All language subtitles for Frank Sinatra The Voice of the Century BBC Arena 1998 480p HDTV x264_Subtitles01.ENG

Yeah.
My name is Frank Sinatra.

What?!

# I've got you under my skin

# I've got you...
DEEP in the heart of me

# So deep-in-my-heart
that you are a part of me

# I've got you un-der my skin

# I have tried so...tried-tried
not to give in

# I have said to myself "This affair
is not gonna move so well"

# But why should I try to resist
when, baby, I know damn well

# I've got you un-der my skin... #

'Everybody warned me
this guy could get very tough.
I knocked on his door.'

He said, "What do you want to see me
for?" I said I was nervous.

I said, "My knees shake
when I hit the stage."

He said, "Don't worry about that.
The people will support you.

"If they see you don't care, they
won't care. It would be disastrous."

No-one to this day delivers
a lyric and conveys a lyric

the way Sinatra does.

I don't care if he talks it.
He don't have to sing.

Just talk the lyric and I'll be...
Aaaah!

I tried to breathe where would take
a breath for a few years.

I didn't have my own story to tell.

I didn't have my own life. I was too
young. I didn't have the experiences
to tell the story,

the heart-wrenching things
he went through.

He creates a mood which very few
people are able to do. I can't.

# Cos I've GOT you under my skin

# And I love you

# Under my skin. #

APPLAUSE

Thank you.

On 12 December 1915,
hundreds of immigrants

made their way to this harbour
from all over the world,

just as they did every other day.

Most had endured great hardship
on their journeys.

They had a dream of a new life.

Many had come from Europe,
among them, the grandparents
of Francis Albert Sinatra.

They settled in Hoboken, New Jersey,

across the Hudson from Manhattan.

Hoboken is where
the rest of America begins.

Natalie Gariventi Sinatra
gave birth to her son
at 415 Monroe Street.

It was a difficult delivery.
The baby weighed in at 13½ pounds.

The doctor's forceps
left him with a punctured eardrum.

He didn't breathe
until his grandmother held him
under a cold water tap.

He didn't breathe
until his grandmother held him
under a cold water tap.

Natalie, known as Dollie,
had been married to Martin Sinatra
for three years.

Her parents were from Genoa.

She was a midwife and an activist
in the local Democrat Party.

Martin Sinatra's parents
were from Sicily.
He was a fireman and amateur boxer.

Francis Albert was their only child.

I was a boy of about ten or eleven

and I started singing
with the school choir,

and the church choir...

and...on picnics and what have you,

whenever there was a chance to sing.

It was then that I realised,
that far back,
that I wanted to become a singer.

And through school, into high school,

I continued singing
with the orchestras
at the different dances we had,

school dances and otherwise.

And then it progressed
and progressed into working
as a professional,

rather than an amateur.

# I get no kick in a plane

# Flying too high
with some gal in the sky

# Is my idea of nothing to do

# But I get a kick

# You give me a boot

# I get a kick out of you-ou-ou... #

SINATRA: It was a semi-slum area
and it was pretty rough.

There weren't gang wars but
there were beefs about our position

and who should cross the line

into where we lived. And who should
cross the line into where they lived.

If I went on an errand,
I skirted certain areas.

The cry went up, "Kill the dago
when he comes through
the corner of town."

If you're Italian, you must have
had somebody with a bent nose
in your family, some mafioso.

The snide condescension -

"the wap" and the irritation you had
hearing it said about your mother.

All of those forces.

SINATRA: I showed some signs
when I was young

of possibly becoming
a civil engineer.

I remember I did pencil sketches
of bridges and highways and roads.

My father loved it. Loved the idea.

When I left high school
after three years, he was
terribly, terribly disappointed

and very hurt because
I decided to go into music.

But my mother was always conscious
of a show world

and that was there all the time.

My singing on street corners with
the kids and at school with the band,

she liked that whole idea.

So she was really the power behind
my choosing to go into music.

She was the spark.

It was the blacks and then the next
gang that got it was the Italians.

Being an Italian,
coming up through the circumstances

his lifestyle at the beginning,

his lifestyle all the way through,
his ups and downs and all that -

the Italian temperament, er...

That's his anchor.
That is Sinatra's anchor.

