Sinatra
because he wanted to get the FBI to back off its crackdown on the mob.
♪ Would it be too bold...? ♪
All of the goons around Giancana
were all concerned about pressure from the FBI.
The agents were around there all the time
and were surveilling him night and day.
Kuntz: Sinatra offered a way for them to get friendly with Kennedy
when he started running for president.
Sinatra liked power, whether it was legitimate or illegitimate.
And Kennedy and Sinatra both liked sex.
♪ I love you... ♪
It was Sinatra who introduced John Kennedy
to a former girlfriend of his, Judith Campbell,
who we now know became his mistress.
Judy-- she was an extremely beautiful young woman.
I mean, there's no question--
she was in the, you know, Liz Taylor class.
Among his peers, Jack Kennedy was like, "Oh my God!"
I mean Marilyn Monroe would come into see him.
He was so magnetic. He could get anybody.
It also turns out that Judith Campbell
was dating a guy named Sam Giancana.
Once you start hanging out with mobsters,
you're inviting attention to yourself.
And once you start hanging out with mobsters and the man
who is to become president of the United States simultaneously,
this is a problem.
Judith Campbell: Of course, I called Jack right away.
He would always say, "Don't worry about it,
"you have nothing to be afraid of.
"You've never done anything wrong in your life
and you know Sam works for us."
Giancana dispatched an associate
to get local sheriffs and powerful coal miners unions
to deliver votes and the election to Kennedy.
Reporter: January 20th, 1961, saw Washington crowded
with hundreds of thousands of visitors,
here to see Mr. Kennedy take the oath of office,
administered by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Earl Warren.
Then the new president is congratulated
by Vice President Johnson and the man he defeated,
Richard Nixon.
When the time came for the inaugural celebration,
no better person could have been chosen
to mount it and to orchestrate it than Sinatra.
It was just very classy.
Tina: The Kennedys had a very specific way
of thinking and doing things.
And at one point, Dad's friendship with Sammy Davis Jr.,
who was soon to marry May Britt,
became a political rub for them.
She was a beautiful white blonde actress
and they didn't like the idea of the interracial marriage.
This is the Kennedys.
You would have thought the reverse of them.
Dad got a phone call and he was asked to
disinvite Sammy Davis to the inaugural gala.
And he actually had to do it.
I know we're all indebted to a great friend,
Frank Sinatra. (applause)
Long before he could sing,
he used to poll a Democratic precinct back in New Jersey.
That precinct has grown to cover a country.
But long after he has ceased to sing,
he's going to be standing up and speaking
for the Democratic party and I thank him
on behalf of all of you tonight.
The son of an immigrant, Dad had risen
from the streets of Hoboken
to become the biggest and most powerful star in show business.
It was a moment to savor for a lifetime.
Sinatra (singing): ♪ Fly me to the moon ♪
♪ Let me play up there with those stars ♪
♪ Let me see what life is like ♪
♪ On Jupiter and Mars ♪
♪ In other words ♪
♪ Hold my hand ♪
♪ In other words, I do love you ♪
♪ Why don't you fill my heart ♪
♪ Fill it up with song? ♪
♪ Let me sing forevermore ♪
♪ Because you are all I long for ♪
♪ All I worship and do adore ♪
♪ In other words ♪
♪ Please be true ♪
♪ In other words ♪
♪ I ♪
♪ I love ♪
♪ You. ♪ (applause)
Word got out that the election was fixed.
Sinatra (singing): ♪ When I walk through a jam... ♪
Republicans were screaming for an investigation.
♪ No one knows who I am... ♪
Joe Kennedy tells Jack to appoint Bobby as Attorney General.
♪ And I'm Mr. Success... ♪
He said, "Who do you think we are? We don't fix elections.
"We don't do that kind of stuff."
After the election, the mob expected Frank Sinatra
to get the Kennedys to go easy on them.
Instead, President Kennedy appointed his brother,
who was an anti-mob crusader from way back,
as Attorney General.
And the crackdown only intensified.
Bobby Kennedy: Would you tell us whether--
if you have opposition from anybody,
that you dispose of them by having them stuffed in a trunk?
Is that what you do, Mr. Giancana?
I decline to answer because I honestly believe
that my answer might tend to incriminate me.
Can you tell us anything about any of your operations,
or do you just giggle every time I ask you a question?
I decline to answer because I honestly believe my answer
might tend to incriminate me.
I thought only little girls giggled, Mr. Giancana.
(chuckles)
Guss Russo: In the Chicago gangster world,
everybody was just bashing Giancana for this--
that he didn't, you know, put it all together properly.
He should have had a guarantee
they weren't going to appoint somebody like Bobby Kennedy in there.
Kuntz: Sam Giancana and his associates can be heard on tape just fuming
that Sinatra hadn't made good on his promise
to get the FBI to back off.
Later, these underworld figures
are fantasizing about assassinating Sinatra,
maybe his friend Dean Martin.
At one point, they talk about poking Sammy Davis, Jr.'s other eye out.
And one mobster actually fantasizes
about throwing a bomb in the face of Bobby Kennedy
and says he'd gladly go to jail for the rest of his life
if he had a chance to do that.
Judith Campbell was associated with Sam Giancana,
so the FBI started watching her.
Then they noticed that not only
was she talking to Sam Giancana,
and Frank Sinatra at the same time
that she was on a fairly regular basis
calling the White House.
J. Edgar Hoover wrote a memo
to Robert Kennedy.
That started a chain of events
that caused Robert Kennedy
to finally confront his brother
about basically his relationship
with both Sinatra and Judith Campbell.
And as a result of that,
President Kennedy backed off Sinatra.
Cronkite: There was some reaction
among those who had, apparently,
a small group that's in the anti-Sinatra area,
criticism that perhaps this is going to hurt Kennedy.
Did you get any of that?
No, I must say that that sounds
rather ridiculous actually
because nobody imposed themselves
anywhere that I can remember.
I'd never been a witness to anything
either visually
or audibly,
I'd never been aware of anything like that.
What was ridiculously called a clan
were several people who had only goodness in their hearts,
wanting to help if they could, and they did
whenever they were asked to,
which was many times.
And that's about the extent of what we did.
