Frank sinatra in good quality. Frank Sinatra: biography, best songs, interesting facts, listen. Early years, childhood and family of Frank Sinatra
Frank Sinatra has been at the top of the lists of the very best (songs, artists, voices, etc.) for so long and indestructibly that he looks more like some kind of artistic deity than a living person. His name is truly the first to come to mind when it comes to those symbolic people who, in the mass consciousness, undividedly embody American musical culture. For all the abundance of recordings published by Sinatra, for... Read all
Frank Sinatra has been at the top of the lists of the very best (songs, artists, voices, etc.) for so long and indestructibly that he looks more like some kind of artistic deity than a living person. His name is truly the first to come to mind when it comes to those symbolic people who, in the mass consciousness, undividedly embody American musical culture. For all the abundance of recordings Sinatra published, for his almost dimensionless catalog, which continues to swell year after year, it is not long to miss the very essence of his talent. Meanwhile, Sinatra is not just a darling of fortune and a successfully promoted showman, but, first of all, a fantastic interpreter, sensitive to the trends of the times and able to preserve the best examples of American pop music for several generations of music lovers of all races and nationalities.
Francis Albert Sinatra was born in Hoboken, New Jersey on December 12, 1915. He was the only child of Dolly and Anthony Martin Sinatra. His father worked as a fireman, and the family of the future American superstar had nothing to do with music. Frank began working as a teenager. He dreamed of becoming a journalist, and at first he got a job as a loader in the editorial office of the Jersey Observer newspaper, then retrained as a copyist. But even the duties of a reporter were still not trusted to him. Then Frank entered secretarial school and studied typing and shorthand. And finally his reports on minor sporting events began to appear in print. One day, 19-year-old Frank, who occasionally sang for fun, took part in a popular talent competition on local radio. Along with three other contestants, promoters sent him on a test tour, calling the newly minted vocal quartet the Hoboken Four.
After the tour, Sinatra signed his first professional contract. They paid him $25 a week. For this relatively generous remuneration, he not only had to sing at the roadside bar "The Rustic Cabin" in a provincial town, but also act as a waiter, master of ceremonies and comic actor. With more or less solid ground under his feet, Frank was finally able to marry his childhood love, Nancy Barbato. In the 1940s they had three children: Nancy Sandra, Frankie Wayne and Christina.
In 1939, one of Sinatra's recordings was heard on the radio by trumpeter Harry James, who had recently left Benny Goodman and was assembling his own big band. Sinatra suited him well. In July 1939, 23-year-old Frank Sinatra made his first professional studio recording. Thus began his ascent to the heights of the world song Olympus. He lasted six months in the Harry James ensemble, and in January 1940 he accepted a much more tempting offer from Tommy Dorsey. To the accompaniment of Dorsey's big band, Sinatra recorded a whole bunch of incredibly popular songs, 16 of which were in the top ten hits within two years. The most significant milestone of this period was “I’ll Never Smile Again,” then a #1 hit and a future Grammy Hall of Fame inductee. If you believe the artist’s confession, his vocal style was born from imitation of Tommy Dorsey’s trombone. One way or another, the singer knew how to make an impression. Sinatra becomes the highlight of numerous radio shows, and at the same time makes his debut on the big screen, so far only as a soloist of the ensemble. In 1941, he starred in the film “Las Vegas Nights”, a year later he appeared in the film “Ship Ahoy”.
In January 1942, a new chapter in Sinatra's biography opens: he conducts his first independent studio session and records four solo numbers, one of which, “Night and Day” by Cole Porter, is noted in the charts. Frank left Dorsey, but for some time he was not allowed to record in the studio. But he got his own show on the radio “Songs By Sinatra” and many offers to perform. On New Year's Eve, he played the first part of the Benny Goodman concert at the Paramount Theater in New York. This was the last straw that overflowed the cup: Frank Sinatra, who so charmingly fused jazz, blues and swing, embodied perfect image a true pop icon who has yet to generate incredible buzz for decades to come. The companies that owned the rights to his early recordings are releasing Sinatra records in batches. For two years, his songs attacked the charts one after another, two of them, created together with Dorsey, becoming number one hits: “There Are Such Thing” and “In the Blue of the Evening.”
Finally, the management of Columbia Records offered Frank Sinatra a solo contract and put him to work, recording his voice a cappella or accompanied by a single choir. With all the minimalism of the arrangements, Sinatra’s charm is so deadly that in a year he produces five hits that finished in the Top 10.
In 1943, the artist became a regular participant in the popular radio cycle “Your Hit Parade”, sang in productions on Broadway for four months, and hosted his own radio program “Songs by Sinatra”. Then his full-fledged film career began. In the film “Reveille With Beverly” he performs the song “Night and Day”, and in the film “Higher and Higher” he gets a small role - playing himself. He was able to demonstrate his acting abilities on a full scale in the 1944 film “Step Lively”.
The taboo on audio recordings that existed during the Second World War somewhat slowed down Sinatra’s singing career, but in November 1944 the ban was lifted, and, already lured by the MGM label, the singer plunged into work with pleasure. Much to the delight of his listeners, his songs continue to delight the ears and enjoy continued popularity. During 1945 alone, eight new singles crossed the border of the American Top 10. These were compositions by different authors, including themes from musicals: “If I Loved You”, “You'll Never Walk Alone”, “Dream”, “Saturday” Night (Is the Loneliest Night of the Week)” and so on.
The artist has a special affinity for the author's tandem of Jule Styne and Sammy Cahn, who, at Sinatra's insistence, are invited to work on his first musical, Anchors Aweigh. During his half-century career, Sinatra would record more songs by Kahn (a poet who worked with various composers) than by any other songwriter. Musical film Anchors Aweigh, released in the summer of 1945, became the top box office hit of the year.
The next year finds the artist engaged in the same intensive activities: his own radio show, constant recordings in the studio, live concerts. He had to act in only one film (“Till the Clouds Roll By”), but the songs were not successful. Among the compositions that finished at the top of the charts were Irving Berlin's "They Say It's Wonderful" and "The Girl That I Marry", Stine and Kahn's "Five Minutes More". The collection of songs “The Voice of Frank Sinatra” famously conquered the pop charts.
By 1947, Frank Sinatra embodied the greatest American pop star. But, like a true workaholic, he did not slow down the pace of work. Cycles of radio programs, five significant film roles, including in the big-budget musical “On the Town,” and regular targeted assaults on the song charts. Number one hit “Mam’selle” plus a dozen more Top 10 finalists. Two strong albums “Songs by Sinatra” (1947) and “Christmas Songs by Sinatra” (1948).
By the end of the 40s, his popularity began to show the first signs of decline. However, he is still a welcome guest on the radio (where he hosts his own show, “Meet Frank Sinatra”), and with the advent of television, a rising TV star. In 1950, the singer opened a series of entertaining musical television programs, “The Frank Sinatra Show,” which lasted two years. His filmography is replenished with an interesting role in the drama “Meet Danny Wilson” (1952), in which three songs were performed by him: “That Old Black Magic”, “I’ve Got a Crush on You” by Garshvin and “How Deep Is the Ocean” ? Berlin.
The singer's relationship with Columbia bosses was never smooth, and in the early 50s a serious conflict brewed with music director Mitch Miller, who recognized one single recipe for success: absolutely new material and clever, catchy arrangements. It is clear that Sinatra was disgusted by this pursuit of fashion. Before finally parting with the label, he managed to release four hit singles, including unusual version folk standard “Goodnight Irene.”
Having broken with Columbia 12 years after the start of his solo career and having managed to rise to unimaginable heights of popularity during this time, Frank Sinatra is left with nothing: without a contract with a label or film company, without agreements with radio or television channels. The concerts stopped, his agent left him. Moreover, in 1949, after his affair with actress Ava Gardner received scandalous publicity, he divorced Nancy. (Gardner became his wife in 1951, but they separated a couple of years later and officially divorced in 1957.)
It was necessary to start all over again and agree to virtually any conditions. Sinatra agreed to collaborate with Capitol Records, which offered him a very tough contract. After a year and a half break (during which time the singer lost his voice and, according to rumors, even attempted suicide), in the summer of 1953 his name again appeared in Top 10 with a new single, “I’m Walking Behind You.” The next important milestone was the filming of the feature film “From Here to Eternity”, which tells about the events of World War II. Sinatra's acting skills were highly appreciated by professionals. So high that in March 54, the artist left the Oscar ceremony with an award for best role background. In addition to the resumed musical entertainment radio show, the artist also participated in the radio play “Rocky Fortune”, in which he played the role of a detective.
Sinatra's new creative partner is arranger and conductor Nelson Riddle. In tandem with him, the singer recorded a number of his best works and experienced a new rise in popularity. The first #1 hit since 1947, “Young-at-Heart,” soon became a pop classic. The 1955 film, in which the artist was entrusted with the main role, had the same name. Produced by Riddle, Songs for Young Lovers, Sinatra's first concept work, featured classics by Cole Porter, the Gershwins, and Rodgers and Hart in contemporary arrangements. Sinatra's heartfelt performance and the intonation richness of his interpretation made the romantic melodies and graceful lyrics sparkle with new colors. This album, like the one released in its wake, “Swing Easy!”, rose to the top five hits.
By the mid-50s, Frank Sinatra had successfully revived his fading status as a pop star and established actor. In many ways, he was even more respected and popular than he had been in the mid-40s. His new single, “Learnin’ the Blues,” topped the sales chart in 1955, along with his collection of ballads, “Wee Small Hours,” which was later inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. The 1956 film The Tender Trap gave him not only another interesting role, but also a fresh hit, “(Love Is) The Tender Trap,” written by Kahn and his new collaborator, composer James Van Heusen.
In the 50s, the artist recorded with equal energy both slow ballads and love songs, and energetic compositions arranged for the dance floor. One of the pinnacles of this movement remains the predominantly dance album of 1956, “Songs for Swingin’ Lovers!”, which was only one step short of topping the hit parade. This was the first gold disc in the catalog of the singer, who so brilliantly transformed into a self-confident macho.
In the late 50s, Frank Sinatra, the consummate youth idol, had to face stiff competition from the emerging rock and rollers. The number one contender was, of course, Elvis Presley. It was unrealistic for a 40-year-old musician to compete with much younger and so provocatively talented artists in the fight for the hearts of teenagers. Nevertheless, it was still too early to write him off. If things weren’t perfect for him with definitely killer hits, his name regularly appeared in the album rankings. The compilation of singles “This Is Sinatra!”, which he released for the Capitol label, entered the top ten and received a gold certificate.
The musician used atypical arrangements for him - a string quartet - during the recording of the long-play “Close to You”. The album was released at the beginning of an eventful 1957. In the summer, his fans were already buying up his new album “A Swingin’ Affair!”, and in the fall they were hunting for the collection of ballads “Where Are You?” By the end of the year, the artist had two more releases: the soundtrack to the film “Pal Joey,” based on the Rodgers and Hart musical, and the Christmas present “A Jolly Christmas From Frank Sinatra.” It may seem incredible, but all five of these long plays during 1957, one after another, rose to the US Top 5. And the collection of Christmas standards eventually sold millions of copies.
With the same high bar Frank Sinatra started the next one, in 1958. Two records topped the sales chart: “Come Fly with Me,” dedicated to travel, and “Only the Lonely,” a collection of ballads awarded gold. Two more long-players from 1958 performed remarkably well on the charts: “This Is Sinatra, Volume Two” and “The Frank Sinatra Story.”
At the same time, Sinatra laid the foundation for a collection of the most prestigious music awards. True, he received his first Grammy not for the content, but for the design of the album “Only the Lonely”. The jury praised the design and graphics of the envelope. But trouble has begun. The next Grammy distribution ceremony was doubly successful for the singer: his new studio attempt “Come Dance With Me!” was awarded the title of best album of the year, and Sinatra himself was crowned with laurels as the best pop vocalist.
Number two, number eight and again number two - this level in the sales ranking was surpassed by the 1959 albums “Come Dance With Me!”, “Look to Your Heart” and “No One Cares”. Sinatra becomes the personification of creative stability and consistently high quality of material, performance and arrangements. The next eight releases from 1960-61 consistently appeared in the US top ten. The accuracy of his hitting the target precisely with the fecundity that only a few could afford is similar to science fiction. Devilish charm, mesmerizing artistry and outstanding interpretive talent were combined with a thoughtful market strategy. Romantic, slow collections of songs alternated with selections of energetic tracks that could lift even pensioners to their feet.
In the second half of the 50s, Sinatra, although he acted quite actively, sang in his films less often. The opportunity to combine two favorite things presented itself to him in the film version of the Cole Porter musical “Can-Can,” the soundtrack of which became another successful exhibit in the collection of his hits.
By this time, the singer was no longer satisfied with his relationship with Capitol Records. In December 1960, he created his own recording company, Reprise Records, where he spent at least half of his studio time. Hence the abundance of releases in the early 60s (including a record six discs in 1962). Sinatra's first single, released on the Reprise label, “The Second Time Around,” was named the best record of the year by the organizers of the Grammy ceremony.
