Frank Sinatra
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Francis Albert Sinatra (✦December 12, 1915 – †May 14, 1998) was an iconic American jazz-oriented popular singer and Academy Award-winning 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 fifty in 1965, recorded the retrospective September of My Years, 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", and toured both within the United States and internationally until a few years before his death in 1998.
Sinatra had three children; Nancy, Frank Jr. and Tina by his first wife Nancy Barbato. He was married three more times, to the actresses Ava Gardner and Mia Farrow and finally to Barbara Marx, to whom he was married at his death.
Francis Albert Sinatra was born on December 12, 1915, at 415 Monroe Street, Hoboken, New Jersey. He was the only child of the Sicilian-American boxer Anthony Martin Sinatra (1894–1969), and Natalie Dolly Garaventa (1896–1977).
Sinatra weighed 13½lb at birth, and appeared stillborn, but spluttered into life when placed under a cold tap.
Sinatra left school without graduating and worked for some time at the Jersey Observer newspaper, and as a riveter at the Tietjan and Lang shipyard.
Sinatra met Nancy Barbato at the age of fourteen, whom he would marry in 1939. It was in the early 1930s that Sinatra started singing in public
Biography
- Also see the Wikipedia page [ Life of Frank Sinatra ]
Early career
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, New Jersey, for which he was paid $15 a week. Sinatra was arrested on a 'morals charge' in 1938, after an ex-lover had accused him of a 'breach of promise'. The case was dismissed in court in January 1939, and within weeks Sinatra married Nancy Barbato.
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.
In the autumn of 1940, Sinatra appeared in his first film, Las Vegas Nights. In May 1941 Sinatra came 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 in January 1942.
His appeal to the "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.
The Columbia Records Years and "The Voice"
In 1943, he signed with Columbia Records as a solo artist with initially great success, particularly during the 1942-43 musicians' strike.
In 1944, Sinatra signed a seven-year contract with RKO Pictures and appeared in light musical vehicles - Step Lively and Higher and Higher - made to appeal to teenage fans.
When Sinatra returned to the Paramount Theater in October 1944, 35,000 fans caused a near riot outside the venue. Dubbed "The Columbus Day Riot", it took the New York Police Department several hours to defuse the situation.
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.
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 Beat's annual poll of most popular singers (following Billy Eckstine, Frankie Laine, and Bob Crosby).
1949 saw a change for the better, 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.
Ava, Vegas debut and Sinatra in decline
After two years' absence Sinatra returned to the concert stage on January 12, 1950, in Hartford, Connecticut. Sinatra's voice suffered, resulting in him hemorrhaging his vocal cords on stage at the Copacabana nightclub on April 26, 1950.
Sinatra's career continued to decline as he moved into his mid-30s, his potential appeal to new teenage audiences grew smaller.
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 career. They split up in 1953 and divorced in 1957.
By 1952, Sinatra was at his lowest ebb. Double Dynamite, a movie vehicle with Jane Russell and Groucho Marx, was a critical and commercial failure
After several flops on record, screen, and stage, both Columbia Records and Music Corporation of America dropped Sinatra in 1952.
From Here to Eternity to Capitol Studios
The rebirth of Sinatra's career began when he played Pvt. Angelo Maggio in 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 have become legendary, marking the turnaround in Sinatra's career, in which he went from being lost in a critical and commercial wilderness for several years to an Oscar-winning actor and, once again, one of the top recordings 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, Mavis Rivers, and Billy May. Sinatra reinvented himself with a series of albums featuring darker emotional material, starting with In the Wee Small Hours (1953), 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.
Despite failing to obtain the role of Sky Masterson, Sinatra co-starred with Marlon Brando in the hugely popular and successful Guys and Dolls, which was the highest grossing film of 1955.
Released in 1955, Sinatra's first 12" LP In the Wee Small Hours was also his second collaboration with Nelson Riddle.
Sinatra gave an acclaimed performance in Otto Preminger's The Man with the Golden Arm (1955). and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor at the 29th Academy Awards.
