Vivien Leigh

Vivien Mary Hartley was an English stage and film actress and as Robert Osborne points out that 80% of the most sought after roles in Hollywood between 1939-59 were offered to our August Golden Age Star Vivien Leigh.  She was a staggeringly beautiful woman but when she was offered the lead in Gone With the Wind in 1939 many were incredulous that here was an English actress being offered the role of a lifetime as Southern Belle Scarlett O’Hara in Margaret Mitchell’s immortal classic. What was more incredible were some of the Hollywood stars who tried for the role and failed. Stars like; Paulette Goddard, Katherine Hepburn, Bette Davis, Lana Turner, Joan Bennett, Jean Arthur and Talullah Bankhead. But in the end Selznick Studios picked the right one as Leigh won her 1st Academy Award and the film 10 in all. (8 competitive and 2 honorary with 13 nominations in all)

Vivien Hartley born November 13, 1915 in India to a Yorkshire stockbroker and his Irish wife. The young Vivien began her education in a convent. At 6 years old she announced to a young friend that one day she would be famous. That childhood friend turned out to be Maureen O’Sullivan who encouraged her to begin an acting career. As she grew older her schooling beside took her abroad to France, Italy and Germany where she became fluent in both Italian and French. Married young at 19 to a German lawyer named Herbert Leigh Holiman she took his middle name and changed the spelling of her first name using e instead of the more common a.  

In 1935, she took to the stage in a play The Bash that wasn’t very successful but impressed a London producer Sydney Carroll and he gave her the lead in Things Are Looking Up. Not strangely things began to change radically after that as she began acting in Shakespearean plays and met her 2nd husband Laurence Olivier. Although both married at the time they cavorted publicly and collaborated in their acting career as well.  

After the success of Gone With The Wind the two married in 1940 and began to star on stage and in the movies but then chose to stay out of the limelight after highly public one whilst both married. In hindsight it might have been Vivien’s mental health, as they would often take breaks between performances. Leigh suffered from manic depression and it put a strain on their relationship in later years. In fact in 1944 while in rehearsal for Antony and Cleopatra she suffered a miscarriage and her health began to spiral downward with insomnia, bipolar disorder and then a respiratory ailment, which later was diagnosed as tuberculosis. Vivien tried shock treatment, which left burn marks on her temples and then her drinking escalated as well.  

Throughout she continued to work but no role could match the one of Scarlett until 1949 when she secured the part of Blanche Du Bois in a London production of Tennessee William’s play A Streetcar Named Desire. The play lasted a year and Elia Kazan quick to capitalize on it’s success had her reprise the role for Hollywood opposite Marlon Brando it was here she won her 2nd Academy Award. Her performance some say exceeded her role in GWTW. Vivien suggested her own struggles let her tap into the character and as she later recounted tipped her into “madness”  

Not long after she and Olivier made stage history when they simultaneously starred in a Shakespeare production of Antony and Cleopatra and George Bernard Shaw offering of Caesar and Cleopatra. Despite these monumental successes the bipolar disease tightened it's grip on Vivien and coupled with her 2nd miscarriage she had a full breakdown in 1953. Studio acrimony had her odds with productions afterward and her relationship with Laurence began to crumble and they ended their union in 1960.  

Maybe the change did her good as Olivier remarried and Vivien moved in with a younger man and her career seemed revitalized albeit for a short time as she earned a Tony Award in a musical adaptation of Tovarich in 1963 and two years later acclaim in the Academy Award winning Ship of Fools.  But in 1967 while filming A Delicate Balance the respiratory troubles of tuberculosis took Vivien’s life. She was only 53.  London’s theater district blacked out for an hour in her honor.  

Vivien would say I am not a film star I am an actress. Being a film star is such a false life, lived for fake values and for publicity. An interesting quote when juxtaposed against what some stars think of themselves today. She would also say that beauty could be a handicap as some might think if you look reasonable you can’t possibly act and as she only cared about acting she felt her looks worked against her sometimes.  And finally she said that she dreaded the truth in some of her lines but she told herself I could never let that show. 

Footnotes.

