Speaker 1: From Workhouse Connect and aj Benza fame. Uh, he'd liked
Speaker 1: to be walked on a leash and play really dirty
Speaker 1: kinky sex games. Is uh the guy put the cock
Speaker 1: in the peacock network. Okay, bitch, Hey, everybody aj Benzi
Speaker 1: here with fame is a bitch. This is your daily
Speaker 1: Unfiltered podcast for July second, twenty twenty five oh seven
Speaker 1: O two two oh two five two is a wild
Speaker 1: can't believe it's July second, orready? I can't believe it
Speaker 1: this weekend we're talking about fourth of July. Like I
Speaker 1: kind of intimated on yesterday's show, it just doesn't feel
Speaker 1: like Fourth of July when I'm out here, you know,
Speaker 1: I just think about the old days on Long Island,
Speaker 1: living in New York, and the fourth of July was
Speaker 1: always a huge holiday for my family. My father's bird
Speaker 1: days July fifth, so naturally the fourth of July that
Speaker 1: weekend was always a big party for him, and we
Speaker 1: had so many parties for him, and oh god, it
Speaker 1: was just a different, different time. Before I continue, let
Speaker 1: me just say listen if you want, if you want
Speaker 1: to know what's going to happen in life in Hollywood,
Speaker 1: just fucking listen to me. Tell your friends to listen
Speaker 1: to me. I need more listeners. This is ridiculous. I
Speaker 1: told you guys months ago that Elon Musk and Donald
Speaker 1: Trump would eventually have a big falling out, and here
Speaker 1: we are. Nobody believed it when he was up there
Speaker 1: with a chainsaw running doge, which I love those moments too,
Speaker 1: but I knew can't have these two men the way
Speaker 1: they are. There's going to be a clash of the titans.
Speaker 1: And I know Trump. He likes the spotlight. He doesn't
Speaker 1: one bringing you into the spotlight, but the minute you
Speaker 1: might get a little more light than he does, it's curtains.
Speaker 1: And Elon Musk was getting too much like did know
Speaker 1: how to play the part of the co pilot, the deputy,
Speaker 1: You know what I mean. Donald Trump is the sheriff.
Speaker 1: Elon Musk was playing the part of the deputy that
Speaker 1: got too close. Maybe he held to Griff's keys too often.
Speaker 1: You can't do that. You always gotta gracially bow away,
Speaker 1: walk away, bow out. He's the man. It's the man.
Speaker 1: You can't act like you're there too. You weren't elected.
Speaker 1: Elon Musk. As much as I admire him and love
Speaker 1: the fact that he bought Twitter and then did what
Speaker 1: he did with Trump and the first one hundred days.
Speaker 1: What have you. No, I have nothing bad to say
Speaker 1: about it, but I knew there was going to be
Speaker 1: a falling out and it's bad right now. I'll get
Speaker 1: into more of that on politics as a bitch this weekend.
Speaker 1: If you didn't hear last Sunday show, you're missing out.
Speaker 1: You just are. You gotta. Like I said, there's more
Speaker 1: crazy things, more dramatic things happening in politics than there
Speaker 1: are in Hollywood. Don't worry. I don't get mired down
Speaker 1: in the little fucking details of politics because I hate
Speaker 1: that shit. I give you an overall view of everything,
Speaker 1: and from a from a from a regular guy's perspective.
Speaker 1: You know, I can't sit there and talk on these
Speaker 1: paddles on Fox or seeing that I could. That's not
Speaker 1: what I like to do. I'd like to give you
Speaker 1: my vantage point, which is regular guys. You'll get it anyhow,
Speaker 1: I was right. Let's continue with this story. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: fourth of July weekend to me like Moorial Day, like
Speaker 1: Labor Day. Those are those are such seminal moments in
Speaker 1: my childhood and even my adulthood growing up on Long Island.
Speaker 1: When I was younger, my cousin Anthony CONIGLIONI not really
Speaker 1: a cousin. We lived in the same apartment building in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn.
Speaker 1: My grandmother was the landlord because she owned two brownstone
Speaker 1: in Brooklyn. I don't ask me how a woman comes
Speaker 1: from Italy, speaking very little English and ends up owning
Speaker 1: two beautiful brownstones in Brooklyn, but she did. And before
Speaker 1: she died she stopped doing that. And you know, she
Speaker 1: didn't want to be a landlord anymore. So she turned
Speaker 1: it over, not to her sons, because my uncle Liar
Speaker 1: was too busy becoming a doctor. My uncle Philly was
Speaker 1: too busy. My father was a cop. He had no
Speaker 1: time to be So she appealed to the lawyer down
Speaker 1: the hole, Carline Kniglione, great guy, great family, and he
Speaker 1: took it over. Man, those fucking brownstones would be worth millions. Now.
Speaker 1: God bless grandmothers like that, right, They come over from
Speaker 1: the old country and they just figure shit out. Oh
Speaker 1: my god, just doing menial things like making pasta for
Speaker 1: the mafia, you know, gardening, making rock walls. She was
Speaker 1: a great seamstress, as I've told you, but and then
Speaker 1: to do something so magnificent, owning buildings, owning real estate. Man,
Speaker 1: I wish I had that kind of business sense. I
Speaker 1: just don't. Anyhow, KENNIGLIONI had his son, two sons, Robert
Speaker 1: and Anthony, and his daughter Sally. It great friends of
Speaker 1: ours lived down the hall. Anthony was my age, is
Speaker 1: my age. He went. As he got older, he went
Speaker 1: to work on Wall Street, made a ton of money.
Speaker 1: And after I left college and didn't want to jump
Speaker 1: to some other city to become a journalist in Alabama
Speaker 1: or Jersey or Baltimore. I was looking for money. He
Speaker 1: invited me up to where he worked. I think it
Speaker 1: was Merrill Lynch. I knew nothing about money, and stops.
Speaker 1: I still don't, can't be bothered. He goes, come in.
Speaker 1: You know, maybe I get your job here. So I
Speaker 1: went there to meet them. I put a nice suit on.
Speaker 1: I went to meet the people I'm talking about. It
Speaker 1: might as well have been shiny arithmetic. The shit that
Speaker 1: was going on in that office, the screaming, be yelling
Speaker 1: to ticker tate, the numbers, the stock fry. You might
Speaker 1: as well have put me on Pluto, I said Anthony.