It was during these years in Hollywood that Sinatra would associate with Humphrey Bogart's "Holmby Hills Rat Pack", a group of actors - including Lauren Bacall, David Niven and Judy Garland - who had grown dissatisfied with the studio system. Bogart once commented that "If he could stay away from the broads and devote his time to being an actor, he'd be one of the best in the business."
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
Come Fly With Me
Frank Sinatra Sings for Only the Lonely was a stark collection of introspective saloon songs and blues-tinged ballads, it was a mammoth commercial success, peaking at #1 on Billboard's album chart during a 120-week stay, whilst cuts from this LP such as Angel Eyes and One for My Baby (and One More for the Road) would remains staples of Sinatra's concerts until the very end.
In 1957 Sinatra signed a $3 million deal with ABC to star in the The Frank Sinatra Show. Many top stars of the day appeared as guests - Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, Dean Martin - but the public and critics failed to warm to an over-ambitious program. Sinatra's subsequent projects with ABC were a series of four specials broadcast over 1959 and 1960 sponsored by Timex.
J.F.K.
By this time Sinatra had become close to the Kennedy family and was a friend and strong supporter of the soon-to-be President John F. Kennedy. Years later, Sinatra's youngest daughter Tina Sinatra stated that Sinatra and mafia figure Sam Giancana had helped Kennedy win a crucial primary election in 1960 by helping to deliver union votes.
Sinatra is said to have introduced Kennedy to Judith Campbell, who had been a girlfriend of both Sinatra's and Giancana. Campbell allegedly began a relationship with Kennedy; eventually Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy became alarmed and told his brother to distance himself from Sinatra. On March 24, 1962, Kennedy and Sinatra's friendship officially ended after President Kennedy chose to stay at Bing Crosby's house instead of Frank's. This all soured Sinatra's relationship with the Kennedy family, including Peter Lawford (as explained in the above sentence's source), and the Democratic Party, and by the late 1960s Sinatra had joined with his "pallies" Dean Martin and Sammy Davis, Jr. and became a Republican and supporter of Richard Nixon, who became President in 1968. Sinatra would lose his Nevada casino license in 1963 when Giancana was seen in the Cal-Neva Lodge casino at the North Shore of Lake Tahoe, of which Sinatra was a part owner.
The first Frank Sinatra Timex Special was broadcast on American Broadcasting Company (ABC) in October 1959. Featuring Mitzi Gaynor, Dean Martin and Bing Crosby, positive reviews and good ratings helped ABC capitalise on their investment in Sinatra. The second special, The Frank Sinatra Timex Special: An Afternoon With Frank Sinatra featured Juliet Prowse, Peter Lawford, The Hi-Lo's and Ella Fitzgerald.
Reprise
Sinatra would start the 1960s as he ended the 1950s, his first album of the decade, Nice 'n' Easy, topping Billboards 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.
Sinatra's 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 hot on the heels of Can Can was Ocean's Eleven (1960), 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. Sinatra would often speak from the stage on desegregation.
Over September 11 and 12, 1961, Sinatra recorded his final songs for Capitol Records.
In 1962, 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 35mm tape.
The Manchurian Candidate
In 1962, Sinatra resumed his strong film work in John Frankenheimer's classic thriller The Manchurian Candidate (1962). Here, Sinatra gave one of his finest acting performances, playing the disturbed Major Bennett Marco, whose recurring nightmares about events during the Korean War lead him on a quest to find the meaning behind what's going on in his mind. Widely hailed as a masterpiece, The Manchurian Candidate featured career-best performances from both Laurence Harvey and Angela Lansbury, in a film with dark comic undertones, shades of noir and a cutting satirical edge that made it one of the American Film Institute's 100 Greatest Films. But this was a film that struggled to make it to the screen, its complex plot and themes of cold war paranoia, spies and presidential assassination was strong enough to leave the head of United Artists, Arthur Krim, perplexed about its content and what the public reaction would be. Sinatra, who had a distribution deal with UA, personally approached John F. Kennedy to ask approval of its production. Kennedy, a fan of the novel on which the film was based, eagerly agreed that the film should be made. Sinatra would later comment on "A wonderful, wonderful experience of my life... It only happens once in a performer's life. Once."