# When I was seventeen

# It was a very good year

# It was a very good year

# For small-town girls

# And soft summer nights

# We'd hide from the lights

# On the village green

# When I was seventeen... #

SINATRA: I got together
a quartet, the Hoboken Four.

In those days there was a big radio
programme on called Major Bowes.

He used to say:
BOWES: 'Around and around she goes

'And where she stops, nobody knows.'

Ladies and gentlemen, friends.

again we bring you new talent.

The amateurs of today
are the stars of tomorrow.

Who'll speak for the group?

I will. I'm Frank, Major. We're
looking for a job. How about it?

All right, let's have it.

The Hoboken Four.

# Folks, we'll shine up to you

# You make the whole world shine

# Shine and sway, you bluesy

# Shine stars with his shoes-y

# You make the whole world
shi-i-i-ne. #

They won the biggest vote ever and
became part of the touring company.

They received $75 a week
between them. Sinatra became
a professional singer at 19.

Those were the days when the
singing sensation was Bing Crosby.

SINATRA: There's no doubt that
when Bing started as a young man

he was influenced by the early
jazz musicians from New Orleans

and a whole bunch of those people.

I became influenced
by many, many people.

Even Crosby himself.

# It's a long, long while

# From May to December

# But the days grow short

# When you reach September... #

SINATRA: I never wanted
to sound like Crosby.

All the kids who wanted to be
singers were all boo-boo-boo-ing.

Neither one of us
took it as a rivalry.

I admired his work
and hoped he admired mine.

He was on my radio show several
times and I went on his.

# ..Turns the leaves to flame

# And I haven't got time

# For the waiting game

# All the days dwindle down

# To a precious few

BOTH: # September

# November

# And these few precious days

# I spend with you

# These precious days

# I'll spend with you. #

SINATRA: As far as vocalisation
is concerned,

the idea of phraseology

and the proper enunciation
and the clear sound of the words,

I think we've all taken from
each other in the singing world.

Sinatra left the quartet
and went solo.

He picked up singing work
where he could, sometimes playing
for sandwiches or cigarettes.

After bombarding them with letters.
he managed to get some dates on
WNEW radio by working for nothing.

# When I was 21

# It was a very good year

# It was a very good year
for city girls

# Who lived up the stair

# With all that perfumed hair

# And it came undone

# When I was 21. #

February 4, 1939 -
Sinatra married Nancy Barbato.

She was a $25-a-week secretary.
They'd known each other four years.

They lived on Audubon Avenue
in Jersey City.

They hadn't enough for a honeymoon.

Nancy took a $15 advance on her
salary to pay for publicity stills

to help Sinatra promote
a demo recording.

JAZZ BAND MUSIC

Nancy sent the still to Harry James.

James had recently left
the Benny Goodman orchestra.

James went to see Sinatra sing
at The Rustic Cabin in Englewood,
New Jersey and hired him.

They recorded All Or Nothing At All
that August.

# I would be caught in the undertow

# And so you see,
I've got to say no, no

# All or nothing at all... #

All Or Nothing At All
brought Sinatra
to the attention of Tommy Dorsey.

Dorsey led perhaps the most popular
white band in America.

# All or nothing at a-a-a-a-all! #

After only seven months with James,
Sinatra joined
Dorsey's more successful outfit.

SLOW, LINGERING VIOLIN TUNE PLAYS

SINATRA:
I was influenced by soloists

in the sense of a violin
or a cellist.

They had that sustained quality
of notation.

That was in the imperceptible
feeling of the fact that the bow
across the strings never broke.

There was never the feeling of it
stopping and that technically
was what I learned from it.

Then when people blew horns like
Lester Young and James and others,

I was listening to musicians
and how they breathed

and I began to work on that.

So I put that together with the
lyrics so there was a sustained
feeling of an unbreakable phrase.

So the audience says, "I never heard
that phrase sung that way."

That was my objective.

# Sometimes I'll wonder why I spend

# The lonely nights
dreaming of a song

# The melody haunts my reverie

# And I am once again with you

# When our love was new

# And each kiss an inspiration

# Ah! But that was long ago

# And now my consolation

# Lies in the stardust

# Of a song... #

There was a certain discipline
and tunnel vision that happened
with the big bands.

It was focused. It was all you could
do. There was no life outside that.

# I'll never smile again... #

Everything was focused on music,
and that's why those bands sounded
so well.

They were together so much,

it was like a finely tuned engine.

