A Lifelong Kinship Between Sinatra And The Political Elite
By Gene Randall/CNN
WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, May 15) -- Frank Sinatra would have loved it: The U.S. president, at the Summit Group of Eight meeting in Britain, paying tribute to Ol' Blue Eyes.
"I think every American would have to smile and say he really did it his way," President Bill Clinton said.
Though never close to Clinton, the attraction between Hollywood legend Sinatra and the political elite was long a fact of life, each finding in the other an undeniable appeal. Call it kinship.
Motion Picture Association of American President Jack Valenti explains, "They are sprung from the same DNA , for God's sake. They are always onstage. They are always performing."
After campaigning for Ronald Reagan in 1980, and orchestrating his inaugural gala, Sinatra later serenaded Nancy Reagan in the White House.
Sinatra biographer J.Randy Tamborelli says the first lady was quite taken with the star. Valenti agrees. "Frank knew everything that was going on in Hollywood and I think Nancy enjoyed talking to somebody who came from her environment and knew all the gossip," he said.
Sinatra, say his friends, enjoyed the surroundings that accompanied the politically powerful. James Bacon, a friend of the entertainer, said, "Well, I suppose Frank liked the idea of having entre to the White House. He liked that very much."
When he applied for a gaming license in Las Vegas, Sinatra listed President Reagan and his wife as character references.
Once, when he was asked about allegations Sinatra had ties to organized crime, Reagan said he hoped they weren't true.
In fact, similar charges helped breach a friendship with another chief executive: John F. Kennedy.
"When Kennedy first ran for president, why Frank, right away, got in and helped him, staged fund-raisers for him, performed at benefits, rallies," Bacon said.
But after putting together his inaugural celebration and after years of palling around with Sinatra, once in the White House Kennedy's relationship with him ended. It was derailed by Attorney General Robert Kennedy when a Justice Department report said, "Sinatra has had a long and wide association with hoodlums and racketeers, which seems to be continuing."
Indeed, Sinatra's long friendship with mob boss Sam Giancana was well documented.
The final Kennedy insult was J.F.K'.s decision to snub lifelong Democrat Sinatra's offer of his Palm Springs, Calif., home in 1962. The president stayed, instead, with Bing Crosby, a Republican.
Ironically, Sinatra went on to support many Republicans. He contributed to Richard Nixon's re-election campaign in 1972 and reportedly helped persuade Nixon to keep Spiro Agnew on the ticket.
A year later, it was a Republican president, Nixon, who invited Sinatra to sing at the White House, a period punctuated by Sinatra's stormy appearance before a House select committee on crime where he denied having business ties with organized crime.
Reagan, a decade later, would brush aside stories of a Sinatra dark side by saying, "We've heard those things about Frank for years."
Saying Reagan had been a good president, Sinatra, in 1988, endorsed George Bush and later sang for the new president and his wife.
But for the performer known as the "chairman of the board," nothing equalled the access of the Reagan years.
A statement from the Reagans describes the sound of Heaven's chorus as a little brighter after Sinatra's death.
The former president and his wife went on to say, "Frank's golden gift made him a Hollywood icon. He sang about real people and real emotions; his songs and music transcend age and time."
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