Directorial debut and Sinatra at the Sands
In 1965, Sinatra made his directorial debut with the anti-war film None But The Brave.
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. Backed by the Count Basie Band, with Quincy Jones serving as arranger, Sinatra at the Sands was released in August 1966, reaching #7 in the UK and #9 on Billboard.
Sinatra at 50: September of My Years
In June 1965, Sinatra, along with Sammy Davis, Jr. and Dean Martin, played live in St. Louis to benefit Dismas House. The concert was beamed 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, whilst a career anthology A Man and His Music followed in November, itself winning Album of the Year at the Grammys in 1966, whilst the TV special Sinatra: A Man and His Music garnered both an Emmy award and a Peabody Award.
In the spring That's Life appeared, both the single and album achieving considerable success in the US - both were Top Ten hits on Billboard's pop charts - before "Strangers in the Night" went on to top the Billboard and UK pop singles charts on its way to 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 the album, Francis Albert Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim, would reap critical plaudits before charting in March. 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 would once again work with Antonio Carlos Jobim and also Ella Fitzgerald on the TV special A Man and His Music + Ella + Jobim.
In 1968 Sinatra divorced Mia Farrow.
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"
"My Way"
Watertown (1970) was one of Sinatra's most acclaimed concept albums, 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. In the UK "My Way" was an immense success, spending a record 124 weeks on the UK Singles Chart, whilst the album of the same name peaked at #2 during a 51-week stay. On Billboard, the album would peak at #11.
Testimony on organized crime and support for Ronald Reagan
In the summer of 1970 Sinatra declared his support for the Republican Party candidate Ronald Reagan in his race for the Governorship of California.
Sinatra's first movie of the decade, Dirty Dingus Magee was released in 1970; it was to be his last film for seven years.
In a secret session at midnight on February 17, 1970, Sinatra testified in front of the New Jersey State Commission on organized crime. Sinatra's appearance had come amid much acrimony. Sinatra declined to answer a subpoena, and subsequently sued the federal court, claiming that his subpoena was illegal. Sinatra's suit was dismissed, and he appealed all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States, which at four votes to three found against him.[1]
In November 1970, Sinatra performed in London's Royal Festival Hall with the Count Basie orchestra, in a charity benefit for the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. The shows were taped for a BBC special, Sinatra: In Concert at The Royal Festival Hall. Sinatra later said of this concert “I have a funny feeling that those two nights could have been my finest hour really. It went so well; it was so thrilling and exciting".
In April 1971, Sinatra was awarded his third Academy Award, the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, for his humanitarian and charitable efforts.
Retirement
On 12 June 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. Closing with the song Angel Eyes, Sinatra exited the stage on the line "'scuse me while I disappear", not returning for an encore.
Sinatra supported Richard Nixon for re-election in the 1972 U.S. presidential election, the first Republican presidential candidate that Sinatra had endorsed.
Ol' Blue Eyes Is Back
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. This, despite vowing in 1970 never to play Caesar's Palace again, after the manager of Caesar's, Sanford Waterman, had pulled a gun on him during a heated argument. With Waterman having been recently sacked, the door was open for Sinatra to return.
In Australia, however, 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 a union leader, also insisted that Sinatra apologize, and a settlement was eventually reached, to the apparent satisfaction of both parties, with Sinatra's final show of his Australian tour being televised to the nation.
The Main Event - Live
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.
Marriage to Barbara Marx, death of his mother
On April 11 Sinatra performed at the Westchester Premier Theater, after which he posed for the now infamous photograph with several organized crime figures, including Jimmy Fratianno and Carlo Gambino.
In July 1976, Sinatra married long-time girlfriend Barbara Marx, the former wife of Zeppo Marx. It was Sinatra's fourth marriage, and they remained married for the rest of Sinatra's life.
