Her real name was Frances "Fanny" Rose Shore, and she was born in Winchester, Tennessee. Stricken with polio at 18 months of age, she recovered after receiving the Sister Kenny treatment. She became a cheerleader at Hume-Fogg High School in Nashville and went on to graduate from Vanderbilt University in 1938, where she majored in sociology. She took voice and acting lessons on the side and sang on radio station WSM in Nashville. In 1938 she left Tennessee for New York City and began singing on radio station WNCW in New York. Her first recordings were with bandleader 'Xavier Cugat' (qv), and she later changed her named to Dinah after her success with the song of the same name. She received numerous Emmy awards for television specials and productions and appeared in many films. She was married to actor 'George Montgomery (I)' (qv), with whom she had one daughter and adopted a son.
name | Dinah Shore |
---|---|
background | solo_singer |
birth name | Frances Rose Shore |
born | February 29, 1916 |
died | February 24, 1994Beverly Hills, California, United States |
origin | Winchester, Tennessee |
instrument | Vocals |
genre | Pop |
occupation | Singer, actress |
years active | 1937–1994 |
associated acts | Doris Day, Buddy Clark, Tony Martin |
website | Dinah Shore's Fan Club Website }} |
After failing singing auditions for the bands of Benny Goodman and both Jimmy Dorsey and his brother Tommy Dorsey, Shore struck out on her own to become the first singer of her era to achieve huge solo success. She had a string of 80 charted popular hits, lasting from 1940 into the late '50s, and after appearing in a handful of films went on to a four-decade career in American television, starring in her own music and variety shows in the '50s and '60s and hosting two talk shows in the '70s. ''TV Guide'' magazine ranked her at #16 on their list of the top fifty television stars of all time. Stylistically, Dinah Shore was compared to two singers who followed her in the mid-to-late '40s and early '50s, Doris Day and Patti Page.
When Shore was 16, her mother died unexpectedly of a heart attack, and Shore decided to pursue her education. She went to Vanderbilt University, where she participated in many events and activities, including the Chi chapter of the Alpha Epsilon Phi Sorority. She graduated from the university in 1938 with a degree in sociology. She also visited the Grand Ole Opry and made her radio debut on Nashville's WSM (AM) radio station in these years. She decided to return to pursuing her career in singing, so she went to New York City to audition for orchestras and radio stations, first on a summer break from Vanderbilt, and after graduation, for good. In many of her auditions, she sang the popular song "Dinah." When disc jockey Martin Block could not remember her name, he called her the "Dinah girl," and soon after the name stuck, becoming her stage name. She eventually was hired as a vocalist at radio station WNEW, where she sang with Frank Sinatra. She recorded and performed with the Xavier Cugat orchestra. She signed a recording contract with RCA Victor records in 1940.
Shore's singing came to the attention of Eddie Cantor. He signed her as a regular on his radio show, ''Time to Smile'', in 1940. Shore credits him for teaching her self-confidence, comedic timing, and the ways of connecting with an audience. Cantor bought the rights to an adapted Ukrainian folk song with new lyrics by Jack Lawrence for Shore to record for RCA Victor's Bluebird label. This song, "Yes, My Darling Daughter," became her first major hit, selling 500,000 copies in weeks, which was unusual for that time.
Shore soon became a successful singing star with her own radio show in 1943, ''Call to Music''. Also in 1943, she appeared in her first movie, ''Thank Your Lucky Stars'', starring Cantor. She soon went to another radio show, ''Paul Whiteman Presents''. During this time, the United States was involved in World War II and Shore became a favorite with the troops. She had hits, including "Blues In the Night", "Jim", "You'd Be So Nice To Come Home To", and "I'll Walk Alone", the first of her number-one hits. To support the troops overseas, she participated in USO tours to Europe. She met George Montgomery, a young actor ready to go into military service. They married on December 3, 1943, shortly before he went into service. When he returned, they settled in San Fernando, California. In 1948, their first child was born, a daughter named Melissa Ann, and they adopted a son in 1954 named John David before moving to Beverly Hills.
Shore continued appearing in radio shows throughout the 1940s, including ''Birds Eye-Open House'' and ''Ford Radio Show''. In early 1946, she moved to another label, Columbia Records. At Columbia, Shore enjoyed the greatest commercial success of her recording career, starting with her first Columbia single release, "Shoo Fly Pie And Apple Pan Dowdy", and peaking with the most popular song of 1948, "Buttons and Bows", which was number one for ten weeks. Other number one hits at Columbia included "The Gypsy" and "The Anniversary Song". One of her most popular recordings was the holiday perennial "Baby, It's Cold Outside" with Buddy Clark from 1949. The song was covered by many other artists, Ella Fitzgerald, for example. Other hits during her four years at Columbia included "Laughing on the Outside (Crying on the Inside)", "I Wish I Didn't Love You So", "I Love You (For Sentimental Reasons)", "Doin' What Comes Naturally", and "Dear Hearts And Gentle People". She was a regular with Jack Smith on his quarter-hour radio show on CBS. Shore acted in films such as ''Follow the Boys'' and ''Up in Arms'' (both in 1944), ''Belle of the Yukon'' (1945), and ''Till the Clouds Roll By'' (1946). She lent her musical voice to two Disney films: ''Make Mine Music'' (1946) and ''Fun and Fancy Free'' (1947). Her last starring film role was for Paramount Pictures in ''Aaron Slick from Punkin Crick'' (1952), co-starring Alan Young and Metropolitan Opera star Robert Merrill.
In 1950, Shore went back to RCA with a deal to record 100 sides for $1,000,000. The hits kept coming, but with less frequency, and were not charting as high as in the '40s. Dinah's biggest hits of this era were "My Heart Cries for You" and "Sweet Violets", both peaking at number three in 1951. Several duets with Tony Martin did well, with "A Penny A Kiss" being the most popular, reaching number eight. "Blue Canary" was a 1953 hit and her covers of "Changing Partners" and "If I Give My Heart To You" were popular top twenty hits. "Love and Marriage" and "Whatever Lola Wants" were top twenty hits from 1955. "Chantez, Chantez" was her last top twenty hit, staying on the charts for over twenty weeks in 1957. Shore stayed with RCA until 1959, and during that time released albums including ''Bouquet of Blues'', ''Once in a While'', and ''Vivacious'', which were collections of singles with different orchestras and conductors such as Frank DeVol and Hugo Winterhalter. ''Moments Like These'', a studio album from 1958, recorded in stereo, with orchestra under the musical direction of Harry Zimmerman, who performed the same duties on ''The Dinah Shore Chevy Show'', being the exception.
