| |
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra (December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and actor.
Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became a solo artist with great success 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.
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).
Discussion
Ask a question about 'Frank Sinatra' Start a new discussion about 'Frank Sinatra' Answer questions from other users |
Recent Posts
Quotations
Alcohol may be man's worst enemy, but the bible says love your enemy.
All day long, they lie in the sun, and when the sun goes down, they lie some more.
Fear is the enemy of logic. There is no more debilitating, crushing, self-defeating, sickening thing in the world--to an individual or to a nation.
Fresh air makes me throw up. I can't handle it. I'd rather be around three Denobili cigars blowing in my face all night.
I am a thing of beauty. Live every day like it's your last.
I feel sorry for people who don't drink. When they wake up in the morning, that's as good as they're going to feel all day.
Encyclopedia
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra (December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and actor.
Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became a solo artist with great success 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.
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, and fraternized with the Rat Pack and President John F. Kennedy in the early 1960s. 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 dwindling album sales and after appearing in several poorly received films, he retired in 1971. Coming out of retirement in 1973, he recorded several albums, scoring a 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 a dramatic 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 with the Kennedy Center Honors in 1983 and 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.
Biography
Early life
Sinatra was born in Hoboken, New Jersey, the only child of Italian immigrants Natalie Della (née Garaventi) and Anthony Martin Sinatra. He left high school without graduating, having attended only 47 days before being expelled due to 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 charged and convicted for this offense. Frank's father Tony served with the Hoboken Fire Department. During the tough years of the 1930s, when the Great Depression hit North America very hard, Dolly nevertheless provided ready pocket money to her son Frank, the family's only child, for outings with friends and fancy clothes. Frank then worked for some time as a delivery boy at the Jersey Observer newspaper, and as a riveter at the Tietjan and Lang shipyard. It was in the early 1930s that Sinatra began singing in public.
1935-1940: Start of career, work with James and Dorsey
In 1935, he got his first break 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, and they sufficiently impressed Edward Bowes that they appeared on his show, Major Bowes Amateur Hour, and with a record 40,000 votes they won the first prize, a six month contract to perform on stage and radio across the United States.
Sinatra's first cousin, Ray Sinatra, had an orchestra and his own network radio program ("Cycling the Kilocycles") in the mid-1930s, but Ray and Frank did not work together.
Sinatra left the Hoboken Four 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.
On March 18, 1939, Sinatra made his first recording, of a song called "Our Love", with the Frank Mane band. In June, Harry James hired Sinatra on a one year contract of $75 a week.
Growing dissatisfied with the James band, Sinatra was approached by Tommy Dorsey in November 1939, and formally joined Dorsey's band the following January.
In his first year with Dorsey, Sinatra released more than forty songs, with "I'll Never Smile Again" topping the charts for twelve weeks in mid-July.
1940-1950: Sinatramania and decline of career
In the autumn of 1940, Sinatra appeared in his first film, Las Vegas Nights. In May 1941, Sinatra was at the top of the male singer polls in the Billboard and Downbeat magazines. Sinatra's relationship with Tommy Dorsey was tenuous, and Sinatra recorded his first solo sessions without the Dorsey band (but with Dorsey's arranger Axel Stordahl and with Dorsey's approval) in January 1942. Sinatra left the Dorsey band late in 1942.
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’s rereleased Harry James’ "All or Nothing at All", 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.
In 1943, he signed with Columbia Records as a solo artist with initially great success, particularly during the musicians' recording strikes. Sinatra signed with Columbia on June 1, 1943, with the musicians' strike ten months old. 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.
When Sinatra returned to the Paramount 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 himself felt that his career was stalling, something that was confirmed when he slipped to No. 4 on Down Beats annual poll of most popular singers (following Billy Eckstine, Frankie Laine, and Bing Crosby).
1949 saw an upswing, as Frank once again teamed up with Gene Kelly to co-star in Take Me Out to the Ball Game. It was well received critically and became a major commercial success. That same year, Sinatra would team up with Gene Kelly for a third time in On the Town.
1950-1960: Rebirth of career, Capitol concept albums
After two years' absence, Sinatra returned to the concert stage on January 12, 1950, in Hartford, Connecticut. Sinatra's voice suffered and he experienced hemorrhaging of his vocal cords on stage at the Copacabana on April 26, 1950. 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. On November 7, 1951, Sinatra married Ava Gardner. They had an extremely tempestuous relationship, and the ascent of Gardner's career seemed to coincide with the decline in Sinatra's. They split up in 1953 and divorced in 1957.
Columbia and MCA dropped Sinatra 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 mark the turnaround in Sinatra's career, in which he went from being in a critical and commercial decline for several years to an Oscar-winning actor and, once again, one of the top recording artists in the world.
