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By Root 874 0

and Foxwoods casino in Connecticut, would have fatigued someone half his age. He went on to perform in New York as part of a celebration to mark the anniversary of Ellis Island. We were the guests of Malcolm Forbes, who earlier in the day took us all out on his yacht Highlander, moored near the Statue of Liberty. I sat at a card table on the deck of that magnificent vessel as it cruised around Battery Park, playing gin rummy with two of the richest men in the world—John Kluge and Charles Wallstadter, owner of the Continental Telephone Company. I only wish I’d been playing for big money, because I beat them. Later that month, we flew to Manila and had dinner with Imelda Marcos, the president’s widow, whom we’d first met when her yacht pulled up next to ours in Monte Carlo. She was a real character and a lot of fun to be with. I liked her. Everyone talked about how many shoes she had, but I think a lot of people have just as many—only she blabbed about it.

Back home between shows Frank still needed entertaining, so we had as many houseguests as ever, including the English comic actor and musician Dudley Moore and his statuesque girlfriend Susan Anton. I guess their relationship must have been fairly new, because when they arrived they retired to their room and didn’t come out for three days. I had trays of food and several jugs of Bloody Marys sent in, and our other guests, who included the Pecks, the Rickleses, and the Schlatters, sent in empty glasses, dirty plates, and anything else unappetizing, until the couple finally traipsed out with big grins on their faces.

Frank celebrated his seventy-ninth birthday in the desert but then went back on the road. Some commentators began to suggest that he was going on longer than he should, and I was starting to feel the same way. At the beach house one afternoon, he’d been too breathless to get back up the dune after a stroll and I’d had to call a doctor. That great big heart of his was undoubtedly weakening, which was affecting his breathing and his voice. He knew he wasn’t always up to it but was once again talked into the concert. Frank was surrounded by a great many people—musicians, valets, riggers, managers, and roadies—whose livelihood depended on his working. He considered them family and didn’t want to let anyone down. There was backstabbing from as far down as you could go to as high up as you could go—even his dressers were bad-mouthing each other; it was hysterical. He had some wonderful people on his staff who’d been with him for years and were utterly devoted, but he also had a few who—especially when they saw the Sinatra train running out of steam—wanted to make the most of the time they still had.

Frank usually ignored it if someone stole from him, but he did fire one employee who’d worked for him for over thirty years because he’d been too greedy and everybody knew about it, which made Frank look weak. Eventually, he tired of having to keep tabs on his empire, though, which was especially hard to do when he was on the road. Besides, everything about being on the road had changed. Most of the famous venues he’d played had closed or been torn down. Even the Sands in Vegas was in its death throes (we would watch its demolition in November 1996 from our balcony at Caesars), and the pallies he’d had so much fun with onstage had left him alone in the spotlight.

At the end of his eighth decade, Frank finally admitted that maybe it was time he “took it easy.” I was bemused when he told me that and wondered what it would mean for someone so driven. Whatever he decided, though, I wasn’t going to miss one minute, so at each performance he continued to give I sat right there, a few feet away, watching his every breath.

There were other tough decisions to be made, one of which was whether or not to leave Palm Springs. I’d felt for some time that we needed to move back to L.A. to be closer to family and friends. Despite his emotional attachment to the Compound, Frank appreciated that we’d have to move from the home that was costing us a lot of money when he wasn’t working