FRANKLY FRANGO

BY JOHN FRANGO

1-13-2000

PR, POLITICS, PUBLISHERS, AND PETTINESS

Kudos to PR pro--dashing Dave Hebert. Dave knows his business--and makes his business to communicate with clarity, class, and conviction. Good-guy Dave works for the very able and articulate Jeanine Pirro, Westchester County DA. On the other hand (we have five fingers), Jeanine is married to the controversial A1 Pirro, under indictment for tax evasion. Neither you nor I — nor the most suspicious of reporters — will ever know the real story behind the real story. I don't want to indicate that the gals answering phones at the County Executive offices in Westchester County are obtuse, but they think Roe vs. Wade is a tennis match. . . All my love and affection to the "boys of summer" at the Roma A.C. in never-to-be-forgotten Ferris Ave., in White Plains, N.Y. Sweet memories that live forever in the human heart . . . Lorraine Genga does a bing-bang job as Editor-in-Chief of the Westchester County Weekly. The savvy editor talked to this writer about submitting a gossip column. Things just didn't work out... Know he's terribly busy, but Great-guy Ron Patafio, editorial page editor of The Journal News, should write more often: a first class mind and a first class heart. . . Spoke many, many years ago to a young marketing and advertising group. Told them that half the people in the country were in the entertainment business--and the other half were dying to get in. Now cartoon-caption in The New Yorker features a wife at the breakfast table reading the newspaper ads to her husband: "Listen to this: `Extensive research has been recently completed which proves there are other businesses just like show business."'. . . The horror of publishing: overprint, over promote and overpay... The vast number of politicians in Westchester County and the country are not only plutocrats with Faustian agendas, but the bums would come to the opening of my garage door to garner a vote. They use, then abuse and lose those who no longer meet their insidious poll-driven ambitions. They go along with what is popular, not what is right. . . Joe DiMaggio bought Marilyn Monroe a $50,000 ring, encrusted with 34 baguette-cut diamonds. It sold for almost $800,000 at an auction. That's quite shameless when you think of the millions of Americans who are hungry and homeless-and the 34 million in the country who don't receive social security benefits. But, then, living in a world that worships celebrities is far more gracious than suffering in regimes of totalitarianism, terror, and torture. . . Nothing is sacrosanct in Yonkers, N.Y. politics. . . The late, great Ella Fitzgerald's "We Can't Go On This Way" will break your heart--if you have a heart.

Eddie Fisher's "Been There, Did That" (St. John's Press) is filled with more typos than his endlessly torrid, tempestuous love affairs--however implausible or invented. Fisher boasts that he made love to nine lovely ladies in half-a-day. "Anytime, you're feeling lonely . . . ." Actually, that makes the late Wilt Chamberlain and Bill Clinton look like celibates. The singer's bedroom bonanza reminds me of a line by the late comedian Joe Penna: "Once a king, always a king, but once a knight is enough." Fisher informs readers that Elizabeth Taylor was with child by Frank Sinatra, and had an abortion. He reveals that Sinatra also said he would rather be head of the Mafia than President of the United States. Is there a difference? Combined, Fisher and his second wife, Taylor, had more affairs than the Waldorf-Astoria. Actually, Fisher never had the talented tonsils of Hal Morris (Tony Martin). And he certainly wasn't in Martin's category as an actor. My dear mother--like most Italian women--thought Martin was Italian. When I told her he was Jewish, she said: "Oh, that's okay. They're just like us." The late Mrs. Ann Frango was an original. Of course, Fisher's drug addiction and drinking were melancholy aspects of a perilous and wanton lifestyle. It's difficult for the vain and fatuous Fisher to admit, but he acknowledges that Sinatra is the greatest popular singer of the 20th Century. If you're interested in galloping gossip--by all means--buy this book. It's hysterical. Anyway, who the hell wants to read about integrity, literacy, and insight.

The juiciest story of corruption in high places in Westchester County, N.Y., is still untold: and there are enough good, intelligent, and investigative reporters in the county to unveil the mystery behind so much mendaciousness. . . Mulino's in White Plains, N.Y. had the most creative, charming, and enchanting Christmas display of any bistro in Westchester--or New York. And the staff brings good cheer all year round, especially marvelous maitre 'd gentleman Jimmy Cavagna. The food and the service are tops-in-taps, too. Classy joint. . . Far too many police in Westchester, N.Y., have a subterranean contempt for and distrust of the new immigrants . . . A Jew who converted to Catholicism, Lorenzo Di Ponte, paid to have the first opera house constructed in America in 1833 . . . Joan Crawford told me that George Raft informed the intimidating IRS: "I spent all my money on fast cars, broads, and booze. The rest I just pissed away." . . . A cynic's comment on the millennium madness to a TV reporter: "I'm glad the damn thing is over. Now I can get back to my miserable life."

Are Westchester County biggie Andy Spano and attorney alibi Al DelBello, once closer than Burns and Allen, now as far apart as Pat Buchanan and a flaming liberal? We'll never tell. . . One of the most beautiful complements made to this columnist: before a dear old Jewish friend died, he said he was thinking of having a tree planted in my name in Yad v'Shem, the Holocaust memorial in Israel. That's the kind of stuff that breaks your heart--if you have a heart... One day someone will replace Milt Hoffman on the editorial staff of The Journal News in Westchester County. But no one will ever take his place. . . A bustling bistro in White Plains that attracts food aficionados, Gregory's--run beautifully by gentleman Billy LoSapio. . . Fred Travalena, the gifted impressionist and utterly delightful singer-song writer, has penned one of the most engaging and beautiful holiday songs I've ever heard: "Christmas in Manhattan." It's a winner--any time of the year . . . Abhor impolite, imperious, and underpaid radio executives in Westchester County who lack common decency. These amateurs have a lot of class--and it's all low . . . My lovely wife, Ann, and I always listen to WVNJ-radio in Trenton, N.J., when driving in the morning. It reminds us of the heyday of WNEW-radio in New York with William B. Williams (William Breitbard) and Jim Lowe. We talked with the station's morning man, good-guy Del Dixon. He's a polite listener, and he is as charming and informative as he is articulate. Tops-in-taps of a radio station. . . Lovely Cheryl R. Fidelman, who doesn't put on an act as a waitress at the popular Outback in White Plains, N.Y., is a drama student at H.B. Studios in Greenwich village, N.Y. Professional and friendly at what she does--and she does it very well.