More than thirteen years ago, in the summer of 1974, Dean and Sinatra had entertained the idea of making an extended concert tour of America, travelling from city to city in a chartered train of their own private cars. The idea had been Dean's as much as Sinatra's. 'How much longer have we got ?' he had asked Sinatra. But nothing had come of it. Now in the fall of 1987, Sinatra had revived the notion as something he, Dean and Sammy Davis could do together.

Both of them knew that Dean's withdrawal from the world had taken a grievous turn since the death of his son.
On December 1st, they held a noon press conference at Chasen's. At the start of the conference Dean mumbled incoherently for a moment, then said,'Go ahead Frank, take it away. I can't talk'.

A reporter asked Dean a question, which he had difficulty hearing. "We're happy to be doing this thing," he maundered."What the hell."

Someone wanted to know if any of them had tried to quit smoking. Sinatra, conscious of his image, explained that it was es eptional for him to be smoking at this time of the day. Normal, he smoked only after dinner. Dean, still quick with his hands, tossed a cigarette into his mouth. "I smoke during dinner., he said.

Another reporter pursued the matter. Did they feel that their smoking on stage might be a problem in this age when there was so much effort to prevent children from smoking?
"We don't care who smokes." Dean said.

The tour opened to a full house of 16,000 at the Oakland Coliseum Arena on March 13, 1988.
"Will someone tell me why we're here?" Dean wondered aloud backstage to Sinatra and Sammy. Neither of them answered him.

Dean went on first. There were problems with the sound system, cries of 'Can't hear you' and 'louder'. He sang seven songs, Davis came out and did 35 minutes, announcing to the crowd that he was celebrating '3 years of sobriety'. For me, it's one day at a time now. After an intermission, Sinatra did his half hour, then the three of them closed together with a twenty minute medley. Dean fell behind the others by a few bars. "Don't worry, he'll catch up to us," Sinatra said.
"I wanna go home," Dean hollered, and laughter swept through the crowd: but it was more than just a joke.
At one point, his mood seemed suddenly to change. He looked long and hard at the faceless sea beyond the stage. What the **** was he doing there, and who the hell were these people.? He took a final drag from his cigarette and flicked the burning butt into the crowd.

Sinatra confronted him about it after the show. Dean told him to get lost.

Six days later, they were in Chicago. Sinatra was upset that the three of them had not been given suites on the same floor of the Omni Embassdor East Hotel. He had his valet complain to the manager, but when the manager called Dean's suite to arrange for his things to be moved, Dean told him that he wanted to stay where he was, lontano. He told the manager to tell Sinatra that the hotel did not have three empty suites on the same floor. When the manager did as asked, Sinatra threw a fit. "Don't unpack," he yelled to his valet. "We're going to get the hell out of this dump. Get Dean and Sammy in here." Sammy came as summoned, but Dean did not.

At the Chicago Theatre the next night, Sinatra complained to Mort Viner that Dean was not singing as well as he should be singing. It was more than a comment, it was a tirade, Viner told Dean about it.

"I can't take this ," Dean said. "I'm getting outta here."
He had Viner carter a plane, and the two of them flew back to Los Angeles that midnight. To avoid problems Dean checked into Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre. It was announced that he had been forced to quit due to a flare up of his 'old kidney problem' and was undergoing a complete diagnosis by his personal physician, Dr Charles Kivowitz.

Dean only lasted a week. Sinatra and Sammy went on alone to Bloomington, Minnesota. It was obvious that Dean had no intention of rejoining them. Producer George Schlatter cancelled the scheduled taping of the April 6 Radio City Music Hall show that had been planned for the HBO Special. On April 15, Liza Minnelli took Dean's place, and the tour went on as the Ultimate Event.