On January 6, 1977, Sinatra's mother, Dolly, was killed in a plane crash on the San Gorgonio Mountain in Southern California. The death of his mother had a profound effect on Sinatra, who returned to the Roman Catholic Church of his youth, taking instruction, and remarrying Barbara Sinatra in the Catholic Church, which required the annulment of his marriage to his first wife, Nancy Barbato.
In 1979, in front of the Pyramids in Egypt, Sinatra performed for Anwar Sadat, back in Las Vegas, whilst celebrating his 40 years in show business and his 64th birthday, he was awarded the Grammy Trustees Award during a party at Caesar's Palace.
Reagan presidency, Nevada gaming license, Rio concert
In the United States presidential election of 1980 Sinatra supported Ronald Reagan (running against Jimmy Carter), and donated $4 million to Reagan's campaign.
In 1980, Sinatra also decided to apply for a Nevada Gaming License, with President Reagan submitted as one of his references. In February 1981, Sinatra was quizzed by the Nevada Gaming Control Board about his relationships with Mafia figures, and his 50 percent ownership of the Cal-Neva lodge. The board eventually voted four to one to reinstate Sinatra's gaming license.
Trilogy: Past, Present and Future
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, whilst '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 Billboard's album chart, whilst 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 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 himself 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, North West, South Africa. He was criticized for the trip by Jesse Jackson, and the United Nations special committee on Apartheid condemned Sinatra as a collaborator in Apartheid.
Kennedy Center Honors, Golden Nugget incident
Frank Sinatra was selected as one of the five recipients of the 1983 Kennedy Center Honors, alongside Katharine Dunham, Jimmy 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".
The following year, on May 23, 1985, Sinatra received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and later that day was awarded an honorary Doctor of Engineering degree from the Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, despite the protests of the student body.
Shortly after the Kennedy Center Honors, Sinatra and Dean Martin were involved in an altercation at the Golden Nugget casino in Atlantic City. Rather than accept a deal from the sealed plastic box, Sinatra told a blackjack dealer to deal by hand, which was prohibited under New Jersey state law. Sinatra was eventually accommodated, and the New Jersey Casino Control Commission fined the Golden Nugget $25,000, and suspended four employees following the incident.
Sinatra's appearance on the big screen alongside his fellow Rat Packers in 1983's Cannonball Run II would be his last with "The Clan."
Return to Hoboken, L.A. Is My Lady, His Way
In 1984, for the first time in decades, Sinatra publicly returned to his birthplace in Hoboken, New Jersey, bringing President Reagan with him.
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.
In 1986, investigative journalist Kitty Kelley published a biography of Sinatra entitled His Way. Sinatra had been to court in 1983 to try to prevent it from being published, according to Kelley, seeking "$2 million in punitive damages from me for presuming to write about him without his authorization". He also accused her of allegedly misrepresenting herself as his authorized biographer. He later withdrew his lawsuit amid much publicity and the book went on to become #1 on the New York Times best seller list and was a bestseller not only in the US but also in England, Canada, and Australia.
75th birthday and Duets projects
1990 saw Sinatra celebrate his 75th birthday with a national tour, and he 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 November 1992, the CBS miniseries Sinatra, produced by Tina Sinatra and Warner Bros, was broadcast with the full cooperation and involvement of the Sinatra family. Frank Sinatra had long wanted any cinematic portrayal of his life to be produced whilst he was alive, claiming that "If they do it when I’m dead, they’ll screw it up so I want to be around to see it’s done right."
In 1993 Sinatra made a surprise return to Capitol Records and the recording studio for Duets, which was released in November. Sinatra’s duet with Bono on I've Got You Under My Skin contributed to the album's great commercial success, which reached #2 on the Billboard charts, and eventually selling over 2 million copies in the US alone.
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. Duets II marked Sinatra's last recording with Antonio Carlos Jobim, as well as his last studio recordings, bringing to an end his 60-year recording career.
80th birthday, final concerts
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 but this was something that was exaggerated by the tabloids. A fall onstage in Richmond, Virginia in 1994 was a bad sign, however.
