His Way_ The Unauthorized Biography of Frank Sinatra - Kitty Kelley [113]
Heartsick about what had happened, Frank called Ava frequently, but she refused to answer the phone and had the number changed the next day so he couldn’t reach her. With all their plans in ruins—their trip to Ava’s home in North Carolina, their trip to Africa, their baby—Frank was so distraught that, according to Jimmy Van Heusen, he often vomited. Frank called Earl Wilson and begged him to print his plea for a reconciliation. When Ava saw the column—“Frankie Ready to Surrender; Wants Ava Back, Any Terms”—she called Frank.
No one hoped more for a reconciliation than Adlai Stevenson, the Democratic nominee for President in 1952, who was running against Dwight Eisenhower and Richard M. Nixon. Nixon had charged that Stevenson would not end the war in Korea, which was America’s most vexing foreign issue. He also said that a Democratic victory in November would mean “more Alger Hisses, more atomic spies, more crises.” Hollywood’s Democratic celebrities had rallied in support of Stevenson (“Madly for Adlai”), and Ava and Frank were among those touched by the magic of the man from Illinois. They had promised to make a joint appearance for him at the Hollywood-for-Stevenson rally on Monday, October 27, 1952, a few days before the presidential election. Ava was to introduce Frank, who had promised to sing “The Birth of the Blues” and “The House I Live In,” but after the Palm Springs explosion, no one knew whether the battling Sinatras would show up, and if they did, who would introduce them to each other.
More than four thousand people jammed into the Palladium Ballroom that October night, and cheered when Ava walked onstage in a black satin strapless gown and a mink stole. Clutching the microphone, she said, “I can’t do anything myself, but I can introduce a wonderful, wonderful man. I’m a great fan of his myself. Ladies and gentlemen, my husband, Frank Sinatra!”
Frank sang beautifully and said a few words for the candidate. He even posed for photographers with his arm around Ava. Stevenson lost the election, but he polled more votes than any previous losing presidential candidate in the nation’s history. His greatest achievement, according to the Hollywood press, was reuniting Frankie and Ava.
Resuming their plans, they announced that they were leaving in a few days for Nairobi, where Ava would star with Clark Gable in Mogambo. Frank, who was without work, had agreed to accompany his wife, but he had instructed his agents to cable him when casting started on From Here to Eternity. Having read James Jones’s novel about World War II—“It was an adventure-type story, which is the kind I like”—Frank saw himself as Maggio, the scrappy little private, and was convinced that the part would restore his career. He talked of nothing else.
Before they left, Ava phoned Joan Cohn, the wife of Harry Cohn, head of Columbia Pictures, to ask if she could see her. Mrs. Cohn said that she was sick in bed with the flu, but Ava insisted. “Please, Joan,” she said. “It’s very, very important.”
“That was a very brave thing for Ava to call me like that and then insist on seeing me when I was ill,” said Joan Cohn Harvey, “but she had a mission, and nothing was going to stop her. She came to the house alone in the evening and said that Frank must never know that she had been here. We both knew how much he needed and wanted to be the boss in that marriage.
“She took off her shoes and put her feet up on the coffee table. I was astounded because she had the tiniest little feet in the world for such a big girl. She was so very beautiful, but I wondered how those little feet ever held her up. I asked if she wanted something to drink, and was so surprised