It was 1949, Frank Sinatra was 34 and married to his first wife Nancy. Eva Gardner was 27 with two marriages behind her; Mickey Rooney & jazz musician Artie Shaw. Frank had talked to Ava only once, at a nightclub when she was with Mickey.
Now they were at a party in producer Darryl F. Zanuck’s house in Palm Springs. Frank, already drunk, gave Ava a smile. She, drunk as well, smiled back.
“Let’s get outta here,” Frank said. Ava grabbed a bottle of alcohol from Zanuck’s bar and followed him out to his car.
Driving into the desert they continued drinking. Arriving at the small town of Indio, CA at 3am, the main street was devoid of cars and people.
Frank opened his glove compartment, pulled out a pistol and shot a red traffic light dead-center. Ava was impressed. He continued driving as he shot out traffic signals and streetlights. Ava took a few shots herself, breaking store windows.
Unfortunately, a man taking a 3am stroll got hit in the side of the stomach. The police, already alerted to the gunfire, were fast on the scene and arrested the couple.
At the Indio police station, Frank called up Hollywood press-agent Jack Keller who knew how to fix things. It was 4am, so Keller got a hotel manager he knew to give him all the cash he had in the safe, promising to pay him back when the banks opened.
The hotel manager handed Keller $30,000. ($326,00 today). Keller chartered a plane and landed near Indio. He paid the two arresting officers $2,000 each and the chief of police $5,000 to keep the event a secret.
Next, Keller went to the hospital to pay the injured man $10,000 ($108,000 today). If the man knew it was Sinatra that had shot him, he might have asked for more.
Then Keller paid the hospital $1,000 to destroy the records. Each shopkeeper who had a window shot was paid $1,000, with the town getting $2,000 to replace lamps and streetlights.
On the plane back to Hollywood, Keller took Sinatra aside and told him to go back to his wife and three kids for the sake of his career.
Frank and Ava married two years later. The marriage lasted six years. Ava helped Frank get his comeback role in From Here to Eternity. Frank managed Ava’s finances throughout her life, paying off her $50,000 worth of medical bills.
According to Ava’s autobiography, they remained good friends for the rest of her life.
///////////////////////////////////////
