Sinatra
Richard Havers
As World War II in Europe was ending Frank Sinatra recorded The House I Live In – the song was for his film about racial tolerance; in it he asks, "What is America to me?" Then, and as it has been ever since, the question is, "What was Frank Sinatra to America?" It’s particularly so because for the next fifty years he lived the American dream. Frank has been described as imperious, gregarious, a lonely man, a family man, profound, loyal, ruthless if crossed, effervescent, obsessive, a mobster, a communist, a conservative, prejudiced, fighter for the downtrodden, intransigent, quick tempered, brilliant…….he was all of these things, and he was so much more. It’s as an entertainer who shaped a career as a singer that lasted longer than he, or anyone else, thought it was possible for a singer’s career to last that makes Sinatra so fascinating. At the same time he was no great actor, and yet he made some great movies and won an Academy Award. Frank was an icon to those in search of the dream.
For many years, and it still happens today, singers have been hailed as the next Frank Sinatra. While it’s easy to understand why it’s done, it’s futile…..there will never be another. When I interviewed Bill Miller, Frank’s pianist for five decades, he said, “He just wanted to be Frank Sinatra, and he became Frank Sinatra” To me this is the very essence of the man. Frank fashioned his own persona, created his own world, which is what made him unique. Too many biographies of Frank ignore his contemporaries, those who breathed the same air (even if it wasn’t so rarefied). In so doing they downplay his achievements.
Most of us could not have been a part of Frank’s ring-a-ding world; we had to content ourselves with being his subjects. But from wherever we looked, it seemed like a gasser. This book explores the world he created and the landscape in which he lived. It's about people, both the ordinary and the extraordinary, the peripheral and the essential, his influences and those he inspired. It’s about Frank and life in Sinatraland.
“He was more than just a singer, he was a cultural expression of a whole nation's sense of style. He was our notion of class and elegance.”
Jimmy Webb