By the mid-60s, Sinatra began to be fairly squeezed not only by Elvis Presley (in the singles chart), but also by the victorious Beatles (in the album rankings), with whom no one could compete. Sinatra, of course, still had his own constant audience, and quite a large one. And his talent was still hypnotic. 1965-66 was the time of another rise in popularity, the third peak in his half-century career. Over these two years, the singer accepted the Grammy Award five times, which crowned two triumphant albums “September of My Years” and “A Man and His Music” (a review of his creative career), as well as two singles: “It Was a Very Good Year” and “Strangers in the Night” - an immortal classic of the song genre - for best pop vocals. The album “September of My Years,” a symbiosis of vocal jazz, traditional and modern pop music, famously topped the sales chart and reached platinum status.
His personal life is no less stormy than his creativity. The 50-year-old artist experiences another passion and at 66 marries actress Mia Farrow. A 30-year age difference is not the best soil for a happy marriage. A year later they divorced.
Until the end of the 60s, Sinatra continued to launch high-quality releases into the musical orbit, none of which were ignored by the public. And although in the second half of the 60s representatives of the young galaxy of rock musicians were already breathing at his back, the 50-year-old performer still had a large margin of safety. Compilation of the best tracks “Greatest Hits!” (1968) went platinum and new album“Cycles,” featuring songs by contemporary authors - Joni Mitchell, Jimmy Webb and others, sold 500,000 copies. Another “gold” was awarded to the collection of songs “My Way,” specially written for Sinatra by another 60s icon, Paul Anka.
Thus, heroically fighting against time, age and passing fashion, the musician celebrated his 55th anniversary and in 1971 announced his retirement from the stage. But after such a busy work history, indulging in idleness for a long time was beyond his strength. Two years later he returned to the studio and at the same time to television. The new album and the new special TV show were called the same - “Ol’ Blue Eyes Is Back” (“Blue Eyes” is the generally accepted nickname of the blue-eyed singer, which became his second self). Thus began the final chapter of his career, which ended shortly before his death. Over these two-plus decades, he appeared in the studio much less often, acted less in films and on television, but performed much more actively, since the vast catalog provided almost inexhaustible resources for compiling any concert programs. Las Vegas becomes his favorite stop on his concert routes, but there is a high probability of seeing and hearing living legend The inhabitants of dozens of other cities and many countries of the world also had it in the 20th century.
His fourth and last wife was Barbara Marx, whom he married in 1976. After the album Some Nice Things I've Missed (1973), for seven years Sinatra preferred live performances to studio work, and only in 1980 he broke his silence with a three-disc collection of songs, Trilogy: Past, Present, Future. The most striking touch on this impressive canvas is the track “Theme From New York, New York,” the title theme from the popular 1977 film “New York, New York.” Sinatra's performance turned this composition into a famous pop standard. Thus, Frank Sinatra turned out to be the only singer in the history of the 20th century whose first and last hit singles were separated by half a century.
Unbound by obligations, Sinatra had the luxury of recording as much as he saw fit. In the 80s, he considered it necessary to limit himself to two moderately received releases. In 1990, the two companies that owned the rights to the artist's catalogue, Capitol and Reprise, released two box sets for his 75th anniversary. Each of the releases, "The Capitol Years" and "The Reprise Collection", on three and four discs respectively, sold half a million copies, although they were released simultaneously.
Frank Sinatra broke the long pause only in 1993, signing a contract with Capitol Records and preparing the long-play “Duets” - old public favorites, recorded with new (and already famous) heroes of the scene, from Tony Bennett and Barbra Streisand ( Barbara Streisand to Bono. Although this album did not add anything new to the musician’s already existing achievements, it was competently presented to the public, who had waited ten years for new recordings of their idol. Nostalgia turned out to be a hot commodity: “Duets” became the most popular disc of Sintara’s career and was certified platinum three times. The collection of selected duets “Duets II”, published a year later, brought the author another Grammy Award for the best performance of traditional pop music. There was no other way to evaluate this titanic work that brought together Streisand and Bono, Julio Iglesias and Aretha Franklin and a dozen other stars.
In 1994 - almost 60 years after his first professional tour - 78-year-old Sinatra played his last concert. Having just celebrated his 80th birthday, in 1995 Frank Sinatra finally quite officially and completely retired. He did not have long to enjoy the retirement idyll. In May 1998, the life of the 82-year-old artist was cut short in Los Angeles.
The man whose contribution to musical history of the last 60 years far exceeds the scale of a single individual. The greatness of his entire body of work is comparable only to the revolutionary whirlwind raised by the Beatles and Elvis Presley. From this velvety, damnably charming voice, which millions of people adored, with which they lived, to which they cried and loved, future historians will be able to restore the soul of an indigenous inhabitant of the 20th century, sentimental and, in spite of everything, believing in a fairy tale.
He performed all the most famous songs of the largest US composers - George Gershwin, Harold Arlen, Cole Porter and Irving Berlin.
In addition to his musical triumph, Sinatra was also a successful film actor, the high point of his career being the 1954 Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. His “piggy bank” contains many film awards: from the Golden Globes to the Screen Actors Guild Award. During his life, Sinatra starred in more than 60 films, the most famous of which were “Town to the City”, “From Here to Eternity”, “The Man with the Golden Arm”, “High Society”, “Pride and Passion”, “Eleven Ocean's Friends" and "The Manchurian Candidate".
Frank Sinatra was awarded the Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild and National Association for the Advancement of Colored People awards, and a year before his death he was awarded the highest US award - the Congressional Gold Medal.
Biography
Youth
Francis Albert Sinatra was born on the second floor of an apartment building on Monroe Street in Hoboken on December 12, 1915. His mother - nurse Dolly Garavante - spent a terrifying few hours giving birth to a boy. On top of that, he developed frightening lifelong scars from the forceps used by Dr. The reason for such a difficult birth could be the unusual weight of the baby - almost six kilograms.
Frank's father was Martin Sinatra, a shipyard worker and boilermaker, and Dolly's mother served as the local chairman of the Democratic Party in Hoboken. Both immigrated to the United States from Italy: Martin from Sicily and Dolly from Genoa. After the birth of his son, Martin had trouble finding regular work, so he began participating in boxing matches, where he quickly became a local favorite. Dolly was the head of the family: a strict, dynamic woman who loved her family, but focused more on social and political work than on family work. Due to various work commitments, she often left Frank with her grandmother for long periods of time.
In the spring of 1917, America entered the war. Martin was too old to recruit, so he continued his regular work at the docks, bar, ring, and later the Hoboken Fire Department. After the end of the war, Dolly became closely involved with Hoboken immigrants, and left the boy with his grandmother and aunt. Also, the mother often left her son under the supervision of her Jewish neighbor, Mrs. Golden, thanks to the good impressions of communicating with her, in later life Frank supported Jews and Israel. Unlike his peers, the two-year-old curly-haired boy Frank grew slowly and less progressively.
From an early age he was interested in music, and from the age of 13 he worked part-time using a ukulele, a small musical instrument, and a megaphone, in bars in his city. In 1931, Sinatra was kicked out of school for “disgraceful behavior.” As a result, he never received any education, including musical education: Sinatra sang by ear, never having learned the notes.
Sinatra's 1959 hit "High Hopes" remained on the national charts for 17 weeks, longer than any other song by the singer.
Memory
Most famous songs
Albums
(albums, concert recordings and compilations released by record companies with which Sinatra collaborated)
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Filmography
Acting works
- - Walk more cheerfully / Step Lively - Glenn Russell
- - Raise anchors / Anchors Aweigh - Clarence Dolittle
- - While the clouds are floating / Till Clouds Roll By - as himself
- - It happened in Brooklyn / It Happened in Brooklyn - Danny Webson Miller
- - Miracle of the Bell / The Miracle of the Bells - father Paul
- - Kissing Bandit / The Kissing Bandit - Ricardo
- - Take me with you to baseball / Take Me Out to the Ball Game - Dennis Ryan
- - Dismissal to the city / On the Town - Chip
- - Double dynamite / Double Dynamite - Johnny Dalton
- - Meet Danny Wilson / Meet Danny Wilson - Danny Wilson
- - From now on and forever and ever / From Here to Eternity - Private Angelo Maggio(received an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor)
- - This is a young heart / Young at Heart - Barney
- - Unexpected / Suddenly - John Baron
- - Not like a stranger / Not as a Stranger - Alfred Boone
- - Guys and Dolls / Guys and Dolls - Nathan Detroit
- - The Man with the Golden Arm / The Man With the Golden Arm - Frankie
- - Delicate trap / The Tender Trap - Charlie
- - High Society / High Society - Mike Connor
- - Johnny Concho / Johnny Concho - Johnny Concho/Johnny Collins
- - Around the world in 80 Days / Around The World In 80 Days - pianist in the saloon
- - Joker / The Joker Is Wild - Joe
- - Pride and passion / The Pride and the Passion - Miguel
- - Pal Joey / Pal Joey - Joey Evans
- - Kings set off / Kings Go Forth - First Lieutenant Sam Loggins
- - And they ran up / Some Came Running - Dave Hirsch
- - Hole in the head / A Hole in the Head - Tony Manetta
- - Never so little / Never So Few - Captain Tom Reynolds
- - Cancan / Can-can -- Francois Durnet
- - Ocean's Eleven / Ocean's Eleven - Danny Ocean
- - Devil at 4 o'clock / The Devil at 4 O'Clock - Harry
- - Three sergeants / Sergeants 3 - First Sergeant Mark Merry
- - Manchurian Candidate / The Manchurian Candidate - Captain/Major Bennett Marco
- - Adrian Messenger List / The List of Adrian Messenger - cameo
- - Come and blow your horn / Come Blow Your Horn - Alan Baker
- - Four from Texas / 4 for Texas - Zach Thomas
- - Robin and the 7 Gangsters / Robin and the 7 Hoods - gangster Robbie
- - Von Ryan Train / Von Ryan's Express - Colonel Ryan
- - Wedding on the rocks / Marriage on the Rocks - Dan Edwards
- - Cast a giant shadow / Cast a Giant Shadow - Vince
- - Attack on the "Queen" / Assault on a Queen - Mark
- - Naked Fugitive / The Naked Runner - Sam Laker
- - Tony Rome / Tony Rome - Tony Rome
- - Detective / The Detective - Joe Leland
- - Lady in Cement / Lady in Cement - Tony Rome
- - Dirty Dingus Magee / Dirty Dingus Magee - Dyngus Billy Magee
- - The First Deadly Sin / The First Deadly Sin - Edward Delaney
Director's work
- - Only the brave / None But the Brave
Producer works
- - Johnny Concho / Johnny Concho
- - Hole in the head / A Hole in the Head(executive producer; uncredited)
- - Three sergeants / Sergeants 3
- - Robin and the 7 Gangsters / Robin and the 7 Hoods
- - Only the brave / None But the Brave
- - The First Deadly Sin / The First Deadly Sin
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Excerpt characterizing Sinatra, Frank
A man without convictions, without habits, without traditions, without a name, not even a Frenchman, by the most strange accidents, it seems, moves among all the parties that worry France and, without attaching himself to any of them, is brought to a prominent place.The ignorance of his comrades, the weakness and insignificance of his opponents, the sincerity of the lie and the brilliant and self-confident narrow-mindedness of this man put him at the head of the army. The brilliant composition of the soldiers of the Italian army, the reluctance of his opponents to fight, his childish audacity and self-confidence gain him military glory. Countless so-called accidents accompany him everywhere. The disfavor into which he falls from the rulers of France serves to his advantage. His attempts to change the path destined for him fail: he is not accepted into the service in Russia, and he fails to be assigned to Turkey. During the wars in Italy, he is on the verge of death several times and is saved each time in an unexpected way. Russian troops, the very ones that could destroy his glory, for various diplomatic reasons, do not enter Europe as long as he is there.
On his return from Italy, he finds the government in Paris in that process of decay in which the people who fall into this government are inevitably erased and destroyed. And for him there is a way out of this dangerous situation, consisting of a meaningless, causeless expedition to Africa. Again the same so-called accidents accompany him. Impregnable Malta surrenders without a shot; the most careless orders are crowned with success. The enemy fleet, which does not let a single boat through, lets through an entire army. In Africa, a whole series of atrocities are committed against almost unarmed inhabitants. And the people who commit these atrocities, and especially their leader, convince themselves that this is wonderful, that this is glory, that this is similar to Caesar and Alexander the Great, and that this is good.
That ideal of glory and greatness, which consists in not only not considering anything bad for oneself, but being proud of every crime, attributing to it an incomprehensible supernatural significance - this ideal, which should guide this person and the people associated with him, is being developed in the open air in Africa. Whatever he does, he succeeds. The plague does not bother him. The cruelty of killing prisoners is not blamed on him. His childishly careless, causeless and ignoble departure from Africa, from his comrades in trouble, is given credit to him, and again the enemy fleet misses him twice. While he, already completely intoxicated by the happy crimes he had committed, ready for his role, comes to Paris without any purpose, the decay of the republican government, which could have destroyed him a year ago, has now reached its extreme, and the presence of him, fresh from a person's parties, now only can elevate him.