Sinatra had long been popular in the Far East, and although it may not have been planned to be so, his 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 would sing before a live audience for the very last time. Esquire Magazine would report 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 Lifetime Achievement Award at the 1994 Grammy Awards, and was introduced by Bono who said of Sinatra "Frank's the chairman of the bad attitude... Rock 'n' Roll players have been tough, but this guy is the boss. The chairman of boss... I'm not going to mess with him, are you?" Sinatra's acceptance speech was crudely cut off, as he deviated from the script apparently cutting into advertising space. Billy Joel, later in the broadcast, "attacked" the Grammy producers for this when, in the middle of performing River of Dreams, he took a longer-than-expected pause to comment about "valuable advertising time going by... dollars, dollars, dollars."
To mark Sinatra's 80th birthday in 1995, the Empire State Building glowed blue. A star-studded birthday tribute at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles would be his last televised appearance, and with the death of Dean Martin a few days later, Sinatra entered a period of seclusion and health difficulties, suffering both a mild heart attack and stroke in November 1996, and a heart attack in January 1997.
In 1997 Sinatra was awarded with the United States Congressional Gold Medal. Unable to attend the ceremony himself due to his failing health, daughter Nancy Sinatra accepted the award on his behalf, saying "It's more than just an honor from his country, as far as I'm concerned, it's like the country saying 'Ok, Frank, we know the truth and we love you'."
Death
After suffering another heart attack, Frank Sinatra died at 10:50 pm on May 14, 1998, at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center with wife Barbara and daughter Nancy by his side. Sinatra's final words were "I'm losing." He was 82.
President Bill Clinton led tributes to Sinatra, claiming that he had managed "to appreciate on a personal level what millions of people had appreciated from afar".
On May 20, 1998 at the Church of the Good Shepherd in Beverly Hills, Sinatra's funeral was held in front of 400 mourners. 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 and Jack Nicholson. A private ceremony at St. Theresa's Catholic Church in Palm Springs was held later that day before Sinatra was buried a short distance east of St. Theresa's, next to his parents in section A-8 of Desert Memorial Park in Cathedral City, California, a quiet, unassuming cemetery on Ramon Road at the border of Cathedral City and Rancho Mirage and 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.
Legend has it that Sinatra was buried in a blue suit with a flask of Jack Daniel's and a roll of ten dimes which was a gift from his daughter, Tina, along with a card that said "Sleep warm, Poppa - look for me." The ten dimes were a habit dating back to the kidnapping of his son, Frank Sinatra, Jr., due to the kidnappers' demands that negotiations be made via pay phone. A Zippo lighter (which some take to be a reference to his mob connections) is purported to be buried with him as is a pack of Camel cigarettes. The words "The Best Is Yet to Come" are imprinted on his tombstone.
Marriages and relationships
Marriages
Nancy Barbato
Sinatra met Barbato at the age of nineteen, and they were married in Jersey City, New Jersey on February 4, 1939. Their first child, Nancy Sinatra, was born in June 1940, and a son, Frank Sinatra, Jr. was born in January 1944.
After moving to Hollywood, Los Angeles, Sinatra's extramarital affairs with the actresses Lana Turner and Marilyn Maxwell were causing public embarrassment for Barbato, and she aborted a third child in 1946. A third child, Tina Sinatra was born in 1948.
Barbato announced their separation on Valentine's Day, 1950 as his affair with Ava Gardner became public. After originally only seeking a separation, they divorced on October 29, 1951, as Sinatra's relationship with Gardner became ever more serious.
Ava Gardner
Sinatra first met Ava Gardner in 1945, but saw her only sporadically until late 1949, when they began their relationship. Their relationship was extremely tempestuous, and coincided with the collapse of Sinatra's professional career, as Gardner's blossomed.
They married on November 7, 1951, ten days after Sinatra's divorce from Barbato became final. Both were frequently made jealous by the other's extramarital affairs, and Gardner had an abortion.