Shore left Capitol in 1962 and recorded only a handful of albums over the next two decades, including ''Lower Basin Street Revisited'' for friend Frank Sinatra's Reprise label in 1965,''Songs For Sometime Losers'' (Project 3, 1967), ''Country Feelin''' (Decca, 1969), and ''Once Upon A Summertime'' (Stanyan, 1975). Her final studio album was released in 1979, ''Dinah! Visits Sesame Street,'' for the Children's Television Workshop. In 2006, DRG released ''For The Good Times'', a CD reissue of "DINAH!," an album recorded for Capitol that had a limited Reader's Digest release in 1976. Shore recorded this album at the height of her talk show fame, and it featured her take on contemporary hits such as ''50 Ways To Leave Your Lover'', ''The Hungry Years'', and ''Do You Know Where You're Going To (Theme from "Mahogany")''.
In 1956 she hosted a monthly series of one-hour full-color spectaculars as part of NBC's "Chevy Show" series. These proved so popular that the show was renamed ''The Dinah Shore Chevy Show'' the following season, with Dinah becoming the full-time host, helming three out of four weeks in the month. Broadcast live and in NBC's famous "Living Color," this variety show was one of the most popular of the 1950s and early 1960s and featured the television debuts of stars of the era, such as Yves Montand and Maureen O'Hara, and featured Dinah in performances alongside Ella Fitzgerald, Mahalia Jackson, Peggy Lee, Frank Sinatra and Pearl Bailey. She also appeared as a guest on another Chevrolet-sponsored variety show, ''The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom'' on ABC.
''The Dinah Shore Chevy Show'' ran through the 1960-1961 season, after which Chevrolet dropped sponsorship, and the show continued for two more seasons as a series of monthly broadcasts sponsored by The American Dairy Association and Green Stamps. Simply called "The Dinah Shore Show," Dinah's guests included Nat "King" Cole, Bing Crosby, Jack Lemmon, and a very young Barbra Streisand. Over twelve seasons, from 1951 to 1963, Dinah Shore made 125 hour-long programs and 444 fifteen-minute shows.
Shore ended her televised programs by throwing an enthusiastic kiss directly to the cameras (and viewers) and exclaiming "MWAH!" to the audience.
"Dinah's Place", primarily sponsored by Colgate-Palmolive (which later sponsored her women's golf tournament), was a 30-minute Monday through Friday program broadcast at 10:00am(et) over NBC, her network home since 1939. Shore described this show as a "Do-Show" as opposed to a chat show because she would have her guests demonstrate an unexpected skill, for example Frank Sinatra sharing his spaghetti sauce recipe, Spiro Agnew playing keyboard accompanying Dinah on "Sophisticated Lady", or Ginger Rogers showing Shore how to throw a clay pot on a potter's wheel. Though "Dinah's Place" featured famous guest stars, often Shore grilled lesser-known lifestyle experts on nutrition, exercise or homemaking. Despite being one of the more popular programs in NBC's morning lineup, this show left the air in 1974 after NBC sent a telegram to Dinah congratulating her on her Emmy win — at the same time informing her the show was canceled, because it broke up a "game show programming block". Thus ended the network's 35-year association with Shore.
She returned that fall with "Dinah!" a syndicated 90 minute daily talk show (also seen in a 60 minute version on some stations) that put the focus on top guest stars and entertainment. This show was competition for Mike Douglas and Merv Griffin, whose shows had been on the air for 10 years when "Dinah!" debuted. Frequent guests included show-biz Lucille Ball, Bob Hope and James Stewart as well as regular contributors including lifestyle guru Dr. Wayne Dyer. There were unexpected rock music performances, among them David Bowie and Iggy Pop. Shore had the misfortune of interviewing the comedian Andy Kaufman in his Tony Clifton guise on this show. He took deliberate offense at her questions and eventually tipped a pan of eggs over her head. This program was taped live in front of a studio audience and the "Egg" segment was never aired; it is believed that the offending footage was destroyed. Shore's producers superimposed titles such as "This is a put on" over the footage that was eventually aired, including an uncomfortable duet between Shore and a belligerent Tony of "Anything You Can Do", and his solo of "On The Street Where You Live." Shooting was stopped and Kaufman was escorted out of the studio.
Shore, with her Dixie drawl and demure manner, was identified with the South, and guests on her shows often commented on it. She spoofed this image by playing Melanie in ''Went with the Wind,'' the famous ''Gone with the Wind'' parody for ''The Carol Burnett Show''. In the summer of 1976, Shore hosted "Dinah and her New Best Friends", an eight-week summer replacement series for ''The Carol Burnett Show'' that featured a cast of young hopefuls such as Diana Canova and Gary Mule Deer along with guests such as CBS stars Jean Stapleton and Linda Lavin.
Shore guest starred on ''Pee-wee's Playhouse Christmas Special'', calling Pee-wee on his picturephone and singing ''The 12 Days of Christmas''. Throughout the special, Pee-wee walks past the picturephone, only to hear her going past the original 12 days ("...on the 500th day of Christmas...")
Shore finished her television career hosting "A Conversation with Dinah" from 1989–1992 on the cable network TNN (The Nashville Network). This half-hour show consisted of one-on-one interviews with (Bob Hope), former boyfriends (Burt Reynolds in a special one-hour episode) and political figures (President Gerald Ford and his wife, Betty.) In a coup, Dinah got former First Lady Nancy Reagan's first post-White House interview for this show. At around this time, she gained a contract as television spokeswoman for Holly Farms chicken. Her last television special, "Dinah Comes Home," (TNN 1991) brought Dinah Shore's career full circle, taking her back to the stage of the Grand Ole Opry, which she first visited some 60 years earlier.
Shore won nine Emmys, a Peabody Award and a Golden Globe.
Shore was married to actor George Montgomery from 1943 to 1962. Shore gave birth to daughter Melissa Ann, now known as Melissa Montgomery-Hime, in January 1948. She later adopted her son, John "Jody" David Montgomery. In the book "Mr. S," the author, Frank Sinatra's longtime valet George Jacobs, alleged that Dinah Shore and Frank Sinatra had a long-standing affair in the 1950s. After her divorce from Montgomery, she briefly married Maurice Smith. Romances of the later 1960s involved comedian Dick Martin, singer Eddie Fisher, and actor Rod Taylor.
In the early 1970s, Shore had a long and happy public romance with actor Burt Reynolds, who was 20 years her junior. The relationship gave Shore an updated, sexy image, and took some of the pressure off Reynolds in maintaining his image as a ladies' man. The couple was featured in the tabloids and after the relationship cooled, the tabloids paired Shore with other younger men, from Wayne Rogers, Andy Williams, and "Tarzan" Ron Ely, to others such as novelist Sidney Sheldon, Dean Martin, and former New York Governor Hugh Carey.
