Frank & Marilyn: The Lives, the Loves, and the Fascinating Relationship of Frank Sinatra and Marilyn Monroe

by Edward Z. Epstein

Frank Sinatra! Marilyn Monroe! Never before teamed in a book, yet theirs was a seven-year friendship and on-and-off intimate relationship shrouded in secrecy and fraught with danger.

Frank Sinatra and Marilyn Monroe—here is the first book to bring these two all-American icons together. Their friendship and on-and-off intimate relationship, kept secret because of powerful others in their lives, spanned seven tumultuous years. At one point, he even proposed marriage.

In Frank & Marilyn , we follow Sinatra and Monroe from one explosive relationship to another, their marriages and love affairs eventually leading to a tangled relationship with each other, sparking a nasty rivalry between Frank and Marilyn’s ex-husband (and one-time friend of Frank), Joe DiMaggio.

Frank and Marilyn’s ultimately disastrous relationship with John F. Kennedy, his brother Robert, and their often ruthless family was a fatal move for Marilyn. Her death remains a controversial topic to the present day.

Dedicated biographer and entertainment world insider Edward Z. Epstein has spoken with many people who were familiar with the pair, all of whom talked about the Frank and Marilyn they knew—and the dangers they faced. It’s a fascinating, largely untold story that’s usually glossed over…until now.

304 pages, Hardcover

Published December 13, 2022

Reviews

[*TUDOR^QUEEN* · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've never read a single book about Marilyn Monroe and only one or two about Frank Sinatra, so when I saw this biography alluding to some kind of romantic relationship between these two I was intrigued to read it. My intention was to quickly glance at this two days ago- but wound up ravaging through the roughly 300 pages to its conclusion. That rarely happens with me, a rather slow reader. And when I was done it seriously whet my appetite to read more biographies about Marilyn Monroe.

I truly appreciated the way the author kept the pace going with Frank and Marilyn's intertwined stories, never going into the weeds so it never got boring. He kept the focus keenly on his subjects, as their lives weaved around other celebrities and notables such as Monroe's ex-husbands baseball great Joe DiMaggio and playwright Arthur Miller, actors Yves Montand, Dean Martin, Clark Gable, Montgomery Clift and Peter Lawford, crooners Sammy Davis, Jr. and Eddie Fisher, actresses Ava Gardner, Lauren Bacall, Elizabeth Taylor, Doris Day, Juliet Prowse, and politicians President John F. Kennedy and brother/ Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy. The book is just over 300 pages, a concise page-turner. My advance copy contained no pictures, but perhaps there will be in the final released version. No matter, I routinely performed internet searches as I read along about certain photo shoots, situations and celebrity events, finding many photos online that helped bring these stories to life in my mind.

The book cover design is underwhelming, but after finishing the book I understand why it was used. It is a rare photo of Frank and Marilyn taken just a short time before her untimely death, when he whisked her away on a yacht trip. But the bland presentation underestimates the buried treasure within, because this is a fine book that inspires further reading on the subject.

Thank you to the publisher Post Hill Press for providing an advance reader copy via NetGalley.

[Linda Hutchinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Frank Sinatra and Marilyn Monroe were before my time, but I still find their life stories fascinating. During their careers, they were on-again/off-again lovers. There are differing opinions on their love affair, but Edward Z. Epstein, the author of Frank & Marilyn: The Lives, the Loves, and the Fascinating Relationship of Frank Sinatra and Marilyn Monroe, introduces us to some juicy details of their dalliance. Both courted danger just by being together, and Frank courted favors to the end by offering up Marilyn Monroe to President Kennedy and his brother Robert. I also enjoyed the detail that they were very much people who commanded and adored attention; they fought hard for their careers. They had so many marriages and affairs that it is difficult to imagine who they hadn’t slept with in the artistic community. Frank and Marilyn were much more intelligent than they appeared and were incredibly astute at creating a public persona that keeps them BOTH in the public eye to this day. They each had one true love, Ava Gardner for Frank and Joe DiMaggio for Marilyn. If you love “old style” Hollywood gossip and great characters in a “real life” saga, this is an excellent book to read. It’s a story that is almost too hard to believe, but this book is a job well done. #biography #MarilynMonroe #FrankSinatra #ArthurMiller #AvaGardner #JoeDiMaggio #PresidentKennedy #love #affairs #biography #Hollywood #fame #fortune #sad @post_hill_press #frank&Marilyn #netgalley @netgalley
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I received a complimentary copy of this book. The opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. Thank you to NetGalley, Post Hill Press and the author for the opportunity to read this book. Pub Date: December, 2022.

