Lady blue eyes : my life with Frank Sinatra

From Publishers Weekly The widow of Frank Sinatra delivers the goods in this intimate memoir of their years together, filled with parties, recordings, career hurdles, concerts, travels, and triumphs. Barbara Blakeley was "just a farm girl from Missouri," who became a model, a Vegas showgirl, and the wife of Zeppo Marx, and mingled with celebrities in L.A., Vegas, and Palm Springs. At a Sinatra dinner party for the first time, she felt "there was definitely a frisson between us." With her own marriage crumbling, she made plans to meet Sinatra in Monaco: "Was I about to be seduced by one of the world's greatest romantics?" That idyllic summer "turned into night after glorious night of romance in some of the most glamorous venues in Europe." After "five years of flirting and courting," Barbara and Frank Sinatra married in 1976, and it was the longest of his four marriages. They stayed together for 22 years, until his death in 1998. Probing Sinatra's personality, she contrasts his polite manners and loyalty to friends with his feuds and booze-induced rants. Yet in the end, as she sees it, "Frank was, without doubt, the most romantic man I had ever met," and that feeling permeates the pages throughout. (Mar. 1) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved. From Booklist In this detailed autobiography, Frank Sinatra’s widow traces her journey from a hardscrabble, Depression-era childhood to jet-setting wife of one of the most popular and successful entertainers of all time. Thanks to her strong-willed mother, Barbara’s family pulled up stakes in Missouri while she was a teenager and headed to California. Barbara was soon modeling for local department stores and shortly thereafter married aspiring big-band singer Bob Oliver. After the birth of a son, the marriage fell apart; another marriage and a career as a Vegas showgirl followed. Then she took up with the much older and wealthier Zeppo Marx, and Barbara quickly fell into her new glamorous life.She eventually tired of Zeppo and began an affair with her neighbor, Frank Sinatra, hoping he would marry her, which he eventually did. Sinatra spins an interesting tale of a life lived amongst celebrity and provides an insider glimpse into a bygone era. Readers will either enjoy or be annoyed by the incessant name-dropping. --Kathleen Hughes

Thirty years after she first heard his voice singing on the jukebox at her local drive-in, Barbara Ann Blakely heard Frank Sinatra take the wedding vows that began his fourth, final, and most enduring marriage.
 
In Lady Blue Eyes, Barbara Sinatra’s first public love letter to the husband she adored, she celebrates the sensational singer, possessive mate, sexy heartthrob, and devoted friend that she found in Frank.  For more than two decades, Barbara was always by his side, traveling the globe and hosting glittering events for their famous friends, including presidents, kings, queens, Hollywood royalty, and musical legends.  Among them were Sammy Davis, Jr., Princess Grace of Monaco, Bob Dylan, and Ronald Reagan.  Each night, as Frank publicly wooed his bride with love songs from a concert stage, she’d fall in love with him all over again.
 
From her own humble beginnings in a small town in Missouri to her time as a fashion model and her marriage to Zeppo Marx, Barbara Sinatra reveals a life lived with passion, conviction, and grace.  A founder of the Miss Universe pageant and a onetime Vegas showgirl, she raised her only son almost single-handedly in often dire circumstances until, after five years of tempestuous courtship, she and Frank committed to each other wholeheartedly.  In stories that leap off the page, she takes us behind the scenes of her iconic husband’s legendary career and paints an intimate portrait of a man who was variously generous, jealous, witty, and wicked.  Coupled with revealing insights about many of Frank’s celebrated songs, this is much more than the story of a showbiz marriage. 
 
It is a story of passion and of a deep and lifelong love.

Barbara Sinatra's first public love letter to the husband she adored, she celebrates the sensational singer, possessive mate, sexy heartthrob, and devoted friend that she found in Frank in Lady Blue Eyes. For more than two decades, Barbara was always by Frank Sinatra's side, traveling the globe and hosting glittering events for their famous friends, including presidents, kings, queens, Hollywood royalty, and musical legends. Among them were Sammy Davis, Jr., Princess Grace of Monaco, Bob Dylan, and Ronald Reagan. Each night, as Frank publicly wooed his bride with love songs from a concert stage, she'd fall in love with him all over again. From her own humble beginnings in a small town in Missouri to her time as a fashion model and her marriage to Zeppo Marx, Barbara Sinatra reveals a life lived with passion, conviction, and grace. A founder of the Miss Universe pageant and a onetime Vegas showgirl, she raised her only son almost single-handedly in often dire circumstances until, after five years of tempestuous courtship, she and Frank committed to each other wholeheartedly. In stories that leap off the page, she takes us behind the scenes of her iconic husband's legendary career and paints an intimate portrait of a man who was variously generous, jealous, witty, and wicked. Coupled with revealing insights about many of Frank's celebrated songs, this is much more than the story of a showbiz marriage. It is a story of passion and of a deep and lifelong love. Barbara Sinatra, the fourth and final wife of Frank Sinatra, offers a heartfelt and moving memoir. She starts with her small-town Missouri youth; modeling career; stint as a Vegas showgirl; first marriage to a wealthy gambler, Zeppo Marx; and growing infatuation with her neighbor Frank Sinatra, whom she married in 1976 and lived with until his death in 1998. Relating her interactions at countless dinner parties, tennis matches, and golf outings, the author captures the personalities of such insiders as Gregory Peck, Spiro Agnew, Dean Martin, John F. Kennedy, and Ronald Reagan. She casts Frank as a loving, volatile, generous, and obsessive creative genius who surrounded himself with a coterie of understanding and compliant friends to shield him from the constant pressures of his iconic status Thirty years after she first heard his voice singing to her from a jukebox at her local drive-in, Barbara began her love affair with Frank Sinatra. After a tempestuous courtship, she finally heard him say the wedding vows that began his fourth, final, and most enduring marriage; one that would last more than two decades until the end of his life. The widow of the Hollywood golden-era legend describes their courtship and more than two-decade marriage, offering insight into the highs and lows of their relationship as well as the intricacies of Sinatra's character