His Way_ The Unauthorized Biography of Frank Sinatra - Kitty Kelley [292]
The next night, Frank spewed his anger toward the columnist from the stage of Atlantic City’s Resorts International.
“Gossip columnists are probably the lowest form of journalists,” he said, “The latest one is old Liz in New York. She’s now got a big thing going on because I said something about Barbara Wawa. Who in hell doesn’t say something about Barbara Wawa? It’s getting so that Ms. Smith is now being called in the trade the extra-strength Tylenol of the journalists. She’s a dumpy, fat, ugly broad.… She really got teed off at the fact that I said Barbara Wawa was a pain in the ass. And she is. She’s dangerous too. She’s very dangerous.
“Do you know that Barbara Walters one time in an interview with Mrs. Lady Bird Johnson after President Johnson died—she had the gall and the cojones to say to this woman—she asked this question: How did you feel about your husband’s extracurricular activities outside with other women? This is after he had died. She’s talking to the widow. That’s the kind of danger there is in people like that. Oh, if they were only guys, I’d … oh.…
“Now this fat broad in New York got sore about it and went to her defense. Barbara Wawa doesn’t need defense. She needs diction lessons. Did you ever listen to her? She says ‘too-too twain’ and ‘I wuv a wabbit.’ Diction lessons, not defense. She doesn’t need that. And a tuck here, and there, too, under the ear and under the nose. …”
Enraged by Liz Smith’s comment that his wife had been embarrassed by his outbursts, Frank continued:
“She said in her column that the one who’s the most upset about my attack on Barbara Wawa was my wife, Barbara. Now, my wife never gets mad at me. Did Juliet ever get mad at Romeo, for chrissakes? I’m her E.T. How could she get mad at me.… That dopey broad also said in her column that Barbara Wawa was considered persona grata at the White House. That makes sense, because the President has to deal with Castro and Qadhafi. Now, I don’t know what the hell goes on at the White House. Ronnie’s on his own at the White House.… Don’t you yell at me, lady. This is my platform up here. I don’t have a newspaper to publish me like they do.”
Frank took every opportunity to berate his journalist enemies. Gleefully, he told Beverly Sills how he had approached Katharine Graham, chairman of the board of the Washington Post Company, to say that her paper was a rag and her clothes were even worse.
“Who does your outfits? Edith Piafs dressmaker?” he asked Mrs. Graham, referring to the fact that Edith Piaf, the “Little Sparrow,” wore rags.
Horrified by the story, Beverly Sills said, “Tell me something, Frank. What do you get out of doing something like that?”
“Satisfaction,” said the singer.
Provoked by a Paul Conrad cartoon that appeared in the Los Angeles Times portraying President Reagan with a hearing aid, Frank sent a letter to the editor, blaming the newspaper for publishing the “poison” of Conrad, who, he said, “is a disgrace to responsible journalism, an insult to anything that calls itself a newspaper and you all ought to be ashamed of yourselves for hiding behind the First Amendment, which was never intended for people like Conrad anyway.”
Earlier, he had fulminated about an article in People magazine. In a two-page, single-spaced letter, he had said that the publication was “to accurate journalism what Preparation H is to advanced medicine.… Long after Anita Bryant has begun dating the head of the Gay Task Force, I will still have nothing to do with Time, People, or any of its illegitimate offspring or clones.” He ended: “Good manners and the federal government still prevent me from sending your editor