Gardner's power in Hollywood helped Sinatra get cast in From Here to Eternity (1953), and his subsequent Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor helped revitalize Sinatra's professional career. They separated in October of 1953, and finally divorced in 1957.
Mia Farrow
Sinatra married the actress, Mia Farrow on July 19, 1966, when she was 21 and he was 50. They met on the set of Sinatra's film, Von Ryan's Express. She agreed to appear in his 1968 film, The Detective, but when she reneged as her filming schedule for Rosemary's Baby overran, Sinatra served her divorce papers in front of the cast and crew.
Barbara Marx
In 1976, Sinatra married Barbara Blakeley Marx (formerly married to Zeppo Marx), who converted to Catholicism to marry him. She remained his wife until his death, although her relations with Sinatra's children were consistently portrayed as stormy, something Nancy Sinatra confirmed when she publicly claimed that Barbara had not bothered to call Frank's children even when the end was near, although they were close by, and the children missed the opportunity to be at their father's bedside when he died.
Relationships
Lauren Bacall
Sinatra proposed to Lauren Bacall, shortly after her husband Humphrey Bogart died in 1957, but reneged when word of their relationship became public.
Juliet Prowse
Sinatra was also engaged to South African actress Juliet Prowse for a short while, before Sinatra broke the engagement in late 1962.
Children
Sinatra had three children with his first wife, Nancy Barbato: Nancy Sinatra (born June 8, 1940), Frank Sinatra, Jr. (born January 10, 1944), and Christina "Tina" Sinatra (born June 20, 1948). Although Sinatra did not remain faithful to his wife, he was by many accounts a devoted father.
On December 8, 1963, Frank Sinatra, Jr. was kidnapped. Sinatra paid the kidnappers' $240,000 ransom demand (even offering $1,000,000 though the kidnappers bizarrely turned down this offer), and his son was released unharmed on December 10. Because the kidnappers demanded that Sinatra call them only from pay phones, Sinatra carried a roll of dimes with him throughout the ordeal, and this became a lifetime habit. The kidnappers were subsequently apprehended and convicted. A movie called Stealing Sinatra was made about the incident.
Julie Sinatra (born Julie Ann Maria Lyma on February 10, 1943) claims to be Sinatra's daughter through an unacknowledged affair that he had with a showgirl, Dorothy Bunocelli, in the 1940s. She changed her last name by deed poll to Sinatra in 2000. Awarded $100,000 by the Sinatra estate in 2002, elements of her story concerning her mother's trip to Cuba with Sinatra have been disputed.
Alleged organized crime links
Sinatra has been frequently linked to members of the Mafia and it has long been rumored that his career was aided behind the scenes by organized crime.
One of his uncles, Babe Gavarante, was a member of a Bergen County armed gang connected to the organization of Willie Moretti. Gavarante was convicted of murder in 1921 in connection with an armed robbery in which he had driven the getaway car. Sinatra was also allegedly personally linked to Willie Moretti - his first wife Nancy Barbato was a cousin of one of Moretti's senior henchmen and Sinatra sang at the daughter's wedding in 1948. According to testimony from Moretti, Sinatra received help from him in arranging performances in return for kickbacks.
He had associations with and did favours for Charles Fischetti, a notorious Chicago mobster dating back to 1946 (according to the FBI). Sinatra was also friends with Charles's brother Joseph who ran the Fontainebleau Hotel complex in Miami, who arranged work for him and introduced him to Charles "Lucky" Luciano in Havana. After Luciano's deportation to Italy, Sinatra visited him at least twice, singing at a 1946 Christmas Party and gifting the famed mobster with a gold cigarette case engraved "To my dear pal Charlie, from his friend Frank" the next year.
