His Way_ The Unauthorized Biography of Frank Sinatra - Kitty Kelley [132]
Despite his optimism, Frank made his son and daughter promise not to be disappointed if he didn’t win. “Don’t you be either,” they said in unison.
The film itself won eight Academy Awards, tying the all-time record of Gone with the Wind.
That night Frank sat nervously as Mercedes McCambridge walked on stage to make the presentation for best performance by an actor in a supporting role. When she announced him as the winner, the audience cheered wildly and Little Nancy burst into tears. Frank leaned over to kiss her and grabbed young Frankie’s hand. Then he dashed toward the stage. Hugging the gold statue close to him, he thanked Harry Cohn, Fred Zinnemann, and Buddy Adler. Later, he said he regretted not thanking Montgomery Clift as well, but he never mentioned Ava, who had done as much as anyone to get him the role.
He took the children home and gave their mother the small Oscar medallion he had received for her charm bracelet. Then, clutching his trophy, he drove to his apartment, where a few friends had gathered to congratulate him.
“Frank walked up the path holding that Oscar and looking so alone that it almost broke my heart,” recalled actress Charlotte Austin. “Here it was the biggest night in his life, and the only woman he cared about was five thousand miles away in Spain with another man. Frank was very quiet and happy, though, and acted as if he didn’t quite believe it had really happened to him. We had a great time. Gene Kelly was there. Adolph Green and Betty Comden, Jule Styne, Sammy Cahn, and Bert Friedlob, the producer. The first thing Frank did was call his mom in Hoboken. She must have done most of the talking because all we could hear him say was, ‘Yes Mama, no Mama, yes Mama.’ ”
Variety proclaimed Frank’s victory “the greatest comeback in theater history.” The Associated Press concurred. “Frank Sinatra, a wartime crooning idol of the nation’s bobby-soxers, climaxed a thrilling career comeback in winning an Oscar for the best supporting role. A year ago the spindly crooner was considered washed up in Hollywood.”
Psychiatrist Ralph Greenson, who had now been treating Frank for three months, watched the awards on television. As Frank ran up to the stage to get his Oscar, the psychiatrist said to his wife, “That’s it. We’ll never see him again.” Dr. Greenson knew his patient well. The next week Frank called and canceled his appointment, saying he no longer needed to probe his past with a psychiatrist.
“I found out all I wanted to know,” he said. Later, he completely dismissed psychoanalysis. “I’ve never gone in for that analysis bit, and I don’t intend to start now. All I know is that I’m feeling great, and I’m not askin’ myself why. The time you start talkin’ to yourself is when you’re unhappy, and I’m happy with what I am. So long as I keep busy I feel great.”
Keeping busy meant constant movement and incessant action. Even Frank couldn’t explain his restlessness. “This is something I can’t help,” he told film director Vincente Minnelli. “I have to go. No one seems able to help me with it—doctors, no one. I have to move.”
Frank’s success in From Here to Eternity brought him the kind of work that had eluded him for years. “The greatest change in my life began the night they gave me the Oscar,” he said. “It’s funny about that statue—I don’t think any actor can experience something like that and not change.”
Financially, Frank had been revitalized a few months before, when he was approved for a Nevada state gambling license, and bought two percent of the Sands Hotel for $54,000. During the hearing before the State Tax Commission, one commissioner had objected to his application, saying that he should use the purchase money to pay his back taxes. Frank explained that he was paying the I.R.S. $1,000 a week for every week he worked and had already reduced his $109,000 debt to $90,000.
“In the past ten years I’ve paid the government over a million dollars in income tax, and I don’t think they’re too concerned about my not paying them $90,000,” he said. Worried about Frank’s ties to organized