Frank_ The Voice - James Kaplan [116]
I don’t have to tell you about the way I worry and look out for your interests. I am certainly not trying to take advantage of you …
I miss you—come home soon. Love and kisses, Manie.
P.S.—I just got a letter from Traubner charging us $2100 for Axel’s services up to the last date, and $300 for the last date—ALSO $400 for arrangements! Are we supposed to be paying for arrangements, too? What’s this all about?
A couple of weeks pass, then Sinatra lets Sacks—or rather Columbia—have it. He begins the telegram with a complaint that he can’t reach Manie on the phone, then goes on to say that it’s not personal, but he doesn’t plan to pay any of the bills. Not one. If Columbia Recording doesn’t agree, Frank says, he will have to request an immediate release. He signs with love.
Sacks writes back immediately, in a letter of August 24, 1945:
Dear Frank: I received your wire and to say that I was taken aback and surprised is putting it mildly. I’m sorry we aren’t able to discuss this in person or on the ’phone, but since there is nothing else to do, I’ll have to write you my thoughts on this matter.
You said, “Whatever decision I arrive at does not concern you personally.” Well, who else does it concern? All the negotiations that had to do with records or anything else were worked out by the two of us. Why, ever since you walked into my office the first time, I have gone through everything with you. Your problems have been as much a part of my life as my own. No one, with perhaps the exception of George Evans, has lived Sinatra as I have. Many is the night I have gone sleepless thinking and worrying about your problems. I could write pages on how we sweated them out together. Everything of concern to you concerns me, too … So your unreasonable demands are actually a slap in the face to me … I explained in my last letter exactly what the situation was and why we can’t pay for arrangements, copying, and the fees for Axel … If you are doubting me or questioning my sincerity, that really hurts.
Do you think for a minute that, as head of the department you work for at Columbia, I’d let anyone take advantage of you—or do so myself? You have a better deal today than anyone else at Columbia. We can’t pay for the things you’ve requested—your demands are entirely out of proportion.
You’ve had pretty much your own way and have done the things you wanted to do. So far you’ve recorded 49 sides, and we’ve released 32 sides—more than any other artist. You’ve had the pick of songs, you’ve recorded anything you want to, you’ve had greater promotion than anyone else with Columbia. You told me yourself that our promotion was the most outstanding you’d ever seen. Every one of us here at Columbia, from Ted Wallerstein down, has gone out of his way to make you happy. What more do you want? Just because you’ve made up your mind that Columbia should pay for things that are strictly your obligations and I can’t tell you Columbia can’t pay for them, you become annoyed and try to convince me it doesn’t concern me personally, and you want your contract back.
As long as you’re talking bluntly, I will, too. We have no intention of paying for all the abovementioned extras. Just because you asked for your contract back, there’s no reason why you should get it. We don’t do business that way. I don’t know who has been putting these ideas into your head or where you’re getting them from. They don’t sound like Sinatra … I had an operation, it took a lot out of me, I’ve had family difficulties of which you’re well aware. But nothing has hurt me as much as the wire I received from you. Don’t friendship and sincerity mean anything to you? Or is it that, when you make up your mind to do something, that’s the way it has to be? I’m telling you, I’ve seen it happen and so have you. If this is the attitude you want to adopt, it’s got to hit you—you just can’t get away with it; life itself won’t permit it. Love, Manie.
No doubt Frank was nervous. Both Crosby and Harry