Kuntz: At one point in March of 1962,
Sinatra was supposed
to host Kennedy at his home in Palm Springs.
Ostin: Sinatra actually built
a separate structure for him.
He used to call it "the Little White House."
I saw it. He was so proud, you know?
Suddenly, Jack got cold feet about Frank
and he ended up staying
with Bing Crosby in Palm Springs,
who was a Republican!
Tina Sinatra: They said it was due
to security factors, you know.
It was some lame excuse.
Dad knew it was Bobby and said so.
And it was pretty clear
that Bobby was looking to sever any ties...
with the very people
that helped get his brother in office.
And it was a very low point in my dad's life.
He felt very hurt, very let down,
very disappointed.
He never, he never blamed Jack for it,
but I think he thought that there was a betrayal.
It was Joseph P. Kennedy
who was calling the shots
and he could not depend
on John F. Kennedy to be the hatchet man.
On the other hand, his third son,
Bobby Kennedy, was perfectly willing
to smile at you and stick a knife
in your stomach at the same time.
Hersh: It bothered Jack too,
because that was a retreat.
The president always had great fun there
because there was a pool, there were always girls.
If you wanted to smoke a joint, you could do it there.
It was a real haven for him.
The thing about Kennedy that's so important:
his love affair was never with women,
it was always with men. Men loved him.
♪ Don't worry about me ♪
♪ I'll get along ♪
♪ Forget about me ♪
♪ Be happy, my love ♪
♪ Look out for yourself ♪
♪ Should always be the rule ♪
♪ Give your heart and your love ♪
♪ To whomever you love ♪
♪ Don't you be a fool ♪
Lahr: He was being excluded
from the aristocracy of success.
He was frozen out of power--
the very thing that success
is meant to access.
♪ If you can forget ♪
♪ Don't you worry ♪
♪ 'Bout ♪
♪ Me ♪
Rose: What are the contradictions like that?
On the one hand emptiness,
on the other hand adoration.
Lahr: He was, as all great stars are, incredibly charming.
He was also incredibly violent.
He was incredibly generous.
He was also incredibly dismissive and tyrannical.
Al. Al.
Sinatra (singing): ♪ The summer wind ♪
♪ Came blowin' in ♪
♪ From across the sea ♪
♪ It lingered there ♪
♪ To touch your hair ♪
♪ And walk with me ♪
♪ All summer long ♪
♪ We sang a song... ♪
Romanoff: That period in the '60s,
it was certainly the beginning
of his entrepreneurial business life,
and he loved it.
Cronkite: What are your interests today?
Frank Sinatra: Well, aside from having an independent picture corporation,
we have a recording company.
We have several music publishing companies.
We've gone into a titanium manufacturing business.
We've recently put together
an airplane charter service.
♪ Come fly with me, let's fly ♪
♪ Let's fly away... ♪
Lahr: One of the things that defines Sinatra
is his inability to stop moving.
♪ Let's float down to Peru... ♪
He was always on the move--
he was so restless.
12:00, he was bored.
"Let's get on a plane," his plane,
"We'll fly to Las Vegas. We'll do something there."
♪ Come fly with me, let's take off in the blue ♪
Shalom.
I've just completed my world tour
on behalf of under-privileged children
and back home in Hollywood,
I've gone over the films we took on this trip.
Tokyo, Hong Kong, Athens...
it's all very exciting.
♪ Around ♪
♪ The world ♪
♪ I've searched for you... ♪
In 1962, Sinatra visited many countries
and raised millions and millions of dollars for charity.
He called himself an overprivileged adult,
and he decided it was time
to put something back.
Sinatra (singing): ♪ Somehow... ♪
Frank Sinatra: I went to all of the hospitals
for which I've performed, I went to see the kids.
And actually, that's the biggest kick
of doing this kind of thing in all the nations--
to go see the children themselves.
♪ No more ♪
♪ Will I go all around... ♪
Frank Sinatra, Jr.: International tours happen all the time
and the singers make a lot of money on 'em.
♪ For I have found ♪
♪ My world in you ♪
He didn't make a nickel.
He paid for everything.
Reporter: There's no scheduled airline
that would take Sinatra
to the unlikely places he goes
at the unlikely times he wants to go there.
One of the unlikely places
Sinatra wanted to get to recently
was Lorton Penitentiary near Washington, D.C.
♪ Now they call you Lady Luck ♪
♪ But there is room for doubt ♪
Jones: I remember it like it was yesterday.
♪ Sometimes you have a very unusual... ♪
We played that prison,
it was a black prison in Washington D.C.,
Frank just wanted to let the White House know
he was in town and didn't say hello.
And they were so upset, you know.
♪ And so the best ♪
♪ That I can do ♪
♪ Is pray... ♪
Frank Sinatra: You ought to say hello to my man here,
Count Basie, and his wonderful orchestra.
And Mr. Quincy Jones right here.
♪ Luck be a lady tonight ♪
♪ Luck be a lady tonight... ♪
Jones: And the musicians loved Frank,
they just loved him,
because he was like a jazz musician, you know.
♪ ♪..a lady to begin with ♪
♪ Luck be a lady tonight ♪
Back then the only singers
that anybody considered a real singer
was the ones who knew how to sing
like a jazz saxophone player played.
♪ I know the way you've treated other guys you've been with ♪
♪ Luck be a lady ♪
Pop! You know, he used to trick me on that all the time.
To see if he could sing it faster than I could hit those back drums.
♪ Luck be a lady... ♪
You know, he'd test me out every time.
♪ Tonight... ♪
Eleven!
Belafonte: I watched him through the years
as he became more deeply involved with black music,
certainly with jazz, and all the things
that he did in relationship
to race and progressive social agenda.
He did a huge benefit at Carnegie Hall
and an evening with Lena Horne.
Sinatra at the time
was filming in Los Angeles.
They wanted him to appear,
to raise money, for the NAACP.
He finally got himself away
from the film, got on an airplane,
flew to New York, and from the airport,
he went on the stage-- no warm-up
and he sang "Ol' Man River."
♪ Ol' Man River ♪
♪ That Ol' Man River ♪
♪ He must know something ♪
♪ But he don't say nothing ♪
♪ He just keeps rolling ♪
♪ Keeps on rolling along ♪
Frank Sinatra, Jr.: I was up in the balcony
and I recognized Dr. King sitting there,
and he was very moved by this.
