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By Root 1838 0

I began by trying to read everything ever written about Frank Sinatra, an enormous task considering a career that spans over forty years. Heather Perram, my research assistant, spent months gathering books, magazine articles, and newspaper clippings, which she diligently filed and cross-referenced. Later, Patti Pancoe helped index the 857 interviews I conducted, while Maya Picado tried to give my office some semblance of order.

Librarians across the country contributed their skills, and I am especially grateful to William Hifner of The Washington Post, Sunday Orme Fellows, formerly of The New York Times, Joe Wright of the Miami News, John Hodgson and Fred Schmidt of the New York Daily News, Homer Martin of the Bergen County Record, Marcy Marchi of Playboy, Judy Gerritts of the San Francisco Chronicle, Tom Lutgen, Nancy McKinney, Joyce Pinney, and Cecily Surace of the Los Angeles Times, Kay Shepard of the Los Angeles Herald Examiner, Vera Busanelli of the Paterson News and Hudson Dispatch (New Jersey), Judy Marriott of the Chicago Tribune, June Paramore of the Las Vegas Sun, Glenda Harris of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Nan Stoddard of the St. Louis Post Dispatch, Merle Thomason of Women’s Wear Daily, Cecelia Weaver of the Sacramento Bee, Woody Wilson of Variety, Beryl Costello of the Brockton, Mass., Enterprise, Andy Eppolito of Newsday, Lucy Forcucci of the Palm Springs Public Library (Reference Room), Arlene Nevens of the Great Neck (New York) Library, Joyce Miller and Jeanne Smith of the Information Office of the Library of Congress, Virginia C. Lopiccolo of the College of Journalism of the University of South Carolina, and Joan Doherty of the New Jersey Room in the Jersey City Public Library.

I also received excellent research help from Simon Nathan and Heidi Stock in New York; Jerry MacKenzie, Michael May, and Louis Raino in New Jersey; Gloria N. Christopher in Minnesota; Miki Jameson in California; Jamie Raskin and Thomas F. Timberman at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Brandon Brodkin in Chicago.

Editors, writers, and reporters across the country contributed help and advice throughout the project, and I’m most grateful to Nathan Adams of Reader’s Digest; Jennifer Allen; Hollis Alpert; Larry Ashmead of Harper & Row; Lissa August of Time magazine in Washington; Jim Bellows of ABC-TV; Lowell Bergman of CBS-TV; Winnie Bonelli of the Hudson Dispatch; Myram Borders of the Reno Gazette Journal; Patricia Bosworth; Arlene Bouras of Playboy; William Brashler; Norma Lee Browning; Herb Caen of the San Francisco Chronicle; Barney Calame of the Wall Street Journal; Tony Capaccio, a Jack Anderson staff associate; Ben Cate, senior correspondent of Time magazine; Charles Champlin of the Los Angeles Times; Garry Clifford, Washington bureau chief of People; Robert Carl Cohen; Patsy Collins of KING-TV (Seattle); Morton Cooper; Bill Davidson and the late Muriel Davidson; Ned Day of KLAS-TV in Las Vegas; Al Delugach of the Los Angeles Times; Digby Diehl of the Los Angeles Herald Examiner; Mary Ann Dolan, executive editor of the Los Angeles Herald Examiner; Jim Drinkhall of the Wall Street Journal; Harlan Ellison; Mike Ewing; Larry Fields of the Philadelphia Daily News; Roland Flamini of Time magazine (Beirut); the late Ketti Fringe; Tom Frisbie of the Chicago Sun-Times; Nicholas Gage; Jeff Gerth of The New York Times; Vera Glaser of the Washingtonian; Norman Glubok of CBS News; Albert Goldman; Fred Laurence Guiles; Joyce Haber; Jim Harrington of the Brockton Enterprise (Mass.); Pete Hamill; Seymour Hersh; Paul L. Hoch; A. E. Hotchner; Beverly Jackson of the Santa Barbara News-Press; Jody Jacobs, former society editor of the Los Angeles Times; Orr Kelly of U.S. News & World Report; Arthur Knight; Larry Leamer; Barney Leason; Bettijane Levine of the Los Angeles Times; Peter Maas; Scott Malone; Waits May of Time magazine in Washington; Arthur Marx; Peter McKay of the London Daily Mail; Marianne Means of Hearst newspapers; Hank Messick; Dan Moldea; Roy Newquist; Phil Nobile of Forum; Mel Opotowsky and Jerry Uhrammer