Frank Sinatra Biography Wiki
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra (pronounced /sɨˈnɑːtrə/; December 12,
1915 – May 14, 1998)[6]
was an American singer and actor.
Beginning his musical career in the swing
era with Harry James and Tommy
Dorsey, Sinatra became a successful solo artist in the early to
mid-1940s, being the idol of the "bobby
soxers." His professional career had stalled by the 1950s, but it
was reborn in 1954 after he won the Academy Award for Best
Supporting Actor (for his performance in From Here to Eternity).
He signed with Capitol Records and released several
critically lauded albums (such as In the Wee Small Hours, Songs for Swingin'
Lovers, Come Fly with Me, Only the Lonely
and Nice 'n' Easy). Sinatra left Capitol to
found his own record label, Reprise Records (finding success with albums such as Ring-A-Ding-Ding, Sinatra at the Sands and Francis
Albert Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim), toured
internationally, was a founding member of the Rat Pack
and fraternized with celebrities and statesmen, including John F. Kennedy. Sinatra turned 50 in 1965, recorded the
retrospective September of My Years, starred in
the Emmy-winning television special Frank Sinatra: A Man and His
Music, and scored hits with "Strangers in the Night" and "My Way".
Sinatra attempted to weather the changing tastes in popular music,
but with sales of his music dwindling, and after appearing in several
poorly received films, he retired in 1971. Coming out of retirement in
1973, he recorded several albums; scored a Top 40 hit with "(Theme From) New York, New York"
in 1980; and toured both within the United States and internationally
until a few years before his death in 1998.
Sinatra also forged a career as an actor, winning the Academy Award for Best
Supporting Actor for his performance in From Here to Eternity, and he was nominated
for the Academy Award for Best Actor
for The Man with the Golden Arm.
He also starred in such musicals as High Society, Pal Joey, Guys and Dolls and On the Town. Sinatra was honored at the Kennedy Center Honors in 1983 and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom
by Ronald Reagan in 1985 and the Congressional Gold Medal in 1997.
Sinatra was also the recipient of eleven Grammy Awards, including the Grammy Trustees Award, Grammy Legend Award and the Grammy Lifetime Achievement
Award. Early life
Sinatra was the only child of Italian immigrants Natalie Della (née Garaventa) and Antonio Martino Sinatra.[7]
He left high school without graduating,[8]
having attended only 47 days before being expelled because of his rowdy
conduct. His mother, known as Dolly, was influential in the
neighborhood and in local Democratic Party circles,
but also ran an illegal abortion business from her home; she was arrested
several times and convicted twice for this offense.[9]
Sinatra was arrested for carrying on with a married woman, a criminal
offense at the time.[10]
Sinatra's father, often referred to as Tony, served with the Hoboken
Fire Department. During the tough years of the 1930s, when the Great Depression hit North America, Dolly nevertheless
provided ready pocket money to their son for outings with friends and
fancy clothes.[11]
Sinatra then worked for some time as a delivery boy at the Jersey
Observer newspaper,[12]
and as a riveter at the Tietjan and Lang shipyard.[13]
It was in the early 1930s that Sinatra began singing in public.[14]
[edit] 1935–40:
Start of career, work with James and Dorsey
Sinatra got his first break in 1935 when his mother persuaded a local
singing group, The Three Flashes, to let
him join. With Sinatra, the group became known as the Hoboken Four,[5]
and they sufficiently impressed Edward
Bowes. After appearing on his show, Major Bowes Amateur Hour, they
attracted 40,000 votes and won the first prize — a six month contract to
perform on stage and radio across the United States.
