Part 1

0:00:02 > 0:00:05This programme contains some strong language.

0:00:05 > 0:00:08MUSIC: Summer Wind by Frank Sinatra

0:00:08 > 0:00:10TV: Frank Sinatra dead tonight at the age of 82,

0:00:10 > 0:00:12which brought to an end a remarkable life

0:00:12 > 0:00:15that was on one kind of stage or another for six decades.

0:00:15 > 0:00:18An idol of mine and millions. And a great Italian-American,

0:00:18 > 0:00:21a great American. And a great actor, by the way.

0:00:22 > 0:00:24I think every American would have to smile

0:00:24 > 0:00:26and say he really did do it his way.

0:00:26 > 0:00:29They dimmed the lights on the Vegas strip in his honour.

0:00:30 > 0:00:32Here, and in dozens of cities across the country,

0:00:32 > 0:00:35radio stations have been playing nothing but Sinatra.

0:00:39 > 0:00:41VINYL CRACKLES

0:00:41 > 0:00:43MUSIC: One For My Baby by Frank Sinatra

0:00:45 > 0:00:47IN FRENCH:

0:00:55 > 0:00:57# It's quarter to three

0:00:58 > 0:01:01# There's no-one in the place

0:01:02 > 0:01:04# 'Cept you and me

0:01:09 > 0:01:11# So set 'em up, Joe

0:01:12 > 0:01:14# I got a little story

0:01:16 > 0:01:18# I think you should know... #

0:01:19 > 0:01:24My first recollection of Frank's voice was coming out of a jukebox,

0:01:24 > 0:01:26it was in a dark bar on a Sunday afternoon,

0:01:26 > 0:01:29when my mother and I went in searching for my father.

0:01:29 > 0:01:31And, er, she said...

0:01:31 > 0:01:34I will always remember, she said, "Listen to that.

0:01:34 > 0:01:37"That's Frank Sinatra. He's from New Jersey."

0:01:37 > 0:01:41# Make it one for my baby... #

0:01:41 > 0:01:45And while his music became synonymous with black tie,

0:01:45 > 0:01:49the good life, best booze, women, sophistication,

0:01:49 > 0:01:53it was the deep blueness of Frank's voice that affected me the most.

0:01:53 > 0:01:55# I got the routine... #

0:01:55 > 0:01:59He was the poet laureate of loneliness.

0:01:59 > 0:02:01His songs were haunted by it.

0:02:02 > 0:02:05For all his fame, he loved solitude.

0:02:07 > 0:02:10# Feeling so bad... #

0:02:10 > 0:02:12We don't know what he thought about his own life,

0:02:12 > 0:02:14because he never wrote it down in a book,

0:02:14 > 0:02:18but there was one mysterious moment when he gave us all a clue.

0:02:18 > 0:02:20It was when, at the very peak of his career,

0:02:20 > 0:02:22he suddenly decided to retire.

0:02:22 > 0:02:25# I could tell you a lot

0:02:27 > 0:02:29# But you've gotta be

0:02:30 > 0:02:34# True to your code... #

0:02:34 > 0:02:36The beginning of March that year,

0:02:36 > 0:02:38I was working somewhere in Florida,

0:02:38 > 0:02:42and he called me and he said, "I think I'm going to hang it up."

0:02:43 > 0:02:46One afternoon, by the pool,

0:02:46 > 0:02:49Dad was, with his black flair pen,

0:02:49 > 0:02:53making his music list, his song list.

0:02:55 > 0:02:57He never showed the set list to anybody.

0:02:58 > 0:03:00But in the run-up to the show,

0:03:00 > 0:03:02at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles,

0:03:02 > 0:03:04he must have been thinking about it.

0:03:04 > 0:03:0711 songs to tell the story of a life.

0:03:10 > 0:03:11Ladies and gentlemen...

0:03:12 > 0:03:13Frank Sinatra.

0:03:13 > 0:03:15APPLAUSE

0:03:22 > 0:03:24MUSIC: All Or Nothing At All

0:03:28 > 0:03:29And this was the beginning.

0:03:32 > 0:03:35# All or nothing at all... #

0:03:35 > 0:03:36APPLAUSE

0:03:38 > 0:03:39# Half a love

0:03:40 > 0:03:42# Never appealed to me... #

0:03:45 > 0:03:49The night itself was star-studded, and exciting and...

0:03:51 > 0:03:53Sad, and...

0:03:53 > 0:03:55A lot of mixed emotions.

0:03:56 > 0:04:01# All or nothing at all

0:04:03 > 0:04:07# If it's love there ain't no in-between

0:04:09 > 0:04:12# Why begin and stop something that might... #

0:04:12 > 0:04:14What startled me about that film

0:04:14 > 0:04:17was that it has that rough, hand-held look to it,

0:04:17 > 0:04:21and how appropriate that it should be at this particular event

0:04:21 > 0:04:24that we don't see the concert film of Sinatra,

0:04:24 > 0:04:27where everything is perfectly controlled.

0:04:27 > 0:04:32# Don't smile I'll be lost beyond recall

0:04:34 > 0:04:36# The kiss in your eyes, the touch of your hand... #

0:04:36 > 0:04:39You can hear the guy backstage kicking the cord

0:04:39 > 0:04:42out of the socket, and suddenly the mic goes bad.

0:04:42 > 0:04:43# ..dizzy at all... #

0:04:43 > 0:04:46MAIN MIC DROPS OUT

0:04:46 > 0:04:49People holding those cameras were as swept up

0:04:49 > 0:04:51in the moment as everybody in the audience,

0:04:51 > 0:04:54and people on stage, the orchestra, Sinatra himself.

0:04:54 > 0:04:58They knew this was the end of the line for this great artist.

0:04:59 > 0:05:01# So, you see

0:05:01 > 0:05:03# I've got to say no...

0:05:04 > 0:05:05# No... #

0:05:05 > 0:05:09These were some of the milestone points

0:05:09 > 0:05:11in his career, musically.

0:05:11 > 0:05:13# All...

0:05:13 > 0:05:18# Or nothing at all. #

0:05:27 > 0:05:29APPLAUSE

0:05:31 > 0:05:32Going back to the very beginning,

0:05:32 > 0:05:38there has been conflicting stories about your childhood in Hoboken

0:05:38 > 0:05:41quoted by people who've done interviews with you.

0:05:41 > 0:05:44There's this kind of general version of the...

0:05:44 > 0:05:47your slum conditions, in Hoboken,

0:05:47 > 0:05:49and then there are others.

0:05:49 > 0:05:53There was an article some years ago by a very good magazine writer

0:05:53 > 0:05:55who said this isn't so.

0:05:55 > 0:05:56All the toys you needed,

0:05:56 > 0:05:58that you even had a Chrysler at the age of 15.

0:05:58 > 0:06:00Most of the...

0:06:00 > 0:06:04of the biographies I've read or articles I've read...

0:06:04 > 0:06:05HE COUGHS

0:06:05 > 0:06:08Pardon me. ..about my young days, or my childhood,

0:06:08 > 0:06:12were rather dreamed up, rather fictitious.

0:06:12 > 0:06:13I've read many of them,

0:06:13 > 0:06:15and I've said to myself I don't remember this,

0:06:15 > 0:06:16this is really strange.

0:06:16 > 0:06:20# The mist on the meadow

0:06:21 > 0:06:22# Is drifting away... #

0:06:22 > 0:06:28I was born on in 1915, on December 12, and I weighed 12 and 3/4 pounds,

0:06:28 > 0:06:33and when I was removed from her womb, by a midwife, there was a problem.

0:06:33 > 0:06:35I didn't want to come out of there. LAUGHTER

0:06:36 > 0:06:38And they...

0:06:38 > 0:06:41Funny, they sent up a flare for a doctor,

0:06:41 > 0:06:42and upon removing me,

0:06:42 > 0:06:47I was pretty well damaged on the left side of my neck and ear and face,

0:06:47 > 0:06:48and my grandmother...

0:06:49 > 0:06:52..who had more sense than anybody in the room,

0:06:52 > 0:06:55as far as I'm concerned because... LAUGHTER

0:06:55 > 0:06:58..she knew what to do with me.

0:06:58 > 0:07:01And she stuck me under the ice-cold water in a cold-water flat.

0:07:02 > 0:07:05And apparently got some blood moving around,

0:07:05 > 0:07:07whacked me around a little bit.

0:07:08 > 0:07:14And I have blessed that day, that moment, in her honour, ever since.

0:07:14 > 0:07:17- Hi.- Yes, dear.- I've been able to contact Mr and Mrs Martin Sinatra.

0:07:17 > 0:07:19- Hello, Mrs Sinatra?- Hello?

0:07:19 > 0:07:21Yes, Mr Gardner, just one moment.

0:07:21 > 0:07:22- Hello, Mrs Sinatra. - Hello, Mr Gardner.

0:07:22 > 0:07:24It's awfully nice to talk to you,

0:07:24 > 0:07:26and to have you come to the phone.

0:07:26 > 0:07:28I know the last time Frank was in town,

0:07:28 > 0:07:31you weren't feeling very well, and...you're fully recovered now?

0:07:31 > 0:07:34Well, yes, I feel pretty well, now.

0:07:34 > 0:07:40And Frank called me, only recently, while I was in the hospital...

0:07:40 > 0:07:43# Fools rush in

0:07:43 > 0:07:46# Where angels fear to tread... #

0:07:47 > 0:07:50I was the only child. And she was tough on me.

0:07:50 > 0:07:53- I mean, she was very strict with me. - Yeah.- Always strict.

0:07:53 > 0:07:56She told me to stay away from the railroad tracks because a kid,

0:07:56 > 0:07:58one time, one day, a kid lost an arm,

0:07:58 > 0:08:01about three years later, another guy, a little guy lost his leg.

0:08:01 > 0:08:04And if she found out that I was down there, at the railroad tracks,

0:08:04 > 0:08:07she'd whack me around, out of fear. Out of fear.

0:08:08 > 0:08:10# Then I don't care... #

0:08:10 > 0:08:12I think the first thing that I was ever conscious of was

0:08:12 > 0:08:14the drive that she had all the time.

0:08:14 > 0:08:18Her constant seeking was to do better,

0:08:18 > 0:08:19to constantly do better.

0:08:20 > 0:08:23Dolly Sinatra was an earth mother.

0:08:23 > 0:08:25Everybody became her son, her daughter,

0:08:25 > 0:08:28everybody's problems became her problems.

0:08:28 > 0:08:31And that went from psychological problems to physical problems.

0:08:31 > 0:08:37Grandma had become a midwife, in her neighbourhood.

0:08:37 > 0:08:39When there were families with children

0:08:39 > 0:08:41they couldn't afford to feed,

0:08:41 > 0:08:46then was it right to bring another child into that neediness?

0:08:46 > 0:08:49And she was a good Catholic,

0:08:49 > 0:08:53I don't think she thought that abortion was a great thing,

0:08:53 > 0:08:58but I think in those days, in that depression, it was necessity.

0:08:58 > 0:09:00She did what needed to be done.

0:09:02 > 0:09:04My father was withdrawn, he was a shy man.

0:09:04 > 0:09:08He spoke perfect English, but he couldn't put words together,

0:09:08 > 0:09:10he was still at these, thems and those.

0:09:10 > 0:09:13Remember that he had to be intimidated by mother's...

0:09:13 > 0:09:15innate knowledge.

0:09:15 > 0:09:17Because she was innately bright, my mother was.

0:09:19 > 0:09:21They both came over...

0:09:21 > 0:09:24Different families came over, they came into Ellis Island.

0:09:24 > 0:09:27One from Catania, the other from Genoa.

0:09:27 > 0:09:31The Genovese were the original bankers. They were lawyers.

0:09:31 > 0:09:34And she used to say to me, "I think that I'm half Italian, half Jew."

0:09:34 > 0:09:37I said, "Maybe you are, Ma." She said, "Well, I'm smart."

0:09:37 > 0:09:39She said, "That's where they came. Where I came from."

0:09:41 > 0:09:43And consequently, she succeeded,

0:09:43 > 0:09:44she made her way in life,

0:09:44 > 0:09:46she did very well, considering.

0:09:48 > 0:09:50MUSIC: I've Got Rhythm by George Gershwin

0:09:51 > 0:09:53When Sinatra was young,

0:09:53 > 0:09:56being an Italian-American was being the object of bigotry.

0:09:56 > 0:09:58You were part of a minority group.

0:09:58 > 0:10:03One that was stereotyped as being either comical and absurd,

0:10:03 > 0:10:05the organ grinder with the monkey,

0:10:05 > 0:10:07or dangerous and threatening,

0:10:07 > 0:10:09the guy with the submachine gun.

0:10:11 > 0:10:14And of course Sinatra, growing up where he did,

0:10:14 > 0:10:15when he did,

0:10:15 > 0:10:18understood that that guy with the machinegun was real.

0:10:20 > 0:10:23My father, at the time, was rarely at home,

0:10:23 > 0:10:26because he was a protector for the bootlegging trucks.

0:10:26 > 0:10:28They used to have a car that would follow the truck,

0:10:28 > 0:10:29so it wouldn't get hijacked.

0:10:29 > 0:10:33During Prohibition, my grandfather had taken a job

0:10:33 > 0:10:37as a lookout on a truck that carried 90 proof contraband.

0:10:38 > 0:10:42And apparently the truck was hijacked by a rival gang mob,

0:10:42 > 0:10:45and he didn't duck fast enough, and somebody hit him on the head,

0:10:45 > 0:10:48and he had a skull fracture, and he was bleeding everywhere,

0:10:48 > 0:10:51and my father, as a little boy, woke up and saw this.

0:10:51 > 0:10:53# Who could ask for anything more?

0:10:53 > 0:10:55# Who could ask for anything more? #

0:10:56 > 0:10:58In those days there were sayings.

0:10:58 > 0:11:01In order to be an attorney, or an accountant, you had to be a Jew.

0:11:01 > 0:11:04In order to be a singer, you had to be an Italian.

0:11:04 > 0:11:06In order to be a prize fighter, you had to be Irish,

0:11:06 > 0:11:09which is why he took the name Marty O'Brien.

0:11:14 > 0:11:16I was about eight or nine years old.

0:11:17 > 0:11:18The old man opened a saloon,

0:11:18 > 0:11:21it was called Marty O'Brien's Bar.

0:11:21 > 0:11:25The bar that they ran, they didn't run it as the Sinatras,

0:11:25 > 0:11:27they took an Irish name.

0:11:27 > 0:11:31Because the Italians were lower than the Irish, in Hoboken, right.

0:11:31 > 0:11:34Dolly. He said she was the kind of woman

0:11:34 > 0:11:37who kept a little club behind the bar.

0:11:37 > 0:11:39If somebody gave her some shit,

0:11:39 > 0:11:41she hit him with a club,

0:11:41 > 0:11:43put it under the bar, and kept talking.

0:11:46 > 0:11:49They had, in the bar, a piano with a roll in it.

0:11:49 > 0:11:52You put a nickel in it, it would play the songs.

0:11:52 > 0:11:55And occasionally one of the men in the bar would pick me up

0:11:55 > 0:11:57and put me up on the piano and I'd sing with the roll.

0:11:57 > 0:12:01And it was a horrendous voice, terrible, I mean, like a siren.

0:12:01 > 0:12:02LAUGHTER

0:12:02 > 0:12:03You know...

0:12:03 > 0:12:06HIGH AND STRAINED: # Honest and truly, I'm in love with you! #

0:12:06 > 0:12:08Way up there like that. LAUGHTER

0:12:10 > 0:12:13It's a wonder I ever got anywhere, starting that way, is what kills me.

0:12:14 > 0:12:16HE COUGHS So...

0:12:16 > 0:12:19one day, I got a nickel.

0:12:19 > 0:12:21Or a dime, whatever it was, and I said...

0:12:22 > 0:12:25This is the racket. This is what you got to be doing.

0:12:25 > 0:12:29MUSIC: Boulevard Of Broken Dreams by Ted Weems

0:12:32 > 0:12:34In my hometown the city was, as I said,

0:12:34 > 0:12:37the square mile was almost divided in quarters.

0:12:37 > 0:12:39One quarter was Italian,

0:12:39 > 0:12:42another quarter was Jewish families,

0:12:42 > 0:12:46except that we were also intermingled in the tenement houses.

0:12:46 > 0:12:50Then the other quarter was the Irish, who politically ran the city.

0:12:51 > 0:12:54They were outvoted, any day of the week, but for some reason,

0:12:54 > 0:12:58when election time came, they would give coal, and gifts of clothing

0:12:58 > 0:13:02to all of the other families, and they would vote for the Irishmen all the time.

0:13:02 > 0:13:05The blacks, of course, were kept in one part of the town.

0:13:05 > 0:13:08They were such a small matter that we never knew they were there at all.

0:13:08 > 0:13:11I don't remember too many black children in my classes.

0:13:12 > 0:13:15# The boulevard of broken dreams... #

0:13:15 > 0:13:19I think it's easy for us to forget that he was also a boy

0:13:19 > 0:13:21and a young man at a time

0:13:21 > 0:13:23when everybody's life was difficult.

