A Stranger in the Night (Part I)

The Chairman of the Board

Commemorating the 20th Anniversary of Frank Sinatra's Last Concert at the United Center which I attended with my buddy Dutch and two English au pairs. Part II will be about the concert.

Esquire Magazine April 1966

Frank Sinatra Has A Cold is widely considered to be the greatest magazine profile ever written which Esquire published in April 1966.  The author was a fellow Italian-American from New Jersey, Gay Talese. The subject matter was gathered during the previous December just as Sinatra was turning 50. Sinatra had recently won Grammys for Best Album and Song (September of My Years/It Was A Very Good Year) and would do the same in 1966 with Strangers In The Night.  He was dating 20 year old Mia Farrow. Already in his rear view mirror was an impressive and underrated movie career (he was superb in The Man With The Golden Arm and The Manchurian Candidate).that included an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in  From Here to Eternity. Late November 1966 would see Frank take his now young bride Mia to Truman Capote's Party of The Century: the Black and White Ball at The Plaza Hotel. Everybody who was anybody was there...or wanted to be. As the magical night wore on, Capote sensed his great triumph was about to turn into a pumpkin as Frank motioned to Mia that it was time to head over to his favorite watering hole Jilly's Saloon. In a panic, Capote raced over and jumped in front of Frank with arms outstretched while pleading...begging Frank not to leave as he knew his departure would suck all the energy out of the room.  Sorry Tru, Frank Sinatra Has An Itch.

Frank & new bride Mia Farrow arriving at Truman Capote's Black & White Ball November 1966

Frank Sinatra was America's first Pop Idol. These days he is often thought of as a style icon from those boozy Vegas Rat Pack shenanigans that haven't aged well on youtube videos.  I can see how it was novel, spontaneous, and fun to see live (while also drunk) but I prefer to think of him primarily as an Artist who was the best interpreter of the Great American Songbook with his volatile temperament and eventful life giving him a very close acquaintance with heartbreak, loneliness, remorse, and triumph and our knowing of his ups and downs makes these songs far more than clever lyrics, rhythm, and melody.

Frank with The Love of His Life: Ava Gardner

For the many recent immigrants and their families, Frank was a kid from the neighborhood who made it big and never forgot where he came from.  Italians, Irish, Greeks, as well as other ethnic groups such as my friend King's Assyrians looked up to Frank because he was always good about acknowledging regular guys from the neighborhood such as the bellhops, waiters, cab drivers...or mail men such as my Greek friend Pete Poulos.  King told me that back in the '40s every time Sinatra's train arrived at Chicago's Union Station he'd summon all the black Pullman porters to meet him on the platform and peel off a crisp C-Note for each of them.  He helped numerous people get their start or make it big in show business including Sammy Davis Jr. and Quincy Jones.  When former heavyweight champion Joe Louis was down and out, Frank stepped in got him back on his feet and a job as greeter in a casino and later paid all expenses for his funeral and looked after his widow. He did the same for Sammy Davis Jr and others less famous.

My own personal connection with Frank Sinatra is primarily from sitting with my friend King in Ranalli's Pizzeria listening to the old standards; mostly just the two of us after the crowd had cleared out. There was no chatter; just King having Frank take him back to someplace or someone from long ago and me marveling at a perfect collaboration between a Cole Porter, Nelson Riddle, and the 20th Century's Greatest Singer and wondering about all the other tortured souls who listen to these same songs trying to make peace with their past.





**Editor's Note: GSL mistakenly thought Frank's last concert was October 24 (the knucklehead was looking at the date of the review) but in fact was October 22, 1994.  Since we missed the actual anniversary anyway, the post about the concert will be this Monday.

The King and I (Intro)

Middleweight Champion Rocky Graziano

I went on my morning walk along the lake preoccupied with my next two Sinatra posts commemorating his very last concert that I attended precisely 20 years ago this Friday. To really do Frank justice, and it's very important to me that I do, I came to the realization I had to first introduce my late friend 'King' who died in 2004 at age 77. I'll be writing much more about him in the coming weeks.

King's actual name was Ephraim Solomon nicknamed 'Neno' as a boy but upon becoming a very promising young middleweight prizefighter in the early '50s was given the moniker 'King Solomon' and was famous throughout Chicago and the sporting world as the next great middleweight. One of my favorite pics that got mislaid was a pic of King, Rocky Graziano (above), and some other Italian street tough all in nice looking suits from about 1952.  The pic was of King at the very pinnacle of his life. He had recently won all 6 of his first professional bouts by knockout and had just been featured in Ring Magazine (wearing a crown!), the Bible of Boxing, which in those days had a huge circulation and much larger readership. What struck me most was how King dominated the picture while standing next to a former middleweight champion of the world who was a household name. King was bigger, much better looking, and had an expression of fire and fury as he was glaring at the photographer and likely threatening to "split his head open like a melon" to use one of his favorite phrases.  Rocky looked to be the one glad to be in a pic with King.

Paul Newman as Rocky Graziano in Somebody Up There Likes Me

King never became that great middleweight champion and only because he let his demons win. His demons weren't drugs or alcohol but how he handled a breakup with a vivacious redhead he loved with all his heart.  To spite himself and I suspect to play the martyr in her eyes he started losing fights he could easily win, refused to train, and finally his backers, managers, and trainers gave up on him just as he had given up on himself.  It was a crushing blow to his Assyrian immigrant father, his brothers, and all the very close knit Assyrians in their little enclave in the Old Town neighborhood. He carried this albatross of self immolation the rest of his life

King was even more impressive out of the ring.  He had a roguish charm women found very attractive and he captivated nearly everyone he came into contact with his colorful extemporaneous philosophical monologues on everything from prizefighting, women, politics, and anything that struck his fancy. Pulitzer Prize winning author, radio host, and actor Studs Terkel was a huge fan and featured King most prominently in several of his books under the clever alias 'Kid Pharaoh'  Stud's interviews are archived at The Chicago History Museum and I occasionally listen to his interviews with King online. One of those interviews can be found here (scroll down to find Kid Pharaoh Parts 1 and 2).  When screen legend Bette Davis was in town during the '60s and '70s she had King take her to dinner and a show....nothing sexual he insisted only that she found his company stimulating. Mob boss Sam Giancana loved having King join him for lunch. I will go into more depth during my multi- installment feature on King in the coming weeks.

Screen Legend Bette Davis had King squire her around town during the '60s & '70s

From about 1990 until his death in October 2004 I either talked to or was with King nearly every day. One of our favorite hangouts was the old Ranalli's Pizzeria in Lincoln Park where we'd go and every night after we settled in he'd give me the signal to play his favorites on the jukebox and each song took him on a reverie....likely an old flame. He loved (and knew) the jazz singer Dinah Washington, a Billy Joel song Just the Way You Are and I'd always close it with selections from Sinatra's Reprise album including his torch song  The Summer Wind. Frank was his favorite.