His Way_ The Unauthorized Biography of Frank Sinatra - Kitty Kelley [299]
Striving hard to control the flow of information around him, Frank held tightly to the secrets of his family. He had been stung by the stories of his son’s three paternity suits,* and although he supported Frank, Jr., with lawyers to fight each case, Frank felt his family name had been tarnished by the press coverage. He also worried that the children might indeed be his grandchildren.
“He got real upset by that paternity business and wanted Frank, Jr., to take responsibility and act like a man,” said Gloria Massingill. “As I recall, he made sure that Frank, Jr., paid each of the mothers a monthly allowance or something.”
Little has been printed about Sinatra that wasn’t first shaped and refined by his publicists. Over the years, writers had to cooperate with his press agents or they didn’t get a story, and even then they rarely got a personal interview. If they did, they had to keep their questions general and not venture into difficult areas that might cause pain or embarrassment.
During an unguarded moment, Frank once said he would never allow the story of his life to be told.
“Never. That will never happen as long as I have any control over the project … there’s too much about my life I’m not proud of.”
When he was approaching seventy, he decided to tell the story he wanted told, and he planned to do it as a feature film.
“I want it done while I’m still alive,” he said. “If they do my life story when I’m dead, they’ll screw it up. I want to be around to see it’s done right.”
He had been trying for several years to write his autobiography but had not found a writer who would tell the story the way he wanted it told. So he decided to turn the film project over to his daughter, Tina, who planned to produce it as her first television miniseries.
Frank wanted the project to be presented with the kind of dignity befitting a close personal friend of the President of the United States. In the last few years the Reagans had made him part of their inner circle in the White House, and he reveled in the public perception of him as a Reagan insider. He was so comfortable in the role that he frequently joked about it. In a telegram to the Friars Club making excuses for his absence at a roast, he said: PRESIDENT REAGAN DOESN’T LIKE ME AND GEORGE SHULTZ [Secretary of State] TO BE ABSENT FROM THE WHITE HOUSE AT THE SAME TIME. He had been appointed to the President’s Commission on the Arts and Humanities; he had performed at White House state dinners; he had been invited to the intimate birthday celebrations of both the President and First Lady.
In the summer of 1984, the President asked Frank for help in his reelection campaign and made him the ambassador of fund-raising by sending him to seven cities for cocktail parties with selected Republicans who paid thousands of dollars for the privilege of being in his presence. Frank raised $500,000 for the Republican Victory ’84 get-out-the-vote drive.
The hardest trip was the one that the President asked him to make in July, accompanying Reagan to the Festival of St. Ann in Hoboken. Running against the Mondale-Ferraro ticket, Reagan felt that he needed to ingratiate himself with blue-collar Italians, who traditionally voted Democratic. So a New Jersey campaign swing had been planned, including a stop in Sinatra’s hometown for the church festival honoring the mother of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the patron saint of women. And Reagan wanted to arrive there with Hoboken’s native son, the world’s most famous Italian-American singer.
Since 1900, St. Ann’s had been the parish church of the Italian community. The saint’s feast day was celebrated around the world on July 26 and was dedicated to women, especially pregnant women. It was an appropriate time for President Reagan to deliver his message against abortion and for prayer in the public schools. He wanted to attend the traditional procession as women carried the 580-pound statue of St. Ann through