Frank Sinatra Once Devastated Truman Capote by Ditching His Party Early
In 1966, Truman Capote hosted a legendary, celebrity-packed party, and Frank Sinatra had a miserable time. The event, which boasted over 500 attendees, was the largest private party to date. Despite this, Capote caught Sinatra as he tried to slip out unnoticed. Capote was reportedly crushed by the singer’s early exit.
Frank Sinatra attended Truman Capote’s legendary black-and-white ball
On Nov. 28, 1966, Capote used his flush of money from In Cold Blood to host a “little masked ball for Kay Graham and all of my friends.” The party took place in the Grand Ballroom of New York’s Plaza Hotel.
Per The New York Times, among the 540 attendees were poet Marianne Johnson, Gloria Vanderbilt, Lynda Bird Johnson, Norman Mailer, and Sinatra. The singer recently married Mia Farrow, and the couple attended wearing masks.
“Truman had always had a fantasy of the grand world, the smart world, the literary world, each of which was in some ways precious to him,” editor of The New York Review of Books Robert Silver explained. “It was tremendously important to Truman to be a star in all of those worlds. The mixture of all those groups was so obviously an emanation of Truman’s dream.”
He tried to sneak out after he stopped enjoying himself
Though many considered the ball to be the party of the century, Sinatra wasn’t particularly enjoying himself. When he first arrived with Farrow, she danced with a number of different partners while he chatted.
“Frank never dances,” explained diplomat and socialite Pamela Hayward, per the book Party of the Century: The Fabulous Story of Truman Capote and the Black and White Ball by Deborah Davis.
Sinatra was ready to leave the event after two hours. He wasn’t the only one who quickly grew weary of the night. Writer Alan Pryce-Jones said that it was “one of the more terrible parties I’d ever seen … It never got off the ground at all.”
“About midnight, Sinatra was having a bad time. He was with Mia. He said, ‘Hey, let’s get out of here,’” columnist Herb Caen told Esquire. “So we were sneaking out to go to Jilly’s, that awful bar he used to hang out in. Truman caught us at the door and tried to put a body block on us. I said, ‘We’re leaving, but we’ll come back.’ He said, ‘No, you won’t. You won’t come back, I know you won’t come back.’”
Capote reportedly “practically begged” Sinatra to stay, worried that the party would fall apart without him. Despite their promise, Sinatra did not return to the ball.
“Well, we didn’t. I think [Capote] was hurt,” Caen said. “It was one of those great parties that never got off the ground. People did what they always do — getting up to go into their little cliques and corners.”
Frank Sinatra started dating Ava Gardner after slipping out of a party early
This was not the first time that Sinatra ducked out of an event early. According to Vanity Fair, in 1949, Sinatra convinced Ava Gardner to leave a party with him. After taking a drive, Sinatra procured two guns from his car and began firing at streetlights. Gardner joined him and shot out the window of a hardware store.
Naturally, neighbors called the police, but MGM paid them off that the couple could avoid arrest. The explosive night marked the beginning of Sinatra and Gardner’s affair.
