His Way_ The Unauthorized Biography of Frank Sinatra - Kitty Kelley [107]
During his twelve years with Nancy, Frank had been in a traditional marriage: he was the breadwinner, she was the homemaker. There had never been any question about who was in charge. Now he was starting a totally different relationship: his career would be secondary to his wife’s, and he would have to fight to assert his command. In a sense, he had married a surrogate Dolly, for Ava was almost as tough and independent as his mother. Although she suffered from deep insecurity (“Ava feared she could not really hold a man,” said Hank Sanicola), she appeared so aggressive and combative at times that Jimmy Van Heusen soon called her “The Man.” Having to pay Nancy $150,000 a year plus a percentage of his earnings made Frank financially dependent on Ava. It was her salary from MGM that paid most of their bills. She was the one with the flourishing career, and when the studio sent her to Africa to make Mogambo, Frank, who had nothing else to do, went along and carried her bags like a faithful courtier.
“Ava loved Frank, but not the way he loved her,” said Hank Sanicola. “Twice he went chasing her to Africa, wasting his own career.… He needs a great deal of love. He wants it twenty-four hours a day. He must have people around—Frank is that kind of guy.”
Ava never understood Frank’s need to surround himself with an entourage, most of whom were Italian men like himself. Together, they comprised a modern version of the storefront club of the Italian neighborhoods they had grown up in. Their fathers and uncles went to those clubs to play cards and get away from their wives. Being with other men gave Frank an audience and helped to reinforce his sense of masculinity, but Ava hated to have Frank’s men hanging around all the time, and this irritated him. He was accustomed to the good Italian wife who simply went into the kitchen and started cooking spaghetti for everyone when he brought the whole band home with him.
“The problems were never in the bedroom,” said Ava. “We were always great in bed. The trouble usually started on the way to the bidet.” A friend of Ava’s explained: “There was a strong physical attraction on both sides, but they couldn’t get together on the other things that are necessary in a relationship. Neither gave an inch, though I must say Frank worked harder on the marriage than she did. She’s a very selfish girl.”
“The trouble with Ava is that her whole concept of life comes from magazine illustrations,” said another friend. “She used to come tripping down in the morning, put on a frilly apron, and prepare a five-course breakfast. Then she’d call Frank. He’d come down unshaven and hung over from the night before. He’d growl ‘All I want is juice’—and more than likely she’d throw the juice at him.”
By the time Frank married Ava, he had little work to do. Although he was still represented by MCA, the agency was no longer helping him. In fact, MCA agents were telling reporters that they had “to wait in line” to collect their commissions.
The dispute over commissions went back many years to the time Frank was singing on radio in a package show that he had put together himself. He was paid fifteen thousand dollars a week for the show, but when MCA demanded a ten percent commission on the gross, as was the practice, he balked. Frank felt that he had done all the work of getting the show, so he should not have to pay a full commission, and agreed to pay only a commission on his net earnings from the show. Because he was such an important client, MCA agreed. But now the agency was saying he still owed them forty thousand dollars in commissions from that show and implied that a client who was such a deadbeat should be dropped.
Frank laughed when he first heard the rumor. “How can you fire an entertainer who earned $693,000 last year?” he asked. The answer was extraordinary—a public notice in the trade papers declaring that