Sinatra left the Hoboken 4 and returned home in late 1935. His mother
secured him a job as a singing waiter and MC at the Rustic Cabin in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey,
for which he was paid $15 a week.[15]
On March 18, 1939, Sinatra made a demo recording of a song called
"Our Love", with the Frank Mane band. The record has "Frank Sinatra"
signed on the front. The bandleader kept the original record in a safe
for nearly 60 years.[16]
In June, Harry James hired Sinatra on a one year contract
of $75 a week.[17]
It was with the James band that Sinatra released his first commercial
record "From the Bottom of My Heart" in July, 1939 - US Brunswick #8443
and UK Columbia #DB2150.[18]
Fewer than 8,000 copies of "From the Bottom of My Heart" (Brunswick
#8443) were sold, making the record a very rare find that is sought
after by record collectors worldwide. Sinatra released ten commercial
tracks with James through 1939, including "All or Nothing At All" which
had weak sales on its initial release but then sold millions of copies
when re-released by Columbia at the height of Sinatra's popularity a few
years later.[19]
In November 1939, in a meeting at the Palmer House in Chicago,
Sinatra was asked by bandleader Tommy
Dorsey to join his band as a replacement for Jack Leonard, who had
recently left to launch a solo career. This meeting was a turning point
in Sinatra's career, since by signing with Dorsey's band, one of the
hottest bands at the time, he got greatly increased visibility with the
American public. Though Sinatra was still under contract with James,
James recognized the opportunity Dorsey offered and graciously released
Sinatra from his contract. Sinatra recognized his debt to James
throughout his life and upon hearing of James's death in 1983, stated:
"he [James] is the one that made it all possible."[20]
On January 26, 1940, Sinatra made his first public appearance with
the Dorsey band at the Coronado Theater in Rockford, IL.[21]
In his first year with Dorsey, Sinatra released more than forty songs,
with "I'll Never Smile Again" topping the charts for twelve weeks
beginning in mid-July.[22]
Sinatra's relationship with Tommy Dorsey was troubled, because of
their contract, which awarded Dorsey ⅓ of Sinatra's lifetime earnings in
the entertainment industry. In January 1942, Sinatra recorded his first
solo sessions without the Dorsey band (but with Dorsey's arranger Axel
Stordahl and with Dorsey's approval). These sessions were released
commercially on the Bluebird label. Sinatra left the Dorsey band late in
1942 in an incident that started rumors of Sinatra's involvement with
the Mafia. A story appeared in the Hearst newspapers
that mobster Sam Giancana coerced Dorsey to let Sinatra out
of his contract for a few thousand dollars. This story was famously
fictionalized in the movie The Godfather. According to Nancy
Sinatra's biography, the Hearst rumors were started because of Frank's
Democratic politics. In fact, the contract was bought out by MCA founder
Jules Stein for $75,000.[20]
[edit]
1940–50:
Sinatramania and decline of career
In May 1941, Sinatra was at the top of the male singer polls in the Billboard and Down
Beat magazines.[23]
His appeal to bobby soxers, as teenage girls of that time were
called, revealed a whole new audience for popular music, which had been
recorded mainly for adults up to that time.
On December 31, 1942, Sinatra opened at the Paramount
Theater in New York.
During the musicians' strike of 1942–44, Columbia re-released Harry James and Sinatra's version of "All or Nothing at All" (music by Arthur Altman and
lyrics by Jack Lawrence), recorded in August 1939 and released before
Sinatra had made a name for himself. The original release didn’t even
mention the vocalist’s name. When the recording was re–released in 1943
with Sinatra’s name prominently displayed, the record was on the
best–selling list for 18 weeks and reached number 2 on June 2, 1943.[24]
Sinatra signed with Columbia on June 1, 1943 as a solo artist, and he had
initially great success, particularly during the 1942-43 musicians'
strike. And while no new records had been issued during the strike,
he had been performing on the radio (on Your Hit Parade), and on stage. Columbia wanted to get
new recordings of their growing star as fast as possible, so Sinatra
convinced them to hire Alec
Wilder as arranger and conductor for several sessions with a vocal
group called the Bobby Tucker Singers. These first sessions were on June
7, June 22, August 5, and November 10, 1943. Of the nine songs recorded
during these sessions, seven charted on the best–selling list.[25]
Sinatra did not serve in the military during World
War II. On December 11, 1943, he was classified 4-F ("Registrant not acceptable
for military service") for a perforated eardrum by his draft board.
Additionally, an FBI report on Sinatra,
released in 1998, showed that the doctors had also written that he was a
"neurotic" and "not acceptable material from a psychiatric standpoint."
This was omitted from his record to avoid "undue unpleasantness for
both the selectee and the induction service."[26][27]
Active-duty servicemen, like William Manchester, said of Sinatra, "I think Frank
Sinatra was the most hated man of World War II, much more than Hitler,"
because Sinatra was back home making all of that money and being shown
in photographs surrounded by beautiful women.[28]
His deferment would resurface throughout his life and cause him grief
when he had to defend himself.[26][29]
There were accusations, including some from noted columnist Walter Winchell,[30]
that Sinatra paid $40,000 to avoid the service — but the FBI could find
no evidence of this.[27][31]
When Sinatra returned to the Paramount Theater in October 1944,
35,000 fans caused a near riot outside the venue because they were not
allowed in.
In 1945, Sinatra co-starred with Gene
Kelly in Anchors Aweigh. That same year, he
was loaned out to RKO to star in a short film titled The House I Live In. Directed by Mervyn
LeRoy, this film on tolerance and racial equality earned a special Academy
Award shared among Sinatra and those who brought the film to the
screen, along with a special Golden Globe for "Promoting Good Will." 1946 saw
the release of his first album, The Voice of Frank Sinatra,
and the debut of his own weekly radio show.
