Lady Blue Eyes_ My Life With Frank - Barbara Sinatra [14]
Deciding to celebrate, I went to the bank to withdraw some money and treat myself to a mink stole, but the modeling school account was empty; Bob had cleared out every cent. Determined not to be thwarted, I persuaded the bank to lend me the cash to buy the stole, which I insisted was necessary for a woman in my position. Amazingly, they agreed. A few days later, I instigated divorce proceedings on the grounds of irreconcilable differences. I was the first Blakeley ever to seek a divorce and probably the first to have an affair with a married man. My parents were horrified. I asked the court for seventy-five dollars a month child support, although I doubted I’d ever get a dime.
The second Miss Universe pageant was a bigger success than the first and was won by a pretty French girl, who went on to have an international acting career. I became friends with the German contestant, Christel Schaack, and moved into her apartment once I’d moved out of Bob’s. When Joe’s TV show relocated to San Diego’s KFMB-TV, he asked me to go with him. I didn’t say yes immediately; this was the fifties, after all. When I told my mother, she couldn’t believe that I’d even consider living in sin, as she put it. I wished she understood that after my dreadful experiences with Bob I needed to get away and follow my heart. Having been uprooted from Bosworth and forced to acclimatize to a life far from all I’d known, I’d married to escape the religious strictures she’d imposed, only to become Bob’s fool. For the first time, I was doing something utterly for myself. Leaving Bobby shared between his doting grandmothers, and the modeling school in the hands of my sister, I packed my suitcase and headed south.
San Diego was a great place to be in the 1950s, especially for a carefree young couple in love. It was buzzing, lively, and fun. When I wasn’t parading models on Joe’s show, I was doing live commercials for everything from dog food to mattresses. We found an oceanfront high-rise in the exclusive La Jolla resort on the edge of the city, with its rugged coastline and small-town atmosphere. Despite being happy with Joe, though, I missed my son dreadfully. Talking to him on the telephone every day wasn’t enough, so I commuted to Long Beach to visit him every weekend in my white Cadillac Fleetwood convertible. I tried to oversee my business, but eventually, the school became too much of a burden and I made a gift of it to my sister and two favorite graduates.
In the fickle world of television, Joe’s show didn’t survive, and he found himself out of work. The world of big bands was dying, and he didn’t know which way to turn. When he was offered a job as a disc jockey for a new radio show in Las Vegas, he had little choice but to accept. My mother and I were barely talking by then, and the more fundamentalist she became in her religious beliefs, the tougher her influence over Bobby. She wouldn’t allow him to watch movies like King Kong or play any games she regarded as wicked. When I told her I was moving to Vegas with Joe, she hit the roof. As Bobby played on roller skates out in the backyard, she began to yell. Having announced that Bobby and I would burn in hell, she slapped me.
“All right, Mother,” I told her, as calmly as I could. “That’s enough.”
I opened the screen door and told Bobby to get into my car. He was still wearing his roller skates and looked confused, so I said, “Leave them on!” I drove him over to Marge’s house and asked if she’d take care of him until I was settled. After that, I announced, I would look after Bobby myself. “It’s time I