I was reading through some random stuff about Desi and came across this; "Desi nearly got into a fistfight with Frank Sinatra over the depiction of Italians as mobsters on The Untouchables, a Desilu production."

I've grown up on Sinatra and know the man's life from beginning to end and have NEVER heard of this story. Anyone know if this has any truth to it?

I dont know about Sinatra, but, there's deffinately evidence that at one time, the mob had a contract on Desi, over the Untouchables!

I dont know about Sinatra, but, there's deffinately evidence that at one time, the mob had a contract on Desi, over the Untouchables!
Wow! I've never heard of that! Will have to read up on it... sounds more likely then the Sinatra story. Thanks.

Apparently, they were upset over the way they were portrayed on the show!
(I suppose they LOVE the Supranos though :lol:)

Apparently, they were upset over the way they were portrayed on the show!
(I suppose they LOVE the Supranos though :lol:)
:lol: I'm sure they tuned in every night! Hey, I'm half Italian and LOVED the show!

Here's info on the possible Mob hit:

According to Mafia boss turned government informant Jimmy "The Weasel" Fratianno in his book "The Last Mafioso", several top members of the Chicago Mafia family were furious about the portrayal of Italians in general and the Mafia in particular in "The Untouchables" (1959), of which Arnaz was executive producer, and put out a contract on his life. Several mob hitmen hid in the bushes and behind trees outside his house one night after having been tipped off that he was on his way home and were going to shoot him when he pulled into his driveway, but for some unknown reason Arnaz never came home that night. The killers were supposed to come back again and wait for him the next night, but in the meantime cooler heads prevailed and the murder plot was called off. Arnaz apparently never found out how close he came to being murdered.

...Arnaz went to High School with the son of Al Capone.

SPECIAL TO THE NEW YORK TIMES
Published: February 28, 1982
An admitted Mafia hit man, Aladema (Jimmy the Weasel) Fratianno, has testified that he and other underworld figures met at the La Costa resort and planned to kill Desi Arnaz, the actor and movie producer, because they were angry at the way he portrayed Italian mobsters.

But Mr. Fratianno's story was contradicted by a tape recording of an interview with a writer and by his own deposition in another lawsuit. In the deposition, Mr. Fratianno said he had never been at La Costa and did not know where it was.

Mr. Fratianno was on the stand for three days as a witness for Penthouse magazine in La Costa's $522 million libel suit against the magazine. The California resort and two of its founders contend they were damaged by a 1975 Penthouse article that said the resort had ties with organized crime.

Mr. Fratianno related the story of the ''contract'' to kill Mr. Arnaz in direct testimony Monday. He said that he met Sam (Momo) Giancana, then reputed to be the leader of organized crime in Chicago crime, and Frank (The Bomp) Bompemsiero, a West Coast gang figure, at the resort in the 1960's and discussed ''the planning of killing Desi Arnaz.'' He described himself as a Mafia ''soldier'' who took orders from Mr. Giancana. Admits Lying in Deposition

In cross-examination by La Costa's attorney, Louis Nizer, Mr. Fratianno conceded that he stated in a 1976 deposition that he had never been to La Costa. He said that he had lied ''maybe 150 times'' in that sworn statement and that ''90 percent'' of it ''are lies.''

The 1976 deposition was taken in Mr. Fratianno's own lawsuit against Penthouse, which never went to trial. In 1981 he became a $250-an-hour consultant for the magazine in the La Costa lawsuit. He said he had been paid $32,000 to date by Penthouse and was billing the magazine for his current testimony.

In pursuing Mr. Fratianno's contradictions, the court ordered Ovid Demaris, a writer, to produce his tape recordings of 1978 interviews with Mr. Fratianno for Mr. Demaris's book on Mr. Fratianno's career in crime, ''The Last Mafioso.'' The tape recordings were played in court Thursday for the jury.

On the tape, Mr. Demaris reproved Mr. Fratianno because ''you told me that you met Giancana'' in a room at La Costa ''and he wanted you to hit Desi Arnaz.'' In his book, Mr. Demaris pictured the gangsters as angry at Mr. Arnaz for producing ''The Untouchables,'' a television show that made the gangsters look ''like a bunch of Italian lunatics.'' Book Shows Discrepancy

In ''The Last Mafioso'' the scene of this conversation was laid at the DelMar Hotel, not La Costa, and the conversation was between Mr. Fratianno and another racketeer, Johnny Roselli, not Mr. Giancana.

After Mr. Demaris complained to Mr. Fratianno that the meeting could not have taken place at La Costa in 1963 because the resort had not yet been built, Mr. Fratianno conceded that he may have erred. ''If I did, I made a mistake,'' Mr. Fratianno said, adding that he had never discussed the subject with Mr. Giancana at La Costa. ''I met Johnny at DelMar,'' he said.

Mr. Fratianno, who acknowledged from the stand that he had killed five men, clashed repeatedly with Mr. Nizer and at one point set off a wave of courtroom laughter by complaining that the 80-year-old New York lawyer ''is getting away with murder.''