Speaker 1: I can't do this. Meanwhile, he's got one hundred thousand
Speaker 1: dollars bonuses for Christmas. This is thirty years ago. Anyhow,
Speaker 1: Anthony would come over every new every Fourth of July
Speaker 1: holiday with a big box of fireworks from Brooklyn. There's
Speaker 1: always a guy in the neighborhood who walks, who drives around.
Speaker 1: Go hey, yo, how you doing. You want some fireworks
Speaker 1: for the holiday? Come here, come close. I got some
Speaker 1: great stuff for the trunk, you know, and you go
Speaker 1: over and look at it. You want match? I got
Speaker 1: black Jack, I got pirates, I got the silver jets,
Speaker 1: I got the bottle rockets. And Anthony would come over
Speaker 1: with a big box of fireworks and he bring it
Speaker 1: over me him, my cousin, Philly Mittera, my neighbors, Richie Tissula,
Speaker 1: Peter Descoli, Perry Underhill, and we light fireworks all day
Speaker 1: while the grown ups frorem backyard, having food and going
Speaker 1: to the pool. Music was playing and it was just
Speaker 1: a great time. And at night everybody would come outside
Speaker 1: and watch us through the beautiful rockets at night, and
Speaker 1: we looked across from the school, so everything we lit
Speaker 1: would fall into the school yard and we'd go pick
Speaker 1: it up. Our father's insisted, when you're done, you go
Speaker 1: pick it up. If it looks like it didn't explode,
Speaker 1: kick it with your foot, don't. I don't want to
Speaker 1: fucking lose a finger. Don't let you lose a finger.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to the yar tonight, you know. Kick
Speaker 1: it away. Such a great time. Always fights on Fourth
Speaker 1: of July weekend. Always arguments with neighbors. One year, my
Speaker 1: brother in law, Frankie's father, Nick Mattera, was all a
Speaker 1: big white Cadillac, always the Cadillac with the pool queue
Speaker 1: in the back. His son Philly, a year older than me.
Speaker 1: He was a wrestler, high school state champ. Everything, toughest nails,
Speaker 1: Nikki PAULI, just tough brothers. We see this kid crouching
Speaker 1: behind Nick's catalet. Looks like he was letting air out
Speaker 1: of the tire and he was, so we follow him
Speaker 1: down the street. It's this kid called George Schmidt. Looked
Speaker 1: about fifteen houses down on Marinerths Circle. We run back
Speaker 1: in the backyard, tell my father, Philly's father, this father,
Speaker 1: that father, Hey, George Schmidt was letting air out of
Speaker 1: the car at the attire. Yeah, where's he lived? Come?
Speaker 1: In and we take him down the street. George Smith's
Speaker 1: father was six foot five, big coal fireman. I think
Speaker 1: it was a captain even not volunteer New York City
Speaker 1: firem A tough guy. My father and Philly's father. Nick
Speaker 1: goes over there, bang bang bang on the door. Can
Speaker 1: I help you? Yeah, gosh, this is how it bends
Speaker 1: down the street. Yeah, how are you doing now? This
Speaker 1: is my my friend Nick Mttera, our son. Say that
Speaker 1: your son was letting the out of the tires out
Speaker 1: of his cadillact. No, no, my son would never do that. Well,
Speaker 1: you know he did it, George. So maybe we should
Speaker 1: talk to him together and figure out what we're gonna do.
Speaker 1: What do you mean by that? You don't have gonna
Speaker 1: do shit? Oh, forget about it. Nick says to him,
Speaker 1: how tall are you? Cock? Sucker? He says, I'm six
Speaker 1: foot five, you fucking runt. And Nick says, I didn't
Speaker 1: know shit piled that high, opened the door, was gonna
Speaker 1: run in the fucking the hallway this guy's house and
Speaker 1: beat the shit out of him. Of course he put
Speaker 1: his hands. Hey, whoa, whoa, whoa Wait, contact, come and
Speaker 1: get myself, George, George, you commit did you do it? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I did. Guys. I'm sorry. I'm gonna discipline him right now.
Speaker 1: He shuts the door hard. A few years later, my
Speaker 1: father turned fifty years old. Big party in the backyard.
Speaker 1: I tell you the story. A couple of kids, kids,
Speaker 1: twenty one twenty two year old guys are blowing fireworks off.
Speaker 1: My nephew Jackie was a baby sleeping and the fireworks
Speaker 1: were loud, and I uh, as a kid, I said, hey,
Speaker 1: get out, guys. Can you walk down the street and
Speaker 1: do little Maybe do it behind the school. Hey, go inside, kid,
Speaker 1: Just treat me like I was nobody. So I go
Speaker 1: to the back dad. You know, my uncle's my neighbor,
Speaker 1: Bill Rizida. All these tough guys. Listen these guys, they say,
Speaker 1: go fuck yourself. They're gonna blow fog. Oh yeah, really.
Speaker 1: My brother in law, Jack was brushing his teeth. He
Speaker 1: had the toothbrush in his mouth. Frankie was wearing big
Speaker 1: platform heels because that was the style back then. And
Speaker 1: they run out to the front yard. Jack has bare
Speaker 1: feet with a toothbrush in his mouth in his hand.
Speaker 1: Frankie's got the platform shoes. My father's got a sandwich
Speaker 1: in his left hand, and they unload on these two
Speaker 1: guys and they and these guys were not small, ye,
Speaker 1: but they were tough kids. Twenty two, twenty one years old,
Speaker 1: beat the shit out of them. I climbed the tree
Speaker 1: in my house and looked down on it, and I
Speaker 1: was almost crying because it was I couldn't believe what
Speaker 1: I was seeing this the cuffs. Frankie was throwing kung
Speaker 1: fu kiss because he was a black belt. He knocked
Speaker 1: his heel off, his shoe. Jack stepped on a broken bottle,
Speaker 1: ripped his heel up. We beat. They beat these guys
Speaker 1: so bad they left. They came back. The cops came
Speaker 1: toward door. My father let them in. They knew he
Speaker 1: was on the job at one point, so they were
Speaker 1: nice to my father. The kids come in with the
Speaker 1: black eyes, the swollen heads, and knots on their head.
