Dialogue from the Rat Pack show re-created in the book is largely drawn from a 1963 concert, Live at the Sands, with additional information from Mary Manning, “Rat Pack Reveled in Vegas; Revered by the World,” in Las Vegas Sun, May 15, 2008.
The relationship between Ambassador Kennedy and Gloria Swanson is detailed in The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys: An American Saga, by Doris Kearns Goodwin. New York: St. Martin’s, 1991.
The January 1962 Los Angeles snowstorm was written about in “Freak Southland Storm Brings Snow, Sleet, Hail,” Los Angeles Times, January 22, 1962.
The death of attorney Jerry Giesler was covered by the Associated Press, “$800k Estate Left by Giesler,” January 20, 1962.
Some of the early days of Scientology were covered in “‘Have You Ever Been a Boo-Hoo?’,” by James Phelan, Saturday Evening Post, March 21, 1964.
“Project Celebrity” information was taken from “Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard Offered Rewards for Celebrity Recruits in 1955,” by Kirsten Acuna, Business Insider, July 19, 2012.
Shirley MacLaine talked about some of the difficulties filming The Trouble with Harry here: https://talkfilmsociety.com/columns/beginners-guide-to-alfred-hitchcock-the-trouble-with-harry-1955.
The police poster at the LAPD headquarters was described by Alan Nicholls in News of the Day, Age, August 22, 1961. The police bulletin came from https://www.scpr.org/programs/offramp/2017/03/03/55421/la-city-archive-the-lapd-s-police-bulletin-opens-w/. The death of Officer Riegel is from Valley Times, July 3, 1961, https://www.odmp.org/officer/11267-policeman-sidney-riegel.
John Frankenheimer discussed some of his experiences filming The Manchurian Candidate for the Criterion Collection.
Some details about filming The Birds came from Mark Mancini, “10 Fascinating Facts About The Birds,” Mental Floss, January 4, 2018, and from https://the.hitchcock.zone/wiki/Cinemafantastique_(1980)_The_Making_of_Alfred_Hitchcock%27s_The_Birds. Some dialogue attributed to LeGrue was actually said by bird trainer Ray Berwick in “The Making of Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds,” by Kyle B. Counts and Steve Rubin in Cinemafantastique (Fall 1980).
Some of the dialogue and descriptions about filming The Manchurian Candidate in New York came from Don Ross, “Frank Sinatra: ‘Decent, Wholesome and Nice Boy,’” New York Herald Tribune, February 21, 1962; UPI, “Actor Laurence Harvey Is Helped from the Freezing Waters,” February 8, 1962; Earl Wilson, “Midnight Earl,” St. Louis Globe-Democrat, February 9, 1962.
The description of Toots Shor’s restaurant came from John Bainbridge, “Toots’s World; Part II—Friendship,” The New Yorker, November 18, 1950, as well as https://www.tipsontables.com/toots.html. Details of the Psycho shower scene were relayed by Will Hodgkinson, “Secrets of the Psycho Shower,” The Guardian, March 29, 2010; Oliver Lunn, “10 Things You (Probably) Never Knew About the Shower Scene in Psycho,” BFI, December 11, 2017; and Bernard Weinraub, “‘Psycho’ in Janet Leigh’s Psyche,” New York Times, May 1, 1995.
Lolita actually premiered June 13, 1962, at Loew’s State and Murray Hill Theaters in New York. Kate Cameron wrote about it in “‘Lolita’ On Screen…for Adults Only,” New York Daily News, June 10, 1962. Some of the Kubrick dialogue was taken from an unpublished interview with the director by novelist and screenwriter Terry Southern; see http://www.archiviokubrick.it/english/words/interviews/1962southern.html.
Operation Northwoods was described in the National Security Archive at the George Washington University at https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu//news/20010430/northwoods.pdf. Other operations described in the book come from various sources, including a memo by Brigadier General William Craig to Brigadier General Edward Lansdale as reprinted in Letters of Note: Possible Actions to Provoke, Harass, or Disrupt Cuba, August 23, 2011; http://www.lettersofnote.com/2011/08/possible-actions-to-provoke-harass-or.html.
Lawford actually delivered the news to Sinatra that President Kennedy wouldn’t be staying with him by phone. His thoughts in this novel are taken from his interview with Kitty Kelley for His Way: The Unauthorized Biography of Frank Sinatra. The party at Bing’s house was taken from Kelley’s book, as well as Bill Adler’s Sinatra: The Man and the Myth (New York: New American Library, 1987) and Donald Spoto’s Marilyn Monroe: The Biography (New York: HarperCollins, 1993).
Disneyland was described in “Your First Visit to Disneyland,” Long Beach Independent-Press-Telegram, July 15, 1955. A great map of the park in that era can be found at https://disneyavenue.wordpress.com/2015/04/10/disneyland-map-evolution-1955-2015/. Christopher Klein wrote about “Disneyland’s Disastrous Opening Day” at https://www.history.com/news/disneylands-disastrous-opening-day-60-years-ago. Other thoughts are from Kathy Merlock Jackson and Mark West, Disneyland and Culture: Essays on Parks and Their Influence. London: McFarland Books, 2011.
Details about Le Havre during World War II came from Andrew Knapp, “The Destruction and Liberation of Le Havre in Modern Memory,” War in History 14 (November 2007).
Details about the Hollywood sign came from https://hollywoodsign.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Hollywood-Sign-Brochure-FINAL_102918.pdf; Rob Owen, “Hooray for the Hollywood Sign Hike,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, January 2016; “Groups Rally to Preserve Historic ‘Hollywood’ Sign,” Van Nuys News, January 18, 1973.
Dirty fighting in World War II is described in https://www.scribd.com/doc/33564438/Dirty-Fighting-World-War-2-hand-to-hand-combat-manual.
“The Ugly, Violent Clearing of Chavez Ravine Before It Was Home to the Dodgers” can be read at https://laist.com/2018/10/17/dodger_stadium_chavez_ravine_battle.php.
The sad story of Marilyn Monroe is detailed by James Spada, “The Man Who Kept Marilyn’s Secrets,” Vanity Fair, May 1991, and James Patterson, The House of Kennedy. New York: Little, Brown, 2020. Lawford’s introduction of Monroe at the JFK birthday taken verbatim from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHt1_HXN8LI. Additional details about the Kennedy birthday party were gleaned from press accounts at the time in May 1962, including “Good Time Had by All at Million Dollar Party,” by Milt Freudenheim, Chicago Daily News Service; and “Kennedy Bridges a Gap,” by Mary McGrory, Washington Star.
Arthur Krim’s house was detailed at http://daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.com/2016/01/the-j-harper-poor-mansion-no-33-east.html.
But again, let me underline, this is a work of fiction. My editors are insisting that I tell you I completely invented the song “The Devil May Dance,” because they’re worried some of the eager Googlers among you might drive yourselves to the brink trying to find it. Don’t look for it; it’s not real. Neither is the “Cubana” song from the scene on Tom Sawyer’s Island, nor the snippet of the Sinatra song Lawford and Charlie hear on their way to Sinatra’s compound.
I had great help in writing this book, from the support of my boss, Jeff Zucker, to wonderful edits suggested by dear friends John Berman, Matt Klam, Damon Lindelof, Geoff Shandler, and my little brother, Professor Aaron Hahn Tapper. After making excellent edits and suggestions to much of the first draft, my first editor, Reagan Arthur, left for another publishing house and I was lucky enough to have the talented