He doesn't have any plan; he is afraid of everything; but the parties seize on him and demand his participation.
He alone, with his ideal of glory and greatness developed in Italy and Egypt, with his madness of self-adoration, with his audacity of crimes, with his sincerity of lies - he alone can justify what is about to happen.
He is needed for the place that awaits him, and therefore, almost independently of his will and despite his indecision, despite the lack of a plan, despite all the mistakes he makes, he is drawn into a conspiracy aimed at seizing power, and the conspiracy is crowned with success .
He is pushed into the meeting of the rulers. Frightened, he wants to run away, considering himself dead; pretends to faint; says meaningless things that should ruin him. But the rulers of France, previously smart and proud, now, feeling that their role has been played, are even more embarrassed than he is, and say the wrong words that they should have said in order to retain power and destroy him.
Chance, millions of coincidences give him power, and all people, as if by agreement, contribute to the establishment of this power. Accidents make the characters of the then rulers of France subservient to him; accidents make the character of Paul I recognizing his power; chance conspires against him, not only not harming him, but asserting his power. An accident sends Enghien into his hands and inadvertently forces him to kill, thereby, stronger than all other means, convincing the crowd that he has the right, since he has the power. What makes it an accident is that he strains all his strength on an expedition to England, which, obviously, would destroy him, and never fulfills this intention, but accidentally attacks Mack with the Austrians, who surrender without a battle. Chance and genius give him victory at Austerlitz, and by chance all people, not only the French, but all of Europe, with the exception of England, which will not take part in the events that are about to take place, all people, despite the previous horror and disgust for his crimes, now they recognize his power, the name he gave himself, and his ideal of greatness and glory, which seems to everyone to be something beautiful and reasonable.
As if trying on and preparing for the upcoming movement, the forces of the West several times in the years 1805, 6, 7, 9 rush to the east, growing stronger and stronger. In 1811, the group of people that had formed in France merged into one huge group with the middle peoples. Together with an increasing group of people, the power of justification of the person at the head of the movement further develops. In the ten-year preparatory period preceding the great movement, this man is brought together with all the crowned heads of Europe. The exposed rulers of the world cannot oppose the Napoleonic ideal of glory and greatness, which has no meaning, with any reasonable ideal. One in front of the other, they strive to show him their insignificance. The King of Prussia sends his wife to curry favor with the great man; the Emperor of Austria considers it a mercy that this man accepts the daughter of the Caesars into his bed; the pope, guardian of the sacred things of the people, serves with his religion the exaltation of a great man. It is not so much that Napoleon himself prepares himself to fulfill his role, but rather that everything around him prepares him to take upon himself the full responsibility of what is happening and is about to happen. There is no act, no crime or petty deception that he has committed that is not immediately reflected in the mouths of those around him in the form of a great deed. The best holiday that the Germans can come up with for him is the celebration of Jena and Auerstätt. Not only is he great, but his ancestors, his brothers, his stepsons, his sons-in-law are great. Everything is done in order to deprive him last resort mind and prepare for its terrible role. And when he is ready, so are the forces.
The invasion is heading east, reaching its final goal - Moscow. The capital is taken; The Russian army is more destroyed than enemy troops were ever destroyed in previous wars from Austerlitz to Wagram. But suddenly, instead of those accidents and genius that had so consistently led him so far in an unbroken series of successes towards his intended goal, there appears a countless number of reverse accidents, from a runny nose in Borodino to frost and the spark that lit Moscow; and instead of genius there are stupidity and meanness, which have no examples.
The invasion runs, comes back, runs again, and all the coincidences are now no longer for, but against it.
There is a counter-movement from east to west with remarkable similarity to the previous movement from west to east. The same attempts at movement from east to west in 1805 - 1807 - 1809 precede the great movement; the same clutch and group of huge sizes; the same pestering of the middle peoples to the movement; the same hesitation in the middle of the path and the same speed as you approach the goal.
Paris - the ultimate goal has been achieved. Napoleonic government and troops are destroyed. Napoleon himself no longer makes sense; all his actions are obviously pathetic and disgusting; but again an inexplicable accident occurs: the allies hate Napoleon, in whom they see the cause of their disasters; deprived of strength and power, convicted of villainy and deceit, he would have to appear to them as he appeared to them ten years ago and a year after - an outlaw robber. But by some strange chance no one sees this. His role is not over yet. A man who ten years ago and a year after was considered an outlaw robber is sent on a two-day journey from France to an island given to him in possession with guards and millions who pay him for something.
The movement of peoples begins to settle into its shores. The waves of the great movement have subsided, and circles are formed on the calm sea, in which diplomats rush, imagining that they are the ones causing the lull in the movement.
But the calm sea suddenly rises. It seems to diplomats that they, their disagreements, are the reason for this new onslaught of forces; they expect war between their sovereigns; The situation seems insoluble to them. But the wave, the rise of which they feel, is not rushing from where they expect it. The same wave is rising, from the same starting point of movement - Paris. The last surge of movement from the west is taking place; a splash that should resolve the seemingly intractable diplomatic difficulties and put an end to the militant movement of this period.
The man who devastated France, alone, without a conspiracy, without soldiers, comes to France. Every watchman can take it; but, by a strange coincidence, not only does no one take it, but everyone greets with delight the man whom they cursed the day before and will curse in a month.
This person is also needed to justify the last collective action.
The action is completed. The last role has been played. The actor was ordered to undress and wash off the antimony and rouge: he would no longer be needed.
And several years pass in which this man, alone on his island, plays a pathetic comedy in front of himself, petty intrigues and lies, justifying his actions when this justification is no longer needed, and shows the whole world what it was like what people took for strength when an invisible hand guided them.
The manager, having finished the drama and undressed the actor, showed him to us.
- Look what you believed! Here he is! Do you see now that it was not he, but I who moved you?
But, blinded by the power of the movement, people did not understand this for a long time.
The life of Alexander I, the person who stood at the head of the countermovement from east to west, is even more consistent and necessary.
What is needed for that person who, overshadowing others, would stand at the head of this movement from east to west?
What is needed is a sense of justice, participation in European affairs, but distant, not obscured by petty interests; what is needed is a predominance of moral heights over one’s comrades—the sovereigns of that time; a meek and attractive personality is needed; a personal insult against Napoleon is needed. And all this is in Alexander I; all this was prepared by countless so-called accidents of his entire past life: and education, and liberal initiatives, and surrounding advisers, and Austerlitz, and Tilsit, and Erfurt.
During a people's war, this person is inactive, since he is not needed. But as soon as the need for a common European war arises, this person at that moment appears in his place and, uniting the European peoples, leads them to the goal.
The goal has been achieved. Since the last war of 1815, Alexander is at the height of possible human power. How does he use it?
Alexander I, the pacifier of Europe, a man who from his youth strove only for the good of his people, the first instigator of liberal innovations in his fatherland, now that he seems to have the greatest power and therefore the opportunity to do the good of his people, while Napoleon exile makes childish and deceitful plans about how he would make humanity happy if he had power, Alexander I, having fulfilled his calling and sensing the hand of God on himself, suddenly recognizes the insignificance of this imaginary power, turns away from it, transfers it into the hands of those despised by him and despised people and says only:
- “Not for us, not for us, but for your name!” I am a human being too, just like you; leave me to live as a human being and think about my soul and God.
Just as the sun and each atom of the ether is a ball, complete in itself and at the same time only an atom of a whole inaccessible to man due to the enormity of the whole, so each personality carries within itself its own goals and, at the same time, carries them in order to serve common goals inaccessible to man. .
A bee sitting on a flower stung a child. And the child is afraid of bees and says that the purpose of a bee is to sting people. The poet admires a bee digging into the calyx of a flower and says that the bee’s goal is to absorb the aroma of flowers. The beekeeper, noticing that the bee collects flower dust and brings it to the hive, says that the bee's goal is to collect honey. Another beekeeper, having studied the life of a swarm more closely, says that the bee collects dust to feed young bees and breed the queen, and that its goal is to procreate. The botanist notices that, by flying with the dust of a dioecious flower onto the pistil, the bee fertilizes it, and the botanist sees the bee’s purpose in this. Another, observing the migration of plants, sees that the bee promotes this migration, and this new observer can say that this is the purpose of the bee. But the final goal of the bee is not exhausted by either one, or the other, or the third goal, which the human mind is able to discover. The higher the human mind rises in the discovery of these goals, the more obvious to it is the inaccessibility of the final goal.
Man can only observe the correspondence between the life of a bee and other phenomena of life. The same goes for the goals of historical figures and peoples.
The wedding of Natasha, who married Bezukhov in 13, was the last joyful event in the old Rostov family. That same year, Count Ilya Andreevich died, and, as always happens, with his death the old family fell apart.
Events last year: the fire of Moscow and the flight from it, the death of Prince Andrei and Natasha’s despair, the death of Petya, the grief of the countess - all this, like blow after blow, fell on the head of the old count. He did not seem to understand and felt unable to understand the meaning of all these events and, morally bending his old head, as if he was expecting and asking for new blows that would finish him off. He seemed either frightened and confused, or unnaturally animated and adventurous.
Natasha's wedding occupied him for a while with its external side. He ordered lunches and dinners and, apparently, wanted to appear cheerful; but his joy was not communicated as before, but, on the contrary, aroused compassion in the people who knew and loved him.
After Pierre and his wife left, he became quiet and began to complain of melancholy. A few days later he fell ill and went to bed. From the first days of his illness, despite the doctors' consolations, he realized that he would not get up. The Countess, without undressing, spent two weeks in a chair at his head. Every time she gave him medicine, he sobbed and silently kissed her hand. On the last day, he sobbed and asked for forgiveness from his wife and in absentia from his son for the ruin of his estate - the main guilt that he felt for himself. Having received communion and special rites, he died quietly, and the next day a crowd of acquaintances who had come to pay their last respects to the deceased filled the Rostovs’ rented apartment. All these acquaintances, who had dined and danced with him so many times, who had laughed at him so many times, now all with the same feeling of inner reproach and tenderness, as if justifying themselves to someone, said: “Yes, be that as it may, there was a most wonderful Human. You won’t meet such people these days... And who doesn’t have their own weaknesses?..”
It was at a time when the count’s affairs were so confused that it was impossible to imagine how it would all end if it continued for another year, he unexpectedly died.
Nicholas was with the Russian troops in Paris when news of his father's death came to him. He immediately resigned and, without waiting for it, took a vacation and came to Moscow. The state of financial affairs a month after the count's death became completely clear, surprising everyone with the enormity of the amount of various small debts, the existence of which no one suspected. There were twice as many debts as estates.
Relatives and friends advised Nikolai to refuse the inheritance. But Nikolai saw the refusal of the inheritance as an expression of reproach to the sacred memory of his father and therefore did not want to hear about the refusal and accepted the inheritance with the obligation to pay debts.
The creditors, who had been silent for so long, being bound during the count's lifetime by the vague but powerful influence that his dissolute kindness had on them, suddenly filed for collection. A competition arose, as always happens, to see who would get it first, and the very people who, like Mitenka and others, had non-cash bills of exchange - gifts, now became the most demanding creditors. Nicholas was given neither time nor rest, and those who, apparently, pitied the old man, who was the culprit of their loss (if there were losses), now mercilessly attacked the young heir, who was obviously innocent before them, who voluntarily took upon himself to pay.
None of Nikolai's proposed turns succeeded; the estate was auctioned off at half price, and half of the debts still remained unpaid. Nikolai took the thirty thousand offered to him by his son-in-law Bezukhov to pay that part of the debts that he recognized as monetary, real debts. And in order not to be thrown into a hole for the remaining debts, which the creditors threatened him with, he again entered the service.
It was impossible to go to the army, where he was in the first vacancy of a regimental commander, because the mother was now holding on to her son as the last bait of life; and therefore, despite the reluctance to remain in Moscow in the circle of people who knew him before, despite his aversion to civil service, he took a position in the civil service in Moscow and, taking off his beloved uniform, settled with his mother and Sonya in a small apartment, on Sivtsev Vrazhek.
Natasha and Pierre lived at this time in St. Petersburg, without a clear idea of Nicholas' situation. Nikolai, having borrowed money from his son-in-law, tried to hide his plight from him. Nikolai's position was especially bad because with his one thousand two hundred rubles salary he not only had to support himself, Sonya and his mother, but he had to support his mother so that she would not notice that they were poor. The countess could not understand the possibility of life without the conditions of luxury familiar to her from childhood and constantly, not understanding how difficult it was for her son, she demanded either a carriage, which they did not have, in order to send for a friend, or expensive food for herself and wine for son, then money to give a surprise gift to Natasha, Sonya and the same Nikolai.
Sonya ran the household, looked after her aunt, read aloud to her, endured her whims and hidden dislike, and helped Nikolai hide from the old countess the state of need in which they were. Nikolai felt an unpaid debt of gratitude to Sonya for everything she did for his mother, admired her patience and devotion, but tried to distance himself from her.
