When Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin Got into a Fight at the Polo Lounge (Exclusive)

Beverly Hills may be considered one of the most glamorous cities in the world, but the glitz always has a dark side.

The new true crime book Beverly Hills Noir: Crime, Sin and Scandal in 90210by journalist, author and longtime PEOPLE contributor Scott Huver, examines a collection of some of the most outrageous extra-legal incidents in 90210 history, including Rat Pack icons Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin’s raucous night on the town that spiraled into a violent, mysterious Bar brawl led to Beverly Hills police hunting two of the storied city’s most famous residents for answers.

Read an exclusive excerpt shared with PEOPLE below.

It was Dean Martin’s 49th birthday. The drinks, as you might suspect, were flowing freely and in the early hours of the morning Frank Sinatra was shopping.

Dino, as he was known to those close to him, and his closest “buddy” celebrated the occasion at a location as iconic as they were: the posh Polo Lounge of the legendary Beverly Hills Hotel on Sunset Boulevard. Both had a lot to celebrate Dino’s birthday – June 7, 1966 – with a late-night party just after midnight: between films, television, records and concerts, Martin was well on his way to becoming the highest-earning entertainer of the era in show business while Sinatra, then 50, was at the creative peak of his successful recording and acting career – and was in love with 20-year-old actress Mia Farrow, who was 30 years his junior.

Farrow was absent for Martin’s birthday, as were Martin’s wife Jeannie and fellow Rat Packer Sammy Davis Jr., who was performing in Las Vegas. Instead, they were joined by actor Richard Conte, who also appeared with Sinatra, Martin and Davis in the 1960s Ocean’s Eleven. Conte, a Jersey boy like Frank and son of an Italian hairdresser like Dino, is perhaps best remembered today as Corleone family rival Don Barzini The Godfather.

The party, which also included three unidentified women, also included Sinatra’s close friend Ermenegildo “Jilly” Rizzo, the popular owner of the popular New York nightspot Jilly’s. Rizzo, a burly rhinoceros of a man with a glass eye (the source of much lurid speculation), spoke of “dese, dems and dosis” in Guys and Dolls-esque language, liberally peppered with enough profanity to make Damon Runyon blush. He traveled the world as a loyal companion and de facto bodyguard for his buddy “Sinat” and once said to Queen Elizabeth II of England: “If anyone ever hits you, call me.”

The group arrived at the luxurious, dimly lit cocktail bar after midnight and settled into a large booth, the center of attention in the city’s finest watering hole, glittering like 24-carat diamonds in a solid gold setting. Fancy language and colorful ethnic epithets flowed as liberally as the alcohol, drawing the ire of a nearby restaurant that, while not nearly as famous, was at least as wealthy and possibly more influential. When Frederick R. Weisman stood up to complain, Dean might have warned him. “It’s Frank’s world,” he once philosophized. “We just live in it.”

By the time Weisman, then 54, arrived 20 minutes before closing time, he had risen from wholesale salesman to president of Hunt’s Foods and later retired to become a major art patron with one of the region’s finest collections of modern art in his flagship Beverly Hills home . Weisman was accompanied by a guest at the hotel, 74-year-old Franklin H. Fox, a prominent businessman with a Boston furniture company.

The two men had just driven over from dinner to prepare for the upcoming wedding of Weisman’s son and Fox’s daughter. They stopped by for a nightcap, took the booth next to Sinatra and Martin’s, and chatted over drinks for about ten minutes, barely able to understand each other over the loud laughter and salty conversation of the celebrity revelers.

Eventually, Weisman got annoyed, leaned over to the party, and when Sinatra ended a call from one of the famous pink booth phones – installed so that Hollywood stars could immediately close deals negotiated over dinner and cocktails – he told them to stop to lower the volume and scold her for her vulgarity – after all, there were ladies present.

Despite Weisman’s objection to the blue language, Sinatra later quoted him as saying, “You talk too loudly and have a lot of loud-mouthed friends.” A particular D-word and a particular W-word, which Italian Americans typically object to, may also have been used raise.