Shore was the first female member of the famed Hillcrest Country Club in Los Angeles.
In acknowledgment of her contributions to golf, Shore was made an honorary member of the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1994. She also received the 1993 Old Tom Morris Award from the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America, GCSAA's highest honor.
Shore has a legacy posthumously, with a 1998 album featuring the arrangement skills of Andre Previn combined with the re-releasing of some of her recordings like ''April in Paris'', and ''My Funny Valentine'', garnering moderate success.
Dinah's daughter, Melissa Montgomery, is the owner of the rights to most of Shore's television series. In March 2003, PBS presented ''MWAH! The Best of The Dinah Shore Show 1956–1963'', an hour-long special of early color videotape footage of Dinah in duets with guests Ella Fitzgerald, Jack Lemmon, Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Pearl Bailey, George Burns, Groucho Marx, Peggy Lee, and Mahalia Jackson.
In Cathedral City, California, near Palm Springs there is a street named after her. In her birthplace of Winchester, Tennessee, Dinah Shore Boulevard is named after her.
Year | Single | Chart positions | |
! width="40" | ! width="40" | ||
13 | - | ||
24 | - | ||
22 | - | ||
19 | - | ||
10 | - | ||
23 | - | ||
9 | - | ||
22 | - | ||
21 | - | ||
16 | - | ||
5 | - | ||
4 | - | ||
8 | - | ||
12 | - | ||
23 | - | ||
align="left" | 5 | - | |
8 | - | ||
12 | - | ||
16 | - | ||
18 | - | ||
20 | - | ||
10 | - | ||
3 | - | ||
3 | 10 | ||
5 | - | ||
18 | - | ||
1 | 10 | ||
19 | - | ||
8 | - | ||
5 | - | ||
11 | - | ||
7 | - | ||
16 | - | ||
14 | - | ||
10 | - | ||
6 | - | ||
3 | - | ||
1 | - | ||
9 | - | ||
3 | - | ||
5 | - | ||
2 | - | ||
1 | - | ||
16 | - | ||
23 | - | ||
15 | - | ||
2 | - | ||
4 | - | ||
23 | - | ||
25 | - | ||
8 | - | ||
24 | - | ||
18 | - | ||
11 | - | ||
1 | - | ||
9 | - | ||
14 | - | ||
20 | - | ||
12 | - | ||
4 | - | ||
22 | - | ||
2 | - | ||
25 | - | ||
20 | - | ||
29 | - | ||
3 | - | ||
18 | - | ||
8 | - | ||
24 | - | ||
3 | - | ||
18 | - | ||
28 | - | ||
20 | - | ||
22 | - | ||
27 | - | ||
11 | - | ||
12 | - | ||
28 | - | ||
28 | - | ||
12 | - | ||
20 | - | ||
73 | - | ||
93 | - | ||
19 | - | ||
92 | - | ||
15 | - | ||
24 | - | ||
1960 | 103 | - |
Category:Article Feedback Pilot Category:1916 births Category:1994 deaths Category:People from Winchester, Tennessee Category:American female singers Category:American film actors Category:American television talk show hosts Category:Cancer deaths in California Category:Daytime Emmy Award winners Category:Deaths from ovarian cancer Category:Jewish actors Category:Jewish American musicians Category:Jewish singers Category:American people of Russian-Jewish descent Category:World Golf Hall of Fame inductees Category:Peabody Award winners Category:RCA Victor artists Category:Torch singers Category:Traditional pop music singers Category:Vanderbilt University alumni Category:Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Cathedral City) Category:20th-century actors Category:Cookbook authors
de:Dinah Shore es:Dinah Shore fr:Dinah Shore ko:디나 쇼어 it:Dinah Shore ja:ダイナ・ショア nov:Dinah Shore pl:Dinah Shore pt:Dinah Shore ru:Шор, Дина simple:Dinah Shore fi:Dinah Shore sv:Dinah ShoreThis text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
Hamor came to Jacob and asked for Dinah for his son: "Make marriages with us; give your daughters to us, and take our daughters for yourselves. You shall dwell with us; and the land shall be open to you," and Shechem offered Jacob and his sons any bride-price they named. But "the sons of Jacob answered Shechem and his father Hamor deceitfully, because he had defiled their sister Dinah," saying they would accept the offer if the men of the city agreed to be circumcised.
So the men of Shechem were deceived, and were circumcised; and "on the third day, when they were sore, two of the sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, Dinah's brothers, took their swords and came upon the city unawares, and killed all the males. They slew Hamor and his son Shechem with the sword, and took Dinah out of Shechem's house, and went away." And the sons of Jacob plundered whatever was in the city and in the field, "all their wealth, all their little ones and their wives, all that was in the houses."
"Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, 'You have brought trouble on me by making me odious to the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites and the Perizzites; my numbers are few, and if they gather themselves against me and attack me, I shall be destroyed, both I and my household.' But they said, 'Should he treat our sister as a harlot?
The 19th century scholar Julius Wellhausen divided the Dinah story between two original texts, the Elohist, which tells of Jacob's purchase of land at Shechem and his erection of an altar, and the Jahwist, telling the rape-and-vengeance story which takes up the bulk of the narrative. Wellhausen believed that the Jahwist's story was designed to cast a bad light on the northern Kingdom of Israel, which had Shechem as its first capital, the Jahwist text itself originating in the southern Judah. The brief Elohist account of the purchase of land by Jacob in Genesis 33 represents the northern kingdom's more peaceable account of the origins of Shechem.
Later scholars have questioned Wellhausen's analysis, often drastically, but the general view is that Genesis does combine originally separate strands and does not pre-date the 1st millennium BC. Post-Wellhausian scholars have suggested two layers of narrative within Genesis 34 itself, an older account ascribing the slaughter of Shechem and to Simeon and Levi alone, and a later addition (verses 27 to 29) involving all the sons of Jacob. One contemporary biblical scholar, Alexander Rofé, has suggested that the verb describing Dinah as "defiled" was added at this time also, as elsewhere in the Bible only married or betrothed women are "defiled" by rape; the fact that Genesis 34 is the sole exception suggests that it reflects a "late, postexilic notion that the idolatrous gentiles are impure [and supports] the prohibition of intermarriage and intercourse with them." The anachronistic preoccupation with racial purity indicates a date in the 5th or 4th centuries BC, when the restored Jewish community in Jerusalem was similarly preoccupied with anti-Samaritan polemics. It is not clear that Dinah was actually raped at all in the original story: the narrative is vague about what happened between Shechem and Dinah (the verb translated as "humbled" or "violated" can also mean "to subdue"), and the older version of Genesis 34 may therefore reflect a custom of abduction marriage.