♪ And he don't plant cotton ♪
♪ And them what plants 'em are soon forgotten ♪
♪ That Ol' Man River ♪
♪ He just keeps ♪
♪ Rolling along ♪
Frank Sinatra, Jr.: Now, you would've considered
they would've had one of the black operatic stars do it.
But here is Frank Sinatra singing this song
and Martin Luther King, he wept.
♪ Tote that barge and lift that bale ♪
♪ You get a little drunk ♪
♪ Then you lands ♪
♪ In jail ♪
♪ I gets weary ♪
♪ And sick of trying ♪
♪ I'm tired of living ♪
♪ But I'm scared of dying ♪
♪ And Ol' Man River ♪
♪ He just keeps ♪
♪ Rolling a....
♪ ♪..long ♪
Belafonte: The concert that they did
was a huge success
and he declared himself for Dr. King and for our movement.
Martin Luther King: With this faith, we will be able
to transform the jangling discords of our nation
into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood.
With this faith, we will be able to work together,
to pray together, to struggle together,
to go to jail together,
to stand up for freedom together,
knowing that we will be free one day.
Hey, why don't you have a little snack?
What is it, sandwiches?
All right, folks.
Put on your sheets and we'll start the meeting.
Oh, come on!
Go bore a few holes in that and be somebody.
Belafonte: Then there came a time
when for reasons that we never quite understood,
Sinatra and Joey Bishop
and Dean Martin began to do
these outrageously racist jokes
with Sammy Davis, Jr. as the brunt.
Frank Sinatra: He's just, you'll excuse the expression,
a carbon copy.
Belafonte: Sammy Davis, Jr. tap-danced his way through it
and played second banana
and went into a period of buffoonery.
And the rest of us were very critical of Sammy
for not resisting and behaving
in a manner that we considered more dignified.
So I thought since we're all
on the same label at Reprise we might--
Zelda? Zelda?
Hey, hey, Zelda, look.
I'll go out and I'll drink with you.
I'll go pick cotton with you.
I'll eat oranges with you.
I'll go to schul with you,
but don't touch me.
Belafonte: It was out of step.
But you have to understand that humor,
as offensive as it may have been,
it didn't disturb all of America.
It disturbed the black segment of America.
The rest of white America
had its dynamic with racist behavior and opinions,
so it was a country divided.
Speaker of the House: Ladies and gentlemen,
I give you
the next President of the United States!
♪ ♪
(President speaking)
(gunshot)
Announcer: Here is a bulletin from CBS News.
From Dallas, Texas, the flash apparently official.
President Kennedy died at 1:00 pm Central Standard Time,
2:00 Eastern Standard Time,
some thirty-eight minutes ago.
Vice President Johnson
has left the hospital...
Nancy Sinatra, Jr.: Dad went to Palm Springs
after that and virtually disappeared.
Even I couldn't reach him.
For three days, while the Kennedys
and the nation publicly mourned,
my father grieved alone--
locked away in his bedroom.
Afterward, he said of John F. Kennedy,
"For a brief moment,
he was the brightest star in our lives."
Sinatra (singing): ♪ I'll never ♪
♪ Smile again ♪
♪ Until I smile at you ♪
♪ I'll never love again ♪
♪ What good would it do? ♪
Reporter: This is the North Lodge of Harrah's Club,
straddling the California-Nevada border.
From this building, nearly 48 hours ago,
Frank Sinatra, Jr. was kidnapped.
Approximately 9:00 or a few minutes before,
there was a knock on the door.
Frank said, "Come in."
The fellow entered wearing a hooded parka,
said he had a package for Mr. Sinatra.
As he straightened up, he had a revolver in his hand.
Tina Sinatra: The kidnapping happened
on a Sunday night, the second week of December.
It was dark and cold
and my mother came running down our hallway
yelling, "Your brother's been kidnapped!"
So I said, "What do we do?"
She said, "I don't know. Your father's just called
"and he's on his way to Reno."
I get the chills when I think about it.
I was a basket case.
Frank Sinatra: I get a call the next morning
from Edgar Hoover.
"Frank?" "Yes sir, Mr. Director. How are you?"
He said, "I'm fine, but I'm pissed off
about these little rat clown bastards."
He said, "We'll get 'em, Frank. Don't worry about it."
Another hour later, I get a call from Bobby Kennedy
saying to me, "Frank, everything's being done,
just want you to know that."
He said, "We'll get your son back.
"Don't worry about it. Don't have any cares.
We're going to get him back."
Gibney: For such a traumatic moment,
did it bring Frank and Frank Jr. closer together?
Tina Sinatra: You know, their relationship
was actually always very warm and loving.
They were never not close,
but there was something
about the nature of their lifestyles
that kind of kept them apart.
Frank Sinatra, Jr.: Because he was doing his thing
all the time I was growing up.
And then when I became an adult, I was doing my thing.
We do a Sinatra song in every show, ladies and gentlemen.
I come from a very unusual family.
Interviewer: Did he come to see your first singing engagement?
Frank Sinatra, Jr.: Sure. I was singing with
the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra at that time.
I had to sing the same songs that he had made famous.
♪ All ♪ ♪ All all ♪
♪ Or nothing at all ♪
♪ All all ♪
♪ Half a love ♪ ♪ Half a love ♪
♪ Never appealed to me ♪
Frank Sinatra, Jr.: I was singing "I'll Never Smile Again."
I was singing "There Are Such Things", "Night and Day--"
the stuff he did with Tommy Dorsey.
♪ Rather have nothing at all ♪
Thank you, sir.
♪ All ♪
♪ Or nothing at all ♪
Frank Sinatra, Jr.: You know, the father-son thing
can be difficult, at best.
But primarily, as a boy,
every one of us, we need our father.
♪ Why begin, then cry for something ♪
Nancy Sinatra, Jr.: Dad had been joined in Reno
by his lawyer Mickey Rudin,
Jack Entratter of the Sands Hotel
and Dean Elson,
special agent in charge of the FBI in Nevada.
Elson: I had two questions for him.
One was, "Would Frank Jr.
do this for the publicity?"