Speaker 1: I mean figure, they looked awful. My family had no
Speaker 1: mocks on their body and uh cops said, okay, you know, listen,
Speaker 1: you did what you have to do. These guys should
Speaker 1: they threw the first punch. That kind of shit. My
Speaker 1: family got away with it. Two years later, that guy
Speaker 1: blows his head off in his house around the corner
Speaker 1: of the shop. Crazy stuff always happened around four pagely
Speaker 1: in my family, this fight crazy stuff. People ask me Aki,
Speaker 1: why it's always talking about violent I don't know. I
Speaker 1: was brought up around it. I was always around it.
Speaker 1: It was almost romantic. I hate to say that. But
Speaker 1: to see your father throw punches, your brothers throw punches
Speaker 1: and kicks, and then celebrate, I don't know, not for nothing,
Speaker 1: but those guys were the sweetest men you could find.
Speaker 1: And they'd rescue puppies. They'd treated my sisters like golden.
Speaker 1: But don't make them med, don't make them mad. It's over.
Speaker 1: You've been warned. Speaking of fistes. I thought I was
Speaker 1: gonna talk about Jane Mansfield today, but I'll save that
Speaker 1: for tomorrow. This ELF is something else I want to
Speaker 1: talk about tomorrow. I'm very, very sad about this. I'll
Speaker 1: get into it tomorrow. But the hotel I used to
Speaker 1: stay at when I was first beginning to see Andrea
Speaker 1: was on the California Nevada border. There's those three hotels.
Speaker 1: If anybody knows, Whiskey Peats, Buffalo Bills, and prim Valley.
Speaker 1: They were all together. If you're drive them from LA
Speaker 1: to Vegas. You always feel good because you see those casinos.
Speaker 1: You know you're close to the strip, maybe forty minutes away.
Speaker 1: And I would stay there for weeks and weeks and
Speaker 1: weeks at a time. I know all the people, the
Speaker 1: girls behind a desk, the bartenders, the guys who ran
Speaker 1: the crap table, your name, I knew everybody. It was cheap.
Speaker 1: It was like seventy five dollars a night, so it
Speaker 1: was great to stay there. There was a Denny's in there,
Speaker 1: you know. It was like they were shopping at the
Speaker 1: Prim Valley casino. You can go downstairs with a big mall.
Speaker 1: Then it slowly began to get empty. COVID happened, and
Speaker 1: then all of a sudden, Prim Valley shut down. Just
Speaker 1: the mall was open downstairs, but it was like desserted.
Speaker 1: It was scary. It was a bath and body where
Speaker 1: it's I get candles down there. There was nothing else
Speaker 1: going on. Whiskey pets. You see a lot of old
Speaker 1: people gambling their social security. It's kind of sad, you know.
Speaker 1: I stayed there many times too. And there was this
Speaker 1: black girl behind the window. Her name was Vantage, Hey Vantage,
Speaker 1: big old black girl, maybe twenty five, twenty six very nice.
Speaker 1: I started to be sweet to her, and every time
Speaker 1: she would check me in, I gave her a twenty
Speaker 1: dollars because I like to get the good room. I
Speaker 1: had a dog with me, I had toutsy with me.
Speaker 1: They technically didn't allow dogs, you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: only on the first floor. That kind of bullshit. But
Speaker 1: Fantasia always found me a good room. Up above. There's
Speaker 1: a big roller coaster there that Andrea would take her
Speaker 1: son to many times. It's a roller coaster that goes
Speaker 1: through the goddamn casino and outside, no, I'm sorry, the
Speaker 1: roller coaster goes around casino, but inside there was a
Speaker 1: log flume ride that went through the casino. It was
Speaker 1: a big thing. Kids loved it. Shit it's closed that
Speaker 1: they closed with Keep Peach closed in December of last year,
Speaker 1: and yesterday I read that Buffalo Bill's no more. They're
Speaker 1: gonna keep the casino no more room. She can't stay there.
Speaker 1: July seventh is the last day you could stay there.
Speaker 1: I almost wanted to go just for old time's sake,
Speaker 1: you know, I don't think they'd like to have me.
Speaker 1: Last time I was there, I went to the kitchen
Speaker 1: at Danny because they weren't getting my ice cream sandwich
Speaker 1: ice cream Sunday on time. And I took to see
Speaker 1: in the kitchen and I made my own Sunday. The
Speaker 1: guy goes, what are you doing? I said, I'm not
Speaker 1: waiting twenty five minutes for a fucking vanilla Sunday. I'm
Speaker 1: making it myself. You can't be and here you gotta go.
Speaker 1: Of course security came. They liked me. Security was agu
Speaker 1: I said, I can't wait a half hour for fucking
Speaker 1: ice cream Sunday. They were laughing. But I don't. But
Speaker 1: the don't want to see me no more. But either way,
Speaker 1: it said. And then I saw a video somebody made.
Speaker 1: I wanted a copy and paste that had put it
Speaker 1: on the page, but I couldn't do it. It was a
Speaker 1: video of that log flume that went through the casino.
Speaker 1: There was all these people that like dummies that were
Speaker 1: set up like with dynamite, and there were bushes. It
Speaker 1: was like a like an old gold rush kind of scene,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. And all these dummies were
Speaker 1: around this casino floor where the ride was, and somebody
Speaker 1: made a video of all those images and they put
Speaker 1: the song. All around me are familiar faces one up place,
Speaker 1: you know, mad world. It was so sad. Got me
Speaker 1: in the chess man anyhow. That's that. But let's stick
Speaker 1: with fistfights. And who better to talk about? Because I
Speaker 1: was thinking about Frank Sinatra, And you know Frank was
Speaker 1: you know, one hundred and thirty five pounds, soaking wet.
Speaker 1: He wasn't a big guy. Of course, he got older,
Speaker 1: he thickened out, but he was always his skinny bones
Speaker 1: got out and they called them bones when he first
Speaker 1: started singing. And there are people will tell you Frank,
Speaker 1: it's a tough guy. He was a tough guy because
Speaker 1: he had goons all around him, but him on his own,
Speaker 1: not really. You know, you could throw a few punches.