Vivien had a vixen side and husband Olivier couldn’t keep up with her marathon ways and it became burdensome for him. He affectionately referred to her as “Puss”. And during the filming of GWTW Vivien claimed that Gable tried to rape her probably getting overheated watching her getting tied in to a 16-inch waistcoat during filming of GWTW. 

Gene Tierney

“Jealousy is, I think the worst of all faults because it makes a victim of both parties.” I picked a quote from our star for July because it seems to ring true back then and even today. But let’s get started on this luminary shall we? She was of course a stunning beauty but contrary to the popular idiom her beauty ran much deeper than skin deep. Astonishing looks, high cheekbones and a classic overbite might have gotten her the start in Hollywood but it was her acting that carried her to the pinnacle of super stardom. Born in 1920 in Brooklyn to a privileged lifestyle her father was a successful insurance broker Gene received her schooling in Connecticut and Switzerland.  Her head turning looks got her started on Broadway at 18 in Mrs. O’Brien Entertains and before long Daryl Zanuck spotted her and secured her contract to Twentieth Century Fox.  

Her first feature came at just 20 in 1940’s The Return of Frank James opposite Henry Fonda. For a few years critics were nonplussed until 1943 when her breakthrough performance came that year in the comedy Heaven Can Wait but it was in the following year, 1944 that she is most remembered in the haunting mystery Laura starring opposite Dana Andrews, Clifton Webb and Vincent Price before he became the Prince of Horror. Gene although talked about and seen in flashbacks doesn’t actually show up until about 1/3 through the movie when it’s revealed she’s still alive not dead as the story leads us to believe. Truly one of Robert Osborne’s favorite stars Tierney is luminescent in this 88-minute romantic drama mystery wearing hats and gowns (designed by Bonnie Cashin) that framed her singular in nature countenance. 

Her success continued as she played the dark Ellen Berent in Leave Her to Heaven in 1945 receiving her nomination for Best Actress. Thence 2 years later in The Razor’s Edge with our previous star of the month Tyrone Power and then my personal favorite that same year in the fantasy ghost story opposite Rex Harrison where she portrays a headstrong widow up against a salty deceased sea captain in an unlikely love story. The movie spawned a short-lived TV series starring Hope Lange in 1968. Several smaller roles followed but she came back triumphantly opposite Spencer Tracy in 1952’s Plymouth Adventure and Never Let Me Go with Clark Gable. Two more smash hits to her credit followed in Night and the City and The Left Hand of God. 

It was the next decade however that her health and personal life would collide and help bring down a career in a heartbreaking and tragic conclusion. Depression and hospitalizations would keep Gene from the limelight and a marriage to playboy Oleg Cassini didn’t help matters. She bore him two daughters Daria and Christina and after Cassini she married Texas oil baron Howard Lee in 1960 until his death in 1981. Howard was married previously to another Hollywood beauty Hedy Lamarr.  

Oddly enough as beautiful as her adoring fans and most film aficionados felt she was our star often complained about her teeth. She would lament that they protruded too much. Hence that overbite that added to her looks she tried to cover with lipstick, broadening her lips and even tried to have dentists straighten.  They wouldn’t touch her. In fact the studio when alerted to her efforts made her stipulate that Gene not change a thing in her appearance, which she reluctantly agreed. A smart move as Mother Nature did not make a mistake in Gene Tierney’s case. 

Her first daughter was born retarded because Gene had contracted measles when she had made an appearance at the Hollywood Canteen and it was Howard Hughes that provided for her daughter’s medical care. Incidentally her daughter’s birth defect inspired the Agatha Christie movie The Mirror Crack’d.  

  

Gene had a notorious affair with John F. Kennedy in 1946 while filming Dragonwyck. The young 29-year old ended the affair, as we all know had political aspirations. Strangely she voted for Nixon but congratulated him when he won the Presidency.   She and Tyrone Power had a dalliance while filming The Razor’s Edge and she also found herself in a gambol with Prince Aly Khan in the early 50’s. 

 Admitted to Menninger’s Clinic in Kansas in 1957 for suicidal depression and shock treatment she was released in the year following. In 1959 Fox offered her the role in Holiday for Lovers but the stress proved to be just too much and she was forced to leave that production.  