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, starting with In the Wee Small Hours (1955), and followed by Frank Sinatra Sings For Only The Lonely (1958), and Where Are You? (1957). He also developed a hipper, "swinging" persona, as heard on Swing Easy! (1954), Songs For Swingin' Lovers (1956), 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.
Also in 1955, Sinatra's first 12" LP In the Wee Small Hours, his second collaboration with Nelson Riddle, was released.
A third collaboration with Nelson Riddle, Songs For Swingin' Lovers, was a success, featuring a historic 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 Billboards 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.
1960-1970: Ring-A-Ding-Ding, Reprise records, Basie, Jobim, "My Way"
Sinatra would start the 1960s as he ended the 1950s, his first album of the decade, Nice 'n' Easy, topping Billboard's album chart and winning critical plaudits en masse, this, despite Sinatra growing discontented at Capitol Records and having 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 the following March and secured massive viewing figures. Titled It's Nice to Go Travelling the show is more commonly known as Welcome Home Elvis having featured Elvis Presley on his first TV appearance in three years.
Following on the heels of Can Can was Ocean's 11, the film that would become 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. and would go on to play 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 live or wouldn't allow black patrons entry. He would often speak from the stage on desegregation. He would play more benefits for Martin Luther King, Jr. who, according to Frank Sinatra, Jr., at one point during a show in 1963 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 Records.
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 would prompt 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 was The Concert Sinatra, which was recorded with a 73-piece symphony orchestra on 35 mm 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 St. 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 Billboards 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 would start 1967 with a series of recording sessions with Antonio 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..
Back on the small-screen, Sinatra once again worked with Antonio Carlos Jobim, with Ella Fitzgerald on the TV special A Man and His Music + Ella + Jobim.
Watertown (1970) was one of Sinatra's most acclaimed concept albums,[Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. . allmusic.com. Retrieved 2006-12-19.] but was all but ignored by the public in commercial terms. 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. "My Way" would, perhaps, become more identified with him than any other over his seven decades as a singer.
1970-1980: 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 Caesars Palace. This occurred, despite vowing in 1970 never to play Caesars Palace again, after the manager of the resort, Sanford Waterman, had pulled a gun on him during a heated argument. With Waterman recently sacked, 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 all went on strike, demanding that Sinatra apologize for his remarks. Sinatra instead insisted that the journalists apologize for "fifteen years of abuse I have taken from the world press." 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, 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 would garner 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 Caesars Palace.
1980-1990: 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 a 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 Billboards 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."
Sinatra was embroiled in controversy in 1981 when he worked a ten-day engagement for $2 million in Sun City, South Africa.
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."
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. Well received critically, L.A. Is My Lady came after an album of duets with Lena Horne, instigated by Jones, was abandoned after Horne developed vocal problems and Sinatra committed to other engagements, could not wait to record.
1990s: Duets, final performances
In 1990, Sinatra celebrated his 75th birthday with a national tour, 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.
In December, as part of Sinatra's birthday celebrations, Patrick Pasculli, the Mayor of Hoboken, New Jersey, 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". The same month Sinatra would give 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 Records and the recording studio for Duets, which was released in November.
The 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 would remain 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 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 Magazine 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?" Sinatra called it "the best welcome...I ever had."
In 1995, To mark Sinatra's 80th birthday, the Empire State Building glowed blue. A star-studded birthday tribute at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles would be his last televised appearance.
Personal life
Sinatra had three children; Nancy, Frank Jr. and Tina by his first wife Nancy Barbato (married 1939-1951). He was married three more times, to the actresses Ava Gardner (married 1951-1957) and Mia Farrow (married 1966-1968) and finally to Barbara Marx (married 1976), to whom he was still married at his death.
Death
After suffering another heart attack, Frank Sinatra died at 10:50 pm on May 14, 1998 at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, with his wife Barbara by his side. He was 82 years old. Sinatra's final words,
spoken as attempts were made to stabilize him, were "I'm losing." 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." Elton John stated that Sinatra, "was simply the best - no one else even comes close."
On May 20, 1998 at the Church of the Good Shepherd in Beverly Hills, Sinatra's funeral was held, with 400 mourners in attendance and hundreds of fans outside. Gregory Peck, Tony Bennett, and Frank Sinatra, Jr. addressed the mourners, among whom were Jill St. John, Tom Selleck, Joey Bishop, Faye Dunaway, Tony Curtis, Liza Minnelli, Kirk Douglas, Robert Wagner, Don Rickles, Nancy Reagan, Angie Dickinson, Sophia Loren, Bob Newhart, Mia Farrow, and Jack Nicholson. 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. His close friend Jilly Rizzo is buried nearby in the same cemetery.