Category:Torah people Category:Jacob Category:Book of GenesisCategory:Abducted People
ar:دينا بنت يعقوب ca:Dina de:Dina (Bibel) el:Δείνα eo:Dinah fa:دینه fr:Dinah it:Dina (Bibbia) he:דינה nl:Dina ja:ディナ pl:Dina pt:Diná ru:Дина, дочь Иакова tr:DinaThis text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
Name | Frank Sinatra |
---|---|
Background | solo_singer |
Birth name | Francis Albert Sinatra |
Alias | Ol' Blue EyesThe Chairman of the Board |
Birth date | December 12, 1915 |
Birth place | Hoboken, New Jersey, U.S. |
Death date | May 14, 1998 |
Death place | Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
Death cause | Heart attack |
Instrument | Vocals |
Genre | Traditional pop, jazz, swing, big band, vocal |
Occupation | Singer, actor, producer, director, conductor |
Years active | 1935–95 |
Label | Columbia, Capitol, Reprise, Apple Records |
Associated acts | Rat Pack, Bing Crosby, Nancy Sinatra, Judy Garland, Quincy Jones, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Frank Sinatra, Jr., Dean Martin, Count Basie, Sammy Davis, Jr. |
Website | |
Spouse | Nancy Barbato (1939–1951)Ava Gardner (1951–57)Mia Farrow (1966–1968)Barbara Marx (1976–1998) }} |
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra (; December 12, 1915 May 14, 1998) was an American singer and film actor.
Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the "bobby soxers", he released his first album, ''The Voice of Frank Sinatra'' in 1946. 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 in 1953 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 in 1961 (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".
With sales of his music dwindling and after appearing in several poorly received films, Sinatra retired for the first time in 1971. Two years later, however, he came out of retirement and in 1973 recorded several albums, scoring a Top 40 hit with "(Theme From) New York, New York" in 1980. Using his Las Vegas shows as a home base, he toured both within the United States and internationally, until a short time before his death in 1998.
Sinatra also forged a successful career as a film actor, winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in ''From Here to Eternity'', a nomination for Best Actor for ''The Man with the Golden Arm'', and critical acclaim for his performance in ''The Manchurian Candidate''. 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.
Born December 12, 1915, in Hoboken, New Jersey, Sinatra was the only child of Italian immigrants Natalie Della Garaventa and Antonino Martino Sinatra and was raised Roman Catholic. He left high school without graduating, having attended only 47 days before being expelled because of his rowdy conduct. Sinatra's father, often referred to as Marty, served with the Hoboken Fire Department as a Captain. 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. During the Great Depression, Dolly nevertheless provided money to her son for outings with friends and expensive clothes. In 1938, Sinatra was arrested for carrying on with a married woman, a criminal offense at the time. For his livelihood, he worked as a delivery boy at the ''Jersey Observer'' newspaper, and later as a riveter at the Tietjan and Lang shipyard, but music was Sinatra's main interest, and he carefully listened to big band jazz. He began singing for tips at the age of eight, standing on top of the bar at a local nightclub in Hoboken. Sinatra began singing professionally as a teenager in the 1930s, although he learned music by ear and never learned how to read music.
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 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. In June, Harry James hired Sinatra on a one year contract of $75 a week. 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.
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.
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. By signing with Dorsey's band, one of the hottest at the time, he greatly increased his 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' death in 1983, stated: "he [James] is the one that made it all possible."
On January 26, 1940, Sinatra made his first public appearance with the Dorsey band at the Coronado Theater in Rockford, Illinois. 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.
Sinatra's relationship with Tommy Dorsey was troubled, because of their contract, which awarded Dorsey one-third 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, and was 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.
On December 31, 1942, Sinatra made a "legendary opening" at the Paramount Theater in New York. Jack Benny later said, "I thought the goddamned building was going to cave in. I never heard such a commotion... All this for a fellow I never heard of." 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.
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 did not 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.
Sinatra signed with Columbia on June 1, 1943, as a solo artist, and he initially had great success, particularly during the 1942–44 musicians' strike. Although 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.
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". Active-duty servicemen, like journalist 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. His exemption would resurface throughout his life and cause him grief when he had to defend himself. There were accusations, including some from noted columnist Walter Winchell, that Sinatra paid $40,000 to avoid the service – but the FBI found no evidence of this.
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).
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''.
This was a period of serious self-doubt about the trajectory of his career. In February 1951, he was walking through Times Square, past the Paramount theatre, keystone venue of his earlier phenomenal success. The Paramount marquee glowed in announcement of Eddie Fisher in concert. Swarms of teen-age girls had gathered in frenzy, swooning over the current singing idol. For Sinatra this public display of enthusiasm for Fisher validated a fear he had harbored in his own mind for a long time. The Sinatra star had fallen; the shouts of "Frankieee" were echoes of the past. Agitated and disconsolate he rushed home, closed his kitchen door, turned on the gas and laid his head on the top of the stove. A friend returned to the apartment not long after to find Sinatra lying on the floor sobbing out the melodrama of his life, proclaiming his failure was so complete he could not even commit suicide''.
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. Ultimately, Sinatra did not find the success on television for which he had hoped. The persona he presented to the TV audience was not that of a performer easily welcomed into homes. He projected an arrogance not compatible with the type of cozy congeniality that played well on the small screen.
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 several years of critical and commercial decline, becoming an Oscar-winning actor helped him regain his position as the top recording artist in the world.
Also in 1953, Sinatra starred in the NBC radio program ''Rocky Fortune''. His character, Rocko Fortunato (aka Rocky Fortune) was a temp worker for the Gridley Employment Agency who stumbled into crime-solving by way of the odd jobs to which he was dispatched. The series aired on NBC radio Tuesday nights from October 1953 to March 1954, following the network's crime drama hit ''Dragnet''. 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.
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. With a series of albums featuring darker emotional material, Sinatra reinvented himself, 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 into some of his music, as heard on ''Swing Easy!'' (1954), ''Songs For Swingin' Lovers'' (1956), and ''Come Fly With Me'' (1957).
By the end of the year, Billboard had 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 both a critical and financial 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, spending 120 weeks on ''Billboard'''s album chart and peaking at #1. 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 and roll 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."
