Locals describe Sinatra's dark side for British documentary

With a British documentary camera rolling, former Nevada Gaming Control Board spokesman Guy W. Farmer on Wednesday recounted the gritty dialogue Frank Sinatra offered in 1963 when he faced revocation of his gaming license.

Farmer, today a Nevada Appeal columnist, was videotaped Wednesday for a two-part documentary balancing the good and bad sides of Sinatra. The crew from Great Britain also interviewed state archivist Guy Rocha on Wednesday for a documentary that will feature interviews with celebrities Eddie Fisher, Janet Leigh, Jackie Mason, Artie Shaw and Steve Allen.

The two one-hour segments are scheduled to air on prime time at the end of the year on the British Independent Television channel called ITV. The shows will likely appear next year on American television.

Farmer and Rocha were interviewed for two episodes of Sinatra's dark side.

"What we're doing is a rounded portrait of Sinatra," said journalist Michael Gillard, who is writing the script for the documentary as well as articles on the subject for The Express newspaper in London.

"We are addressing the differences of man and artist and why there are really two Sinatras. This is not a hatchet job. I realize there was a very dark side to him. This is designed to explore both sides. We've interviewed people who only said nice things about him."

In 1963, Sinatra had his gaming license revoked for allowing mobster Sam Giancana to stay at the Cal-Neva Lodge at Crystal Bay, which Sinatra partially owned from 1960 to 1963.

Farmer is the only living witness to a threatening phone call Sinatra made to Gaming Control Board Chairman Edward Olsen. Farmer listened in to the call and heard Ol' Blue Eyes repeatedly using profanity as Olsen refused to come up to the Cal-Neva to discuss Sinatra's license.

"What people will find surprising is the language he used, especially to public officials," Gillard said. "He said, 'You're going to get a big (expletive) surprise. Don't (expletive) with me.' He's actually talking like this to the chairman of the Gaming Control Board."

Gillard said ITV will preserve Sinatra's original language, even though ITV is a commercial channel broadcasting the documentary in prime time.

"Our view is it tells you a lot about the man," Gillard said. "If we clean it up and say he used profane language, what does that tell you?"

Farmer himself did not repeat the profane language. The film crew will use Olsen's oral history and his memo of the Sinatra interview, both of which include the profanity.

Farmer and Rocha both wrote about this episode upon Sinatra's death in 1998, but Farmer has not told the story on camera until now.

"I think it's important to tell this story because of revisionist history that comes up from some of his friends," Farmer said. "People say he got his license pulled because he used bad language with Ed Olsen. That is not true."

Sinatra's license was pulled because Giancana, who was on the Black List and prohibited from being in a Nevada casino, was staying at Sinatra's Cal-Neva with his girlfriend, entertainer Phyllis McGuire.

"My intention is not to bash Sinatra, only to assure an historic account," Farmer said. "I'm able to supply some atmosphere. I was there. They want a first-person account of what it was like."

In that same period, a Washoe County sheriff's deputy supposedly died in a car crash that rumors linked to Sinatra. Sinatra was allegedly having an affair with the deputy's wife and a few days earlier Sinatra and the deputy fought with Sinatra emerging worse off, Gillard said.

Rocha, known for his punctilious command of Nevada history, doesn't even know for sure that a deputy died in a crash, let alone if Sinatra played a role.

"The long-standing theory is that Frank Sinatra had him hit," Rocha said. "I've heard the story. I haven't researched it myself. They want to verify the fact."

Rocha said the film crew may research newspapers at the Nevada State Library and Archives.

As an investigative reporter specializing in organized crime, Gillard became aware of these stories in the 1970s. But he said the British public has a great love for Sinatra without knowing about the darker side.

Even the lengthy Los Angeles Times obituary of Sinatra made no mention of Sinatra having his gaming license revoked.

"What these programs are trying to do is separate the man from the musician," Gillard said. "Nobody can mess with the musician. What you have to do is see him for the person he was."

Impact Films is producing the documentary for Meridian Broadcasting, which is one of three regional television station franchises of United News and Media Group. United supplies programming to ITV, which produces none of the shows it broadcasts, Gillard said.