In his soul he seemed to reproach her for the fact that she was too perfect, and for the fact that there was nothing to reproach her for. She had everything for which people are valued; but there was little that would make him love her. And he felt that the more he appreciated, the less he loved her. He took her at her word, in her letter, with which she gave him freedom, and now he behaved with her as if everything that had happened between them had long been forgotten and could not in any case be repeated.
Nikolai's situation became worse and worse. The idea of saving from my salary turned out to be a dream. Not only did he not put it off, but, while satisfying his mother’s demands, he owed little things. He saw no way out of his situation. The thought of marrying a rich heiress, who was offered to him by his relatives, was disgusting to him. Another way out of his situation - the death of his mother - never occurred to him. He wanted nothing, hoped for nothing; and in the very depths of his soul he experienced a gloomy and stern pleasure in uncomplainingly enduring his situation. He tried to avoid former acquaintances with their condolences and offers of insulting help, avoided all distraction and entertainment, even at home he did nothing except lay out cards with his mother, silently walk around the room and smoke pipe after pipe. He seemed to diligently maintain within himself that gloomy mood of spirit in which alone he felt able to bear his situation.
At the beginning of winter, Princess Marya arrived in Moscow. From city rumors, she learned about the position of the Rostovs and how “the son sacrificed himself for his mother,” as they said in the city.
“I didn’t expect anything else from him,” Princess Marya said to herself, feeling a joyful confirmation of her love for him. Remembering her friendly and almost family relations with the whole family, she considered it her duty to go to them. But, remembering her relationship with Nikolai in Voronezh, she was afraid of this. Having made a great effort on herself, however, a few weeks after her arrival in the city, she came to the Rostovs.
WANDERER IN THE NIGHT. FRANK SINATRA
With such a face he could have become a successful intelligence officer - it was impossible to remember him. Small, nondescript, with gimlet light eyes. But it was not his appearance that made him successful. The guards called him Napoleon, Marlene Dietrich called him “the Rolls-Royce of men,” and all the other grateful compatriots simply called him Voice. I lived a long, stormy, interesting life, there were ups and downs. A real American “self made man”. More than one generation of people grew up on his immortal songs, not only in America, but throughout the world.
This is how it all began
A native of provincial Hoboken (New Jersey), which he himself considered a “sewage ditch,” Francis Albert Sinatra managed not to receive any education, but they said about him that he could even sing the phone book. The idol of his youth, jazz singer Bing Crosby, summed it up in the mid-fifties: “Only one singer is a great singer for the whole world. His name - Sinatra».
America's first pop idol was born in 1915 into the family of a boxer and a nurse from Sicily. Nineteen-year-old Dolly was a large woman, so the baby weighed more than six kilograms and had to be pulled with forceps. There were no more children in the family. Maybe that's why it's small Frank I was never denied anything. Mother 
She earned money doing clandestine abortions, for which she charged $35: at that time, a decent amount. The boy grew up musical, but incapable of science and hooligan, so he was successfully expelled from school. His mother got him a job as a courier for a sports newspaper, but even there Frankie didn't stay long. Since adolescence, scandalous fame never left him.
The first position to pave the way Sinatra path to fame, he became the driver of the Hoboken trio “Three Flashes”, but soon he joined the team as a singer and the ensemble changed its name to “Four from Hoboken”. The producer has a contract with Sinatra costs $25 a week: for the opportunity to sing and even see your name on posters Sinatra I was ready to pay extra myself. He and then, in Hard time, when his wild popularity suddenly began to leave him, he used this proven means - he performed for free.
Returning home after the first tour, Frank married a modest girl Nancy Barbato. She will be the mother of three children Sinatras: Nancy, Frank and Christina.
One night in a roadside tavern singing Sinatras heard the leader of a large jazz band, Tommy Dorsey, and signed a contract with Frank. U Sinatras the eardrum was damaged by obstetric forceps; he had poor hearing and could not read music, but he was resourceful and waited in the wings. One day, while watching Dorsey play the trombone, Frank I was surprised to discover that he did not inhale deeply, but only slightly opened the hole in the corner of his mouth. Narrow-chested Sinatra begins to do the same, using his voice as a musical instrument. He realizes that he can’t go far with his lungs, and with furious persistence he develops them, swims in the pool for hours and achieves good results - his voice becomes stronger and more harmonious. Fate rewards him for his efforts, he gains his first fans, and on his twenty-fifth birthday, the singer releases his first record, “Polka Dot Dress and Moon Rays.” The invitation to Hollywood was not long in coming.
Five thousand letters a week for Frank Sinatra
His film debut was his role in the musical film “Las Vegas Nights”, where Sinatra sang his first 
real hit: “I will never smile again.” Solo debut Frank in New York was deafening. By 1943 fees Sinatras rose to 50 thousand dollars, he receives the title of best singer of the year, rapidly acquiring fans. Manifestations of their passionate love were subject to seasonal fluctuations: in winter they shoveled snow from under his boots, in warm weather they left it on the house Sinatras traces of lipstick; indoors they collect the ashes from his cigarettes, and in the hairdressing salons they collect the remains of his cut hair. Later, two thousand fan clubs of the singer would be created throughout America, and his mail would amount to five thousand letters a week.
He sings and acts in films, hosts TV shows and radio programs. If his first film roles were offered to him in musicals, then later Sinatra becomes a real dramatic actor. His roles are varied: he plays a psychopath, a pianist, a surgeon, a sailor, and a drug-addicted gambler. 
And for the role of the cheerful Italian soldier Angelo Maggio, beaten to death in an army prison (“From Here to Eternity”), Sinatra wins an Oscar. The same statuette was awarded to the anti-racist fiction short film “The House I Live In,” in which he was filmed for free. In 1964 Frank directed his own film “Only the Brave,” for which he received a special Academy Award. Becoming a legend during his lifetime, Frank was honored to look at himself from the outside: in 1992, in the film “Sinatra,” he was played by an actor with Russian roots, Philip Krasnoff. And in his native Hoboken, also during his lifetime, a monument was erected to him.
Frank Sinatra, presidents and... the mafia
But also “cast in bronze”, Sinatra I didn’t feel entirely confident in this world. He needed “skinheads” or, at worst, members of governments in order to feel stronger. Or maybe connections with the powers that be simply injected a dose of adrenaline into his blood.
The beginning of his friendship with the mafia dates back to the mid-1940s. When the boss of the Italian mafia in the US, Lucky Luciano, was deported 
to Italy, Sinatra How a Mafia courier smuggled $3.5 million in cash into Cuba. The calculation turned out to be correct: at the airport the singer was surrounded by such a wall of fans that customs could not properly check his case. Caught Sinatra never visited, but he was suspected of money laundering, connections with drug traffickers, and bribery of politicians.
Sinatra is considered the prototype of the singer Johnny Fontaine, one of the heroes of Mario Puzo's novel The Godfather. After death Frank daughter Tina, who ran his trading business, confirmed that the mafiosi paid extra to the owners of the clubs where he sang, invested in his advertising, costumes, musical instruments. True, not for his blue eyes, but for a percentage of the collection.
Connections Sinatras with presidents date back to the same time, and they were started by Roosevelt, inviting Frank for a cup of tea. As for the Kennedy family, they Sinatra became almost a relative, and not entirely disinterestedly: his annoying dream was the position of ambassador to Italy. He organized John Kennedy's presidential campaign and his inauguration gala, and he introduced Marilyn Monroe to the Kennedy brothers. And in 1985 Sinatra, a favorite of presidents, received the Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the United States.
Black and white
with Ava Gardner
Feeling the strength of the mafia and power behind me, Sinatra gave free rein to his hysterical and scandalous temper. He especially hated journalists. Only in Australia did the unbridled Sicilian receive a rebuff. After a press conference in which he called all the male journalists idiots and all the female journalists prostitutes “worth no more than a couple of dollars,” Australians declared a silent boycott of him. Hotel employees and waiters stubbornly looked past him when he addressed them, taxi drivers drove away from under his nose, and airport employees refused to fill his personal plane with gasoline. As a result, the star, who interrupted her tour, went home in disgrace after the personal intervention of members of the Australian government.
And yet his ballad songs, a fusion of jazz, blues, swing and chanson, were excellent. No wonder he was very fond of French cinema and French singers. In the mid-1960s, his “Wanderers in the Night” topped the charts by a huge margin. Although I myself Sinatra didn't like this song.
As for women, despite their large number in the singer’s life, they did not give him a sense of reliability. He divorced Nancy, who gave birth to three children, in the early 1950s, having met actress Ava Gardner at the premiere of the film Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. She was beautiful, famous, sassy and constantly foul-mouthed. She did not yield to him in anything - she humiliated, tyrannized, and wiped her feet on him. He's not just 
endured - he was delighted. Nevertheless, they separated, and on her initiative, and then Frank tried to commit suicide.
Ava never remarried, but Sinatra married twice more. Many years later, when he was over fifty, he met nineteen-year-old actress Mia Farrow. She smoked marijuana, and he couldn't stand it. A year later, the marriage broke up, and Mia, taking only her rocking chair, went to India to meditate with hippies, and then, when she returned, married Woody Allen. The last wife of the legendary man in 1976 was Barbara Marx.
Death without comment
He knew how to keep his nose to the wind and even at almost eighty years old he learned to use new technical means. Last disc “Duets” Frank released in 1994. Thanks to artificial voiceover Sinatra sings with, and others, receiving another Grammy award. It was then that his last big concert at North Carolina State University. He sang with a teleprompter - his memory was failing him, but one critic wittily remarked: “ Sinatra- like the Colosseum. Partially destroyed, but still fascinating." Having just celebrated the 80th anniversary, Sinatra Finally, quite officially and completely retired. He did not have long to enjoy the retirement idyll. 1998 died of a heart attack.
DATA
In the late 1950s, when Nikita Khrushchev and his wife arrived in the United States on an official visit, Sinatra was the master of ceremonies for a grand reception for distinguished guests at the 20th Century Fox studio. 400 people gathered at the dinner, and the tireless seducer Frank tried to take Nina Khrushcheva to Disneyland straight from the reception, which the security service prevented him from doing.
Sinatra hated drugs. He was unusually generous, often leaving tips that exceeded the amount of the bill. He donated huge amounts of money not to universities, which he did not graduate from, but to hospitals and programs for the poor—a billion dollars in total.
On the 10th anniversary of his death Frank Sinatra A stamp was issued in the United States on which he is depicted wearing his famous felt hat.
Updated: April 14, 2019 by: Elena
He was unique. There have never been such things and there will never be any more. A superstar with the talent that made him famous and the power that came with fame. He was a singer, actor, showman, politician, sex symbol - what can I say, he was simply Frank Sinatra. He was called Mr. Blue Eyes, the Patriarch, the Italian King of America and, finally, simply – The Voice. A voice that sang to several generations of Americans who will never stop listening to it...
Although his destiny was unique, its beginning was very commonplace. The only son of Italian immigrants, whom their parents brought as children to the new “promised land,” Sinatra was born in the town of Hoboken in New Jersey: not such a remote province, just across the Hudson from the great New York, but still It was more offensive to live forever on the other side. Frank's father Anthony Martin Sinatra, a native of Sicily, worked as a shoemaker in his youth, but made most of his money in the ring, where he performed under the name Marty O'Brien (Italians were reluctantly allowed into professional fights). However, Tony Sinatra was a very mediocre boxer, and besides, he could neither read nor write and suffered from asthma. Despite all this, he managed to charm one of the most beautiful and intelligent girls in the area - Natalie Della Garaventa, nicknamed Dolly, that is, “doll”. On Valentine's Day 1914, the lovers secretly married in Jersey City because Dolly's parents were categorically against their daughter's union with an illiterate boxer. The only son of Tony and Dolly Sinatra, named Francis Albert, was born on December 12, 1915. They say that the child was so large that they had to apply forceps, which left a noticeable mark on the boy’s face. Frank would later call this scar "the kiss of God."
After thirty professional matches, Tony had to give up the sport due to injuries, and he began working on the docks, and when he was fired from there due to asthma, Dolly helped him get a job with the local fire brigade. Over time, he rose to the rank of captain, and immortalized his boxing past by opening a tavern with his wife called Marty O’Brien’s. Dolly, an educated girl with a strong character, enjoyed noticeable authority in the district and even headed the local branch of the Democratic Party, and made her living by performing clandestine abortions at home, for which she was arrested more than once and even tried twice. This peculiar life paradox - for money you can do what is prohibited by religion and the state - greatly influenced young Frankie, who forever understood a simple idea: those who have money have the right to do everything.
