Frank Sinatra - In the Spotlight
October 22nd
Thursday 9 PM central time on Yuwie Radio
www.stickam.com/janwatts
Birth and beginnings
Mugshot of Frank Sinatra, taken November 27, 1938 when Sinatra was arrested on a morals charge
Francis Albert Sinatra was born on December 12, 1915, at 415 Monroe Street, Hoboken, New Jersey. He was the only child of a Sicilian boxer and fireman, Anthony Martin Sinatra (1894 - 1969), and a Genoanmidwife, Democratic party ward boss, and abortionist, Natalie "Dolly" Sinatra née Garaventa (1896 - 1977).[1] His parents had immigrated to the United States in 1895 and 1897, respectively.
Sinatra weighed 13½ pounds at birth, and appeared stillborn,[2] but spluttered into life when placed under a cold tap. Due to his difficult birth, he was scarred permanently on his left earlobe, cheek, and neck, and suffered a perforated eardrum[2]
At the age of fourteen, Sinatra met Nancy Barbato[3] whom he would marry in 1939.
It was in the early 1930s that Sinatra began singing in public, first at family parties, then at local social clubs.[4] After watching Bing Crosby perform, he turned to Barbato and announced that he was going to become a singer, and told his parents later that evening. This caused tension between Sinatra and his parents, and he left home at the age of seventeen.[5]
Early career
One of Sinatra's earliest paying jobs was at the Hoboken Union Club. In 1935, he got his first break when his mother persuaded a local singing group, The Three Flashes, to let him join. With Sinatra, the group became known as the Hoboken Four, and they sufficiently impressed Edward Bowes that they appeared on his show, Major Bowes Amateur Hour, and with a record 40,000 votes they won the first prize, a six month contract to perform on stage and radio across the United States.
Sinatra did not get on well with the rest of the group, leaving the Hoboken Four to return home in late 1935. Dejected, but continuing with local jobs, until his mother secured him a job as a singing waiter and MC at the Rustic Cabin in Englewood, New Jersey, for which he was paid $15 a week. The engagement enabled Sinatra to be heard across New York City on radio station WNEW[6]
Sinatra was arrested on a morals charge in 1938, after an ex-lover had accused him of a breach of promise. The case was dismissed in court in January 1939, and within weeks Sinatra married Nancy Barbato.[7]
On March 18, 1939, Sinatra made his first recording, of a song called "Our Love", with the Frank Mane band. In June, Louise Tobin, the wife of bandleader Harry James, heard Sinatra on a broadcast from the Rustic Cabin, and visited the Cabin the following night with her husband. James, whom Sinatra had been trying to contact with photos and letters, hired Sinatra on a one year contract of $75 a week, and suggested he change his name to Frankie Satin, which he refused.[8]
Sinatra recorded some ten songs with James for the Brunswick and Columbia labels, and received his first notices in Metronome and Billboard magazines.
Growing dissatisfied with the James band, Sinatra was approached by Tommy Dorsey in November 1939, and formally joined Dorsey's band the following January.
In his first year with Dorsey, Sinatra released more than forty songs, with "I'll Never Smile Again" topping the charts for twelve weeks in mid-July.[9]
In June, Sinatra proved a huge success at the nightclub of Manhattan's Astor Hotel, and performed there throughout the summer. In his first year with Dorsey Sinatra released more than forty songs, with "I'll Never Smile Again" topping the charts for twelve weeks in mid-July[9]
In the autumn of 1940, Sinatra appeared unbilled in his first film, Las Vegas Nights, as a member of the Dorsey band.[10] In May 1941, Sinatra was at the top of the male singer polls in the Billboard and Downbeat magazines.[11]
By September 1940, the deteriorating relationship between Sinatra and his roommate, Tommy Dorsey's drummer, Buddy Rich came to a head when Rich was seriously assaulted in the street by two men. Sinatra then admitted to Rich that he had asked a favour of a "couple of Hoboken guys." Despite this, Sinatra and Rich would remain life long friends.[12]
Sinatra's relationship with Tommy Dorsey was also tenuous, and Sinatra recorded his first solo sessions without the Dorsey band (but with Dorsey's arranger Alex Stordahl and with Dorsey's approval) in January 1942. Sinatra left the Dorsey band late in 1942.
Sinatra's contract guaranteed Dorsey a third of his income. Sinatra grew dissatisfied with this arrangement and the negative publicity generated by Sinatra's response brought Dorsey to the negotiating table. More than a decade later Dorsey claimed that he had been threatened by mobsters connected with Sinatra. This version of events was referenced in The Godfather, in the anecdote Michael Corleone relates to his fiancée Kay Adams, about the singer Johnny Fontane.[citation needed] In reality, Sinatra's lawyer, who also represented the American Federation of Radio Artists, threatened Dorsey with the cancellation of his NBC broadcasts, and Sinatra's contract was eventually bought out for $75,000.[13]
His departure from the Dorsey Band was announced on stage at the Circle Theatre in Indianapolis on August 28, 1942.
Sinatra cut 29 singles with Dorsey during 1941 and was named Male Vocalist of the Year by Billboard magazine in May.
His vast appeal to "bobby soxers," as teenage girls of that time were called, revealed a whole new audience for popular music, which had been recorded mainly for adults up to that time. (The complete span of his career with Dorsey was released in the 1994 box set, The Song Is You.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biography_of_Frank_Sinatra | 