"No Dean," he says.
"Not because of me but because
he would never do that to his mother."
The other question was,
"Is there any connection
"or reason that the mob
"would want to kidnap him
to get even with you or anything like that?"
And he said, "No, there's nothing."
A mob connection made sense,
but the truth was much crazier.
Gibney: Sane people don't wake up one day
and decide they're going to raise money to start a business
by kidnapping the son
of the most famous entertainer in the world,
but that's what happened.
The kidnapper's name was Barry Keenan.
He grew up in Southern California
and went to high school with the children of movie stars.
But after some brief business success,
he started drinking heavily,
and got hooked on Percodan
and other painkillers.
After losing all of his money
and most of his mind he panicked
and hatched a kidnapping plot.
He looked in his old high school yearbook
for wealthy people he knew.
He spotted Nancy Sinatra
and then settled on her brother.
Frank Sinatra would offer
one million dollars to get his son back
but Keenan would only ask for exactly $240,000.
In his fevered mind, Keenan imagined
it was a loan he would ultimately pay back.
Nancy Sinatra, Jr.: At 9:26pm, on the tenth,
Dad was instructed to go to a gas station
in Beverly Hills.
There, another phone call
ordered him to have a courier
bring the money to a phone booth
in Los Angeles International Airport at 11:00 pm.
Frank Sinatra: We get out there.
We got there long before he was--
I was supposed to be there.
And finally he said,
"Go back to your wife's house,"
he said,"and we'll call you some time in the--
I don't know, a half hour, an hour and a half."
He said, "We'll tell you where--
where you bring the money."
Tina Sinatra: When the phone would ring,
everybody would freeze.
Dad would answer all the phones.
Dad listened. He was--
didn't speak much. He asked to talk to his son.
"I want my son.
"I want to talk to my son."
It was surreal.
It was unbelievably weird and surreal.
I remember hours fleeting by.
None of us slept.
Mom never slept.
I remember the satchel of money coming in.
In the pre-dawn hours of this morning,
a courier dropped $240,000 in small bills
at a service station on Wilshire Boulevard
in Beverly Hills here.
At the same time, a car stopped
on the San Diego Freeway up here
near Mulholland Drive
and blindfolded Frank Sinatra
was set free after 48 hours as a captive,
most of that time spent in the trunk of his kidnapper's car.
Elson: Frank Jr. was released not too far from his home.
Each time a car came by he would duck in behind a hedge.
Finally, he saw a patrol car
that covered the neighborhood of Bel-Air.
He hailed him down and told him who he was.
The officer put him in the trunk
and drove to the house.
Officer: So, when the door opened,
two men, apparently FBI,
opened the door and about that time
Mr. Sinatra came walking
from the living room. I said to Mr. Sinatra,
"Frankie's out in the trunk of the car,"
and I said, "He's okay."
And he just looked-- I mean he was real serious,
and he said, "Well, let's get that trunk open."
Tina Sinatra: And he jumped out of the trunk
and they embraced, and my mother...
I don't know. She let out a sound I'd never heard before.
Frank Sinatra: Actually, his first words when he saw me was,
"I'm sorry." That's exactly what he said,
which threw me down on the ground.
Frank Sinatra, Jr.: I was scared. I was a little bit nervous,
naturally, but the only thing
I could do was hope for the best.
Reporter: Mrs. Sinatra, when did you first know he was safe?
I never knew that he was safe until I saw him.
Reporter: How do you feel now?
How do you feel now, Mrs. Sinatra?
Just beautiful, thank you.
Reporter: When will you go back to work, Frank?
Nancy Sinatra: We don't know that.
We're keeping him home for a while.
I'm not at liberty to release that information.
Fellas, would you mind if we go now?
Because I want to feed him.
Reporter: Okay.
(reporters chattering)
Sinatra (singing): ♪ Blow ♪
♪ Ill wind ♪
♪ Blow away ♪
♪ Let me rest today ♪
♪ You're blowin' me ♪
♪ No good ♪
Young Frank was for the first time, it seemed to me,
he was just so struck by the efforts
that had been involved
in getting his release.
♪ Ill wind, go away ♪
Romanoff: He was trying to thank his father in his own way
and that awkward thing that I think
fathers and sons sometimes have--
Frank not quite knowing how to reply but you know,
"Well, son, you know,
"what else would I do?
"You know, I mean you're my son."
♪ So ill wind, blow away ♪
Gibney: More often than not, you refer to your dad
as Frank Sinatra rather than
my father or Dad.
Frank Sinatra, Jr.: He's two people-- the professional is Sinatra,
as everyone knows him-- the personal,
the side at home, is Father.
And this, I believe, shows a respect.
♪ No good ♪
TV Announcer: This is the continuing story of "Peyton Place."
Starring Mia Farrow as Allison Mackenzie.
(phone rings)
Gibney: Ready? Technician: Yep.
Gibney: Hello?
Mia Farrow: Alex? Gibney: Mia?
Farrow: It's Mia.
Gibney: So tell me,
describe if you would
the first time you met Frank.
Farrow: I was at Fox Studios
and I was making a TV series, Peyton Place.
I was on roller skates
when I noticed a big set was opened
and I saw a train.
And somebody tapped me on the shoulder
and said, "Do you want to come in
and say hello to Frank Sinatra?"
Sinatra (singing): ♪ The likes of you ♪
♪ May never be ♪
Farrow: I went up and he was sitting on a chair and he was very sweet
and he got up and I dropped my purse.
Everything went rolling every which way.
My retainer on his shoe, tampons.
I mean-- just mortifying.
And I was scrambling to grab everything
and he asked if I wanted to go
to a movie with him the following night.
♪ There'll be no one else but me ♪
Now it was a movie that he himself
had directed called "None But the Brave."
And I don't remember much about the movie,
but what I remember was,
that at some point he held my hand.
♪ May never start ♪
Farrow: I didn't know what to do
because I immediately started sweating.
♪ You may ignore ♪
It was such a quandary
that I mentally amputated from the wrist down.
And when the lights went on,
he said, "Did you like the movie?"
And I'm like, "Oh yes, I loved it."
And, and he said-- did I want to come to Palm Springs?
And I heard myself saying,
"I don't have my pajamas
or my toothbrush and I have this cat."
