In a polarized country like the United States, the music popular – pop, rock, folk, jazz, country, rap – remains the last common language of Republicans and Democrats. The White House has therefore always been interested in its stars: Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Kanye West, Taylor Swift and others. Before the election of November 5thL’Express tells you, in eight episodes, the story of the improbable couples formed by the beasts of the musical scene and the political animals that are the American presidents.
Who could have imagined such an outcome? Furious, Frank Sinatra leaves his villa in Palm Springs (California), sledgehammer in hand, rushes towards the brand new heliport built for his dear “JFK”. And there is the dandy with the azure eyes, like a madman, pounding the landing strip, in rage. It is March 1962. The crooner has just learned by phone that “Jack” (the diminutive of John Fitzgerald Kennedy) will not come to have a slump at his place, as planned. Worse, the Democratic president – a fan, like his sidekick, of feasts and fine parties – will finally spend his weekend at the home of a rival of Sinatra: Bing Crosby, another famous singer, a Republican to boot!
To welcome his friend, “The Voice” did not skimp: from additional rooms built for the White House staff to the battery of 25 telephone lines intended to connect the president to the world at all times… Nothing was left to chance. Alas! The little party will not take place. Another Kennedy has spoiled the party: Robert, John’s younger brother and Attorney General of the United States (Minister of Justice), can no longer stand his elder brother hanging out with the “bad boy” Sinatra, known for his dangerous liaisons with the mafia. This relationship must be cut short at all costs. Thus ends, according to the official story, the friendship between two of the greatest icons of the 20th century in America. But the underworld has a convenient scapegoat… Sixty years of confidences whispered to the biographers of the two stars and declassified FBI documents offer other versions of this sudden breakup, made up of sexual intrigues and love triangles.
“JFK ticked all the boxes for Sinatra, in perpetual quest for class, he who had not studied and came from an ordinary family of Italian immigrants”
Let’s rewind. January 19, 1961, Washington. It’s the day of the inauguration of JFK, who defeated Nixon the previous November. A historic snowstorm paralyzes the capital. At the National Guard armory, which houses a reception hall in the east of the city, all the elite of Hollywood await the new president, the youngest ever elected in the United States, at 43 years old. Bette Davis, Nat King Cole, Gene Kelly, Ella Fitzgerald, Ethel Merman are there for the gala. The master of ceremonies is called Frank Sinatra, the man who worked for the election of JFK by all means and has boundless admiration for the “golden-boy” from Massachusetts.
JFK, Sinatra and the Mafia
“For Sinatra, JFK was this young war hero, handsome, thin, incredibly charismatic and witty. He came from a wealthy family in Massachusetts, had studied at Harvard. In short, he checked all the boxes for the singer, in perpetual search of class, he who had not studied and came from an ordinary family of Italian emigrants”, says James Kaplan, author of Sinatra. The Chairman.
Their paths crossed five years earlier. Kennedy was then a young senator. His father, Joseph (“Joe”), had only one idea in mind: to raise his son to the top, all the way to the Oval Office of the White House. “We’re going to sell Jack like soap!” joked the patriarch, an unscrupulous businessman who had rubbed shoulders with the mafia during Prohibition in order to sell alcohol under the counter. Joe established himself as the brains of the campaign. He knew of Sinatra’s ties to Chicago mob boss Sam Giancana. He didn’t beat around the bush: “We need a helping hand from our friends in Chicago,” he told Sinatra during a lunch at the Kennedys’ summer residence overlooking the sea, in Hyannis Port, report Anthony Summers and Robbyn Swan in Sinatra (Denoël, 2006). “They control the unions, they can make the difference in the battle. But you understand that I am not in a position to go and talk to them, Frank. It could harm Jack […] The best thing you can do is ask them for their support as a personal favor.” Sinatra agrees. “Dad was on a mission,” his daughter Tina later confided in an interview with CBS News. Legend has it that Giancana’s help allowed the Catholic Kennedy to win, among others, the state of West Virginia, which was difficult to take for Protestants.
But Sinatra does not limit himself to this role of intermediary. The “little guy from Hoboken,” New Jersey, gets his Democratic fervor from his mother, Della, who already went door-to-door for the party in her county. To propel his friend to the presidency, the crooner reinterprets his hit High Hopes : “Everyone is voting for Jack/Cause he’s got what all the rest lack”. Then: “1960’s the year for his high hopes/Come on and vote for Kennedy”. “Sinatra did much more than this song,” continues James Kaplan. “He gave Kennedy the missing piece for his victory: his connection to Hollywood and show business.”
Sinatra, matchmaker in chief
“He drew crowds to every event, which was a godsend for Democratic teams who could register people to vote and mobilize them for the campaign,” says political scientist Larry Sabato, author of The Kennedy Half-Century. Sinatra was very involved in the field and in raising funds. Whatever was asked of him, he did it, without the slightest hesitation. He also lent his private jet, which was not insignificant at the time because JFK had to finance his campaign against candidate and Vice President Nixon.”
With victory in hand, the friendship between Sinatra and Kennedy seemed unbreakable. Especially since a common passion – an obsession – drove the two acolytes: women. “From day one, Kennedy saw in Sinatra a man capable of introducing him to the most beautiful women in the world,” continues James Kaplan. Years after their deaths, an FBI memo would mention the orgies organized in Kennedy’s suite at the Carlyle Hotel in Manhattan. It included, among others, the Kennedy brothers, Marilyn Monroe. And Frank Sinatra.
Chief matchmaker, interpreter of Strangers in the Night does not hesitate to “propose” to his friend old conquests. Among them, the dazzling Judith Campbell – whom Sinatra introduces a few weeks later to another close friend: the godfather of the Chicago mob, Sam Giancana. Lover of two men at the same time, and even, some say, messenger between these powerful men. One fine day, the head of the FBI John Edgar Hoover, discovers the pot aux roses. The top cop of the United States has stormy relations with the Kennedy brothers. “For the first time, he felt like he was in the hot seat,” says Larry Sabato. “He knew the Kennedys didn’t like him. So he let Robert Kennedy, aka ‘Bobby,’ know that he had clear evidence of this love triangle, in which Sinatra had played a central role. And that it would be a shame if this information were made public…” A form of blackmail that would be, according to Sabato and others, the real reason for the “divorce” between JFK and Sinatra. Unless other escapades had precipitated this friendship into the wall?
In a book published in 2012, the American writer Lee Server suggests it. According to his research, the legendary “Chairman of the Board” (another nickname for Sinatra) slept with Patricia Kennedy, the sister of John and Robert, for one purpose: to make “Pat” weigh on his brothers, starting with the Minister of Justice “Bobby”, to leave Sinatra’s mafia friends alone. It was a waste of time. Overnight, the most desirable crooner in the United States fell from grace. Years later, at the dawn of the seventies, Sinatra was a bitter man, the hippie and rock’n’roll wave had engulfed his generation of crooners. “Ol’Blue Eyes”, in his fifties, turned Republican. Later, he campaigned for Ronald Reagan. A completely different song.
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