Music legend Connie Francis turns 80 on Tuesday. And to celebrate the milestone, the songstress – who skyrocketed to fame in the 1950s and 1960s – is revealing intimate details of her life.
She recalls how she once kept Frank Sinatra waiting for 30 minutes in Las Vegas because she was on a roll while playing Blackjack, even if it was only a $35.
But despite her success with hit tracks such as Where the Boys Are, Stupid Cupid, and Lipstick on my Collar, Francis admits her life wasn’t always glamorous.
The Italian-American from Newark, New Jersey, describes how she grew up around mobsters – but that close connection to the mafia cost her brother his life after he turned informant and was found dead with two bullets to his head.
Her strict controlling father made it known that he thought she was damaged goods hours after she had been raped at knife-point after a performance in 1974.
And although Francis was married four times, she still believes that her one true love was singer Bobby Darin, admitting she still loved him despite finding him with two naked hookers once.
Francis’ new book, Among My Souvenirs: The Real Story, is released this week, and she explains in an exclusive interview with DailyMail.com, why she felt the need to tell her story now.
Singer Connie Francis, known for hit tracks such as Where the Boys Are and Stupid Cupid, is celebrating her 80th birthday by releasing a new book, revealing intimate details of her life
Francis told DailyMail.com: ‘It was important for me to write an honest, no holds barred account of my life, in order to let people know that although we all go through difficult times, we can survive. Now, at 80, I want to share those experiences hoping others will benefit’
Despite her success, Francis admits her life wasn’t always glamorous. Her controlling father implied she was damaged goods after she had been raped at knife-point in 1974. And her brother was murdered by mobsters in 1981. Pictured: Francis with her parents and brother
Francis says she’s planning on celebrating her 80th with a party for 200 friends at the Seminole Hard Rock Cafe in Coconut Creek, Florida. She’ll wear a royal blue suit.
The singer penned her first book, Who’s Sorry Now? in 1984. But looking back, she realized she only touched on certain events in her life.
She told DailyMail.com: ‘It was important for me to write an honest, no holds barred account of my life, in order to let people know that although we all go through difficult times, we can survive.
‘In my first book I attempted to gloss over some of the things that, at the time, were too private and painful for me to reveal. But now, at 80, I want to share those experiences hoping others will benefit.’
Her new book tells a story of abuse, four failed marriages, miscarriages, adoption, and the murder of her brother George at the hands of the mob.
And for the first time, she reveals never-before-shared details of the brutal 1974 rape that kept her from performing for the next three years.
She also talks about how, since the age of three, she was privy to conversations involving mafia secrets, including Joe Kennedy Sr.’s connections to the mob.
‘I wanted to make up for the last lousy book I wrote the first time, that failed to tell the entire story,’ she shared.
Francis made a call to save comedian Don Rickles’ (pictured together) legs from being broken. He had made fun of a mobster’s girlfriend, calling her a ‘floozy’ and that Sonny Liston had better legs than her
Francis also talks about the night when she kept the Chairman of the Board and music legend, Frank Sinatra, waiting because she was winning at the Blackjack table
Connie writes: ‘Sinatra stood up and announced to a crowd, “Hey Gang! I have an announcement to make. The little kid from Jersey just beat the house for thirty – five large.” I tugged at Frank’s sleeve. “No, No Frank,” I whispered, “It was thirty-five dollars!”
Francis says she never had to pay for anything due to her celebrity status. She said: ‘When I walked into a hotel, I would need to take the most humongous tote bag I could find because there was always a boss ready to throw fists full of silver dollars of varying amounts in my bag’. Pictured: Francis in 1960
In Francis’ heyday she recorded some of the most well known songs in history, resulting in a lavish lifestyle.
Francis writes: ‘There wasn’t a restaurant, lounge or showroom in any major hotel where I could pick up a tab. No matter how many people were in my party, it was always front row center seats at a show, and everything was on the house.
‘From day one I became completely obsessed with playing Blackjack. I could easily play uninterrupted for 12 hours. The tourists fought each other to play at my table because whenever I placed a bet, the pit boss would signal the dealer to show all his cards, even the ones face down, before the players placed their bets.
‘When I walked into a hotel, I would need to take the most humongous tote bag I could find because there was always a boss ready to throw fists full of silver dollars of varying amounts in my bag.
‘When I appeared in Las Vegas I would always dress as glamorously to go to a show, or a restaurant, as I did for my own stage show. The reason for that was that each time I stepped into the door in Vegas, to me it constituted a personal appearance.’