Speaker 1: He had some fast hands, but you know, many other
Speaker 1: people strumming in Frank. The problem was do you want
Speaker 1: to hit him? Because he was so powerful that the
Speaker 1: next fight wasn't going to be against him. He was
Speaker 1: going to be against some goons or worst comes to work,
Speaker 1: some mobsters who were behind him. But I remember this
Speaker 1: story back in like nineteen fifty seven, fifty eight. I
Speaker 1: want to say, Natalie Wood, who was so beautiful, she
Speaker 1: had walked by his table at a place in Beverly
Speaker 1: Hills called Romanovs, which was a huge spot for a while,
Speaker 1: and Frank apparently made this crude comment about the way
Speaker 1: she looked, the way she walked, whatever, And without a
Speaker 1: moment's hesitation, Natalie Wood turns around, walks straight back to
Speaker 1: Frank's table and smacks him across the face. Everybody saw,
Speaker 1: and it's a completely a less crowd. You could hear
Speaker 1: the sound off her hand across his cheek. It stopped
Speaker 1: people from talking. It stopped everybody from talking. And suddenly
Speaker 1: Frank wasn't smiling anymore. And Natalie Wood didn't say a word.
Speaker 1: She just stared at him, and then she pivoted, turned
Speaker 1: away and walked like nothing happened. You're not gonna read
Speaker 1: about that in the newspapers, all right. No one wrote
Speaker 1: about it, but it became a big story around Hollywood.
Speaker 1: Everybody in Hollywood do because Romanovs was not some little
Speaker 1: restaurant that no one knew about. It was a big
Speaker 1: playground for very powerful people, actors, producer's studio bosses, you
Speaker 1: name it. And at this point fifty eight, Frank was untouchable.
Speaker 1: He had a Grammy under his belt. From here to
Speaker 1: returnity with the Oscar. Forget about it. He commanded every
Speaker 1: room he walked into, as you can imagine, you know,
Speaker 1: if he wanted, his word could make or break people careers.
Speaker 1: But in one moment, Natalie Wood threw her line in
Speaker 1: the sand. Bang and this is a kid who grew
Speaker 1: up in the studio system. Don't forget. By the age
Speaker 1: of ten years old, she was already working with usin
Speaker 1: walls on the movie Miracle on thirty four Streets. She
Speaker 1: started that she worked with arsin walls. Before that, Hollywood
Speaker 1: treated like this little delicate doll, you know. And by
Speaker 1: the time the late fifties came around, she'd been with
Speaker 1: James Dean and rebeled out a cause she really was
Speaker 1: making her bones. And people knew this is a woman
Speaker 1: that's not going to be reckoned, but she's good. And
Speaker 1: people around that situation then they noticed a shift, so
Speaker 1: to speak. There's certain moments in time, whether it's Hollywood
Speaker 1: or what have you, where there's a shift. And when
Speaker 1: she smacked Frank in public, that was a noticeable shift.
Speaker 1: You know, people saw this and you know it wasn't
Speaker 1: just an outburst. It was her expressing herself that as
Speaker 1: a woman, I'm not gonna be treated that way, no
Speaker 1: matter who you are. And everybody who was friends with
Speaker 1: Frank thought there'd be a big backlash, you know, because
Speaker 1: Frank was famous for holding grudges and using his power
Speaker 1: to shut people down in the industry. Anybody who crossed
Speaker 1: him got fucked up. But something really weird happened. Frank
Speaker 1: leaned back in his chair after being shocked that she
Speaker 1: did what she did, and he said to his friends
Speaker 1: around the table, she's got balls. That kid's gonna last.
Speaker 1: And he never brought up the incident again, never showed
Speaker 1: any public resentment toward her. In fact, people think he
Speaker 1: had a very quiet respect for her moving forward. But
Speaker 1: within days, you know, that story made its way around town,
Speaker 1: as is often the case in Hollywood. I mean shit,
Speaker 1: when I got thrown out of a bar and made
Speaker 1: the rounds and Hollywood, I got dropped by my agency
Speaker 1: because I was having too many fights in bars. It
Speaker 1: with a different world back then, you can have these
Speaker 1: dust ups and nothing happened. Hollywood got so soft anyhow, whatever,
Speaker 1: But makeup artists knew about this. People and the lot,
Speaker 1: all the different lots knew about it, and suddenly Natalie
Speaker 1: Wood's name had a different kind of weight to it.
Speaker 1: She was still a beautiful woman, still a marquee star,
Speaker 1: but now people are looking at her as, hey, this
Speaker 1: is someone who doesn't give a shit about Hollywood's unsmoking rules.
Speaker 1: She'll do what she wants to do. People praised her
Speaker 1: because they all many women went through similar situations like
Speaker 1: that but didn't have the balls to do what she did.
Speaker 1: They dreamed of it, but they couldn't pull the trigger.
Speaker 1: Natalie pulled the trigger. That's why I never believed the
Speaker 1: story of Kirk Douglas raping her when her mother dropped
Speaker 1: her off for an addition or for a meeting with
Speaker 1: him at the Chateau Marmond, and her sister was in
Speaker 1: the car and tells his fucking story. Every year, on
Speaker 1: the anniversary of Natalie's death, her sister tells the story
Speaker 1: and expects sympathitions on all the TV shows to get
Speaker 1: some money. It didn't happen. Kirk Douglas didn't rape Natalie
Speaker 1: would but you know, never spoke about it in a
Speaker 1: magazine interview, never spoke about it on a television interview,
Speaker 1: just kept it very quiet. That was her style. And
Speaker 1: you got Sinatra, who's surrounded by power and fame, and
Speaker 1: this is little woman, younger, smaller, and actually lower on
Speaker 1: the industry's pecking order because that matters in Hollywood. And
Speaker 1: he didn't forget it. He didn't forget it. And you know,
Speaker 1: later on in life he told friends that I know
Speaker 1: that slap she gave me. He wasn't about revenge. It
Speaker 1: was about her trying to reclaim control in this industry
Speaker 1: that pretty much always demanded stars to be obedient, especially women.
Speaker 1: You know, women had to be perfect. Natalie didn't yell,
Speaker 1: she didn't argue, she walked away. Everybody in the room
Speaker 1: was watching her. Nobody followed her, and that was more
Speaker 1: powerful than any speech she might have given. So I
Speaker 1: don't know how many people know about that sort, but
Speaker 1: it's a great story because Frank was hit and beat up,
Speaker 1: well I beat up, but he was messed with several
Speaker 1: times that those stories were kind of hidden, But I
Speaker 1: tell you this, there's a few of them. I know.