Outside the courtroom Roy Grutman, the attorney for Penthouse, asserted that Mr. Fratianno had sued Penthouse ''at the instruction of the mob'' and had lied repeatedly in his deposition in that case. But he said that Mr. Fratianno had later turned government witness against his gangster colleagues and obtained Federal protection under an agreement that could be rescinded if he falsified any testimony. In the last two years, Mr. Fratianno has testified in a series of trials involving mob figures.

Mr. Grutman attempted to qualify Mr. Fratianno as an expert witness on organized crime for further testimony in the La Costa case. After a hearing outside the presence of the jury, Judge Kenneth Gale of Superior Court in California ruled out that role for the witness.

Thanks Mikado and Irene for the info! As I said I had never heard of anything like this before... what a scary thing! So glad Desi was never harmed.

I don't think Desi was too concerned about it actually. I think I read that somewhere.

Thanks Mikado and Irene for the info! As I said I had never heard of anything like this before... what a scary thing! So glad Desi was never harmed.
No prob. :wave: I had actually forgotten all abt that until you mentioned it.

I was shocked the first time I had heard that and still, it kinda bothers me because of the Arnaz children who may have lost a father.

Very interesting article, Irene. And also bizarre. Does anybody see the irony here? These guys were angry at Desi Arnaz because of "the way he portrayed Italian mobsters"? And exactly how did they want him to portray Italian mobsters? Is there a nice way to portray an Italian mobster? What exactly did they not like about this portrayal -- that it made Italian mobsters look like killers? So in order to get back at Desi for creating an image of Italian mobsters as killers, they decide to kill him? :crazy:

Sinatra warned Desi and Desi said he could have cared less, he said he was always available but they never got near him. Desi and Sinatra later made up and became friends again. Sinatra was always fighting with somebody it seems, but he also eventually made up with whoever he fought with. I agree that doing a show about the MOB without Italians would have been kind of hypocritical, LOL! Nowadays it would be impossibel, LOL!

Sinatra warned Desi and Desi said he could have cared less, he said he was always available but they never got near him. Desi and Sinatra later made up and became friends again. Sinatra was always fighting with somebody it seems, but he also eventually made up with whoever he fought with. I agree that doing a show about the MOB without Italians would have been kind of hypocritical, LOL! Nowadays it would be impossibel, LOL!
Okay, thanks! That sounds more like my Sinatra lol!

Okay, thanks! That sounds more like my Sinatra lol!
Sinatra fan are we? He's my all time favorite male singer, and Lucy and Desi both loved him. Lucy is seen with gary and others at one of his farewell or come back specials. She loved him for his talent, which has never been duplicated. Sinatra, like Judy Garland never could make a go of it in TV though, one time, when a series of his was cancelled, his exact words were i'm done with TV, Lucy can have it. LOL! You do know that Sinatra was quite puzzled when he suddenly appeared on I Love Lucy? He called MGM and asked how come, they said that Desi was short 2 and ahalf minutes for an I Love Lucy episode so he figured he should put on the very best 2 and a half minutes he could find, so he asked MGM for a clip of Guys and Dolls with Brando and Sinatra. I was upset that the show introduces the clip but no longer shows it as they'd have to pay for rights and so on. Oh, one last Sinatra connection, he and Hope were always fighting for guests for their BIG parties as both wanted to rule the roost, so Lucy always had a tough time deciding whose party she'd go to. Frank was always flying her in for his shows in Vegas, as he did with many other superstars.

Sinatra fan are we?
Major! My grandma was able to meet him several times in the early 40's outside of the Paramount.. he always remembered her name and naturally was super charming (as always with the ladies lol). Anyway, she passed the love for "The Voice" on and so I've just grown up on his music/movies (as well as Dean Martin's and Sammy Davis Jr's.) I always thought I was some 'rare' 20 year old who liked his music.. turns out almost everyone I know is a fan.. He had a voice that will last forever that's for sure :D (((eh, I could go on and on about him)))



He's my all time favorite male singer, and Lucy and Desi both loved him. Lucy is seen with gary and others at one of his farewell or come back specials. She loved him for his talent, which has never been duplicated. Sinatra, like Judy Garland never could make a go of it in TV though, one time, when a series of his was cancelled, his exact words were i'm done with TV, Lucy can have it. LOL! You do know that Sinatra was quite puzzled when he suddenly appeared on I Love Lucy? He called MGM and asked how come, they said that Desi was short 2 and ahalf minutes for an I Love Lucy episode so he figured he should put on the very best 2 and a half minutes he could find, so he asked MGM for a clip of Guys and Dolls with Brando and Sinatra. I was upset that the show introduces the clip but no longer shows it as they'd have to pay for rights and so on. Oh, one last Sinatra connection, he and Hope were always fighting for guests for their BIG parties as both wanted to rule the roost, so Lucy always had a tough time deciding whose party she'd go to. Frank was always flying her in for his shows in Vegas, as he did with many other superstars.
I had known about the I Love Lucy thing as he mentioned it a few times but I didn't know they were good friends! Gee, those two in one room.. would have loved to have seen that :lol: Thanks for sharing that :)

Rick, I don't think Italian mobsters see themselves as mobsters. :lol: Hense, they get offended.

