Free The Prince of Paradise by John Glatt

the initiative and sued for divorce.
    “George was her lover,” said Guy Costaldo, whose partner was Bernice’s hairdresser, Emmanuel Buccola. “And Ben had her followed, because he was terribly in love with her. They had helicopters following her. My lover Manny said, ‘It was a very exciting time—running this way, that, and the other.’”
    Bernice later claimed that even while her husband was having her followed, he was seeing another woman. “She was a bitch,” Bernice said many years later, “She used to come to the hotel while the divorce was going on. She really pursued him, and I guess he fell in love with her.”
    On Saturday, January 15, 1966—four days before Ben Jr.’s tenth birthday—Ben Novack filed for divorce, accusing Bernice of infidelity and of being a bad mother. In the bitter suit, Novack charged Bernice with taking valuables and “letters of deep sentimental value” from his safety deposit box. He also accused her of being “cold and indifferent,” and cheating on him with another man to cause him “mental anguish.” He demanded the court give him custody of Ben Jr., claiming that Bernice had neglected the boy by failing to provide a religious education.
    Three days later, the Miami News reported the story, with the headline, “Ben Novack, Wife Back in Court.”
    “Ben Novack, Fontainebleau Hotel operator, and his wife, Bernice, are back in divorce court,” the article stated. “Mrs. Novack sought a divorce from him in 1964, but they kissed and made up.”
    In her countersuit, Bernice Novack claimed that Ben had told her that he was bored with their marriage, that he drank excessively and cursed at her.
    Years later, Bernice would tell author Steven Gaines that she had been unhappy for many years, and no longer wanted to live at the Fontainebleau. “He would never buy me a house,” she complained. “He was fooling around. He was attractive and rich, and women were after him. After all, he owned the world-famous Fontainebleau.”
    Soon after the suit was filed, Bernice Novack moved into a separate penthouse suite at the Fontainebleau, amid Ben’s accusations that she had stolen valuable hotel furniture, art exhibits, liquor, and perfume.
    The hotel corporation then sued Bernice in circuit court, demanding she return the hundreds of items that had disappeared from not only the luxury penthouse she’d shared with her husband, but also from the hotel.

 
    N INE
    “GAMBLERS AND HOODLUMS”
    As his parents battled in the divorce court, Ben Novack Jr. had the run of the Fontainebleau—to the annoyance of many. He got in the way of the staff, who were always too scared to complain about his boisterous behavior.
    “He was in everybody’s hair,” recalled Lenore Toby. “He was a little tyrant. He had no discipline whatsoever. He was really Peck’s Bad Boy,” she said, referring to the 1934 film starring Jackie Cooper. Benji had been raised in the corridors and the lobbies of that hotel by the security officers, and had never had a real father and mother.
    At that time, Ben Novack Sr. had given his adopted son from his first marriage, Ronald, a lowly job as a reception clerk, and kept his distance, never allowing Ronald to live at the hotel. Benji had little to do with his adopted half-brother, and avoided him, too.
    “[Benji] didn’t have siblings,” said his cousin Meredith Fiel. “He had the Fontainebleau. The waiters. The waitresses. His nannies. That was his family.”
    *   *   *
    In January 1966, ABC-TV broadcast the first episode of the Batman TV series, causing a sensation. Ten-year-old Ben Novack Jr. became a huge fan, and lived for the weekly shows. The small boy totally related to the caped crusader’s fight for good against evil foes such as the Joker, Catwoman, and the Riddler.
    He was now hanging around the Miami Beach police officers who worked security at the Fontainebleau, who took him under their wing. The precocious little boy latched on to the