Sinatra's 1959 hit "High Hopes" lasted on the Hot 100 for 17 weeks, more than any other Sinatra hit did on that chart, and was a recurring favorite for years on "Captain Kangaroo".
His fourth and final Timex TV special was broadcast in March 1960, and earned 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." 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." 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").
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".
From his youth, Sinatra displayed sympathy for African Americans and worked both publicly and privately all his life to help them win equal rights. He played a major role in the desegregation of Nevada hotels and casinos in the 1960s. On January 27, 1961, Sinatra played a benefit show at Carnegie Hall for Martin Luther King, Jr. and led his fellow Rat Pack members and Reprise label mates in boycotting hotels and casinos that refused entry to black patrons and performers. He often spoke from the stage on desegregation and repeatedly played benefits on behalf of Dr. King and his movement. According to his son, Frank Sinatra, Jr., King sat weeping in the audience at a concert in 1963 as Sinatra sang ''Ol' Man River'', a song from the musical ''Show Boat'' that is sung by an African-American stevedore.
On September 11 and 12, 1961, Sinatra recorded his final songs for Capitol.
In 1962, he starred with Janet Leigh and Laurence Harvey in the political thriller, ''The Manchurian Candidate'', playing 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 the 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'', containing the single "It Was A Very Good Year", which won the Grammy Award for Best Vocal Performance, Male in 1966. A career anthology, ''A Man and His Music'', followed in November, 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 important 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 and 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." The professional relationship Sinatra shared with Solters focused on projects on the west coast while those focused on the east coast were handled by Solters' partner, Sheldon Roskin of Solters/Roskin/Friedman, a well-known firm at the time.
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 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 for 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, ironically, become more closely identified with him than any other song over his seven decades as a singer even though he reputedly did not care for it.
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 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. 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. 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 garnered mostly positive reviews while the album – actually culled from various shows during his comeback tour – was only a moderate success, peaking at No.37 on ''Billboard'' and No.30 in the UK.
In August, 1975, Sinatra held several back-to-back concerts together with the newly-risen singer, John Denver. Soon they became friends with each other. John Denver later appeared as a guest in the ''Sinatra and friends'' TV Special, singing "September Song" together with Sinatra. Sinatra covered the John Denver hits "My Sweet Lady" and "Leaving on a Jet Plane". And, according to Denver, his song "A Baby Just Like You" was written at Sinatra's request.
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.
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".
Also in 1981, Sinatra was embroiled in controversy when he worked a ten-day engagement for $2 million in Sun City, South Africa, breaking a cultural boycott against apartheid-era South Africa. See Artists United Against Apartheid
He 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 his old friend, President Ronald Reagan said that "art was the shadow of humanity" and that Sinatra had "spent his life casting a magnificent and powerful shadow".
In 1984, Sinatra 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.)
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, crooned, and serenaded into the hearts of the young and old... as this consummate artist from Hoboken." The same month Sinatra gave the first show of his Diamond Jubilee Tour at the Brendan Byrne 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 that reached No.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 during concerts his memory failed 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 1200 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, where he was introduced by Bono, who said of him, "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", but his acceptance speech ran too long and was abruptly cut off, leaving him looking confused and 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'', was held at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. At the end of the program Sinatra graced the stage for the last time to sing the final notes of "New York, New York" with an ensemble. It was Sinatra's last televised appearance.
In recognition of his many years of association with Las Vegas, Frank Sinatra was elected to the Gaming Hall of Fame in 1997.
Throughout his life, Sinatra had mood swings and bouts of depression. Solitude and unglamorous surroundings were to be avoided at all cost. He struggled with the conflicting need "to get away from it all, but not too far away." 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 elation." 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."
Sinatra garnered considerable attention due to his alleged personal and professional links with organized crime, including figures such as Carlo Gambino, Sam Giancana, Lucky Luciano, and Joseph Fischetti. 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. 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.
For a year Hoover investigated Sinatra's alleged Communist affiliations, but found no evidence. 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.
The released FBI files reveal some tantalizing insights into Sinatra’s lifetime consistency in pursuing and embracing seemingly conflicting affiliations. But Sinatra’s alliances had a practical aspect. They were adaptive mechanisms for behavior motivated by self-interest and inner anxieties. In September 1950 Sinatra felt particularly vulnerable. He was in a panic over his moribund career and haunted by the continual speculations and innuendos in circulation regarding his draft status in World War II. Sinatra “was scared, his career had sprung a leak.” In a letter dated September 17, 1950 to Clyde Tolson, Sinatra offered to be of service to the FBI as an informer. An excerpted passage from a memo in FBI files states that Sinatra “feels he can be of help as a result of going anywhere the Bureau desires and contacting any people from whom he might be able to obtain information. Sinatra feels as a result of his publicity he can operate without suspicion…he is willing to go the whole way.” The FBI declined his assistance.
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 early 1970s when he switched his allegiance to the Republican Party.
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 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 actively campaigned for President Harry S. Truman. In 1952 and 1956, he also campaigned for Adlai Stevenson. 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 Sinatra's alleged connections to organized crime. Kennedy stayed at Bing Crosby's house instead. Sinatra had invested a lot of his own money in upgrading the facilities at his home in anticipation of the President's visit. At the time, President Kennedy's brother, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, was intensifying his own investigations into organized crime figures such as Chicago mob boss Sam Giancana, who had earlier stayed at Sinatra's home.
Despite his break with Kennedy, however, he still mourned over Kennedy after he learned he was assassinated. He also re-stated his support for Humphrey on a live election-eve national telethon.
Sinatra began to show signs of dementia in his last years and after a heart attack in February 1997, he made no further public appearances. After suffering another heart attack, he 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 after Barbara encouraged him to "fight" as attempts were made to stabilize him, were "I'm losing." The official cause of death was listed as complications from dementia, heart and kidney disease, and bladder cancer. 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 for 10 minutes in his honor. President Bill Clinton, as an amateur saxophonist and musician, led the world's tributes to Sinatra, saying that after meeting and getting to know the singer as President, he had "come 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". Tony Curtis, Liza Minnelli, Kirk Douglas, Robert Wagner, Bob Dylan, 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 where Cathedral City meets Rancho Mirage and near his compound, located on Rancho Mirage's tree-lined Frank Sinatra Drive. 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.
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 what would have been his 92nd birthday – in Beverly Hills, California, with Sinatra family members on hand. The design shows a 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 Frank Sinatra School of the Arts in Astoria, Queens 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.
To commemorate the anniversary of Sinatra's death, Patsy's Restaurant in New York City, which Sinatra frequented, exhibited in May 2009 fifteen previously unseen photographs of Sinatra taken by Bobby Bank. The photos are of his recording "Everybody Ought to Be in Love" at a nearby recording studio.