By the end of 1948, Sinatra felt that his career was stalling,
something that was confirmed when he slipped to No. 4 on Down
Beat's annual poll of most popular singers (behind Billy Eckstine, Frankie
Laine, and Bing Crosby).[32]
The year 1949 saw an upswing, as Frank co-starred with Gene Kelly in Take Me Out to the Ball
Game. It was well received critically and became a major
commercial success. That same year, Sinatra teamed up with Kelly for a
third time in On the Town.
[edit] 1950–60:
Rebirth of career, Capitol concept albums
After two years' absence, Sinatra returned to the concert stage on
January 12, 1950, in Hartford, Connecticut. His voice
suffered and he experienced hemorrhaging of his vocal cords on stage at
the Copacabana on April 26, 1950.[11]
Sinatra's career and appeal to new teen audiences declined as he moved
into his mid-30s.
In September 1951, Sinatra made his Las Vegas debut at the Desert
Inn. A month later, a second series of the Frank Sinatra Show
aired on CBS.
Columbia and MCA dropped him in 1952.
The rebirth of Sinatra's career began with the eve-of-Pearl Harbor drama From Here to Eternity (1953), for which he won
an Academy Award for Best
Supporting Actor. This role and performance marked a turnaround in
Sinatra's career: after a critical and commercial decline for several
years, he became an Oscar-winning actor and, once again, one of the top
recording artists in the world.[33]
Also in 1953, Sinatra starred in the NBC radio program Rocky
Fortune. His character, Rocko Fortunato (aka Rocky Fortune) was
a private eye who was placed in a variety of odd jobs by the Gridley
Employment Agency to solve crimes. The series aired on NBC radio Tuesday
nights from October 1953 to March 1954. During the final months of the
show, just before the 1954 Oscars, it became a running gag that Sinatra
would manage to work the phrase "from here to eternity" into each
episode, a reference to his Oscar-nominated performance.[34]
In 1953, Sinatra signed with Capitol Records, where he worked with many of the finest
musical arrangers of the era, most notably Nelson
Riddle, Gordon Jenkins, and Billy
May. Sinatra reinvented himself with a series of albums featuring
darker emotional material, including In the Wee Small Hours (1955) -- Sinatra's
first 12" LP and his second collaboration with Nelson Riddle -- Where Are You?
(1957) and Frank
Sinatra Sings For Only The Lonely (1958). He also incorporated a
hipper, "swinging" persona, as heard on Swing
Easy! (1954), Songs For Swingin'
Lovers (1956), and Come Fly With Me (1957).
By the end of the year, Billboard named "Young at Heart" Song of the
Year, Swing Easy! with Nelson Riddle at the helm,
(his second album for Capitol) was named Album of the Year and Sinatra
was named "Top Male Vocalist" by Billboard, Down
Beat and Metronome.
A third collaboration with Nelson Riddle, Songs For Swingin'
Lovers, was a success, featuring a recording of "I've Got
You Under My Skin".
Frank Sinatra Sings for
Only the Lonely, a stark collection of introspective saloon
songs and blues-tinged ballads, was a mammoth commercial success,
peaking at #1 on Billboard's album chart during a 120-week stay.
Cuts from this LP, such as "Angel Eyes" and "One for My Baby
(and One More for the Road)", would remain staples of Sinatra's
concerts throughout his life.
Through the late fifties, Sinatra frequently criticized rock music,
much of it being his reaction to rhythms and attitudes he found alien.
In 1958 he lambasted it as "sung, played, and written for the most part
by cretinous goons. It manages to be the martial music of every
sideburned delinquent on the face of the earth."[35]
[edit] 1960–70:
Ring-A-Ding-Ding, Reprise records, Basie, Jobim, "My Way"
Sinatra started the 1960s as he ended the 1950s. His first album of
the decade, Nice 'n' Easy, topped Billboard's
chart and won critical plaudits. Sinatra grew discontented at Capitol
and decided to form his own label, Reprise Records. His first album on the label, Ring-A-Ding-Ding
(1961), was a major success peaking at #4 on Billboard and #8 in
the UK.
