In 1957, Frank Sinatra conducted an album for Peggy Lee, called "The Man I Love". Peggy Lee: “The album was totally his concept. He brought me a long list of great songs from which to choose. Then Frank hired Nelson Riddle to write those lovely arrangements and Frank conducted them - a marvelously sensitive conductor, as one would expect. He designed and supervised the cover. He is a producer who thinks of everything - even putting menthol in my eyes so I'd have a misty look in the cover photograph.”

Sinatra helped Lee again, even more significantly, when she became seriously ill later in life. Tony Oppedisano: “Peggy wasn't in the best of health one morning when she had to fly out to New York on business. Things only got worse after her arrival, and she was soon hospitalized, gravely ill. Frank kept tabs on her from LA. He'd been worried about her making the trip when her health was so fragile. When he found out she was in the hospital, he talked to her doctor directly."

‘So what's the deal?’ Frank asked him.

The doctor told him, ‘Well, I'm worried about her state of mind. She's very depressed because she's not home in her familiar environment.’

The doctor explained that Peggy was in a bad way – in strange surroundings, away from her loved ones, seriously ill, and desperately homesick. Frank offered to fly her home on his plane, but the doctor said she wouldn't survive the trip.

‘We've discussed that, but I've explained to her that it isn't safe. She has to be in a hospital environment right now.’

Frank said, ‘Okay.’

He made a few calls, and within twenty-four hours, he'd had his private plane completely reconfigured as a hospital plane, including the necessary equipment and medical personnel. He contacted Peggy's medical team and sent the plane to New York. An ambulance took Peggy's medical team and sent the plane to New York. An ambulance took Peggy from the hospital to Teterboro Airport. There, they put her on Frank's jet with a doctor and a couple of nurses and flew her home. Meanwhile, Frank had her home set up like a hospital room and made arrangements for 24/7 medical care. When the plane landed in LA, it was met with an ambulance and nurses, who brought Peggy home. It must have cost a small fortune, but Frank brushed away any mention of the money. The world didn't know about it, but Peggy and her doctor knew that Frank had saved her life.”

Peggy Lee sang about this at the Ella Awards in 1990 with special lyrics on the melody of “The Man I Love.”

Frank Sinatra about Peggy Lee: “Peggy and I met early in our careers when we both started out in New York, and have been great friends ever since. Her wonderful talent should be studied by all vocalists; her regal presence is pure elegance and charm.”

Peggy Lee about Frank Sinatra: “There are very few men in our business who have affected me so deeply I can't express myself, and Frank is one of them.”


Barbara Sinatra: “One of the best things about my husband was: if something went wrong in your life, boom, he was there. And if you had him on your side, it was like having an army at your disposal. Furthermore, he was on your side if you were right or wrong, and that is something very special in a friend; you don't find that so often.

Gregory Peck and Frank had always been close, and Frank called him Ahab after his character in Moby Dick. When Greg's son Jonathan died, in 1975, Frank was one of the first at his side. He did the same for Dean Martin twelve years later when his son Dino was killed in a plane crash. When Sammy Davis, Jr. lost an eye in a car accident; Frank went to see Sammy in the hospital and then brought him back to Palm Springs to recuperate. Sammy loved Frank, so even though he was depressed, just being with his hero helped get him through that terrible time.

Frank took friendship and loyalty very seriously and believed that true friendship could only be tested in times of need. People just had to get word to him and he'd drop what he was doing and go spend time with them. He'd travel long distances to brighten someone's day, and I went with him to numerous hospitals and homes for retired singers and actors to cheer up old friends. He took me to see Gene Kelly in Santa Monica when he was first sick and to the bedside of John Wayne when he was dying. ‘The Duke’ and Frank had been friends for years and were as close as brothers, even though they were diametrically opposed politically and kidded each other constantly about it.

Frank and Gene Kelly had been in several films together, and for "Anchors Aweigh" Gene taught Frank how to dance outside studio hours. Frank called Gene ‘the Irish taskmaster’ but he never forgot that kindness. Thanks to Gene, Frank could really move. He could even jump up in the air and click his heels together, and he loved to do that. He was also a terrific ballroom dancer, which was terribly romantic.

As Burt Lancaster once said, "If you say to Frank 'I'm having a problem,' then it becomes his problem."

Barbara Sinatra: “He was as soft as butter when it came to animals. He always had been. He'd stop someone treading on a bug by telling them, 'Hey don't kill the little fella. That's a pal of mine.' He was upset when I had one of our houseboys kill a rattlesnake up at Pinyon Crest after I found it hissing at Miss Wiggles. When we visited a friend in Acapulco who had a pet shark, Frank persuaded him to release it into the ocean. He loved cats too, and would sit in his pajamas doing a crossword with a sleeping puss we had named Bozo draped around his shoulders. When one of our King Charles spaniels named Melissa was run over by a hit-and-run driver outside our house, we were both terribly upset, but Frank placed an advertisement in the local newspaper appealing for witnesses. Luckily for that careless driver, no one ever came forward to ever identify him.”


Frank Sinatra with some of his many dogs.