0:13:23 > 0:13:25When everybody was at risk.

0:13:26 > 0:13:29The depression was an all-encompassing

0:13:29 > 0:13:32experience for anybody who grew up in it.

0:13:32 > 0:13:37And above all, it caused you to realise that life was hard.

0:13:37 > 0:13:40It was not just going to be hard for you to make a living,

0:13:40 > 0:13:42it might actually be hard for you to survive.

0:13:47 > 0:13:50This was not theoretical for somebody like Sinatra, it was real.

0:13:50 > 0:13:53It shaped his whole idea of professionalism,

0:13:53 > 0:13:57of his feeling that he had to be the best performer,

0:13:57 > 0:14:00the best professional that he could possibly be,

0:14:00 > 0:14:03because if you're going to survive in the '30s,

0:14:03 > 0:14:06you had to do it by working very hard, and being very lucky.

0:14:07 > 0:14:14In Italy, there were 55 discrete dialects of the Italian language.

0:14:14 > 0:14:18My grandmother spoke all 55.

0:14:18 > 0:14:21This put her in a position where people came to her

0:14:21 > 0:14:24as the neighbourhood interpreter.

0:14:24 > 0:14:29The next logical step in the '20s, she went into politics.

0:14:29 > 0:14:32Then they wanted to reward my mother,

0:14:32 > 0:14:34and give my father a job,

0:14:34 > 0:14:36on a city payroll, right.

0:14:36 > 0:14:38A cop or a fireman, right, so she made him a fireman.

0:14:44 > 0:14:48Hoboken had about six movie theatres, we're only one mile square.

0:14:48 > 0:14:53We had the Lyric Theatre, the US Theatre,

0:14:53 > 0:14:56the Broadwalk houses ended with a movie.

0:14:56 > 0:14:59We had the Rialto, we had the City theatre,

0:14:59 > 0:15:02and every time I saw somebody I wanted to be them.

0:15:02 > 0:15:04I wanted to be a ventriloquist,

0:15:04 > 0:15:06then I saw jugglers, and all that kind of thing.

0:15:06 > 0:15:08But I'm still thinking about singing,

0:15:08 > 0:15:11I'd never lost that thing about singing back there.

0:15:11 > 0:15:13And...

0:15:13 > 0:15:16I went to see performers. I mean, not anybody famous, until...

0:15:16 > 0:15:18I saw Bing.

0:15:18 > 0:15:20# But now I'm back to cry my heart out

0:15:21 > 0:15:24# For just one more chance... #

0:15:25 > 0:15:28Bing Crosby was the first great pop singer in America,

0:15:28 > 0:15:34and the first white singer to completely internalise

0:15:34 > 0:15:38the innovations of jazz, which he got directly from Louis Armstrong.

0:15:39 > 0:15:43Sinatra heard these things, and he said that's what I want to do.

0:15:43 > 0:15:45I want to be like that.

0:15:46 > 0:15:50# I like New York in June

0:15:50 > 0:15:52# How about you?

0:15:53 > 0:15:56# I like a Gershwin tune

0:15:57 > 0:15:59# How about you? #

0:16:01 > 0:16:05I started singing more in school, with the dances on Friday nights.

0:16:05 > 0:16:08Every other Friday night, we had a dance in the gymnasium.

0:16:08 > 0:16:10And people would say to me "Hey, you're pretty good."

0:16:10 > 0:16:13And that began to register in my head.

0:16:13 > 0:16:15# How about you? #

0:16:15 > 0:16:17When I went to the publishing houses,

0:16:17 > 0:16:20they would give away free orchestrations, if they knew you.

0:16:20 > 0:16:22Complete stock orchestrations.

0:16:22 > 0:16:23And I built a library,

0:16:23 > 0:16:26and then I saved enough money, and I bought a public address system.

0:16:26 > 0:16:30- Before then, I sang through a megaphone. You wouldn't know what that is.- Rudy Vallee.

0:16:30 > 0:16:32- That's what you sing through. - You actually used a megaphone?

0:16:32 > 0:16:35I had a megaphone, and guys would throw pennies into...

0:16:35 > 0:16:38- See if they could get me to swallow them. - Go right down you!

0:16:38 > 0:16:41- A lot of fun, those days. - They try it with shot glasses now.

0:16:41 > 0:16:43But I used to move a great deal, so they couldn't hit it.

0:16:43 > 0:16:46Then came the microphone age,

0:16:46 > 0:16:48and I thought, "Jesus, I could save some money."

0:16:48 > 0:16:50So for 60 I bought a whole outfit.

0:16:50 > 0:16:54The microphone allowed for a new kind of singing

0:16:54 > 0:16:56because it magnified the voice,

0:16:56 > 0:16:59so you didn't have to project.

0:16:59 > 0:17:04What Sinatra sang was this longing, and passion,

0:17:04 > 0:17:07that was controlled in song.

0:17:08 > 0:17:11When did you first discover that Frank found out that he could sing?

0:17:11 > 0:17:14Well, I first discovered it when he didn't want to go to school

0:17:14 > 0:17:18any more, outside of just going into these glee clubs all the time.

0:17:18 > 0:17:20Uh-huh. And how old was he at the time?

0:17:20 > 0:17:22At the time, he was about 16.

0:17:22 > 0:17:26And naturally the principal sent for me

0:17:26 > 0:17:28and said he was just taking up space.

0:17:28 > 0:17:31Was there a family crisis when you dropped out of high school?

0:17:31 > 0:17:34Oh, it was disastrous. Absolutely disastrous.

0:17:35 > 0:17:38My dad, you know, who never had too much of a formal education

0:17:38 > 0:17:41was terribly disappointed, he just couldn't understand it.

0:17:41 > 0:17:43I pleaded with him,

0:17:43 > 0:17:47I said, you've got to give me a chance to work on what I want to do,

0:17:47 > 0:17:49and he said something about, "Sure, chance, chance."

0:17:49 > 0:17:53He said, "Ten years from now," he said, "You'll still be looking for chance, you'll be a bum," he said.

0:17:53 > 0:17:58# All or nothing at all

0:18:00 > 0:18:02# If it's love

0:18:02 > 0:18:05# There ain't no in between

0:18:06 > 0:18:11# Why begin and stop something that might have been?

0:18:11 > 0:18:14# I know I'd rather...

0:18:14 > 0:18:17# Rather have nothing at all... #

0:18:18 > 0:18:20Where did you first meet Frank?

0:18:20 > 0:18:22In Long Branch, New Jersey,

0:18:22 > 0:18:24which is on the coast.

0:18:24 > 0:18:26I knew his family,

0:18:26 > 0:18:28his aunt and uncle and their children.

0:18:29 > 0:18:33Across the street, Nancy's father and mother had a house.

0:18:33 > 0:18:38And I saw this very pretty little girl sitting on their front stoop.

0:18:38 > 0:18:41And he called across the street and says, "Hi, what are you doing?",

0:18:41 > 0:18:44And I said, "I'm giving myself a manicure."

0:18:45 > 0:18:48He said, "Would you give me one?" I said, "Sure."

0:18:48 > 0:18:51And I gave him a manicure, and that's how I met him.

0:18:53 > 0:18:55Well, I have a funny feeling that she may have had eyes for me,

0:18:55 > 0:18:59because she was sitting out there alone, just staring, across the street.

0:18:59 > 0:19:04He lived in Hoboken, which was four miles from Jersey City,

0:19:04 > 0:19:05and I'd never been there.

0:19:06 > 0:19:09So he called me after we met,

0:19:09 > 0:19:11and he started to come over.

0:19:15 > 0:19:18And we went together for about four and a half, five years,

0:19:18 > 0:19:20or five and a half years, I can't remember exactly,

0:19:20 > 0:19:23I know that before Major Bowes, we were going together.

0:19:24 > 0:19:27We're proud indeed of the brilliant careers that have been launched

0:19:27 > 0:19:30through the radio forum in New York City.

0:19:34 > 0:19:38To get a start, there was a man on radio called Major Bowes,

0:19:38 > 0:19:40who had an amateur programme,

0:19:40 > 0:19:42and you went and you auditioned.

0:19:42 > 0:19:44I went over and I auditioned,

0:19:44 > 0:19:48and they said, "OK. We'll put you on the radio."

0:19:50 > 0:19:53And there were three other kids from my hometown who had...

0:19:53 > 0:19:57Who made up a trio called the Three Aces,

0:19:57 > 0:20:00very intelligent title for a group. Three Aces.

0:20:00 > 0:20:02Oh, boy, they took a lot of time to think that out.

0:20:02 > 0:20:04LAUGHTER

0:20:04 > 0:20:07And Major Bowes loused that up by saying you'll be the Hoboken Four,

0:20:07 > 0:20:09that took care of that whole situation like that.

0:20:09 > 0:20:11We have now the Hoboken Four.

0:20:11 > 0:20:14They call themselves the singing and dancing fools.

0:20:14 > 0:20:16Who will speak for the group?

0:20:16 > 0:20:17I will, I'm Frank.

0:20:17 > 0:20:19We're looking for jobs. How about it?

0:20:19 > 0:20:21LAUGHTER

0:20:21 > 0:20:23Everyone that's ever heard us liked us,

0:20:23 > 0:20:25we think we're pretty good.

0:20:25 > 0:20:28All right, what do you want to sing, or dance, or whatever it is you do?

0:20:28 > 0:20:31- We're going to sing Shine.- All right, let's have it. Hoboken Four.

0:20:31 > 0:20:33# Shine

0:20:33 > 0:20:35# And sway your blues'ies

0:20:35 > 0:20:37# Why don't you shine?

0:20:37 > 0:20:38# Start with your shoes'ies

0:20:40 > 0:20:41# Shine each place up

0:20:41 > 0:20:43# Make it look like new

0:20:44 > 0:20:47# Shine your face up I want to see you wear a smile or two

0:20:47 > 0:20:50# Oh, shine your these and thoseies... #

0:20:50 > 0:20:54We performed, and we won the first prize, and we went out on the road

0:20:54 > 0:20:57all over the United States, most of the United States anyway.

0:20:57 > 0:21:00And we started out on the train,

0:21:00 > 0:21:02first stop was Chicago,

0:21:02 > 0:21:04And I remember I was getting 75 bucks a week.

0:21:05 > 0:21:09And I sent most of it home, because we were living it up

0:21:09 > 0:21:11in the best hotels in the United States, for a dollar a night.

0:21:13 > 0:21:15But then, when we got...

0:21:15 > 0:21:17We got up around Seattle,

0:21:17 > 0:21:20I decided that I'd had enough.

0:21:20 > 0:21:22I got homesick, and also I wanted to go back to

0:21:22 > 0:21:23what I really started to do.

0:21:23 > 0:21:27To become a solo singer, I didn't want to be part of it any more.

0:21:27 > 0:21:29And I told the guys, and they stayed.

0:21:29 > 0:21:32Well, you know, he used to write me letters, he was lonely,

0:21:32 > 0:21:35- I'll tell you that.- Did you keep those letters?- I tore them all up.

0:21:36 > 0:21:38I kept one.

0:21:38 > 0:21:41I had enough money and I bought a plane ticket.

0:21:41 > 0:21:42I landed at Newark.

0:21:42 > 0:21:44And Nancy's brother borrowed a car,

0:21:44 > 0:21:46and they came out and met me at the airport,

0:21:46 > 0:21:48and then, of course, is when I...

0:21:48 > 0:21:50that's when I began to have trouble with my family.

0:21:50 > 0:21:52I wasn't doing well because you know,

0:21:52 > 0:21:55if an orchestra got a job on a Saturday night to play,

0:21:55 > 0:21:56they had six, four men or six men,

0:21:56 > 0:21:59they didn't have enough money to hire a singer,

0:21:59 > 0:22:01but a lot of the guys I knew, and they'd say,

0:22:01 > 0:22:04"Hey, listen, come on over and sing if you want to sing,

0:22:04 > 0:22:07"but we can't give you anything," you know. So I did.

0:22:07 > 0:22:10Shortly following that was when my old man one morning woke me up

0:22:10 > 0:22:12when he came home from the night shift,

0:22:12 > 0:22:13and he, this particular morning,

0:22:13 > 0:22:15said to me...

0:22:15 > 0:22:18"Why don't you just get out of the house and go out on your own?"

0:22:18 > 0:22:21It was really what he said, you know, get out. And...

0:22:22 > 0:22:25I think the egg was stuck in here for about 20 minutes,

0:22:25 > 0:22:27I couldn't swallow it or get rid of it anyway.

0:22:27 > 0:22:29My mother, of course, was nearly in tears...

0:22:31 > 0:22:33..but we agreed that it might be a good thing,

0:22:33 > 0:22:36and I packed up a small case that I had, and I came to New York.

0:22:40 > 0:22:42When Frank Sinatra was young,

0:22:42 > 0:22:46New York was the centre of American popular music.

0:22:48 > 0:22:52The radio networks at that point were centred in New York.

0:22:53 > 0:22:55The music business itself, Tin Pan Alley,

0:22:55 > 0:22:57these were centred in New York.

0:22:58 > 0:23:00As a young man, in New Jersey,

0:23:00 > 0:23:02New York would have been Oz.

0:23:04 > 0:23:07The magic city that he looked at from a distance,

0:23:07 > 0:23:10and said this is the place that I have to go

0:23:10 > 0:23:13in order to become what I want to become.

0:23:18 > 0:23:21I just kind of bummed around, I had about 60 in a savings account,

0:23:21 > 0:23:24and I just hung around, I got odd jobs.

0:23:31 > 0:23:35I used to hang round the music publishing houses, and I got to know

0:23:35 > 0:23:38Jimmy Van Heusen, Sammy Connor, Saul Chaplin, and all those guys.

0:23:38 > 0:23:39That's how far back we go.

0:23:41 > 0:23:44Jimmy Van Heusen was a piano player who would teach the singers

0:23:44 > 0:23:47the company's new songs so that they could do it on the radio

0:23:47 > 0:23:49but I wasn't a big enough man as an artist

0:23:49 > 0:23:52to be focused on by a guy like van Heusen.

0:23:53 > 0:23:55A couple of times, when I was really kind of short,

0:23:55 > 0:23:58I bunked with a musician of one of the bands,

0:23:58 > 0:23:59in the Forest Hotel.

0:24:01 > 0:24:03About that point...

0:24:04 > 0:24:07..was the Christmas that came that I went home.

0:24:07 > 0:24:10And I thought my old man was on 24-hour shifts,

0:24:10 > 0:24:14but I had the day screwed up, he was off 24 hours and he was at home.

0:24:14 > 0:24:16And I brought two presents over to leave them there,

0:24:16 > 0:24:19because he didn't speak to me for a long time. Didn't talk to me.

0:24:19 > 0:24:21And he met me at the door,

0:24:21 > 0:24:23and of course it was a great homecoming.

0:24:23 > 0:24:26He started to cry and I was teary and it was just marvellous.

0:24:27 > 0:24:30MUSIC: Here Comes The Night by Frank Sinatra

0:24:30 > 0:24:34# Here comes the night my cloak of blue

0:24:36 > 0:24:38# Here comes the night

0:24:38 > 0:24:41# With dreams of you... #

0:24:43 > 0:24:45But seven months after the Christmas incident,

0:24:45 > 0:24:48a musician friend of mine told me there was a joint

0:24:48 > 0:24:49called The Rustic Cabin,

0:24:49 > 0:24:52and they were forming a new band, and they were looking for a boy singer.

0:24:52 > 0:24:54I went up and auditioned.

0:24:54 > 0:24:57In Englewood Cliffs, up near George Washington Bridge.

0:24:57 > 0:24:59Got the job at The Rustic Cabin.

0:24:59 > 0:25:03Shortly after that, we got word that the WNEW dance parade

0:25:03 > 0:25:06was going to pick up The Rustic Cabin,

0:25:06 > 0:25:10every night of the week, 11 to 11:15, or 11:15 to 11:30, whatever it was.

0:25:10 > 0:25:13Suddenly, he, my dad,

0:25:13 > 0:25:16became the proudest man in the world, you know.

0:25:16 > 0:25:19He couldn't wait to tell anybody, everybody, or anybody,

0:25:19 > 0:25:21that I was on a 15-minute dance remote programme

0:25:21 > 0:25:25from New Jersey in some roadhouse somewhere, you know.

0:25:25 > 0:25:29And they'd all sit around the radio and listen, 11 o'clock at night for 15 minutes.

0:25:29 > 0:25:31And in those days I couldn't sing my way out of a paper bag,

0:25:31 > 0:25:34but they thought I was a big star, you know.

0:25:34 > 0:25:37Anybody got on the radio in the early days of radio was a very big star.

0:25:38 > 0:25:44MUSIC: I've Got A Heartful Of Music by Benny Goodman

0:25:49 > 0:25:53On my night off at The Rustic Cabin is when I would take Nancy out,

0:25:53 > 0:25:55and we would go to see somebody.

0:25:55 > 0:25:57I was always going out to see somebody else work.

0:25:59 > 0:26:02That's when I ran into one of the men in the music business,

0:26:02 > 0:26:06who said to me, "Listen," he said. "Why don't you take some lessons?"