# I'll never laugh again

# What good would it do-o-o-o?

# What good would it do-o-o-o?

# For tears would fill my eyes

# My heart would realise... #

There's nothing better happened
to me than spending the years
on the bus with the bands.

Because you worked 365 days a year.

If you're gonna be good in any job
at all, if you eat, sleep,
walk, talk and dream it,

in the end you'll be a big man in it.

Frank and I were roommates
when he first joined the band.

He'd made several recordings -

I'll Never Smile Again was his
first really important venture

into his own thing.

And he came to me one time and said,
"We can't room together any more."

I thought that was strange,
since I was paying the bills.

I asked why, and he said, "Chicks
are bothering me for autographs
and I just won't have the time."

So we went our different ways and I
don't know whatever happened to him.

AUDIENCE LAUGHS

What happened was that Sinatra
went solo in 1942.

Known simply as "the voice", he was
the most popular singer in the USA.

# Come out
Come out wherever you are

# Come out
Come out from under that star

# Yes and incidentally

# Mentally

# I'm not up to par

# So come out, come out, come out
wherever you are. #

You were wonderful!

Wow! Did you hear that?
Think he's got something?

That guy is the greatest discovery
of my career. Did you see the
women's expressions?

If he was the Pied Piper,
there wouldn't be a dame left!

# Night and day

# You are the one

# Only you beneath the moon

# And under the sun

# Whether near to me... #

Speculation has always surrounded
Sinatra's split with Dorsey.

Sinatra wanted to go solo, but
Dorsey wanted him to stay. After
complex negotiations and wrangling,

Dorsey gave in, but his contractual
hold was such that he demanded 40%
of Sinatra's earnings from then on.

Sinatra had to agree.
It would be years before
he could afford to buy himself out.

# That this longing for you

# Follows wherever I go... #

I decided someone should challenge
Crosby, because he'd had the throne

for...I don't know, so many years.

And I thought, "Maybe they're ready
for a new kind of singer,
a different kind of singer."

So I left the band
and took my big shot at it.

INTERVIEWER: And what happened?
Well, all hell broke loose!

NEW SPEAKER: It was eight shows a
day. Eight shows a day! Look it up!

It was...

I saw two scenes like that in my
life in this city in entertainment.

One was when I was in high school
and we had to get here at 4.00am

to get into the Paramount
to see Frank Sinatra.

And the second scene I saw
was when a police inspector
at the Paramount upstairs

begged the Beatles not to go near the
window. They were out on the street.

They started a conflagration out
on the street. It was wonderful!
I never saw anything like it.

# There's an
oh, such a hungry yearning

# Burning

# Way down inside of me

# And its torment
will never be through

# Till you let me spend my life

# Making love to you day and night

# Night and day. #

I was never part of the bobbysox
screaming, but I appreciate...

There was always something... I had
arguments with people on this thing,

whether it was...just that,
you know, that girls fancied him.

I said, "It's NOT just that.
There is a quality

"that is quite...quite wonderful!"

Wonderful phrasing, that hadn't
really been heard before.

NEWSREEL FANFARE

NEWSREEL: In Hollywood, California,

a golfing extravaganza
with war bond sales as the objective.

Bing Crosby leads off.

Looking on, Frank Sinatra.

Frank said
he couldn't even caddy for Bing

and for that Colossus
of the fairways, Bob Hope.

WHOOPING AND CHEERING

Because of the damage done
to his ear when he was born,

Sinatra was rejected
by the armed forces.

Sinatra was rejected
by the armed forces.

The press had already begun
to probe into Sinatra's life,

but they couldn't question his
commitment to the propaganda effort.

but they couldn't question his
commitment to the propaganda effort.

# They'll say
"It's all right with me

# People will say

# We're in love. #

APPLAUSE

RADIO: Ladies and Gentlemen,
I'd like to introduce "The Voice".

INTRO PLAYS

# Saturday night is the loneliest
night of the week... #

I've heard what people said.
Frank thought it was because
they were lonely.

People thought it was because
he was... They felt protective.

But when he sang ballads,

he was singing for every single man
what every single girl would like

he was singing for every single man
what every single girl would like

in the young man
that would be coming back for her.