Gene hated her voice in fact she claimed that it sounded like an angry Minnie Mouse and determined to make it sound lower she resorted to smoking. A terrible decision as she died of emphysema in 1991. Gene Tierney made 24 movies over a span from 1940 to 1964 her last being The Pleasure Seekers with Ann Margaret and Tony Franciosa.

One of our residents mentioned that I had missed something about Anthony Quinn and that was he painting prowess. My apologies. If you have comments please write me I’d love to hear from you at Jackbriant@mac.com What Gene said about jealousy is something for all of us to think about. Jealousy is the absence of love.  Until next month. 

Anthony Quinn

Our Golden Age star for June was one of those once in a lifetime icons that Robert Osborne called the most animated stars he ever met and later became friends with. He met A.Q. in 1999 in the series produced by TCM called Private Screenings and as he walked in the room as the cameras began to roll with his wide smile, bursting exuberance, and wild vivacity he recounted stories about his life and the people he met and worked with. It gave Osborne a real sense of the actor’s true charisma and as he called it whiz-bang personality that helped emblazon Quinn’s stardom during his tenure on the Silver Screen. Osborne adding his own exclamation point nicknamed him Tony the Tornado. 

 Anthony Rodolfo Quinn Oaxaca was born in Chihuahua, Mexico to an immigrant father from Cork Ireland and mother a native of Mexico this extraordinary talent would become one of the most versatile actors Hollywood would ever produce. Shortly after his birth his family settled in Los Angeles it was there young Anthony attended Catholic School and as early as age 6 he considered the Priesthood but when he was 9 his father had died and Anthony had to grow up fast taking odd jobs to support his family. Maybe unknown to we readers that in High School he won an architecture competition and was mentored by Frank Lloyd Wright who urged Quinn to enroll in acting school with the intention to hone his speaking quality for what would be on his future horizon. 

 They year 1936 saw his opportunity arrive as he starred with Mae West in his first movie Clean Beds and then Parole. This film was pivotal because it typecast him as the ethnic guy with the bad attitude. In that same year he played a menacing Cheyenne Indian opposite Gary Cooper in The Plainsman and then a more sympathetic one as Crazy Horse in They Died With Their Boots On opposite Errol Flynn. By the year 1947 Anthony Quinn appeared as a Hawaiian Chief, Filipino freedom fighter, an Arab sheik, Chinese guerilla, Mafia don, and even more Indians but it was this great versatility that yielded A.Q. his 2 Oscar wins. 

Some of his best work began in 1952 alongside Marlon Brando in Viva Zapata! For which he won best actor in a supporting role. He received that same award alongside Kirk Douglas in 1956’s Lust for Life and again that same year he won the Foreign Language Film Oscar in Fellini’s LaStrada.  The Best Actor nod nomination for Wild is the Wind in 1957 and maybe his best known film Zorba the Greek in 1964 and he achieved boffo box office success with Gregory Peck and David Niven in The Guns of Navarone in 1961 and Lawrence of Arabia with Peter O’Toole in 1962. Quinn had been a professional boxer earlier in his life and that might have helped in when he played as has been pugilist opposite Jackie Gleason as his manager and Mickey Rooney in the highly acclaimed Requiem for a Heavyweight. Six years later he found himself playing the Pontiff in Shoes of the Fisherman opposite the legendary Laurence Olivier. As one might observe Anthony Quinn many times played secondary roles but at times outshined the headliner and broke the mold for other character actors that followed.  

Quinn’s versatility extended to the stage as well. In 1947 he appeared in a Broadway production The Gentleman From Athens. He also took the replacement role of Stanley Kowalski, a Brando favorite in A Streetcar Named Desire and later in 1950 Borned in Texas, then Becket in 1960 and then Tony nominated for Tchin-Tchin in 1962.  

Did you know that A.Q.’s first wife was the daughter of famed director Cecille B. DeMille? Or that when John Barrymore needed a blood transfusion Quinn was there for his old friend? 

