His Way_ The Unauthorized Biography of Frank Sinatra - Kitty Kelley [272]
Appearing at a Reagan gala in Los Angeles and one in New Jersey with Raymond Donovan, he said, “I bring you regards from our President—the tooth fairy.” He then assailed President Jimmy Carter. “Like Reagan, he was a movie star. Except then he worked under the name Mickey Mouse. He wants to be reelected. We should string him up.”
Frank had used Reagan’s name in 1980 as a character reference in applying for a Nevada gambling license as a “key employee.” Frank’s decision to apply for this license, which was not necessary for him as an entertainer, involved a full-scale investigation of his life. It would cost him $500,000, but he insisted that Caesars Palace submit the application so that he could cleanse his name once and for all.
“Mr. Sinatra wants to get his Nevada affairs in order,” said Peter Echeverría, a member of the board of directors of Caesars Palace and the immediate past chairman of the Nevada Gaming Commission. “He wants to restore his reputation.”
“It is very important to him,” Mickey Rudin told the commission, saying that references to Sinatra over the years often mentioned that he had lost his gambling license because of entertaining Chicago Mafia boss Sam Giancana at Cal-Neva in 1963.
“Something happened sixteen and a half years ago that has left a shadow on his record,” said the lawyer, who insisted that the commission consider Frank’s case ahead of 200 other applicants who had been waiting more than a year for some kind of action, as well as 350 applicants for promotional licensing and 60 casino investors who needed approval.
Despite the bad publicity, the commission capitulated to Rudin’s demand because he threatened to sue them to force compliance with the ninety-day limit on investigations. Ordinarily, applicants agreed to waive the ninety-day limitation, but Rudin wouldn’t without some time control over the extent of the investigation into Frank’s life. He knew that without some limitation they might spend two years investigating.
“He’s one of the most investigated people in America,” argued Rudin.
“It would be ludicrous to avoid calling him in,” said Nevada Gaming Control Board Chairman Richard Bunker, who agreed to a time limit of nine months on the Sinatra investigation. He later declared that Frank’s “worldwide prominence” made it “important” to act “as quickly as possible.” He never explained why.
During those nine months, Frank burnished his image with good works and prestigious awards. His benefit for the Desert Hospital in Palm Springs raised $1.3 million. The district’s grateful congressman, Jerry Lewis, addressed the House of Representatives and said Frank “as America’s number one entertainer and philanthropist… has brought a song and a smile to the heart of a world that so needs a smile.”
A week later, Sinatra’s benefit for the University of Santa Clara raised $250,000, which the Catholic school announced would establish a Frank Sinatra chair in music and theater arts.
He hosted a benefit fund-raiser for Nazi-hunter Simon Wiesenthal and received the Humanitarian Award of the Year from Variety Clubs International. He was named national chairman for the Multiple Sclerosis Society’s Hope Chest campaign. He volunteered to be the television spokesman for Chrysler for one dollar a year. He did a benefit at Carnegie Hall for the Police Athletic League and another in the Los Angeles Universal Amphitheater for St. Francis Medical Center. He performed for Danny Thomas’s St. Jude Children’s Research Center. He sang on the Jerry Lewis telethon for muscular dystrophy as well as for the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York.
By the end of the year his benefit performances had indebted to him politicians, educators, policemen, Catholics and Jews and Protestants, corporate America, the medical profession, and—on November 4, 1980—the fortieth president of the United States. Within days of his election Ronald Reagan showed his gratitude to the singer by naming him chairman of the inaugural gala.
“It’s a big thrill,” said Frank. “Somebody you love has made the big move. You