Chapter 6 - Ethical Culture Fieldston School

“Mr. Sinatra Gets Rejected”
“Next time I see you, I’ll kill you, you degenerate!” he allegedly said. Mortimer
had Sinatra arrested, and sued him for $25,000. Sinatra claimed Mortimer had
called him a “dago,” but under pressure from MGM studio chief Louis B. Mayer,
he retracted that allegation and settled out of court. Though he would later atone
for the act by paying a visit to William Randolph Hearst himself, Sinatra would
be viewed for the rest of his life as a man prone to resort to violence when he felt
he was crossed – a perception that would only be augmented in barely concealed
incidents that would continue to surface in the media for decades to come. 31
But Sinatra’s biggest offense against a public he had so assiduously
cultivated was probably his now‐legendary love affair with Ava Gardner. Sinatra
had married Nancy Barbato in 1939, and she had borne him a daughter the
following year who figured prominently in shaping his public image as a
husband and father. In truth, of course, Sinatra had never been a traditional
family man, not only because a mid‐century celebrity lifestyle largely foreclosed
that possibility, but also because it was a more‐or‐less open secret that Sinatra
was a notorious womanizer (in the memorable words of Dean Martin, “When
Sinatra dies, they’re giving his zipper to the Smithsonian.”). 32 For the most part,
however, Sinatra kept his sexual activity from the prying eyes of gossip
columnists.
Ava Gardner, however, was different. By most accounts, she was truly the
love of his life. Moreover, the thrice‐married Gardner was something of a larger‐
than‐life figure herself who was not always inclined to discretion even when
Sinatra was (there’s a salty edge to her 1992 autobiography that distinguishes it
30 Kelly, p. 134 [try to find original]
31 Sinatra’s assault on Mortimer has been widely recounted; I’ve relied principally on Wilson, pp. 69-76
and Taraborelli, pp. 92-95. Kitty Kelly based her knowledge of a Sinatra-Hearst meeting on an interview
with Hearst’s grandson John Hearst. See My Way, pp. 139-140; 575. Years later, a drunken Sinatra found
Mortimer’s grave and urinated on it. See Lahr, p. 43
American History for Cynical Beginners
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