Frank Sinatra

Francis Albert Sinatra (December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was a singer, actor, and nightclub entertainer born in Hoboken, New Jersey, who became one of the most recognized American performers of the twentieth century. Described by The New York Times as "the first modern pop superstar," Sinatra reigned supreme on the music charts, in movie theaters, and on concert stages during a 60-year career. Over his lifetime, he evolved from swoon-inducing teen idol to sophisticated interpreter of the Great American Songbook to introspective musical elder statesman, alternately known as "The Voice," "The Chairman of the Board," and "Ol' Blue Eyes." New Jersey shaped the man, his voice, and his worldview in fundamental ways — from the working-class tenements of Hoboken to the roadhouse stages of Englewood Cliffs — and the state has long claimed him as its most famous native son.

Early Life in Hoboken

Francis Albert Sinatra was born on December 12, 1915, in a tenement at 415 Monroe Street in Hoboken, New Jersey, the only child of Italian immigrants Natalina "Dolly" Garaventa and Antonino Martino "Marty" Sinatra. His mother was from Genoa, while his father was from Sicily. Sinatra weighed 13.5 pounds at birth and had to be delivered with the aid of forceps, which caused severe scarring to his left cheek, neck, and left ear, and lifelong damage to his eardrum. Sinatra's grandmother resuscitated him by running him under cold water, and because of his injuries, his baptism at St. Francis Church in Hoboken was delayed until April 2, 1916.

Sinatra grew up in the Italian section of Hoboken, apart from the German-Irish section, in a town where Italians were the underdogs in society. His mother, "Dolly," was a midwife and ward leader during her years on Monroe Street. His father, Anthony Martin Sinatra, was a boxer who, though born in Sicily, went by the name of "Marty O'Brien" in order to be allowed to fight in Hoboken's Irish-only gymnasiums. As the family's circumstances improved, they moved through several Hoboken addresses. They moved to 703 Park Avenue, in a more prestigious area of Hoboken, in 1927, when Frank was 11, and in 1932, when Frank was 16, the Sinatras moved a block closer to the waterfront to 841 Garden Street.

Sinatra was a rare only child, in a family whose fortunes increased through his mother's savvy political connections. In fact, one of young Frank's nicknames, "Slacksy O'Brien," stemmed from his family's ability to buy him so many pairs of dressy pants. Writer Pete Hamill noted in a tribute to Sinatra that when the singer's career began, "there was an America that now doesn't exist very much, a kind of blue-collar America, industrial America… and nobody had represented that before."

Coming Up Through New Jersey

Frank Sinatra was 15 when he quit school and began singing at church-basement dances and social clubs in his native Hoboken. He began performing in local Hoboken social clubs and sang for free on radio stations such as WAAT in Jersey City. To please his mother, Sinatra enrolled at Drake Business School, but departed after 11 months. Dolly found him working as a delivery boy at the Jersey Observer newspaper, where his godfather Frank Garrick worked; Sinatra later worked as a riveter at the Tietjen and Lang shipyard.

As he developed his craft, Sinatra hooked up with a trio called the Three Flashes, and together they passed an audition for Major Edward Bowes' Amateur Hour radio program — the American Idol of its day. Bowes made Sinatra part of the group and renamed it the Hoboken Four. That episode was short-lived, and Sinatra went back to singing locally. In spring 1938, when he was 22, Sinatra took a job as a singing waiter at the Rustic Cabin, a roadhouse on a desolate stretch of Route 9W in Englewood Cliffs.

In 1938, Sinatra found employment as a singing waiter at the Rustic Cabin in Englewood Cliffs, for which he was paid $15 a week. The roadhouse was connected to the WNEW radio station in New York City, and Sinatra began performing with a group live during the Dance Parade show. It was there that trumpeter Harry James discovered Sinatra and hired him to sing with his big band for $75 a week. Within six months, Sinatra joined the more-established Tommy Dorsey band.

In March 1939, saxophone player Frank Mane, who knew Sinatra from Jersey City radio station WAAT, arranged for him to audition and record "Our Love," his first solo studio recording. Sinatra also met his future wife, Nancy Barbato, in Long Branch, New Jersey, in the summer of 1934 while working as a lifeguard. He married Nancy and moved into Jersey City before eventually relocating to California.

