Mr S: The Last Word On Frank Sinatra By George Jacobs and William Stadiem Sidgwick & Jackson $220 George Jacobs was Frank Sinatra's valet for 15 years in the 1950s and 1960s, a period that saw the crooner entangled with the mafia, his middle-age slump in music and movies, and the loss of his great love, the actress Ava Gardner. Almost 50 years later Jacobs shared the word processor with William Stadiem, an author who has carved a niche in profiling famous Americans such as Marilyn Monroe, one of Sinatra's favourite friends and lovers. Stadiem makes no attempt to embellish the uncomplicated voice of Jacob's recollections. Jacobs confirms that Sinatra oozed confidence and abhorred sentimentality. He was a no-nonsense fella who told it like it was and made fun of everything and everyone. But he had a temper and was prone to outlandishly immature acts of vandalism - as a suite in Hong Kong's Peninsula Hotel could attest. Sinatra trashed furniture and a Ming vase or two while unleashing a tirade of racist comments in the early 1960s. The lighting crew at his concert in Hong Kong City Hall had failed to make him disappear completely when spotlighting faded. Jacobs, who is black, mentions that around his so-called Rat Pack friends - including Italian-American Dean Martin and Sammy Davis, a black Jew - no harm was meant by Sinatra's racist outbursts. Such terms were often used as endearments. Sinatra named his private jet El Dago - though it had to be erased when he was touring Italy. The organised crime links were genuine, says Jacobs. Sinatra and the Rat Pack were picked up by the Chicago mafia boss Sam Giancana, who was instrumental in the birth of the Las Vegas gaming and entertainment industry. He helped smooth their careers in the music industry and in Hollywood. Jacobs recalls one of the most fearful nights of his life - cooking for some of the biggest mafia figures, who were hosts at his boss' Palm Springs mansion. He expected it to be all talk of who had whacked whom. But golf was the polite mainstay of the night's banter and his Italian cuisine was criticised by no one. Sinatra came under pressure to cut mafia ties by the Kennedy presidential family - who he and the Rat Pack had helped with pre-election concerts. Ol' Blue Eyes sold his stake in Los Vegas and Nevada casinos, in which Giancana was a major share-holder. Sinatra's love life was far too prolific to list and featured several big female stars of his day. But he always seemed to marry the wrong ones, surmises Jacobs. A nagging annoyance with this account is the reader's assumed knowledge of American actors, socialites and politicians. In most cases, it's possible to overlook this but some non-American readers under the age of 60 may find themselves lost. But, hey, this is no literary tome - read it for the usual fascination we have with celebrities.