Frankie grew up as an ordinary boy from an Italian colony, that is, a hooligan and a tomboy, not knowing any other authority except his adored - and adoring - mother. Fights, petty thefts and other dangerous pranks filled the days, leaving no time for school lessons: however, Frankie was very careful and always tried to take care of the clothes his mother bought him - no one else in the area had such beautiful suits. IN high school Frankie had not even studied for fifty days when he was expelled for bad behavior, and at this point he considered his education complete. Dolly managed to get her son a job as a courier at the local newspaper. The Jersey Observer - The editorial work impressed the boy so much that he dreamed of becoming a reporter. However, the editor clearly explained to Frankie that, to put it mildly, he lacks education. He was not offended - and immediately entered secretarial school, where he learned typing and shorthand. Soon the dream came true: his sports reports - and Frankie, his father's faithful son, was an avid visitor to boxing matches - began to appear on the pages of the newspaper.
However, Frank had another hobby: he loved to sing since childhood. From the age of thirteen, he performed in local bars with popular songs, accompanying himself on the ukulele - a small Hawaiian guitar. The boy was a success - even among the naturally vocal Italians, Frank stood out for his extraordinary soulfulness and softness of singing. After attending a Bing Crosby concert, Frank finally decided that he would become a singer. Already at the age of seventeen he was invited to perform on the radio, and then - not without the help of Dolly - Frankie was hired as a vocalist in a local trio The Three Flashes, which from now on became known as The Hoboken Four. At first, Sinatra was perceived as a liability; however, soon the quartet - largely thanks to his voice and charm - won a radio competition for young talents Major Bowes Amateur Hour, the reward of which was a six-month tour around the country and radio appearances. The tour was an unexpected success, but as soon as the tour ended, Frank said goodbye to the group and returned to Hoboken.
Dolly got the radio show star a job at an expensive restaurant in New Jersey, where Frankie sang for $15 a week, entertained the audience with conversations and comedy skits, and also worked as a waiter. Although the work was hard, it forged Frank into a true professional: now he could sing in front of any audience and in any condition, knew how to hold the audience between songs and was not afraid of anything. He now had enough money to start an independent life.
In February 1939, he married a Jersey girl named Nancy Barbato, who was his first love - although not his first woman. Still, the life of a real Italian, even in America, should be full of wine, entertainment and women from an early youth, and Frank was no exception. In March, he made his first recording in the studio - a song with a romantic title Our Love, which was dedicated to Nancy.
Already in June 1940, the couple had a daughter named Nancy Sandra. Four years later, son Frank Sinatra Jr. was born, and in 1948, youngest daughter Tina. Frank has never been an exemplary family man: he was rarely at home, almost did not communicate with children, and besides, he was sincerely convinced that if fans themselves jumped into his bed, he should definitely take advantage of it.
And he had more and more fans. In the summer of 1939, Sinatra was heard by producer and jazz trumpeter Harry James, who was assembling his jazz band: he offered Frank an annual contract for $75 a week, and he happily accepted. Sinatra made his first commercial recording with James From the Bottom of My Heart - Eight thousand copies were sold, and now the circulation is a bibliographic rarity. Sinatra's name wasn't even on the cover; a few years later, when he had already become truly famous, the disc was re-released under his name and enjoyed enormous popularity.
In November of the same year, at one of the concerts, Sinatra met Tommy Dorsey, also the head of jazz ensemble, but much more famous. His vocalist had just decided to start a solo career, and Dorsey invited Sinatra to take the place. Sinatra accepted the offer; Although the contract with Harry James had not yet expired, he decided to let the singer go. For this, Sinatra was grateful to him until the end of his life: “He is the man who made all this possible,” he would say many years later, referring to his stunning career.
Participation in Dorsey's ensemble became the springboard that quickly led Sinatra to fame. He first performed with the ensemble in January 1940, and just a couple of months later his name began to be written as the first number on posters - a sign of special recognition. They say that joining the team did not go smoothly for the young Italian, who was not used to obeying anyone: he constantly quarreled with colleagues and even once broke a glass decanter on the drummer’s head - however, then they got drunk together and became friends for life. It was not without difficulty that Frank came to terms with the fact that he had to work hard at rehearsals with almost no rest, but already in the summer one of his songs topped the American charts for three months. The soulful manner of performance, the charming velvety voice and the repertoire consisting of beautiful romantic songs came at just the right time for pre-war America. Sinatra soon became a real idol: while most singers worked for a mature audience, Frank was listened to mainly by young people. Young girls - the so-called "Bobby Sockers", who wore short skirts and rolled up socks - literally besieged Sinatra: everyone dreamed of touching him, and his clothes were simply torn to pieces - the fans took the shreds as souvenirs. “Five thousand girls fought for the opportunity to even look at Frank Sinatra!” - the newspapers wrote. After each concert, the singer was bombarded with love notes, and the most desperate ones simply snuck into his room and went to bed. He never refused them - why offend fans?
Frank squandered money, seduced girls and conquered one peak after another. He gave concerts, constantly participated in radio shows and recorded songs - about a hundred in total. In 1941, he was invited to Hollywood to film the musical “Las Vegas Nights” - for now, just to sing a song. They say that Frank lived in the room of the young actress Elora Gooding, and on the wall of his dressing room there was a list of the sexiest movie beauties: Frank conquered them one by one, and then crossed them off the list.
In 1941, Sinatra was recognized as singer of the year: he displaced his idol Bing Crosby from the pedestal and held this title for several years in a row. Success intoxicated him: he decided to leave Dorsey and start a solo career. However, according to the contract that the naive Sinatra signed with Dorsey, he was entitled - for life - to a third of all income from Sinatra's work. These enslaving conditions greatly damaged their relationship. They say that in order to break the contract, Sinatra needed the help of the leaders of the mafia, with whom he had already begun to communicate at that time: an Italian will always help an Italian. In fact, Sinatra’s contract was bought out - for huge money at that time - by the studio MSA. Sinatra himself was promised truly golden mountains in the amount of 60 thousand dollars a year and George Evans himself as an agent - and this was the man who promoted Dean Martin and Duke Ellington. Evans hired crackers, gave out free tickets, paid for advertising - but in the shortest possible time he brought Sinatra from celebrity to superstar. Sinatra had his own radio show, where he sang and talked to listeners, and on December 31, 1942, he worked an entire department in New York The Paramount Theater - one of the most prestigious venues in the country. In just a year, 250 fan clubs sprang up across the country, and Sinatra’s solo recordings, which he made in studios, ISA with the best musicians, sold in huge quantities. He bought a luxurious house in California and moved his family there, but since then, as evil tongues said, he has almost stopped appearing there.
Frank Sinatra with his wife Nancy and daughter Nancy, 1943
Even a strike recording studios, which began in mid-1942, did not stop Sinatra’s victorious march on the charts: although he did not make a single new recording, the studio Columbia, with whom he signed a new solo contract, re-released all his old works - and they broke all popularity records. His upward progress could only be stopped by military service: Sinatra was drafted at the end of 1943, but was discharged due to a damaged eardrum - the consequences of the same obstetric forceps. However, the press, which openly disliked Sinatra for his lack of contact and rude behavior with journalists, did not miss the opportunity to spread rumors that the singer had paid off the army for a tidy sum. Then Frank himself went to Italy to speak to the active troops - and even received an audience with the Pope. Nevertheless, the episode with the call to him will be remembered for many more decades - but even the FBI, which had a plump file on the singer, could not find any evidence that Sinatra was declared unfit for service for a bribe.
One of the soldiers who attended Sinatra's military concerts recalled that Frank "was the most hated man at that time - he was hated even more than Hitler." Of course, he returned to his homeland, where he earned a lot of money, and besides, he was constantly surrounded by beautiful girls. However, there was only a grain of truth in this phrase - Sinatra’s recordings were no less popular among the soldiers than among their girlfriends who remained in the United States. He embodied everything they dreamed of, and for this they could forgive him a lot. The fall of 1944 was his finest hour: in September, President Roosevelt invited Frank Sinatra for a cup of tea in The White house- an honor that an Italian boy from New Jersey could not even dream of. And in October, when Sinatra sang again in Paramount, 35 thousand of his fans blocked traffic in Times Square and Broadway, trying to break into the building, breaking several windows and trampling - thank God, not to death - several particularly fragile girls.
Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra in Anchors Away, 1945
The following year, he starred with Gene Kelly in the musical film “Raising Anchors,” the first of a series of similar films in which this brilliant duo took part. The film topped the box office, Kelly received an Oscar nomination for Best Actor, and Sinatra received an Oscar nomination for the song. I Fall In Love Too Easily. That same year, he starred in the anti-racist short film The House I Live In, which received an honorary Oscar and a Golden Globe. And in 1946, Frank’s first solo album was released, modestly titled The Voice of Frank Sinatra, which very immodestly occupied the first line of the hit parade for two whole months. Some researchers call this record the first concept album - and although this point of view is quite controversial, Sinatra’s enormous influence on recording culture cannot be disputed. The Time wrote about him:
He certainly looks like the generally accepted standard of a 1929 gangster. U His bright, frantic eyes, in his movements you can guess springy steel; he speaks through gritted teeth. He dresses with the ultra-fashionable brilliance of George Raft - wearing rich dark shirts and white-patterned ties... According to recent reports, he had cufflinks that cost approximately $30,000... He hates being photographed or appearing in public without a hat or other headdress that conceals receding hairline.
In the mid-forties, Sinatra was without a doubt the most popular man in the country. Radio shows and Broadway musicals, roles in films and concert tours, millions of records sold, millions of fans, millions of income - and all for a simple Italian guy who was only able to get rid of his Italian accent with the help of special teachers. No wonder Sinatra's head was spinning.
According to recollections, he spent thousands of dollars on drinks and friendly drinking parties, at which he always paid for everyone, bought everything he laid his eyes on, loved several women a day, carried only hundred-dollar bills in his pockets and tipped so much that the waiters lost speechless. “I want to experience everything in life while I’m still young and strong,” Frank told his friends. “So that later you don’t have to regret that you didn’t have time to do this, didn’t try this…”
At the same time, Sinatra made very risky acquaintances - he himself later said that he was friends with them solely because they were also natives of Italy, but the intelligence services claimed that they were mafia leaders - Sam Giancana, Bugsy Siegel, Salvatore Luciano, nicknamed Lucky and even the nephew of the famous Al Capone, Joe Ficheti. Sinatra sang at their parties and drank with them at the same table, accepted favors from them and gave them gifts (it is known, for example, that Luciano, at one time the largest pimp in New York and the founder of the Big Seven bootleggers, was released in 1942 from prison for cooperation, carried a cigarette case with the inscription “To my friend Lucky from Frank Sinatra” - however, Luciano was no longer officially considered a gangster). The newspapers were full of rumors about his mafia connections - without, however, providing any evidence, except for a few random photographs that could have been taken under completely innocent circumstances. It is not surprising that Sinatra hated journalists, or rather, what they wrote about him. At every press conference, he created a scandal, swearing like an Italian shoemaker and threatening to beat those he didn’t like. He beat many people - first himself, and later the “unknowns” always dealt with it. Sinatra, a true knight, never touched women, limiting himself to verbal insults towards them.
And by the end of the forties, fame began to deflate like an old balloon. The time of sugary romantic songs, swing and jazz was over, the times of country and rock and roll were coming. Sinatra was losing line after line in the ratings, his concerts were barely full (the balconies, from which people used to almost fall from the crowded conditions, remained half empty), and the discs were selling out worse and worse. On the poster for the new film with Gene Kelly, “Around Town,” his name was written second for the first time - the film collected an excellent box office, but Frank was crushed. And although he still constantly appeared on the radio, and even began to be invited to television, everyone understood that Sinatra’s time was coming to an end. And Frank himself, instead of regaining lost ground with new songs, found nothing better than to fall in love.
He first saw the beautiful Ava Gardner, a sultry brunette with cat eyes, in 1945, but she was then married to Artie Shaw, a famous clarinetist and leader of a jazz orchestra. He met her again in 1949 and was completely smitten. “As soon as we found ourselves together, I simply lost my head,” Sinatra recalled admiringly. “It’s as if she slipped something into my glass...”
They came together to the premiere of the musical “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes”, then there were dates in restaurants, walks on the beach and even a short vacation in Mexico. As soon as they returned to America, the lovers found themselves in the midst of a scandal: reporters pursued them so persistently that Frank was repeatedly forced to use his fists, and Ava had to get her nerves treated in a clinic. But the affair was too noticeable and too scandalous to leave them alone. After two unsuccessful marriages, Ava’s reputation was worse than ever: “Hollywood’s sexiest animal,” as she was called, was famous for her free behavior, and Frank, although he was interested in the opposite sex, was still married.
That was the time of unconditional family values, at least in words, and the entire American press unitedly took up arms against Ava and Frank: she was called a libertine, a destroyer of families and an indecent wench, Catholic societies demanded that her films be banned, and those who still stood in line at the cinemas were pelted with rotten tomatoes . Even worse epithets were thrown at Sinatra - after all, he had insulted journalists with impunity for several years, and now he was paying for it. But if the sex scandal was only to Ava’s advantage, she starred in the role of a sexual aggressor and femme fatale, and such stories only supported her screen image, - then for Frank it turned into a tragedy. The record company terminated his contract, studios refused to let him record, agents refused to deal with him. To top it all off, due to an untreated cold, he began having problems with his voice due to nervousness. On April 26, 1950, he performed at the famous New York club Copacabana however, as soon as he opened his mouth, and from there, in his own words, “only a cloud of dust flew out.” Sinatra was so desperate that he even tried to commit suicide. Ava remained the only meaning of his life. Frank, about whom actress Lana Turner once said that “that son of a bitch doesn’t know how to love,” fell seriously in love. They said that he had a whole collection of photographs of Ava in his office - on the table, on the walls, on the shelves...