His fourth and final Timex special was broadcast in March 1960 and secured
massive viewing figures. Titled It's Nice to Go Travelling, the
show is more commonly known as Welcome Home
Elvis. Elvis Presley's appearance after his army
discharge was somewhat ironic; Sinatra had been scathing about him in
the mid fifties, saying: "His kind of music is deplorable, a rancid
smelling aphrodisiac. It fosters almost totally negative and destructive
reactions in young people."[36]
Presley had responded: "... [Sinatra] is a great success and a fine
actor, but I think he shouldn't have said it... [rock and roll] is a
trend, just the same as he faced when he started years ago."[37]
Later, in efforts to maintain his commercial viability, Sinatra
recorded Presley's hit "Love Me Tender" as well as works by Paul
Simon ("Mrs. Robinson"), The
Beatles ("Something", "Yesterday"), and Joni
Mitchell ("Both Sides Now").[38]
Following on the heels of the film Can Can was Ocean's 11,
the movie that became the definitive on-screen outing for "The Rat Pack".
On January 27, 1961, Sinatra played a benefit show at Carnegie
Hall for Martin Luther King, Jr.. He played a
major role in the desegregation of Nevada
hotels and casinos in the 1960s. Sinatra led his fellow members of the
Rat Pack and label-mates on Reprise in refusing to patronize hotels and
casinos that wouldn't allow black singers to play or wouldn't allow
black patrons entry. He would often speak from the stage on
desegregation. He played more benefits for King. According to Frank Sinatra, Jr., at one point during a show in 1963
King sat weeping as Sinatra sang Ol' Man River, the song from the musical Show
Boat that, in the show, is sung by an African-American
stevedore.
Over September 11 and 12, 1961, Sinatra recorded his final songs for
Capitol.
In 1962, along with Janet
Leigh and Laurence Harvey, he starred in the political
thriller The Manchurian Candidate
as Bennett Marco. That same year, Sinatra and Count
Basie collaborated for the album Sinatra-Basie. This popular and successful
release prompted them to rejoin two years later for a follow-up It Might as Well Be Swing, which was
arranged by Quincy Jones. One of Sinatra's more ambitious
albums from the mid-1960s, The Concert Sinatra, was recorded with a
73-piece symphony orchestra on 35mm tape.
Sinatra's first live album, Sinatra at the Sands, was recorded during January
and February 1966 at the Sands Hotel and Casino in Las
Vegas.
In June 1965, Sinatra, Sammy Davis, Jr.. and Dean
Martin played live in Saint
Louis to benefit Dismas House. The concert was broadcast live via
satellite to numerous movie theaters across America. Released in August
1965 was the Grammy Award–winning album of the year September of My Years, with a
career anthology A Man and His Music followed in November, itself
winning Album of the Year at the Grammys in 1966. The TV special Frank
Sinatra: A Man and His Music garnered both an Emmy award and a Peabody
Award.
In the spring, That's Life appeared,
with both the single and album becoming Top Ten hits in the US on Billboard's
pop charts. Strangers in the Night went on to
top the Billboard and UK pop singles charts, winning the award
for Record of the Year at the Grammys. The album of the same name also topped
the Billboard chart and reached number 4 in the UK.
Sinatra started 1967 with a series of recording sessions with Antônio Carlos Jobim.
Later in the year, a duet with daughter Nancy, "Somethin' Stupid", topped the Billboard pop and UK
singles charts. In December, Sinatra collaborated with Duke Ellington on the album Francis A. & Edward K..
During the late 1960s, press agent Lee
Solters would invite columnists with their spouses into Sinatra's
dressing room just before he was about to go on stage. The New Yorker recounted that "The first columnist they
tried this on was Larry Fields of the Philadelphia Daily News, whose
wife fainted when Sinatra kissed her cheek. 'Take care of it, Lee,'
Sinatra said, and he was off."[39]
Back on the small-screen, Sinatra once again worked with Jobim and Ella Fitzgerald on the TV special A Man and His Music + Ella +
Jobim.
Watertown (1970) was one of Sinatra's
most acclaimed concept albums,[40]
but was all but ignored by the public. Selling a mere 30,000 copies,
and reaching a peak chart position of 101, its failure put an end to
plans of a television special based on the album.
With Sinatra in mind, singer-songwriter Paul
Anka wrote the song "My Way" inspired from the French "Comme d'habitude" ("As
Usual"), composed by Claude François and Jacques Revaux. (The song had been previously commissioned
to David Bowie, whose lyrics did not please the involved
agents.) "My Way" would, perhaps, become more identified with him than
any other over his seven decades as a singer.
[edit]
1970–80:
Retirement and comeback
On June 12, 1971 — at a concert in Hollywood
to raise money for the Motion Picture and TV Relief Fund — at the age
of 55, Sinatra announced that he was retiring, bringing to an end his
36-year career in show business.
