all the way

today is sinatra's birthday...but then, i'm sure you already knew that. his full name was francis albert sinatra...of course, you already knew that ,too.

i have alot to do today, so i'm gonna miss out on a good deal. turner classic movies is playing sinatra movies all day long in deference to this greatest of american singers. although he was also quite an actor (even won an oscar) , even gene kelly couldn't teach him to dance very well. the movies they made together are an interesting collation - sinatra paling in the footsteps of a master, while kelly's mediocre singing is exacerbated by being paired with "the voice." nevertheless, i love these old musicals. fortunately i have most of these movies already on tape, so it won't matter if i miss them this morning.

my first awareness of sinatra took place when i was about 16. i was at home on a saturday afternoon and watching tv. whatever game i was watching was over, so i decided to see what else was on. we only had 4 channels, so this little endeavor didn't take very long. one of the local broadcasters usually showed old movies on saturday afternoons. typically, it was the three stooges or abbot and costello - this time it was a sinatra movie. i didn't recognize him or the music, but i thought the movie was really cool. it turned out to be "the joker is wild." this movie is a true story of the life of joe e. lewis. joe began his career as a crooner in the chicago of the 1920's. after being nearly killed by two knife-wielding hit-men, he was forced into a different career path. he preceded don rickles in the self-deprecating, heckler-baiting, wife-degrading form of comedy. it doesn't sound so funny when put this way, but it always gets a good laugh out of me. joe and frank had become friends ,so i'll guess the movie has an element of truth woven into the fabric of poetic license.

after discovering sinatra, it still took several years before i began to be a voracious listener. over the years i have collected a stockpile of sinatra media. i own something like: 75 cd's, 50 albums, 10 books, 14 movies. it used to be that i listened to nothing but fas. i guess my obsession is waning because i only listen to him every other day. what are you gonna do?

no one asked, but i'm going to have to classify sinatra as the biggest talent of the 20th century. music, movies, television, pop culture. for a long time, he defined the cool in our society. and don't try it with the elvis garbage. his movies were celluloid sewage, and i don't love his music, anyway. this is just my opinion.

p.s. in the three movies sinatra and kelly made together in the 40's, his love interest was often betty garret. she got the third billing in the credits ahead of ann miller, vera-ellen, and jules munshen. she was obviously a big deal... and then she disappeared. she reappeared in the seventies as laverne and shirley's landlady, edna babish. for a while i wondered where she had gone, and then one day i got my answer. i had assumed she retired long enough to raise her family, and then jumped back in the game. this may be true but the primary reason for her career disruption is more nefarious. she and -particularly- her husband were blacklisted in hollywood. in the 50's, they moved to france, and continued to write under pseudonyms and noms de plume. way to go tailgunner joe! too bad you weren't as successful at keeping america safe from you.