The Wilmington morning star., 1947-09-10
AS Pegler Sees 1t
Rv WESTBROOK PEGLER
Copyright, 1947 by King Features
Syndicate. Inc.)

areas of our press, including magazines,
and on the radio to rehabllltate the repu-
tatlon Of Frank Slnatra. ms reputation
was impaired last winter when Slnatra
was observed in association with notorious
persons including Lucky Luciano, the de-
ported Italian criminal who had served a
part Of a long term in the state OF New
York for prostituting women rus turned
up in Cuba for the social season OF the
criminal scum of the North American un-
derworld. Luciano is a gangster in the Al
lCapone tradition and is associated with
the narcotics trade as well as with prosti-
tuition.
Not long after the escapade in Cuba,
Sinatra made his way to Hollywood, by
way. Of several Mexican resorts. In Holly
wood, on April 9, he was arrested on a
charge of assault and held in $500 bail.
Sjnatra said that Lee Mortimer had called
him a vile name and that he saw red
and hit him Mortimer is a theatrical re-
porter and critic about Sinatra's W size.
Mortimer said Sinatra was a liar. He
said he did not even know Slnatra was
present in Ciro's restaurant, where the
smuggling occurred, until he was knocked
down by an assailant standing to one side
of him or behind him. On June 3, Morti-
mer announced in court that he was will
ing that the case be dismissed, subject
to the approval of the judge, and said
that Sinatra had publicly acknowledge
that the smuggling was unprovoked. MORT
mer said Sinatra had paid him $4,000 but
explained that he felt obliged to accept
this settlement because otherwise Sinatra
might induce the court to grant him many
postponements. Mortimer had made one
return trip to California already and ap-
pretended tina he might have to SC back
there half a dozen times, neglectlng his
work in New York. Even then, he might
one day discover that, in his absence, the
u. Fo,J,pt boI c,,dJon1u cOno into court
and won acquittal because of the failure
of the prosecuting witness to answer to
his name.
Soon after he was arrested, Sinatra's
license to carry a pistol was revoked. The
fact that he had a pistol was news to
the public and this incident evoked some
comment on the fact that he had not car
ried AIMS against the nazis in the war,
although in the last days of the European
war, and with increasing ferocity after "
E Day, Sinatra had condemned agrees
sors, dictators and "intolerance."
About this time Sinatra retired from
public notice. His publicity, managed with
skill by George Evans, of New York, had
got way out of hand. He had developed
~"social consciousness and had been ex-
plotted by political parasites of the left.
And he had taken a truculent pose which,
again, like his gun, drew attention to the
fact that he had never raised q hand or
even his melodious voice against the nazls,
when there was serious fighting to be
done. He did not visit Europe for the
U.S.O. to inspire or otherwise affect the
troops with song until the war was almost
won He never wore a uniform.
Sinatra himself retired into a silence,
but propaganda in his favor now rose to
an aggressive clamor.
One E. ]. Kahn, Jr, wrote a series of
laudatory essays in the New Yorker which
,,,r, r1~roI,ooI :. LnoL form orpoa d |
over in Look and condensed in one OF the
digests. A number of those c%olunnists who
publish prattle and publicity about the
"celebrities," including criminals, OF New
York, Hollywood, the Miamis, Havana and
Saratoga, came to Sinatra's help. Ec Sui
Ivan, of the New York Daily News, inn
pugned the professional integrity of legiti-
mate journalists who had faithfully COW
cred the "Sinatra story" in the Havana
and Hollywood episodes He wrote that
their motive was to punish Slnatra be-
cause he ave of his spare time and ener-
gy Ito persuade kid to be nice tc minority
groups" He mentioned Sinatra about a
dozen times in one brief visit to Hollywood
AMI undertook to "make character" for
him by proclaiming that Sinatra had
TUNED to painting and was giving a num-
Der of his works to charity. Charity takes
a severe beating in the publicity OF the
glamour belt.
In the same Dr1el season IL Was cGSeI vcu
that a number of other personalities, fire.
quently mentioned and praised as mem
bers of the 400 of the night clubs, radio
and the movies, had old court and court
martial records which were more or less
forgotten. There were smugglers who had
been caught and had paid fines. There
was a draft dodger who had tried to buy
a chief petty officers rating and a safe
assirn"2ent early in the war. And there
were -ugsy Siegal, a vicious New York
and Hollywood gangster, and his friend
and bodyguard, Allen Smiley, a gambler
and underworld character. Smiley had
been indicted with Tommy Dorsey, the
band leader, and his wife OF the momen
PAT Dane, charged with hacking off some
of the nose of Jon Hall, an actor, at a
birthday party. All these were of Holly
wood society.
Many such names occurred and required
in the seemingly aimless and innocent bab-
BILE Of the Broadway, Hollywood and radio
c~olurnnists day after day. Each pleasant
mention of this kind, especially in ma
terial which is widely syndicated or broad
cast on national chains, is Of incalculable
value, although hardly priceless.
Sinatra's most affectiopate biographer,
Mr.. Kahn, states that his income is about
81, 900, 600 a year. Most of that, of course,
professional celebrities know, the cost OF
the maintenance of a professional name, {
or the RECOMMENDATION of a name which
has been deglamorized or furnished by un-
publicity, may be lagitima tely
charged off as a business expense. In a
way, the government might here become !
a partner some day in a deal to create +.
an utterly false reputation for a low and :
dangerous character so that the low and
dangerous character might earn more
money and pay more taxes to the Treas
Try. That, however, is just one of the I
complications of a complex civilization. {
Quotations ;