He just started laughing.
He said, "How 'bout this,
"I will send the plane for you tomorrow.
You can bring your cat."
♪ Whenever skies look gray to me ♪
♪ And trouble begins to brew ♪
♪ Whenever the winter winds ♪
♪ They become too strong ♪
♪ I concentrate ♪
♪ On you ♪
Mia had gone to my high school
two years earlier. I liked her very much.
Dad liked her very much.
Dad was looking at 50
and not loving it.
Mia was looking for the father she never had.
It's really kind of textbook, you know?
At the time of their first meetings,
I think they were very private.
Farrow: I'd found him irresistible.
Those weekends that we were together,
I would be working and I would come to Palm Springs.
We had these wonderful weekends
where we took walks on the desert roads
where his house was.
The way I saw it, there was this person
that was so, so shy.
You can see it in pictures sometimes
when you see him looking at me.
We were both shy people.
When I look back the best of times
because I was, sort of,
a secret except to a very few people in his life.
So there was this Frank,
and then there was another version.
(up-tempo swing music)
♪ Life is dull ♪
♪ It's nothing but one big lull ♪
♪ Then presto, you do a skull ♪
♪ And find that you're reeling ♪
Farrow: In LA, there was the older crowd.
You know Rosalind Russell
and it was Claudette Colbert
and it was very respected members
of the LA artistic community.
In Las Vegas, these people who would show up--
I didn't know them from anywhere else
and they came and they called women "broads."
They only related to each other, the men.
They told jokes and they drank and they gambled.
And I did meet mafia people.
If the evening went on late enough,
he might just say, "Let's go to London."
And he would call his pilot
and next thing we'd be in an airplane.
I'd learned to bring my passport to dinner.
♪ Ring-a-ding ding ♪
Farrow: Before he made a record
or before he opened in Las Vegas,
he would stop smoking for six weeks.
And he wouldn't drink. He wouldn't smoke.
We would fly up to Vegas,
we never drove,
then he would go in the bathroom
and hang his tux on a shower curtain
and turn the bath on hot
so that steam would come up
and take any wrinkles out of his tuxedo.
And then before the show,
he would breathe over the sink
with steaming water and a towel
over the back of his head
just to clear himself up.
Sinatra (singing): ♪ I've got a crush on you ♪
♪ Sweetie pie ♪
♪ All the day and nighttime ♪
♪ Hear me... ♪
Farrow: A lot of the songs he sang in Vegas
were the standards, you know,
"Chicago", the kind of swinging songs.
But I liked the ballads best, by far.
And I know every time he sang them,
he was 100 percent present.
♪ So much emotion ♪
♪ Could you coo? ♪
♪ Could you care? ♪
I remember him telling me
that he would never sing songs
that were popular at the time.
"What Kind of Fool Am I?"
And he said, "I would never sing that song."
He said because "I can't sing what I can't feel."
♪ 'Cause I have got a crush ♪
♪ My baby, on you ♪
Farrow: He thought it would be fun
to go on a cruise along the Cape.
And next thing you know,
all around this ship were all these dinghies
and everybody with cameras.
Frank Sinatra: I was fairly prepared for that,
people saying, "Well, come up on deck, we wanna take a picture."
Fine, I got up and I let them take my picture.
And spoke to people.
But then it got a way out of hand.
Farrow: It became a scandalous thing,
because he was this swinger,
and I was in a TV series
playing this very young high school kid.
Like, 15, 16.
Cronkite: Can I rip off my philosopher's beard
and put on my battered gray fedora
with the press credentials
in his band and ask you,
are you going to marry Mia Farrow?
Well, I can't answer that to begin with
and I don't think we're going to use this, anyway, but I can't--
I really can't answer it.
♪ I'm getting married in the morning ♪
♪ Ding-dong, the bells are gonna chime ♪
♪ Pull out the stopper ♪
♪ We'll have a whopper ♪
♪ Get me to the church on time ♪
Farrow: And we got married in the Sands Hotel.
And we cut the cake and Frank said,
"Let's go outside. There's press out there."
And he said, "We give them a picture
and then they'll leave us alone."
And honestly, we never were left alone again.
♪ Kick up a rumpus ♪
♪ Don't lose your compass, get me to the church ♪
♪ Get me to the church ♪
♪ For Pete's sake, get me to the church ♪
♪ On time ♪
Tina Sinatra: My problem only arose when they married
without telling us, the children.
It shouldn't have been a shock.
It should've been something we were a part of,
whether we agreed with it or believed in it or not.
The truth is, none of us really did
and I don't think Dad thought so for long.
I think Mia, who was younger,
but very strong and career-driven,
had faith that everything would work out.
I think it was pretty obvious, pretty quickly,
that it was not going to work out.
('60s rock playing)
Farrow: When I met Frank, girls were in miniskirts,
and hair was high, eye makeup was heavy,
and that was one part of the '60s.
The middle part.
And obviously that wasn't my mode of being or dressing.
And then there was the Vietnam War.
It's no small thing, the impact it had on people my age.
♪ ♪
Janis Joplin: ♪ Sittin' down by my window ♪
♪ Just looking out ♪
♪ At the rain ♪
And there came the hippie garb
and a different way of being,
which was a huge wave
that changed the youth of the nation.
♪ Just looking out ♪
Frank felt himself very distanced
from their ideology, their attire,
the whole thing.
♪ Something came along ♪
♪ Honey grabbed a hold of me ♪
Tina Sinatra: My dad did not approve of looking divided.
You've got to support the soldiers,
you must support the veterans.
He didn't want the war,
but if you're in it,
then we got to do what we got to do.
Fundamental World War I and II philosophy,
and he'd lived through both.
Farrow: Clearly he did not embrace the change.
It was way different
when girls looked like dolls.
That he could be comfortable with.
But when girls looked like Janis Joplin...
♪ And I say, oh, whoa, whoa ♪
...he seemed uncomfortable with that.
♪ Oh baby, it ain't fair! ♪
♪ What you do ♪
♪ I told you no, no! ♪
♪ I told you no, no! No! ♪
Farrow: This was anathema to him.
♪ Tell me ♪
Perhaps, he thought,
it would destroy the fabric of the country he loved.