A.Q might have been known as Jack the Lad as well because he was married 3 times with multiple mistresses. He sired 13 children with his wives and mistresses and was accused of abuse by his second wife Yolanda that he disputed. He died of respiratory failure in Boston in 2001 he was 

Robert Mitchum

Robert Mitchum

Robert Osborne one of the nation’s best interviewers said of Mitchum when he interviewed him back in 2011 that he was a scoundrel. Before the mikes were turned on he was loquacious and charming but when the cameras began to roll Bob wouldn’t give a straight answer to any of Osborne’s simple queries. That was his style throughout his career and whenever he was interviewed he would become rhetorical rather than answer his interviewer and filled the content with hilarity and often vulgarity.  Our star for May never got caught up in his celebrity though in fact he reflected on it so casually and would say: “It sure beats working”. 

Born August 6, 1917 in Bridgeport Connecticut Mitchum would make over a 100 movies and what Hollywood studios and directors loved about him was that he would play anything from homicidal villains, heroic GI’s, flinty Private Eyes or the black hat in Hopalong Cassidy movies. Born to a railroad worker James Mitchum of Irish descent and daughter to a Norwegian ship captain Anne Harriet. Robert lost his father at age 2 to a railroad switching accident and his mother Anne became a linotype operator to support her 3 children. 

Leaving school at 14 Robert hopped freight trains around the country and made money as a laborer, a coal miner, aircraft assembler, even a boxer. He had many run-ins with the law, which gave him a lifelong repugnance to authority. Later in life he would face almost two months in jail on trumped up marijuana charges, which were later expunged. However marijuana had little to do with the deteriorating quality of life Robert Mitchum would later suffer from, as it was the chain smoking and alcoholic drinking that would distort his physiology and good looks even though he lived until he was 79.

Arriving in Long Beach California in 1936 with his sister he joined a local theater guild began as a ghost writer for an astrologer, worked as a stagehand then started acting as a bit player in some of the theater productions. He started writing poetry, songs and monologues for his sister Annette who was performing in nightclubs at the time.  Mitchum’s hiatus ensued as he returned to Maryland to marry his betrothed Dorothy Spence an enduring marriage until his death he sired 3 children with Dorothy and for a time worked as a machine operator with Lockheed. 

Mitchum would suffer a nervous breakdown precipitating a temporary blindness most likely from stress but after his recovery he would return to Hollywood as a villain opposite William Boyd Hopalong Cassidy in 1942-43. He then performed in a film opposite Randolph Scott in 1943 titled Gung Ho about war in the Pacific. Later he impressed Mervyn LeRoy in Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo and signed a seven-year contract with RKO. He followed with a moderately successful western Nevada but then was sent to United Artists for the critically acclaimed G.I. Joe in 1945 which was nominated for four Oscars including best supporting actor for Mitchum. He was then drafted and stayed in the army for less than a year and upon his return in 1947 he began to hit his stride with one hit after another starting with the iconic Film Noir Out of the Past costarring the now centenarian Kirk Douglas. It was early in 1948 when he was arrested on the much publicized marijuana charges along with actress Lila Leeds. The press had a field day taking pictures of him mopping floors in prison and the arrest only served to make Mitchum more popular than ever as his films afterward were box office hits. As was mentioned earlier the charge was a setup by the District Attorney’s office trying to entrap Hollywood actors. 

 Mitchum could play the white hat but would always return to Film Noir as some of his best film work rested there but it was his demonic portrayal of a preacher in 1955’s Night of the Hunter, which won him his biggest critical acclaim. Interestingly enough it was the only film that Charles Laughton directed. That same year Mitchum was thrown off the movie Blood Alley as it was reported he threw the transportation director into San Francisco Bay but it was most likely his erratic behavior that ended his role on that film. 

One of this writers favorite however I enjoyed as a youth was with Deborah Kerr in 1957’s Heaven Knows Mister Allison wherein he as a Marine corporal is shipwrecked on a Pacific island with a nun, Kerr. it was a riveting drama as the two battle the elements and an invading Japanese Army. The film nominated for two Academy Awards including best actress for Kerr and Mitchum was nominated for a BAFTA for his portrayal.   

Showing his versatility in 1960 Robert was reunited with Kerr in The Sundowners this time as husband and wife struggling in a depression era Australia. Kerr nominated again for best actress and the film for five Oscars. Mitchum won the National Board of Review for best Actor. In 1962 he returned to the predator role in Cape Fear opposite the iconic Gregory Peck. Rounding out his career he appeared in The Longest Day 1962, El Dorado 1967 and Anzio 1968.

