Prowse, Sinatra & the six-week engagement – The Mail & Guardian

Frank Sinatra with Juliet and her mother Phyllis

Publisher’s note: This extract is from the biography Juliet Prowse: Born to Dance, the story about the dancer/entertainer who burst into the spotlight in her first movie, Can-Can where she met Frank Sinatra. Juliet was new in Hollywood and wanted to establish herself as an all-round entertainer particularly on stage. In one scene in Can-Can, an unplanned kiss from Sinatra, which was not in the script, led to Juliet dating him. But dating Sinatra was not for the faint-hearted as he dated multiple women at the same time, but he was furious when he heard that Juliet started dating someone else. This extract picks up after a fight that Frank and Juliet had about her “other man”.

Juliet was relaxing at the pool when she first heard the news. “What? Frank is dating Marilyn Monroe?” She laughed out loud – she couldn’t imagine them together. She was still confused about Frank, but hadn’t seen or heard from him for months since their blow up. “Oh well, cosi e la vita!” – the Italian c’est la vie! Frank and Marilyn had been friends for years, and after her failed marriage to Arthur Miller and a stint in rehab, she was recuperating at Frank’s house. But between Marilyn’s dalliances with the Kennedy

brothers and her erratic behaviour, Frank’s feelings were more protective than passionate. Apparently, he preferred women with an inner strength and self-reliance, like his mother and Ava Gardener – Marilyn was too much trouble. In Juliet, Frank certainly had had an independent woman who believed that things worked out as they should. As she said, “I feel if I get what I want, I was right for it. If not, I don’t cry over it.”

By New Year 1961, Juliet had not seen Frank for six months. She was performing in New York and Frank tracked her down and asked her when she would be returning to LA. Then Frank did something extremely unusual: he said that he would meet her at the airport. Juliet was a little perplexed but excited. In the security-relaxed days of January 1962, Frank’s limousine drove up to the plane on the tarmac. As Juliet disembarked, he was standing with roses, and after a kiss, he flipped open a little velvet box with a ten-carat marquise cut diamond ring. “Will you marry me?” he said. Juliet was filled with shock and emotion. For most of her relationship with Frank, all she had wanted was the certainty of his love. Now he was declaring it to her. Feeling overwhelmed but also overjoyed, she said, “Yes!”

What happened next was a whirlwind as the media went into a frenzy. The press in South Africa heard the news before Phyllis and George Phyllis and George (Juliet’s parents), and were clambering over their front lawn when a telegram from Juliet arrived. “What do you think of your new son-in-law to be?” they asked. Having spent the previous Christmas enjoying Frank’s hospitality, Phyllis and George had nothing but praise for him. They felt he was charming as, after their visit, Frank had presented the family with gifts. George got a gold-plated putter, Phyllis got a set of 59 Sinatra recordings, and Clive got a gold-plated chess set.

Growing up, I always knew that our chess set was from Frank, but I only later discovered that the gold-plated putter was still in our possession! During that holiday, Frank had also had a light-hearted discussion with George about wanting to marry Juliet. Good-humoured George now relayed the story to the press. “Do you know what I told Frank? I told him we would have to have lobola according to South African custom. Frank said, ‘What’s lobola?’ So, I told him that it was an African custom for the prospective son-in-law to drink with his prospective father-in-law and discuss the price of the bride – the number of cows he was prepared to pay for her. Frank said, ‘What sort of price were you thinking of asking?’ I said that fifty was the starting price, but the prospective son-in-law usually plied the prospective father-in-law with so much drink that he settles for less.”

Frank and Juliet planned an engagement party, but first Juliet flew back to South Africa. The press swarmed the airport and Phyllis and George’s Vanderbijlpark house. Eager fans showed up for Juliet’s autograph and the phone rang off the hook. Two keen young fans walked miles to get a photo with Juliet, while another fan found his way into Phyllis’ kitchen.

While the South African fans were excited and star struck, the American fans were more straightforward about their displeasure. One fan from Brooklyn wrote, “I admire you so much and feel it is so sad that you should fall for Frankie’s line. Surely you must know that the only reason he is marrying you is so that he can take you to bed.” Had he not realised that this had happened already? Another fan who was equally direct sent a letter to Juliet, care of the Rat Pack, Hollywood, California, consisting of only one word: “Why?”

Marilyn didn’t take the news well. She was filming Something’s Gotta Give (unfinished) when she heard about the engagement. In a temper, she knocked her head against a wall and was driven to the mirror. The fact that Juliet was ten years younger was bad enough, but that her legs were perfect was worse. Apparently, both Marilyn and Ava Gardener were insecure about their legs, but this was probably the worst body part to compare with Juliet. As a dancer, Juliet had the most beautiful legs and, if Marilyn had only known, Juliet would have loved even half of her 36D breasts. One serious point of discussion for Juliet and Frank was how she would work as Mrs Sinatra. Frank had had a tumultuous marriage to Ava Gardner, and he felt that a working wife was the cause of his problems.

Now, he wanted a wife who didn’t work, but Juliet was at the start of her career.

Frank also didn’t want to have any more children, and Juliet pondered, “If I couldn’t work and couldn’t have children, what am I supposed to do with the rest of my life?” Trophy wife Juliet was not. The more Frank demanded, the more Juliet felt bullied. In an interview, she said to journalist Nora Laing, “If he had said nothing about it, and not tried to impose his will on me, I might possibly have given it up voluntarily. But it must be my own wish, not demanding that I do so.” Juliet contemplated giving up most of her work if Frank would agree to a few television, theatre or charity shows, but her 1962 schedule was already packed. Fans and friends bombarded her with letters to not quit. Phyllis agreed. “Juliet has seen some of her brightest dreams come true and it would be difficult with the sweet taste of success to turn her back on her career at this stage.”

Whether the engagement was love, loneliness, passion or control, the reality was that Juliet just wasn’t willing to give up her career. They announced the end of their engagement – it had only lasted six weeks. Some called it a publicity stunt, but Juliet and Frank certainly had enough publicity surrounding them in those days. I thought it was madness when Juliet relayed the story to me. As a young adult inexperienced at dating, the idea that they hadn’t seen each other for six months and then suddenly got engaged didn’t make sense to me. But Juliet had referred to their relationship as “incredible” and I guess she was swept up in the intoxication of it.

Messages of support flooded in. Shirley MacLaine phoned to say,“Better now than later when there are children,” (Shirley didn’t know that Frank didn’t want any more), while Peter Lawford felt that “It is much better to end something at the beginning than to endure a long and painful delay”. Juliet retreated. She was heart-sore and disappointed. She finally had to admit that it was not going to work with Frank – not now, not ever. But it was the right decision for her career.

With the engagement over, the next issue was what to do with the ring. Mike Romanoff, the restaurateur who had only given them an engagement party weeks earlier, said, “We all know that Frank is not the kind of man who takes back a ring!” While other gifts from Frank were sentimental to Juliet, and felt it was right to return the engagement ring. One evening, she drove up to Frank’s house and, as he wasn’t there, she left the little box on Frank’s grand piano with a note. On hearing the news of the breakup, the same fan who had written “Why?” on the engagement announcement, sent another letter. This time, all it said was, “Good!”

Juliet Prowse: Born to Dance, The Extraordinary Life Story of my Aunt by Juliet E Prowse is available in Exclusive Books and online at Readers Warehouse, Mzansi Books and Takealot — search for ‘Juliet E Prowse’.