Lady Blue Eyes_ My Life With Frank - Barbara Sinatra [70]
As soon as Frank felt he had suffered enough or was booked to go on tour again and didn’t want to go alone, his ardor intensified. Increasingly unable to say no to FS, I’d pack my bags all over again and board his plane for the next stage of his tour. We flew to Switzerland to begin with and then to England before traveling on to the Middle East. He was still bringing the house down across Europe in scenes that were reminiscent of his frenzied early years in the business. In London he joked that the Royal Albert Hall should be renamed the Francis Albert Hall. Ava Gardner, who’d moved to London by then because she thought the British had “more class,” came to see him perform. I met her again backstage. She was very polite, and we got along fine, but I noticed that there was even more drinking going on this time.
Frank was as attentive as ever with Ava and had never stopped sending her gifts or paying her medical and other bills. He was similarly generous with his other ex-wives, Nancy and Mia, if ever they needed anything. He had plenty of money, and it was no skin off my nose. In fact, I secretly admired the way he took care of the women in his life even if they were no longer a part of it. Someone once asked me about his relationship with Ava in front of Frank, and I said, “Oh, that could never have worked!”
Frank looked up and asked, “Why?”
“Too much hurt,” I said. That hit him hard, but after thinking about what I’d said, he admitted I was right.
After London we flew to Tehran. The Shah of Iran was still in power then, and his wife, the Empress Farah, had asked Frank to sing at a charity event. As we entered Iranian airspace, a squadron of military jets came to escort us into Tehran’s airport, which felt so exotic. Farah was very beautiful, sweet, and gentle, the mother of four children. She had her own team of security men, who were all dark and handsome, at least six feet, four inches tall, and dressed in crisp white uniforms with gold braid and medals. They looked as if they’d walked off a film set. I was impressed. The Iranian people were delightfully warm and friendly, and we traveled around a little, buying Persian rugs and seeing some of the incredible scenery. When we left, Frank was presented with ten pounds of the finest gray caviar we had ever tasted. He expressed such delight in the quality of the prized sturgeon eggs that every year for years the Iranian foreign minister to the United States, Mr. Zahedi, would come to visit us loaded with cans of caviar. It was heaven.
Once we left Iranian airspace, the Israeli air force escorted our plane into Jerusalem. Frank was a great supporter of Israel, although he did much for many of the Arab countries too. He’d paid for a school and clinic to be built in Bethlehem and a Hebrew university outside Jerusalem and was eager to see how they were progressing. We also visited the Frank Sinatra Youth Center for Arab and Jewish Children, which he’d set up in Nazareth, and the Simon Wiesenthal Center, which he had supported. Needless to say, everywhere we went we were treated like royalty. We were invited to so many places, including the Knesset, where Frank spoke, in what turned out to be a fascinating trip.
On one of our final days in Jerusalem, we were taken to the famous Wailing Wall in the Old City. Standing on the flat, smooth stones that once formed King Solomon’s Temple, I was told to write a prayer