Lady Blue Eyes_ My Life With Frank - Barbara Sinatra [126]
Our experiences at the children’s center taught Frank and me so much. Some of the horror stories we heard from the children and their families shocked us to the core. The courage of these kids in the face of overwhelming odds taught us both about humility. Their humor in spite of their inner turmoil has been inspirational.
This project, which started as a passing interest for me, has grown into an all-consuming part of my life that, to this day, takes up a great deal of my time and energy. It challenges me in other ways too, because the worst fear I ever had was making speeches, and I was suddenly thrust into a position where I had to make them frequently. It took me a long time and a lot of knee shaking to overcome that fear, but the actress Jill St. John helped me enormously. “When you get up to the microphone, Barbara, stop and take a big, deep breath,” she told me. “Hold it for a while, look around, and then you can begin.” That helped me a lot, along with the thought that beating my fear was nothing compared to what these children had to beat.
To continue to raise money and awareness for the center, I have shamelessly enlisted the help of friends and family. I’ve even done the odd commercial, when Frank and I did a photo shoot for Revlon after the company agreed to support our cause. When we became Revlon’s first so-called Unforgettable Couple, glossy photos of us appeared worldwide on billboards and in magazines. Our friends Alice Faye, Gregory Peck, and Dick Van Dyke have all presented videos about the work of the center. The latest is called A Safe Place. Sammy Davis, Jr., was wonderful with the children and helped us in all sorts of useful ways, as did Kirk and Anne Douglas. R. J. Wagner and Jill St. John have done incredible things for the center. It was Jill who came up with the idea of the Aunts Club, in which friends of the center pay a monthly donation to support a child. (Helene Galen, our new president, had started the Uncles Club.) R. J. even befriended one teenager whose progress he has personally supported ever since without fanfare or accolade—just simple, caring concern.
Casting around for further inspiration to get people involved, I came up with the idea of a celebrity cookbook. Dinah Shore had had so much success with hers, entitled Someone’s in the Kitchen with Dinah, which stemmed from the cooking segment on her TV show. She asked her friends for recipes to publish, although mine for a tuna boat, featuring tuna, chili peppers, and cheese served inside a scooped-out bread roll, never made it. Already criticized at home for being “the worst cook in the house,” I was teed off.
For my Sinatra Celebrity Cookbook: Barbara, Frank & Friends, my husband became a willing tester of recipes and volunteered several of his signature dishes, including his marinara and clam sauces, eggplant parmigiana, “Blue Eyes” Italian chicken, his delicious potato and onion dish, and—of course—his late-night fettuccine special. He and Jilly never let up claiming that I couldn’t cook, but I still think I make the best chili and beans. (I put vinegar in mine, which gives it a sharper taste and takes out some of the heat.) Undaunted, I published my recipe for pasta fagioli, which I always claimed was better than Frank’s. Rashly, he made me test that claim one day. He insisted that we each had to make our own version and offer a blind tasting to our guests. I am pleased to report that mine won.
In the dedication of our cookbook, Frank was far kinder about my cooking than he ever was at home. He also wrote warmly of his memories of Marty and Dolly.
My pop would stand at the stove cooking the greatest pasta sauce any young Italian boy could hope for. One time, I called in at the last minute and my pop cooked an Italian meal for the entire Tommy Dorsey orchestra. Some of the sax players