0:26:06 > 0:26:08And I said, "What kind of lessons?"

0:26:08 > 0:26:10He said, "Vocal lessons," he said, "You know, guys do that."

0:26:10 > 0:26:12I said, "Well, where do you find these guys?"

0:26:12 > 0:26:15He said there's a guy up over at The Brass Rail,

0:26:15 > 0:26:18he said, the restaurant, he said, his name is Quinlan, he's an old drunk,

0:26:18 > 0:26:21he said, he used to be at the Met and he got kicked out of the Met.

0:26:21 > 0:26:24And he said you only got to talk to him. So I went up and he was surly.

0:26:24 > 0:26:25I think he was hungover, anyway.

0:26:25 > 0:26:28He said who are you and how long have you been singing,

0:26:28 > 0:26:31and why do you want to be a singer and all that kind of stuff.

0:26:31 > 0:26:32I said, "Well, I'd like to be a singer

0:26:32 > 0:26:35"because I feel that I have an idea about singing."

0:26:35 > 0:26:37"Oh," he said, "you've already got an idea?"

0:26:37 > 0:26:38He said, "Why do you need me?"

0:26:38 > 0:26:40I said, "No, what I mean is...

0:26:40 > 0:26:42"I just need some direction."

0:26:42 > 0:26:44He said, "I tell you what we'll do.

0:26:44 > 0:26:47"If you can handle three dollars a week," he said, "I'll give you three lessons a week."

0:26:47 > 0:26:49And I started, three lessons a week.

0:26:49 > 0:26:52I couldn't wait to get there every time we had a lesson.

0:26:52 > 0:26:55I couldn't wait, because I knew that I was learning something.

0:26:55 > 0:26:58He was teaching me the proper way to sing.

0:26:58 > 0:27:02And I still use the same exercises, and then I developed some of my own.

0:27:02 > 0:27:04Matter of fact, I once put out a book with him,

0:27:04 > 0:27:09we put out a paperback, vocal calisthenics book, after I made it,

0:27:09 > 0:27:12and we had drawings made of the mouth formation, you know.

0:27:12 > 0:27:15The E sound, and the Oo sound and the Er.

0:27:15 > 0:27:17And there's no such thing as a Ah, it's wrong.

0:27:17 > 0:27:19Never sing Ah, you sing Uh.

0:27:19 > 0:27:21U H. Uh.

0:27:21 > 0:27:24That's across, up the roof of the mouth, into the mass.

0:27:24 > 0:27:29If you sing Ah, it goes back into the throat and it can break. It can snap.

0:27:29 > 0:27:31- Now that's my first vocal lesson with you.- I'm ready!

0:27:31 > 0:27:33You'll get a bill next week.

0:27:33 > 0:27:34I worked with him for a long time.

0:27:35 > 0:27:38And then I began to get the jobs. I got a couple of jobs.

0:27:38 > 0:27:41I went to WNEW, I didn't get any money,

0:27:41 > 0:27:45and Diana Shore and I split a half hour,

0:27:45 > 0:27:46she had 15 minutes, I had 15 minutes.

0:27:46 > 0:27:50Don't you remember the early, early, early show we used to do on WNEW?

0:27:50 > 0:27:53- Do I? Every time I think about it, I get tired.- Yeah.

0:27:53 > 0:27:56- Imagine having to sing love songs at six o'clock in the morning?- Oh, yeah.

0:27:56 > 0:28:00- And not even finishing the chorus, there was never enough time. - All the emotion into it. Gee-whiz.

0:28:00 > 0:28:01But then we were lucky though

0:28:01 > 0:28:03cos they used to give us free coffee.

0:28:03 > 0:28:06- Yeah.- And who could afford breakfast in those days?- Yeah.

0:28:06 > 0:28:09# Here we are...

0:28:09 > 0:28:11BOTH: # Out of cigarettes

0:28:12 > 0:28:14# Holding hands and yawning

0:28:15 > 0:28:17# Look how late it gets... #

0:28:17 > 0:28:19Now I was on the air twice.

0:28:19 > 0:28:22Once at night and one in the morning.

0:28:23 > 0:28:25And then I got fan mail.

0:28:25 > 0:28:28And I'd get little postcards, two postcards, three postcards,

0:28:28 > 0:28:30and girls would write to me, you know. Penny postcards.

0:28:30 > 0:28:33And I'd go and look in there right away and see how much mail,

0:28:33 > 0:28:35did it get any bigger? It never got any bigger.

0:28:35 > 0:28:37People began to hear me.

0:28:37 > 0:28:41And they were saying Jesus, you're getting better, really, we see the difference in what's happening.

0:28:45 > 0:28:48He's singing about youthful, essentially naive romance,

0:28:48 > 0:28:51and he's doing it in a voice that is

0:28:51 > 0:28:54distinctly different from what anybody else was doing back then.

0:28:54 > 0:28:56It is so clearly the voice of a young man.

0:28:58 > 0:29:02The ambition of being the greatest pop singer of his time,

0:29:02 > 0:29:04of his generation,

0:29:04 > 0:29:07was an ambition that couldn't have existed in Sinatra's imagination

0:29:07 > 0:29:09when he was young.

0:29:11 > 0:29:16# How to make two lovers

0:29:16 > 0:29:22# Old friends... #

0:29:22 > 0:29:23APPLAUSE

0:29:26 > 0:29:28MUSIC: The Right Girl For Me by Frank Sinatra

0:29:37 > 0:29:40# If her voice is a song

0:29:41 > 0:29:44# And her walk is a dance

0:29:44 > 0:29:49# And if her laugh is warm and free

0:29:49 > 0:29:51# If I suddenly seem

0:29:53 > 0:29:55# To be seeing a dream

0:29:56 > 0:29:59# She's the right girl for me

0:30:01 > 0:30:05# If the glow in her eyes and the light in her smile... #

0:30:05 > 0:30:08Do you remember when he asked you to marry him?

0:30:08 > 0:30:12Well, see, he was supposedly involved with other girls

0:30:12 > 0:30:17while we were going together, and I really don't know if that was true,

0:30:17 > 0:30:20but he, believe me, wanted to get married.

0:30:22 > 0:30:24When Nancy and I got married

0:30:24 > 0:30:28the Italian custom is that the bride has a white satin bag

0:30:28 > 0:30:32with a drawstring on it, and you'd give envelopes,

0:30:32 > 0:30:34which is the most sensible thing in the world,

0:30:34 > 0:30:38instead of a whole bunch of phoney gifts that you never use,

0:30:38 > 0:30:39and all the song cats chipped in.

0:30:39 > 0:30:42I think there must have been 30 of them,

0:30:42 > 0:30:45and they put 2 apiece, or something.

0:30:45 > 0:30:48They gave us 60 for our wedding, 50 or 60.

0:30:48 > 0:30:50Sweet, you know, really touching.

0:30:51 > 0:30:54I got married in '39, 1939.

0:30:54 > 0:30:58I took a course in secretarial work.

0:30:58 > 0:31:00I think I was earning...

0:31:00 > 0:31:03I don't remember. Very little a week.

0:31:03 > 0:31:06She was making 22 a week and I was at the Rustic Cabin making 15 a week.

0:31:06 > 0:31:09And the minute we married,

0:31:09 > 0:31:12the career started to get better all the time.

0:31:12 > 0:31:14# For me

0:31:14 > 0:31:19# She's the right girl

0:31:19 > 0:31:24# For me. #

0:31:32 > 0:31:35When we finished our last show at the Paramount, I went home

0:31:35 > 0:31:38and I turned the radio on and I heard this remote coming from

0:31:38 > 0:31:40the rest of the cabins and I heard a singer,

0:31:40 > 0:31:42so I said, "Well, gee, this kid really sounds great.

0:31:42 > 0:31:44"Maybe I'll take a run out there

0:31:44 > 0:31:47"and see if I can see him and listen to him."

0:31:48 > 0:31:54# Saturday night is the loneliest night of the week

0:31:54 > 0:32:01# I sing a song that I sang for the memories I usually seek

0:32:01 > 0:32:06# Until I hear you at the door

0:32:06 > 0:32:10# Until you're in my arms once more

0:32:10 > 0:32:15# Saturday night is the loneliest night of the week... #

0:32:15 > 0:32:18Harry James is listening to me all the time and I don't know this.

0:32:18 > 0:32:22He was with Benny Goodman. He was the first trumpet player with him.

0:32:22 > 0:32:24He said to me, "We're all going to start our own band.

0:32:24 > 0:32:28"How soon can you get out of here?" I said, "I have no contract here."

0:32:28 > 0:32:31I said, "How about tomorrow? How about tonight?"

0:32:34 > 0:32:36So now I leave and I go with Harry, we go on the road.

0:32:41 > 0:32:43When you're on a road with a dance band,

0:32:43 > 0:32:45you're moving all the time,

0:32:45 > 0:32:47the action is going all the time, you know?

0:32:47 > 0:32:49And you could try things and nobody's saying,

0:32:49 > 0:32:51"Well, what are you doing?"

0:32:51 > 0:32:54Harry knew what I was doing, knew I was reaching, trying to find things,

0:32:54 > 0:32:57like a pitcher trying a new curveball.

0:32:57 > 0:33:00He had no arrangements made up for me yet so we were faking things

0:33:00 > 0:33:05and we would do Embraceable You and the band would fill in with notes

0:33:05 > 0:33:08and Harry would do the Noodle with the trumpet and Stardust,

0:33:08 > 0:33:11which I hated, cos everybody used to sing it and I'd had it up to here.

0:33:14 > 0:33:16And a lot of the wives, it was like baseball wives,

0:33:16 > 0:33:18they all came across the country in a car.

0:33:21 > 0:33:24I met him in Chicago, that's where Nancy was conceived.

0:33:26 > 0:33:29Our plan was not to get pregnant that fast.

0:33:29 > 0:33:31In those days there wasn't much money

0:33:31 > 0:33:34and we were paying off a new car.

0:33:34 > 0:33:36And I'm pregnant and he's worried, you know?

0:33:39 > 0:33:41He's always thinking ahead.

0:33:41 > 0:33:44This man thinks a great deal, always did, as a kid even.

0:33:45 > 0:33:47He always had an ambition.

0:33:48 > 0:33:53He said that he wanted to be very big in the industry.

0:33:53 > 0:33:58He wanted to be... When he saw Bing, he felt that that was his ambition.

0:33:58 > 0:34:04# I'm dreaming of a white Christmas

0:34:04 > 0:34:08# Just like the ones I used to know... #

0:34:08 > 0:34:13And Bing Crosby ruled the airwaves completely.

0:34:13 > 0:34:18Every radio show in those days had 15, 20 minutes of Bing Crosby.

0:34:18 > 0:34:22A single record... It's called White Christmas.

0:34:22 > 0:34:25To this day, it's the biggest record that ever sold.

0:34:25 > 0:34:27It sold 50 million records.

0:34:27 > 0:34:31# I'm dreaming

0:34:31 > 0:34:35# Of a white Christmas... #

0:34:35 > 0:34:39All the time I was with Harry, I just kept thinking about the next step.

0:34:40 > 0:34:42I'd listened to Tommy Dorsey's band

0:34:42 > 0:34:44and I'd listened to the singer with the band.

0:34:44 > 0:34:46Jack Leonard was with the band.

0:34:46 > 0:34:48What I had heard, through the grapevine,

0:34:48 > 0:34:51Tommy tried to screw him out of 3,000 and they were fighting.

0:34:51 > 0:34:57To my knowledge, I was the first guy to tell Tommy about Frank.

0:34:57 > 0:34:59A friend, a girlfriend, she said,

0:34:59 > 0:35:03"Frank Sinatra has a record out called All Or Nothing At All,"

0:35:03 > 0:35:06and she said, "It is fantastic,"

0:35:06 > 0:35:08and I mentioned it to Tommy.

0:35:08 > 0:35:12# All or nothing at all... #

0:35:12 > 0:35:16When I quit, the first guy he contacted was Frank.

0:35:16 > 0:35:18He said, "How'd you like to work for me?"

0:35:18 > 0:35:22"Oh," I said, "Jesus, Tom," I said, "I've got a two-year deal with Harry

0:35:22 > 0:35:24"and I don't know."

0:35:24 > 0:35:27I said, "I'm dying to sing for you," cos Tommy was...

0:35:27 > 0:35:30He and Glenn Miller, they were the two top orchestras,

0:35:30 > 0:35:33so I didn't sleep all night.

0:35:33 > 0:35:35My eyes were jumping, I was so excited.

0:35:35 > 0:35:37I even went to the theatre very early.

0:35:37 > 0:35:40I was just sitting in the dressing room and Harry came.

0:35:40 > 0:35:42I finally got up and I walked into his room,

0:35:42 > 0:35:45and I walked in and I walked out, I walked in and I walked out.

0:35:45 > 0:35:47"What, are you nervous?"

0:35:47 > 0:35:49I said, "Well, Jesus, I am nervous, Harry."

0:35:49 > 0:35:52I said, "I know what I'm going to ask you is a very tough thing."

0:35:53 > 0:35:57And he said, "Tommy Dorsey wants to hire you."

0:35:57 > 0:35:59He was still signed with me.

0:35:59 > 0:36:01I hadn't given him a written release, I just said,

0:36:01 > 0:36:05"Sure, go ahead, Frank," cos really I've always lived that way.

0:36:05 > 0:36:07The word is stronger than a pen with me.

0:36:07 > 0:36:10I was so happy and it even affected my singing now.

0:36:10 > 0:36:14It began to get more lofty than it was and I was doing better things.

0:36:20 > 0:36:24And I joined Tommy with a lot of malevolence in the band,

0:36:24 > 0:36:27a lot of bad vibes.

0:36:27 > 0:36:30They resented me for the fact that their friend, Jack Leonard, quit.

0:36:30 > 0:36:31ORCHESTRA PLAYS

0:36:34 > 0:36:36When you're with a band, it's very cliquey

0:36:36 > 0:36:39and when a new person comes in, it's like,

0:36:39 > 0:36:42"You prove yourself, kiddo, before you become one of the group."

0:36:43 > 0:36:45We were just sitting on the bandstand

0:36:45 > 0:36:48when Tommy announced this new singer.

0:36:48 > 0:36:51Out on the stage walked this very skinny,

0:36:51 > 0:36:55unprepossessing-looking young man and I thought, "Wow."

0:36:55 > 0:37:01# Sometimes I wonder

0:37:01 > 0:37:04# Why I spend

0:37:04 > 0:37:11# The lonely nights dreaming... #

0:37:11 > 0:37:15He sang about eight bars and that whole theatre

0:37:15 > 0:37:19became so quiet you could have heard a pin drop.

0:37:19 > 0:37:23You just knew that you were hearing something quite unique.

0:37:23 > 0:37:27# And I am once again with you

0:37:27 > 0:37:31# When our love was new... #

0:37:31 > 0:37:37Tommy Dorsey had this incredible, incredible breath control.

0:37:39 > 0:37:42Without breathing... I guess...

0:37:42 > 0:37:44TROMBONE PLAYS

0:37:53 > 0:37:56I watched him and I could never see him breathe.

0:37:56 > 0:37:5816 bars at a time. I wonder how he does that.

0:38:00 > 0:38:03If you can visualise a trombone player holds the mouthpiece,

0:38:03 > 0:38:06he was breathing in the corner of his mouth.

0:38:06 > 0:38:10And that was my theory - do not break a phrase if you can do that

0:38:10 > 0:38:14and keep the audience listening for the rest of the phrase.

0:38:14 > 0:38:18He would be able to sing four lines of that song.

0:38:20 > 0:38:22There was a seamlessness, a smoothness,

0:38:22 > 0:38:25and not one person is looking at anybody else.

0:38:25 > 0:38:29They are completely under the spell of Sinatra's story.

0:38:29 > 0:38:32# ..and always will remain

0:38:32 > 0:38:34# Doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo

0:38:34 > 0:38:38# My stardust melody

0:38:38 > 0:38:47# The memory of love's refrain. #

0:38:48 > 0:38:52We came to Los Angeles to open The Palladium,

0:38:52 > 0:38:53a great new dance hall.

0:38:55 > 0:38:57We got bombed, everybody did, the night before,

0:38:57 > 0:39:00and I remember the bellboy came in.

0:39:00 > 0:39:03He said, "Hey, anybody awake yet? We're in a war with Japan.

0:39:03 > 0:39:04"They bombed the Pearl Harbor."

0:39:07 > 0:39:11'With the unbounding determination of our people

0:39:11 > 0:39:16'we will gain the inevitable triumph,'

0:39:16 > 0:39:18- so help us, God. - APPLAUSE

0:39:20 > 0:39:22Now we were getting angry. If I had been single,

0:39:22 > 0:39:25I probably would have said, "Hey, I want to volunteer,"

0:39:25 > 0:39:27but I had a child.

