Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Frank still ranks as the greatest crooner
FRANK Sinatra was born in the rough town of Hoboken, New Jersey. Both his parents were descendants of poor Italian immigrants. He was an only child and his first experience of singing was in a bar his mother ran.
He died on May 14, 1998 aged 83, survived by his fourth wife, Barbara, and was buried with his favourite drink, Jack Daniel’s Tennessee whisky. His tombstone reads: “THE BEST IS YET TO COME.”
The teenager Francis saw a movie starring the most popular singer of that time, Bing Crosby, and decided then to follow a singing career. His dad – a fireman – wanted him to get a proper job.
Starting out, Sinatra sang in talent competitions and small nightclubs. Eventually, he was discovered by the great Big Band leader, Tommy Dorsey and the young crooner became his vocalist.
After a dispute with Dorsey, Sinatra’s next career move was to become a solo artist. In the 1940s, he first performed at the Paramount Theatre in New York. He was a sensation with young girls going crazy and screaming in adulation for this skinny young guy with the blue eyes. It is thought that Sinatra’s publicist hired girls who could scream the loudest to come back for following performances.
Sinatra’s voice is as difficult to define as electricity and his phrasing is impeccable. To improve his breath control he would hold his breath and swim underwater. He made several recordings in that era including Marie, Night and Day, I’ll Be Seeing You, among others.
America, after Pearl
Harbor, entered World War II, but Sinatra, a married man, was not conscripted “due to a punctured eardrum”. There was a lot of controversy.
Movies followed, more records were cut and Sinatra became a big celebrity. He divorced Nancy and had an on-off romance and troubled marriage with Ava Gardner.
The career of “Ol Blue Eyes” went into freefall in the late 1940s. The romance with Gardner was on the rocks and it is claimed by several biographers he was suicidal when it ended in divorce.
Musical tastes were changing and because of his supposed Mafia connections, he got a bad press.
He was eventually offered a part in a movie and was on the comeback trail. His part in the From Here to Eternity won him an Oscar. In spite of the rock
’n’ roll era in the ’50s and early ’60s, Sinatra remained popular. At a concert in Brazil he drew an audience of over 100 000.
The icon married again – Mia Farrow – many years younger, but the marriage did not last.
Later he was engaged to South African dancer Juliet Prowse and flew to meet her parents in Johannesburg. Prowse (who had stunning legs reportedly insured for$1 million) did not want to give up her dancing career so they broke up. Another local connection was Sinatra’s friendship with Johannesburgraised actor Laurence Harvey.
Harvey starred in The Manchurian Candidate. Later, Sinatra opened Sol Kerzner’s Sun City.
The infamous Rat Pack consisting of the chairman of the board – Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis jun, Peter Lawford and Joey Bishop gave gossip columnists lots of material.
Sinatra’s show business career spanned over 50 years and he recorded over 1200 songs. They included wellknown numbers such as New York, New York, Come Fly With Me, All The Way, I’ve Got You Under My Skin, Strangers In The Night, Witchcraft and the immortal My Way.
Sinatra did numerous performances for charity and did lots of shows in Las Vegas. He was also well known for fighting racial intolerance in America.