Thanks! Frank Sinatra and Louis Armstrong are the two greatest names in the entertainment in the 20th Century, and beyond, IMO. I’ve been a life-long fan of both (well, from my early teens on as I related).
I have cousins who still talk at family get-togethers about staying with my folks on visits and waking up to Sinatra on the stereo. One, a Lutheran Pastor, is now a Sinatra fan himself.
That’s my music. Dixieland, jazz and standards. I just wish there was more of a market available today. I think the kids of today want something better, they just don’t know anything exists.
I have a story to relate about Sinatra, though not directly related to me. I never met the man nor saw him live. It’s from a friend, and something that I suspect is true, having been independently confirmed somewhat.
A good buddy from my early adulthood was part of a family who owned a livery service in a Chicago suburb, along with another successful business. As he related, there was a theater or movie opening (I forget which) in Chicago, and Sinatra and a number of other celebrities were there. My friend’s livery was contracted to drive them to the theater on a very rainy night. My friend was slated to drive the commedian Jack E. Leonard.
As my buddy related, Leonard was a real jerk, rude and obnoxious in the limo. It got to the point where my buddy, instead of pulling up in front of the covered, carpeted entry, dropped Leonard off across the street, making him walk through the rain to get to the theater.
Just before he pulled away, there was a knock on his window. Rolling it down, he saw Sinatra’s driver standing in the rain. They’d been in the following limo. The driver said (I’m paraphrasing) “Mr. Sinatra wants you to have this” - handing my buddy a $100 bill. He then said “Mr. Sinatra said he hates him too”.
I’ve taken this story with some skepticism until some years ago. I saw a special on TV about Sinatra, and one of the things mentioned by friends was how Sinatra would carry $100 bills in his pocket. If someone, a waiter, concierge, etc. would show special kindness or service, Sinatra would give a bill to one of his people seeing that that individual was well compensated. This brought my buddy’s story home to me. It rang true.
I ran into Jack E. Leonard at the Lake Geneva Playboy Club once. He was the entertainer that weekend, and I’d stopped at the Playmate Bar for a drink on the way home one Friday. Leonard was in the lounge of the bar with a group of people around a couple tables. I was the only other person there other than the bartender.
The guy was as obnoxious as my buddy had said. I could hear everything he said, profanity and all, even though I was probably 50’ away, sitting at the bar. I finished my drink, paid and tipped the bartender - who rolled his eyes like ‘what I have to put up with’ - and left. I considered this another confirmation of my buddy’s story.
I haven’t met many ‘personalities’ in my life, but feel blessed by those few I have met, and those I’ve elected to follow because of their talent. Unfortunately, that blend of talent and public responsibility is absent in most of them today. That’s a big loss to America.
Great story!
BD you may be interested.
Great story and it just might be that Sinatra and Jack E. Leonard coordinated this and had a running joke doing this. Your friend may not have been the only one this was done to. In wikipedia it has Jack E. Leonard complaining at a roast that “Don Rickles has been doing my act for twelve years”