Northbrook, Illinois 1961
It’s called the Villa Venice, a nightclub and casino in the suburbs, done up in red tassels with waiters dressed as gondoliers. They rowed you to your table in a real boat down a real canal. Sam Giancana owned the place and his friend Sinatra and his boys, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis, appeared at the grand opening as a favor. Bernice and Seymour Popper are in the crowd, at a table with Sid and Babette Kaufman. Sid got them tickets. Sid Kaufman always gets them tickets.
A woman at the next table says, “No, he’s a real Jew. I hear he’s got a rabbi and everything.”
A man says, “Sammy can buy a rabbi and stick him on the lawn. Hey, you know what they call him in Harlem?”
“What?”
“The kosher coon!”
“Oh, Bill, shush.”
Dino comes out first and stumbles around a melody, murmuring: Drink to me only, that’s all I ax, ask, and I will drink to you…I left my heart in France and Cisco. The crowd laps it up. Dino’s so saucy. How can you not love Dino?
Sinatra follows and does a number, but he’s languid. Nobody in Chicago wants to hear “Chicago.” It’s embarrassing. What, you think we’re a bunch of yokels here in the Middle West, Frank? He slows the tempo a little. Toddlin’ town, he says, not singing, talking it, swingin’ town. Still the crowd doesn’t go for it and the song’s a bomb.
Finally Sammy comes on and everybody starts waking up. He introduces himself as Harry Belafonte and begins doing “What Kind of Fool Am I?” At first it gets a laugh. Sammy smiles wide, but then keeps going with it. The crowd stops...
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