Frank Sinatra was making news for all the wrong reasons ahead of his Las Vegas performing debut.
The weeks leading up to that first show — Sept. 4, 1951, inside the Painted Desert Room at the Desert Inn — were filled with tabloid-worthy stories about his relationship with the twice-divorced screen siren Ava Gardner. The problem? Sinatra was still married to Nancy, the mother of his three children.
When the couple vacationed in Mexico the month before, gossipy wire service reports were built around tales of screaming matches Sinatra had with reporters as well as threats by his bodyguard to shoot a photographer.
