FRANK SINATRA MARRIES MIA FARROW

Frank Sinatra and Mia Farrow had first met in the fall of 1964 when they were both working on the 20th Century Fox film lot in Hollywood – when she was filming for Peyton Place and he was working on Von Ryan’s Express. She was 19 at the time and he was 48. Their courtship and marriage became a topic of much public interest and some concern among both their friends, given their age difference. Dean Martin, one of Sinatra’s Rat Pack buddies, is alleged to have quipped that he had a bottle of Scotch older than Farrow. And when she and Sinatra were courting they were hounded by the press wherever the went, as once on a boat ride off Cape Cod that became more of a national event than private getaway. In any case, the two were married on July 19, 1966, when she was 21 and he was 50. Sinatra was enjoying a wave of renewed popularity with his music by then, as the song “Strangers in the Night,” for example, was at the top of the Billboard charts within weeks of their marriage. But Sinatra was a pretty demanding kind of guy who had urged Farrow to quit Peyton Place earlier. In 1968, Farrow had agreed to work in a film with Sinatra called The Detective. But she also began working on the Roman Polanski film, Rosemary’s Baby. Sinatra asked her to quit that film and come work with him on The Detective. After she refused, Sinatra had her served with divorce papers on the film set of Rosemary’s Baby, in front of cast and crew. Farrow broke down after reading the papers, but nonetheless, continued with her film work that day. In an effort to save her marriage, Farrow asked Paramount Pictures executive Robert Evans to release her from her film contract, but he persuaded her to remain with the project. A divorce between Farrow and Sinatra was finalized later that year. The Sinatra-Farrow pairing had become regular fare for the tabloids and there continued to be questions about the marriage for years. In the aftermath of her break up with Sinatra, Farrow traveled to India in early 1968, where she spent time at the ashram of the Maharishi in Rishikesh studying transcendental meditation. This gathering gained worldwide media attention at the time due to the presence of the Beatles, Donovan, Mike Love of the Beach Boys, and Farrow’s younger sister, Prudence, who inspired John Lennon to write the song “Dear Prudence.”