In 1973, Sinatra came out of retirement with a television special and
album, both entitled Ol' Blue Eyes Is Back.
The album, arranged by Gordon Jenkins and Don
Costa, was a great success, reaching number 13 on Billboard
and number 12 in the UK. The TV special was highlighted by a dramatic
reading of "Send in the Clowns" and a song and dance
sequence with former co-star Gene Kelly.
In January 1974, Sinatra returned to Las Vegas, performing at Caesar's Palace despite vowing in 1970
never to play there again after the manager of the resort, Sanford
Waterman, pulled a gun on him during a heated argument.[41]
With Waterman recently shot, the door was open for Sinatra to return.
In Australia, he caused an uproar by describing journalists there —
who were aggressively pursuing his every move and pushing for a press
conference — as "fags", "pimps", and "whores." Australian unions
representing transport workers, waiters, and journalists went on strike,
demanding that Sinatra apologize for his remarks.[42]
Sinatra instead insisted that the journalists apologize for "fifteen
years of abuse I have taken from the world press."[42]
The future Prime Minister of Australia, Bob
Hawke, then the Australian Council of Trade
Unions (ACTU) leader, also insisted that Sinatra apologize, and a
settlement was eventually reached to the apparent satisfaction of both
parties,[42]
Sinatra's final show of his Australian tour was televised to the
nation.
In October 1974, Sinatra appeared at New York City's Madison Square Garden in a televised concert that
was later released as an album under the title The Main Event – Live. Backing him
was bandleader Woody Herman and the Young Thundering Herd, who
accompanied Sinatra on a European tour later that month. The TV special
garnered mostly positive reviews whilst the album — actually culled
from various shows during his comeback tour — was only a moderate
success, peaking at #37 on Billboard and #30 in the UK.
In 1979, in front of the Egyptian pyramids, Sinatra performed for Anwar Sadat. Back in Las Vegas, while
celebrating 40 years in show business and his 64th birthday, he was
awarded the Grammy Trustees Award during a party
at Caesar's Palace.
[edit] 1980–90:
Trilogy, She Shot Me Down, L.A. Is My Lady
In 1980, Sinatra's first album in six years was released, Trilogy: Past Present Future,
a highly ambitious triple album that found Sinatra recording songs from
the past (pre-rock era) and present (rock era and contemporary) that he
had overlooked during his career, while 'The Future' was a free-form
suite of new songs linked à la musical theater by a theme, in this case,
Sinatra pondering over the future. The album garnered six Grammy nominations — winning for best liner
notes — and peaked at number 17 on Billboard's album chart, while
spawning yet another song that would become a signature tune, "Theme from New York, New York"
as well as Sinatra's much lauded (second) recording of George Harrison's "Something" (The first
was not officially released on an album until 1972's Frank Sinatra's Greatest
Hits, Vol. 2.)
The following year, Sinatra built on the success of Trilogy
with She Shot Me Down, an album that
revisited the dark tone of his Capitol years, and was praised by critics
as a vintage late-period Sinatra. Sinatra would comment that it was "A
complete saloon album... tear-jerkers and cry-in-your-beer kind of
things."[43]
Sinatra was embroiled in controversy in 1981 when he worked a ten-day
engagement for $2 million in Sun City, South
Africa breaking the cultural blockade on Apartheid South Africa.
See Artists United Against
Apartheid
Frank Sinatra was selected as one of the five recipients of the 1983 Kennedy Center Honors, alongside Katharine Dunham, James Stewart, Elia
Kazan and Virgil Thomson. Quoting Henry
James in honoring Sinatra, Reagan said that "art was the shadow of
humanity," and said that Sinatra had "spent his life casting a
magnificent and powerful shadow."[44]
Earlier that year, Sinatra had worked with Quincy Jones for the first
time in nearly two decades on the album L.A. Is My Lady, which was well received critically. The
album was a substitute for another Jones project, an album of duets with
Lena
Horne, which had to be abandoned. (Horne developed vocal problems
and Sinatra, committed to other engagements, could not wait to record.)
[edit]
1990s:
Duets, final performances
In 1990, Sinatra celebrated his 75th birthday with a national tour,[45]
and was awarded the second "Ella Award" by the Los
Angeles–based Society of Singers. At the award ceremony, he performed
for the final time with Ella Fitzgerald.[46]
In December, as part of Sinatra's birthday celebrations, Patrick
Pasculli, the Mayor of Hoboken, made a proclamation in his honor,
declaring that "no other vocalist in history has sung, swung and crooned
and serenaded into the hearts of the young and old... as this
consummate artist from Hoboken."[47]
The same month Sinatra gave the first show of his Diamond Jubilee Tour
at the Meadowlands Arena in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
In 1993 Sinatra made a surprise return to Capitol and the recording
studio for Duets, which was released in
November.
