WHEN: 19th July 1966.
WHERE: The Sands Hotel and Casino, Las Vegas.
WHAT HAPPENED: Ol' Blue Eyes, 48, had taken a liking to the 19-year-old Peyton's Place actress after she visited the set of his film Von Ryan’s Express in 1964. Despite the age difference (famously acknowledged by Sinatra's fellow Rat Pack member, Dean Martin, when he said, "Marry Mia Farrow? I've scotch older than her"), the pair were smitten. The couple dubbed "the hipster and the hippy" by the press went on dates to the cinema before he took her to Palm Springs on his private jet. It wasn't always plain sailing; two of Sinatra's three children were older than Farrow and they were reportedly unimpressed at the coupling. This conflict might well be why Sinatra eventually insisted on having a secret wedding.
THE DRESS: Mia wore a neat tailored skirt with a bow around the waist coupled with a short, three-quarter-sleeved, double-breasted jacket that still feels modern today. Her gamine crop was the perfect accompaniment.
THE GUESTS: Apparently the actual ceremony only lasted four minutes, and was attended by no members of Frank’s family. The movie producer William Goetz was the best man and his wife the maid of honour.
THE PARTY: The unlikely pair flew from Las Vegas to Palm Springs for a glamorous party with some of Hollywood's finest including Katherine Hepburn, Spencer Tracy and Dean Martin.
HAPPILY EVER AFTER? Well not exactly. After initially trying (and failing) to make Farrow give up acting, Sinatra then hoped that Mia would star in his film The Detective but when her filming for Rosemary’s Baby overran, she was unable to join the cast. He served her the divorce papers on set. Their divorce was finalised in August 1968, with Mia blaming the couple’s age difference.
Still, in an interview for the November 2013 issue of Vanity Fair, Farrow admitted they maintained a relationship long after their divorce (“he came back, over and over and over and over. I mean, we never really split up”) and said that her son Ronan (born 1987) was “possibly” Sinatra’s. Ronan took to Twitter with the rather wonderful response: “Listen, we're all *possibly* Frank Sinatra's son.” Sinatra died in 1998.
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