Maybe you didn’t know that Robert Mitchum was both a composer and singer.  His voice can be heard in Rachel and the Stranger, River of No Return and The Night of the Hunter. He released an album on Capitol Records and his The Ballad of Thunder Road reached 62 on the Billboard Pop Singles chart. In 1991 Mitchum appeared on Saturday Night Live playing a parody of private eye Philip Marlowe in a short comedy sketch. That same year he was given a lifetime achievement award from the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures and the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 1992. Mitchum died weeks short of his 80th birthday complications of lung cancer and emphysema he was survived by his wife of 57 years Dorothy.  Robert Mitchum The Soul of Film Noir as Roger Ebert referred to him as. 

Thelma Todd

A decided departure for April’s Star of the Month but nonetheless a huge talent our feature was an underrated comedic screen pioneer whether she was paired with Zasu Pitts or Patsy Kelly or as a stand alone star when featured in film’s like Horse Feathers in 1932 that starred Titans like The Marx Brothers, Thelma Todd was a stunning blonde that kept her audiences in stitches with her captivating countenance, raw talent and pinpoint comic timing.  Her life cut short however under mysterious circumstances at age 29 remain unsolved to this day. We will explore that conundrum later. 

She was born in Lawrence Massachusetts in 1906 and was a gifted student and that being the case her original intention was to be a teacher but fortunately for the world that didn’t last long.  Thelma found herself working part time as a fashion model, which led her to compete and won her the Title of Miss Massachusetts of 1925. She then competed for Miss America but lost but no matter a Hollywood talent agent discovered her and enrolled her in acting school in New York the following year and she began landing supporting roles in silent films like Fascinating Youth in 1926 and The Noose in 1928. Then Hal Roach recognized the opportunity to create a female version of Laurel and Hardy already in his stable pairing her first with Zasu Pitts (17 films) and then to even greater success with Patsy Kelly (21 films). 

Anxious to be taken as a serious actress Thelma changed her name and worked briefly as Alison Lloyd in a crime thriller under the direction of and later boyfriend with Roland West with the release of Corsair 1931.  Extending her dramatic side she played the lover of Ricardo Cortez assuming the character of Dashiell Hammett’s Sam Spade in the original Maltese Falcon although it paled in comparison to the Humphrey Bogart edition released in 1941. Thelma Todd though was most at home in comedy and the perfect foil for the aforementioned Marx Brothers, Harold Lloyd, Jimmy Durante and Laurel and Hardy. Not to be outdone Thelma starred opposite A list actors Cary Grant in his first role This is the Night in 1932, a drama with John Barrymore Counselor at Law by William Wyler in 1933 and returning to comedy with Bing Crosby and Joan Bennett 1935’s Two for Tonight. 

Thelma made 119 films although most were shorts nearly all of them were hits and her lasting legacy will be a comedic genius whether as a duo or a solo she shined brightest among Hollywood’s finest comedian’s and held her own alongside the drama Kings and Queens of her day. The term screwball comedy probably originated with the likes of Thelma and her partners Pitts and Kelly and there were many more famous names to follow. Thelma Todd laid the groundwork for not only women comedians but for many of her male counterparts to follow as well.  The shorts she made with Patsy Kelly stand the test of time, as even today you’ll find yourself laughing throughout. These can be seen occasionally on TCM. 

Just before Christmas in 1935 Thelma was found outside her restaurant inside her car dead of an apparent accidental carbon monoxide poisoning. It was alleged she was warming up her car as the weather forecast was for a frosty morning that day in Los Angeles.  Conspiracy theories ran rampant soon afterward ranging from depression and suicide to money issues and murder and even extortion. The Grand Jury discovered that Thelma was bloodied about the mouth, which fueled the speculation that she had an altercation with ex-husband Pat DiCicco. They had physical abuse issues in their marriage.  Most disputed any notion that Thelma was depressed as she had just completed filming The Bohemian Girl and her restaurant Thelma Todd’s Sidewalk Café was drawing like gangbusters (no pun intended) and it was rumored the mob wanted in but Thelma and boyfriend Roland West didn’t want any part of them fleecing the Hollywood elite which also led some to believe had a hand in her demise. The underworld wanted Todd to turn her restaurant over to them and make it a gambling establishment. 