The other artists who added their vocals to the album worked for
free, and a follow-up album (Duets II)
was released in 1994, which reached #9 on the Billboard charts.
Still touring, despite various health problems, Sinatra remained a
top concert attraction on a global scale during the first half of the
1990s. At times, his memory seemed to fail him, and a fall onstage in Richmond, Virginia in March 1994 signaled further
problems.
Sinatra's final public concerts were held in Japan's Fukuoka
Dome in December 1994. The following year, on February 25, 1995, at
a private party for 1,200 select guests on the closing night of the
Frank Sinatra Desert Classic golf tournament, Sinatra sang before a live
audience for the very last time. Esquire reported of the show that
Sinatra was "clear, tough, on the money" and "in absolute control." His
closing song was "The Best is Yet to Come".
Sinatra was awarded the Legend Award at the 1994 Grammy Awards. He was
introduced by Bono,
who said of Sinatra "Frank's the chairman of the bad attitude... rock
'n roll plays at being tough, but this guy is the boss. The chairman of
boss... I'm not going to mess with him, are you?"[48]
Sinatra called it "the best welcome...I ever had."[49]
However, during his speech, Sinatra apparently ran too long and was
curtly cut off by music, then commercials, leaving him looking confused
while talking into a dead microphone.
In 1995, to mark Sinatra's 80th birthday, the Empire State Building glowed blue. A star-studded
birthday tribute, Sinatra: 80 Years My Way held at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, was his last televised
appearance.
Sinatra was elected to the Gaming Hall of Fame in 1997.[50]
[edit] Personal life
Sinatra had three children, Nancy,
Frank Jr., and Tina,
all with his first wife, Nancy Barbato (married 1939-1951). He was
married three more times, to actresses Ava
Gardner (1951–1957) and Mia
Farrow (1966–1968) and finally to Barbara
Marx (married 1976), to whom he was still married at his death.
Throughout his life, Sinatra had mood swings and bouts of depression.
He acknowledged this, telling an interviewer in the 1950s: "Being an
18-karat manic-depressive, and having lived a life of violent emotional
contradictions, I have an over-acute capacity for sadness as well as
emotion."[51]
In her memoirs My Father's Daughter, his daughter Tina wrote
about the "eighteen-karat" remark: "As flippant as Dad could be about
his mental state, I believe that a Zoloft a day might have kept his demons away.
But that kind of medicine was decades off."[52]
"Sinatra was... the first modern pop superstar... Following his idol Bing
Crosby, who had pioneered the use of the microphone,
Sinatra transformed popular singing by infusing lyrics with a personal,
intimate point of view that conveyed a steady current of eroticism...
Almost singlehandedly, he helped lead a revival of vocalized swing music
that took American pop to a new level of musical sophistication... his
1950's recordings... were instrumental in establishing a canon of
American pop song literature."
Sinatra suffered from senile dementia in his final years and
made no further public appearances after a heart attack in January
1997. After suffering a further heart attack,[53]
he died at 10:50 pm on May 14, 1998 at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center,
with his wife Barbara by his side.[53]
He was 82 years old.[53]
Sinatra's final words, spoken as attempts were made to stabilize him,
were "I'm losing."[54]
His death was confirmed by the Sinatra family on their website with a
statement accompanied by a recording of the singer's version of "Softly
As I Leave You." The next night the lights on the Las Vegas Strip were dimmed in his honor. President Bill
Clinton led tributes to Sinatra, stating that he had managed "to
appreciate on a personal level what millions of people had appreciated
from afar."[55]
Elton
John stated that Sinatra, "was simply the best - no one else even
comes close."[55]
On May 20, 1998 at the Roman
Catholic Church of the Good Shepherd (Beverly Hills) in Beverly Hills, Sinatra's funeral was held, with
400[56]
mourners in attendance and hundreds of fans outside.[56]
Gregory Peck,[56]
Tony Bennett,[56]
and Frank Jr. addressed the mourners, among whom were Jill
St. John, Tom Selleck,[56]
Joey
Bishop, Faye Dunaway,[56]
Tony
Curtis,[56]
Liza Minnelli,[56]
Kirk Douglas,[56]
Robert Wagner,[56]
Bob
Dylan, Don Rickles,[56]
Nancy Reagan,[56]
Angie Dickinson, Sophia
Loren,[56]
Bob
Newhart,[56]
Mia
Farrow,[56]
and Jack Nicholson.[54][56]
A private ceremony was held later that day at St. Theresa's Catholic
Church in Palm Springs. Sinatra was buried following the ceremony next
to his parents in section B-8 of Desert Memorial Park in Cathedral City, a quiet cemetery
on Ramon Road at the border of Cathedral City and Rancho Mirage, near his famous Rancho Mirage
compound, located on tree-lined Frank Sinatra Drive.[54]
His close friends Jilly Rizzo and Jimmy Van Heusen are buried nearby in the same cemetery.