The words "The Best Is Yet to Come" are imprinted on Sinatra's tombstone.
Discography
Awards and recognitions
Legacy
The U.S. Postal Service issued a 42-cent postage stamp in honor of Sinatra on May 13, 2008. The design of the stamp was unveiled Wednesday, December 12, 2007 — on the 92nd birthday of the entertainer — in Beverly Hills, CA, with Sinatra family members on hand. The design shows an 1950s-vintage image of Sinatra, wearing a hat. The design also includes his signature, with his last name alone. The Hoboken Post Office was renamed in his honor in 2002. 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 U.S. House representative Mary Bono Mack.
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.
- In 1992 a TV movie about the entertainers 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 '40s, through the dark days of the early '50s and his triumphant re-emergence in the mid-'50s, to his status as pop culture icon in the '60s, '70s and '80s. 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.
- In 1998 Ray Liotta portrayed Sinatra in the HBO movie The Rat Pack, alongside Joe Mantegna as Dean Martin and Don Cheadle as Sammy Davis Jr. It depicted their contribution to JFK's election in 1960.
Controversy
Sinatra garnered considerable attention due to his alleged personal and professional links with organized crime, including figures such as Sam Giancana, Lucky Luciano, and Joseph Fischetti. The Federal Bureau of Investigation kept records amounting to 2,403 pages on Sinatra. With his 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. The FBI kept Sinatra under surveillance for almost five decades beginning in the 1940s with, for example, an erroneous report that the star paid $40,000 for his 4-F draft status, through the early 1980s when he was successful in efforts to get his Nevada Gaming license renewed. 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.
For a year Hoover investigated Sinatra's alleged Communist affiliations, but came up empty-handed. Readers learn that the budding star, to get an exemption from military service, told draft-board doctors that he had an irrational fear of crowds. 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.
Political views
Sinatra held differing political views throughout his life.
Born in 1915 in Hoboken, New Jersey, 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.
Sinatra remained a supporter of the Democratic Party until the late 1960s when he switched his allegiance to the Republican Party.
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.
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.
After World War II, Sinatra's politics grew steadily more left wing, and he became more publicly associated with the Popular Front. He started reading progressive literature, and supported many organizations that were later identified as front organizations of the Communist Party USA 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 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.
Sinatra's move towards the Republicans seems to have begun when he was snubbed by President Kennedy in favour 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 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 President and Giancana were also sharing the favours of mistress Judith Campbell, who was in frequent contact with the president. Giancana's under-the-table influence had been critical in capturing Illinois for the Democrats in the presidential election of 1960.
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 declared for Ronald Reagan in his race for a second term as the Governorship of California. Sinatra was also good friends with Vice-President Spiro Agnew. Sinatra said he agreed with the Republican Party on most positions, except that of abortion.
After a lifetime of supporting Democratic presidential candidates, Sinatra supported Richard Nixon for re-election in the 1972 U.S. presidential election. In 1973, Spiro Agnew resigned the vice presidency, amid charges of bribery, extortion and tax fraud; Sinatra helped Agnew pay some of his legal bills that he faced after his exit from office.
In the 1980 U.S. 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”. Reagan's victory gave Sinatra his closest relationship with the White House since the early 1960s, as a result of which Sinatra arranged Reagan's Presidential gala, as he had done for John F. Kennedy, some 20 years previously.
In 1984 Sinatra returned to his birthplace in Hoboken, New Jersey, bringing with him President Reagan, who was in the midst of campaigning for the 1984 U.S. presidential election. Reagan had made Sinatra a fund-raising ambassador as part of the Republicans' 'Victory 84’ get-the-vote-out-drive.
See also
Further reading
Biographies
- Freedland, Michael. (2000) All the Way: A Biography of Frank Sinatra. St Martins Press. ISBN 0752816624
- Havers, Richard. (2004) Sinatra. Dorling Kindersley. ISBN 1405314613
- Kelley, Kitty. (1986) His Way: The Unauthorized Biography of Frank Sinatra. Bantam Press. ISBN 0553265156
- Lahr, John. (1987) Sinatra. Random House. ISBN 0753808420
- Munn, Michael. (2002) Sinatra: The Untold Story. Robson Books Ltd. ISBN 1861055374
- Rockwell, John. (1984) Sinatra: An American Classic. Rolling Stone. ISBN 039453977X
- Rojek, Chris. (2004) Frank Sinatra. Polity. ISBN 0745630901
- Santopietro, Tom. (2008) "Sinatra In Hollywood". Thomas Dunne Books. ISBN 9780312362263
- Summers, Antony and Swan, Robbyn. (2005) Sinatra: The Life. Doubleday. ISBN 0552153311
- Taraborrelli, J. Randall. (1998) Sinatra: The Man Behind the Myth. Mainstream Publishing. ISBN 1840181192
- Wilson, Earl. (1976) Sinatra.
