Sunday, November 14, 2010
www.philly.com
THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER
When Sinatra rose, fell, and rose again follows Sinatra’s career from the beginnings of his precipitous climb, through the loss of his radio, movie, television and recording deals, to his remarkable revival.
Reviewed by Chris Foran
T
he Frank Sinatra most people know, or think they know, is the Chairman of the Board: the swaggering man’s man surrounded by booze, broads, and bada-bing — and who could, when he wanted to, belt out one heck of a tune. But before he was the Chairman, he was the Voice, the crooner whose dulcet tones left young girls swooning, young men steaming, Hollywood beckoning, and starlets in hot pursuit. And then, when he had conIt’s rightly quered the world, he just about lost it all. considered James Kaplan, in Frank: The Voice, charts the improbable the rise, crash-and-burn, and even greatest more improbable revival of Sicomeback natra’s career, punctuated by the night in 1954 when he won in showan Oscar for his performance in From Here to Eternity. business On the way up, as Kaplan history. spells out, Sinatra learned his craft while allying himself with anyone who could advance his career. Although he admired and respected talent, he wasn’t so good with people: Sinatra, in Kaplan’s reading, bullied, cajoled, betrayed, and abused just about everyone in his life, all in pursuit of being the next big thing. And when he got to the top, those same traits fueled his downfall. How far down? By the end of 1952, Sinatra had lost his radio show, his TV show, his record label deal, his agent, his movie studio contract — and was on the verge of losing the one true obsession of his life outside his career: actress Ava Gardner, his wife. And then, in little more than 12 months, he rebuilt it all (except his relationship with Gardner; they separated in 1953, and divorced four years later), conquering Hollywood with that Oscar and, thanks to arranger Nelson Riddle and a new recording deal at Capitol Records, the music business.
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ERINN HARTMAN
From the book jacket
It’s considered the greatest comeback in showbiz history, and rightly so. But in Frank: The Voice, the journey back is filled with regret, hostility and disappointment — all reflections of the tortured artist at the heart of it all. To relate the story of the man riding this roller coaster, Kaplan decided he’d try to get inside Sinatra’s head. And not just Sinatra’s: We get Kaplan’s versions of interior monologues for many of the people he embraced, relied on, and, just as often, abused or disappointed along the way. It’s a popular strategy among celebrity biographers. But it’s also fraught with peril, particularly when re-creating the worlds of figures whose every move has been chronicled in big headlines and
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iiii Excellent, iii Good, ii Fair, i Poor
James Kaplan
The Voice By James Kaplan Doubleday. 786 pp. $35)
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The identity of the featured celebrity is found within the answers of the puzzle. Unscramble the letters noted with asterisks to find the solution.
Sunday Prime Time (cc) Closed captioned 6:00
CBS # ABC & NBC * PBS , MNT 1 PBS 7 T FOX = WYBE C PBS G WGTW P WTVE S CW Y ION ≠ TELE Æ UNI ± WFMZ µ
3/3/3 6/6/6 10/10/10 12/12/12 17/17/7 23/23/23 15/2/9 35/35/35 39/39/39 48/48/48 68/95/20 16/9/4 61/61/2 62/62/15 37/65/13 55/59/19
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1. Actor on “Rules of Engagement” 8. Classic Verdi opera 9. Prefix for space or dynamics 10. Role on “CSI” (2) 14. Diamond, for one 15. Ghana’s official lang. 16. Baseball’s Mel 17. Francis or Murray 18. “__-Devil”; 1989 Meryl Streep movie 19. Conferences; sessions: abbr. 20. “Terminator 3: __ of the Machines” 24. Five years ago 27. Engrave 28. “Hollywood Squares” win 29. “Apocalypse __” 32. Zedong and others 33. Actor on “CSI: NY” (2) 36. __ out a living; gets by
paparazzi pictures. And, particularly in the case of Sinatra, there are just too many conflicting sources to get a good read on what really motivated him, beyond a burning desire to be No. 1. More problematic in Frank: The Voice are the sources Kaplan relies on to get inside his subject. Some of his sources — in particular, Kaplan’s interviews with those present at the creation of Sinatra’s stardom — give the storytelling authority and life. For example, singer Jo Stafford, who was there when Sinatra joined Tommy Dorsey, describes how Sinatra changed the game just by singing one song with Dorsey’s big band, the gig that made him a national star. “Everyone up until then was sounding like [Bing] Crosby,” Stafford recalled, “but this was a whole new sound.” But other sources are less authentic. Kaplan, for example, relies for a big chunk of his story on information from Kitty Kelley’s scathing and factually problematic biography His Way. (Among His Way’s more entertaining inconsistencies: On the dates Kelley says she interviewed former Rat Packer Peter Lawford, he was on his deathbed, and, in one case, already dead for two weeks.) In part because of his reliance on such inconsistent material, Kaplan’s often brutal portrait feels less like a revelation and more like a legend that’s been printed before. In the Sinatra of Frank: The Voice, he didn’t grow into the role of Chairman of the Board — he always was Chairman of the Board. Chris Foran is assistant entertainment editor at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, where this review first appeared.
