Ring-a-Ding-DING: The Night Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin Got Involved in a Brawl at the Polo Lounge (Exclusive) 

Beverly Hills may be known as one of the most glamorous cities on the planet, but glamor always comes with a dark side.

A new true crime book Beverly Hills Noir: Crime, Sin and Scandal in 90210by journalist, author and longtime PEOPLE contributor Scott Hoover, explores a collection of some of the most outrageous extralegal incidents in 90210 history, including Rat Pack icons Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin’s wild night on the town that turned into a violent, mysterious bar brawl, leaving the Beverly police Hills in search of two of the legendary city’s most famous locals, looking for answers.

Read the exclusive excerpt shared with PEOPLE below.

‘Beverly Hills Noir’ by Scott Hoover.

Post Hill Press

It was Dean Martin’s 49th birthday. As you can imagine, the drinks were flowing, and early in the morning Frank Sinatra was shopping.

Dino, as those closest to him called him, and his closest “partner” marked the occasion in a location that was almost as iconic as they were: the posh Polo Lounge of the legendary Beverly Hills Hotel on Sunset Boulevard. Both had a lot to celebrate Dino’s birthday – June 7, 1966 – with late-night entertainment just after midnight: between movies, television, records and concerts, Martin was well on his way to becoming the highest-grossing entertainer in show business, while Sinatra , then 50, was at the creative peak of his famous filming and acting career — and in love with 20-year-old actress Mia Farrow, 30 years his junior.

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Farrow was absent for Martin’s birthday, as were Martin’s wife Jeannie and fellow Rat Packer Sammy Davis, Jr., who were performing in Las Vegas. Instead, they were joined by actor Richard Conte, who also appeared with Sinatra, Martin and Davis in the 1960s Ocean’s Eleven. A Jersey boy like Frank and the son of an Italian barber like Dino, Conte is perhaps best remembered today as Corleone family rival Don Barzini in Godfather.

Beverly Hills locals Frank Sinatra, left, and Dean Martin enjoy their signature brand of drinking – but a bar fight and a broken phone put a damper on the good times in 1966.

Pictorial Press Ltd. / Alamy

The party, which included a trio of unidentified women, was joined by Sinatra’s close friend Ermenegildo “Jilly” Rizzo, the beloved owner of the popular New York nightclub Jilly’s. A burly rhinoceros of a man with a glass eye (the source of many lurid speculations), Rizzo spoke in Guys and Dolls-esque language of “dese, dems and dose” liberally laced with enough expletives to make Damon Runyon blush. He traveled the world as a good companion and de facto bodyguard of his friend “Sinata”, he once told the English Queen Elizabeth II. “If anyone ever hits you, call me.”

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The group arrived at the luxurious, dimly lit cocktail bar after midnight and settled into a large booth, the center of attention in the city’s rarest watering hole, sparkling like 24-carat diamonds in a solid gold setting. Risque language and colorful ethnic epithets flowed as freely as the drink, drawing the ire of a nearby restaurant that, while not nearly as well-known, was at least as rich and perhaps more influential. When Frederick R. Weisman rose to complain, Dean might have warned him. “It’s Frank’s world,” he once philosophized. “We just live in it.”

Arriving 20 minutes before closing time, Weisman, then 54, rose from a produce wholesaler to president of Hunt’s Foods and later retired to become a key patron of the arts with the region’s top modern art collection at his Beverly Hills home. . Weisman was accompanied by a hotel guest, 74-year-old Franklin H. Fox, a prominent businessman from a Boston furniture company.

The two men had just driven in from dinner in preparation for the upcoming wedding of Weisman’s son and Fox’s daughter. They stopped by for drinks for the night, took a booth next to Sinatra and Martin and chatted over drinks for about 10 minutes, barely hearing each other over the roaring laughter and salty chatter of the famous celebrants.

Dean Martin (left) and Frank Sinatra at a rehearsal for an American TV show.

Pictorial Press Ltd. / Alamy

Eventually, Weisman got annoyed, leaned into the party, and, as Sinatra ended a call from one of the famous pink payphones—installed so Hollywood power players could instantly close deals struck over dinner and cocktails—asked them to turn down the volume and scolded them. because of their vulgarity – ladies were still present.