Career Milestones and New Jersey Connections

Six months after joining the Dorsey band, Sinatra had his first No. 1 hit, the ballad "I'll Never Smile Again." In September 1942, Sinatra set out on his own, signed a recording deal with Columbia Records, and made his solo concert debut at Newark's Mosque Theater. By December, he made history with a sold-out performance at New York's Paramount Theatre, inspiring hysteria among the teen girls — known as bobby soxers — in the audience. An extended stay at the Paramount, and more bobby-soxer hysteria, followed in 1944.

Frank Sinatra was America's first teen heartthrob, earning another nickname — "Swoonatra" — after girls started fainting at his concerts during the 1940s. Boys imitated his slicked-back hair and cocky demeanor. All across the country — and then the world — sighing, swooning, swaggering fans fell in love with that voice, with an intimate style of singing that brought the listener inside the song, alongside the singer.

In 1946, Sinatra released his debut album, The Voice of Frank Sinatra. He then signed with Capitol Records and released several albums with arrangements by Nelson Riddle, notably In the Wee Small Hours (1955) and Songs for Swingin' Lovers! (1956). In 1960, Sinatra left Capitol Records to start his own record label, Reprise Records, releasing a string of successful albums.

His remarkable comeback began with the release in 1953 of From Here to Eternity, a dramatic film about American soldiers in Hawaii on the eve of World War II. Sinatra won raves as the cocky but vulnerable Maggio; the performance earned him an Academy Award and alerted audiences to the breadth of Sinatra's artistry. In addition to his Oscar for From Here to Eternity, Sinatra earned four Golden Globes, 10 personal Grammys, an Emmy, a Cecil B. DeMille Award, a Peabody, a Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and a 1983 Kennedy Center Medal of Honor.

In 1993, at the age of 77, he enjoyed a last hurrah on the pop charts with Frank Sinatra Duets, a compilation of new recordings pairing the singer with a range of fellow musical icons from Bono to Barbra Streisand.

Sinatra's Hoboken Legacy

Even as Sinatra became a global phenomenon, his connection to Hoboken remained a defining element of his identity and public image. Even after Frank Sinatra traded Jersey for Hollywood, he returned to visit his parents on Hudson Street or to buy chocolate-covered apricots at Lepore's. Marty and Dolly remained in Hoboken, finally settling in a grand house at 909 Hudson Street that Frank had bought for them.

The city notably honored Sinatra on October 30, 1947, when it celebrated Sinatra Day. He was driven up Washington Street on a fire truck by his father, where screaming fans and friends gathered to watch him receive the keys to the city. In 1947 Frank Sinatra made his last public appearance in the city for nearly forty years — until he returned to accompany Ronald Reagan to St. Ann's Feast in 1984.

The bronze star the Hoboken Historical Museum had installed at the singer's birthplace two years before his death was soon surrounded by candles, handmade signs, flowers, notes, photographs, and even a loaf of coal-fired oven bread, a Hoboken specialty that the singer sometimes had shipped to California. The four-story, eight-family, cold-water apartment house of Sinatra's youth no longer exists. After a major fire in 1967, the building was seized by the city and demolished a year later. In 1996, the Hoboken Historical Museum designed and installed a 3-foot-square bronze plaque in the sidewalk commemorating Sinatra's birthplace.

Today, Hoboken keeps the Sinatra legacy alive through multiple landmarks and institutions. The self-guided Frank Sinatra Walking Tour begins at the star's birthplace at 415 Monroe Street and ends at his statue in Frank Sinatra Memorial Park on Frank Sinatra Drive. Leo's Grandevous restaurant on Grand Street, said to have "The World's Greatest Frank Sinatra Jukebox," was voted one of the "50 Greatest Bars in the United States" by GQ magazine.

In 1995, at a birthday tribute, Bruce Springsteen called Sinatra "the patron saint of New Jersey." Sinatra was inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame in the Class of 2008 under Performing Arts & Entertainment.

Death and Remembrance

Frank Sinatra died on May 14, 1998, in Los Angeles, California. When the news broke that Frank Sinatra had died, fans came to Hoboken to pay respects and to mourn. Sinatra was also known for his lifetime of philanthropy and his activism on both ends of the political spectrum. His reputation as a product of New Jersey's immigrant, working-class communities has only grown in the decades since his death. The New Jersey State government has recognized his influence through educational materials produced by the New Jersey Historical Commission, which described Sinatra as one of many New Jersey artists who shaped popular music worldwide, though none loomed quite as large.