The Chez Paree was on Stanley Street, just south of St. Catherine. It was a centre of Montreal night life when I was a young girl working at Metropolitan News a block away at 1248 Peel Street. My friend,Wally Aspell, opened for Frank Sinatra during his gig there.
One afternoon, my Pop or my Uncle Harry gave me a copy of Variety to bring over to the Chez Paree so I might have a chance to meet the great Sinatra. They both knew how I loved to meet the movie stars. I was sent out under the pretext that Sinatra had asked for the show business paper.
I came into the darkened Chez Paree nervously hoping to see the great star, but he wasn't there. Wally was there on the stage in the dusty darkness. But Sinatra came into Metro News the next day.
I learned that, late the night before, Sinatra had phoned home to California and found that his wife, Ava Gardner, was not at home. She was out with the bullfighter.
Sinatra was not in a good mood the day I met him. I can't remember him saying a word as his companion, perhaps body guard, requested a copy of Variety or Billboard.
What I remember most - apart from Sinatra's mood - is the terrible scar along the side of his neck. Some time in the past, he had offended a man with a knife and a grudge.
Those precious moments remain in my memory and enrich my life.
I REMEMBER WALLY ASPELL AND GEORGE TAYLOR
FRANK SINATRA, AVA GARDNER AND THE BULL FIGHTER
3 comments:
http://phylliscartersjournal.blogspot.ca/2012/05/frank-sinatra-ava-gardner-and.html
The scar on Sinatra's neck was the result of a doctor's forceps at birth. Sinatra was a very large baby and the doctor had to use forceps to remove him from his mother's womb, resulting in the life-long scars that you observed.
Regards,
Jim
Sinatra also had a large scar on the back of his neck from mastoid surgery as child.
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