Despite Weisman’s objection to the blue tongue, Sinatra later quoted him: “You talk too loud and you got a bunch of friends who talk loud.” There may also have been the use of a certain d-word and a certain w-word that Italian Americans tend to object to.

Taken aback, the singer — who at first said he thought Weisman was joking, but soon realized the man was serious — fired off a petulant “You’re overreacting, my friend,” and returned to the revelry at hand.

Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin dressed for dinner.

Trinity Mirror / Mirrorpix / Alamy

This is where the details get pretty hazy, depending on whose account you believe:

It’s possible, as Sinatra told police, that Weisman suddenly punched the singer in the right eye, giving him an almost instantaneous glow, then apparently slipped and fell — though no one touched him — shattering the base of the cocktail table as he crashed to the floor. .

It’s possible, as Franklin Fox would tell Sinatra’s biographer decades later, that Sinatra made an anti-Semitic remark to Weisman, after which he cracked his glasses and then stormed out of the room with his friends before trouble arose, only to returned a few moments later in a fit of rage. Martin, Fox and the hotel security guard tried to separate Sinatra and Weisman as Martin pleaded, “Let’s get out of here, Frank!” Then Sinatra may have grabbed one of the payphone phones and hurled it at Weisman fiercely — Ring-a-Ding-DING! — knocking him out cold and sending him to the floor with a thump.

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It is possible that after insulting each other, “everyone started grabbing everyone else”, as one eyewitness reported, and in the commotion, Weisman suddenly fell to the floor with a crash.

It’s possible Dean Martin didn’t really see what happened, as he recounted, but some Clyde hitting his buddy suddenly hit the floor with a thud.

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In the end, the blunt force was a constant element in each of the stories. Weisman fell to the floor and lay on his back amid an upturned ashtray, a discarded tablecloth, and a pile of broken crystal. It sounded like he was snoring. And he didn’t get up.

Security separated the fighters and Martin, Conte, Rizzo and the rest of the company pushed Sinatra out of the cocktail lounge while Fox tried to revive Weisman, but to no avail. Beverly Hills police were called, and paramedics carried Weisman out on a stretcher while police spoke with Polo Lounge staff and witnesses. The director was transported to the Beverly Hills First Aid Station, where he was treated, revived and released, then taken home and put to bed.

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When Martin returned to his home a few blocks away, he stopped in the living room and sat sullenly on the sofa next to his 18-year-old daughter, Deana, who was surprised to have her father home so early on his birthday.

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“Frank blew the fuse tonight,” he told her. “He can’t let it go.” Asked if anyone was injured, Martin replied as he went to bed: “I don’t know. I don’t know anything.”

Almost 24 hours after the incident, when Weisman again failed to wake up, he was taken to the intensive care unit of Mt. Sinai, where he remained in critical condition for 48 hours. Urgently admitted to surgery, he endured a two-and-a-half-hour operation to relieve a skull fracture. Weisman came out in serious condition, still in a coma, and doctors could not guarantee that he would survive.

As soon as Police Chief Clinton Anderson—well acquainted with Sinatra, especially through his involvement in security measures when Sinatra’s close friend President John F. Kennedy frequented the Beverly Hilton Hotel, JFK’s unofficial “Western White House”—learned Weisman’s condition. seriously, he ordered the Beverly Hills detectives to immediately launch a full-scale investigation.

Anderson’s detectives rounded up more hotel employees and bystanders who might have seen something. However, the stories were only consistent in that no one knew for sure whether someone had pushed or hit Weisman. Told that Weisman had been taking prescription drugs that may not have mixed well with his drinking, the chief held off on any conclusions until he heard everyone’s stories.

“He could have fallen and hit his head on the table,” Anderson mused to reporters, “but someone could have also hit him.” His suspicions were reinforced when he discovered that the two main players – Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin – had flown into the coop. Quite literally, as it turns out.

“Sinatra was hiding,” Anderson told reporters eager for details, “but we’re going to get him.”

From Beverly Hills Noir: Crime, Sin and Scandal in 90210 by Scott Hoover. Published by arrangement with Post Hill Press. Copyright © 2024 Scott Huver.

Beverly Hills Noir: Crime, Sin and Scandal in 90210 hits shelves on October 1st and is available for pre-order now, wherever books are sold.

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