The Wilmington morning star., 1947-04-28
As Pegler Sees 1t
BY WESTBROOK PEGLER
Copyright by King Features Syndicate, Inc

There is a vein of resemblance in the fis-
tics of three current American heroes as re-
ported in our press, Leo Durocher was tried
On a charge of busting an ex-soldler's jaw
with the help of a house cop WHO held the
fellow still. He was acquitted, but Branch
Hickey, the business executive OF the Brook
lyn Baseball Company, admits that the firm
had to pay the victim about Sc, 900 for his
hurts. Next, from Hollywood, where Durocher
con5orted with the chivalry OF the under
world. came the incident of the lawyer who
met Durocher's friend, George Raft, and
was beaten up. The lawyer said one of Rats
bodyguards held his arms while Raft hit him.
Now, thirdly, Lee Mortimer, another veteran
of the late war, alleges that he, too, was
mobbed by Frank Sinatra and three COM
panions in a night club. Mr.. Mortimer is a
journalist whose line of work brings the art
and personality Of Sinatra within his profess
sional purview. His appreciation of Sinatra
has been meager.
There are antiquities in the Sinatra story.
He has been portrayed as a wan and wistful
Weakling, but, on the other hand, he is a
healthy welterWeight in good condition with
competitive experience as a boxer. All per-
sons at all familiar with such matters know
that a weiterweight with even a smattering
OF skill at boxing, given the advantage of
surprise or the sneak punch, can bring down
ItOe dly ldyllldll VI any Weight. 1lUeGu,
given the advantage of just a little skill over
total ineXperience, he might easily lick a
bigger adversary in a s%tand-up contest. How
ever, lest this become a school-yard debate,
we might proceed to other phases.
AS the dispatches state, Mortimer was a
soldier in the war. Sinatra, though robust,
active and pugnacious. ill-tempered. intern
perate and %profane, was a vicarious though
ferocious warrior against the Nazi, like
Charlie Chaplin. At one time in the Waldorf,
he displayed a draft card which he said was
marked IA and said he expected soon to
embrace the privilege of slaughtering the foul
aggressors in person. Not long afterward he
got SIN licking drunk and kicked up such a
shreWish row in his own quarters late at
night that a house detective went up and ply
sically subdued him for the peace and repose
of decenter guests beneath that roof. Time
passed ard fate denied him the martial op-
p%ortunity for which he seemed to yearn but
with firm moderation. Other young men.
slightly manned or blind in one eye, managed
to get into the war. Some who couldn't get
into the armed services went to sea as mer-
chant sailors or joined the American field
service. Some joined foreign armies.
In his common on the fracas with Morti-
mer. Sioatra said the journalist had referred
to the hobby-sox children of his following
as 'morons. He resented this on their behalf.
Morons they may not be, but. hayward and
disorderly children many of them certainly
are, as anyone can testify who has seen them
in their hysterical writings at all hours of the
night when little girls should be off the street
and home in bed. They have been a nuisance
TO the Waldorf management for years. filter.
ing in by the back entries and fire stairs
ana proving the house in search of nobody
knows what emotional satisfaction. They are
lmpudent, persistent an shameless. Manager,
- Wa @-1 -,-- l,
that they are not solely Sinatra's cult now,
but rally around whenever any of the more
lurld Hollywood life is in the house, and the
hotel company has seriously considered the
idea of turning sway such trade to abate tho
nuisance. They have been bad for the hotel.
Plans are currently affect TO present Sinatra
in a moving picture in the role of an ideolistic
priest. Of course, this would be only make
belize but the public has an emotional ten
dency tc endoW eminent ham-fats with the
virtues OF the characters which they portray.
In recognition OF this tendency, Sinatra and
the movie industry might more honestly
dramatic his own life as it is lived and his
influence on the cult of the bobby-sox.
He is truly a man of the world with a right
to neighborize and fraternize with the
fiaschettis of the Capone dynasty in the
Miamis, and if he desires. with notorious gang
sters and prostitutioneers in Cuba. Some re-
porters ard business men do this without re-
proach 1t is still, in some respects, a free
country, and these are, in their way. interest
ing people. The scenario here proposed should
reveal S%inatra's social versatility, his econom-
IL thrift through girlish adulation and, by
all means, the cruel Illustration of his de-
sire tc STAY the enemies OF democracy in
person and the public should be given fair
means to judge whether his example and
leadership, including gun-toting in time of
peace but never in battle in time of war,
were something that American youth had been
better off With-or without.