Lady Blue Eyes_ My Life With Frank - Barbara Sinatra [13]
When Bobby celebrated his second birthday a few months later, I knew that his father and I wouldn’t still be married by his third. I was only in my twenties, yet everything seemed to have happened in such a rush since I’d left Bosworth. In the space of a few years, I’d married, been a model, set up my own school, and was a founding member of Miss Universe. There was even a lipstick with my name on it. Now I was heading for a divorce, yet I’d planned hardly any of it. I’d just let things happen, which is what I continued to do my whole life.
The happy by-product of all this was that I was making a name for myself professionally. Bob tried to cash in on it too and set himself up as a promoter, producing a concert starring the singer and television presenter Joe Graydon, most famous for his number one hit “Again.” Like most things Bob attempted, though, the night fell apart. The evening coincided with one of the worst storms in the resort’s history, so Joe and the full orchestra Bob had hired played to an empty house. Not long afterward, Joe invited me to appear on the pilot of a new one-hour afternoon show he was hosting on KABC television in Los Angeles. On what was one of the first talk shows of its kind with music, I showcased my best students under the banner “Barbara Blakeley and Her Cover Girl Models.” The pilot was such a success that it was made into a yearlong series. Television was the future for modeling, and I knew the exposure would be good for my school. I was right. Before long, I was able to open a theater next door in which to host fashion shows. Strangers began to recognize me on the street.
For a while, I thought I might enjoy being successful and famous, but in my heart I knew that had never been my burning ambition. From the day I’d failed my screen test, I’d felt only relief at being one step out of the spotlight. With the dawning realization that I was about to become a single parent working full-time and raising a son, all I really wanted was security. I longed to meet someone who’d take good care of me and Bobby. Would I ever find such a man?
My affair with Joe Graydon was, I suppose, an accident waiting to happen. After working on his TV show and developing an easy rapport, we soon became lovers. Lonely and sad while Bob was away gambling or womanizing, I fell easily and I fell hard. Joe became the great love of my life—or so I thought.
Romance and humor mean everything to me, and Joe had both in spades. He was kind and thoughtful, all those things I’d been missing in my life. By the time we hooked up, Joe was asking his wife for a divorce. We had a lot of laughs together and would spend weekends with my friend Bobby Lasley and her husband, Jack, a bartender known as Big Jigger Jack, at their place in Corona del Mar. My Bob was still hanging around and, despite his infidelities, insanely jealous. One night I went to see Joe singing at the Circle Club in Long Beach with two of my models. Standing on the stage looking dashing in his tuxedo, my new beau proved what a consummate professional he was, singing Sinatra standards such as “All or Nothing at All.” By the time he performed his signature tune, the audience was his. Singing directly to me from the stage as my girlfriends giggled, he knew I was smitten. “This is that once in a lifetime. This is the thrill divine …” When he strolled toward me in the middle of another song called “(I Like New York in June) How About You?” and changed the words to “Barbara Blakeley’s looks give me a thrill,” I thought it heady stuff.
After the show, we were all enjoying a nightcap in the lounge when Bob stormed through the door. Before I could say anything, he marched to our table and slapped me across the face. “Now wait a minute!” cried Joe, jumping up. Two bouncers rushed over, our table was upturned, and Bob was manhandled to the floor.
“Okay, Bob, that’s enough,” I told him, my cheek burning. “Let’s go home!”
Wriggling free, he bolted for the door.
I drove back to our apartment, but