0:39:27 > 0:39:32# If I don't see her each day

0:39:32 > 0:39:34# I miss her

0:39:37 > 0:39:41# Gee, what a thrill

0:39:41 > 0:39:45# Each time I kiss her

0:39:45 > 0:39:48# Believe me I've got a case

0:39:52 > 0:39:55# On Nancy with the laughing face... #

0:39:57 > 0:40:02Dad was in Hollywood with the band when I was born back in Jersey City.

0:40:02 > 0:40:04Band singer Jo Stafford recalled that he was so excited

0:40:04 > 0:40:07that all he did was talk about his new baby girl.

0:40:07 > 0:40:13# But summer could take a few lessons from her

0:40:16 > 0:40:19# She was a tomboy in lace

0:40:21 > 0:40:27# That's Nancy with the laughing face... #

0:40:27 > 0:40:29Oh, my God, it was beautiful.

0:40:29 > 0:40:34I was the first in the family of seven children to have a baby

0:40:34 > 0:40:38and the whole family spoiled her, loved her,

0:40:38 > 0:40:42and he was wonderful with her.

0:40:42 > 0:40:43He loved it.

0:40:43 > 0:40:45# When she speaks

0:40:45 > 0:40:48# You would think it was singing

0:40:52 > 0:40:56# Just hear her say hello

0:40:59 > 0:41:04# Keep Betty Grable Lamour and Turner

0:41:07 > 0:41:14# She'll make your heart a charcoal burner

0:41:15 > 0:41:18# No angel could replace

0:41:22 > 0:41:30# Nancy with the laughing face... #

0:41:30 > 0:41:34It was a different era. It was a sweet era. It was a dance era.

0:41:34 > 0:41:37You did a ballad with long lines

0:41:37 > 0:41:41so that you could hold the girl real close and dance.

0:41:49 > 0:41:52# Poor you

0:41:52 > 0:41:56# I'm sorry you're not me

0:41:56 > 0:42:00# For you will never know

0:42:00 > 0:42:03# What loving you can be... #

0:42:05 > 0:42:11Frank had a style, almost a sexy style, you know, very warm.

0:42:11 > 0:42:13With those eyes and that smile,

0:42:13 > 0:42:17I think he could almost pinpoint them at one particular girl.

0:42:17 > 0:42:20They just fell in love with him.

0:42:20 > 0:42:22# Poor you

0:42:22 > 0:42:26# You'll live your whole life through

0:42:26 > 0:42:30# And yet you'll never know

0:42:30 > 0:42:34# The thrill of loving you. #

0:42:34 > 0:42:36CHEERING

0:42:36 > 0:42:39The kids were just enamoured with Frank.

0:42:39 > 0:42:43And you could hear when Tommy would be playing, the kids were aware

0:42:43 > 0:42:46that it's a modulation for Frank's vocal and nobody would be dancing.

0:42:46 > 0:42:49They'd all just crowd around the bandstand.

0:42:49 > 0:42:52The kids came not to see Tommy Dorsey any more.

0:42:52 > 0:42:55It wasn't Tommy that was getting the crowd,

0:42:55 > 0:42:57it was Frank that was getting the crowd.

0:42:57 > 0:42:58# He's a new man

0:42:58 > 0:43:00# Better than Casanova... #

0:43:00 > 0:43:03And that's what Tommy couldn't stand.

0:43:03 > 0:43:05If you've got an organisation

0:43:05 > 0:43:08and the boy singer is taking it away from you, who needs that act?

0:43:08 > 0:43:11# I'm so proud I'm busting... #

0:43:11 > 0:43:13So there was a conflict.

0:43:13 > 0:43:17He kept trying to push him down and Frank wouldn't let him.

0:43:17 > 0:43:21In 15 months he became the hottest new singing star in the country,

0:43:21 > 0:43:23especially among teenagers.

0:43:23 > 0:43:26# But look at him now

0:43:26 > 0:43:27# Jack, I'm ready

0:43:27 > 0:43:29# Look at him now... #

0:43:29 > 0:43:32It was pandemonium all the time, chaos.

0:43:33 > 0:43:37The reaction from the crowds in those days was absolutely phenomenal.

0:43:37 > 0:43:39They were squealing and yelling and screaming.

0:43:39 > 0:43:42The kids would scream every time I'd come out on the stage.

0:43:42 > 0:43:44WOMAN WAILS AND SHOUTS

0:43:44 > 0:43:46LAUGHTER

0:43:46 > 0:43:49- How are you, Frank? - Oh, I feel fine, Mr Crosby.

0:43:49 > 0:43:52Let's declare a little moratorium on the formality, Frankie.

0:43:52 > 0:43:53Just call me Bing.

0:43:53 > 0:43:56Oh, no, I wouldn't dream of calling a man of your years

0:43:56 > 0:43:58by his first name. LAUGHTER

0:44:00 > 0:44:04Now I figured that Crosby was the only man on top,

0:44:04 > 0:44:06he was the only guy at the top, and I thought to myself,

0:44:06 > 0:44:08"Somebody's got to challenge this bum.

0:44:08 > 0:44:10"Some time or other, it's going to happen."

0:44:10 > 0:44:15So I began to think to myself, "Why don't I do it for myself?"

0:44:15 > 0:44:18I know this guy's signed me and I've got a deal with him.

0:44:18 > 0:44:23Tommy was a man who was more of a proprietary attitude.

0:44:23 > 0:44:24Tommy was almost like a father

0:44:24 > 0:44:27and if a guy left, he was a son who was leaving, you see.

0:44:27 > 0:44:29After the first year I was with him I said,

0:44:29 > 0:44:32"I think in about a year I'd like to leave the band,"

0:44:32 > 0:44:35and he kind of left it, just grinned at me.

0:44:35 > 0:44:37After four months went by, I said it to him again

0:44:37 > 0:44:40but he didn't smile too broadly this time.

0:44:40 > 0:44:42He said, "I don't want to talk to you, Goddamn it,

0:44:42 > 0:44:44"you fucking ingrate."

0:44:44 > 0:44:47So, I left Tommy's band, signing a piece of paper

0:44:47 > 0:44:51which said he gets, the rest of my life, one third of my salary.

0:44:51 > 0:44:56He sued me. And I'd been accused that the mob got me out of the band.

0:44:56 > 0:45:01Some unidentifiable creature went to Tommy Dorsey and said,

0:45:01 > 0:45:04"You better let him out of the contract."

0:45:04 > 0:45:05Well, that never happened.

0:45:05 > 0:45:08The man who did was the secretary

0:45:08 > 0:45:11of the American Federation of Radio Artists.

0:45:11 > 0:45:13He went to Mr Dorsey.

0:45:13 > 0:45:16He said, "I think we can come to a settlement quite simply."

0:45:16 > 0:45:18Tom said, "No, no, no."

0:45:18 > 0:45:21He said, "I want one third of his salary for the rest of his life,

0:45:21 > 0:45:22"as long as he lives."

0:45:22 > 0:45:26So Jaffe said to him, "Do you enjoy playing music in hotel rooms

0:45:26 > 0:45:29"and having the nation hear you on the radio?"

0:45:29 > 0:45:31And he said, "Sure I do."

0:45:31 > 0:45:33He said, "Not any more you won't."

0:45:33 > 0:45:35LAUGHTER

0:45:35 > 0:45:38He never said goodbye to me or nothing,

0:45:38 > 0:45:40and I didn't know where I was going.

0:45:40 > 0:45:42I didn't know where I was going but I went home.

0:45:42 > 0:45:45I bought a little house for Nancy and myself in Hasbrouck Heights.

0:45:45 > 0:45:47I was just happy to be home.

0:45:49 > 0:45:51Nancy was now two years old.

0:45:51 > 0:45:54# You can't resist her... #

0:45:54 > 0:45:58I spent about three, four weeks just sitting at home.

0:45:58 > 0:46:00And I can just picture it, you know?

0:46:02 > 0:46:05They were poor times but they were good times.

0:46:05 > 0:46:09As poor as they always were, they were never that bad.

0:46:10 > 0:46:17# My Nancy with the laughing face... #

0:46:19 > 0:46:23Cos then when the real work started, he worked like a dog.

0:46:24 > 0:46:26I was living in Hasbrouck Heights

0:46:26 > 0:46:29and I found out there was a theatre there where they had vaudeville

0:46:29 > 0:46:31and I went around, spoke to the manager

0:46:31 > 0:46:34and I said, "I'd like to play here for a couple of nights,

0:46:34 > 0:46:36"maybe a weekend." He said, "OK."

0:46:36 > 0:46:41Each booker from the theatres in New York, the Roxy, the Strand,

0:46:41 > 0:46:44Loew's State, the Paramount,

0:46:44 > 0:46:47they sent their scouts over to see what all the noise was about.

0:46:47 > 0:46:49Why were the kids screaming and yelling

0:46:49 > 0:46:50and running up and down the aisles?

0:46:50 > 0:46:54The Paramount Theatre manager said,

0:46:54 > 0:46:56"I would like you to open at New Year's Eve."

0:46:56 > 0:46:59And he said, "You've got Benny Goodman's orchestra

0:46:59 > 0:47:01"and a Crosby picture," and I fell right on my butt.

0:47:01 > 0:47:03I couldn't believe what he said to me.

0:47:03 > 0:47:07In those days, they called you an extra added attraction.

0:47:07 > 0:47:10I got into New York and I look at the marquee...

0:47:13 > 0:47:15Holy...

0:47:15 > 0:47:18So we get ready to go and I'm excited and it's the opening day

0:47:18 > 0:47:22and this is the moment that's going to make me or break me.

0:47:22 > 0:47:24If I'm not good in the Paramount Theatre

0:47:24 > 0:47:26under these circumstances, I'm dead.

0:47:26 > 0:47:28Jesus, I was nervous.

0:47:31 > 0:47:32ORCHESTRA PLAYS

0:47:35 > 0:47:39Benny did a whole section of music and then he would finish that section

0:47:39 > 0:47:42with Sing, Sing, Sing, and it would get rowdy, it would tear the joint.

0:47:42 > 0:47:44It ran about eight minutes.

0:47:44 > 0:47:47He finished Sing, Sing, Sing and he took a bow

0:47:47 > 0:47:51and he went over to the microphone and he said, "Now Frank Sinatra."

0:47:51 > 0:47:53SCREAMING AND CHEERING

0:47:55 > 0:47:58And they screamed like a banshee.

0:47:58 > 0:48:01He turned around and he looked at the audience and he said to nobody,

0:48:01 > 0:48:03"What the fuck is that?" he said.

0:48:03 > 0:48:06# I walk alone

0:48:06 > 0:48:09# They'll ask me why

0:48:09 > 0:48:13# And I'll tell them I'd rather

0:48:15 > 0:48:21# There are dreams I must gather... #

0:48:21 > 0:48:24There was one girl that was making so much noise and screaming so much,

0:48:24 > 0:48:29and I wanted her out cos I thought she was precipitating a riot.

0:48:29 > 0:48:32I tried to pull her out and she was like a tigress,

0:48:32 > 0:48:34so I called some of the guys.

0:48:34 > 0:48:37I had four lads pulling her out and carrying her

0:48:37 > 0:48:39and she wouldn't go!

0:48:39 > 0:48:41I mean, there's nothing that you can do

0:48:41 > 0:48:44when you have 3,000 people standing up and screaming at something.

0:48:44 > 0:48:46What are you going to say, "Sit down"?

0:48:46 > 0:48:49But this is the kind of hysteria that came there.

0:48:51 > 0:48:54# And I'll be there... #

0:48:54 > 0:48:57The next day, the reviews came out. They were very kind.

0:48:57 > 0:49:01It was holiday season, it was jumping.

0:49:01 > 0:49:03I was booked for two weeks.

0:49:03 > 0:49:07# Never saw the sun shining so bright

0:49:07 > 0:49:09# Never saw things looking so right... #

0:49:09 > 0:49:12Parents would take their children to the theatres

0:49:12 > 0:49:15at four o'clock in the morning and wait with them until daylight,

0:49:15 > 0:49:17and what a difference in a child in those days.

0:49:17 > 0:49:19They use to come up scrubbed up,

0:49:19 > 0:49:22their pink cheeks with their hair combed and bobbysocks.

0:49:22 > 0:49:25# Nothing but blue skies

0:49:25 > 0:49:28# From now on. #

0:49:28 > 0:49:31It was incredible. It was like a mass hypnosis.

0:49:32 > 0:49:34That was the thrill of our life.

0:49:34 > 0:49:37We used to go there for 35 cents. We sat there all day.

0:49:37 > 0:49:40We were poorer but we always had money to go to the Paramount

0:49:40 > 0:49:42and see Sinatra.

0:49:42 > 0:49:45When he'd walk out and the band would play the intro to his songs,

0:49:45 > 0:49:47oh, you'd get goose bumps.

0:49:47 > 0:49:50It was little wonder that throughout the nation feminine listeners

0:49:50 > 0:49:53formed Frank "Swoonatra" fan clubs

0:49:53 > 0:49:56and one organisation called itself

0:49:56 > 0:50:00the Sighing Society of Swooning Sinatra Slaves.

0:50:00 > 0:50:03The Voice, as he was nicknamed, was no flash in the pan.

0:50:04 > 0:50:07When Frank Sinatra was becoming famous,

0:50:07 > 0:50:10movies were the ultimate tool

0:50:10 > 0:50:12of creating celebrity.

0:50:12 > 0:50:14But after the Depression,

0:50:14 > 0:50:17not everybody could even afford a ticket to the theatre.

0:50:17 > 0:50:22But everybody in America pretty much either had a radio

0:50:22 > 0:50:25or had access to one, and you could use it for free.

0:50:27 > 0:50:29- RADIO:- Kids, Your Hit Parade!

0:50:29 > 0:50:33Here's Frank with your fifth-place favourite Swinging On A Star.

0:50:36 > 0:50:39# Would you like to swing on a star

0:50:39 > 0:50:43# Carry moonbeams home in a jar

0:50:43 > 0:50:48# And be better off than you are?

0:50:48 > 0:50:49# Or would you rather... #

0:50:49 > 0:50:51The Hit Parade came along.

0:50:51 > 0:50:53The next thing happened, I was still at the Paramount,

0:50:53 > 0:50:58there's a new club opening on 57th Street called the Riobamba,

0:50:58 > 0:51:01and they called and made an offer.

0:51:01 > 0:51:04I said to my agents, "That sounds interesting."

0:51:04 > 0:51:07They said, "We don't think so cos you're a Coca-Cola seller

0:51:07 > 0:51:10"and this is a champagne joint."

0:51:10 > 0:51:12I said, "I'm fucking well ready for anything right now."

0:51:12 > 0:51:14I said, "Book it."

0:51:14 > 0:51:17It all happened in a period of two to three months,

0:51:17 > 0:51:21the opening at the Paramount, the Riobamba and the Hit Parade.

0:51:21 > 0:51:23# You may grow up to be a fish

0:51:23 > 0:51:25# And all the monkeys... #

0:51:25 > 0:51:29The show at the Paramount, I came on the stage at about a quarter of nine,

0:51:29 > 0:51:31and the radio show on at nine o'clock.

0:51:31 > 0:51:33And it was like you'd put an animal in a cage.

0:51:33 > 0:51:35The ambulance would back up, up on the sidewalk,

0:51:35 > 0:51:37they'd open the door so I could jump in.

0:51:37 > 0:51:39As you pulled away, they'd close the door

0:51:39 > 0:51:41cos there were thousands of kids in the street.

0:51:41 > 0:51:44And in the ambulance they would have a malted milk and a sandwich

0:51:44 > 0:51:46and I would devour that by the time I got the ten blocks

0:51:46 > 0:51:48up to the radio station.

0:51:51 > 0:51:55I was so busy working. I was really working my ass off trying to help out

0:51:55 > 0:51:56with the war effort

0:51:56 > 0:51:58the best I could.

0:51:58 > 0:52:01'Super War Bond Salesman say, "Let's all back the attack."

0:52:01 > 0:52:04'It's an auction with the biggest buyers of war bonds

0:52:04 > 0:52:05'getting souvenirs.'

0:52:05 > 0:52:0920,000, Bob Hope has got Seabiscuit's shoe, worn when he won the Santa Anita handicap.

0:52:09 > 0:52:11- Do you think it'll fit me? - LAUGHTER

0:52:11 > 0:52:15'Now War Bond buyers get orchids with The Voice as the pin-up boy.'

0:52:17 > 0:52:20And we have a squeal with each orchid, ladies and gentlemen.

0:52:20 > 0:52:23'The Super War Bond special is the duet of the century.'

0:52:23 > 0:52:30# People will say we're in love. #

0:52:30 > 0:52:32LAUGHTER

0:52:51 > 0:52:57# I'll never smile again

0:52:59 > 0:53:04# Until I smile at you

0:53:07 > 0:53:12# I'll never laugh again... #

0:53:12 > 0:53:16Ruth Lowe was a Canadian woman. Her husband got killed.

0:53:16 > 0:53:19He was a Canadian flyer. Right at the beginning of the war he got killed.

0:53:19 > 0:53:23She wrote that song and brought it down personally to New York.

0:53:23 > 0:53:25# For tears

0:53:25 > 0:53:28# Would fill my eyes... #

0:53:30 > 0:53:34That song, it followed my dad his whole life.

