Maybe the final chapter here…….
So after the 2.5 hour drive, we arrived at Paulajane’s summer home in Margate NJ, 2[SUP]nd[/SUP] house from the beach. As we got aquainted and gave the background of our journey, she cooked up some of the best Grilled Turkey, Ham, and Cheese sandwiches.
Before I go on, I want to mention a few freaky coincidences that were happening in real time. As you may recall, we have 5 autographed pictures of Jane Mansfield, Mariska Hargitay’s mother. As we were filling in the background info and spoke of Jane, Paulajane interrupted us and pointed to her TV behind us which was currently airing an episode of Law & Order SVU starring Mariska. She said it was her favorite show. Then her cell phone rang and the ring tone is that little noise they make at the end of the SVU jingle. To top that all off, Paulajane’s home was on Mansfield Ave.
We then proceeded to give the background of my wife’s late uncle and his wife of 5 years, who turned out was good friends with Paulajane and actually went to live with her and her family after the divorce from my wife’s uncle. We got a little more info but nowhere near what we had hoped for.
Next we started flipping thru the pictures and unfortunately, Paulajane could not identify all the people we had no names for. She was able to confirm that the one we thought was Frank Sinatra Jr, was not him and that another unknown was actually Frank Sinatra’s father Martin Sinatra. She was thrilled to see the few pics of the wedding where her father was the best man and also told us the Maid of Honor was her mother and that she was also present at the wedding. Her mother was facing away in the pic but due to the scar on her arm from an old vaccination, she knew it was her mother Bettyjane.
Next we pulled out the 2 books we had about Atlantic City and the 500 Club, one was Chance of a Lifetime, and the other was The Last Good Time. One was written by a cousin, while the other was written by another author but under the guidance and information of Paulajane. As she flipped thru the books looking at all the old pictures, she asked why we had the book. Not following, we said for the history and pictures. She then pointed out the reviews on the back and they were all from the UK. She told us that our copy was a UK version which was altered just a bit to ‘English it up’ as she said. She then flipped open the book to the Acknowledgment section to point out it was actually her book. We asked her to sign it for us and she wrote a little note there in the book for us.
She spent over 2 hours with us and before we left, we requested a few pictures with us. As I setup my camera and tripod in the kitchen, she said ‘Wait, come into the other room, I have a better spot’. In the main entrance way to her home, there is a huge poster of 500 Club items and pics of her father, Dean, Frank, and Sammy. She also got her US Hardback copy of her book to hold in the pics.
Unfortunately, she could not shed any light on anything related to Uncle Don’s son as it was before her time. Also just about anyone who may have that kind of info has died, or like the Lawyer, lost their memories of it. It was still fantastic to have this opportunity to meet with Paulajane and continue the long history and friendships between my wife’s family and the D'Amato Family. We can now add the pics of Paulajane and her autograph to our collection.
Sadly, as I opened this installment, this chapter of our journey appears to be over. I now plan to pursue finding out the values of the autographs but at this time, we don’t plan on selling them…..unless the value is significant.
Thanks for following along this journey with me as telling all of you the story has allowed me to keep track of all the details and progression of our search and findings. If anything else does come to light, I will add it here for those who have stayed interested in this story.