Speaker 1: I know Lee Marvin punched Frank out one night at
Speaker 1: a party because Frank was hitting on a woman. Lee
Speaker 1: Marvin was with Lee Marlin was on the balcony smuff
Speaker 1: and a cigarette comes back and Frank's leaning on his girl,
Speaker 1: and Lee s loved him, noted Frank down once. But
Speaker 1: there was one big story. Frank was punched in the
Speaker 1: face by a guy named Carl Cohen. Carl Cohen was
Speaker 1: a vice president at the Sands Hotel. This is in
Speaker 1: the mid sixties, late sixties. Sinatra was into gambling, very
Speaker 1: much so, and he flipped over a table onto Carl Cohen,
Speaker 1: and Cohen punched the shad of him, just knocked him out.
Speaker 1: Noted two teeth out of Frank's mount, two caps out
Speaker 1: of his mouth on the carpet. Because what happened was,
Speaker 1: you know, there was money that Sinatra had earned for,
Speaker 1: you know, for all these different casinos in Las Vegas,
Speaker 1: and he was always giving preferential treatment as soon as
Speaker 1: he showed up right and on top of being given
Speaker 1: the best gambling spots in the house, he also you know,
Speaker 1: would get free food, free liquor, which is a combustible situation.
Speaker 1: But you know, when he shut up, everybody picked their
Speaker 1: head up and got ready to Frank's in the house.
Speaker 1: And when he came, he'd always show up and throw
Speaker 1: thousands of dollars to all these different people casino chips.
Speaker 1: He'd pay people just for opening the door fro him,
Speaker 1: bringing him an ashtray, whatever it was. You get fifty,
Speaker 1: you get one hundred. Matter of fact, it got to
Speaker 1: the point where he was so cool that he didn't
Speaker 1: even do the tipping. His buddy did it. He would say,
Speaker 1: duke him, Jilly, Jilly Rizzo, dukem, Jilly, duke him. And
Speaker 1: I gotta be honest, it sounds ridiculous, but when I
Speaker 1: got to be not famous, but when I got to
Speaker 1: be a little high in the hog in my own life,
Speaker 1: I would run around with Chico and I make Chico
Speaker 1: to the tipping. I know it's so stupid, but you
Speaker 1: get out, you get older, you start thinking about your
Speaker 1: idols and you want to do what they did. You know,
Speaker 1: Chico duke them, dukem. I know it's stupid, but so
Speaker 1: Frank was given like fifty thousand dollars worth of gambling chips,
Speaker 1: and they just would hand the money when he shut up,
Speaker 1: and he would play with that money. But as the
Speaker 1: years rolled on, the people in charge of these casinos
Speaker 1: didn't like it, because Frank wasn't as respected as he
Speaker 1: used to be. Paul Anka wrote in a book, he
Speaker 1: said in the late sixties when the billionaire Howard Used
Speaker 1: started buying up all the casinos, this this perk came
Speaker 1: to an abrupt halt. Howard Used was jealous of Frank.
Speaker 1: They were after the same women, and Frank didn't like that,
Speaker 1: and he would complain to the biggest people he could
Speaker 1: find at these different casinos, but he was kind of
Speaker 1: waved away, so that one night he left the casino
Speaker 1: really pissed off about how he was treated. The next though,
Speaker 1: he comes back and he's thinking, this shit's not gonna
Speaker 1: happen again. Next night, Paul Ankor wrote, Frank is still steaming.
Speaker 1: Suddenly he stands at the blackjack table in the middle
Speaker 1: of the Sands casino and he screamed at the top
Speaker 1: of his lungs to the casino goers, this place was
Speaker 1: Sam when they built it, and it'll be Sam when
Speaker 1: I'm fucking dumb with it. So the manager comes by
Speaker 1: to kind of calm Frank down him, and Frank accused
Speaker 1: that guy of beaing a mobster, which is kind of funny. Well,
Speaker 1: tempers flare, things got out of hand. It's not just
Speaker 1: arts throwing shit around his cards, chips, chairs, you name it.
Speaker 1: He was in a full blown tantrum. In fact, he
Speaker 1: cracked a security guard over the head of a chair
Speaker 1: and he threw hot coffee on Carl Cohen. So Cohen
Speaker 1: shook that off, straightened up, and leveled. Frank would have
Speaker 1: punched to his mouth, knocked his teeth on the floor,
Speaker 1: and the entire town was thrilled that Cohen stepped up
Speaker 1: to the bully Sinatra could be when he was drunk,
Speaker 1: and which was oftened Frank Fort. I mean, look, there's
Speaker 1: a lot of fights. I mean, Frank Fort. There was
Speaker 1: a night that was supposed to be a celebration for
Speaker 1: Dean Martin's forty ninth birthday, and these yet I mean,
Speaker 1: at this point in time, mid sixties, Frank and Dean
Speaker 1: or at top of the food chain. They couldn't him
Speaker 1: be more popular with the rat pack, very well paid,
Speaker 1: and that didn't ment. Curse words has thrown around, Fisticuffs
Speaker 1: eventually begin to happen. So Sinatra and Dean Martin some
Speaker 1: of their buddies were hanging out the Polo Lounge in
Speaker 1: Beverly Hills. There's an art collector there, a former president
Speaker 1: of Hunt's Food's, a guy named Frederick rand Weissman. He
Speaker 1: was sitting near them, and he didn't like how loud
Speaker 1: they would get. And he's getting a little pissed off
Speaker 1: about how loud Frank and his friends were being, and
Speaker 1: he thoughts yelling at them. They got into a brief
Speaker 1: exchange of foul language and a fistfight happens. So, you know,
Speaker 1: Dean tried to pull Sinatra away, but no one really
Speaker 1: knows who swung first, but it ended up with somebody
Speaker 1: Klabern Frederic Weisman over the head with one of those
Speaker 1: famous telephones they used to leave at the table, which
Speaker 1: I think they still have that, maybe not now, but
Speaker 1: maybe fifteen years ago at the Polo Lounge. I remember
Speaker 1: there were phones at the table, kind of a cool thing.