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. 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".
There is a residence hall at Montclair State University named for him in recognition of his status as an iconic New Jersey native.
The Frank Sinatra International Student Center at Israel's Hebrew University, Mt. Scopus campus, was dedicated in 1978 in recognition of Sinatra's charitable and advocacy activities on behalf of the State of Israel.
Category:1915 births Category:1998 deaths Category:20th-century actors Category:Academy Honorary Award recipients Category:Actors from New Jersey Category:American people of Italian descent Category:American crooners Category:American film actors Category:American jazz musicians of Italian descent Category:American jazz singers Category:American people of Sicilian descent Category:American philanthropists Category:American pop singers Category:American Roman Catholics Category:Best Musical or Comedy Actor Golden Globe (film) winners Category:Best Supporting Actor Academy Award winners Category:Burials at Desert Memorial Park Category:California Republicans Category:Capitol Records artists Category:Cardiovascular disease deaths in California Category:Columbia Records artists Category:Congressional Gold Medal recipients Category:Deaths from myocardial infarction Category:Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners Category:Kennedy Center honorees Category:Musicians from New Jersey Category:New Jersey Democrats Category:People from Hoboken, New Jersey Category:People with bipolar disorder Category:Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients Category:Qwest Records artists Category:Reprise Records artists Category:Swing singers Category:Torch singers Category:Traditional pop music singers Category:Grammy Legend Award
af:Frank Sinatra ar:فرانك سيناترا an:Frank Sinatra az:Frenk Sinatra zh-min-nan:Frank Sinatra be:Фрэнк Сінатра bcl:Frank Sinatra bg:Франк Синатра bs:Frank Sinatra ca:Frank Sinatra cs:Frank Sinatra cy:Frank Sinatra da:Frank Sinatra de:Frank Sinatra et:Frank Sinatra el:Φρανκ Σινάτρα eml:Frank Sinatra es:Frank Sinatra eo:Frank Sinatra eu:Frank Sinatra fa:فرانک سیناترا fr:Frank Sinatra fy:Frank Sinatra ga:Frank Sinatra gl:Frank Sinatra ko:프랭크 시나트라 hr:Frank Sinatra io:Frank Sinatra id:Frank Sinatra is:Frank Sinatra it:Frank Sinatra he:פרנק סינטרה kn:ಫ್ರಾಂಕ್ ಸಿನಾಟ್ರಾ ka:ფრენკ სინატრა kk:Фрэнк Синатра la:Franciscus Sinatra lv:Frenks Sinatra lt:Frank Sinatra hu:Frank Sinatra mk:Френк Синатра nah:Frank Sinatra nl:Frank Sinatra ja:フランク・シナトラ no:Frank Sinatra pag:Frank Sinatra pms:Frank Sinatra pl:Frank Sinatra pt:Frank Sinatra ro:Frank Sinatra qu:Frank Sinatra ru:Синатра, Фрэнк sq:Frank Sinatra scn:Frank Sinatra simple:Frank Sinatra sk:Frank Sinatra sl:Frank Sinatra sr:Френк Синатра sh:Frank Sinatra fi:Frank Sinatra sv:Frank Sinatra tl:Frank Sinatra th:แฟรงก์ ซินาตรา tr:Frank Sinatra uk:Френк Сінатра vi:Frank Sinatra war:Frank Sinatra yo:Frank Sinatra zh:法蘭·仙納杜拉This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
name | Pearl Bailey |
---|---|
birthname | Pearl Mae Bailey |
birth date | March 29, 1918 |
birth place | Southampton County, Virginia, U.S. |
death date | August 17, 1990 |
occupation | Actress, singer |
death place | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
yearsactive | 1946–1989 |
spouse | }} |
Pearl Mae Bailey (March 29, 1918 – August 17, 1990) was an American actress and singer. After appearing in vaudeville, she made her Broadway debut in ''St. Louis Woman '' in 1946. She won a Tony Award for the title role in the all-black production of ''Hello, Dolly!'' in 1968. In 1986, she won a Daytime Emmy award for her performance as a fairy godmother in the ABC Afterschool Special, ''Cindy Eller: A Modern Fairy Tale''.
Her rendition of "Takes Two to Tango" hit the top ten in 1952.
She made her stage-singing debut when she was 15 years old. Her brother Bill Bailey was beginning his own career as a tap dancer, and suggested she enter an amateur contest at Philadelphia’s Pearl Theater. She entered, won first prize, later won a similar contest at Harlem’s famous Apollo Theater, and decided to pursue a career in entertainment.
In 1967, Bailey and Cab Calloway headlined an all-black cast version of ''Hello, Dolly!'' The touring version was so successful, producer David Merrick took it to Broadway where it played to sold-out houses and revitalized the long running musical. Bailey was given a special Tony Award for her role and RCA made a second original cast album.. That is the only recording of the score to have an overture which was written especially for that recording.
A passionate fan of the New York Mets, Bailey sang the national anthem at Shea Stadium prior to game 5 of the 1969 World Series, and appears in the Series highlight film showing her support for the team. She also sang the national anthem prior to game 1 of the 1981 World Series between the New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers at ''Yankee Stadium''.
During the 1970s she had her own television show, and she also provided voices for animations such as ''Tubby the Tuba'' (1976) and Disney's ''The Fox and the Hound'' (1981). She returned to Broadway in 1975, playing the lead in an all-black production of ''Hello, Dolly!''. She earned a B.A. in theology from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., in 1985.
Later in her career, Bailey was a fixture as a spokesperson in a series of Duncan Hines commercials, singing "Bill Bailey (Won't You Come Home)".
In her later years Bailey wrote several books: The Raw Pearl (1968), Talking to Myself (1971), Pearl's Kitchen (1973), and Hurry Up America and Spit (1976). In 1975 she was appointed special ambassador to the United Nations by President Gerald Ford. She enrolled in Georgetown University and, at age 67, graduated with a bachelor's degree in theology. Her last book, Between You and Me (1989), details her experiences with higher education. In 1988 Bailey received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Ronald Reagan.
Bailey, a Republican, was appointed by President Richard Nixon as America's "Ambassador of Love" in 1970. She attended several meetings of the United Nations and later appeared in a campaign ad for President Gerald Ford in the 1976 election.
She was awarded the Bronze Medallion (New York City award) in 1968 and a Presidential Medal of Freedom on October 17, 1988.
Bailey is paid tribute in the TV show ''American Dad!'', where the high school that Steve Smith attends is called Pearl Bailey High School.