Answers to Last Week’s Puzzle
THE AL L BACH I A ADDR CO R DD I CO P S EO J ENN ANN BOY
T HOM HAHA E LOR E E L N E C T R T I N A F I S C S LA P HAMS
UMA N EW T T E I LMO UA T T UT H S HE R EVA R E Y
Solution America Ferrera 37. “__ Is Sleeping”; 1990 Judge Reinhold movie 38. “__ __ Standing”
DOWN 1. Electrician’s task 2. Fred Astaire’s sister and others 3. “__ Doll”; hit 1964 song by the Four Seasons 4. “You __?”; words from Lurch on “The Addams Family” 5. Role on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show”
H17
New Recordings
Book Review
Frank
PA
6. Circular treats 7. “__ to Alaska”; 1960 John Wayne movie 8. Title for 86 and 99 on “Get Smart” 11. Eggar’s initials 12. “__ American Haunting”; 2005 Sissy Spacek film 13. Sault __. Marie 14. GI’s destination in the ’70s, for short 20. Actress Leah 21. Like letters written in a slanted style 22. Bawl out 23. Words from the hard of hearing 24. __ Howard 25. “America’s Next Top __” 26. Part of a screwdriver 29. “Empty __” 30. “The __”; 2003-07 series for Rachel Bilson 31. “Frasier” setting: abbr. 34. Suffix for book or cook 35. Skirt’s edge
NEW RECORDINGS from H4
Mazurkas and other piano works Cedric Tiberghien (Harmonia Mundi iiii)
Stragglers? Interlopers? Whatever they are, some of the best Chopin discs are the late arrivals in the composer’s waning 200th anniversary. Canada-based Janina Fialkowska has made more than her share of distinguished Chopin discs, but perhaps recording live with an orchestra has inspired her to surpass herself in a manner of playing that exercises daring flexibility, allowing her to sparkle in the extreme one minute and reveal her soul the next. Somehow — and partly thanks to conductor Tovey — she maintains long-range sweep of the pieces. Among recent Chopin concerto discs, this is among the best. Cedric Tiberghien previously recorded the Chopin ballades in performances that were admirably probing but felt intellectually contrived and not yet fully formed. Only a few years later, contrivance is fleeting in these thoroughly original, fully realized interpretations. Though his mazurkas are sometimes too mercurial to dance properly, they always speak in great detail and often with great charm. In his first recording in decades, 76-year-old Agustin Anievas, who is playing more since retiring from the Brooklyn College faculty, still commands demanding works such as Chopin’s Etudes Op. 10 with an almost classical sense of poise, but with expressive subtleties that could only come from a senior pianist. As good as the etudes are, the main attraction of this disc is the Schumann Fantasy: The deeper emotional underpinning of the technical challenges is fully tapped by Anievas, with a sense of Schumann’s logic that eludes so many performers. — David Patrick Stearns
Bridge
By Frank Stewart
Cable channel numbers: (0/0/0): 1st No. Philadelphia Comcast North 2d No. Philadelphia Comcast South 3d No. Philadelphia Comcast (N/W/NW)
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I attended the ACBL Summer Championships in New Orleans for three days; I gave a lecture and played one session. But playing is far removed from writing — what I have done for the last 25 years. Time away from the table dulls a player’s focus, and I went out of my way to prove that in today’s deal. Against my four spades, West led a trump, won in dummy. East probably had a club honor since West hadn’t led one, so I judged to play West for the A-J of hearts: I led a heart to my king next, and West took the ace and led another trump. I won with the jack and led the ten of hearts: deuce, seven, NINE. Bravo! Now I was home. I had only to cash my ace of clubs, lead a heart to the eight, discard a club on the queen, and ruff dummy’s last club. I could go back with a trump and lead a diamond to my ten, end-playing West. Alas, the adverse effects of euphoria at the table are well known. In a session of bridge you will make good plays and mistakes, but winning players are impassive. They know an emotional response to any result can sabotage their focus on the next deal or trick. I succumbed. I was so carried away by the success of my play in hearts that I descended into euphoria. I forgot to get the ace of clubs out of the way before I led the third heart. Then I couldn’t strip out the clubs and end up in dummy with a trump remaining in both hands, so my end play vanished and I had to lose three diamonds. Don’t let euphoria get you.