♪ Honey, why love is like ♪
♪ Well, it's like a ball ♪
Farrow: We just came up against walls,
just the inability to communicate
after a certain point.
(phone ringing)
- Yes, Doctor. - Mrs. Woodhouse?
Yes. Oh, thank you.
Thank you for calling me.
Farrow: So when Rosemary's Baby came,
I gave him that script.
And he was reading it and I said,
"What do you think?"
And he said, "I can't see you in that part."
...unusual kinds of drinks and capsules.
The baby's due on Tuesday,
remember you told me June 28th?
Well, I want you to deliver it.
Farrow: But you know, he said, "If you wanna do it it's--
it's just a little horror movie."
He said, "You got to be in The Detective.
"We're going to be doing this big movie at Fox
with Lee Remick and him."
And so, that was what was going to happen.
The director Roman Polanski,
he would do his set-ups.
If you look at that movie,
they're truly masterful and they're not off the cuff.
He didn't just do your group shot,
two-shot, over-shoulder and close-up.
It took longer than Frank wanted it to take
and The Detective was moving ahead
and I had this horrifying feeling.
I was in every shot and what would I do?
And he said, "You show up
"when you're supposed to show up for The Detective.
And if you don't," he said, "I don't think we have a relationship."
Interviewer: Did it all come to a head
when she was doing Rosemary's Baby?"
Frank Sinatra: That had nothing to do with what we were doing.
No, my beef there was with Bobby Evans.
My secretary comes in with an urgent message--
"Frank Sinatra's on the horn.
He must speak with you."
So I put him on the speakerphone.
He wasn't crooning.
"Evans, that you?"
"Yeah, Frank." "Pick the fucking phone up.
I don't like being on no speaker."
I pick the phone up.
"I'm pulling Mia from your fucking picture, Evans,
"if she ain't finished by November 14th.
"She's starting on my picture on the 17th,
"got it straight?"
"Frank, you don't understand something.
"We're not gonna be finished until mid-February."
"Huh... Then she's quitting.
"Got it clear, Evans? Don't fuck around with me.
"We go back too far. She's my old lady
"and she'll do as I tell her."
Before I could say anything, he hangs the phone up.
Farrow: And then, one day his lawyer appeared
on the set with an envelope,
a big envelope-- brown envelope full of papers.
And he said, "Mia, I have the papers for you to sign."
I'm like, "What papers?"
And he said, "The divorce papers."
And that's how I found out.
I signed every single paper without reading it.
And just was crying so, so hard.
I don't know how I finished the day.
I don't know how I did.
I was in such emotional pain
and I just wanted to climb out of that.
So I went to India.
(big band music playing)
♪ Hey, that's life ♪
♪ That's what all the people say ♪
♪ You're riding high in April ♪
♪ Shot down in May ♪
Tina Sinatra: "That's Life" was a title
that-- he was very good about it.
He sang it a lot.
He didn't always want to,
but the public demanded it.
♪ I said that's life ♪
♪ And strange as it may seem ♪
♪ I know a couple of cats get their kicks ♪
♪ Stomping on dreams ♪
♪ But I ain't never gonna let it get me down ♪
♪ Because this fine old world ♪
♪ Keeps going around and around ♪
♪ I've been... ♪
Frank Sinatra, Jr.: One day, there was some dinner
where they were giving an award
to Sinatra about something.
And one of the speakers that night
was a marvelous actor named Charlton Heston.
And Chuck Heston got up on the stage,
and he said, "Every song this man sings,
in essence, is a four-minute movie."
♪ That's life, that's life ♪
♪ And don't you ever deny it ♪
♪ I was gonna pack my bags last month and leave town ♪
♪ But my fine heart wouldn't buy it ♪
♪ However, if there ain't nothing jumping ♪
♪ This coming July ♪
Did you get any on you?
♪ I'm gonna roll myself up ♪
♪ In a big ball ♪
♪ And die... ♪
♪ My, my ♪
Teachout: Nobody stays hip forever.
Billy Davis, Jr.: Introducing The Sixth Dimension!
Teachout: There had been the most radical kind
of sea change in the country.
Nobody in popular music was able
to make that kind of transition.
You either accepted that you were older
or you could embarrass yourself.
The ensemble is English modern,
the ruffle is French traditional
and the face is Italian provincial.
They told me if I do good,
I can get to keep the suit. And away we go.
♪ ♪
Teachout: Frank Sinatra recorded songs
to which he could not possibly have had
any kind of emotional relationship
with because he was trying
to find a way to stay afloat.
♪ Oh, sweet blindness ♪
♪ A little magic, a little kindness ♪
♪ Oh, sweet blindness ♪
♪ All over me ♪
♪ Four leaves on a clover ♪
♪ I'm just a bit of a shade hungover ♪
Teachout: I'm sure he thought, "I can find a way
"to get on top of this.
I can find a way of relating."
♪ And ain't that sweet eyed blindness ♪
♪ Good to me ♪
Teachout: Sinatra was no longer and could not possibly be
the hippest person in the room.
Suddenly, he's not at the center of the culture.
Thank you, group.
And don't look now, Francis Albert,
but your generation gap is showing.
Nancy Sinatra, Jr.: On January 24th, 1969,
the man I called dad had lost the man he called dad.
Like many Americans, my father had been silently strong
through the assassinations of JFK and Bobby
and then Martin Luther King.
But when his father died, something snapped.
Sinatra (singing): ♪ I'm a little lamb ♪
♪ Who's lost in the wood ♪
♪ I know I could ♪
♪ Could always be good ♪
♪ To one who... ♪
Frank Sinatra: I never knew my father had that many friends.
Boy, he had a lot of friends. Jesus.
Nancy Sinatra, Jr.: They kept saying that.
Frank Sinatra: They came from miles around. I couldn't believe it.
Because, knowing that he was such an introvert,
I guess people got to love him
and they remained as close as they could to him all the time.
♪ Although I may not ♪
♪ Be the man some girls... ♪
Frank Sinatra: My father loved me, if possible,
more than my mother
but he never showed it.
He never wanted to open up with me.
He was a terrible introvert.
For instance, I went to the firehouse
when I appeared at the Paramount.
I said, "My dad around?"
They said, "We think he's upstairs."