Category:African American actors Category:African American singers Category:American female singers Category:American film actors Category:American musical theatre actors Category:American stage actors Category:American voice actors Category:Cardiovascular disease deaths in Pennsylvania Category:Daytime Emmy Award winners Category:Georgetown University alumni Category:Musicians from Virginia Category:Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients Category:People from Newport News, Virginia Category:Tony Award winners Category:Vaudeville performers Category:Virginia Republicans Category:Pennsylvania Republicans Category:1918 births Category:1990 deaths
de:Pearl Bailey es:Pearl Bailey fr:Pearl Bailey it:Pearl Bailey pt:Pearl Bailey ru:Бэйли, Перл sv:Pearl Bailey tl:Pearl Bailey yo:Pearl BaileyThis text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
name | Peggy Lee |
---|---|
background | solo_singer |
birth name | Norma Deloris Egstrom |
birth date | May 26, 1920 |
birth place | Jamestown, North Dakota |
death date | January 21, 2002 |
death place | Bel Air, Los Angeles, California |
genre | Traditional pop, jazz |
occupation | Singer, actress, songwriter |
years active | 1941–2000 |
label | Decca Records Capitol Records |
notable instruments | }} |
Lee first sang professionally over KOVC radio in Valley City, North Dakota. She later had her own series on a radio show sponsored by a local restaurant that paid her a "salary" in food. Both during and after her high school years, Lee sang for paltry sums on local radio stations. Radio personality Ken Kennedy, of WDAY in Fargo, North Dakota (the most widely heard station in North Dakota), changed her name from Norma to Peggy Lee. Thereafter, Lee left home and traveled to Los Angeles at the age of 17.
She returned to North Dakota for a tonsillectomy, and later made her way to Chicago for a gig at The Buttery Room, a nightclub in the Ambassador Hotel East. There, she was noticed by bandleader Benny Goodman. According to Lee, "Benny's then-fiancée, Lady Alice Duckworth, came into The Buttery, and she was very impressed. So the next evening she brought Benny in, because they were looking for a replacement for Helen Forrest. And although I didn't know, I was it. He was looking at me strangely, I thought, but it was just his preoccupied way of looking. I thought that he didn't like me at first, but it just was that he was preoccupied with what he was hearing." She joined his band in 1941 and stayed for two years.
In March 1943 Lee married Dave Barbour, a guitarist in Goodman's band. Peggy said, "David joined Benny's band and there was a ruling that no one should fraternize with the girl singer. But I fell in love with David the first time I heard him play, and so I married him. Benny then fired David, so I quit, too. Benny and I made up, although David didn't play with him anymore. Benny stuck to his rule. I think that's not too bad a rule, but you can't help falling in love with somebody."
When Lee and Barbour left the band, the idea was that he would work in the studios and she would keep house and raise their daughter, Nicki. But she drifted back to songwriting and occasional recording sessions for the fledgling Capitol Records in 1947, for whom she produced a long string of hits, many of them with lyrics and music by Lee and Barbour, including "I Don't Know Enough About You" and "It's a Good Day" (1948). With the release of the #1-selling record of 1947, "Mañana", her "retirement" was over.
In 1948 Lee joined Perry Como and Jo Stafford as a rotating host of the NBC Radio musical program ''Chesterfield Supper Club''. She was also a regular on NBC's ''Jimmy Durante Show''.
She left Capitol for a few years in the early 1950s, but returned in 1953. She is most famous for her cover version of the Little Willie John hit "Fever" written by Eddie Cooley and John Davenport, to which she added her own, uncopyrighted lyrics ("Romeo loved Juliet," "Captain Smith and Pocahontas") and her rendition of Leiber and Stoller's "Is That All There Is?". Her relationship with the Capitol label spanned almost three decades, aside from her brief but artistically rich detour (1952–1956) at Decca Records, where in 1956 she recorded one of her most acclaimed albums, ''Black Coffee''. While recording for Decca, Lee had hit singles with the songs ''Lover'' and ''Mister Wonderful''.
Lee is today internationally recognized for her signature song "Fever". She had a string of successful albums and top 10 hits in three consecutive decades. She is regarded as one of the most influential jazz vocalists of all time, being cited as a mentor to diverse artists such as Judy Garland, Frank Sinatra, Paul McCartney, Bette Midler, Madonna, and Dusty Springfield. Lee was also an accomplished actress,.
In her 60-year-long career, Peggy was the recipient of three Grammy Awards, including the Lifetime Achievement Award, an Academy Award nomination, The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) Award; the President's Award, the Ella Award for Lifetime Achievement, and the Living Legacy Award from the Women's International Center. In 1999 Lee was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
She wrote the lyrics for:
Her first published song was in 1941, "Little Fool". "What More Can a Woman Do?" was recorded by Sarah Vaughan with Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker. "Mañana (Is Soon Enough for Me)" was no.1 for 9 weeks on the Billboard singles chart in 1948, from the week of 13 March to 8 May.
Lee was a mainstay of Capitol Records when rock'n'roll came onto the American music scene. She was among the first of the "old guard" to recognize this new genre, as seen by her recording music from the Beatles, Randy Newman, Carole King, James Taylor and other up-and-coming songwriters. From 1957 until her final disc for the company in 1972, she produced a steady stream of two or three albums per year which usually included standards (often arranged quite different from the original), her own compositions, and material from young artists.
In 1952 Lee played opposite Danny Thomas in a remake of the early Al Jolson film, ''The Jazz Singer''. In 1955 she played an alcoholic blues singer in ''Pete Kelly's Blues'', for which she received an Academy Awards nomination. After years of poor health, Lee died of complications from diabetes and a heart attack at age 81. Her body was buried in Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles' Westwood, Los Angeles, California neighborhood. On her marker in a garden setting is inscribed, "Music is my life's breath."
