His Way_ The Unauthorized Biography of Frank Sinatra - Kitty Kelley [310]
On April 25, 1984, the author interviewed Corinne Entratter, who told the author, among other things, that Sinatra had nicknamed her husband, Jack, “Jew Feet” because of orthopedic shoes he wore due to the osteomyelitis he suffered as a child. “I have watches that Frank would give Jack, ‘Stay on time to J.F.’ meaning Jew Feet,” said Corinne Entratter. “One leg of Jack’s was shorter than the other and shriveled. Even though he was six feet two inches, he walked with a limp. He wore Space Shoes, so [Frank] called him Jew Feet.”
The story of Sinatra’s departure from MGM was obtained, in part, in interviews on March 25 and April 11, 1984, with a former MCA agent who requested anonymity and the MCA files in the Justice Department obtained by the author through the Freedom of Information Act.
Additional information about Sinatra’s marriage and career was gathered from several sources, among them interviews with Kitty Kallen on July 18, 1983, Mitch Miller on October 24, November 1, 4, 1983, Irving Mansfield on October 26, 28, November 3, December 3, 12, 14, 1983, and April 4, 1984, and numerous newspaper and magazine articles.
Material on Sinatra’s testimony before the Kefauver committee and questions about his Mafia connections generally were obtained from a variety of sources, including the transcript of Sinatra’s testimony in executive session as well as the testimony of others called by the committee, interviews with Joseph L. Nellis on February 17, 18, 19, 1984, and several newspaper accounts of the committee’s work. Books such as Vincent Teresa’s (with Thomas Renner) Vinnie Teresa’s Mafia, New York: Doubleday & Co., Inc., 1975, and Kefauver’s Crime in America, New York: Doubleday & Co., Inc., 1951, were also consulted.
In 1961, Sinatra Enterprises came under scrutiny in the investigation of a Mafia-linked car dealer in Chicago. The Sterling-Harris Ford Agency declared bankruptcy after $80,000 disappeared from the agency’s treasury and 359 cars vanished from the lot. The Chicago Daily Tribune called it a “gangland mystery” and reported that at a weekend sale, “buyers, including crime syndicate gangsters, plunked down cash for autos sold far below factory prices.” Less than two weeks before the “gangland mystery,” two of the cars, white Thunderbird coupes, were found in the possession of two executives of Sinatra Enterprises, more than 2,000 miles away in Los Angeles.
CHAPTER 12
Information in Chapter 12 was obtained from various sources, among them, interviews with Dorothy Manners on August 8, 1951, Rene Valente on July 25, 1983, and George Jacobs on June 15, 1983. A number of articles were consulted, including those in the Los Angeles Herald Examiner, Los Angeles Daily News, New York World-Telegram, New York Post, and Modern Screen as well as Flamini’s book on Ava Gardner and Shelley Winter’s Shelley Also Known as Shirley, New York: William Morrow, 1980.
CHAPTER 13
Sinatra’s tumultuous relationship with Ava Gardner has been well documented in numerous articles and books consulted by the author, including Richard Gehman, Sinatra and His Rat Pack, New York: Belmont Books, 1963; Lana Turner’s Lana, New York: E. P. Dutton, Inc., 1983; Higham’s biography of Ava Gardner, and articles in the Los Angeles Herald Examiner, New York Post, Woman’s Home Companion, Variety, Los Angeles Mirror, Los Angeles Times, and Sinatra’s own two-part series in the American Weekly. Material was also supplied in interviews on March 9, 10, 12, 22 and April 3, 16, 17, 1984, with a woman who lived with Jimmy Van Heusen. Also interviewed were Nick Sevano, Rita Maritt, Joan Cohn Harvey on July 11, 1983, and Michael Thornton’s interviews