The medical examiner also found Thelma had cracked ribs, neck contusions, a broken nose, a chipped front tooth and partially digested food in her stomach. These facts alone would seem to rule out that Thelma was contemplating suicide and point more to her death was indeed a murder. The District Attorney at the time one Buron Fitts was rumored to be both corrupt and inept. If you’re interested in Thelma’s life there’s a few books out their Hot Toddy, which has mixed reviews and a more staid version The Ice Cream Blonde, and Testimony of a Death. 

Thelma Todd is not a name that might roll off your lips but The Ice Cream Blonde as a pioneer in comedy created a foundation that film historians like the late Robert Osborne took notice of and although she never got the recognition she deserved her comedic talents will be preserved forever

White Christmas Performed by The Kings Academy Players

Although it’s been years since I watched 1954’s Silver Screen version of White Christmas starring Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye when the last musical number concluded and we put our hands together in stunned appreciation for the High School company that just performed it for Debra and I, in my mind it could have rivaled any production stage or screen.  Maybe that’s overstating things a bit after all it was a High School production. But Ladies and Gentlemen what a production!

If these young adults many of them anyway aren’t headed for Julliard then for the Broadway stage knock me down with a feather. When you look at the Broadway like Playbill and then peruse the pictured actors and bios they look like kids. Yet up on the stage they become transformed into 20 something and when they open their mouths they become adult performers and in a flash of lightning you’re whisked away to the Great White Way in the exquisitely designed Page Family Center for Performing Arts. 

The story a simple one Bob Wallace and Phil Davis ex Army vets team up with sister act Betty and Judy Haynes put on a Christmas show in rural Vermont in a failing Country Inn run by their ex General Henry Waverly. With a little romance mixed in, the cast performs music by the legendary Irving Berlin with voices this side of heaven. This troupe featured junior Kyle Martin in Bing Crosby’s role filling the crooner’s delivery with a mellifluous voice that filled every inch of negative space and with his sidekick Graham Popadic a senior with equally rousing melodic chords in the Danny Kaye portrayal as the devil may care playboy suddenly struck by Cupid’s arrow by dancer and singer Gracie O’Connor in the Vera Ellen role. And rounding out the love interest duo is senior Jessica Turley as Betty Haynes who was instantly equally smitten to Kyle Martin. Gracie and Jessica both with earthbound Angelic voices complimented each other like no duo in recent memory.  These Haynes sisters together, apart and as a trio with Kate Higgins also a senior and a quartet with the boys nearly flattened me with each note. A surprising addition was the diminutive sophomore Sara Meldrim playing the General’s granddaughter belting out “Count Your Blessings Instead of Sheep” took the audience by surprise in terms of it’s strength and melodic timbre.  Some of the best and lesser known masterfully crafted Berlin musical compositions are here including “Blue Skies”, “Sisters”, “I’ve Got My Love to Keep Me Warm” and of course “White Christmas”. However what made the whole evening astonishing was how the production blended the music with the pageantry of dance and costume. We will look forward to the King’s Academy’s next production which is slated for late January, Peter and the Star Catcher. 

The choreography alone is worthy of Broadway.  The dancers had our pupils widened with each scene. The tap dance numbers were syncopated with precision and the costuming was visually stunning. And leading this production is a Tony nominated director with the moniker of David Snyder without whom despite these gifted players this spectacular show could not have been elevated to this level of success.

The Kings Academy players are the crème de al crème and with White Christmas not only did they set the mood for the season but these teenagers made us hearken back to a period in this Country to a simpler time and for two hours had us riveted to our seats until it was time for us to bolt from our winged chairs and applaud them for this phantasmagorical Christmas delight. 

    

Frank Sinatra

Our star for this Christmas season is also our Birthday boy Frank Sinatra. Born on December 12, 1915 Ol’ Blue Eyes would’ve been 102 this year. He passed however in 1998 at the age of 82 too soon by most accounts but let’s dig a little deeper into this American icon and see if we can come up with some factoids that you might not be aware of shall we? Although he was widely known for his active support of JFK in his election bid in 1960 it was his ardent support for the state of Israel that had him switch to the Republican Party in the 1970’s.  