Memoirs
- Ash, Vic. (2006) I Blew it My Way: Bebop, Big Bands and Sinatra. Northway Publications. ISBN 0955090822
- Jacobs, George and Stadiem, William. (2003) Mr. S.: The Last Word on Frank Sinatra. HarperCollins. ISBN 0330412299
Criticism
- Fuchs, J. & Prigozy, R., ed. (2007) Frank Sinatra: The Man, the Music, the Legend. The Boydell Press. ISBN 1580462510
- Granata, Charles L. (1999) "Sessions with Sinatra: Frank Sinatra and the Art of Recording." Chicago Review Press. ISBN 9781556525094
- Hamill, Pete. (2003) Why Sinatra Matters. Back Bay Books. ISBN 0316738867
- Mustazza, Leonard, ed. (1998) Frank Sinatra and Popular Culture. Praeger. ISBN 0275964957
- Petkov, Steven and Mustazza, Leonard, ed. (1997) The Frank Sinatra Reader. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195113896
- Pugliese, S., ed. (2004) Frank Sinatra: "History, Identity, and Italian American Culture ". Palgrave. ISBN 1403966559
- Smith, Martin. (2005) When Ol' Blue Eyes Was a Red. Redwords. ISBN 1905192029
- Zehme, Bill. (1997) The Way You Wear Your Hat: Frank Sinatra and the Lost Art of Livin. Harper Collins. ISBN 0060931752
-
- Friedwald, Will. (1999) Sinatra! The Song Is You: A Singer's Art. Da Capo Press. ISBN 068419368X
- Granata, Charles L. (1999) Sessions with Sinatra: Frank Sinatra and the Art of Recording. Chicago Review Press. ISBN 1556525095
- McNally, Karen. (2008) When Frankie Went to Hollywood: Frank Sinatra and American Male Identity University of Illinois Press. ISBN 0252033345
Sinatra family publications
- Pignone, Charles, with forward by Sinatra, Frank Jr. and Jones, Quincy. (2004) The Sinatra Treasures. Virgin Books. ISBN 1852271841
- Pignone, Charles, with forward by Sinatra, Amanda. (2007) Frank Sinatra: The Family Album Little Brown and Company. ISBN 0316003492
- Sinatra, Julie. (2007) Under My Skin: My Father, Frank Sinatra The Man Behind the Mystique iuniverse.com, ISBN 0595434789
- Sinatra, Nancy. (1985) Frank Sinatra, My Father. Doubleday. ISBN 978-0385233569
- Sinatra, Nancy. (1998) Frank Sinatra 1915-1998: An American Legend. Readers Digest. ISBN 0762101342
- Sinatra, Tina. (2000) My Father's Daughter. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0684870762
Cultural criticism
- Gigliotti, Gilbert L. A Storied Singer: Frank Sinatra as Literary Conceit. Greewood, 2002.
- Hamill, Pete. Why Sinatra Matters. Back Bay Books, 2003.
- Mustazza, Leonard, ed. Frank Sinatra and Popular Culture. Praeger, 1998.
- Petkov, Steven and Mustazza, Leonard, ed. The Frank Sinatra Reader. Oxford University Press, 1997.
- Pugliese, S., ed. Frank Sinatra: "History, Identity, and Italian American Culture ". Palgrave, 2004.
- Smith, Martin. When Ol' Blue Eyes was a red. Redwords, 2005.
- Zehme, Bill. The Way You Wear Your Hat: Frank Sinatra and the Lost Art of Livin. Harper Collins, 1997.
Other
- Gigliotti, Gilbert L., ed. (2008) Sinatra: But Buddy I'm a Kind of Poem. Entasis Press ISBN 9780980099904
- Havers, Richard. (2004) Sinatra. Dorling Kindersley. ISBN 1405314613
- Ingham, Chris. (2005) The Rough Guide to Frank Sinatra. Rough Guides. ISBN 1843534142
- Lloyd, David. (2003) The Gospel According to Frank. New American Press. ISBN 1-930-907-19-2
- O'Neill, Terry, ed. Morgan, Robert. (2007) Sinatra: Frank and Friendly. Evans Mitchell Books. ISBN 1901268322
- The New Rolling Stone Record Guide, Rolling Stone Press, 1983.
- Tom and Phil Kuntz. (2000) The Sinatra Files: The Secret FBI Dossier. Three Rivers Press ISBN 0812932765
External links
- **
- Obituary, New York Times, May 16, 1998
-
|
