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SINATRA, FRANK 1915-

POPULAR SINGER, ACTOR

Climbing Up

Once stardom arrived for Frank Sinatra in the early 1940s, it came quickly and in a fashion never really seen in popular music before 1942. But fame had taken its time finding Sinatra. He could never be accused of not paying his dues in his rise to popular singer, Academy Award-winning actor, and eventually legend. He came from a working-class family in Hoboken, New Jersey. Although he grew up singing, it was only at eighteen, after seeing a Bing Crosby concert, that he decided to become a professional singer. His family resisted the career choice but helped him anyway, providing a car and an amplifier and even helping him find work through his mother's political connections. In 1935 he joined the Hoboken Four and went on the road for the first time. The experience was a difficult one, but Sinatra quickly learned that he was the star of the group and that the group was going nowhere.

First Break

In 1939 he was back in New Jersey singing at the Rustic Cabin, a club near the town of Alpine. The work was steady, but more important, it was broadcast on the radio. Sinatra knew that radio was his only chance for real exposure and a chance to sign on with a band. In 1939 Harry James, a trumpet player recently of the Benny Goodman Orchestra, signed Sinatra as a vocalist for James's newly formed big band. On 30 June of that year Sinatra made his first appearance with James's band at the Hippodrome Theatre in Baltimore. In July he recorded for the first time. The band had modest success during the year, and soon Sinatra had attracted the attention of music critics. James knew he could not keep Sinatra and was happy to release him from his contract when Tommy Dorsey approached Sinatra. By January 1940 Sinatra was singing with Dorsey's band. The band was more talented and more widely known than James's band, and exposure came quickly. The Dorsey band was also more geared toward vocalists. Alex Stordahl was the band's arranger and was a great influence on Sinatra's singing style. The touring was grueling—long bus rides crossing the country and up to nine forty-five-minute shows a day. Dorsey's band scored a number one hit with "I'll Never Smile Again" in summer 1940, but by then Sinatra had begun to outgrow them. By May 1941 Sinatra was rated as the number one vocalist in the annual college music survey of Billboard magazine. By December he had surpassed Crosby in a Down Beat poll. The stage was set for a big break.

Going Solo

Sinatra began recording as a solo artist in January 1942, when Crosby was the only truly successful solo artist. It was the height of the big band and swing era, and singers had to rely on bands for support. To go solo was to take a risk. By July 1942 he was singing on his own. He had a hit with "There Are Such Things" and in December 1942 he appeared at New York's Paramount Theatre. In what Life magazine would call "the proclamation of a new era" Sinatra made music history when he stepped on stage and sent the girls in the audience into a frenzy. Within four years the big bands began fading out in favor of the solo singer crooning a song. Sinatra sang at the Paramount for eight weeks, at the end of which he was the most successful singer in the country. His big smile and skinny vulnerability made him a sex symbol. He would later say it was the war—most of the boy-friends were overseas, and the girls latched onto him as a substitute. But it was also the voice and the style that would become legendary. For the next five years Sinatra was the biggest singing star in the country. He followed up with a string of hit records and entered the film industry with Reveille with Beverly (1943), Higher and Higher (1943), Step Lively (1944), and Anchors Aweigh (1945).

Breakdown

But in 1947 Sinatra's career began to unravel. Personal problems had led to difficult relations with the press. His record during the war was questioned—he had been declared 4-F and unable to serve due to a hole in one eardrum. His marriage came to an end. His political beliefs were called into question at a time when liberal thought was becoming more and more suspect. He had campaigned for Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1944 and was associated with "fellow travelers," or Communist sympathizers. As damaging, his friendships with under-world figures were reported, tarnishing his image. Sinatra's battle with the press culminated with a charge of battery for a fight with Hearst newspaper man Lee Mortimer. Between 1948 and 1952 Sinatra's star plummeted. By 1952 he had no recording contract, and his shows were sometimes only one-third to one-half full. His career had hit bottom.

Eternity

The break came with the filming of James Jones's popular novel From Here to Eternity (1953). Playing the character of Angelo Maggio gave back to Sinatra his confidence on the screen. He won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for the part and launched the second, more serious phase of his acting career. He appeared in numerous films through the 1950s and became a box-office star. More important, he gained a recording contract and relaunched his singing career. By 1954 he was again the top male vocalist in America. In the next six years he would star in seventeen films and record his most famous albums. He became the most sought-after night-club performer in the country. The man who had redefined pop stardom in the 1940s rode a wave of successes through the next three decades to become an American legend of music and popular culture.