Dear Readers,
Francis Albert Sinatra, born December 12, 1915, in Hoboken, New Jersey, may be gone but especially during December, his birthday month, the melody and memories linger on. Following are a few clips from my “Old Blue Eyes” file that I will share once again with you.
From “Frank Sinatra, my Father”, by Nancy Sinatra (1985): “It was December 12, 1915. He was the son of Anthony Martin Sinatra, who had arrived as a child from Agrigento, Sicily, and Natalie Catherine Garavente from Genoa. They lived in Hoboken, New Jersey, a workingman’s town across the Hudson River from New York City. It was a town of ethnic enclaves- Irish, Jewish, Italian- and ethnic frictions.
After arriving from Sicily with his wife and children, Dad’s grandfather had worked at the American Pencil Company for eleven dollars a week. My dad told me about the consequences.
“He inhaled that dust for seventeen years and it wrecked his lungs. He couldn’t do any better because he had nobody to teach him English. I remember my mother telling my father: ‘If you don’t bring him here to live with us, I’m going to take the boy and go’.
My dad’s father started out as an apprentice in a cobbler’s shop. He was known in his neighborhood, where everyone had a nickname, as “Tony the Shoemaker”. He took up prizefighting and, because it was better in those days to have an Irish name than an Italian one (the Irish politicians controlled Hoboken), he adopted his manager’s name and became known as “Marty O’Brien”.
Marty did some work as an extra in the very early movies (nearby Fort Lee, New Jersey, was an early movie-making center). He labored as a boilermaker in a shipyard and he ran a saloon, but most of his working years were with the Hoboken Fire Department. He was a good fireman, always first to arrive at the fires and he rose through the ranks to captain. He did the cooking at the firehouse.”
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Francis Albert Sinatra was born on December 12, 1915
Francis Albert Sinatra was born on December 12, 1915
This is from New Jersey’s Italian Tribune, July 6, 1979.
“Sinatra claims, ‘if I had to do it all over again, I wouldn’t change a thing.’
The crowd goes wild when the 64-year-old crooner belts out, ‘You make Me Feel So Young’. A roar of approval goes over the audience. Sinatra loves it. He smiles between the lyrics.
The ‘king’ who came out of Hoboken sang ‘I’ve Got the World on a String’ for more than 6,000 at the Garden State Arts Center last weekend and you can believe him. There was hardly a dry eye in the place.
His wasn’t kiddie crowd, or a center filled with senior citizens. It was simply a doting crowd under the Sinatra Syndrome.
You can hear the critics say, ‘His voice isn’t what is used to be’, but nobody cares.
When he walks out on the stage he had people loving their hero, and he didn’t disappoint.
Sinatra is one of the few stars who needs no fanfare when he goes on stage. He just walks out and the sun shines. It it’s night, look for the moon. As a veteran of the center said ‘he has charisma. He could just recite the dictionary and it would be enough.
’Between songs he tells about ‘funky shoes’ and ‘funny suits’. He makes himself the butt of his jokes and the audience eats it up. He has become a handsome man. Age, and a bit more flesh becomes him.
His black tuxedo is immaculate. A critic wrote of his performance, ‘He is not with the times. He is the times.’
Entertainers come and go. Sinatra is ageless. This year marks his 40th anniversary as a recording artist and nightclub performer.
He admits, ‘I’ve come a long way from the Rustic Cabin in Bergen County but loved every step of it.’
Sinatra’s vocal range is evident with the rendition of his popular ballads and old ‘saloon’ songs. As he pulls up to a bar stool he begins his ‘boy meets girl, boy loses girl’ routine.
Supporting him is an impeccable orchestra. The ‘king’ always demands the best and won’t stint on his backup crew.
He creates his own style for each song through his sensitivity, pouring his heart and soul into each creation. He is never constricted by the usual underwritten rules. The ‘king’ has his own rules.
Sinatra’t two-day engagement at the Arts Center benefits its Cultural Fund. The price of tickets are high, but the box office had to turn away many.
After singing ‘September of My Years’, Sinatra reminisced with the crowd. Naturally that led to his song about the “Very Good Years.’
He finished with ‘My Way’ and nobody could dispute that’s the way he did this show.”
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If you are interested in Hoboken, New Jersey, you can join the Hoboken Historical Museum Society and get their Newsletter.
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Thanks to the tabloids, the devil side of Sinatra is well known to the public. However, the angel side of Sinatra is well known to God. And I have that information direct from his representative here on earth, which I quote from Sinatra and the lost art of Livin’ “The Way You Wear Your Hat” by Bill Zehne. When Frank’s mother Dolly visited Pope Paul VI in Rome, the pontiff said in Italian, “Your son is very close to God”. She asked him what he meant and he replied, “because he does God’s work and does not talk about it.” And the Pope was “right on”.
Through the years Frank’s deeds were anonymous ones: hospital bills were mysteriously paid, nuns found new school buses in their yards, impossibile negotiations were suddenly resolved, underdogs got jobs, has-been’s got second chances, friends of acquaintances were flown to medical specialists for life-saving surgeries, schools got new gymnasiums, churches got new steeples, children got new pets and jerks got their comeupance…
Frank Sinatra was the most influential vocalist of the 20th century. His was an incomparable personality whose impact will be felt for generations to come. And through his music Frank Sinatra was a comfort during sad times and co-celebrant at happy times and special occasions…
People from all walks of life were the beneficiaries of Frank’s acts of kindness. His responsiveness to others knew no limit and hard luck cases never found a softer touch. “Once his friend, you’re his friend for life” said director Vincente Minelli or as Burt Lancaster put it: “I’m having a problem, it becomes his problem”. When the late George Raft was in desperate straits financially, after the I.R.S. hit him for 85 grand in back-taxes, Frank gave the actor a blank check to take care of it.
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In 2001 the National Sicialian American Foundation, based in California, had two sidewalk square sized bronze stars on location with officials of Sicilia Mondo in Catania (the province where Frank’s father Martin Sinatra was born), and in Palermo, capitol of the Italian island of Sicily, where the paternal side of Francis Albert Sinatra’s roots were honored. Frank Bonfiglio, president and founder of the N.S.A.F. was present when the memorial “Grazie Stars”, honoring Frank Sinatra’s heritage were presented and dedicated.
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Frank Sinatra fan, M. Martini of Pacific Palisades, California, penned this note to me after my annual remembering Frank column: “You mentioned his charity appearances. I would like to add what he did for the Italian Women’s Club in Los Angeles (originally called the Leonora Duce Club). My mother, Grace Martini, was the last surviving charter member of the club. The mother’s of Dean Martin and Mario Lanza were also members and their talented sons and their friends Sammy Davis Jr., Peter Lawford, etc. would put on an annual show at the Beverly Hilton Hotel to benefit the Italian’s Women’s Club.
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