They really suited each other very well - both temperamental, independent, passionate, loving life Here and now. Both loved Italian food, sex, whiskey, boxing matches and lack of commitment. There were legends about their escapades - the two of them rushed in an open car along the night streets, alternating shots at shop windows with kisses and drinks, then they started a fight in a bar - while Frank scratched his fists at some guy who dared to look at Ava wryly, she I also twisted the jaw of some onlooker.
Ava was in no way like Frank’s previous women - she was not submissive, she was not obedient, she did not beg him for love, but on the contrary, she could drive away Sinatra himself - the dream of every American woman, if she didn’t like something. She demanded that he not get involved with the mafia, quarreled with his agent, who demanded that he leave Frank, and made Sinatra furious scenes of jealousy when it seemed to her that he was flirting with fans or just girls in the bar.
But he couldn’t relax even for a minute - after all, she was Ava Gardner, and every man wanted her, including Howard Hughes himself, the richest American in the film business. On the set in Madrid, where the film studio sent her out of harm's way M.G.M. she started an affair with bullfighter Mario Cabret - advertising agents immediately seized on this news and began to describe in all newspapers how beautifully Cabret was caring for Miss Gardner - let them see that Ava no longer has affairs with married people! Frank immediately dropped everything and rushed to Spain, where he gave Ava a luxurious necklace of diamonds and emeralds - just right for her eyes - and created a frenzied scene that ended in an equally frantic reconciliation. A couple of weeks later in London they were presented together to the Queen of England. Upon returning to the United States, Frank immediately announced that he intended to divorce Nancy and marry Ava.
Many years later, his daughter Tina recalled: “I never perceived Ava as the woman who deprived us of our father. I first saw her when I was four years old, and it seemed to me that she really liked communicating with us, because she did not have her own children. Now I understand that she and my father were made for each other.”
At first, Nancy was sure that this was just another affair - a little time would pass, Frank would come to his senses and, as before, would return to her again. However, she soon realized that she was mistaken. In addition, the press, which had previously been entirely on her side, gradually became imbued with sympathy for the lovers who had proven their feelings for each other. Nancy gave up: on October 31, 1951, her marriage to Sinatra was finally annulled.
Frank's wedding to Ava was scheduled for a week later - he wanted it immediately, but even he had to comply with the formalities. The day before they almost quarreled: Ava was jealous of Frank for some girl in a restaurant and threw it in his face wedding ring with a six-carat diamond, and later, when he came to her house to apologize, in the heat of explanation he threw out the gold bracelet given to Ava by Howard Hughes. Friends managed to reconcile them with difficulty; Finally, on November 7 in Philadelphia, they finally became husband and wife. The civil ceremony was very modest; Journalists predominated among the guests. As a wedding gift, Frank gave Ava a mink stole with sapphire clasps, and she gave him a gold medallion with her photograph. In their haste to get rid of the journalists, the newlyweds left so quickly that they even forgot their luggage. They were waiting for him in Miami, walking along the deserted beaches at this time of year - and there was no happier couple than them...
Wedding of Frank Sinatra and Ava Gardner, November 1951
However, calm them down family life there was no: quarrels and reconciliations followed one after another, scenes of jealousy were replaced by passionate declarations of love. “We felt good in bed, but problems began on the way to the shower,” Ava later admitted. The main reason for the quarrels - although not obvious - was that Ava was at the height of fame and received fabulous fees, while Frank himself had only what was left of his fortune after the divorce. For a real Italian, which Frank always considered himself to be, it was unbearable that his wife earned more than him - and he tried as best he could, at least in his own home, to keep his head above her. He forbade her to meet other men, leave the house in what he considered to be too revealing outfits, and, moreover, very disapproved of her participation in filming. When Ava was offered a role in "The Snows of Kilimanjaro" - she was supposed to film in Kenya with Gregory Peck - he was ready to lock her at home, and it was difficult to persuade him to let Ava go to shoot. They say he harassed her with telegrams and even hired a private detective to keep an eye on the flighty Ava.
The wedding anniversary was celebrated in Kenya, where Frank flew on a film company plane: he presented his wife with a luxurious diamond ring (which he secretly paid for with Ava’s own credit card), and she joyfully joked to reporters: “I’ve been married twice before, but it’s never lasted a whole year.” . The New Year was celebrated in Uganda, where Ava starred with Clark Gable and Grace Kelly in the film “Mogambo.” Frank brought turkeys and champagne and arranged an impromptu concert for the entire film crew. When the couple was introduced to the British governor of the country, director John Ford said: “Ava, explain to the governor what you see in this runt who weighs only eighty pounds?” To which Ava, without hesitation, replied: “Twenty pounds of man and sixty pounds of manhood!”
Frank told his wife that he dreamed of getting a role in Fred Zinnemann’s film “From Here to Eternity”: the role of the Italian soldier Angelo Maggio seemed to be specially written for him! He begged the director to call him at least for an audition, saying that he agreed to act practically for free, but it was all in vain. According to the memoirs, Ava called Harry Cohn, the boss Columbia Pictures, and told him: “You must give this role to Frankie, otherwise he will kill himself.” Cohn didn't dare refuse Ava Gardner.
The film “From Here to Eternity,” which tells about the difficult military service on the eve of the attack on Pearl Harbor, it was a resounding success. Critics especially praised Sinatra, who played the role of Maggio, an obstinate soldier beaten to death in prison by his superiors. "Many may be struck by this proof of Sinatra's varied talents," the magazine wrote. The Variety, - but it did not come as a surprise to those who remember the few times he had the chance to show that he was capable of more than just being a pop singer." The New York Post noted that Sinatra “proved that he was a real actor, playing the unfortunate Maggio with some kind of doomed fun, sincerely and immensely touching,” a The Newsweek added: “Frank Sinatra, who had long since transformed himself from a pop singer into an actor, knew what he was doing.” Perhaps in the role of Maggio, Sinatra expressed himself - all the pain, disappointment and fear that he had experienced over the past few years.
Among many other awards, the film won eight of its thirteen Oscar nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director. Sinatra won an Academy Award for his performance in a supporting role. Ava Gardner, nominated that same year for her role in Mogambo, lost to a young Audrey Hepburn.
Sinatra's return to show business was truly triumphant. His career took off again - he not only returned, but returned as a winner. He was able to sing again - and now his voice became more mature, deep and courageous. He was constantly invited to perform, act in films, make recordings - and he succeeded in everything. He was involved in the detective radio series “Rocky Fortune” - the weekly show ran for six months with great success, and at the end of each episode, Sinatra, in memory of his star role, inserted the phrase “From here to eternity.” He signed a contract with the studio Capitol Records and released several excellent albums together with the best musicians, for which he was named “best singer” by three prestigious music publications. His album Young at Heart became the album of the year, and the record Frank Sinatra Sings for Only the Lonely topped the charts for 120 weeks. Magazine The Time called him "one of the most remarkable, powerful, dramatic, sad and sometimes downright frightening personalities in the public eye", a The New York Times wrote that "with the possible exception of Hugh Hefner, the magazine's founder playboy no one could embody the masculine ideal of the 50s like that.” Sinatra starred in a series of wonderful films, where he showed himself to be a magnificent dramatic actor with a subtle feeling and rare persuasiveness. Sinatra himself especially appreciated his role as drug addict Frankie in the film “The Man with the Golden Arm,” which was released in 1955.
Having established himself in his career, Sinatra returned to his old habits: he began to throw parties at which there was a lot of whiskey and crowds of women, from chorus girls to Marilyn Monroe herself, who was recovering from a difficult divorce from Joe DiMaggio in Sinatra’s house. Newspapers happily wrote about his sprees, regularly publishing photographs of Frank in the company of another beauty.
Ava endured all this with great difficulty. She was insulted, offended, crushed... In response to her reproaches, Frank exploded, shouted that it was all a lie, then begged for forgiveness for a long time. “He could have been nominated for an Oscar for his excuses,” she said, but she forgave him. After another reconciliation, Ava became pregnant, and after another quarrel she had a miscarriage. However, many years later she admitted: “We couldn’t even take care of ourselves. How would we be able to take care of the child?”
The wild lifestyle of Frank, who, nevertheless, did not want to leave her alone, assigning detectives to her and constantly arranging scenes of jealousy, drove her crazy. She increasingly agreed to film as far away from him as possible, and although both still madly loved each other, it was clear to everyone that they could no longer live together. “Probably if I could share Frank with other women, we would really be happier,” Ava admitted. When she left for Rome, where filming of The Barefoot Contessa began, Sinatra was on the verge of suicide. After she left he wrote a song I'm a Fool to Want You - during recording, he was able to finish singing it only once, and then burst into tears and ran out of the studio... Later, he asked for a statue of Ava, made for the filming of “The Countess,” as a souvenir, and installed it in his garden.
A friend of his once remarked: “Ava taught Frank to sing sentimental songs about unrequited love. She was the greatest love of his life and he lost her." For several more years they lived parallel lives, not bothering to officially divorce - Ava lived either in Spain or in Italy, where she had affairs with bullfighters and dancers, occasionally filmed and pretended to be happy.
Having lost her, Frank seemed to break loose: they say that Marilyn Monroe, Anita Ekberg, Grace Kelly, Judy Garland, Kim Novak, the wives of politicians and numerous starlets who looked suspiciously like Ava were in his arms. “Frank simply doesn’t have access to the original, so he settles for pale copies,” she quipped. He proposed to Lauren Bacall, who immediately agreed (“I should have hesitated for at least thirty seconds,” she later said), but Frank pretended he was just joking. Bacall, who had already ordered business cards addressed to Mrs. Sinatra, could not forgive him for this for a long time.
He tried to forget Ava, and he usually succeeded. But sometimes Sinatra dropped everything and flew to her. And although both understood that nothing was holding them together, it was only in mid-1957 that they finally decided to end the marriage. They remember that after the official procedure, Frank threw a party at which he tore up Ava’s favorite photograph - but after a few minutes he was crawling on the floor, collecting the scraps and crying because he could not find one piece. The delivery boy who accidentally discovered the lost fragment was rewarded with a gold watch.
In the late 1950s, Sinatra often performed in Las Vegas casinos The Sands -"Sands", of which he owned a share. The “sands” were truly gold-bearing: the singer’s profits were calculated in numbers with many zeros. He and his friends who performed with him in the same show - singers and actors Dean Martin, Peter Lawford, Sammy Davis and Joe Bishop - felt like real kings of the world: after all, they had at their disposal everything you could dream of. Legends of their entertainment, which included the best alcohol and the best women - but never drugs - were enthusiastically passed from mouth to mouth, and tickets to their concerts were sold out for months in advance. They called themselves a “clan”, and they were called the “rat pack” - by analogy with the club of playmakers that arose in Hollywood a decade earlier, which included Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Judy Garland, Cary Grant, Mickey Rooney and others. In Las Vegas, the "pack" was the main attraction that attracted tourists, and at the same time a real force: it was thanks to the "pack" in the casino that many restrictions for blacks that existed at that time throughout the country were lifted (after all, Sammy Davis was a mulatto), and later segregation was completely abolished.
In 1960, the film “Ocean’s Eleven” was released - a kind of friendly skit that captured the entire company for history, including the “rat mascots,” as the women who joined the “pack” were called - Shirley MacLaine and Angie Dickinson. They all filmed without ceasing to perform in the show, sometimes running out onto the film set during breaks between numbers. The story of the robbery of five casinos (one of which was the same "Sands") has become incredibly popular - together with Steven Soderbergh's recent remake of "Ocean's Eleven" it is considered best film about Las Vegas of all times.
The “pack” had everything: money, power - it was not for nothing that there were so many enthusiastic rumors about their friendship with the mafia - and even connections in high circles. In 1954, Lawford, the son of an English lord, married the daughter of the famous Joe Kennedy, Patricia. They say that at the wedding he made a toast: “What could be worse than a daughter married to an actor? The daughter is married to an English actor!” - however, he fully contributed to his son-in-law’s career, demanding, however, reciprocal services. When Joe's son, Democratic Senator John Fitzgerald Kennedy, set out to conquer the White House, the entire “pack” came out in his support. Kennedy even sang with the pack on the Sands stage. “Rats” and John Kennedy were very similar - everyone loved life, entertainment, women and yet did not forget about their work. It is not surprising that when Kennedy was elected president, they all felt involved in high politics. Sinatra was even invited to host a banquet in honor of the inauguration; he already dreamed of being appointed ambassador to Italy, but these dreams were not destined to come true.
