His Way_ The Unauthorized Biography of Frank Sinatra - Kitty Kelley [242]
“No way,” said Frank. “After thirty-five years in show business, I think I’ve had it … I’m tired. I’m through and I’m not kidding. It’s over.”
His family shared the farewell performance with him: his mother, his first wife, Nancy, Nancy, Jr., with husband, Hugh Lambert, and Frank’s youngest and most beautiful child, Tina, now twenty-three, with her fiancé, Robert Wagner (a relationship that Wagner ended in 1972).
Following the performance, Frank attended a party in his honor at the home of Rosalind Russell, then flew with the Agnews to Palm Springs.
“What a touching night that was,” recalled Peter Malatesta. “The Vice-President and his wife went to bed while I sat up with Frank all night drinking Stolichnaya and listening to him talk about the old days and his tough childhood. He talked about politics and told me how crude Lyndon Johnson was, lying nude around the White House getting massages in the middle of the night. That was the night Frank told me he had worked for the CIA under Johnson. I was stunned when he said that, but I didn’t ask any questions and he didn’t offer any explanations.”
Frank accompanied Agnew on Air Force Two on many of his official trips and became so enamored of political life in Washington, D.C., that he and Mickey Rudin leased a house on Embassy Row with Peter Malatesta, where they entertained frequently when they were in town. But the growing friendship between Agnew and Sinatra soon became a matter of controversy within the White House.
“We kept hearing that the Vice-President’s association with Frank was politically damaging, but Agnew did not agree,” said Agnew’s press secretary, Vic Gold. “Paul Harvey tore into him on the radio for befriending Frank, and William Loeb, publisher of the Manchester Union Leader in New Hampshire, wrote him a stinging letter about the relationship. Agnew responded, saying: ‘Dear Bill, I appreciate your comments, but I want to say that Frank Sinatra is a friend of mine. He’s been a good friend and never asked me for anything. I found this strange criticism coming from someone who has taken financial support from a convicted felon like Jimmy Hoffa. Sincerely, Ted Agnew.’ ”
“Frank demonstrated the same kind of loyalty to Agnew when President Nixon wanted to replace Agnew on the ticket with former Texas governor John Connolly.
“Frank said he wanted to make Spiro president in 1976 and the only way to do it was to keep him on the ticket in 1972,” said Malatesta, “so we started a huge write-in campaign about how great Agnew was, to make Nixon look foolish if he dropped him. We denied knowing anything about the write-in, of course, but we had it financed with private contributions,” Malatesta continued. “Then we staged a big fund-raiser in Baltimore at the Lyric Theater. Bob Hope [Malatesta’s uncle] was the master of ceremonies. Frank got everyone to perform, turned out a bunch of stars to attend, and then came out of retirement to sing a tribute to Agnew to the tune of ‘The Lady Is a Tramp.’ Frank’s rendition was ‘The Gentleman Is a Champ.’ He had Pat Henry there and Nelson Riddle’s orchestra. It was quite an evening and it kept Agnew on the ticket.”
Standing outside the theater that night was a U.S. marshal waiting to deliver a subpoena to Frank from the House Select Committee on Crime, which was investigating the influence of organized crime on sports and horse racing and wanted to question Frank about his investment in Berkshire Downs in Hancock, Massachusetts. A last-minute telephone call from Senator John Tunney (D-Calif.) stopped the summons from being served.
Having raised $160,000 for John Tunney’s election campaign the previous year, Frank was a valued constituent, and when Mickey Rudin asked the senator to call the committee chairman, he gladly did so, saying Frank would be perfectly willing to come and tell everything he knew if the committee would only “invite” him instead of issuing a formal subpoena.
The year before, on the occasion of Frank’s retirement, John Tunney had stood on the floor of the United States Senate to proclaim his constituent