0:53:34 > 0:53:37And I think it probably was because so many people identified

0:53:37 > 0:53:42with it in the first place, you know, with their personal losses.

0:53:45 > 0:53:47# To smile again

0:53:50 > 0:53:54# Until I smile

0:53:54 > 0:54:04# At you. #

0:54:09 > 0:54:11APPLAUSE

0:54:13 > 0:54:15I was declared a 4-F.

0:54:15 > 0:54:17I got a reject slip from Uncle Sam

0:54:17 > 0:54:20because of a perforated eardrum from my birth.

0:54:20 > 0:54:21And the press got to work on that.

0:54:23 > 0:54:26"Who the hell is he not to be in the service?"

0:54:26 > 0:54:29"Boys are getting killed in Europe and this guy's singing songs

0:54:29 > 0:54:32"to their wives and their girlfriends."

0:54:32 > 0:54:36# There'll be a hot time in the town of Berlin

0:54:36 > 0:54:39# When the lads go marching in

0:54:39 > 0:54:41# I'd like to be there, boy

0:54:41 > 0:54:43# And spread some joy

0:54:43 > 0:54:46# When they take old Berlin... #

0:54:46 > 0:54:48I'm stationed in Foggia, Italy,

0:54:48 > 0:54:51and all we knew overseas about Frank Sinatra

0:54:51 > 0:54:56was he was not serving because of a punctured eardrum

0:54:56 > 0:54:59and the women were crazy about him,

0:54:59 > 0:55:01so our girlfriends, our wives,

0:55:01 > 0:55:04were nuts about Frank Sinatra.

0:55:04 > 0:55:08There was a great dislike, at the least, for this figure.

0:55:08 > 0:55:11# ..take a hike through Hitler's Reich

0:55:11 > 0:55:14# And change that "Heil" to "What ya know, Joe"... #

0:55:14 > 0:55:17The real creeps were the guys who were in uniform

0:55:17 > 0:55:20but had safe jobs at Fort Dix and Fort Totten in Long Island.

0:55:20 > 0:55:23They were the guys who threw the tomatoes and eggs

0:55:23 > 0:55:26at the big sign on top of the marquee at the Paramount Theatre.

0:55:26 > 0:55:27It was childish.

0:55:27 > 0:55:30They wouldn't have guts enough to face me alone.

0:55:32 > 0:55:36But I got the second notice and I had to reappear for an examination.

0:55:36 > 0:55:39I couldn't believe it.

0:55:39 > 0:55:42In other words, I wasn't being treated like an ordinary citizen.

0:55:42 > 0:55:44I was a special case all of a sudden.

0:55:50 > 0:55:53And I went to the New York Army with 6,000 other guys

0:55:53 > 0:55:56and there were cameramen and radio guys

0:55:56 > 0:55:59and 1,000 people on the street, the kids, you know,

0:55:59 > 0:56:01"Frankie, baby, don't let them push you around,"

0:56:01 > 0:56:03and all that kind of jazz.

0:56:05 > 0:56:08And when I got finished, they put me in a station wagon

0:56:08 > 0:56:12with two rifled infantrymen and a driver

0:56:12 > 0:56:15and they took me to Governors Island.

0:56:15 > 0:56:18First of all, when I walked into the ward, they knew I was coming.

0:56:18 > 0:56:19The word was out that I was coming

0:56:19 > 0:56:21and these guys are lolling on their beds

0:56:21 > 0:56:24and they walked towards me and one guy shook my hand.

0:56:24 > 0:56:27He said, "I'm glad to meet you. I've been a big fan."

0:56:27 > 0:56:29He said, "If you need any magazines or comic books,

0:56:29 > 0:56:31"I've got a lot of stuff."

0:56:31 > 0:56:33Well, do know how many phone calls I made?

0:56:33 > 0:56:36I must have made 700 phone calls to everybody's family

0:56:36 > 0:56:37all over the United States,

0:56:37 > 0:56:39cos they would call their family and put me on.

0:56:39 > 0:56:42There were seven phone booths, the kids were making them one at a time.

0:56:42 > 0:56:45I'm running from one to another making the call.

0:56:45 > 0:56:47"Hello, Mrs so-and-so," or the wife of a guy.

0:56:47 > 0:56:50"Hello, Angie. He's fine. "No, he looks great." "Are you sure?"

0:56:50 > 0:56:53"Oh, my God, you're calling me up. "Is it really you?"

0:56:53 > 0:56:55"Yeah." "Sing something!"

0:56:55 > 0:57:01The next afternoon, I get word to go down to the psychiatrist

0:57:01 > 0:57:04and he said, "Before we do anything, I've got an 11-year-old

0:57:04 > 0:57:09"who's absolutely crazy about you." And I signed it to his little girl.

0:57:09 > 0:57:12When he put it away he said, "I've read your whole medical report.

0:57:12 > 0:57:15"Even a rifle's shot could deafen you if the guy's next to you.

0:57:15 > 0:57:18"That's why they reject people with holes in their ears."

0:57:18 > 0:57:22He said, "I'm recommending that you are absolutely rejected

0:57:22 > 0:57:25"from the service." He said to me, "Now once you go back to your ward,

0:57:25 > 0:57:29"get yourself dressed and then go back to New York."

0:57:29 > 0:57:31I got on the ferry boat, put my coat collar up like this,

0:57:31 > 0:57:33there's snow on my face,

0:57:33 > 0:57:37and suddenly the city began to come alive through the snow,

0:57:37 > 0:57:40the lights of Wall Street downtown, all the buildings were lit,

0:57:40 > 0:57:42and I start to cry.

0:57:42 > 0:57:47# Time after time

0:57:47 > 0:57:52# I tell myself that I'm

0:57:52 > 0:57:55# So lucky

0:57:55 > 0:57:59# To be loving you... #

0:58:01 > 0:58:05Frankie was born at the Margaret Hague Hospital in Jersey City.

0:58:05 > 0:58:08Somewhere along the line, Daddy said he named him

0:58:08 > 0:58:13for Franklin Roosevelt, so it was Franklin Wayne Emanuel Sinatra.

0:58:14 > 0:58:17My brother says it's Francis.

0:58:17 > 0:58:19I think he was putting you on, hon.

0:58:19 > 0:58:20My name was never Franklin

0:58:20 > 0:58:24and I was not named after Franklin Delano Roosevelt,

0:58:24 > 0:58:27but Dolly Sinatra said he was the greatest president

0:58:27 > 0:58:29that we had ever had.

0:58:29 > 0:58:32Her son began to believe it and when he became famous,

0:58:32 > 0:58:37he worked for Franklin D Roosevelt many, many times.

0:58:37 > 0:58:39I came on for Roosevelt - I loved him!

0:58:39 > 0:58:41And then I went on and worked my ass off for him.

0:58:41 > 0:58:44Orson Welles and myself did a lot of the campaigning,

0:58:44 > 0:58:48and particularly if it was a large Italian area,

0:58:48 > 0:58:50where it might be like... We did one in Jersey,

0:58:50 > 0:58:53where it's almost all Italians.

0:58:53 > 0:58:56And I said, "If you don't vote for this man,

0:58:56 > 0:58:58"you're all going to be in a lot of trouble."

0:58:58 > 0:59:01I didn't make any kind of a fancy speech.

0:59:01 > 0:59:04And then Welles would walk out, and he was dynamite.

0:59:04 > 0:59:06He was absolute dynamite.

0:59:10 > 0:59:14There was great criticism heaped upon me because I was so active

0:59:14 > 0:59:17in that particular campaign for Mr Roosevelt.

0:59:18 > 0:59:22Newspaper writers like Lee Mortimer and Westbrook Pegler,

0:59:22 > 0:59:25who were never in favour of the Democratic position,

0:59:25 > 0:59:28they suddenly began to attack Sinatra.

0:59:28 > 0:59:32I was stamped. They stamped me a communist right there.

0:59:32 > 0:59:35I said, "Bullshit. I don't know who you are but you're wrong."

0:59:37 > 0:59:39- Yeah?- Good morning. My name is Frank Sinatra.

0:59:41 > 0:59:43What?

0:59:43 > 0:59:45SHE SIGHS

0:59:45 > 0:59:49I did the first picture at RKO called Higher And Higher.

0:59:49 > 0:59:52My family was still at home but I looked for a house.

0:59:52 > 0:59:56At that point, Nancy put our house on the market and I called her

0:59:56 > 0:59:58and said, "I've found a great house."

0:59:58 > 1:00:03And I couldn't have been happier because I loved California.

1:00:03 > 1:00:05Lovely, lovely.

1:00:05 > 1:00:09It was right on the lake. We had a kayak, a canoe.

1:00:11 > 1:00:16Toluca Lake was so beautiful. We had a wonderful life there.

1:00:16 > 1:00:19Dad came home a lot. He wasn't just a voice on the radio.

1:00:19 > 1:00:22# My blue heaven... #

1:00:22 > 1:00:27I was home. Figured I did a movie and I'm going to do another movie.

1:00:27 > 1:00:30I didn't get many movies done at RKO cos Mr Mayer saw me

1:00:30 > 1:00:32in an old building downtown, the Shrine.

1:00:32 > 1:00:35In that show we used to buy the whole row.

1:00:35 > 1:00:41# As long as there's music

1:00:41 > 1:00:46- # There's always romance - Oo-ooh

1:00:46 > 1:00:49# The spell of a theme

1:00:49 > 1:00:52# Starts you to dream

1:00:52 > 1:00:56- # There's always a chance - Oo-oo-ooh

1:00:56 > 1:01:01# As long as there's music

1:01:01 > 1:01:04# Whatever the song... #

1:01:04 > 1:01:06And I'm standing up there singing,

1:01:06 > 1:01:10I'd never met Mayer, and I see him sitting there and he's crying.

1:01:10 > 1:01:12And he whispered something to a guy sitting next to him.

1:01:12 > 1:01:15Mayer said, "I want that boy."

1:01:15 > 1:01:17I went to Metro and I got a 130,000 picture.

1:01:21 > 1:01:23# What a dish, what a dream what a dame

1:01:25 > 1:01:28# And she lives alone... #

1:01:28 > 1:01:31A problem arose when I started at MGM.

1:01:31 > 1:01:34We did a picture called Anchors Aweigh.

1:01:34 > 1:01:37What struck me at first about Frank

1:01:37 > 1:01:41was that he was the best-known, most popular performer in America

1:01:41 > 1:01:45and the first two pictures he made at RKO were,

1:01:45 > 1:01:47let's face it, flops.

1:01:47 > 1:01:51So I said to him, "Frank, there's one big thing you have to do.

1:01:51 > 1:01:55"You can't be thought of as a guy who just stands there.

1:01:55 > 1:01:59"You don't have to be a great, great dancer but you have to move."

1:01:59 > 1:02:02"You have to dance a little bit, period."

1:02:02 > 1:02:04I said, "That means a lot of sweat and work."

1:02:04 > 1:02:07He said, "Great, when do we start?"

1:02:07 > 1:02:10He worked as if we were training for the heavyweight championship.

1:02:10 > 1:02:11He really worked very hard.

1:02:24 > 1:02:27I did four vocals in Anchors Aweigh.

1:02:27 > 1:02:29I said, "Well, Mr Sinatra, who do you want to write the songs?

1:02:29 > 1:02:33The Gershwins, Kern, Porter Oscar Hammerstein, Rodgers?

1:02:33 > 1:02:37Who do you want? He said, "Sammy Cahn."

1:02:37 > 1:02:39They said, "We don't mind hiring him. Who is he?"

1:02:39 > 1:02:41And Sinatra typically said,

1:02:41 > 1:02:44"Since you're not singing the songs, don't let it bother you."

1:02:44 > 1:02:46And they said, "You know we've got about ten arrangers."

1:02:46 > 1:02:49I said, "No, no, I'm sorry, I have my own arranger."

1:02:49 > 1:02:52Axel Stordahl, whom I now had engaged, who would not believe Tommy,

1:02:52 > 1:02:56I finally convinced him. I got him 1,250 in arrangement.

1:02:56 > 1:02:58He said, "I never saw so much money in my life."

1:03:01 > 1:03:05# I fall in love

1:03:05 > 1:03:09# Too easily

1:03:12 > 1:03:15# I fall in love

1:03:15 > 1:03:18# Too fast

1:03:20 > 1:03:23# I fall in love

1:03:23 > 1:03:28# Too terribly hard

1:03:28 > 1:03:36# For love to ever last

1:03:36 > 1:03:42# My heart should be well-schooled

1:03:42 > 1:03:47# Cos I've been fooled

1:03:49 > 1:03:52# In the past

1:03:52 > 1:03:58# And still I fall in love

1:03:58 > 1:04:00# Too easily

1:04:06 > 1:04:11# I fall in love

1:04:11 > 1:04:18# Too fast. #

1:04:22 > 1:04:24Anchors Aweigh opened

1:04:24 > 1:04:26to rave reviews in big box offices

1:04:26 > 1:04:28around the country.

1:04:28 > 1:04:29Overnight, Frank Sinatra

1:04:29 > 1:04:31became a major movie star,

1:04:31 > 1:04:33having already become

1:04:33 > 1:04:35a recording and radio star.

1:04:40 > 1:04:43At that point, his attitude was,

1:04:43 > 1:04:47"Fate has now suddenly put me into the position

1:04:47 > 1:04:50"to do something about unfairness."

1:04:50 > 1:04:54In his lifetime he had seen abject poverty.

1:04:54 > 1:04:59He had seen terrible things done to people and it upset him.

1:05:01 > 1:05:06I was living in Harlem and my family was on welfare.

1:05:06 > 1:05:08We were just a hoofing act.

1:05:08 > 1:05:12And Frank found us and we went into the Capitol Theatre

1:05:12 > 1:05:16and he paid us 1,750, all the money in the world.

1:05:18 > 1:05:21Frank would come out, open up, sing a couple of songs,

1:05:21 > 1:05:24then he introduced us. He'd say little things like,

1:05:24 > 1:05:26"I want you to keep an eye on this little kid in the middle."

1:05:26 > 1:05:29He said, "Boy, he's going to be something one of these days.

1:05:29 > 1:05:31"You watch him, he burns the stage up."

1:05:34 > 1:05:37Frank has been one of the main moving forces with me

1:05:37 > 1:05:40cos he stood up and was counted long before it became fashionable.

1:05:43 > 1:05:46Putting his convictions on the line, Dad played himself

1:05:46 > 1:05:48in The House I Live In,

1:05:48 > 1:05:51a ten-minute short made in 1945.

1:05:51 > 1:05:53And it fitted me to a T

1:05:53 > 1:05:56because I was involved in anti-bigotry motions.

1:05:56 > 1:05:59We got ten little kids and then you hear the rumpus in the alley outside

1:05:59 > 1:06:01where they back up one little boy.

1:06:01 > 1:06:03They don't use any words on him but you know they're either saying,

1:06:03 > 1:06:06"You guinea bastard," or, "You Jew bastard," or something to him.

1:06:06 > 1:06:08'And I do a little short speech.'

1:06:08 > 1:06:11My dad came from Italy. But should I hate your father

1:06:11 > 1:06:13because he came from Ireland or France or Russia?

1:06:13 > 1:06:15Wouldn't I be a first-class fathead?

1:06:15 > 1:06:18That film deeply moved me.

1:06:18 > 1:06:22It was one of the most engaging documents that I'd ever seen

1:06:22 > 1:06:24on the issue of race.

1:06:24 > 1:06:27A lot of movies had been made before that time

1:06:27 > 1:06:29that attempted to deal with the issues of race

1:06:29 > 1:06:32but nobody from the height of pop culture had done it

1:06:32 > 1:06:34quite the way Sinatra did.

1:06:34 > 1:06:36Think about that, fellows.

1:06:36 > 1:06:40Use your good American heads. Don't let anybody make suckers out of you.

1:06:40 > 1:06:43Now I've got to go to work.

1:06:43 > 1:06:45What do you work?

1:06:45 > 1:06:47- I sing.- Aw, you're kidding.

1:06:49 > 1:06:50Come here.

1:06:52 > 1:06:55You all stand here and no hissing allowed.

1:06:57 > 1:07:01# What is America to me?

1:07:01 > 1:07:05# The place I work in

1:07:05 > 1:07:09# The worker at my side

1:07:09 > 1:07:12# The little town or city

1:07:12 > 1:07:16# Where my people lived and died

1:07:16 > 1:07:20# The howdy and the handshake

1:07:20 > 1:07:23# The air of feeling free

1:07:23 > 1:07:27# And the right to speak my mind out

1:07:27 > 1:07:34# That's America to me. #

1:07:34 > 1:07:36As an Italian-American growing up

1:07:36 > 1:07:40when the most virulent anti-Italian thing was still in the land,

1:07:40 > 1:07:43stereotypes of fractured English,

1:07:43 > 1:07:45Life With Luigi radio shows...

1:07:47 > 1:07:49- ITALIAN ACCENT:- Dear Mama Mia...

1:07:49 > 1:07:51LAUGHTER

1:07:51 > 1:07:56Sinatra, he's a very big singer and he's an Italiano boy.

