I was terrified Frank would shoot someone
LASTING RELATIONSHIP: Sinatra with friend and manager Eliot Weisman grew worse as he backed away from the problems. He was on those antidepressants for years. Barbara kept him on them afraid that he would become violent without them.”
Sinatra was mercurial and could alternately be generous, cruel or crude. He carried folded $100 bills in his pocket as tips for waiters, once offered a hotel pianist $500 to stop singing and had a pet parrot, Rocky, who he taught to say: “F*** you!”
“Sinatra was punctual in the extreme and if you were not on his plane on time then he would leave without you,” recalls Weisman. “Once he left without Elizabeth Taylor when her fiancé couldn’t get her out of the bathtub.”
He could be fearless and when one engine of his twin-engine plane had to be jump-started after a concert, he insisted on flying: “This plane can fly on one engine for 45 minutes. Let’s get out of here!”
At 75, Sinatra’s fists still flew. He worked out regularly on a punch bag and when troubled by an aggressive paparazzo in Italy, lashed out with a right hook. “The guy’s feet left the ground and he went down,” says Weisman. “Sinatra was tough.
“He loved to push my buttons,” says Weisman, who controlled the singer’s finances and was called “Moneybags” by Sinatra. “If we were on the road too much he would say, ‘What are we? Broke?’ But if he hadn’t toured lately he’d ask, ‘What are we? Retired?’”
Sinatra famously said: “You’ve got to love living, ’cause dying is a pain in the a**.” But in his final days Sinatra’s words to Weisman were far more poignant: “Dying is corny.”
WEISMAN admits: “It stunned me, contemplating his death. He was depressed but he wasn’t afraid of death. What he feared was losing his iconic status.
“He was pressured by his children to quit and when Barbara jumped on that train it was over. I believe he should have kept going. He was happiest on stage; that’s where he came alive. At home he went into dark moods.”
Sinatra died of heart failure in 1998, aged 82, but his children – Nancy, Tina and Frank Jr – were incensed that Barbara Sinatra had not called them to their father’s deathbed.
The snub ignited a long-brewing feud over the singer’s estate with Weisman caught in the middle as executor of Sinatra’s will. It took him five years to settle the estate with Sinatra’s children getting the rights to his name and likeness along with his Capitol Records royalties and control of his Reprise recording masters, while his widow Barbara got Sinatra’s homes, artwork and the royalties from Duets and its lucrative sequel album.
Ex-wife Nancy was also looked after. Even following their divorce Sinatra gave her 10 per cent of his earnings and they spoke often. “I believe he felt guilty about leaving her but he couldn’t help himself,” says Weisman.
“He was the bravest guy I know, a champion of the underdog, with loyalty, honesty and integrity. The world is still looking to fill the void he left behind. I still miss him every day.”
To pre-order The Way It Was: My Life With Frank Sinatra, by Eliot Weisman (Hachette, £20) published on December 28, call the Express Bookshop with your card details on 01872 562 310. Or send a cheque/ PO payable to The Express Bookshop to Frank Sinatra Offer PO Box 200, Falmouth TR11 4WJ or visit expressbookshop.co.uk UK delivery is free.