# Saturday night is the loneliest
night of the week

# I sing the song that I sang
for the mem'ries I usually seek

# Until I hear you at the door

# Until you're in my arms once more

# Saturday night is the loneliest
night of the week... #

TRUMPET SOLO

# Until I hear you at the door

# Until you're in my arms once more

# Saturday night is the loneliest
night of the wee-ee-eek. #

'Thank you, Frankie.
Just lie down there any place.

'That was Sinatra - the only singer
that has given Crosby competition.'

NEWSREEL: 'Beneath the easy
sentimentality of American music,

'which would rather sing of love,

'there lies a serious purpose
not to be expressed in any song -

'the will to triumph,
of democracy at war.

'Time marches on.'

# What is America to me?

# A name

# A map

# Or a flag I see?

# A certain word

# Democracy

# What is America to me? #

During the war, Sinatra appeared
in several films, playing the
kind of singer he was in real life.

# A house I live in

# A house I live in

# A plot of earth, a street

# The grocer and the butcher

# And the people that I meet... #

The House I Live In was about a
successful singer with a conscience.

It was based on an idea Sinatra had.
He played the lead
and was awarded a special Oscar.

He gave his money to charity.

# ..That's America to me

# The place I work in

# The worker at my side... #

Frank, the readers
of Modern Screen magazine

have named you
Most Popular Film Star of 1946.

I present you with this bronze bust
of yourself.

I present you with this bronze bust
of yourself.

Thank you, Mr Mayer.
I'm grateful to you and the readers
of Modern Screen magazine.

And I'm very happy.
Thank you very much.

His working-class background gave
him a keen sense of civil rights.

He supported
the National Association for
the Advancement of Colored People.

From his youth, he had been
a member of the Democrat Party.

By this time, he'd even gone to tea
with Roosevelt.

The pilot of that ship was
Colin Kelly, an American
and a Presbyterian.

And you know who dropped the bombs?

Meyer Levin, an American and a Jew.

Should they have called it off
because they had
different religions?

Think about that. Use your good,
American heads. Don't let anybody
make suckers out of you.

Gotta go to work.

What do ya work? I sing.
Aw! You're a kid!

The House I Live In's message was
America is, and should be, the home
of racial and religious tolerance -

the kind of view that could put
you out of work in the McCarthy era.

Are you or have you been
a member of the Communist Party?

To Senator McCarthy, anything
liberal smacked of Communism.

His mission was to eliminate it.

He regarded Hollywood
with particular suspicion,

and ruthlessly investigated
the entertainment world.

Actors, bosses,
writers and directors
denounced "un-American" colleagues.

Once condemned by the witch hunt,

even the biggest names would be shut
out of the entertainment industry.

'Louis B Mayer,
MGM production chief.'

Like others in the industry,

I have maintained
a relentless vigilance...

Mayer displayed a willingness to
condemn all thing "un-American".

Mayer displayed a willingness to
condemn all thing "un-American".

Despite his previous enthusiasm
for Sinatra's film career,

a year after testifying,
he sacked him.

Sinatra recording - take three!

# If you are a dream... #

Although Sinatra was never called
before the McCarthy committee,

he was named as a prominent figure
with Communist Party sympathies.

# To find that I'm forsaken... #

Sinatra's liberal views had made
him a target for the right-wing
press of William Randolph Hearst.

His private life was scrutinised,
too.

He was said to have affairs with
Marilyn Maxwell and Lana Turner.

Sinatra showed his displeasure
to the reporters who harassed him,

and he began to acquire
a reputation for trouble.

# ..I long to kiss you

# But I would not dare

# I'm so afraid

# That you would vanish
in the air... #

One time, he threw
a pitcher of water at me.

A big, heavy, glass pitcher.

I had just come off the bandstand.

He went over to the tray -
they used to keep a tray of water
for the musicians.

I felt this thing
whizz across the room.

It smashed into a million pieces.

If it had hit me,
I wouldn't be here today.

I think he'd been trying for weeks,
just practising!

We had a little beef.
We settled things later on.

We're the greatest of friends today.

Is he a brawler?

I think he likes to think he is.

He carries a lot of strange people
with him to make sure he wins.

NEW SPEAKER: Great artists -

even the most gentle
and pacific artists,

like Spencer Tracey or Gary Cooper,
they have within them

a feeling of an explosion.

What makes them stars is that

you feel that they might
blow the place to pieces
emotionally at any moment.

