Entertainer made a mark with a generous heart

Friday, May 15, 1998 | 9:31 a.m.

Frank Sinatra was a generous man who often gave gifts to people in need.

Although they were intended to be anonymous, many of the kind acts nevertheless found their way to the pages of newspapers.

In October 1984, while performing at the Golden Nugget, Sinatra read a Sun story about a theft of a 20-year-old toothless horse named Chocolate that was owned by a 9-year-old Las Vegas girl.

His secretary contacted the family, which had recovered the old horse from information given by a North Las Vegas woman who had read the same story. Nevertheless, Sinatra gave the girl a 3-year-old pony because he figured the older horse did not have much time left.

The family, which could not be located today, named the horse Pancho. For several years, Pancho was a companion for old Chocolate in a stable behind a Nellis Boulevard used-car lot.

The current proprietor of that property says the family long ago moved to Texas and that horses had not been kept there for several years.

A spokesperson for Sinatra at the time of the incident said: "Mr. Sinatra does many similar deeds like this throughout the world, throughout the year."

He helped raise money for numerous Las Vegas causes and organizations, including UNLV.

In mid-December 1987, Sinatra, while performing in Atlantic City, read accounts of a Florida house burglary in which thieves made off with the Christmas gifts of four economically disadvantaged Miami children.

"If I didn't know the meaning of Christmas before, I definitely know it now," the woman, then an unemployed secretary and single mom, said of Sinatra's generosity toward her kids.

The children, ages 3-7, had told their mom after the break-in not to worry because Santa Claus would help them.

That Christmas, Santa Claus was Sinatra -- not only to those children, but to others. Sinatra and other Samaritans gave so many gifts that the family arranged to have some of the presents given to other poor families.

"All of us are actually going to be able to help other people, whereas before we didn't have anything," the mother of the victims said.

Known internationally as a philanthropist, Sinatra went to Israel in 1978 for the dedication of the Frank Sinatra International Student Centre at the Mount Scopus campus of the Hebrew Academy.

After legendary heavyweight boxer Joe Louis suffered a stroke in the late 1970s, Sinatra did what he could to help make the legendary Brown Bomber's life more comfortable.

Broke and unable to work because of poor health, Louis got by on the financial help of friends such as Sinatra and his employer, Caesars Palace, until his death on April 12, 1981.

At Louis' funeral in a ring at the Strip resort's sports pavilion, Sinatra, delivering the eulogy, said: "It's kind of nice to know that the man who never rested on canvas now sleeps on clouds. God bless you, Joe. The fight's over and you came out of the ring with dignity and decency."

Variety Clubs International has saluted Sinatra as a humanitarian. A unit for chronically ill children is named for him at Seattle's Children's Medical Center.

Sinatra concert beneficiaries have included the Red Cross, New York Police Athletic League and National Multiple Sclerosis Society.