Taken aback, the singer – who initially said he thought Weisman was joking but quickly realized the man was serious – fired off an exasperated “You’re out of line there, buddy” and returned to actual hilarity.

Here the details become rather unclear, depending on whose report you believe:

It is possible, as Sinatra would tell police, that Weisman suddenly punched the singer’s right eye, giving him an almost instant shine, then apparently slipped and fell – even though no one had touched him – and smashed the base of a cocktail table in the process crashed to the ground with a dull thud.

It is possible, as Franklin Fox told a Sinatra biographer decades later, that Sinatra made an anti-Semitic remark about Weisman, then made a comment about his glasses and then stormed out of the room with his friends before a scuffle broke out moments later to return in a fit of rage. Martin, Fox and a hotel security guard tried to keep Sinatra and Weisman apart as Martin pleaded, “Let’s get out of here, Frank!” Then Sinatra may have grabbed one of the phones next to the booth and violently hurled it at Weisman – ring-a- Ding-DING! – knocks him out cold and throws him to the ground with a thud.

It is possible that after the exchange of insults, “everyone started grabbing everyone else,” as one eyewitness reported, and Weisman suddenly fell to the ground in the melee with a thud.

It’s possible that Dean Martin really didn’t see what happened, as he recounted, but a Clyde who had been attacking his buddy suddenly fell to the ground with a thud.

In the end, popping was a constant element in each of the stories. Weisman had landed on the floor, lying flat on his back amid an upturned ashtray, a discarded tablecloth and a mess of broken crystal. It sounded like he was snoring. And he didn’t get up.

Security had separated the fighters and Martin, Conte, Rizzo and the rest of the group forced Sinatra out of the cocktail lounge while Fox tried in vain to revive Weisman. Beverly Hills police were alerted and paramedics took Weisman out on a stretcher while police interviewed Polo Lounge staff and witnesses. The executive was transported to the Beverly Hills First Aid Station, where he was treated, resuscitated and released, then taken home and put to bed.

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When Martin returned to his house a few blocks away, he stopped in the living room and sat dejectedly on the sofa next to his 18-year-old daughter Deana, who was surprised to see her father home so early on his birthday.

“Frank blew a fuse tonight,” he told her. “He can’t let it go.” Asked if anyone was hurt, Martin replied as he got up to go to bed: “I don’t know. I don’t know anything.”

When Weisman again failed to wake up nearly 24 hours after the incident, he was taken to the intensive care unit at Mt. Sinai Hospital, where he remained in critical condition for 48 hours. He was rushed into surgery and had to undergo a two-and-a-half-hour operation to repair a fractured skull. Weisman was in serious condition, still in a coma, and doctors could not guarantee he would survive.

Once Police Chief Clinton Anderson—who was well acquainted with Sinatra, particularly due to his involvement in security operations when Sinatra’s close friend President John F. Kennedy frequently visited the Beverly Hilton Hotel, JFK’s unofficial “Western White House”—learned how it worked Weisman’s condition was serious, he ordered Beverly Hills investigators to immediately begin a full investigation.

Anderson’s detectives rounded up other hotel workers and passersby who may have seen something. Still, the only thing the stories agreed on was that no one knew for sure whether someone had pushed or hit Weisman. When told that Weisman was taking prescription medication that might not have mixed well with his alcohol, the boss withheld any conclusions until he heard all the stories.

“He could have fallen and hit his head on a table,” Anderson mused to the press, “but maybe someone would have hit him.” His suspicions were heightened when he found out that two of the main characters – Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin – had flown out of the cage. Literally, as it turns out.

“Sinatra is in hiding,” Anderson told the detail-hungry press, “but we’re going to get him.”

From Beverly Hills Noir: Crime, Sin and Scandal in 90210 by Scott Huver. Published by arrangement with Post Hill Press. Copyright © Scott Huver, 2024.

Beverly Hills Noir: Crime, Sin and Scandal in 90210 will be published on October 1st and can now be pre-ordered wherever books are sold.