Frank had that by the tonne.

He had this demon in his belly.

That demon gave him his adrenaline
and his excitement

and his impact when he came
and played live in a theatre.

That was part of his personality.

And to pretend that that
didn't exist would be stupid.

But if you admire
what you see in the theatre

of this extraordinary phenomenon
of Sinatra,

then you cannot pretend

or fail to have some minute
understanding of what drove him.

And sometimes that drive
manifest itself

in unfortunate circumstances.

# Hello, young lovers

# Whoever you are

# I hope your troubles are few

# All my good wishes

# Go with you tonight

# I've been in love like you. #

Sinatra's high profile, his
combativeness, his life on the road
and his affairs with other women

all put a strain on his marriage.

We had "this is what happened" calls.

Dad would say, "You're gonna
read this in the paper

but this is what happened.

# ..Cling very close
to each other... #

That's the one thing you can count
on with him - his honesty.

He never lies. Never.

News of his affair with Ava
Gardner became public in 1949.

After a stormy and public courtship,
Sinatra left the family home
to live with her.

Sinatra and Gardner were married
in September 1950.

I just...
I fell in love with her, too.

She was exquisitely beautiful.

Beauty that takes the breath
out of you.

We were used to his not being
in the same town because of his work.

He was a little like
a travelling salesman.

But the difference there
was that my mother was suffering

because again,
it was a public situation.

'Frank Sinatra at a film preview
with his new wife Ava Gardner.

'Frank Sinatra at a film preview
with his new wife Ava Gardner.

'The showing of Meet Danny Wilson,
in which Frankie stars,

'is attended by Milton Berle,
who gets in a little fast work
with the new bride.

'The cameraman catches
an unusual close up of Dagmar,
whose face is also her fortune.

'Sporting chin whiskers,
Robert Preston.

'Mama and Papa preview Danny Wilson,
in which a young singer
wins fame and fortune.'

Sinatra had other troubles.

A problem with his vocal chords
caused him to lose his voice often.

His style of music was giving way
to newer singers like Frankie Laine.

# Jezebel

# Jezebel

# Jez-e-bel! #

Worst of all, Columbia acquired
a new A&R man with ideas
quite different from Sinatra's.

Mitch Miller was
the king of the novelty song.

His records sold millions
and Sinatra loathed them.

Miller's idea of the right song
for the voice was a duet
with Dagmar, a household name.

The song was called Mama Will Bark.

'Now, ladies and gentlemen,
the Paramount Theatre presents

the spectacle of the age -
Dagmar!

Mr Sinatra. Yes, ma'am?
Why did you call me a spectacle?

Well, because you're so good
for the eyes!

APPLAUSE AND LAUGHTER

# It was the doggonest thing
you ever heard

# She said
Mama will bark

# You look lovely in the moonlight
Yes, but Papa will bark

# Your eyes are shining
like the starlight
But Mama will bark

# Your lips are so inviting, darling,
give me one more kiss

# Your lips are so inviting, darling,
give me one more kiss

# Mama will spank
The night is young
and you are here... #

It didn't work. Sinatra's sales
declined and the label sacked him.

It was a time for re-appraisal.

I got rid of a lot
of personal problems.

I went to new management.

And I went to new attorneys
and accountants.

I cleared the field
and got a brand new start,

like I was just beginning,

except that the experience
I had had was always there.

I realised at that point there was
another way I wanted to use it.

"In the beginning was the word,"
the saying goes.

No-one is more conscious of the
importance of words than film-makers.

It's been my good fortune to appear
in motion pictures which began
as words on a printed page.

Exciting words, which made stories
that had something to say.

This one started the dramatic ball
rolling for me.

The book and the film
raised a lot of eyebrows.

Fred Zinneman was planning
to film From Here To Eternity,

a popular book by James Jones.

SInatra became desperate to play
the puny but obstreperous Maggio.

He seemed to see his own character
in this underdog beset by bullies.

He got the part,
but it came back to haunt him.

In The Godfather, there is
a portrayal of an Italian American
crooner whose career is flagging.

He's convinced he'll be back on top

if he can only land a part
he's obsessed with getting
in a war movie.

He enlists the Mafia to persuade
the producer to cast him.

A notion took hold that the crooner
character's story was based
on Sinatra's need to play Maggio.

