Sept.
16, 1967
Dentist says Frank is OK after TKO
at Sands Hotel
Frank
Sinatra’s dentist says the entertainer’s bruised and battered mouth will be
good as new today, but it’s unlikely the damage to Sinatra’s pride will heal so
easily.
The
bantam battler from Hoboken lost his first cabaret decision Sunday, a one-punch
TKO by the fist of a 250-pound heavyweight.
A punch
by Carl Cohen, who runs the casino, sent Sinatra reeling. Observers said that
Sinatra, enraged because the hotel would not extend him credit above the
$200,000 he owed, flung a handful of chips into Cohen’s face and was promptly
decked.
His
dentist said Sinatra’s “great smile” would be back in shape today, but this
gambling haven was still buzzing over the fracas.
Sinatra
was incensed and reportedly drove a golf cart through a plate glass window,
made a shambles of his penthouse apartment, and ripped wires from the hotel’s
switchboard before he disappeared.
He
returned Sunday night and continued his show. He reportedly shouted obscenities
at security guards and executives of the hotel.
“He was
loud, obscene and yelling at the top of his voice,” one witness said. “He was
drinking, gambling and just went on a wild rampage.”
At one
time during the busy weekend, Sinatra reportedly shouted, “I built this hotel
from a sand pile and I can tear the hotel down, and before I am through that is
what it will be again.”
Sinatra had been given free reign in the
past because he was a sellout at the Sands twice a year. But millionaire
industrialist Howard Hughes recently purchased the hotel and instituted some
policy changes, apparently including a limit to Sinatra’s gambling credit.
Sinatra
announced over the weekend he was severing all connections with the Sands and
would become affiliated with Caesar’s Palace.
