His Way_ The Unauthorized Biography of Frank Sinatra - Kitty Kelley [166]
An eight-column streamer in. Hearst’s Los Angeles flagship paper ran in red above its own masthead: SINATRA OUSTS MALTZ AS WRITER. In an editorial headed “Sinatra Sees the Light,” the Examiner commended Frank for his “maturity” in Firing the blacklisted writer. In New York City, the Post condemned him for capitulating “to the know-nothings of cinema and journalism.” Publishers Weekly agreed: “Chalk up another victory for lynch-law mentality.”
Frank paid Maitz’s agent $75,000, the full price he had agreed to pay for the screenplay, but he was too embarrassed to call the writer to explain what had happened or to apologize for going back on his word. He also abandoned the idea of directing and producing the Private Slovik story.
A few nights later, Frank saw John Wayne at a celebrity-packed benefit dinner in the Moulin Rouge nightclub. Frank, who had been drinking, approached the six-foot-four-inch actor on the way to the parking lot.
“You seem to disagree with me,” he said.
“Now, now, Frank, we can discuss this somewhere else,” said Wayne.
Frank snarled at the actor, but friends stepped in to hold him back. Wayne walked away and Sinatra stalked to his car after turning on the one newsman present: “I guess you’ll write all this down.”
Angered, Sinatra stepped in front of a moving car, forcing the parking lot attendant behind the wheel to jam on the brakes, bringing the car to a screeching halt.
“Hey, Charley! You almost hit me! You know what I’m insured for?” Frank yelled. Confused and shaken, the parking lot attendant shook his head. Frank raced around to the driver’s side of the car, shoved the attendant, and tore the shirt off another. “Can you fight?” he yelled. “You’d better be able to.”
“Aw, Frank, he wasn’t trying to hit you with the car,” said another parking attendant, Edward Moran. “He’s only trying to make a living.”
“Who the fuck are you?” Frank roared, pushing Moran, who started to strike back trying to defend himself. Before the twenty-one-year-old could land a blow on Frank, the large fists of Big John Hopkins were punching Moran’s head and face. Hopkins, who had been standing a few feet away, was six feet tall, weighed 220 pounds, and worked for Sammy Davis, Jr. Moran claimed to the police that as Hopkins beat him up, Frank yelled, “Tell that guy not to sue me if he knows what’s good for him! I’ll break both his legs.”
Hopkins and Frank jumped into Sammy’s Rolls-Royce and drove off, while the parking lot attendant was taken to Hollywood Receiving Hospital and treated for facial cuts and bruises. He later filed suit against Frank for violent assault, asking $100,000 in damages.
At that point, Big John Hopkins stepped forward to say that Frank wasn’t to blame. “There’s a little mixup and I’m standing right in the middle,” he said. “I separate them. Someone gets hurt in the separation and it isn’t me. And it isn’t Frank.” Before the case went to trial, Frank agreed to settle—no sum was disclosed.
Following the Maitz episode, Frank avoided publicity until the Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles in July. By that time, the Dodgers were on a winning streak and the city was strewn with baseball pennants and political bunting. The Democrats arrived early to stage a $100-a-plate fund-raising dinner at the Beverly Hilton to be attended by 2,800 people, including all the Hollywood stars Frank could turn out—Judy Garland, Janet Leigh, Tony Curtis, Sammy Davis, Jr., Shirley MacLaine, Peter Lawford, Angie Dickinson, Milton Berle, George Jessel, Joe E. Lewis, and Mort Sahl.
Jack Kennedy sat at the head table next to Garland. Frank sat at the end with the rest of the Democratic candidates—Adlai Stevenson, Stuart Symington, and Lyndon Johnson. After winning