These visits were widely reported by the media and used as further evidence of Sinatra's ties to the mob, haunting him for the rest of his life. Among the allegations was the $2 million that Sinatra gave Luciano. As Joseph "Doc" Stacher later recalled of the Havana meeting, "The Italians among us were all very proud of Frank. They always told me they had spent a lot of money helping him in his career ever since he was in Tommy Dorsey’s band. Lucky Luciano was very fond of Frank’s singing. Frankie flew into Havana with the Fischettis, with whom he was very friendly, but of course, our meeting had nothing to do with hearing him croon. Everyone brought envelopes of money for Luciano. But more important, they came to pay allegiance to him." The "Havana" allegations - while the basis of rumors for Sinatra's mob ties - have never been proved, and in his autobiography Luciano himself denied there was any criminal association.
Sinatra had a strong friendship with Sam Giancana, who always wore a sapphire friendship ring given to him by Sinatra. A number of alleged incidents have been noted where people who angered Sinatra had been threatened by Giancana's mob. Comedian Jackie Mason has alleged that after mocking Sinatra in his routine, he received threats and his hotel room was shot up in his presence. After he continued, he received death threats and was roughed up and his nose broken.
J. Edgar Hoover apparently suspected Sinatra over the years, and Sinatra's file at the FBI ended up at 2,403 pages, detailing allegations of extortion against Ronald Alpert for $100,000. Sinatra publicly rejected these accusations many times, and was never charged with any crimes in connection with them.
The character Johnny Fontane in the book and movie The Godfather is widely viewed as having been inspired by Frank Sinatra and his alleged connections. Indeed, Sinatra was furious with Godfather author Mario Puzo over the Fontane character and reportedly confronted Puzo in public with profane threats supposedly on the basis that Fontane is shown to cry in the film, an emotional weak display Sinatra would not imply as a part of his personality.
In June of 1985, soon after Sinatra received his Medal of Freedom, satirical cartoonist Garry Trudeau ran a series of Doonesbury strips resurrecting photos of Sinatra "Doing It My Way", posing with known mafiosi many years earlier. Sinatra complained that the strip series was "unfair", and pointed out that his mob associates gave him work when no one else would.
Recorded legacy
- Also see the Wikipedia page [ Frank Sinatra's recorded legacy ]
Awards and legacy
- Also see the Wikipedia page [ List of Frank Sinatra's awards and accolades ]
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.
Political beliefs
- Also see the Wikipedia page [ Political beliefs of Frank Sinatra ]
Discography
- Also see the Wikipedia page [ Chronological list of singles and albums recorded by Frank Sinatra ]
- Also see the Wikipedia page [ Alphabetical list of songs recorded by Frank Sinatra ]
Filmography
- Also see the Wikipedia page [ Frank Sinatra filmography ]
Commercials
In the United States, Frank Sinatra has appeared in commercials for Steve Wynn's (developer) Golden Nugget casino, and for Michelob Beer (singing "The Way You Look Tonight"). He posthumously appeared in a 2004 commercial for Visa. In Japan, Frank Sinatra appeared in commercials for All Nippon Airways. He also posthumously appeared in a 2002 commercial for the Special Edition Ford Thunderbird.
See also
- Also see the page [ When I was seventeen ] for lyrics to "When I was Seventeen"
- Also see the Wikipedia page [ Sinatra Doctrine ]
- Also see the Wikipedia page [ FBI Files on Frank Sinatra ]
Biographies
- Freedland, Michael. (2000) All the Way: A Biography of Frank Sinatra. St Martins Press. isbn 0752816624
- 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
- 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
External links
- Frank Sinatra at the Internet Movie Database
- Frank Sinatra at the Turner Classic Movie Database
- Frank Sinatra at the Internet Broadway Database
- Official site of Frank Sinatra
- Official site of the Sinatra family
- Former home of Frank Sinatra
- "Frank Sinatra Dies at 82; Matchless Stylist of Pop" Obituary, New York Times, May 16, 1998
- Frank Sinatra's FBI file
- Sinatra! The Complete Guide
- Frank Sinatra on TV
- Glossary of Sinatra and Rat Pack lingo
- Walking tour of Sinatra's Hoboken
- Sinatra's last Will and Testament
- German Sinatra tribute site (in English)
- Rod McKuen's Sinatra tribute site
- Article on the 1954 "Wrong Door Raid"
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- ↑ Kelley. P429.