It is known that for the success of his election campaign, Kennedy did not hesitate to use mafia connections - for example, in Chicago he won only thanks to Sam Giancana. More piquant circumstances connected him with him - they both loved the same woman, Judy Campbell. However, having settled in the White House, Kennedy realized that such connections could be very dangerous. His brother Robert, who became attorney general, vowed to exterminate the mafia in the bud and took up the case with an unpleasant zeal for many. He quickly explained to John that he should not deal with either mafia bosses or those who might be suspected of having connections with them, and John obeyed. In March 1962, President Kennedy was scheduled to spend a weekend at Sinatra's Palm Springs home: the flattered singer renovated and remodeled the house and even equipped it with a landing pad for helicopters, spending about five million dollars on everything. However, at the last moment, Kennedy changed his mind and decided to stay next door, with Bint Crosby, who had no ties to the mafia.
The “rat pack” is in full force.
The news of this to Sinatra was conveyed by Peter Lawford. Frank was furious. Sinatra would never speak to Lawford again; Never again would Lawford be a member of the “rat pack.”
In the same year, another scandal broke out: the press found out that part of the shares of the resort owned by Sinatra Cal Neva Lodge owned by mafia bosses.
The resort, located on Lake Tahoe, was located exactly on the border between the states of California and Nevada: the border line ran right through the territory, dividing the pool into two halves. The beauty was that gambling was allowed in the Nevada part, and this was actively used by vacationers, among whom there were many who belonged to organized crime. It is known that in Cal Neva Lodge Marilyn Monroe visited a week before her death, and from there, in a coma, she was taken straight to the hospital. They say that on the night when Marilyn was dying, a Sinatra record was playing on her record player... Be that as it may, the FBI was barely able to prove that Sam Giancana, the head of the Chicago Syndicate, was a co-owner Cal Neva Lodge an incredible storm arose.
As Sinatra himself said, 1963 was a terrible year. His license was revoked Cal Neva Lodge and he had to sell his stake in the Sands. In November, John Kennedy died - for Sinatra, who continued to count himself among those close to him, at least in spirit, this was a monstrous blow. In December of the same year, unknown persons kidnapped his son, Frank Sinatra Jr., and demanded a quarter of a million dollars for his life. Surprisingly, on the same day, both Attorney General Robert Kennedy and Sam Giancana promised help to Sinatra. The kidnappers received their ransom and were immediately detained. Even Jacqueline Kennedy, who forbade Sinatra to appear in the White House except at concerts (after all, it was he who introduced her husband to Marilyn Monroe, and she knew this very well) sent him a card with words of sympathy.
All these events almost finished off Sinatra. He was scared - if people who are at the pinnacle of power, at the pinnacle of life, can so easily lose this life, what can we say about him? He felt old and sick, from such a state he knew only one cure - love. In July 1966, he married young Mia Farrow - he was fifty and she was twenty-one. Sinatra's family was very disapproving of this union: after all, their newly-made stepmother was younger than two of Frank's three children. The eldest, Nancy, remarked to reporters: “If my father marries this girl, I will never talk to her again.” But Frank was in love and didn't want to know anything. Mia was a frail, big-eyed blonde with a short haircut - they say that when Ava saw their wedding photo in the newspaper, she only remarked: “I always knew Frank would end up in bed with a boy.”
Wedding of Frank Sinatra and Mia Farrow, July 1966
Frank again tried to insist on his rights as the head of the family: he did not want his wife to act in films - it was enough that she was Mrs. Sinatra. At his request, Mia left the TV series Peyton Place, where she successfully played one of the main roles, and had to sit at home while Frank, as usual, had fun in a male company. When she agreed to star in Rosemary's Baby, Sinatra insisted that she star in The Whodunit with him instead. Mia resolutely refused: she had long ago realized that she did not like being Mrs. Sinatra. Sinatra brought the divorce papers directly to film set. Their marriage lasted only a year and four months...
Frank returned to his old life: recording, filming, awards, parties, arguing with journalists and admiring fans. He was forced to sell the Sands to Howard Hughes, which is why he stopped performing there, but in return he signed an even more lucrative contract with the casino Caesars Palace. Hot on his heels were Elvis Presley and The Beatles, but Sinatra was still at his best: he even recorded an album of modern songs Cycles, sold half a million copies. In 1969, astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins, who were going to the moon, demanded to hear a Sinatra song. Fly Me Then The Moon(“Send me to the moon”). From that moment on, he became not just the most popular Italian on the planet, but a real symbol of this world.
His daughter Nancy said about him: “He was not happy, but he would not want to change with anyone, even in order to be happy.” In 1971, celebrating his fifty-fifth birthday, Sinatra announced his retirement from the stage.
Coppola said, however, that Sinatra dreamed of playing Don Vito Corleone himself, but the director saw only Marlon Brando in this role and did not want to hear about anyone else. The vindictive Sinatra did not forgive either Coppola or Brando, with whom he had once been friends and even acted together. In the end, this was the third time that Brando got the role that Frank dreamed of: first he played in the film “On the Waterfront”, then in the film “Guys and Dolls” Marlon got the role that Sinatra wanted to play (and he had to content with a supporting role), and now Vito Corleone. Sinatra called Brando “the most overrated actor in the world” - he believed that he had every right to such an opinion...
He spent the remaining years relatively calmly: he rarely released albums (in the entire eighties - only three collections, but one of them contained the famous New York, New York - one of the biggest American hits of all time), was rarely filmed and performed a lot. And although Sinatra always preferred Las Vegas, he toured the whole world, and more than once. He became involved in charity work - he generously donated to hospitals, cancer funds and committees to help the poor. It is estimated that he donated about a billion dollars in total! He sang at Reagan's inauguration in 1981 and at the concert in honor of the arrival of Queen Elizabeth II in 1983. And the next year he was awarded the country's highest award - the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Age, as before, was not an obstacle to the passions of the heart. In 1975, Sinatra, who was already sixty, became interested in the famous Pamela Churchill Hayward, the former daughter-in-law of Winston Churchill, the sexiest Englishwoman of the twentieth century, and almost married her, but at the last moment he was afraid of her scandalous fame. Instead of Pamela, in June 1976 he married Barbara Marx, the former wife of the famous comedian Zeppo Marx, a former variety show dancer. They say Dolly Sinatra was completely against it, but when was the last time Frank listened to his mother? The wedding was attended by Ronald Reagan, Kirk Douglas, Gregory Peck and several other celebrities, but none from the Sinatra family: his children never recognized her. Barbara was spoiled and stupid, but she perfectly understood what a blessing it was to become Sinatra’s wife. She knew how to be understanding and affectionate, tolerated all his antics, consoled him when Dolly died six months later (she was flying to her son’s performance, and the plane crashed; Frank was crushed and could not calmly go on stage for a long time), forgave all his sprees and rudeness. However, her grip was truly ironclad: in 1978, he even married her, having previously achieved a church divorce from Nancy. The newspapers sneered: “Perhaps Frank made an offer the Vatican couldn’t refuse?” Barbara limited his contact with his children and friends, removed all photographs of Ava from the house, and even ordered the removal of her statue, which had stood in the garden for twenty years. She wanted to remain the only woman in Sinatra's life.
Frank and Barbara Sinatra, late 1970s.
Or at least the last one. But she never managed to get rid of Ava: even though she had been living in London for a long time, shutting herself off from the whole world, Frank never stopped communicating with her: he constantly called and periodically flew in to visit. She was seriously ill - Frank paid all the bills, meekly laying out hundreds of thousands of dollars, and was simply happy that she did not kick him out, as before. Ava Gardner died in January 1990: according to the recollections of Sinatra's daughter, when the news reported her death, Frank fell to the floor and burst into tears. Sinatra organized the funeral, but he himself never showed up - they said that he could not get out of the limousine, which stood for several hours in front of the entrance to the cemetery: he was choked by tears, his heart ached... On the wreath that he sent to her coffin was it says, "With all my love, Frances."
From the book 50 famous celebrity couples author Maria ShcherbakSinatra Frank (b. 1915 - d. 1998) American jazz and pop singer, film actor, who had extraordinary sexual appeal. “Sweet-voiced Frank”, “velvety baritone”, “ingratiating style”, “inimitable timbre” ... With such epithets and definitions
From the book The Great Game. World football stars by Cooper SimonFRANK SINATRA AND AVA GARDNER The marriage of the legendary singer and the famous film actress was called romantic. But those seven years that they spent together were filled with jealousy, scandals, and suicide attempts. And although Frank suffered the separation from Ava very hard - he could not
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Biography, life story of Frank Sinatra
Frank Sinatra is an American singer, showman, film and television actor.
Introduction
Frank Sinatra has been at the top of the lists of the very best (songs, artists, voices, etc.) for so long and indestructibly that he looks more like some kind of artistic deity than a living person. His name is truly the first to come to mind when it comes to those symbolic people who, in the mass consciousness, undividedly embody American musical culture. For all the abundance of recordings Sinatra published, for his almost dimensionless catalog, which continues to swell year after year, it is not long to miss the very essence of his talent. Meanwhile, Sinatra is not just a darling of fate and a successfully promoted showman, but, first of all, a fantastic interpreter, sensitive to the trends of the times and able to preserve the best examples of American pop music for several generations of music lovers of all races and nationalities.
Childhood and youth
Francis Albert Sinatra was born in Hoboken, New Jersey on December 12, 1915. He was the only child of Dolly and Anthony Martin Sinatra. His father worked as a boilermaker and shipyard worker, his mother was a nurse by training, but after the birth of her son she took the post of chairman of the Democratic Party in Hoboken. The family of the future American superstar had nothing to do with music.
Frank got his life, as they say, by fighting. The child was very large - as much as six kilograms. The birth was long and very difficult. Until the end of his days, Frank was reminded of his hard-won right to life by numerous scars from the forceps with which the doctor helped him leave his mother’s womb.
After the baby was born, the Sinatra family had a hard time. There was a catastrophic lack of money. The head of the family had to take up boxing so that the family would have a constant income. However, Martin felt confident in the ring, and the audience quickly fell in love with him.
CONTINUED BELOW
Frank was raised by his grandmother and aunt. That is, practically no one was watching him. The boy was interested in music, and already at the age of thirteen he learned to play the ukulele on his own. But with education, things were much worse - he was kicked out of school, he did not graduate from college.
Frank began working as a teenager. He dreamed of becoming a journalist, and at first he got a job as a loader in the editorial office of the Jersey Observer newspaper, then retrained as a copyist. But even the duties of a reporter were still not trusted to him. Then Frank entered secretarial school and studied typing and shorthand. And finally his reports on minor sporting events began to appear in print. One day, 19-year-old Frank, who occasionally sang for fun, took part in a popular talent competition on local radio. Along with three other contestants, promoters sent him on a test tour, calling the newly minted vocal quartet the Hoboken Four.
Life path. Career and personal life
After the tour, Sinatra signed his first professional contract. They paid him $25 a week. For this relatively generous remuneration, he not only had to sing at the roadside bar The Rustic Cabin in a provincial town, but also act as a waiter, master of ceremonies and comic actor. With more or less solid ground under his feet, Frank was finally able to marry his childhood love, Nancy Barbato. In the 1940s they had three children: Nancy Sandra, Frankie Wayne and Christina.
In 1939, one of Sinatra's recordings was heard on the radio by trumpeter Harry James, who had recently left Benny Goodman and was assembling his own big band. Sinatra suited him well. In July 1939, 23-year-old Frank Sinatra made his first professional studio recording. Thus began his ascent to the heights of the world song Olympus. He lasted six months in the Harry James ensemble, and in January 1940 he accepted a much more tempting offer from Tommy Dorsey. To the accompaniment of Dorsey's big band, Sinatra recorded a whole bunch of incredibly popular songs, 16 of which were in the top ten hits within two years. The most significant milestone of this period is the composition “I"ll Never Smile Again, then a No. 1 hit, and in the future – a participant in the Grammy Hall of Fame. If you believe the artist’s confession, then his vocal style was born from imitation of Tommy Dorsey’s trombone. One way or another, the singer knew how to make an impression. Sinatra became the highlight of numerous radio shows, and at the same time made his debut on the big screen, so far only as a soloist of an ensemble. In 1941, he starred in the film Las Vegas Nights, a year later he appeared in the film Ship Ahoy.
In January 1942, a new chapter in Sinatra's biography opens: he conducts his first independent studio session and records four solo numbers, one of which, Cole Porter's Night and Day, makes it into the charts. Frank left Dorsey, but for some time he was not allowed to record in the studio. But he got his own show on the radio, Songs By Sinatra, and many offers to perform. On New Year's Eve, he played the first part of the Benny Goodman concert at the Paramount Theater in New York. This was the last straw that overflowed the cup: Frank Sinatra, who so charmingly fused jazz, blues and swing, in the eyes of young people embodied the ideal image of a real pop idol, who would still cause incredible excitement for many decades. The companies that owned the rights to his early recordings are releasing Sinatra records in batches. For two years, his songs attacked the charts one after another, two of them, created together with Dorsey, became number one hits - There Are Such Thing and In the Blue of the Evening.
