In the early Forties, Jimmie Tarantino was a small-time Hollywood hustler, a freelance writer for a tiny boxing magazine, Knockout. Jimmie had big ideas. He managed to ingratiate himself with the still up-and-coming Frank Sinatra, becoming a member of Sinatra’s group of hangers-on, known informally as “The Varsity,” a precursor to the infamous Rat Pack of the Fifties and Sixties.

Proximity to Sinatra gave Jimmie access to lots of Hollywood dirt. He pitched the idea of a gossip magazine to Sinatra and mobster Mickey Cohen, both of whom invested in the magazine. Thus “Hollywood Nite-Life” was born.

Soon, Jimmie’s greed got the better of him and he had to leave Hollywood for San Francisco, where he hooked up with gambler and crime boss Bones Remmer and continued with his nefarious schemes, shakedowns, and mischief.