His Way_ The Unauthorized Biography of Frank Sinatra - Kitty Kelley [179]
“Baby, that’s a very good question,” he said. “But I have to say it’s for my man Francis.”
“Or friends of his?”
“By all means.”
“Like Sam Giancana?”
“By all means.”
When asked to elaborate, Davis gulped his drink and exhaled. “Baby, let me say this. I got one eye, and that one eye sees a lot of things that my brain tells me I shouldn’t talk about. Because my brain says that, if I do, my one eye might not be seeing anything after a while.”
Jammed for three shows a night, the Villa Venice did record business during the Rat Pack’s run, attracting mobsters from across the country. Dean Martin joked openly about suspicion of Frank’s hidden ownership. When Sinatra yelled for someone to hand him a stool to sit on, a stagehand tossed one out of the wings onto the floor.
“I thought you owned some of this,” said Dean to Frank. “And that’s how they treat you.”
A few minutes later, Martin brought down the house when he pointed in the direction of the club’s penthouse apartment and cautioned Sinatra and Davis: “Hold the noise down. There’s a gangster sleeping up there.”
For Frank’s opening night, Joe Fischetti flew in from Florida with a contingent of gangsters, as did Jim DeGeorge from Wisconsin. Sitting ringside with Sam were several of Chicago’s Mafia lieutenants: Marshall Califano, Jimmy “The Monk” Allegretti, Felix “Milwaukee Phil” Alderisio, and Willie “Potatoes” Daddano, one of Sam’s personal assassins. Sam showed up every night with a phalanx of gangsters dressed in sharkskin suits and black fedoras, escorting wives in mink coats with teased bouffants.
Sam, a widower, took Judith Campbell to Eddie Fisher’s opening, and during the run of the Rat Pack he entertained lavishly in his upstairs suite in the restaurant while down the road in the Quonset Hut the fixed wheels hummed and the loaded dice rolled. By the end of the month, his “other plans” for Frank and the Rat Pack had enriched him by over three million dollars in unreported, tax-free cash. The next day, the Quonset Hut closed, and the Villa Venice suspended its entertainment policy.
“It was a sucker trap set by Sam, plain and simple,” said Peter Lawford, who had not been invited to participate, “and Frank lent himself and Dean and Sammy and Eddie Fisher as bait to bring in the high rollers while Sam and the Boys fleeced them.” Lawford added, “I guess it was either that or die.”
Sam was so grateful to the entertainers who performed at the Villa Venice that he sent each an expensive present. Sinatra’s gift was seven thousand dollars’ worth of Steuben crystal.
“It was gorgeous, absolutely gorgeous,” said Phyllis McGuire, who selected the teardrop pattern. “I got Frank full service for thirty—the martini glasses, white wine glasses, red wine glasses, champagne goblets, and water tumblers. I even called his secretary, Gloria, to see if he’d like it monogrammed. She said Frank had trouble with monogrammed things because people liked to keep them.”
Phyllis had suggested crystal after seeing the one piece of plain stemware Sinatra had in Palm Springs. “It was a gift from Ruth Berle, and Frank tried to tell me it was Steuben, but I knew better,” she said. “I told him it’s not Steuben unless it says Steuben on the bottom. I turned his silly glass over and showed him that it was not Steuben. He still didn’t believe me. So Sam told me to get him the real thing and then maybe he’d know the difference. I guess that’s why he never said thank you for the crystal. He was too embarrassed. You see, Frank will never admit a mistake.”
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“I know that certain people in the Chicago organization knew that they had to get John Kennedy in [the White House],” said mobster Mickey Cohen. “There was no thought that they were going to get the best of it with John Kennedy. See, there may be different guys running for an office, and none of them may be … what’s best for a combination. The choice becomes the best of what you’ve got going. John Kennedy was the best of the selection.