When I came up, he was standing
in front of the door of the locker, shaving.
♪ Follow my lead ♪
As I approached him,
he apparently saw me and slammed the door.
But I had already seen in the mirror,
this thing was full of clippings
that he had been saving or had guys cut out--
the firemen would cut them out of magazines
and save them for him.
DownBeat and Metronome and newspaper clippings.
♪ Won't you tell her please ♪
♪ To put on... ♪
I could have wept when I saw it.
♪ Follow my lead ♪
He loved my success, but he never mentioned it.
He would never talk about it.
♪ Someone to watch ♪
♪ Over me ♪
Reagan: I believe in the two-party system.
There come times when the issues
are of philosophical nature
and people cross party lines.
I think perhaps this is such a time. I'm sure of it.
Tina Sinatra: Democrats for Reagan--
I think it was a huge success.
And again, it was Dad's pleasure
to believe in a candidate
and work hard and hit the road and stump.
I think that his relationship
with Ronnie Reagan and Nancy--
he was moving in those circles more.
Frank Sinatra: When I came out for Reagan,
none of my friends would even talk to me.
They were angry with me
and I said to a few of them, "Wait a minute."
I said, "I have a right to choose the man I want to vote for.
I don't tell you how to vote."
They were wrong really,
you know, really wrong about it.
Larry King: Are you a long-time friend of the Reagans?
Frank Sinatra: Yes, Ronnie and I go back a long, long way.
We've been friends a long time,
since 1943 or '44.
King: Did you switch parties?
Frank Sinatra: It's not a matter of switching parties.
I'm a registered Democrat.
I never changed my registration.
If I think the Republican
is a better man than the Democrat,
I will vote for the Republican.
If it had to be, I would rather be called an Independent.
Frank Sinatra, Jr.: One night, I called my father.
Notice now it's my father.
This is not the professional person,
not Sinatra-- this is Father.
I called him at his home in Palm Springs.
He said, "Look, do me a favor," on the telephone.
"Talk fast, will you? I've got Nixon sitting here at dinner."
Frank Sinatra: I'm delighted to see, and to witness the fact
that millions and millions
of American voters today,
and this evening, have chosen to re-elect the President
and the Vice President for another term.
Tina Sinatra: I can't explain what he saw
in Richard Nixon-- I can't.
We fought about it.
Kuntz: After Kennedy, each successive president
has some association with Sinatra.
He became very friendly with Richard Nixon.
He was especially friendly with Spiro Agnew.
He encouraged Spiro Agnew not to resign,
I think within a week before he actually resigned.
Hamill: Agnew had left office in disgrace
and although Sinatra didn't,
you know, like Richard Nixon,
he really had affection for Agnew.
Belafonte: It was a huge loss that Sinatra
went to the other side
and we've never recovered from it, really.
I don't think he went out
of political philosophy to the Republican side of the agenda.
Sinatra really needed to hurt the Kennedys.
And the way to do that was to go after them politically.
He did it because he was Frank from Hoboken
and that's the way you do it.
Simple.
Ostin: We had made an album
in August of '69 called A Man Alone
and the words and music were by Rod McKuen.
It was not well regarded, poorly reviewed
and certainly had no commercial success.
Jonathan Schwartz: And then he got it into his head
to make another concept album,
and he made Watertown.
It sold 30,000 copies. Frank Sinatra!
Ostin: It was the worst selling record
in the history of Sinatra's career
and so, he felt his career was waning.
He decided at that point that he would retire.
(applause)
♪ ♪
♪ And now ♪
♪ The end is near ♪
♪ And so I face ♪
♪ The final curtain ♪
♪ My friend ♪
♪ I'll make it clear ♪
♪ I'll state my case ♪
♪ Of which I'm certain ♪
Frank Sinatra, Jr.: The people who were in attendance that night--
the Vice President and his wife,
the Governor of California,
Governor Reagan and his wife.
I sat next to Henry Kissinger that night...
and Princess Grace of Monaco.
♪ I did it ♪
♪ My way ♪
Tina Sinatra: I remember being terrified
that I was going to get hit by a sniper's bullet
because I was sitting directly behind Ted Agnew.
It's a terrible thing to say,
but it crossed my mind.
♪ To few to mention ♪
♪ I did what I had to do ♪
♪ I saw it through ♪
♪ Without exemption ♪
♪ I planned ♪
♪ Each charted course ♪
♪ Each careful step ♪
♪ Along the byway ♪
♪ And more ♪
♪ Much more than this ♪
♪ I did it ♪
♪ My way ♪
♪ For what is a man ♪
♪ What has he got? ♪
♪ If not himself ♪
♪ Then he has not ♪
♪ To say the things ♪
♪ He truly feels ♪
♪ And not the words ♪
♪ Of one who kneels ♪
♪ The record shows ♪
♪ I took the blows ♪
♪ And did it ♪
♪ My ♪
♪ Way ♪
♪ My ♪
♪ Way ♪
(applause)
Thank you.
Tina Sinatra: Dad knew exactly what he was going to do
and how he was going to do it.
He was going to make a grand exit.
It was quite a night.
♪ And have fun ♪
♪ You happy people.
Gibney: Do you think he really intended to retire?
Frank Sinatra, Jr.: I believe he was burned out.
He was just overloaded.
Too much for too much a period of time.
♪ Pardon me ♪
♪ But I gotta run ♪
♪ The fact's uncommonly clear ♪
♪ I gotta find ♪
♪ Who's now the number one ♪
♪ And why my angel eyes ♪
♪ She ain't here ♪
Tina Sinatra: The entire room was in tears.
Many of us knew what the last line of that song would be.
♪ Excuse me ♪
♪ While I ♪
♪ Disappear ♪
(applause)
Gibney: The retirement concert was meant to be
Sinatra's life in song.
But whatever motivated Sinatra to stop singing,
it didn't last long.
Only two years and he had to get back.
Announcer: Madison Square Garden, October 13, 1974.
Jam-packed with 20,000 people plus.
Just people. People from all walks of life.
People who are young, and people who are old.
Here to see, hear, pay homage to a man
who has bridged four generations
and somehow never found a gap.
Jerry Weintraub: My secretary came in.
She said, "Frank Sinatra's on the phone."
