Newton remembers a supportive Sinatra

Louis Chunovic

Friday, May 29, 1998 | 10:37 a.m.

If more proof of the truth of the old Rat Pack adage that "it's Frank's World, the rest of us only live in it" is needed, Wayne Newton, co-chairman of Saturday's "Thanks Frank" gala at the MGM Grand, offers this instructive anecdote:

In the late '80s "I was accused of fronting for organized crime and I was getting death threats, which of course the FBI told me about. I said, 'Well, what about protection for my family?' They said, 'We can't do anything until they move against you,' which made me feel real good.

"They handed me a bullet-proof vest and said, 'Call us if anything happens.'

"So I went back to my dressing room ... and the first call I got was from Frank Sinatra. He said, 'Injun,' which is what he called me ... 'I hear there's some nonsense going on ... Is there anything I can do?' I said, 'Not that I know.' He said, 'I just want you to know, here's where I'm at.' " Sinatra gave the beleaguered singer phone numbers where he could find him for the next several weeks. "He said, 'If you need anything at all, you call.' "

Newton didn't make that call but, he allows, later, there was another "situation" with death threats. Sinatra heard of the new threats and he "called me one night and he said, 'I won't tell you where, why or how, but you won't have those problems anymore. And I didn't."

When he first heard that Sinatra had died, Newton was "devastated" he says, but then he remembered that "one of his favorite lines was, 'Live every day, because dying's a pain in the ass.' "

On Saturday, Newton will join other performers at the MGM Grand to sing Sinatra standards. His number will be "Fly Me To the Moon."