Despite adamant denials
by Mario Puzo, Fred Zinneman
and Sinatra himself,

the story became part
of the Sinatra mythology.

Sinatra, from the beginning,

kept sending cables to us
calling himself Maggio,

saying that he was the person
to play that part.

As it happened,

we couldn't get Eli Wallach,
so we decided to test Sinatra.

He was in Africa with Ava Gardner,
who was working with John Ford
on Mogambo.

Cohn cabled him saying
that if he came back at his own cost,
we would make a test.

He was very careful with the pennies.

And so Sinatra came back.

He made a test. It was Sinatra
in uniform and it was good.

Why it's Oslo Maggio! Greetings!

There you are,
dues all paid up!

Who's playing the piano there?

RICHARD ATTENBOROUGH: People say,
"He's only playing himself.

To play yourself, you reveal
yourself and peel the onion skins.

Frank did that.

But that's what Frank could do.

He was not a character actor.

Frank presented
his own magical personality.

It's funny I came in and saw you
sitting here...

Knock it off!

I'll play if I want, you little wap!
"Little wap"?!

Mess with me and I'll bust you up!

You must want trouble, wap.

Wait for me, will you? Yeah, sure.

This Mussolini is trying to... He
wants to bust my ears with his noise!

Break it up! Come on.

Only my friends call me "wap"!

You know who that guy is?
Who is he?

Fatso Judson -
sergeant of the guard.

Leave him!
I saw him nearly murder a guy!

OK, bully-boy,
let's dance, huh?

First I gotta calm down.

Let's go to a phone booth
where I'll unveil a fifth of
the whisky I have hidden here!

See you, pal!

The winner is Frank Sinatra!

He obviously was
an extremely astute actor,

in that he was aware
of the confines of his talent.

One of the things that he could do
was to tell a story in his acting.

He could convince you of
circumstances and emotion and so on.

Nothing complex or sophisticated,
but he could convince you
of his feelings at that moment.

A lot of his songs, apart
from the velvet sound of his voice,
were performed stories.

I'm deeply thrilled...
and very moved.

I really don't know what to say.

This is a whole new kind of thing,
you know.

Song and dance man type stuff.

# The famous places to visit
are so many

# So the guidebooks say

# I told my grandpa
I wouldn't miss on any

# We got just one day

# Gotta see the whole town right
from Yonkers on down to the bay

# In just one day

# New York, New York,
it's a wonderful town

# The Bronx is up
and the Battery's down

# People ride
in a hole in the ground

# New York, New York,
it's a wonderful town!

# When I was 35

# It was a very good year

# It was a very good year

# For blue-blooded girls
of independent means

# We'd ride in limousines

# Their chauffeurs would drive

# When I was 35... #

Hollywood was home to the record
company so associated with his name.

Here Sinatra developed the sound
that made him a legend.

# Fairtales can come true

# It can happen to you

# If you're young at heart

# For it's hard you will find

# To be narrow of mind

# If you're young at heart

# You can go to extremes
with impossible schemes

# You can go to extremes
with impossible schemes

# You can laugh when your dreams
fall apart at the seams

# And life gets more exciting
with each passing day

# And love is either in your heart
or on its way... #

Nelson Riddle was the key
to Sinatra's Capitol sound.

He had a brilliant command
of symphonic scoring,

modernising the big-band style
Sinatra used before.

The result was a cool,
easy-swinging sound,

balanced by lush, intimate ballads.

He invented a new kind of album,
one evoking a single mood or theme.

# I gotta song that I sing,
I can make the rain go

# Any time I move my finger

# Lucky me

# Can't you see I'm in love?

# Life is a beautiful thing... #

SINATRA:
What I didn't know was that in order
to explain a lyric properly,

there must be some acting involved.

There must be.

# I got the world on a string... #

With your hands and your actions
on the stage

and the crescendos and diminuendos
in your voice.

All of that came to the foreground
for me.

And then it broke open
and I knew I was fine.

# Life's a wonderful thing

# Just as long as I hold that string

# I'd be a silly so and so

# If I should ever let it go

# I've got the world on a string

# Sitting on a rainbow

# Got the string around my finger

# What a world

# This here is mine!

# And now I'm in lo-o-o-ove! #

APPLAUSE

DINAH SHORE: An album is a mood.

One of the biggest arguments you had
making an album was about its mood.