1:07:56 > 1:07:59..for him to come along and deal with that,

1:07:59 > 1:08:04to insist that he was going to change the way people thought

1:08:04 > 1:08:06about Italian-Americans through his diction,

1:08:06 > 1:08:10which was impeccable on those songs,

1:08:10 > 1:08:13through the style that he presented himself with, I think was crucial.

1:08:16 > 1:08:19- NEWSREEL:- New Oscars for Hollywood's top movie-makers.

1:08:19 > 1:08:22At Grauman's Chinese Theatre over 2,000 stars are on hand

1:08:22 > 1:08:25for the 18th annual Motion Picture Academy Awards.

1:08:25 > 1:08:26Frank Sinatra,

1:08:26 > 1:08:30he is honoured with a special award for his short The House I Live In.

1:08:36 > 1:08:39- NEWSREEL:- The last day of World War II.

1:08:39 > 1:08:42Here and across the nation, yes, from coast to coast,

1:08:42 > 1:08:45uncorks the pent-up emotions of almost four years.

1:08:45 > 1:08:48Downtown, they see sailors lift automobiles,

1:08:48 > 1:08:50soldiers kiss pretty girls

1:08:50 > 1:08:53and the carrying off of beautiful maidens.

1:09:06 > 1:09:11# Night and day

1:09:11 > 1:09:16# Why is it so?

1:09:16 > 1:09:19# That this longing for you

1:09:19 > 1:09:23# Follows wherever I go?

1:09:25 > 1:09:31# In the roaring traffic's boom

1:09:31 > 1:09:37# Or in the silence of my lonely room

1:09:37 > 1:09:39# I think of you... #

1:09:39 > 1:09:41Hollywood was Dad's oyster

1:09:41 > 1:09:44and he was befriending a wide circle of the famous.

1:09:45 > 1:09:48During this heady period of new-found stardom

1:09:48 > 1:09:52he was seen around town squiring "Sweater Girl" Lana Turner

1:09:52 > 1:09:56and starlet Marilyn Maxwell, among other women.

1:09:56 > 1:10:01# There's an, oh, such a hungry yearning, burning

1:10:01 > 1:10:05# Inside of me

1:10:05 > 1:10:10# And its torment won't be through

1:10:11 > 1:10:16# Till you let me spend my life making love to you

1:10:16 > 1:10:20# Day and night

1:10:20 > 1:10:23# Night and day. #

1:10:26 > 1:10:29All the rich, glamorous girls were after the celebrity.

1:10:30 > 1:10:32He was attractive.

1:10:32 > 1:10:35He was oriented that way anyway.

1:10:35 > 1:10:39He felt he had to possess any woman he thought attractive.

1:10:39 > 1:10:41A lot of men are like that,

1:10:41 > 1:10:44and they get that way more so with more success.

1:10:44 > 1:10:47# Making love to you

1:10:48 > 1:10:51# Day and night

1:10:51 > 1:10:56# Night and day. #

1:10:56 > 1:10:59With Frank it was the martinis in the dressing room,

1:10:59 > 1:11:01the lavishness,

1:11:01 > 1:11:03gold cigarette lighters.

1:11:03 > 1:11:05"Let's have fun.

1:11:05 > 1:11:06"Where are the laughs?

1:11:06 > 1:11:09"Where are the people in this new world that I love?"

1:11:09 > 1:11:13Nancy was always the Italian wife -

1:11:13 > 1:11:15"The house has got to be spotless.

1:11:15 > 1:11:18"If you want peppers or pasta, the sauce is made.

1:11:18 > 1:11:21"And I'll have the kids and we'll raise a family."

1:11:21 > 1:11:23And that was what was important to her.

1:11:26 > 1:11:29On the last day of 1946 my mother discovered

1:11:29 > 1:11:32a diamond bracelet in the glove compartment of the new

1:11:32 > 1:11:35Cadillac convertible that Dad was teaching her to drive.

1:11:35 > 1:11:39Figuring it was a gift for her, she said nothing.

1:11:39 > 1:11:42But that night, at the family's New Year's Eve party,

1:11:42 > 1:11:45she spied Marilyn Maxwell wearing the bracelet.

1:11:47 > 1:11:49I said to her, "I know where you got that."

1:11:49 > 1:11:54She just looked up, aghast that I would be brave enough.

1:11:54 > 1:11:56She went and told Frank, and Frank said to me, "You know,

1:11:56 > 1:12:00"you should apologise," and I said, "Frank, you're mixed up.

1:12:00 > 1:12:03"She has to apologise to me."

1:12:05 > 1:12:08I feel it was like part of growing up,

1:12:08 > 1:12:12that he would eventually have his fill of all this routine

1:12:12 > 1:12:13and appreciate what he had.

1:12:15 > 1:12:18We made up and he said it's going to be different,

1:12:18 > 1:12:20it's going to be better, it's going to be fine.

1:12:22 > 1:12:25# She may be waiting

1:12:25 > 1:12:28# Just anticipating

1:12:28 > 1:12:32# Things she may never possess

1:12:35 > 1:12:38# While she's without them

1:12:38 > 1:12:44# Try a little tenderness

1:12:47 > 1:12:50# It's not just sentimental

1:12:52 > 1:12:56# She has her grief and her care

1:12:58 > 1:13:01# And a word that's soft and gentle

1:13:03 > 1:13:08# Makes it easier to bear

1:13:11 > 1:13:14# You won't regret it

1:13:16 > 1:13:18# Women don't forget it

1:13:20 > 1:13:25# Love is their whole happiness

1:13:28 > 1:13:33# And it's all so easy

1:13:33 > 1:13:36# Try a little

1:13:36 > 1:13:44# Tenderness. #

1:13:48 > 1:13:50APPLAUSE

1:13:52 > 1:13:55"Nancy," I said, "it's Valentine's Day coming up

1:13:55 > 1:13:57"and I'm finished with my work here in New York,

1:13:57 > 1:14:00"how would you like to be my Valentine in Acapulco?"

1:14:00 > 1:14:02She said, "Oh, that would be marvellous."

1:14:04 > 1:14:06Now, in the meantime I went to Miami,

1:14:06 > 1:14:08but the next morning it was a shitty day and I said

1:14:08 > 1:14:11"I'm not going to sit down here, I'm going to go where the sun is -

1:14:11 > 1:14:14"Cuba."

1:14:20 > 1:14:25And I checked into the famous hotel, Nacional Hotel.

1:14:37 > 1:14:41We went down to the bar and 66 gangsters are standing there.

1:14:41 > 1:14:4348 years of good behaviour

1:14:43 > 1:14:46and I knew several of the fellas from New Jersey and New York,

1:14:46 > 1:14:48including the Fischetti brothers.

1:14:48 > 1:14:51They were Capone's guys, when he was alive.

1:14:52 > 1:14:54They were really tough.

1:14:58 > 1:15:00At that time the boys were dealing with Cuba.

1:15:00 > 1:15:03They had a lot of gambling up there, right?

1:15:03 > 1:15:05One of them said, "Hey, Frank, come here,

1:15:05 > 1:15:07"I want you to meet Charlie Luciano," and I said, "How do you do?"

1:15:08 > 1:15:11- NEWSREEL:- Charlie Lucky Luciano, shackled to his henchmen,

1:15:11 > 1:15:15the overlord of a 12 million a year vice ring goes to prison.

1:15:17 > 1:15:20When he got out, he was deported.

1:15:20 > 1:15:21The United States Bureau Of Narcotics

1:15:21 > 1:15:24didn't like the fact that he ended up in Cuba because

1:15:24 > 1:15:27they didn't want him setting up an operation so close to their shores.

1:15:27 > 1:15:28This was in the '40s.

1:15:28 > 1:15:30Lucky Luciano was being watched closely.

1:15:30 > 1:15:33And, of course, it went on the wire service

1:15:33 > 1:15:35that I shook hands with Charlie Luciano.

1:15:35 > 1:15:38Writers picked it up and all that crap went on.

1:15:42 > 1:15:46And that was the public's first taste of what became

1:15:46 > 1:15:51Sinatra's persona for the rest of his life, buddies with the mob.

1:15:52 > 1:15:55From that moment I couldn't beat these guys -

1:15:55 > 1:15:56they went to press every day.

1:15:56 > 1:15:59Then of course, at that point Lee Mortimer picked up a picture

1:15:59 > 1:16:01of me getting off the plane.

1:16:01 > 1:16:05And then the FBI got the photo from Mortimer,

1:16:05 > 1:16:09who was a famous muck-raking journalist, who was trying to

1:16:09 > 1:16:13identify the people in the photo that are with Sinatra.

1:16:13 > 1:16:16He started to dream up all these things about me,

1:16:16 > 1:16:18said I went to Cuba and delivered 2 million

1:16:18 > 1:16:21and I brought back drugs into the country.

1:16:21 > 1:16:24Now, my luggage, of course, is on the aeroplane,

1:16:24 > 1:16:28but I carried a sketch pad in a thin attache case.

1:16:28 > 1:16:33Now, this was the bag I was supposedly bringing the 2 million in, right?

1:16:33 > 1:16:34There's no evidence of it.

1:16:34 > 1:16:37The only mentions of it in government documents

1:16:37 > 1:16:40are recounting that it's been in the press.

1:16:40 > 1:16:44The investigators, they would read something in the press

1:16:44 > 1:16:48and then investigate it, giving it the patina of truth.

1:16:48 > 1:16:50It was, in some ways, a vicious cycle.

1:16:50 > 1:16:55It led to yet another investigation of his arrest in their late '30s.

1:16:55 > 1:17:00# When the moon hangs low in Napoli

1:17:00 > 1:17:04# There's a handsome gondolier... #

1:17:05 > 1:17:07That was an old, old charge.

1:17:07 > 1:17:11Way back, when I was a kid, when I first got the job at The Rustic Cabin.

1:17:11 > 1:17:15Some dame claimed that I'd seduced her and she was pregnant.

1:17:15 > 1:17:17She wasn't pregnant at all, she was a hokey fan.

1:17:17 > 1:17:20We went to the courtroom, and my mother was a nurse and a midwife

1:17:20 > 1:17:23said to the judge, "I'd like to examine this woman,"

1:17:23 > 1:17:26and all of a sudden there was no case. They threw everything out.

1:17:26 > 1:17:31# And his heart beat so fortissimo

1:17:31 > 1:17:35# When she raises her Venetian shade... #

1:17:35 > 1:17:39You see, those things were driving me crazy in that period.

1:17:39 > 1:17:43Bogey once said, "You have to remember one thing,

1:17:43 > 1:17:47"Frank, there's only one way that anyone can fight a newspaper,

1:17:47 > 1:17:49"and that's with a newspaper."

1:17:49 > 1:17:52"If you have altercations with the press,

1:17:52 > 1:17:54"you're going to be fighting a losing battle,"

1:17:54 > 1:17:58and this was Humphrey Bogart's sage and sane advice,

1:17:58 > 1:18:01which his friend Frank Sinatra promptly proceeded to ignore.

1:18:02 > 1:18:04Peggy Lee was opening at Ciro's

1:18:04 > 1:18:06when Ciro's was one of the in joints to go to.

1:18:06 > 1:18:08She was marvellous.

1:18:08 > 1:18:12# Yes, it's a good day for singing a song

1:18:12 > 1:18:16# And it's a good day for moving along... #

1:18:16 > 1:18:20And behind us I hear an oriental voice.

1:18:20 > 1:18:22"Oh," she said, "that's Frank Sinatra."

1:18:22 > 1:18:25I hear the male voice say, "Yeah, I saw the guinea bastard."

1:18:25 > 1:18:26I didn't know who it was,

1:18:26 > 1:18:28I just kind of rounded and, sure enough, it's him,

1:18:28 > 1:18:31cos I'd seen his picture at the top of the column.

1:18:31 > 1:18:35I hear the chairs being scraped on the floor and they get up.

1:18:35 > 1:18:37# A good day from morning till night... #

1:18:37 > 1:18:40Peggy went offstage and people were still applauding

1:18:40 > 1:18:43and all that stuff, and I said to everybody at my table,

1:18:43 > 1:18:46"Excuse me a minute," and this is after he had been bludgeoning me.

1:18:46 > 1:18:49He called me a red, he called me a communist,

1:18:49 > 1:18:51he did everything he could.

1:18:51 > 1:18:53I had enough of him, I had it up to here.

1:18:53 > 1:18:55So I walked out and I tapped him on the shoulder.

1:18:55 > 1:18:58He turned around, I hit him so fucking hard

1:18:58 > 1:19:01I broke the whole front of his face and he banged his head.

1:19:02 > 1:19:05# You do something to me

1:19:05 > 1:19:11# Something that simply mystifies me... #

1:19:12 > 1:19:14And he said I'll write about this and takes a piece of paper out.

1:19:14 > 1:19:16"You're going to do more than that," I said,

1:19:16 > 1:19:19"I'm going to bury you right under the street like this."

1:19:19 > 1:19:22And before I could make another move two guys grabbed me and walked me right out of the club

1:19:22 > 1:19:26and people running outside to get an ambulance and all that kind of bullshit,

1:19:26 > 1:19:29and I just walked through the whole crowd.

1:19:31 > 1:19:34There were no charges, no arrests, no nothing.

1:19:34 > 1:19:36He just wanted a civil suit.

1:19:36 > 1:19:389,000 judgment, that was it.

1:19:38 > 1:19:40Nothing ever happened.

1:19:40 > 1:19:43As a matter of fact, what I did to him

1:19:43 > 1:19:47through the ensuing years, every time I saw him in a restaurant,

1:19:47 > 1:19:50I'd spit at him, and dare him to get up and take a punch at me.

1:19:55 > 1:19:59Can you be objective and tell me what kind of a father you are?

1:19:59 > 1:20:02Or is that too tough?

1:20:03 > 1:20:05That's a tough question.

1:20:10 > 1:20:14# How much do I love you? #

1:20:15 > 1:20:19Tina was the California girl, she was born in Los Angeles.

1:20:19 > 1:20:22Dad nearly went crazy, going through red lights

1:20:22 > 1:20:24and stop signs to get to the hospital.

1:20:25 > 1:20:27He wanted a girl

1:20:27 > 1:20:29and she was born on Father's Day.

1:20:29 > 1:20:31That is how lucky he is.

1:20:33 > 1:20:36Tina, as a child, growing up, never got to spend a lot of

1:20:36 > 1:20:39time with me but, you know, I was probably a stranger to her.

1:20:39 > 1:20:42"Who's this guy who comes in every six months, comes to see me?"

1:20:45 > 1:20:48# How far would I travel? #

1:20:48 > 1:20:51He was away so much with his career, you know,

1:20:51 > 1:20:55that the real, great experience of being

1:20:55 > 1:20:57the son of this man, as far as I'm concerned,

1:20:57 > 1:21:00didn't actually come until later years.

1:21:00 > 1:21:02# From here to a star... #

1:21:02 > 1:21:04I think that Dad, when he was rushing

1:21:04 > 1:21:07and going on with a career, knew that I was there

1:21:07 > 1:21:10taking care of the kids and he didn't have to worry about them.

1:21:13 > 1:21:15Daddy wanted me to have a lot of children.

1:21:15 > 1:21:18The way things were going, I knew that was not looking right.

1:21:18 > 1:21:22I figured that I'd be stuck with having to care for them all.

1:21:22 > 1:21:24Now, about that time

1:21:24 > 1:21:27is when I got tied up with Ava. Somewhere in there.

1:21:35 > 1:21:38# It's quarter to three

1:21:38 > 1:21:43# There's no-one in the place except you and me

1:21:46 > 1:21:49# So, set 'em up, Joe

1:21:49 > 1:21:54# I got a little story you ought to know

1:21:57 > 1:21:59# We're drinking, my friend... #

1:21:59 > 1:22:02Well, the first time we met was 1943.

1:22:02 > 1:22:03I was out with Mickey.

1:22:03 > 1:22:05We were married then.

1:22:05 > 1:22:07Frank came over to the table.

1:22:07 > 1:22:11Jesus, he was like a god in those days,

1:22:11 > 1:22:14if gods can be sexy. He reeked of sex.

1:22:14 > 1:22:16He said something like,

1:22:16 > 1:22:19"If I'd have seen you first, honey, I would have married you myself."

1:22:19 > 1:22:20I paid no attention to that.

1:22:20 > 1:22:24I knew he was married. He had a kid, for Christ's sake.

1:22:24 > 1:22:29The next time we met was when we had that famous Metro group picture taken.

1:22:29 > 1:22:32He was a terrible flirt. He couldn't help it.

1:22:32 > 1:22:34I took a look at her and I said,

1:22:34 > 1:22:37"Jesus, you got prettier than the last time I saw you."

1:22:37 > 1:22:40This was not the young, little girl from Carolina at the studio.

1:22:40 > 1:22:42This was a woman who was glorious.

1:22:43 > 1:22:47She had an air that the other girls didn't have, no question.

1:22:49 > 1:22:53Very natural and, of all the stars at that time,

1:22:53 > 1:22:58she had less star mannerism than anyone I ever met.

