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crash the previous October. “He was a real rival to Crosby,” recalled the Columbia producer George Avakian. “But he also had the handicap of not being able to appeal to people visually because he wasn’t good-looking. He was a slightly overweight, slightly undersized person of very drab appearance. Everything was drab about him. So the quality of his voice was terrific, but nothing else happened. He would have been a disaster in the television era, because he looked like your father’s younger brother” (Avakian, in discussion with the author, Oct. 2006).

3. A remarkable booking, given Sinatra’s odor at the moment. The Copa was the crème de la crème of nightclubs, and bookings for even the biggest stars were usually four weeks. How to explain? As tempting as it is to look for organized crime behind every potted plant in Sinatra’s life, the Mob really does seem to have stuck with him through the roughest patches in his career, and Frank Costello owned the Copa.

4. Later the author of The Manchurian Candidate, which of course became a movie starring Sinatra.

SOURCE NOTES

5 “Never before has”: Shaw, Twentieth-Century Romantic, p. 130.

6 “I’m quite sure”: Ed Sullivan, Little Old New York, syndicated column, Feb. 1, 1950.

7 “She arrived late”: Server, Ava Gardner, p. 182.

8 “Frank Sinatra squired”: United Press, Feb. 7, 1950.

9 “a major mistake”: Shaw, Twentieth-Century Romantic, p. 133.

10 “I am very much”: Kelley, His Way, p. 157.

11 “Ava Gardner’s current travels”: Sheilah Graham, Hollywood Today, syndicated column, Feb. 10, 1950.

12 “FRANK SINATRA’S WIFE”: Los Angeles Times, Feb. 15, 1950.

13 “the shit really hit the fan”: Gardner, Ava, p. 225.

14 “I am very glad”: Louella Parsons, International News Service, syndicated column, Feb. 24, 1950.

15 “romantic episode”: Los Angeles Times, Feb. 15, 1950.

16 “I have here”: Herman, Joseph McCarthy, p. 99.

17 “Ava Gardner’s lines”: Erskine Johnson, In Hollywood, syndicated column, March 10, 1950.

18 “apostle of degradation”: See Spoto, Notorious, p. 296.

19 “Items-We-Doubt”: Walter Winchell on Broadway, syndicated column, March 14, 1950.

20 “I found myself”: Summers and Swan, Sinatra, p. 155.

21 “Every single night”: Ibid., p. 157.

22 “Someone told Sinatra”: Kelley, His Way, p. 160.

23 “Sam, Frank”: Friedwald, Sinatra! p. 183.

24 “I’m adored, I’m adored”: Lyrics from “I Am Loved,” words and music by Cole Porter (New York: Hal Leonard, 1950).

25 “My voice was”: Kelley, His Way, p. 160.

26 “After the opening”: Friedwald, Sinatra! p. 183.

27 “Whether temporarily”: Shaw, Twentieth-Century Romantic, p. 135.

28 “Frank was nervous”: Gardner, Ava, p. 228.

29 “Did you have to sing”: Wayne, Ava’s Men, p. 119.

30 “We took a plain”: Artie Shaw, interview with Ted Panken, April 2, 2002.

31 “Artie solved”: Gardner, Ava, p. 230.

32 “It was Frank”: Ibid., p. 231.

33 “It’s like being”: Server, Ava Gardner, p. 267.

34 “Every artist is a woman”: Richardson, A Life of Picasso: The Triumphant Years, 1917–1932, p. 341.

CHAPTER 25

SOURCE NOTES

1 “As you know”: Columbia Records Archive, Sony Music Corporation.

2 “Mitch, we’ve got”: Ibid.

3 “What makes you”: Friedwald, Sinatra! p. 78.

4 “Daisy is darling”: Lyrics from “American Beauty Rose,” words and music by Arthur Altman, Hal David, and Redd Evans (1950).

5 “irresistible”: Friedwald, Sinatra! p. 179.

6 “Oh, God”: Gardner, Ava, p. 220.

7 “extreme cruelty”: Associated Press, April 27, 1950.

8 “neither of us”: International News Service, April 27, 1950.

9 “Frank Sinatra, cast loose”: “Sinatra Breaks with M-G-M; Will Free-Lance,” Long Beach (Calif.) Independent, April 29, 1950.

10 “Hey, did you”: Nancy Sinatra, My Father, p. 87.

11 “I hear you”: Ibid.

12 “Listen, Sinatra had”: Server, Ava Gardner, p. 187.

13 “I can say this now”: Nancy Sinatra, American Legend, p. 95.

14 “You couldn’t do that”: Lee Herschberg, in discussion with the author, May 2006.

15 “he would send off”: Server, Ava Gardner, p. 187.

16 “was tragic