The Sinatra Files (21 page)

    
New York also offered exculpatory evidence
.

    In a clipping from the “NY Mirror” dated 4/5/48, in an article captioned, “SINATRA TO STAGE RADIO PLEA TO ITALY FOR DEFEAT OF REDS,” by LOUELLA PARSONS. This article is quoted in part as follows:

“An appeal broadcast directly to the Italian people to vote against the Communist ticket at the 4/18/48, election is being arranged for by FRANK SINATRA. His guests will be JIMMY DURANTE, JOE DIMAGGIO and ALIDA VALLI. The hour long show will be in Italian.

“SINATRA, who returned from NY today, was asked by Washington officials to get together a show with famous guests of Italian parentage, and FRANKIE gladly accepted the assignment to help fight Communism. Twenty-seven recordings will be made and played in various parts of Italy in an effort to reach even the most
remote parts of that troubled nation. FRANKIE told me Washington also had requested that CLARK GABLE and TYRONE POWER appear on the show, even though they are not of Italian descent and do not speak the language.”

    
The Los Angeles office on October 11, 1955, told Hoover that it had serious doubts about the case
.

    Considerable investigation has been conducted by the Los Angeles Office and other Bureau offices in connection with the instructions outlined in referenced letter. A review and analysis of the results of the investigation fails to develop any positive evidence connecting SINATRA with the Communist Party or the Communist Party movement.

In view of the foregoing, it is believed that the submission of a regular investigative report setting forth the results of the many interviews undertaken would be preferable to the preparation of a prosecutive summary due to the absence of the calibre of information which should logically be incorporated in a prosecutive summary report.

It is noted that the miscellaneous information furnished by informants in years past, and which was summarized by the Bureau in memorandum form dated 9/30/54, is essentially hearsay, most of which, even if true, would have little probative value.

Several former Communist Party members in Hollywood, who have furnished reliable information in the past, and who normally would have been in a position to know if SINATRA were connected with the Communist Party or the Communist Party movement, advised that they had no information that SINATRA was a member of the CP nor did they ever hear him referred to as such in Party circles, or as being connected with the Communist movement.

Because of the foregoing, the Los Angeles Office contemplates the submission of a regular investigative report in this matter unless
instructed by the Bureau to the contrary. Such report will be prepared and submitted to reach the Bureau within thirty days.

    
Los Angeles filed a twenty-eight-page report on the investigation to headquarters on November 4, 1955
.

Investigation conducted developed no evidence connecting FRANK SINATRA with the Communist Party (CP) or the CP movement aside from his membership in the Independent Citizens Committee of the Arts, Sciences, and Professions in 1946, an organization described by the California Committee on Un-American Activities as a “Communist front.” In 1946 he was being considered by the Los Angeles County Communist Party as a potential Party recruit. In 1948 he was indicated to have arranged an anti-Communist radio program for broadcast in Italy. Results of investigation set forth.

RESULTS OF INVESTIGATION

The following organizations, which have been referred to in this report, have been designated by the Attorney General of the United States pursuant to Executive Order 10450: Communist Party, Communist Political Association, Young Communist League, American Youth for Democracy, Labor Youth League, International Workers Order, and Action Committee to Free Spain Now.

AT PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA

The above informant was a former member of the District Committee of the CP in Pennsylvania.
advised in the latter part of 1945 that … he was informed by
… that FRANK SINATRA, the well-known radio and movie star, was then a member of the CP.
was told that SINATRA formerly held membership in the American Youth for
Democracy (AYD) in New Jersey and had recently been admitted to the New York Branch of the CP.

was reinterviewed on September 12, 1955 and stated that he had a vague recollection of [a meeting] possibly sometime around November 1945 in
which was attended by
and many others. At this meeting… Informant recalled that at the above CP meeting,
told him that SINATRA was an old line member of the CP and had come up from the YCL. Informant also recalled having been told essentially the same thing by some unknown woman … who was also present at the above CP meeting. Informant further recalled
and the unknown woman telling him that SINATRA had been admitted to the CP in New York City.