Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley had a strained relationship in the early days of Elvis’ career. Sinatra spoke out against rock music and pointed to Elvis as a corruptive force on America’s youth. The rumors that Elvis was involved with Sinatra’s girlfriend certainly didn’t help things, either. Elvis acted in a film with Juliet Prowse while she was with Sinatra. He came very close to catching the two of them together.
Frank Sinatra nearly walked in on Elvis and Juliet Prowse
In 1960, Elvis and Prowse starred in G.I. Blues, the former’s first after his discharge from the army. At the time, Prowse was with Sinatra. Elvis often pursued his leading ladies, though, and he wasn’t going to let Sinatra get in the way of this. According to his entourage, Elvis and Prowse began spending a great deal of time together in his dressing room as they were shooting.
Elvis’ entourage hung around outside the dressing room and often pounded on the door as a way to prank the couple.
“Hey, Elvis, quick, here comes Frank!” bodyguard Red West would say, per the book Elvis: What Happened? by Steve Dunleavy. “He’s on the set.”
Elvis opened the door the first several times this happened, but he learned to ignore these false warnings. This was a problem on a day when Sinatra actually visited the set.
“Hey, Elvis, here comes Frank!” West shouted. “I mean it, man, he’s on the set!”
West got a “f*** you” from Elvis, but the singer didn’t open the door. West watched in horror as Sinatra walked into the room. He stopped inside briefly but didn’t see anything incriminating.
“Afterwards, Elvis laughed about it,” bodyguard Sonny West recalled. “He said, ‘Goddamn, man, the one time you guys banged on the door and there he was. It was Frank Sinatra.’”
Sinatra and Prowse were briefly engaged, but they broke up in 1962.
Juliet Prowse took a while to warm to Elvis
Though Elvis and Prowse dated briefly, it took her a while to warm to him. Red West believed she wasn’t sure what to make of Elvis and his constantly present entourage.
“She was a very cool lady,” Red said. “She had that English-type accent and at first we all thought she was a bit standoffish. Actually, she was a pretty nice chick. But I guess at first when she saw all these wild men from Memphis, she probably thought, What the hell is this all about?”
Elvis quickly charmed her, though.
“Anyway, Elvis started to break down this coolness with his professional country-boy charm, real polite, real sincere.”
What did Juliet Prowse say about Frank Sinatra and Elvis?
Prowse’s relationships with Sinatra and Elvis became tabloid fodder, so she eventually addressed the matter.
“I had a date or two with Elvis — he’s a nice, polite chap — but we’re definitely not a steady item as some columnists say,” Prowse said in 1960, per the LA Times. “Yes, I see Frank Sinatra quite often. We’re good friends. And I’m very tired of some people trying to dig up a ‘triangle’ situation. It’s ridiculous.”
She also pointed out that even if she had dated Elvis at the same time as Sinatra, it wasn’t a problem. They weren’t in an exclusive relationship.
“Frank and I are mature people,” she said, per The Washington Post. “We don’t go for this teenage bit about going steady and all that jazz.”
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