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(continued, Part 2 -
click here to read Part 1)
Frank, Ava and Me -
Part 2
...
That day, about an hour into the show, I looked up and saw this
apparition standing in the doorway looking at me. The swan neck. The
alabaster skin. The green feline eyes and those cheek bones. It was Ava
Gardner. She paralyzed me with a smile and glided into the next studio
where the big time jock sat. Then she planted a lingering kiss on his
cheek. Imagine what this did to me, a gawky small town boy. My dream
woman, Ava Gardner was in the next studio kissing….him. My innards
shriveled. Then she glided over to the wall and turned off the studio
lights. I heard the jock’s constricted voice squawking thorough the
squawk box.
“Segue some songs,” he
said.
“How many?” I asked.
“Three,” he said hoarsely.
“You mean play three in a row?” I asked incredulously, having
unconsciously invented the now hackneyed radio term “three in a row.”
I took his silence to be a yes, so I did.
I cannot attest to what happened in that studio. If Ken Starr pinned me
to the wall and demanded on pain of the death penalty what happened I
could not say. But I will say that the jock was really only a one record
man. This went on for several months. My visits with Frank and those
occasional ethereal visits by Ava with ... not me but the other guy.
I never told Frank, because he was hurting enough I suspected that he
still loved her but backed off from their relationship because it wasn’t
working with him still married to Nancy, not to mention being broke. I
am certain that if I had told him about her that he would never have
forgiven me I like to believe that it was a matter of principle that I
was discreet.
That April, Frank left town without a word. He went to a joint in Jersey
called The 500 Club to sing literally for his supper, I graduated to a
higher plane where I did not have to board op for another jock.
It all fell apart for me at the end of the year. I was drafted into the
army and left for Fort Sam Houston where they processed me and sent me
to Camp Rucker, Alabama. I did my 13 weeks of basic and entered a post
phone booth and called a buddy in Hollywood, the one guy who knew about
me and Frank and … Ava. I wasn’t that principled. You have to tell
someone.. He was newsy. He said, “Frank is back in town. He is about to
start a television show and he is back with Ava.
I saw Frank and Ava several times in the years following my army
service. The first time it happened she recognized me and as I was
talking to Frank, I saw her watching me warily, wondering if I was going
to spout off about her and that jock. I never did out of loyalty to
Frank. Besides, despite all, she was still my dream woman.
Previously ...
"Frank, Ava and Me - Part
1"
"It's Like Nat Cole is
Still Alive"
"Frank Sinatra, the Man and
his Music"
"How KYW's "Martin and Howard"
Saved the Beatles concert in Cleveland"
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