Re-posted by Nicholas Stix
When my son was a newborn, every day I’d hold him in my arms, and serenade him with this song, among others.
I’d also point to my belly, and tell him, “You see this? You came from here.”
Mothers have such insuperable psychological advantages, and they fight dirty, such that fathers have to sometimes get down and dirty with them, in order to keep them from taking total control of their children.
[Previously, in this series:
“Frank Sinatra: My Shining Hour (Video, from Trilogy: Past Present Future).”]
Come Rain or Come Shine (1946)
Music by Harold Arlen (1905-1986)
Words by Johnny Mercer (1909-1976)
Uploaded on May 4, 2011 by Sinatra Fan.
Arranged by Don Costa.
Have you ever read about the kidnapping of Frank Sinatra Jr. in December 1963? Our friend Roger McGrath wrote about it for TAC a few years ago, but it's not on the internet.
ReplyDeleteI have the magazine article.
It was a bizarre story. The idiot (he'd went to school with Nancy Sinatra) who dreamed it up didn't have the nerve to pull an armed robbery and didn't know how to go about dealing drugs so he decided on kidnapping a son of a famous man. He decided on Frank Sinatra Jr. on the assumption Frank Sr. was "tough enough" to handle it.
Frank Sr. decided to let the FBI handle the case instead of asking the Mafia.
I hadn't recalled that case in years, but yes I read about it, once upon a time. It said that for years, a lot of people suspected Frank Jr. of masterminding his own kidnapping, though I can't imagine why. Well, considering that Internet experts spread all sorts of nasty, baseless rumors today ("oral history"), I suppose I shouldn't be surprised.
ReplyDeleteThe idea of Frank Sinatra Jr.'s kidnapping being a publicity stunt was in the air from the start. The FBI man in charge asked Frank Sr.: "Could Frank Jr. be doing this for publicity?" Frank Sr. answered, "No, but not because of me. He would never do this to his mother."
ReplyDeleteAnd it WAS NOT a publicity hoax. The kidnappers were a bunch of nincompoops but they did point loaded guns at Frank Jr.'s head and take him by force from Nevada back to the Los Angeles area.
And loaded guns sometimes go off.
Frank Jr. was released, a relative of a perpetrator called the FBI and the plot was soon uncovered.
A few months after their arrest, the kidnappers went on trial in federal court in Los Angeles. Now, the really bad part began. The defense was "blame the victim," and was a forerunner of the kind of defense we saw in one (Davidson's) of the Knoxville Horror trials.
The defense team, led by Gladys Root, who specialized in defending celebrities accused of rape, claimed the whole thing was a publicity stunt with the full knowledge of Frank Sr. and Jr. Which was a lie, but the Sinatras were pilloried by the defense lawyers when testifying.
The jury didn't buy the defense and found all three defendants guilty. Their sentences were reduced under appeal and all were released within five years.
Roger McGrath wrote: "This only fueled suspicions that the kidnapping had been a publicity stunt and that Sinatra had pulled strings for them behind the scenes."
Frank Sinatra Jr.'s career never quite recovered from the "publicity stunt" smear.
My sources are a 1999 American Justice episode by A&E and "All American Abduction" by Roger McGrath in the December 2011 issue of "The American Conservative."
I think the Costa arrangement is a bit overpowering. At age 46 Sinatra was near the end of his prime, but still the best damned singer of his time. Sinatra's greatest albums were made in the early Capitol years, with Wee Small Hours being perfection to my ears.
ReplyDeleteToday I made a copy of Roger McGrath's article on the Sinatra kidnapping. I'll send it to you tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteThank you, David!
ReplyDelete