Speaker 1: There's no need for it nowadays, but they left it
Speaker 1: for a while. But yeah, he picked up a phone,
Speaker 1: pink phone, smacked Weiseman over the head with it. The
Speaker 1: guy's unconscious on the floor. They revived him, but a
Speaker 1: day later he was more or less in a coma.
Speaker 1: It was in a hospital, underwent surgery, could have been mad,
Speaker 1: he could have died. And that's when Franken Dean separately,
Speaker 1: you know, waited things out, waited for the police investigation
Speaker 1: to be concluded, and a lot of conflicting stories about
Speaker 1: what happened, who started, etc. But ultimately Weisman recovered and
Speaker 1: really didn't remember what exactly happened that night. I'm not
Speaker 1: sure if he was told not to remember or if
Speaker 1: he lost his memory, but either way didn't go much further.
Speaker 1: But see, you hear those stories, and you go, Sinatra,
Speaker 1: what a piece of shit. I'm gonna have Alison Martino on.
Speaker 1: I keep saying that, but I'm gonna have her on
Speaker 1: the next week or two. Her father, the great singer
Speaker 1: Al Martino, came up the ranks when Frank was already
Speaker 1: a big shot, and Al Martino could sing the shit
Speaker 1: out of a song. Beautiful Go listen to Blue Spanish Eyes,
Speaker 1: beautiful song. And there's all these stories that Alison has.
Speaker 1: And I sat with al Martino, had dinner with him
Speaker 1: a couple of times at his house, and he told
Speaker 1: me how Frank Sinatra and his goons tortured him to
Speaker 1: the point where he had to leave town, not just
Speaker 1: leave California, leave America. And Al Martino would go overseas
Speaker 1: and entertain people. But you know, it got to the
Speaker 1: point where his car was keyed and scratched every time
Speaker 1: he parked it somewhere the records of his songs and
Speaker 1: juke boxes around the country in different states were taken
Speaker 1: out and smashed. Owners were tall, don't put a fucking
Speaker 1: Martina wreckord there because Frank's action school and said, dun't.
Speaker 1: It got to the point where one day Frank was
Speaker 1: in the studio recording whatever song he was recording. Al
Speaker 1: Martinos down the hall in a different room recording a song,
Speaker 1: and Frank liked the sound of that song, and he
Speaker 1: went to the guy who ran in the studio, who
Speaker 1: the fuck is uh? Who's this down? All? Well, that's
Speaker 1: al Martino, a young kid, blah blah blah. Yeah. Well,
Speaker 1: Frank let out the word that I want that song.
Speaker 1: That's my song now, and that song was taken away
Speaker 1: from Al Martino and given the Sinatra to perform. That
Speaker 1: was Strangers in the Night. That was Al Martino's song first,
Speaker 1: but Frank made sure it went to him. And the
Speaker 1: last time I saw Frank, well, last time he ever
Speaker 1: sang for a crowd on his eightieth birthday, the night
Speaker 1: we all went to the shrine of the Tournum and
Speaker 1: he performed for about fifteen people at the four Seasons Hotel.
Speaker 1: At one o'clock in the morning, he's at the piano
Speaker 1: with a drink in his hand, and he starts to
Speaker 1: sing for his friends, and somebody said, Frank sing Strangers
Speaker 1: of the Night, and he said, I hate that fucking song.
Speaker 1: If you sang a million times, you'd hated too. What
Speaker 1: else you want? He hated the song, but he had
Speaker 1: to take it away from Martinez, So Alison, they'll give
Speaker 1: you more stories about that. But also, as bad as
Speaker 1: he was, as crazy as he was, as much as
Speaker 1: liquor and power and fame made him a bad guy,
Speaker 1: there was a wonderful Sarti Santra paying people's bills. You know.
Speaker 1: There was a time where the actor Lee J. Cobb,
Speaker 1: who wasn't a big name yet, but Frank had seen
Speaker 1: him do some films and thought his work was great.
Speaker 1: And Lee J. Cobb is lying in the hospital bed
Speaker 1: with a heart attack and Lee J. Cobb says to
Speaker 1: the ambulance said, well are you taking me? And I
Speaker 1: can't afford to go to the hospital. And somebody said
Speaker 1: that that's right, don't worry about it's being taken care of.
Speaker 1: And Lee J. Cobb, I gotta pay no, no, it's
Speaker 1: taking care of They took him out to Palm Springs
Speaker 1: and put him at Frank Sinatra's compound, and Frank shut
Speaker 1: up and said, listen, don't worry about it. Lee J.
Speaker 1: Cars Well, why what do you? What are you? Why
Speaker 1: are you doing this? I like the way you act.
Speaker 1: He kept them in his compound till he healed, and
Speaker 1: Lee J. Cobb went on to make some terrific movies.
Speaker 1: Go look at twelve. I re met my crisis. He could.
Speaker 1: This happened many times. Sammy Davis Junior couldn't pay his
Speaker 1: medical bills after a big car ancerent Frank took care
Speaker 1: of it. The famous drummer in Benny Goodman's band, Gene Krooper,
Speaker 1: my god. Go look at YouTube. Check out the song
Speaker 1: Sing Sing Sing. My father made sure I knew every
Speaker 1: musician in that band. I knew every name of them,
Speaker 1: who was playing what instrument. He wouldn't let me listen
Speaker 1: to the Rolling Stones or anybody until I I knew
Speaker 1: everybody in Benny Goodman's band. And Geane Crooper on the drums,
Speaker 1: Dizzy Gillespie on trumpet, Benny Goodman clarinet, Harry James on
Speaker 1: the trumpet. I knew everybody. I forget it, but man,
Speaker 1: go look at sing Sing Sing, and watch Crooper take
Speaker 1: a ride on the drums. Frank Pitt all his bills,
Speaker 1: even during segregation. Frank pretended to be sick at one
Speaker 1: point so somebody could subfer him at the Paramount. You know,
Speaker 1: he didn't want There was a black I think it
Speaker 1: was Billy. I think it was Bill Eckstein, Billy Eckstein.
