ABSTRACT
In the background was Frank Sinatra's social triumph—the working-class Italian kid who crossed the great divide, the Hudson River, and made it in Manhattan. Pete Hamill reports a remark that may shed some light on Sinatra's woman problem. The huge gap appears in the way Sinatra treated women in song and in real life. The romantic longing in his music is unmistakable, and three generations of women responded. But in real life, it would be hard to find a star who treated women worse. He had some sane relationships. But in general, women were lower beings to be used sexually, then passed along to friends. Once he famously ate a meal served to him on a woman's body. There were violent scenes, too, all while he kept turning out the most powerful and convincing love songs of the day.