The words "The Best Is Yet to Come" are imprinted on Sinatra's grave
marker.[57]
[edit] Discography
[edit] Awards and recognitions
Sidewalk star in front of Sinatra's birthplace.
[edit] Legacy
The U.S. Postal Service issued a
42-cent postage stamp in honor of Sinatra on May 13, 2008.[58]
The design of the stamp was unveiled Wednesday, December 12, 2007 — on
the anniversary of what would have been his 92nd birthday — in Beverly Hills, CA, with Sinatra
family members on hand.[59]
The design shows an 1950s-vintage image of Sinatra, wearing a hat. The
design also includes his signature, with his last name alone.[59]
The Hoboken Post Office was renamed in his honor in 2002.[59]
The Frank Sinatra School of the
Arts in Long Island City and
the Frank Sinatra Park in
Hoboken were named in his honor.
The U.S. Congress passed a resolution on May 20, 2008 designating May
13 as Frank Sinatra Day to honor his contribution to American culture.
The resolution was introduced by Representative Mary Bono Mack.[60]
To commemorate the anniversary of Sinatra's death, Patsy's Restaurant
in New York City, which Sinatra was very fond of and a regular at,
exhibited in May 2009 15 never before released photos of Sinatra that
were taken by Bobby Bank.[61]
The photos are of his recording "Everybody Ought to Be in Love" at a
nearby recording studio.[61]
Stephen Holden wrote for the 1983 Rolling Stone
Record Guide:
- Frank Sinatra's voice is pop music history. [...] Like
Presley and Dylan — the only other white male American singers since
1940 whose popularity, influence, and mythic force have been comparable —
Sinatra will last indefinitely. He virtually invented modern pop song
phrasing.
Wynn Resorts dedicated a signature restaurant to Sinatra
inside Encore Las Vegas on December 22, 2008.[62]
Memorabilia in the restaurant includes his Oscar for "From Here to Eternity", his Emmy for "Frank Sinatra: A Man and His
Music", his Grammy for "Strangers in the Night", photographs
and a gold album he received for "Classic Sinatra".
[edit] Film portrayals
- In 1992, CBS aired a TV mini-series about the entertainer's life
called Sinatra, directed by James Steven Sadwith and starred Philip Casnoff as Sinatra. Opening with his childhood in
Hoboken, New Jersey, the film follows Sinatra's rise to the top in the
1940s, through the dark days of the early 1950s and his triumphant
re-emergence in the mid-1950s, to his status as pop culture icon in the
1960s, 1970s and 1980s. In between, the film hits all of the main
events, including his three marriages, his connections with the Mafia
and his notorious friendship with the Rat Pack. Even with the presence
of Tina Sinatra as executive producer. Casnoff received a Golden Globe nomination for his performance.
- Brett Ratner is currently developing a film adaptation of
George Jacobs' memoir Mr. S: My Life With Frank Sinatra.[63]
Jacobs, who was Sinatra's valet, will be portrayed by Chris
Tucker.[64]
[edit] Alleged
organized crime links
Sinatra garnered considerable attention due to his alleged personal
and professional links with organized crime,[65]
including figures such as Carlo
Gambino,[66]
Sam Giancana,[66]
Lucky Luciano,[66]
and Joseph
Fischetti.[66]
The Federal Bureau of Investigation
kept records amounting to 2,403 pages on Sinatra. With his alleged Mafia ties, his ardent New Deal
politics and his friendship with John F. Kennedy, he was a natural target for J. Edgar Hoover's FBI.[67]
The FBI kept Sinatra under surveillance for almost five decades
beginning in the 1940s. The documents include accounts of Sinatra as the
target of death threats and extortion
schemes. They also portray rampant paranoia
and strange obsessions at the FBI and reveal nearly every celebrated
Sinatra foible and peccadillo.[68]
For a year Hoover investigated Sinatra's alleged and Communist
affiliations, but came up empty-handed. The files include his
rendezvous with prostitutes, and his extramarital affair with Ava
Gardner, which preceded their marriage. Celebrities mentioned in the
files are Dean Martin, Marilyn Monroe, Peter
Lawford, and Giancana's girlfriend, singer Phyllis McGuire.