Speaker 1: It was a great musician. He wasn't allowed to perform
Speaker 1: at the Paramount. So Frank, who was performing that made
Speaker 1: believe he was sick and suggested they get x Stein
Speaker 1: in there. And he did, and people saw what kind
Speaker 1: of a great musician he was, and his career flourished.
Speaker 1: There were people that will tell you that there was
Speaker 1: a Vegas showgirl who broke her back. She fell off
Speaker 1: the stage, just like Anne Margaret did. Frank heard about
Speaker 1: the girl. She was in the hospital, laid up, her
Speaker 1: career was over. He paid her bills until she recovered,
Speaker 1: bought her a sports car, and was paying for all
Speaker 1: of college expenses. Obviously, we know he had the dark side,
Speaker 1: but if you were a friend of his, you basically
Speaker 1: had a friend for life. And he could do whatever
Speaker 1: he wanted to do to take care of you. Sam
Speaker 1: could be said about his ex wives. Even after the
Speaker 1: varsit his ex wives, he still maintained a very good
Speaker 1: relationship with all them. Barbara, his last wife, hated that
Speaker 1: it says a lot when all your ex girlfriends and
Speaker 1: ex wives come to your funeral. Right to me, it does.
Speaker 1: Perfomer named Frank Fontaine passed away in nineteen seventy eight.
Speaker 1: Him and Frank began together in Hollywood back in the forties.
Speaker 1: Frank brought others to perform at a concert to help
Speaker 1: benefit him, benefit his grandmother who had failing health. I
Speaker 1: mean all sorts of things like this over time. You know.
Speaker 1: Greg ree Peck knew about all these things about Frank's generosity,
Speaker 1: and he always called a mister soft touch because he'd
Speaker 1: always secretly help out people. He found that Nack King
Speaker 1: Cole was headlining at the Sands, but wasn't allowed to
Speaker 1: stay there or even eat in the restaurant. Frank went
Speaker 1: to see him and saw he was eating in the
Speaker 1: dressing room. He got really pissed off. He goes to
Speaker 1: the manager of the owner and said, listen, I'll never
Speaker 1: perform here again. Unless Nack King Cole is treated the
Speaker 1: same as I'm treated. Then he and Nat had dinner
Speaker 1: and dining room, and Natt never had eat in his
Speaker 1: dressing room. Again, you talk about respect. I saw Sinatra times.
Speaker 1: The second time I was at my first wife at
Speaker 1: Radio City Music Hall. The next night I took my girlfriend.
Speaker 1: My marriage is kind of over. So I saw him
Speaker 1: two nights in a row. The final time, like I said,
Speaker 1: eightieth birthday Shrine Auditorium, singing privately the Four Seasons piano bar.
Speaker 1: At one o'clock in the morning, Nancy calls me, where
Speaker 1: are you. I'm home. God, he's gonna sing, come to
Speaker 1: the Four Seasons. It was one of the most tippy
Speaker 1: top moments of my May it maybe it's gotta be
Speaker 1: top three. It has to be. I grew up with
Speaker 1: this guy, his music. I grew up with this picture
Speaker 1: above my sink. There were more pictures Sinatra the house
Speaker 1: than my father. I still have the picture. I kept it.
Speaker 1: It's an old, ugly wooden frame. I can't get rid
Speaker 1: of it. His face is this colored because he was
Speaker 1: above the sink, and every time my mother made the
Speaker 1: steam would rise. All those sundays, a thousand Sundays and
Speaker 1: the picture got this colored. I can't get rid of that.
Speaker 1: So to end up being friends with his daughter, going
Speaker 1: out with Nancy, becoming friends with her, staying at her house,
Speaker 1: cooking for me, I mean, meeting her father, It doesn't
Speaker 1: It just it's one of those things in my life
Speaker 1: that I don't think I love a top but what
Speaker 1: I always loved about him one of the things. I
Speaker 1: gotta say something, Befre. I go forward. When me and
Speaker 1: my first wife were divorcing, I kept the house and
Speaker 1: she got an apartment about a mile away, and I'm
Speaker 1: saddled with the mortgage and the whole thing, and things
Speaker 1: were tough. I had my friend Johnny Diaz move in Chico.
Speaker 1: Moved in. Johnny had his son, Mikey. We called them Pops.
Speaker 1: He was like four or five years old. So we
Speaker 1: were three men in the baby living in my house.
Speaker 1: The guys shipped in for rent, you know. And Saturday
Speaker 1: nights there was a radio show called Saturday Night with Sinatra,
Speaker 1: and the guy who hosted it was named Sid Marks.
Speaker 1: And sid Marks had interviewed Frank a multitude of times,
Speaker 1: and he would lay those interviews, those those conversations over
Speaker 1: some of the songs, and for four hours you heard
Speaker 1: nothing but Sinatra. I make a date for gold, but
Speaker 1: you could bet your life at rains. I want to
Speaker 1: throw a party, but the guy upstairs complaints. I guess
Speaker 1: I'll go through life just catching coals and missing trains.
Speaker 1: Everything happens to me. I played these songs. I listened
Speaker 1: to these songs for hours because my marriage was coming
Speaker 1: to an end, and I was so sad, and I
Speaker 1: sat there on the floor in a newly carpeted dining
Speaker 1: room with a bottle of wine no glass, and just
Speaker 1: cried against the wall. But what I also loved about him,
Speaker 1: I started keeping me company Like he's done for many
Speaker 1: many men. He always gave credit before or after a song.
Speaker 1: He always gave credit to the composer, the writer, the arranger.
Speaker 1: This next song is from the great Nelson Riddle. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Just He always told you who wrote the song, who
Speaker 1: composed it, who arranged it. No one does that. And
Speaker 1: I loved his asides. His sides were tremendous when you
Speaker 1: see him in person. I saw him my mother and
Speaker 1: father singing I got you under my skin. My mother
Speaker 1: saw him when she was in high school. She would
Speaker 1: cut school to see him sing at the Paramount. In
Speaker 1: the forties, those girls would called the Bobby sockers. My
Speaker 1: mother was a Bobby socker because she would leave school
Speaker 1: with the little shoes and the short socks and go
Speaker 1: to the Paramount. Costs less than a dollar to go
Speaker 1: from Brooklyn to the Paramount. It cost a dollar to
Speaker 1: see him sing. Could you imagine a dollar? My mother
Speaker 1: would tell me, we take the subway to the city.