Lee is a recipient of North Dakota's Roughrider Award; the Pied Piper Award from The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP); the Presidents Award, from the Songwriters Guild of America; the Ella Award for Lifetime Achievement, from the Society of Singers; and the Living Legacy Award, from the Women's International Center. In 1999 she was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
;Biography
;Album liner notes
Year | Title | Chart Positions | |
! width="60" | ! width="60" | ||
"I Got It Bad and That Ain't Good" | |||
"Winter Weather" (w/ Art Lund) | |||
"Blues in the Night" | |||
"Somebody Else is Taking My Place" | |||
"My Little Cousin" | |||
"We'll Meet Again" | |||
"Full Moon" | |||
"The Way You Look Tonight" | |||
1943 | "Why Don't You Do Right" | ||
1945 | "Waitin' for the Train to Come in" | ||
"I'm Glad I Waited for You" | |||
"I Don't Know Enough About You" | |||
"Linger in My Arms a Little Longer, Baby" | |||
"It's All Over Now" | |||
"It's a Good Day" | |||
"Everything's Moving too Fast" | |||
"Chi-baba, Chi-baba (My Bambino, Go to Sleep)" | |||
"Golden Earrings" | |||
"Mañana (Is Soon Enough for Me)" | |||
"All Dressed up with a Broken Heart" | |||
"For Every Man, There's a Woman" | |||
"Laroo, Laroo, Lili Bolero" | |||
"Talking to Myself About You" | |||
"Don't Smoke in Bed" | |||
"Caramba! It's the Samba" | |||
"Baby, Don't Be Mad at Me" | |||
"Somebody Else is Taking My Place" (re-issue) | |||
"Bubble Loo, Bubble Loo" | |||
"Blum Blum, I Wonder Who I Am" | |||
"Similau (See-Me-Lo)" | |||
"Bali Ha'i" | |||
"Riders in the Sky (A Cowboy Legend)" | |||
"The Old Master Painter" (w/ Mel Torme) | |||
"Show Me the Way to Get out of This World" | |||
1951 | "(When I Dance with You) I Get Ideas" | ||
"Be Anything (But Be Mine)" | |||
"Lover" | |||
"Watermelon Weather" (w/ Bing Crosby) | |||
"River, River" | |||
"Who's Gonna Pay the Check" | |||
"Baubles, Bangles, & Beads" | |||
"Where can I go Without You" | |||
"Mr. Wonderful" | |||
"Joey, Joey, Joey" | |||
"Light of Love" | |||
"Sweetheart" | |||
"Alright, Okay, You Win" | |||
"My Man" | |||
"Hallelujah, I Love Him So" | |||
1963 | "I'm a Woman" | ||
1964 | "In the Name of Love" | ||
"Pass Me By" | |||
"Free Spirits" | |||
"Big Spender" | |||
"That Man" | |||
"You've Got Possibilities" | |||
"So, What's New" | |||
"Walking Happy" | |||
1967 | "I Feel it" | ||
"Is That All There Is?" | |||
"Whistle for Happiness" | |||
"(Where Do I Begin?) Love Story" | |||
"You'll Remember Me" | |||
"One More Ride on the Merry-Go-Round" | |||
1972 | "Love Song" | ||
1974 | "Let's Love" |
;Television
Category:1920 births Category:2002 deaths Category:American actors Category:American contraltos Category:American female singers Category:American jazz singers Category:Songwriters from North Dakota Category:Burials at Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery Category:Capitol Records artists Category:Deaths from diabetes Category:Deaths from myocardial infarction Category:Decca Records artists Category:Disease-related deaths in California Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners Category:Musicians from North Dakota Category:American people of Norwegian descent Category:American musicians of Norwegian descent Category:People from Stutsman County, North Dakota Category:Songwriters Hall of Fame inductees Category:American people of Swedish descent Category:American musicians of Swedish descent Category:Torch singers Category:Traditional pop music singers Category:Women in jazz
cy:Peggy Lee de:Peggy Lee (Sängerin) es:Peggy Lee fr:Peggy Lee ko:페기 리 id:Peggy Lee it:Peggy Lee he:פגי לי ka:პეგი ლი la:Peggy Lee nl:Peggy Lee ja:ペギー・リー pl:Peggy Lee pt:Peggy Lee ru:Пегги Ли simple:Peggy Lee fi:Peggy Lee sv:Peggy Lee tl:Peggy Lee th:เพกกี ลีThis text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
The World News (WN) Network, has created this privacy statement in order to demonstrate our firm commitment to user privacy. The following discloses our information gathering and dissemination practices for wn.com, as well as e-mail newsletters.
We do not collect personally identifiable information about you, except when you provide it to us. For example, if you submit an inquiry to us or sign up for our newsletter, you may be asked to provide certain information such as your contact details (name, e-mail address, mailing address, etc.).
When you submit your personally identifiable information through wn.com, you are giving your consent to the collection, use and disclosure of your personal information as set forth in this Privacy Policy. If you would prefer that we not collect any personally identifiable information from you, please do not provide us with any such information. We will not sell or rent your personally identifiable information to third parties without your consent, except as otherwise disclosed in this Privacy Policy.
Except as otherwise disclosed in this Privacy Policy, we will use the information you provide us only for the purpose of responding to your inquiry or in connection with the service for which you provided such information. We may forward your contact information and inquiry to our affiliates and other divisions of our company that we feel can best address your inquiry or provide you with the requested service. We may also use the information you provide in aggregate form for internal business purposes, such as generating statistics and developing marketing plans. We may share or transfer such non-personally identifiable information with or to our affiliates, licensees, agents and partners.
We may retain other companies and individuals to perform functions on our behalf. Such third parties may be provided with access to personally identifiable information needed to perform their functions, but may not use such information for any other purpose.
In addition, we may disclose any information, including personally identifiable information, we deem necessary, in our sole discretion, to comply with any applicable law, regulation, legal proceeding or governmental request.
We do not want you to receive unwanted e-mail from us. We try to make it easy to opt-out of any service you have asked to receive. If you sign-up to our e-mail newsletters we do not sell, exchange or give your e-mail address to a third party.
E-mail addresses are collected via the wn.com web site. Users have to physically opt-in to receive the wn.com newsletter and a verification e-mail is sent. wn.com is clearly and conspicuously named at the point of
collection.If you no longer wish to receive our newsletter and promotional communications, you may opt-out of receiving them by following the instructions included in each newsletter or communication or by e-mailing us at michaelw(at)wn.com
The security of your personal information is important to us. We follow generally accepted industry standards to protect the personal information submitted to us, both during registration and once we receive it. No method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage, is 100 percent secure, however. Therefore, though we strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee its absolute security.
If we decide to change our e-mail practices, we will post those changes to this privacy statement, the homepage, and other places we think appropriate so that you are aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances, if any, we disclose it.
If we make material changes to our e-mail practices, we will notify you here, by e-mail, and by means of a notice on our home page.
The advertising banners and other forms of advertising appearing on this Web site are sometimes delivered to you, on our behalf, by a third party. In the course of serving advertisements to this site, the third party may place or recognize a unique cookie on your browser. For more information on cookies, you can visit www.cookiecentral.com.
As we continue to develop our business, we might sell certain aspects of our entities or assets. In such transactions, user information, including personally identifiable information, generally is one of the transferred business assets, and by submitting your personal information on Wn.com you agree that your data may be transferred to such parties in these circumstances.