Finally, the management of Columbia Records offered Frank Sinatra a solo contract and put him to work, recording his voice a cappella or accompanied by a single choir. Despite all the minimalism of his arrangements, Sinatra’s charm is so deadly that in a year he produces five hits that finish in the Top 10.
In 1943, the artist became a regular participant in the popular radio cycle Your Hit Parade, for four months he sang in productions on Broadway, and hosted his own radio program Songs by Sinatra. Then his full-fledged film career began. In the film Reveille With Beverly he performs the song Night and Day, and in the film Higher and Higher he gets a small role - playing himself. He was able to demonstrate his acting abilities on a full scale in the 1944 film Step Lively.
The taboo on audio recordings that existed during the Second World War somewhat slowed down Sinatra’s singing career, but in November 1944 the ban was lifted, and the singer, already lured by the MGM label, plunged into work with pleasure. Much to the delight of his listeners, his songs continue to delight the ears and enjoy continued popularity. During 1945 alone, eight new singles crossed the border of the American Top 10. These were works by different authors, including themes from musicals: If I Loved You, You'll Never Walk Alone, Dream, Saturday Night (Is the Loneliest Night of the Week) and so on.
The artist has a special affinity for the author's tandem of Jule Styne and Sammy Cahn, who, at Sinatra's insistence, are invited to work on his first musical, Anchors Aweigh. During his half-century career, Sinatra would record more songs by Kahn (a poet who worked with various composers) than by any other songwriter. The musical film Anchors Aweigh, released in the summer of 1945, became the top box office of the year.
The next year finds the artist engaged in the same intensive activities: his own radio show, constant recordings in the studio, live concerts. He had to act in only one film (Till the Clouds Roll By), but the songs were not successful. Among the compositions that finished at the top of the charts are Irving Berlin's They Say it's Wonderful and The Girl That I Marry, Stine and Kahn's Five Minutes More. The collection of songs The Voice of Frank Sinatra famously conquered the pop chart .
By 1947, Frank Sinatra embodied the greatest American pop star. But, like a true workaholic, he did not slow down the pace of work. Cycles of radio programs, five significant film roles, including in the big-budget musical On the Town, regular targeted assaults on the song charts. Number one hit Mam "selle plus a dozen more Top 10 finalists. Two strong albums Songs by Sinatra (1947) and Christmas Songs by Sinatra (1948).
By the end of the 40s, his popularity began to show the first signs of decline. However, he is still a welcome guest on radio (where he hosts his own show, Meet Frank Sinatra), and with the advent of television, he is also a rising TV star. In 1950, the singer opened a series of entertaining musical television programs, The Frank Sinatra Show, which lasted two years. His filmography is replenished with an interesting role in the drama Meet Danny Wilson (1952), in which three songs were performed by him - That Old Black Magic, I "ve Got a Crush on You by Gershwin and How Deep Is the Ocean? by Berlin.
The singer's relationship with Columbia bosses was never smooth, and in the early 50s a serious conflict brewed with music director Mitch Miller, who recognized a single recipe for success: completely new material and clever, catchy arrangements. It is clear that Sinatra was disgusted by this pursuit of fashion. Before finally parting with the label, he managed to release four hit singles, including an unusual version of the folk standard Goodnight, Irene.
Having broken with Columbia 12 years after the start of his solo career and having managed to rise to unimaginable heights of popularity during this time, Frank Sinatra is left with nothing: without a contract with a label or film company, without agreements with radio or television channels. The concerts stopped, his agent left him. Moreover, in 1949, after his affair with actress Ava Gardner received scandalous publicity, he divorced Nancy. In 1951, Gardner became his wife, but after a couple of years they separated, and in 1957 they officially divorced.
It was necessary to start all over again and agree to virtually any conditions. Sinatra agreed to collaborate with Capitol Records, which offered him a very tough contract. After a year and a half break (during which time the singer lost his voice and, according to rumors, even attempted suicide), in the summer of 1953 his name again appeared in the Top 10 with the new single I'm Walking Behind You. The next important milestone was filming in the feature film From Here to Eternity, which tells about the events of World War II. Sinatra's acting skills received very high praise from professionals. So high that in March 54, the artist left the Oscar ceremony with an award for Best Supporting Actor. In addition to the resumed musical entertainment radio show, the artist participated and in the radio play Rocky Fortune, in which he played the role of a detective.
Sinatra's new creative partner is arranger and conductor Nelson Riddle. In tandem with him, the singer recorded a number of his best works and experienced a new rise in popularity. Young-at-Heart's first No. 1 hit since 1947 soon became a pop classic. The 1955 film, in which the artist was entrusted with the main role, had the same name. Produced by Riddle, Songs for Young Lovers, Sinatra's first concept work, featured classics by Cole Porter, Gershwin, and Rodgers and Hart with modern arrangements. Sinatra's heartfelt performance and the intonation richness of his interpretation made the romantic melodies and graceful lyrics sparkle with new colors. This album, like Swing Easy!, released in its wake, rose to the top five hits.
By the mid-50s, Frank Sinatra had successfully revived his fading status as a pop star and established actor. In many ways, he was even more respected and popular than he had been in the mid-40s. His new single, Learnin' the Blues, topped the sales chart in 1955, along with his collection of ballads, In the Wee Small Hours, which was subsequently inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. The 1956 film The Tender Trap gave him not only another interesting role, but also a fresh one. hit Love Is The Tender Trap, written by Kahn and his new collaborator, composer James Van Heusen.
In the 50s, the artist recorded with equal energy both slow ballads and love songs, and energetic compositions arranged for the dance floor. One of the pinnacles of this trend remains the predominantly dance album of 1956, Songs for Swingin' Lovers!, which was only one step short of topping the charts. It was the first gold disc in the catalog of the singer, who so brilliantly transformed into a self-confident macho.
In the late 50s, Frank Sinatra, the consummate youth idol, had to face stiff competition from the emerging rock and rollers. The number one opponent was, of course, . It was unrealistic for a 40-year-old musician to compete with much younger and so provocatively talented artists in the fight for the hearts of teenagers. Nevertheless, it was still too early to write him off. If things weren’t perfect for him with definitely killer hits, his name regularly appeared in the album rankings. His compilation of singles, This Is Sinatra!, released for the Capitol label, entered the top ten and received a gold certificate.
The musician used atypical arrangements for him - a string quartet - during the recording of the long-play Close to You. The album was released at the beginning of an eventful 1957. In the summer, his fans were already buying up the new record A Swingin' Affair!, and in the fall they were hunting for the collection of ballads Where Are You?. By the end of the year, the artist threw out two more releases - the soundtrack to the film Pal Joey, based on the Rodgers and Hart musical, and Christmas Gift A Jolly Christmas From Frank Sinatra It may seem incredible, but all five of these long plays, one after another, rose to the US Top 5 during 1957. And the collection of Christmas standards eventually sold millions of copies.
Frank Sinatra began the next year, 1958, with the same high bar. Two records topped the sales chart: Come Fly with Me, dedicated to travel, and Only the Lonely, a collection of ballads awarded gold. Two more long-plays from 1958 did well on the charts – This Is Sinatra, Volume Two and The Frank Sinatra Story.
At the same time, Sinatra laid the foundation for a collection of the most prestigious music awards. True, he received his first Grammy not for the content, but for the design of the album Only the Lonely. The jury praised the design and graphics of the envelope. But trouble has begun. The next Grammy distribution ceremony was doubly successful for the singer: his new studio attempt Come Dance With Me! was awarded the title of best album of the year, and Sinatra himself was crowned with laurels as the best pop vocalist.
Number two, number eight and again number two - this level in the sales ranking was surpassed by the 1959 albums Come Dance With Me!, Look to Your Heart and No One Cares. Sinatra becomes the personification of creative stability and consistently high quality of material, performance and arrangements. The next eight releases from 1960-61 consistently appeared in the US top ten. The accuracy of his hitting the target precisely with the fecundity that only a few could afford is similar to science fiction. Devilish charm, mesmerizing artistry and outstanding interpretive talent were combined with a thoughtful market strategy. Romantic, slow collections of songs alternated with selections of energetic tracks that could lift even pensioners to their feet.
In the second half of the 50s, although Sinatra acted quite actively, he did not sing in his films so often. The opportunity to combine two favorite things presented itself to him in the film version of the Cole Porter musical Can-Can, the soundtrack of which became another successful exhibit in the collection of his hits.
By this time, the singer was no longer satisfied with his relationship with Capitol Records. In December 1960, he created his own recording company, Reprise Records, where he spent at least half of his studio time. Hence the abundance of releases in the early 60s (including a record six discs in 1962). Sinatra's first single, released by the Reprise label, The Second Time Around, was named the best record of the year by the organizers of the Grammy ceremony.
By the mid-60s, Sinatra began to be fairly squeezed not only (in the singles chart), but also victorious (in the album rankings), which no one could compete with. Sinatra, of course, still had his own constant audience, and quite a large one. And his talent was still hypnotic. 1965-66 was the time of another rise in popularity, the third peak in his half-century career. Over these two years, the singer received a Grammy Award five times, which crowned two triumphant albums September of My Years and A Man and His Music (a review of his creative career), as well as two singles - It Was a Very Good Year and Strangers in the Night - immortal classics of the song genre - for the best pop vocals. The album September of My Years, a symbiosis of vocal jazz, traditional and modern pop music, famously topped the sales chart and reached platinum status.
His personal life is no less stormy than his creativity. The 50-year-old artist experiences another passion and at 66 marries actress Mia Farrow. A 30-year age difference is not the best soil for a happy marriage. A year later they divorced.
Until the end of the 60s, Sinatra continued to launch high-quality releases into the musical orbit, none of which were ignored by the public. And although in the second half of the 60s representatives of the young galaxy of rock musicians were already breathing at his back, the 50-year-old performer still had a large margin of safety. Compilation of the best tracks Greatest Hits! (1968) went platinum, and the new album Cycles, featuring songs by contemporary authors - Joni Mitchell, Jimmy Webb and others, sold 500,000 copies. Another “gold” was awarded to the collection of songs My Way, specially written for Sinatra by another 60s icon, Paul Anka.
Thus, heroically fighting against time, age and passing fashion, the musician celebrated his 55th anniversary and in 1971 announced his retirement from the stage. But after such a busy work history, indulging in idleness for a long time was beyond his strength. Two years later he returned to the studio and at the same time to television. The new album and the new special TV show were called the same - Ol "Blue Eyes Is Back (Blue Eyes is the generally accepted nickname of the blue-eyed singer, which became his second self). Thus began the last chapter of his career, which ended shortly before his death. During these For more than two decades, he appeared in the studio much less often, acted less in films and on television, but performed much more actively, fortunately, the vast catalog provided almost inexhaustible resources for compiling any concert programs. Las Vegas becomes a favorite stop on his concert routes, but more Residents of dozens of other cities and many countries of the world also had a chance to see and hear the living legend of the 20th century.
His fourth and last wife was Barbara Marx, whom he married in 1976. After the album Some Nice Things I've Missed (1973), for seven years Sinatra preferred live performances to studio work, and only in 1980 he broke his silence with a collection of songs on three discs, Trilogy: Past, Present, Future. The brightest touch on this impressive canvas turned out to be the track Theme From New York, New York, the title theme from the popular 1977 film New York, New York. Sinatra's performance turned this composition into a famous pop standard. Thus, Frank Sinatra turned out to be the only singer in the history of the twentieth century, the first and last whose hit single was separated by half a century.
Unbound by obligations, Sinatra had the luxury of recording as much as he saw fit. In the 80s, he considered it necessary to limit himself to two moderately received releases. In 1990, the two companies that owned the rights to the artist's catalogue, Capitol and Reprise, released two box sets for his 75th anniversary. Each of the releases, The Capitol Years and The Reprise Collection, on three and four discs respectively, sold half a million copies, although they were released simultaneously.
Frank Sinatra broke the long pause only in 1993, signing a contract with Capitol Records and preparing the long-play Duets - old public favorites, recorded with new (and already famous) heroes of the scene - from Tony Bennett and Barbara Streisand ) to Bono. Although this album did not add anything new to the musician’s already existing achievements, it was competently presented to the public, who had waited ten years for new recordings of their idol. Nostalgia turned out to be a hot commodity: Duets became the most popular disc of Sintara's career and was certified platinum three times. A collection of selected duets, Duets II, published a year later, brought the author another Grammy Award for the best performance of traditional pop music. There was no other way to evaluate this titanic work that brought together Streisand and Bono, Julio Iglesias and Aretha Franklin, and a dozen other stars.
Decline of a career. Death
In 1994 - almost 60 years after his first professional tour - 78-year-old Sinatra played his last concert. Having just celebrated his 80th birthday, in 1995 Frank Sinatra finally quite officially and completely retired. He did not have long to enjoy the retirement idyll. In May 1998, the life of the 82-year-old artist was cut short in Los Angeles.
A man has passed away whose contribution to musical history far exceeds the scale of a single individual. The greatness of the entire body of his work is comparable only to the revolutionary whirlwind raised
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