Frank Sinatra’s publicist reveals what it was REALLY like to work for the legendary singer

Frank Sinatra’s former publicist has lifted the lid on what it was really like to manage the career of one of the most famous singers in the world, saying he was ‘never boring.’

For decades, Jim Mahoney, now 95, worked tirelessly to clean up his famous clients’ scandals and keep their pristine reputations intact, but he is now exposing their juiciest secrets in his new tell-all Get Mahoney!: A Hollywood Insider’s Memoir. 

As a PR agent, he was the go-to fixer for some of Hollywood’s biggest stars, including Clark Gable and Gary Cooper, but he found Sinatra to be the most memorable. 

‘When you were with Sinatra, you were all in, all the time,’ he wrote in his book, per The Sun. ‘Whether it was a dinner or a party in his suite, there was action every night. And that action lasted until dawn.

Mahoney was the go-to fixer for some of Hollywood’s biggest stars, but he found Frank Sinatra to be the most memorable. The former publicist is pictured with the singer  

‘When you were with Sinatra, you were all in, all the time,’ he wrote in his book. ‘Whether it was a dinner or a party in his suite, there was action every night. And that action lasted until dawn’

‘To keep up with Sinatra, you had to be in shape. He was an iron man. His workout was booze, women, and smoking.’ 

Mahoney recalled one Sunday afternoon he spent with the legendary musician in his hotel suite in Miami in the late 1950s. Sinatra, then 43, had recently divorced actress Ava Gardner and wanted to ‘find some action.’ 

After flipping through the local directory, the crooner made a call demanding to have a group of women sent to his room.

‘We got a serious problem,’ Sinatra told the person on the line, according to Mahoney. ‘Unless you send half a dozen of your best girls within an hour, your joint will be a parking lot by midnight.’

The former publicist wrote that six girls showed up within the hour, and while Sinatra invited him to join in, he left him to enjoy the fun on his own. 

Mahoney was there for every step of Sinatra’s career, but despite his best efforts, the singer still earned a fierce reputation as an avid partier and rampant womanizer. 

‘I dealt with everything from his teeth being knocked out in Vegas by a bouncer, his being kicked out of Mexico and banned from ever coming back, to consoling Mia Farrow when she was informed by Frank’s attorney that their marriage was over,’ he explained.  

Mahoney recalled how Sinatra went on a rampage threatening to kill Howard Hughes after he found out the business mogul was flirting with Ava Gardner at the start of their relationship. Hughes and Gardner are pictured in 1946

Sinatra was fresh off his divorce from Gardner, pictured together in 1951, when he ordered six women to his hotel room in Miami on a Sunday afternoon, according to Mahoney

Mahoney, pictured with Gardner, said you had to be in shape to keep up with Sinatra, whose ‘workout was booze, women, and smoking’

Mahoney is pictured holding Lee Marvin’s Oscar after he won best for the movie Cat Ballou in 1966

On another occasion, Sinatra went on a rampage threatening to kill Howard Hughes after he found out the business mogul was flirting with Gardner at the start of their relationship.

The former Hollywood heavyweight said his client told him: ‘Ava and I weren’t married yet, but he knew damn well we were together. She told him to take a hike, but he wouldn’t take no for an answer. It got a little out of hand, so one night I got a gun and went looking for him.’

Sinatra never found Hughes that evening, but Mahoney explained this was typical behavior for the singer, who was always willing to defend the people who were important to him. 

Mahoney shared that Sinatra once knocked out a man who had insulted a then 12-year-old Liza Minnelli after her mother, Judy Garland, had invited her on stage to sing during a concert in Las Vegas.

He said Sinatra waited for the heckler outside of the bathroom and ‘dropped the man’ with a ‘well-executed left-right combination.’ 

However, Mahoney noted the A-lister could be incredibly kind, saying he once had him track down a 71-year-old woman from London after reading a news story about how she was ripped off by a cabbie while visiting relatives in New York. 

Mahoney was on the front lines when Sinatra’s then 19-year-old son, Frank Sinatra Jr., was kidnapped in 1963. The father and son are pictured in 1967

Mahoney said the first people who called Sinatra to offer their help with his son’s kidnapping were FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, left, and mob boss Sam ‘Momo’ Giancana, right

Frank Jr. was released after his father paid a $240,000 ransom, but Mahoney said Sinatra’s relief was marred by claims the abduction was a set-up to raise his declining career 

Sinatra had him give her a check to cover the overpriced fare, as well as a letter in which he wrote: ‘Everyone treated me so well when I visited England, and I feel this was the least I could do.’ 

Mahoney also wrote about the kidnapping of Sinatra’s then 19-year-old son, Frank Sinatra Jr., who was taken from Harrah’s Lake Tahoe on December 8, 1963.

He said the first people who called Sinatra to offer their help were FBI director J. Edgar Hoover and mob boss Sam ‘Momo’ Giancana. When asked who he wanted to talk to first, he picked the mobster, but he ultimately chose to work with the FBI.

‘Between the personal support of J. Edgar Hoover, who assured Frank of the full resources of the FBI, and Momo, whose resources could be downright lethal, these poor kidnappers were now being chased by both the good guys and the bad,’ the former publicist wrote. 

Frank Jr. was released unharmed after his father paid a $240,000 ransom, the equivalent of roughly $2.4 million today. The three kidnappers — Barry Keenan, John Irwin, and Joe Amsler — were arrested days later and sentenced to prison. 

Mahoney said Sinatra’s relief was marred by claims that his son’s abduction was a set-up to raise his profile during his career slump. 

‘I dealt with everything from his teeth being knocked out in Vegas by a bouncer, his being kicked out of Mexico and banned from ever coming back, to consoling Mia Farrow when she was informed by Frank’s attorney that their marriage was over,’ Mahoney wrote. Sinatra is pictured with Farrow on their wedding day in 1966

Mahoney noted that the singer was also incredibly kind and his relationship with the mob was often overblown. Sinatra is pictured with Mahoney’s wife Pat 

‘He did so many good things that he’s not credited with,’ Mahoney told Deadline of Sinatra. ‘I know about so much charity work he did privately that could make up a whole other book’

The former PR agent recently opened up about his relationship with Sinatra in an interview with Deadline while promoting his memoir earlier this year.   

He noted that while Sinatra had connections to the mob, that relationship was ‘usually, and wrongfully, overblown.’     

‘No one would deny that entertainers in those days — and maybe Frank in particular — had to have a relationship with the mob,’ he explained. ‘The mob owned the hotels and the clubs where they entertained, not to mention the studios where they worked and the banks that financed them. They had to interact, but they weren’t close friends.’

Mahoney said it was mobsters like Giancana who kept Sinatra ‘busy playing their clubs’ when his career was flagging in the early 1950s, and the singer ‘knew he owed them.’  

‘Frank grew up with a lot of tough guys from his hood. He had childhood friends who grew up to be really bad guys… There’s no question, I met a lot of them,’ he added. 

‘But he knew it was best to keep it as private as he could. He did so many good things that he’s not credited with. I know about so much charity work he did privately that could make up a whole other book.’