It’s well known that Vegas was controlled by the mob and Francis was no stranger to the way the mafia operated. Growing up in New Jersey, there were always mobsters around and she would often overhear them talk about mafia business.
In 1981, her 40-year-old brother George, who had twice given law enforcement officers information on organized crime, was shot twice in the head outside his New Jersey home. And despite the murder, the mafia big wigs continued to be in contact with Francis.
When comedian Don Rickles drew the wrath of one particular mobster who attended his Vegas show, by mocking his girlfriend, he pleaded with Francis to help.
‘One evening Don came to my room petrified to death,’ writes Connie. ‘It seemed he had just insulted a very tough mob guy who was at the Casbah Lounge to see Don’s show with his flashy looking girlfriend.
‘”What did you say to them Don?” I asked.
‘I said, “hey dummy, this floozy your latest thing? You can do better than her, cause I’ve seen better legs on Sonny Liston.” After the show somebody told me he was going to have my legs broken.’
‘I asked what the wise guy’s name was and Don said he didn’t know. I asked what city he was out of and he didn’t know that either. I told him to go downstairs and find out his name and he asked why? Was I going to make a phone call? I told him, “Right, Don, like I have a direct line to Sam the Plumber’s bedroom!”
‘That night, unbeknownst to Don, I did make a phone call.’
Francis also talks about the night when she kept the Chairman of the Board and music legend, Frank Sinatra, waiting because she was winning at the Blackjack table.
She said: ‘One evening after my last show at the Sahara, while Sinatra was appearing at the Sands, I was occupied with my favorite pastime when one of Sinatra’s men approached me.
Francis’ controlling Italian-American father also forbid her from being with her ‘one true love’ songwriter Bobby Darin – who she once found with two hookers. Pictured: The two in the 1960s
When Sinatra’s men came to get her, she told him ‘I needed another 10 minutes. The third time the guy visited me there was a definite edge to his voice and he told me I was being rude. When I entered the lounge there was Sinatra. Pictured: Francis in 1959
‘He told me Frank wanted me to join him right away. I told him I couldn’t… because I was on a roll and I needed 15 minutes. Fifteen minutes later the guy came back to tell me Frank was still waiting.
‘I told him I needed another 10 minutes. The third time the guy visited me there was a definite edge to his voice and he told me I was being rude. When I entered the lounge there was Sinatra.
‘You must have been winning really big, huh?’ he asked.
‘I was Frank.
‘How much did you beat ’em for?’
‘Thirty-five.’
‘With that Sinatra stood up and announced to a crowd that included Lee Remick and Lee Marvin, “Hey Gang! I have an announcement to make. The little kid from Jersey just beat the house for thirty – five large.”
‘I tugged at Frank’s sleeve. “No, No Frank,” I whispered, “It was thirty-five dollars!” And he laughed uproariously. Turns out he wanted to show me a flight jacket he’d just been given by two guys who were there in the lounge, Astronauts Gus Grissom and Ed White. He was as happy and enthusiastic as a little boy.’
While Francis’ romance with singer-songwriter Bobby Darin, who she calls her one true love, is well known, there are things she’s never shared until now about their relationship.
Francis said Darin told her: ‘Bad timing baby, the friggin’ worst! This has got to be a set up and when I find the mastermind, he DIES’
In the book Francis tells the story of the night she was called to Darin’s hotel room, after he’d sent his then wife Sandra Dee back to Los Angeles upon discovering she spent $35,000 gambling.
Although the two had called it quits long before his marriage to Dee, when she got a call that night from his friend Charlie, saying Darin was distraught and needed to talk to her, Francis agreed to go to his hotel room.
Francis’ new book Among my Souvenirs: The Real Story is out on December 12
‘I was never more eager to reach a destination than I was to get to Bobby’s room that night, to be with him, to console him, something I knew I’d always been able to do,’ she writes.
‘I wrapped lightly on one of the double doors to Bobby’s suite, and when the door flung open, there he stood, totally caught off guard, in the buff, while two hookers were actively writhing on the floor.
‘So glad to see your mojo is still working,’ she told him sarcastically. ‘Very, very nice.’
‘Bad timing baby, the friggin’ worst! He shouted. ‘This has got to be a set up and when I find the mastermind, he DIES’
Francis says she turned and made a mad dash down the corridor with Darin shouting after her to wait, and her shouting back he needed to simmer down or he’d have a massive coronary. (Darin passed in 1973 following emergency heart surgery.)
At the end of the hall she ran into Darin’s friend who demanded to know what had happened.