#book #books #bookaddict #booksofinstagram #bookstagram #bookstagramer #bookshelf #booksbooksbooks #readersofinstagram #reader #booklove #bookreader #reader #reading

[Ashley · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’ve read numerous biographies about Marilyn Monroe but they’ve only touched on her friendship with Frank Sinatra. I don’t know nearly as much about Sinatra’s life and so I headed into this looking forward to learning new information and how the book details their intertwined lives. Unfortunately, Edward Epstein starts off by saying “Everyone was familiar with Frank’s story” and then he doesn’t elaborate. I wish he had written small bios for the reader on each person’s life leading up to the time period he begins the book. Also a lot of personal details about both Sinatra and Monroe are alluded to but never stated explicitly and it isolates the reader if you don’t know the situation being referred to.

The book includes a lot of silly gossip that originates from only one source so it’s easy to question the validity of some of the stories. There are also stories I’ve never read of in any of the numerous Monroe biographies so I don’t hold much stock in some of the material the author has included. The author makes a number of assumptions in the book. In one instance he writes that a lyric in Pal Joey was changed to include a joke about Monroe being able to think. The author then says if Marilyn knew about it she’d surely have been pleased. How does he know? She was constantly fighting to be taken seriously; so would she have been pleased that a lyric was changed in a film to poke fun of her intelligence?

I think the subject matter of aligning Frank and Marilyn together is too loose to fill a whole book. The writing style is very choppy and lacks a cohesive flow. Some facts are inaccurate and dates are told out of order. Not to mention there is no concrete proof the two had any type of relationship outside of a friendship. One year ago a Sinatra confidant and biographer stated there never was a sexual relationship between the two. This book has not convinced me otherwise.

Thank you to Post Hill Press for this ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Gayle (OutsmartYourShelf) · Rating 4 out of 5]

The 1950s & 1960s era of Hollywood has always fascinated me. I've read quite a bit about Marilyn but almost nothing about Frank so this seemed like a good opportunity to rectify that. I rather enjoyed reading it & I was surprised at just how many films Sinatra appeared in. I don't know why but I thought he was only in a handful of films.

I also had never read before that he & Marilyn were allegedly so close - Sinatra always seemed like a more peripheral figure in the books I've read about Marilyn & the Kennedys. Here we get 'behind the scenes' gossip & walk-on parts for lots of famous faces: Dean Martin, James Dean, Shirley MacLaine, JFK etc, whilst the author hints at Sinatra's alleged Mob connections. After all this time, it's impossible to verify how accurate any of these rumours were but it's an interesting read. 3.5 stars (rounded up).

Thanks to NetGalley & publishers, Post Hill Press, for the opportunity to read an ARC.

[julianne · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was interesting but all the gossip came from just one source with not independent verification so I'm a little unsure as to how accurate this is.

The timelines and dates were wonky as were places Marilyn was said to be when she's been proved to have been elsewhere.

A fun read yeah, but not to be taken seriously.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.

[Candace · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have only read one other book on Marilyn Monroe, but this book made me want to read more. I knew about her marriages and her affairs with the Kennedy brothers, but I never knew about the relationship between Frank and Marilyn. The author made a non-fiction read like a novel. I never realized how long and complex their relationship was. This was an easy read and great for anyone who knows a lot or a little about the life and relationships of Marilyn Monroe.

[Joe Meyers · Rating 3 out of 5]

A brief but readable run through the intertwined lives of Marilyn Monroe and Frank Sinatra and their mutual relationships with the Kennedy family. Epstein has done new reporting and tells the story well, but we have just been down this road too many times before.

[Cynthia Guerra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you NetGalley for the eARC. I had no idea these two crazy kids even knew each other! It was very well written and a lot of surprises for me!

[Chip (C.A.) Printup · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am a big fan of Golden Age Hollywood, Frank Sinatra and Marilyn Monroe made a lot of my favorite movies like "There's No Business Like Show Business" and "On the Town." I went into this book with a lot of prior knowledge and as a result, I was very let down.

A majority of this book doesn't even use second hand sources for building it's theory that Monroe and Sinatra had an affair, it relies on tertiary sources, so the daughter of the mother who worked on Monroe's set, that kind of thing, for a lot of it's big moments. And a lot of stuff in the book reads like fanfiction, like these two characters were off screen for stretch of time so surely they were together.

While it's true that Joe DiMaggio and Frank Sinatra probably knew each other, the author really plays up this narrative that Sinatra was afraid of DiMaggio. The reality however is most likely the other way around especially with Sinatra's mob ties, and the author really likes to play down the Chairman of the Board's influence at the time.

I just feel like this book could have benefitted from a genre switch from nonfiction to fiction in the same vein as "Blonde". Just something about it needs a whole rework.

Special thanks to NetGalley for giving me an Advanced Reader's Copy!