1:22:58 > 1:23:00She was sort of one of the boys.

1:23:00 > 1:23:03I think she pretty much was always with men.

1:23:05 > 1:23:08# The more I know of love

1:23:08 > 1:23:12# The less I know... #

1:23:12 > 1:23:15Here's your drink, lady.

1:23:15 > 1:23:17# The more I give to love... #

1:23:17 > 1:23:18I said here's your drink, lady.

1:23:18 > 1:23:24- # The more I owe you... # - Thanks very much.

1:23:24 > 1:23:28SHE HUMS

1:23:28 > 1:23:31# Da-da dee

1:23:31 > 1:23:33# Da-da... #

1:23:33 > 1:23:36I think a lot of his fantasies were bound up in her.

1:23:36 > 1:23:41I think he brought to it what a young man brings to that almost

1:23:41 > 1:23:44unbelievable romance that may never happen to him -

1:23:44 > 1:23:47the kind of thing you do fantasise about.

1:23:47 > 1:23:52# I'm wild again

1:23:52 > 1:23:56# Beguiled again

1:23:56 > 1:24:02# A simpering, whimpering child again

1:24:02 > 1:24:08# Bewitched, bothered and bewildered

1:24:08 > 1:24:11# Am I... #

1:24:11 > 1:24:14Lana Turner told me, "I've been there, honey, don't do it."

1:24:16 > 1:24:19# Couldn't sleep... #

1:24:19 > 1:24:23And I should have listened to her - the girl had been around.

1:24:23 > 1:24:28# Love came and told me I'd shouldn't sleep

1:24:28 > 1:24:30# Bewitched... #

1:24:30 > 1:24:33But he was good in the feathers.

1:24:33 > 1:24:37You don't really listen to what people tell you when a guy is good in the feathers.

1:24:41 > 1:24:44He's a disciplined man in many respects

1:24:44 > 1:24:47but he was never disciplined emotionally about women.

1:24:47 > 1:24:50I think that that did him in.

1:24:50 > 1:24:53He would come home once or twice a week and see her all the time

1:24:53 > 1:24:56and figure he was going to keep me quiet and I couldn't handle it.

1:24:56 > 1:24:59I was sick. I was breaking down.

1:24:59 > 1:25:02He was never looking for long-range things,

1:25:02 > 1:25:04it was always for the moment.

1:25:04 > 1:25:06How about when gossip columnists,

1:25:06 > 1:25:08they write that your marriage is in trouble, these kind of things?

1:25:08 > 1:25:11Normal people don't read about these kind of things.

1:25:11 > 1:25:13Ah, what are you going to say about gossip columnists?

1:25:13 > 1:25:15Hedda Hopper, Louella Parsons, Sheila Graham

1:25:15 > 1:25:19and other nationally syndicated columnists had already been

1:25:19 > 1:25:22berating my father for a host of extramarital affairs.

1:25:22 > 1:25:24He could ignore columnists very easily

1:25:24 > 1:25:28but Louis B Mayer warned that he would cancel his contract early.

1:25:28 > 1:25:32Dad responded. He moved us closer to his work,

1:25:32 > 1:25:36to a 250,000-mansion not far from Hollywood.

1:25:36 > 1:25:38But he continued to see Ava.

1:25:39 > 1:25:43Mr Mayer was a man who was completely void of a sense of humour

1:25:43 > 1:25:46and I was always doing pranks and having fun

1:25:46 > 1:25:48and all that stuff and Mayer

1:25:48 > 1:25:50loved to have people, well, not people, me,

1:25:50 > 1:25:53come to his office whenever he was lonely.

1:25:53 > 1:25:57He had a white Formica desk, looked like Howard Hughes's cocktail

1:25:57 > 1:26:01and I'd go in and sit down, hold my hat in my lap

1:26:01 > 1:26:04and in a period of 5 years I bet I was there 50 times.

1:26:07 > 1:26:10He had a string of wonderful racehorses

1:26:10 > 1:26:13and he also had horses that he would ride on Sunday afternoons, his own horses,

1:26:13 > 1:26:16and one Sunday something happened that spooked the horse

1:26:16 > 1:26:22and he had a fractured pelvic bone and he was in a cast from here to his knees.

1:26:22 > 1:26:25We felt badly about it and we were sitting around commiserating

1:26:25 > 1:26:28about the fact that it would take him a long time to heal because he had

1:26:28 > 1:26:32fallen off the horse and I said, "No, he didn't, he fell off Ginny Simms."

1:26:32 > 1:26:34LAUGHTER

1:26:34 > 1:26:38Because he was courting this girl named Ginny Simms, you see, fellas and girls.

1:26:40 > 1:26:43And I got kicked out of the studio.

1:26:43 > 1:26:45That's it.

1:26:45 > 1:26:48# I'm feeling low, mighty low... #

1:26:48 > 1:26:51Frank Sinatra found himself in the unhappy position

1:26:51 > 1:26:55of being considered finished. His record sales slumped severely.

1:26:55 > 1:27:00Now, is this true - earned 11 million in six years

1:27:00 > 1:27:04but you spent money like crazy and you couldn't pay your taxes?

1:27:04 > 1:27:06- Had you spent all your money? - Pretty much all of it.

1:27:06 > 1:27:08I mean, I was broke.

1:27:09 > 1:27:14There was an enormous sense of foreboding in the American psyche

1:27:14 > 1:27:19immediately after the war, and what was going to happen next.

1:27:19 > 1:27:22Would we really be able to sustain the peace

1:27:22 > 1:27:24that we had finally achieved in 1945?

1:27:24 > 1:27:28Or was the roof going to fall in on us even more than it had before?

1:27:29 > 1:27:33You see anxiety in abstract expressionist painting,

1:27:33 > 1:27:37you see it in bebop, a jazz of extreme intensity of style.

1:27:37 > 1:27:43But American commercial popular music responded to this anxiety

1:27:43 > 1:27:46with the musical equivalent of comfort food.

1:27:46 > 1:27:50# How much is that doggie in the window?

1:27:50 > 1:27:55# The one with the waggly tail... #

1:27:55 > 1:27:58Well, I wasn't doing that well with the record business cos

1:27:58 > 1:28:01Mitch Miller was put in charge and he decided to bring into the world

1:28:01 > 1:28:07a new kind of music which was hokey kind of music and I just resented it.

1:28:07 > 1:28:12Frank Sinatra finds himself being produced by Mitch Miller who

1:28:12 > 1:28:16had that kind of perverse genius in gimmicky pop records that sold

1:28:16 > 1:28:20by the carload, and Miller expected him to make records like this.

1:28:22 > 1:28:26He says, I won't do any of that shit. So, what do I do?

1:28:26 > 1:28:31Who tells Sinatra what to do? Who ever told Sinatra what to do?

1:28:31 > 1:28:33He made it his business,

1:28:33 > 1:28:36going through the deterioration aesthetically

1:28:36 > 1:28:40of the music of that time and still finding good songs to record.

1:28:40 > 1:28:45I was 14 at the time, I was allowed to drink in MacMillan's,

1:28:45 > 1:28:5094th and 3rd and I had loaded the jukebox

1:28:50 > 1:28:52with Sinatra stuff and suddenly...

1:28:55 > 1:28:58# These are the blues

1:29:01 > 1:29:06# Nothing but blues... #

1:29:06 > 1:29:10The Birth Of The Blues literally brought me to my knees.

1:29:10 > 1:29:13The singing is so virile, sensational,

1:29:13 > 1:29:15it's one of the great Sinatra records.

1:29:15 > 1:29:19# They say some people long ago... #

1:29:19 > 1:29:22I played it over and over. Dimes, dimes, dimes, dimes.

1:29:22 > 1:29:26Drinking and drinking and drinking and drinking. A 14-year-old.

1:29:26 > 1:29:29He was a buzz in my young life.

1:29:32 > 1:29:35But he wasn't selling records, no-one was going to see

1:29:35 > 1:29:38the movies and he was making everyone angry with him.

1:29:38 > 1:29:40He owed a lot of money.

1:29:40 > 1:29:43People don't remember the climate then.

1:29:43 > 1:29:48Frank made so many good records at that time that did not sell,

1:29:48 > 1:29:51his behaviour made him persona non grata

1:29:51 > 1:29:55and I thought, if he can't sell a good one, let's try a novelty.

1:29:57 > 1:30:00# My feet were killing me

1:30:00 > 1:30:02# My dogs were barking... #

1:30:02 > 1:30:06So, I said, I'll do it your way now. I'll do the songs.

1:30:06 > 1:30:08Let's see what happens.

1:30:08 > 1:30:11# And then I dreamed two dogs were talking... #

1:30:11 > 1:30:15My heart wasn't in it I didn't even understand what the hell I was doing.

1:30:15 > 1:30:21# It was the doggonest thing you ever heard

1:30:23 > 1:30:24# She said...

1:30:24 > 1:30:25# Momma will bark

1:30:25 > 1:30:27# You look so lovely in the moonlight

1:30:27 > 1:30:29# Yes, but papa will bark

1:30:29 > 1:30:31# Your eyes are shining like the starlight

1:30:31 > 1:30:33# Yes, but mamma will bark

1:30:33 > 1:30:34# Your lips are so inviting

1:30:34 > 1:30:37# Darling, give me one more kiss... #

1:30:37 > 1:30:39DOG HOWLS

1:30:39 > 1:30:43When those records didn't sell and it came time for his renewal

1:30:43 > 1:30:45Columbia just didn't want to re-sign him.

1:30:45 > 1:30:49It ended up finally as a very unhappy parting.

1:30:49 > 1:30:54They were, I think, very happy to get rid of each other at the time.

1:31:06 > 1:31:09# I'm gonna love you

1:31:09 > 1:31:12# Like nobody loves you

1:31:12 > 1:31:15# Come rain or come shine... #

1:31:17 > 1:31:19If somebody in my family had left me a lot of money

1:31:19 > 1:31:22I probably would never have worried about it but I think I was concerned

1:31:22 > 1:31:26that I can't take care of my problems, my family and everything.

1:31:26 > 1:31:28# Come rain or come shine... #

1:31:31 > 1:31:35I was working hard to pay bills and I was working too hard.

1:31:35 > 1:31:37Three shows a night in the Copacabana

1:31:37 > 1:31:39and I got booked at the Capitol Theatre.

1:31:39 > 1:31:41Every week was a week of Mondays

1:31:41 > 1:31:44and it rained every Monday, that kind of feeling.

1:31:44 > 1:31:49# But don't you ever bet me... #

1:31:49 > 1:31:52I was hurting, I was struggling,

1:31:52 > 1:31:54but I was managing to make it because we lowered the keys

1:31:54 > 1:31:56and all that kind of stuff.

1:31:56 > 1:31:59# And you're going to love me... #

1:31:59 > 1:32:02A perfect setting for what happened was a February blizzard night,

1:32:02 > 1:32:07big snowfall - 60 people in the room because the weather was so bad.

1:32:11 > 1:32:19# It seems we stood and talked like this before

1:32:21 > 1:32:27# We looked at each other in the same way then

1:32:27 > 1:32:33# But I can't remember where or when... #

1:32:33 > 1:32:37Suddenly I felt some kind of a snap, something went soft,

1:32:37 > 1:32:39and I went for a note and nothing came out.

1:32:39 > 1:32:42I could feel myself swallowing my own blood.

1:32:42 > 1:32:45I looked at the audience and they looked at me

1:32:45 > 1:32:48and everybody knew that something quite serious had happened

1:32:48 > 1:32:51and I leaned in the microphone and I said, "Goodnight."

1:32:51 > 1:32:54I walked up the stairs and went right to the hotel.

1:32:57 > 1:33:00A lot of his friends and a lot of his associates just left him.

1:33:02 > 1:33:06All the guys who made hundreds of thousands of dollars with me

1:33:06 > 1:33:08never called and said, "What can we do for you?"

1:33:08 > 1:33:11"Do you need any money?" At that point I had nobody.

1:33:11 > 1:33:13The only guy that talked to me was Jimmy Van Heusen

1:33:13 > 1:33:15and he gave me a few dollars for my pocket.

1:33:15 > 1:33:17He was in a terrible state.

1:33:17 > 1:33:21His ego and his self-esteem were at the lowest ebb

1:33:21 > 1:33:25and particularly bad because mine was, frankly, at the peak.

1:33:30 > 1:33:32This is...

1:33:32 > 1:33:33It is appropriate for me because,

1:33:33 > 1:33:36having been a saloon singer all my life...

1:33:38 > 1:33:41..I've become an expert on saloon songs,

1:33:41 > 1:33:42the kind of things that...

1:33:44 > 1:33:47..cause men to cry in their beers...

1:33:48 > 1:33:52..because they're...in trouble with their girls...

1:33:53 > 1:33:57..and they seek little bars and

1:33:57 > 1:34:01it's really a caricature of one such person.

1:34:04 > 1:34:06# Hey, drink up

1:34:06 > 1:34:08# Drink up, all you people

1:34:12 > 1:34:15# Order anything that you see

1:34:17 > 1:34:20# And have fun

1:34:21 > 1:34:24# All you happy people

1:34:26 > 1:34:31# The drinks and the laugh's on me

1:34:38 > 1:34:40# I try to think

1:34:42 > 1:34:45# That love's not around

1:34:48 > 1:34:52# But it's uncomfortably near

1:34:56 > 1:34:58# My poor heart... #

1:34:58 > 1:35:00It was another one of those nights

1:35:00 > 1:35:02when I ended up refusing to sleep with Frank.

1:35:02 > 1:35:07I was half-asleep in my room across the suite and I heard this gunshot.

1:35:07 > 1:35:08It scared the bejesus out of me.

1:35:08 > 1:35:13I didn't know what I was going to find - his brains blown out?

1:35:13 > 1:35:14He was always threatening to do it.

1:35:14 > 1:35:16# Angel eyes

1:35:19 > 1:35:21# That old devil sent... #

1:35:21 > 1:35:24Instead, he was sitting on the bed,

1:35:24 > 1:35:26grinning like a goddamn drunken schoolkid,

1:35:26 > 1:35:28a smoking gun in his hand.

1:35:28 > 1:35:32He'd fired the gun into the fucking pillow.

1:35:33 > 1:35:34# Need I say... #

1:35:34 > 1:35:39And what a night that was. It was a cry for help. I always fell for it.

1:35:40 > 1:35:43And then they were together late one night in the car

1:35:43 > 1:35:45and I could tell they'd both been drinking.

1:35:45 > 1:35:48We had a buzzer at the gate and he said,

1:35:48 > 1:35:51"Nancy, will you please tell Ava that I've asked you for a divorce?"

1:35:51 > 1:35:55I said, "Frank, you're out of your mind," and I hung up.

1:35:55 > 1:35:56Wouldn't tolerate it.

1:35:58 > 1:36:00And she was a real bitch too.

1:36:03 > 1:36:07In the beginning, the press had been really condemning Frank and Ava

1:36:07 > 1:36:10and condoning Nancy for her conduct.

1:36:10 > 1:36:11# Have lots of fun

1:36:13 > 1:36:14# You lovely people... #

1:36:14 > 1:36:16I think, over time, that began to change.

1:36:16 > 1:36:18The press flipped.

1:36:18 > 1:36:22Mom began to take flak for keeping Romeo and Juliet apart.

1:36:25 > 1:36:29But she got legal guidance and she let him go.

1:36:29 > 1:36:33I thought by letting him go that they would end their romance

1:36:33 > 1:36:35and, in time, I always felt he'd come back.

1:36:36 > 1:36:38Always felt that.

1:36:43 > 1:36:47On the days after his divorce from Nancy had become final,

1:36:47 > 1:36:48we had gotten married.

1:36:49 > 1:36:52We were really deeply in love, almost too much in love.

1:36:53 > 1:36:55Things all of a sudden didn't fall in place.

1:36:55 > 1:36:57She was working at Metro, picture here, picture there,

1:36:57 > 1:37:00then came a job to do a picture in Spain.

1:37:01 > 1:37:04This is Pandora.

1:37:05 > 1:37:08She was bold and beautiful...

1:37:08 > 1:37:11desired by every man who met her.

1:37:11 > 1:37:15He was having a very bad time with Ava Gardner.

1:37:15 > 1:37:17She was terrible then, terrible.

1:37:18 > 1:37:23Just grinding her feet into his face in the dust, you know.

1:37:24 > 1:37:27This was a turmoil that the whole world knew about that I was

1:37:27 > 1:37:30chasing around in the world and I was borrowing money to go visit with her.

1:37:30 > 1:37:32I was running away from Frank,

1:37:32 > 1:37:35desperately trying to break up with him.

1:37:35 > 1:37:38I knew that I just couldn't live with him any more.

1:37:38 > 1:37:41I still loved him but the marriage was never going to work.

1:37:45 > 1:37:46The trouble was...

1:37:48 > 1:37:50..Frank and I were too much alike.

1:37:50 > 1:37:51# That old devil sent... #

1:37:53 > 1:37:58He met his match with her. She was sexually free and gorgeous.

1:37:58 > 1:38:00She couldn't be conquered.