Speaker 1: We'd have chinks. They didn't say Chinese food. Back there,
Speaker 1: we'd have chinks. See Frank sing, come back on the
Speaker 1: subway and still have a dime left over. I'm saying, what,
Speaker 1: how did you? How can anybody exist on that kind
Speaker 1: of little money? But they did well. Aj candies were
Speaker 1: twenty for twenty for a penny. What twenty piece of
Speaker 1: candy for a penny? Yeah? God, So I saw my parents.
Speaker 1: She's sitting in her seat. She can barely stand up
Speaker 1: with Frank camap that that that that that she gets hungry.
Speaker 1: My mother stood up and then fell down on the
Speaker 1: seat for dinner. And they loved the theater. Killed but
Speaker 1: he sings, I got you one of my skin, And
Speaker 1: there's the ending, just to thought of you. Who makes
Speaker 1: me stop before bigod because I've got you on my skin.
Speaker 1: But he didn't finish the lyrics. He just said, because
Speaker 1: I got you, and he pointed with his thumb and
Speaker 1: he shook his wrist to his heart under my skin.
Speaker 1: He didn't even say under my skin. The women collapsed.
Speaker 1: What a fucking power like Elvis, like you just you can't,
Speaker 1: you can't harness that unbelievable. And then in the middle
Speaker 1: of that song, there's a bridge, you know, oh gosh,
Speaker 1: a warning voice come to the nana. It repeats the
Speaker 1: repeats in my air, don't you know you fool? Just
Speaker 1: the crowd is going bananas. And at the end of
Speaker 1: the song he says, what does it hurts your baby?
Speaker 1: I mean, every woman was a puddle. I'm saying this.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of critics of Sadatra and you crossed
Speaker 1: the met your own peril, but his generosity was legendary.
Speaker 1: There was a great television moment back in the eighties
Speaker 1: Richard Burton. I forget what it was for what they
Speaker 1: were doing. There were Burton steps out legendary drunk with
Speaker 1: Sinatra another legendary drunk. But they were both square that
Speaker 1: night and Burton delivers this speech, and he said, in
Speaker 1: his immaculate Scottish accent, I've never sang a song with
Speaker 1: Frank Sinatra, never acted with him, share a stage, nor
Speaker 1: been a member of an officetra he performed with, Nor
Speaker 1: was I there when he was prevented with his Oscar,
Speaker 1: his Emmy, or any of his nine Grammys. We all, however,
Speaker 1: old friends of some thirty years, and I've risen to
Speaker 1: my feet to applaud his braven artistry and numerous charity performances,
Speaker 1: raising millions of dollars for various causes for victims of
Speaker 1: the world, all over the world. But I am compelled
Speaker 1: to say out loud what a few of us have
Speaker 1: known for years, fully aware that this is what he
Speaker 1: likes to hear the least. And what he was getting
Speaker 1: at was that there was a time when fact Sinatra
Speaker 1: couldn't work and had a real rough time of it,
Speaker 1: you know. And Richard Burton at this point asked Frank,
Speaker 1: can I do something for you? And Frank said, nah,
Speaker 1: you know he's taking care of me. Pal He pointed
Speaker 1: up with the sky to say God, and Burton continued,
Speaker 1: Frank is a giant among the givers of the world.
Speaker 1: He stands among the tallest, and he more than paid
Speaker 1: rent for the space he occupies on this planet. Forged
Speaker 1: as he is from legendary loyalty and compassion, carefully hidden
Speaker 1: because he has so ordered it. Other than himself, there
Speaker 1: is no one who knows of the magnitude of his generosity.
Speaker 1: He has decided to be the sole keeper of that knowledge.
Speaker 1: Mis triudonymous, you asked to be so mistridonymous. You shall
Speaker 1: be called, at the risk of further offending you, Frank
Speaker 1: I appear as the herald of grateful multitudes who have
Speaker 1: opened those unexpected envelopes, specially delivered answers to their prayers,
Speaker 1: Those awakened by late night phone called by which remedied
Speaker 1: their problems only on the condition they shared your coverage
Speaker 1: of secrecy. Those who were surprised by signed checks with
Speaker 1: the amounts not filled in. Those performers down their luck
Speaker 1: who landed on a road they never expected and still
Speaker 1: don't know whom to thank, and for ountold other beneficiaries
Speaker 1: of the caring and the kindness of the splendid man
Speaker 1: who truly is his brother's keeper, And they are legion.
Speaker 1: Those whose lives took a turn for the better, because
Speaker 1: this man who's fifty years ago tonight was a skinny,
Speaker 1: eighteen year old high school dropout, unloading Jersey cargo ships
Speaker 1: on the Jersey Water and singing at nights on a
Speaker 1: whole broken street corner, a street corner poet burned to
Speaker 1: the bone, was the fury of his own ambition, hoping
Speaker 1: desperately somebody would notice him. And they did. They did
Speaker 1: notice you, Maggio rat Siabane, blue eyes. God bless you,
Speaker 1: mister Anonymous. Oh my fucking god. I didn't know where
Speaker 1: I was a kid, and I knew I just heard
Speaker 1: something that was just phenomenal. Frank was tearing up and
Speaker 1: they panted the crowd. They showed these people, you know,
Speaker 1: Rowan and Martin, Withdair Shelley for Braymember Her Joanne for Fluge,
Speaker 1: all these people that were famous around that time, different
Speaker 1: areas of showbiz. But to be around him, to just
Speaker 1: spell the same air and be in the same room
Speaker 1: where your molecules could move with his, is just something
Speaker 1: I'll never get over. And I don't know why I
Speaker 1: decided to talk about him today. I don't know why.
Speaker 1: I think. I think because I get choked up thinking
Speaker 1: about July fourth weekend, and my father and my tough
Speaker 1: uncles and friends who had each other's backs, didn't take shit,
Speaker 1: tough and tender, all of them. That's it. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: fall apart. That's it. Love you guys. That was your
Speaker 1: podcast for July second, twenty twenty five. I guess I'm
Speaker 1: broken up because Roxy's twenty one too, you know, Christ Almighty,
Speaker 1: what does the time go? Can we put in a
Speaker 1: box somewhere? No, we Can't's all right, Top Toast tomorrow