Speaking of Sinatra (well sort of) I saw a Dean Martin Christmas ornament at the store. It sang "Everybody Loves Somebody Sometime."

Very interesting article, Irene. And also bizarre. Does anybody see the irony here? These guys were angry at Desi Arnaz because of "the way he portrayed Italian mobsters"? And exactly how did they want him to portray Italian mobsters? Is there a nice way to portray an Italian mobster? What exactly did they not like about this portrayal -- that it made Italian mobsters look like killers? So in order to get back at Desi for creating an image of Italian mobsters as killers, they decide to kill him? :crazy:
AMEN RICK, AMEN! The irony indeed. Geez. That is like those thugs in East L.A. who demand to be portrayed in a better light than they are in movies. :lol: Excuse me, but there are bad people in the world and there are mobsters, who happen to be italian and happen to kill people. Just like there are black gang bangers who kill one another for wearing the "wrong color" clothing. :crazy: It is reality. I can see if Desi had made a drama abt italian-american families and he inserted a "mob figure" in there somewhere, I could see the hoopla over that, since not all italian families have any sort of connection to any crime figure or criminal. IT WAS THE UNTOUCHABLES PEOPLE!!!:crazy: :lol:

Funny, this reminds me of that BE A PAL episode where Lucy has Carmen Miranda music playing and she is dressed like her (Carmen is NOT Cuban), she has mexican dinner in the kitchen, there are many NON-CUBAN things shown in that episode. I guess Desi was not big on making things authentic. :lol:

I agree that doing a show about the MOB without Italians would have been kind of hypocritical, LOL! Nowadays it would be impossibel, LOL!

Impossible? I guess you haven't seen The Sopranos. ;)

Oh, one last Sinatra connection, he and Hope were always fighting for guests for their BIG parties as both wanted to rule the roost, so Lucy always had a tough time deciding whose party she'd go to. Frank was always flying her in for his shows in Vegas, as he did with many other superstars.

Well, if I had to make that choice, no question I'd go to Sinatra's party. If Hope's parties were anything like his TV specials, I'd be bored to death. Sinatra, however, always had so much charisma. Like you, I really love his music. He was the best.

Just like there are black gang bangers who kill one another for wearing the "wrong color" clothing. :crazy: It is reality. I can see if Desi had made a drama abt italian-american families and he inserted a "mob figure" in there somewhere, I could see the hoopla over that, since not all italian families have any sort of connection to any crime figure or criminal. IT WAS THE UNTOUCHABLES PEOPLE!!!:crazy: :lol:

Excellent point. I totally agree. The Untouchables depicted a real period in our nation's history. Al Capone wasn't Swedish, after all.

Impossible? I guess you haven't seen The Sopranos. ;)
Oy vey, what a glaring ERROR on my part. What i meant was that today we are so obsessed with POLITICAL CORRECTNESS that it has sucked the quality out of everything, but i sure am wrong about the Sopranos, every Italian i know takes pride in that quality tv offering. So i guess it was the same at the time of The Untouchables, the public loved it, but the players didn't, LOL! The only reason it did not last long was that ABC and the FCC insisted they trim the violence, which killed the show.

Well, if I had to make that choice, no question I'd go to Sinatra's party. If Hope's parties were anything like his TV specials, I'd be bored to death. Sinatra, however, always had so much charisma. Like you, I really love his music. He was the best. Oh i totally agree, Sinatra's parties for me too. I also DESPISED Hope's horrid specials, the Lucy parts were all i ever watched.

Major! My grandma was able to meet him several times in the early 40's outside of the Paramount.. he always remembered her name and naturally was super charming (as always with the ladies lol). Anyway, she passed the love for "The Voice" on and so I've just grown up on his music/movies (as well as Dean Martin's and Sammy Davis Jr's.) I always thought I was some 'rare' 20 year old who liked his music.. turns out almost everyone I know is a fan.. He had a voice that will last forever that's for sure :D (((eh, I could go on and on about him)))




I had known about the I Love Lucy thing as he mentioned it a few times but I didn't know they were good friends! Gee, those two in one room.. would have loved to have seen that :lol: Thanks for sharing that :)
It's very simple really, everybody knows that Lucy worshipped TALENT, and you certainly can't get more talented than Sinatra or the members of the Rat Pack. She was always at their shows, ringside, she worshipped Dean also and later became very very close to Sammy Davis too. Her all time favorite show weas the Lucy show with Dean Martin as a guest. As for Davis, she inducted him in his Kennedy Center Honor tribute, she gave him heck when he hugged Nixon and she became friends with his wife Altovise when they both showed up in HOT PANTS at some ritzy Hollywood soiree. One of my all time favorite things of Lucy's to watch is her All Star Party, and all three were there, Sinatra sang You are the sunshine of my life, Dean did a comedic song and Davis gave her the tribute of a lifetime in hiw own inimitable way. Yup, Lucy LOVED all three members of the Rat Pack, i wish she had had Sinatra on one of her shows.