The FBI's secret dossier on Sinatra was released in 1998 in response
to Freedom of
Information Act requests.
[edit] Political views
Sinatra held differing political views throughout his life.
Sinatra's parents had immigrated to the United States in 1895 and
1897 respectively. His mother, Dolly Sinatra (1896–1977), was a Democratic Party
ward boss.[69]
Sinatra remained a supporter of the Democratic Party until the late
1960s when he switched his allegiance to the Republican Party.
[edit] Political
activities 1944-1968
In 1944 after sending a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Sinatra was
invited to meet Roosevelt at the White
House, where he agreed to become part of the Democratic party's
voter registration drives.[70]
He donated $5,000 to the Democrats for the 1944 presidential
election, and by the end of the campaign was appearing at two or
three political events every day.[71]
After World War II, Sinatra's politics grew steadily more left wing,[72]
and he became more publicly associated with the Popular Front. He started reading liberal
literature, and supported many organizations that were later identified
as front organizations
of the Communist party by the House Un-American
Activities Committee in the 1950s, though Sinatra was never brought
before the Committee.
Sinatra spoke at a number of New Jersey high schools in 1945, where
students had gone on strike in opposition to racial integration. Later
that year Sinatra would appear in The House I Live In, a short film that stood against
racism. The film was scripted by Albert
Maltz, with the title song written by Earl
Robinson and Abel Meeropol (under the pseudonym of Lewis
Allen).
In 1948, Sinatra
supported the candidacy of Henry A. Wallace.
In January, 1961, Sinatra and Peter
Lawford organized the Inaugural Gala in Washington, D.C., held on the evening before new President John F. Kennedy was sworn into office. The event, featuring
many big show business stars, was an enormous success, raising a large
amount of money for the Democratic Party. Sinatra also organized an
Inaugural Gala in California in 1962 to welcome second term
Democratic Governor Pat
Brown.[11]
Sinatra's move towards the Republicans seems to have begun when he
was snubbed by President Kennedy in favor of Bing
Crosby, a rival singer and a Republican, for Kennedy's visit to Palm Springs in 1962. Kennedy had planned to
stay at Sinatra's home over the Easter holiday weekend, but decided
against doing so because of problems with Sinatra's alleged connections
to organized crime. Sinatra had invested a lot of his own money in
upgrading the facilities at his home, in anticipation of the President's
visit. President Kennedy's brother, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, was intensifying his own investigations
into organized crime figures at the time, such as Chicago
mob boss Sam Giancana, who had earlier stayed at Sinatra's home.
The 1968 election illustrated changes in the once solidly pro-JFK Rat
Pack: Peter Lawford, Sammy Davis, Jr., and Shirley MacLaine all
endorsed Robert Kennedy in the spring primaries, while Sinatra, Dean
Martin and Joey Bishop backed vice-president Hubert Humphrey. In the
fall election, Sinatra appeared for Humphrey in Texas at the Houston
Astrodome with President Lyndon Johnson, and also re-stated his support
for Humphrey on a live election-eve national telethon.
[edit] Political
activities 1970-1984
On February 27, 1970 Sinatra sang at the White
House as part of a tribute to Senator Everett Dirksen. Over the summer Sinatra supported another
Republican candidate as he endorsed Ronald
Reagan for a second term as Governor of California.[46]
Sinatra became good friends with Vice President Spiro
Agnew. Sinatra said he agreed with the Republican Party on most
positions, except that of abortion.[70]
After a lifetime of supporting Democratic presidential candidates,
Sinatra supported Richard Nixon for re-election in the 1972 presidential
election. In 1973, Agnew was charged with corruption and resigned as
Vice President; Sinatra helped Agnew pay some of his legal bills.[73]
In the 1980 presidential
election, Sinatra supported Ronald Reagan, and donated $4 million to
Reagan's campaign. Sinatra said he supported Reagan as he was “the
proper man to be the President of the United States... it's so screwed
up now, we need someone to straighten it out.”[74]
Reagan's victory gave Sinatra his closest relationship with the White
House since the early 1960s. Sinatra arranged Reagan's Presidential
gala,[47]
as he had done for Kennedy, 20 years previously.
In 1984 Sinatra returned to his birthplace in Hoboken, bringing with
him President Reagan, who was in the midst of campaigning for the 1984 presidential
election. Reagan had made Sinatra a fund-raising ambassador as part
of the Republicans' 'Victory 84 get-the-vote-out-drive.[75]
[edit] See also
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