His Way_ The Unauthorized Biography of Frank Sinatra - Kitty Kelley [282]
A: I haven’t the slightest idea.
Q: But your testimony is that save and except the time in Havana, you had had no contact at all with him?
A: I just met him in a bar and shook hands, as in many cases, and that was it.
The questioning turned to Frank’s performance at the Villa Venice in a Chicago suburb in 1962. He was asked if he knew that Sam Giancana had a hidden interest in the ownership of the supper club.
“I don’t know whether he had anything to do with the club and he never asked me to entertain there,” said Frank. “An agent asked me to entertain there.”
Neither Sinatra nor the commissioners seemed to be aware of the FBI wiretaps of Giancana’s conversations about performing at the Villa Venice and Giancana’s complaints about the demands Sinatra was making on him.
“That Frank, he wants more money, he wants this, he wants that, he wants more girls, he wants … I don’t need that or him. I broke my ass when I was talking to him in New York,” Giancana grumbled to an associate in the Armory Lounge on September 13, 1962.
Frank produced a contract showing that he had been paid Fifteen thousand dollars for seven days of appearances at the Villa Venice, which was considerably short of the $100,000 a week he was making in Las Vegas at the time. Asked whether the $15,000 figure was commensurate with the other entertainers’ Villa Venice contracts, an agent reported that it was and the board probed no further.
Q: Did you see Mr. Giancana while you were entertaining at the Villa Venice?
A: I might have.
Q: You don’t recall?
A: No, but I might have. Just possible.
Giancana’s daughter, Antoinette, was outraged by Frank’s response.
“Just possible!” she said. “I couldn’t believe my eyes when I read that any more than I could believe the other things that he said about my father.… We were at the Villa almost every night that Sinatra and his Rat Pack were there. Sam took us—friends, family members—to the dressing rooms of Sammy Davis, Jr. and Sinatra, which were upstairs. Sinatra and his group would be eating some bagels or some Italian food … [Frank] would give my father a hug, and so would Sammy Davis whenever Sam entered their rooms, and pictures were taken. Unfortunately, the photographs were confiscated by my sisters when my father died [in 1975], so I no longer have copies of pictures taken of Sinatra and Sam and me.”
Miss Giancana was so upset by Frank’s testimony that she called the Nevada Gaming Control Board to tell them what she knew and to show them the FBI documents that illustrated a much different relationship between her father and Frank than the one he attested to.
“The board people I talked with weren’t very interested,” she said. “They never bothered to come to see me to examine what documents I had.”
The final matter covered in the hearings was Frank’s involvement in the Westchester Premier Theater, but for this Mickey Rudin did most of the talking.
“Would you explain to us why Mr. Sinatra was not listed as a creditor in that bankruptcy when there was still money outstanding on that second contract?” asked the chairman.
Rudin said he didn’t know why Frank was not listed. “From my standpoint, when they called me up and said they didn’t want—they didn’t want the embarrassment of listing the fact they hadn’t paid Mr. Sinatra in full, I told them that was their problem and not mine because if they did not list the debt, it would not … be discharged by their being adjudicated bankrupt. The debt would survive against the entity if it ever reorganized and wouldn’t be subject to the bankruptcy rules.”
Q: Were you compensated for your services to Mr. Sinatra as pertaining to the Westchester contracts?
A: Yes, sir.
Q: How is that compensation? Is it a monthly retainer type?
A: Mr. Sinatra and I have had no written agreement over the twenty-five years. But generally I charge him on the basis of gross compensation or adjusted gross on a percentage basis.
Q: Did you personally receive any income from activities at the Westchester Theater other than the attorney fees that were paid to