1:38:03 > 1:38:07# Need I say, need I say... #

1:38:07 > 1:38:09The fact that we were no longer in the same city,

1:38:09 > 1:38:13let alone the same country, that took the bottom out of everything.

1:38:13 > 1:38:17# Misspent with angel eyes tonight... #

1:38:17 > 1:38:19I became an out-and-out drunk.

1:38:19 > 1:38:21I mean, I was bombed all the time.

1:38:21 > 1:38:24God bless Tootsies, I never paid the debt at Tootsies.

1:38:24 > 1:38:27# Drink up, drink up, all you people... #

1:38:27 > 1:38:33So at four o'clock, of course, this is, like, "Hey, you'd better go home."

1:38:33 > 1:38:35Now he was on 52nd Street, I was staying at Jimmy's,

1:38:35 > 1:38:4057th Street, I walked out and it was, like, 20 degrees,

1:38:40 > 1:38:43so I started walking, walking, walking, suddenly I don't know where

1:38:43 > 1:38:46the hell I am, because the booze really hit me.

1:38:46 > 1:38:47It really hit me like a sledgehammer

1:38:47 > 1:38:50and the next thing I knew there was a flashlight in my eye.

1:38:50 > 1:38:52Somebody was shaking me.

1:38:52 > 1:38:55"You're going to have to get out of here. Come on, get up."

1:38:55 > 1:38:59And the cop grabbed my arm and then he looked at me.

1:38:59 > 1:39:00"Are you Sinatra?"

1:39:06 > 1:39:08I was in somebody's car in New York.

1:39:08 > 1:39:10We stopped at a light and I saw him

1:39:10 > 1:39:12coming past the Capitol like this...

1:39:14 > 1:39:16..walking down the street,

1:39:16 > 1:39:18coat collar, hat,

1:39:18 > 1:39:20and was alone.

1:39:20 > 1:39:23It was the first time that I'd ever seen him alone.

1:39:23 > 1:39:24And nobody was stopping him

1:39:24 > 1:39:27and nobody was doing anything and nobody cared.

1:39:27 > 1:39:29And nobody cared.

1:39:34 > 1:39:37Is the man going to talk about his dark ages

1:39:37 > 1:39:39when his career had that little stroke,

1:39:39 > 1:39:42when his voice ran away from home,

1:39:42 > 1:39:44when his records started selling like used Edsels?

1:39:44 > 1:39:49Nope, the man is an incorrigible optimist, a firm believer in cliches.

1:39:49 > 1:39:53He has a philosophy about trouble. Don't feed it, maybe it'll go away.

1:39:54 > 1:39:58Sure, I've met Frustration and I don't like him either.

1:39:58 > 1:40:02I know Discouragement, Despair and all those other cats.

1:40:02 > 1:40:04But I guess I knew that sooner or later something good

1:40:04 > 1:40:07was bound to happen to me and here's one of the best things that ever did.

1:40:18 > 1:40:20When I read the book From Here To Eternity,

1:40:20 > 1:40:22I said, "I've got to play Maggio."

1:40:22 > 1:40:25I've known a hundred Maggios in my neighbourhood...

1:40:25 > 1:40:26and I may have been one.

1:40:28 > 1:40:32From when the news broke in the trade papers that Columbia had bought it

1:40:32 > 1:40:34and they were to make the film of it,

1:40:34 > 1:40:38I spoke to Harry Cohn, who was then the head of Columbia Pictures,

1:40:38 > 1:40:39and I said, "I'd like to play that."

1:40:39 > 1:40:42He said, "Well," he said, you've never done a dramatic role,

1:40:42 > 1:40:44"you're a guy to sing and dance with Gene Kelly," and I said,

1:40:44 > 1:40:46"But that's the kind of thing I think I can do."

1:40:46 > 1:40:51Sinatra, from the beginning, kept sending cables to Harry Cohn

1:40:51 > 1:40:53and to me, calling himself Maggio.

1:40:53 > 1:40:59Signing Maggio, saying that he was the person to play that part.

1:40:59 > 1:41:03But I do suspect that Ava... went to Harry Cohn and said,

1:41:03 > 1:41:05"He'll die if you don't give him the job."

1:41:05 > 1:41:07Or, "He'll jump off a building site."

1:41:08 > 1:41:10Their marriage was not going swimmingly,

1:41:10 > 1:41:14but he had to get back on his feet. She knew that better than anybody.

1:41:14 > 1:41:16She placed a call to Harry and said,

1:41:16 > 1:41:19"You know who should play Maggio, don't you?"

1:41:19 > 1:41:23That son-of-a-bitch husband of mine!

1:41:23 > 1:41:25That's pretty funny, yeah.

1:41:25 > 1:41:28So finally they said, "All right, let's test Sinatra."

1:41:28 > 1:41:31And Sinatra came up to my office the day of the test and said,

1:41:31 > 1:41:33"How do I play this scene?"

1:41:33 > 1:41:35I said, "Please, all you do is make them laugh

1:41:35 > 1:41:37"and cry at the same time."

1:41:37 > 1:41:40Anyway, he went down and he made the test.

1:41:40 > 1:41:42In the scene when I'm talking to the hooker in the bar,

1:41:42 > 1:41:45I just did what I felt was the natural thing to do

1:41:45 > 1:41:47and we did it once, it was very short.

1:41:47 > 1:41:50I don't think it was more than three minutes and they said,

1:41:50 > 1:41:51"Thank you very much," and I left.

1:41:51 > 1:41:54When I heard that Eli Wallach, who's my dearest friend

1:41:54 > 1:41:56and one of the finest actors in the world...

1:41:56 > 1:41:59- when I heard that he tested for it I said, "Forget it."- Yeah.

1:41:59 > 1:42:00"He's going to win it,

1:42:00 > 1:42:05"because he's a seasoned actor and he's really good at...

1:42:05 > 1:42:07"a fine performer."

1:42:12 > 1:42:16For years and years, there's this story that Frank Sinatra

1:42:16 > 1:42:19got the role in From Here To Eternity

1:42:19 > 1:42:23cos his Mafia friends threatened the producers of that movie.

1:42:23 > 1:42:26If I had this part in the picture, you know,

1:42:26 > 1:42:28it puts me right back up on top again.

1:42:29 > 1:42:31I'm going to make him an offer he can't refuse.

1:42:34 > 1:42:35That's absurd.

1:42:35 > 1:42:39The Godfather thing is a wonderful story,

1:42:39 > 1:42:41it just doesn't happen to be true as documentary.

1:42:43 > 1:42:46Wallach's agent asked for twice what Wallach had made.

1:42:46 > 1:42:49Cohn absolutely refused to do that.

1:42:49 > 1:42:52That was not the way Harry ran his studio.

1:42:52 > 1:42:56But I said, "Let's go back and look at the Sinatra test again,

1:42:56 > 1:42:59"maybe it's better than we thought it was."

1:42:59 > 1:43:00Wallach looked like a prizefighter.

1:43:00 > 1:43:02He could take care of himself.

1:43:02 > 1:43:05Sinatra looked like a plucked chicken,

1:43:05 > 1:43:09just pitiful and that helped in the characterisation.

1:43:09 > 1:43:12He was all there, you didn't have to play it.

1:43:13 > 1:43:16So we started to shoot the picture.

1:43:29 > 1:43:32And all I did was go to work every morning, be in bed at 10.30.

1:43:32 > 1:43:36Once I got it, I said, "I'm going to work my ass off for this thing."

1:43:36 > 1:43:40- CHANTING:- One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four.

1:43:41 > 1:43:44The best help I ever had was from Monty Clift

1:43:44 > 1:43:47and Monty was a wonderful dissector of a script

1:43:47 > 1:43:51and we made changes, little tiny changes, constantly.

1:43:51 > 1:43:54A couple of times, I said to Fred, "This is new to me.

1:43:54 > 1:43:56"I want to check with you to find out if the approach that I have

1:43:56 > 1:43:59"is proper," and he would press me up about the whole thing.

1:43:59 > 1:44:00I went down to Honolulu with Freddy,

1:44:00 > 1:44:03I said, "There must be something missing in my script."

1:44:03 > 1:44:07It went from scene number 162 to 164 and he said, "Well, do something.

1:44:07 > 1:44:09"You know, what would a drunk do at the bar?"

1:44:09 > 1:44:11And I said, "Well, drunks do a lot of things in bars."

1:44:11 > 1:44:14Bartender, whisky, large whisky.

1:44:15 > 1:44:16Excuse me.

1:44:16 > 1:44:17Hey, buddy.

1:44:18 > 1:44:19Sam.

1:44:21 > 1:44:25Hey! Coming out, fellas, the terror of Gimbels' basement.

1:44:25 > 1:44:27HE EXHALES Stand back there. Now here we go.

1:44:27 > 1:44:30A seven for Daddy, five deuce. Hey, seven.

1:44:31 > 1:44:35Snake eyes. That's the story of my life.

1:44:37 > 1:44:41Sinatra was doing the movie for 8,000 for eight weeks' work

1:44:41 > 1:44:45which was OK if you were a mechanic but was not big-star money.

1:44:45 > 1:44:49I did it because I knew I was going to survive and I knew one day

1:44:49 > 1:44:52I was going to wake up and say, "OK, it's all over."

1:44:52 > 1:44:56I cleaned the house, clean sweep is what I did.

1:44:56 > 1:44:57Got rid of my accountant,

1:44:57 > 1:45:00I straightened myself out, I stopped drinking.

1:45:00 > 1:45:02I was Vice-President, in charge of artists and repertoire,

1:45:02 > 1:45:05and Sinatra had hit bottom and I mean bottom

1:45:05 > 1:45:07and Frank could not get a record contract

1:45:07 > 1:45:09and I didn't know Frank, I'd never met him,

1:45:09 > 1:45:12and I got a call one day from the William Morris Agency,

1:45:12 > 1:45:13a man named Sam Weisbord,

1:45:13 > 1:45:16and he said, "We've just taken on Sinatra as his agents."

1:45:16 > 1:45:18He said, "Would you be interested in signing him?"

1:45:18 > 1:45:22and I said, "Sure," and he said, "You would?"

1:45:22 > 1:45:24I said, "Sure, his talent's still there, bring him in,

1:45:24 > 1:45:26"I'd like to sign him."

1:45:26 > 1:45:28# What a world

1:45:28 > 1:45:29# What a life

1:45:29 > 1:45:31# I'm in love. #

1:45:33 > 1:45:38On 30th April 1953, he recorded I've Got The World On A String

1:45:38 > 1:45:41and Don't Worry About Me and didn't look back.

1:45:41 > 1:45:43# Lucky me

1:45:43 > 1:45:46# Can't you see I'm in love? #

1:45:47 > 1:45:51It was a brand-new guy, a certain confidence

1:45:51 > 1:45:55after coming through hell and getting a contract at Capitol.

1:45:55 > 1:45:57# I've been a silly so-and-so... #

1:45:57 > 1:45:59When I went over to Capitol Records,

1:45:59 > 1:46:01Nelson was what they call the "house arranger".

1:46:01 > 1:46:04He was writing for practically everybody,

1:46:04 > 1:46:05all of the singers on the label,

1:46:05 > 1:46:08and we got started pretty good and we just left it that way.

1:46:08 > 1:46:11# Got the string around my finger

1:46:11 > 1:46:13# What a world... #

1:46:13 > 1:46:16A lot of the things that we laid out together were done

1:46:16 > 1:46:18with his suggestive phrases.

1:46:18 > 1:46:22Frank had enough background in classical music

1:46:22 > 1:46:25to be able to describe what he wanted.

1:46:25 > 1:46:28He just became in charge of everything.

1:46:28 > 1:46:33That control which had always been hovering in Sinatra's soul

1:46:33 > 1:46:35was now accepted.

1:46:37 > 1:46:39I went to the art department.

1:46:39 > 1:46:41I said, "Can you sketch me a cover of a street corner with a guy

1:46:41 > 1:46:44"leaning against a lamppost smoking a cigarette?"

1:46:44 > 1:46:45Then I sat with Nelson and I said,

1:46:45 > 1:46:50"OK, we want songs belonging to a title for Songs For Young Lovers."

1:46:50 > 1:46:52And that was the album.

1:46:53 > 1:46:56And this thing took off like a goddamn rocket.

1:46:56 > 1:46:57Zoom!

1:47:11 > 1:47:16From Here To Eternity marked a change in his career for ever

1:47:16 > 1:47:22because people were forced to accept him as a force in drama

1:47:22 > 1:47:25and I don't think they ever saw him like that.

1:47:25 > 1:47:27Prew...

1:47:27 > 1:47:30Prew, listen to me.

1:47:30 > 1:47:31Fatso done it, Prew.

1:47:31 > 1:47:34He likes to whack me in the gut.

1:47:34 > 1:47:36He asked me if it hurts

1:47:36 > 1:47:38and I spit at him like always.

1:47:38 > 1:47:43'I think what made people enjoy it and like it

1:47:43 > 1:47:47'was my inner love for doing it and wanting it and needing it so badly.'

1:47:47 > 1:47:51I had to get out, Prew. I had to get out.

1:47:53 > 1:47:55At Hollywood's Pantages Theatre,

1:47:55 > 1:47:57it's the motion picture industry's night of nights

1:47:57 > 1:48:01and the film capital's top stars turn out for the annual presentation

1:48:01 > 1:48:03of the coveted Oscars.

1:48:03 > 1:48:06Tell me about your recollections of Oscar night.

1:48:06 > 1:48:10I bought a gold coin with an Oscar on it, like he was going to win,

1:48:10 > 1:48:12and he came to my house for dinner

1:48:12 > 1:48:16and he took Nancy and Frankie with him.

1:48:16 > 1:48:18Whoa, that was quite a night, I was ten.

1:48:18 > 1:48:21I look so cute in my navy blue suit.

1:48:21 > 1:48:26Little Nancy was wearing my little ermine cape that he had given me.

1:48:26 > 1:48:28It was a thrill and he was jubilant

1:48:28 > 1:48:30and I said, "You're going to get it."

1:48:32 > 1:48:34The winner is Frank Sinatra in From Here To Eternity.

1:48:34 > 1:48:36RAPTUROUS APPLAUSE

1:48:54 > 1:48:56Erm...

1:48:56 > 1:48:57That's a clever opening.

1:48:57 > 1:48:58LAUGHTER

1:49:00 > 1:49:01Ladies and gentlemen...

1:49:03 > 1:49:08..I'm deeply thrilled and very moved and I really, really don't know

1:49:08 > 1:49:12what to say because this is a whole new kind of thing, you know, I...

1:49:13 > 1:49:17..song and dance man type stuff and, er...

1:49:17 > 1:49:19I'm terribly pleased

1:49:19 > 1:49:21and if I start thanking everybody then I'll do a one-reeler up here,

1:49:21 > 1:49:26so I'd better not and, er, I'd just like to say, however,

1:49:26 > 1:49:30that they're doing a lot of songs here tonight but nobody asked me...

1:49:30 > 1:49:31LAUGHTER

1:49:33 > 1:49:36I love you, though. Thank you very much. I'm absolutely thrilled.

1:49:44 > 1:49:49# Fairy tales can come true

1:49:49 > 1:49:52# It can happen to you

1:49:52 > 1:49:56# If you're young at heart

1:49:58 > 1:50:01# For it's hard, you will find

1:50:01 > 1:50:04# To be narrow of mind

1:50:04 > 1:50:06# If you're young at heart

1:50:09 > 1:50:14# You can go to extremes with impossible schemes

1:50:14 > 1:50:16# You can laugh... #

1:50:16 > 1:50:20He was very, very moved by that. It stunned him.

1:50:20 > 1:50:25# And life gets more exciting with each passing day... #

1:50:25 > 1:50:27I think that everybody was disappointed

1:50:27 > 1:50:30there wasn't some extended celebration.

1:50:30 > 1:50:31He wanted to be with himself.

1:50:31 > 1:50:35He said, "I just went home, parked the car and I walked.

1:50:36 > 1:50:38"I walked."

1:50:38 > 1:50:40# And here is the best part

1:50:40 > 1:50:42# You have a head start

1:50:42 > 1:50:44# If you are among

1:50:44 > 1:50:51# The very young at heart. #

1:51:02 > 1:51:07# There's a somebody I'm longing to see

1:51:08 > 1:51:13# I hope that she turns out to be

1:51:15 > 1:51:21# Someone who'll watch over me

1:51:27 > 1:51:32# I'm a little lamb who's lost in the wood

1:51:33 > 1:51:36# I know I could

1:51:36 > 1:51:40# Could always be good

1:51:40 > 1:51:46# To one who'll watch over me

1:51:49 > 1:51:55# Although I may not be the man

1:51:55 > 1:52:00# Some girls think of as handsome

1:52:02 > 1:52:10# But to her heart I'll carry the key

1:52:16 > 1:52:19# Won't you tell her, please

1:52:19 > 1:52:21# To put on some speed

1:52:21 > 1:52:24# Follow my lead?

1:52:24 > 1:52:29# Oh, how I need

1:52:29 > 1:52:33# Someone to watch

1:52:33 > 1:52:39# Over me. #