Lady Blue Eyes_ My Life With Frank - Barbara Sinatra [99]
She smiled and paused a moment before explaining, “King Juan Carlos of Spain.”
Dear Greg, he made a similar faux pas on the day of the wedding. I was standing in line between him and Frank to meet the bride and groom when a man in a crisp white uniform plastered in medals approached us. When Greg shook his hand, he asked, “Don’t I know you? Weren’t you in The Guns of Navarone?” The man shook his head. “How the West Was Won then?” Greg pressed, frowning. No was the reply. “Well, who are you?” Greg finally inquired. To his eternal embarrassment, it was Prince Michael of Greece.
Leaving for the reception later on, we saw a famous beauty who was married to a Middle Eastern prince. She was wearing the most unbelievable diamonds, and as I passed by I leaned forward and said into her hair, “Nice ice!” She spun round and asked, “Qu’est-ce que? Ice?” but there was no time to explain and we moved on. A few hours later she came up to me, pointed to my jewelry with a smile, and said, “Nice rocks!”
Ava Gardner was at the reception, and Frank spoke to her briefly while I was chatting with the actor Ricardo Montalban. Then I noticed Frank speaking privately to Cary a few minutes later. Shortly afterward, Cary took Ava gently by the arm and walked her out. When he came back half an hour later, I asked him what had happened, and he smiled sadly and said, “Ava needed to go and lie down. Frank asked me to make sure someone drove her back to her hotel.” I nodded my understanding and thanked him for his kindness.
Frank was still so protective of Ava, not least because she’d frequently call him up and tell him what was going wrong in her life. Once, she was badly bitten breaking up a fight between her dogs, so Frank offered to pay her medical bills. Another time she called to tell him she had pneumonia and needed to go to Barbados to recuperate, so he arranged it. He was always sending her money; that was the type of heart he had. He took care of people he loved. I never minded a bit; I knew Ava Gardner wasn’t a threat anymore.
I was having a manicure at the Compound one day when Frank’s housekeeper, Vine, came in to tell me I was wanted on the telephone. “Who is it?” I asked.
“Miss Gardner,” she replied, giving me a look.
Ava wasn’t in the habit of calling me up, so I was quite taken aback, but I took the call. After the opening niceties, Ava said suddenly in that wonderfully deep voice of hers, “Tell me, Barbara. Are you and Frank really happy?”
“I can only tell you this,” I replied, “I’m very happy. You’ll have to ask Frank if he is as happy as I am. He’s in Las Vegas right now, and you can call him there if you like. I’ll give you his number.” I have no idea if she ever called and asked him the same question; if she did, Frank never mentioned it. All I knew was that Jilly said to me later, “So, Ava called you, huh?” I nodded, but nothing more was said.
When Grace and Rainier were about to celebrate their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary, we invited them to spend it with us in Palm Springs and were delighted when they accepted.
They came with their children, and we threw them a series of parties and dinners, inviting old friends Grace had known in the business. Frank bought the happy couple a Fabergé box as an anniversary gift, and we made sure the weeklong celebrations were as wonderful and warm as the events Grace hosted in our honor each year. We had a cake made for them, and they cut it and made speeches before Grace insisted that everyone