His longtime friend Bing Crosby said a voice like Sinatra comes along once in a lifetime but why did it have to come along in mine! Bing Crosby was indeed a humble man and had a tremendous career of his own both on screen and in the recording studio but his story is for another time. Francis Albert Sinatra was born in Hoboken New Jersey to Northern Italian immigrants Natalina Della Garaventa and Saverio Antonio Martino Sinatra a boxer, fireman and bar owner. It was that same friend that spurred Sinatra as a teenager to become a singer watching and listening to Bing Crosby. Sinatra began his career performing in glee clubs and later in local nightclubs. When the radio found his voice as he was later dubbed “The Voice” it was with the bandleader Harry James he made his first recording “All or Nothing at All” in 1940. He later joined the Tommy Dorsey orchestra and after one chart topper after another in 2 years he struck out on his own. Dorsey fought tooth and nail to hold on to his star attraction and it was rumored not until Frank’s mafia ties threatened the bandleader did he allow him out of his contract. 

Oddly enough Frank was turned down for the military because of a ruptured eardrum and it was during these years that the Bobby Soxers would swoon over his baritone voice and brand him with names like “The Voice”, “Ol’ Blue Eyes” and later “Chairman of the Board” He even made his film debut in 1943 with “Reveille With Beverly” and “Higher and Higher”. After the war though musical tastes began to change and it was during this period that Sinatra’s career flagged badly and he lost his recording contract. He even considered suicide and with damaged vocal chords his fate as a singer seemed all but sealed but Providence would intercede. In 1953 with the help of the love of his life (not hers) wife Ava Gardner harangued movie mogul Harry Cohn into giving the part of Maggio to Frank in his epic “From Here to Eternity” and when Cohn relented Frank’s performance won him the Academy Award for best Actor in a Supporting Role. Magically his acting and singing career was revived and to some he would rise to even greater heights. 

He struck a deal with Capitol Records and with his mature sound and jazzier delivery his renaissance was complete. In fact in 1955 another Academy Award Nomination would be his with “The Man With the Golden Arm” about a heroin addicted card dealer and then in 1962 he would achieve critical acclaim with “The Manchurian Candidate.” By the end of the decade and the British Invasion Sinatra had to endure yet another musical drought and as he ended his association with Capitol he bought his own record label Reprise. 

By the mid-60’s though Frank was back on top yet a 3rd time this time he had company and it was a formidable group. And as most of us know it was later to be known as The Rat Pack. At its core were Frank, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Peter Lawford, and Joey Bishop. Their success especially in Las Vegas was legendary.  Even Jim Morrison of the Doors was to give Sinatra his due when he said, “No one can touch him.” 

They made some movies together some memorable “Oceans Eleven” and some forgettable like “Four for Texas”.  In 1966 he would have maybe his biggest commercial success with his recording of “Strangers in the Night” winning a Grammy and soon after a duet with daughter Nancy (My Nancy With the Laughing Face) in “Something Stupid” and in 1967 recording Paul Anka’s “My Way”.  

Sinatra’s personal life would take too much space to cover here but suffice it to say Frank married 4 times Nancy Barbato in 1939 who he sired 3 children with, in 1951 to Ava Gardner and in 1966 to Mia Farrow. The latter two were short lived but it was wife number 4, Barbara Marx (Ex-wife of Zeppo Marx) that Frank would have the most enduring marriage of 20 years until his death in 1998.  As a side note 2013 Mia Farrow said that Sinatra was the love of her life in an interview with Vanity Fair and also claim that her only biological son Ronan was Sinatra’s child. 

In 1987 Kitty Kelly published an unauthorized biography of Sinatra while he was still alive. It was mostly negative and highlighted his mob ties and his philandering and his overall despicable character. A hit piece if there ever was one but his career and impact was just too great and it turned out to be merely a flesh wound on a remarkable life and career.   Frank died of a heart attack on May 14, 1998 in Cedars-Sinai in California. At Yankee Stadium after every victory they play his hit “New York, New York”.