‘Alert the media Charlie! Bobby isn’t suicidal anymore,’ she told him. ‘He’s got two hookers in his room and they’re helpin’ him beat the blues!’
In one letter, written by a 20-year-old Darin while staying at the now-demolished Wolverine Hotel in Detroit, Michigan, the young singer poured his heart out to his then 18-year-old love
In one letter, Francis wrote to her forbidden love Darin from the Franklin Park Hotel in Washington D.C.
Francis admits she never stopped loving Darin, and to this day she insists he was her soulmate. In fact, while she recently auctioned off dozens of her glamorous gowns, designer purses, shoes, and other souvenirs, the one thing she could never part with are her precious love letters from him.
‘That is the one thing I will never let go of,’ she admits. ‘If it hadn’t been for my over protective father who forbid me to be with Bobby, I would have married him. My father was so controlling and determined not to let men into my life that he didn’t even allow me to attend my senior prom.’
Ironically, despite Francis’ love-hate relationship with her father, she dedicated her new book to him.
She explained: ‘I can never forgive him for controlling my life and my loves, and for putting me in more than one mental institution after I was misdiagnosed as bi-polar.
‘But I have to admit he was the architect of my brilliant career and for that I love him.’
Francis reveals how much her father’s opinion of her impacted the way she felt about herself. And following her terrifying rape, her father’s reaction stuck with her.
On November 7th, 1974, following a successful appearance at the Westbury Music Theater in Long Island New York, Connie and her entourage returned to the Howard Johnson Motel where they were staying. That night, after everyone retired leaving Francis on her own, she was raped.
She recalls that her attacker shouted at her: ‘Scream and I’ll kill you!’
‘A searing pain shot through me,’ she writes describing that horrendous night. ‘I was yanked by my hair and thrown down on my back. I looked up and it took me a moment to understand. My God this is no dream!’
Francis reveals how much her father’s opinion of her impacted the way she felt about herself. And following her terrifying rape, her father’s reaction stuck with her. Pictured: Francis’ parents George and Ida Franconcero in 1981
When asked if she’s had any regrets in her 80 years, Connie told DailyMail.com: ‘My whole stinkin’ life is a regret! I wasted a lot of time and emotion on things that were not important.’ Pictured: Francis in 1960
Francis goes on to explain in graphic detail how she was savagely raped by a man who broke into her hotel room. How he later threatened to cut her throat from ear to ear if she didn’t give him all her money, and her utter panic at realizing she didn’t have her money or jewelry in the room to give him.
She relates how, after the rape, he tied her trembling, naked body to a chair before knocking the chair over on its back and stacking two double mattresses on her, using pillows to fill in the gaps. He nearly smothered her before ordering her not to scream for at least half an hour after he left, or he’d come back to kill her.
Francis says she did her best to stay calm. While she imagined the clock moving toward the 30 minute mark, she quietly sang lyrics to happy songs in an effort to soothe herself.
And despite her fear and the pain, there was one thing that kept going through her mind – ‘how are we going to keep this shameful thing quiet? Daddy will go insane, how will he ever accept this disgrace?’
Francis says after finally being rescued, taken to the hospital and questioned by the police, she found herself driving home in a car with her Aunt Marie riding shot gun and her father at the wheel.
‘On our way home, as I cowered in shame on the floor in the back of the car,’ she wrote, ‘Daddy said those incredible words I would never forget – Tell her Marie – tell her it’s a good thing she’s married to a guy like Joe.’
What her father meant was that while he could never accept her, or be proud of her again, her second husband Joe Garzilli could. Her husband was a liberal, worldly enough guy not to think of her as damaged goods – the way her father did.
When asked if she’s had any regrets in her 80 years, Connie told DailyMail.com: ‘My whole stinkin’ life is a regret! I wasted a lot of time and emotion on things that were not important.
‘If I could tell the young singers of today, Gwen Stefani, Selena Gomez, Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera one thing, it would be to remember that yesterday is a canceled check, tomorrow is a promissory note, and today is cash. Life moves forward so quickly, make the most of it while you can.
‘I don’t plan to waste another day,’ she says. I want to spend the rest of my life helping Veterans, the mentally ill and crime victims.’
She does admit she is still open to finding that special someone.
‘I date from time to time,’ she says. ‘I’m not a cougar, but I’d like to find a nice looking man with a lot of energy. I’d be interested in finding someone intelligent I could talk to, someone who’s kind with a good sense of humor, maybe like a doctor, a lawyer or a professor. If you know someone who fits the bill, send him my way!’