I said, "Hello?" He said, "Jerry?
I want you to take me out of retirement."
Announcer: ...live with the King of Entertainment
carries with it the breathless excitement
and anticipation of a heavyweight championship fight.
Celebrities are here...
Weintraub: I said, "We're going to do it in a boxing ring."
He said, "Why? Why?"
I said, "Because you're the champ.
"You're the heavyweight champ of the world."
♪ I get no kick from champagne ♪
♪ The alcohol, it doesn't move me at all ♪
♪ Tell me why should it be true ♪
♪ That I get a kick out of you ♪
Teachout: He starts to spend more and more time
performing in public,
and not just in ordinary settings,
but in stadium settings,
performing for vast crowds of people.
Because he means the world to them.
♪ A kick out of you ♪
Frank Sinatra: Thank you.
I'm delighted to be back in New York
and be able to work here.
I've had some of my greatest fights here...
What happened?
Gibney: Passion still defines Sinatra's life
in his later years.
He married once more to Barbara Marx...
Sinatra (singing): ♪ Don't go changing ♪
...a marriage that would last
until the end of his life.
He was honored for his music
all over the world.
He raised more money for charity.
And he piled up awards from powerful friends.
Reagan: Singer, humanitarian, patron of art,
and mentor of artists.
Francis Albert Sinatra and his impact
on America's popular culture are without peer.
♪ I would not leave you ♪
Gibney: But some friendships didn't end so well.
♪ In times of trouble ♪
♪ We could have... ♪
"You think that some people are smart,"
he said, "and they turn out dumb.
"You think they're straight,
and they turn out crooked."
"Maybe," he told Pete Hamill,
"you get older, and you know less."
♪ I'll take you any way you are ♪
Teachout: The bad moments of those years,
the outbursts of anger that have blotted his career,
reflect his slackening grasp on the culture.
Announcer: Frank Sinatra gets upset
with newsmen continually hounding him.
Reporter: Can we speak to you, Mr. Sinatra?
Not when you come around the corner. No, ma'am.
Frank Sinatra: I don't care what you think about anybody,
any press in the world.
I say they're bums and they're always going to be bums.
They're pimps. They're just crazy.
They're hookers. The broads who work in the press
are the hookers of the press.
Need I explain that to you?
(laughter)
♪ ♪
Frank Sinatra: Let's make a record.
Teachout: At this point, his voice was beginning to age.
He starts to record less,
to spend gradually less and less time in the studio.
When you're ready.
♪ ♪
Teachout: I think arguably that was his last great day in the studio.
You see a very, very happy man.
♪ You'll find my reason is logically sound ♪
♪ Who's gonna know that you've passed them around ♪
♪ 100 years from today ♪
Jones: It was one of those wonderfully memorable moments.
To have the two greatest artists
of their generations in the same room,
you could see immediately
that there was no generation gap here.
Just two legendary performers grooving on each other.
♪ What would they all mean ♪
♪ 100 years from today ♪
Gibney: Terry, in his retirement concert,
Sinatra sings the songs of his life
up to that point, songs that dominated the culture.
Did he ever find that again?
Teachout: Yes, one last time he turns a song into a standard.
What is touching about it
is this is a man who, in his youth,
looked across the river
and saw his dreams.
And now in his late middle age,
in his old age, he sings a song
about having achieved those dreams.
Schwartz: I was present at the very first moment
that he sang it publicly.
It was during the Yankee-Dodger World Series of '78
and he was playing Radio City.
Opening night, he turns to the conductor
and says, "What's the first line?"
He says, "Start spreading the news."
♪ Start spreading the news ♪
♪ I'm leaving today ♪
♪ I want to be a part of it ♪
♪ New York, New York ♪
Hamill: I remember now a night I spent with him in 1974
driving around New York in a limousine, just talking.
"When I first came across that river,
"this was the greatest city in the whole goddamn world.
It was like a big, beautiful lady."
♪ I want to wake up ♪
♪ In a city that doesn't sleep ♪
♪ And find I'm king of the hill ♪
♪ Top of the heap ♪
Hamill: I liked the man who talked that way
on a chilly night in New York.
I liked his doubt, his uncertainty.
He had enriched my life with his music
since I was a boy.
He had confronted bigotry
and changed the way many people thought
about the children of immigrants.
He had made many of us wiser
about love and human loneliness.
And he was still trying to understand what it was all about.
♪ New York ♪
♪ (scatting) ♪
♪ New York, New York ♪
♪ I want to wake up ♪
♪ In a city ♪
♪ That doesn't sleep ♪
♪ And find that I'm number one ♪
♪ Top of the list ♪
♪ Head of the heap ♪
♪ King of the hill ♪
♪ These ♪
♪ Little ♪
♪ Town blues ♪
♪ They have all melted away ♪
Hamill: His imperfections were upsetting.
But Frank Sinatra was a genuine artist
and his work will endure
as long as men and women can hear and ponder and feel.
In the end, that's all that truly matters.
♪ If I can make it there ♪
♪ You know I'm gonna make it ♪
♪ Anywhere ♪
♪ It's up to you ♪
♪ New York ♪
(music ceases)
(applause)
Frank Sinatra: Back in the days when I was young and eager
and had enough vitamins to be on television,
I used to close my show with a theme
that's been with me for a long, long, long time.
I still have a case on this tune
and a lot of your letters tell me
you'd like to hear it again too.
And so would I.
♪ When your dreams at night ♪
♪ Fade before ♪
♪ You ♪
♪ Then I'll have the right ♪
♪ To adore you ♪
♪ Put your dreams ♪
♪ Away ♪
♪ For another day ♪
♪ And I will take their place ♪
♪ In your heart ♪
♪ Wishing on a star ♪
♪ Never got you far ♪
♪ And so ♪
♪ It's time to make ♪
♪ A new start ♪
♪ When your dreams at night ♪
♪ Fade before you ♪
♪ Then I'll have the right ♪
♪ To adore you ♪
♪ Let your kiss ♪
♪ Confess ♪
♪ This is happiness ♪
♪ Darling ♪
♪ And put all your dreams ♪
♪ Away ♪
(applause)
Thank you.
Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen.
Sync & corrections by dwigt addic7ed.com