That's what we tried to do.
Frank was the first one to have
enough clout to be able to do that.

If you have a swinging album,
let it swing.

And then come down to a ballad
if you want to.

But don't try to break it up.
You've broken a romantic mood.

That's what albums were for,
or they were for "up" -
for dancing.

The arrangements he always chose.
HE chose the arrangers.

Then he would sing the songs
to the arrangers and set the mood,
saying, "This is the mood I want."

Then, on the date,
it would be perfect.

If you listen to any of his
recordings, from his first ones on,

there's nothing like them,
no-one will ever...

It's like he weaves a spell.

And, er, there'll never be another
Frank Sinatra.

Nelson and I met years before that.
He was arranging for Tommy Dorsey

after I had left the orchestra.

And we were friendly through the
years till the time we began to work.

When I heard the things
that he had been doing with Nat,

I said, "I've got to work
with this guy. He's marvellous."

And he really did some beautiful
orchestrations, wonderful ones.

And, er, he and Nat fitted so well,

that I was trying to be
as successful as a vocalist
with Nelson as Nat was.

I never did find out
whether we made it or not.

# The moment that you speak

# I wanna go and play hide and seek

# I wanna go and bounce the moon

# Just like a toy balloon

# You and I

# Are just like a couple of tots

# Runnin' across a meadow

# Picking up lots of forget-me-nots

# You make me feel so young

# You make me feel
there are songs to be sung

# Bells to be rung

# And a wonderful fling to be flung

# And even when I'm old and grey

# I'm gonna feel the way I do today

# Cos you make me feel so young

# You make me feel so young

# You make me feel
so spring has sprung

# And every time I see you grin

# I'm such a happy

# Individual

# The moment that you speak

# I wanna go and play hide and seek

# I wanna go and bounce the moon

# Just like a toy balloon

# You and I

# Are just like a couple of tots

# Running across the meadow

# Picking up lots of forget-me-nots

# You make me feel so young... #

In the mid '50s, Sinatra
appeared regularly in Las Vegas.

During this time,
he made 18 albums for Capitol,
considered to be classics.

He also made 20 films. This was
Sinatra at the height of his powers.

# It's great

It's great!

# It's grand

So grand

BOTH: # It's wo-wo-wo-wo-wo-wo-wo
wonderland!

# La la - la la
La la la la la la yudder bom bom bom

# La-laa, la la
Yudder, yudder, yudder, bom bom

# We sing!

We sing

# So rare

So rare

# Like old camembert

# Like bar, bar rum

Bom bom bom bom!

# Don't dig that kind of croonin',
chum...! #

You must be one of the newer fellas!

# Have you heard - it's in the stars

# Next July we collide with Mars

# Well, did you ever

# What a swell party

# A swell party

# A swell-i-gant, elegant party

# This is! #

I got a feeling
people are staring.

I got a feeling
people are staring.

Miss Shirley MacLaine. Shirley.

Sinatra made Las Vegas
his base of operations.

The Sands was synonymous with the
Rat Pack - Dean Martin, Sammy Davis
Jr, Peter Lawford and Joey Bishop.

This raucous group had Sinatra at
its head. The line between their on-
and off-stage lives was a blur.

# Can take me just so far

LAUGHING: # Talk to me,
talk to me, talk to me... #

If you're gonna laugh,
go sit down there.
We don't need you on stage.

For God's sake,
someone out there talk to him!

# You set me all aflame

# And it's so pleasing

# It'd be a goddamned shame
if you were only teasing

# So, my love, before you go

# Turn off the light
and grab the dough... #

He's a very powerful gentleman.

I've never seen him use it
destructively.

He does take positions.

If he doesn't like you,
if you've done something
that deserves his disfavour,

he's fair about it. He doesn't say,
"He's out, he's in."

That's not the way he operates,
or he didn't.

INTERVIEWER: What things would earn
his disfavour?

Um...dishonesty -
someone saying, "You can do that,"
then change their mind.

Cos the implication of "if Frank
likes you, you're in", is that
if he doesn't like you, you're out.

This does have a faintly
sinister implication.

That again comes through the media.

Through the years
that he has gathered
this aura or whatever around him,

that he can just snap his fingers.

And he can. But, being redundant,
I have never seen him use it
to really hurt anyone.

We've had our differences
through the years.

The last time we didn't talk
was for, like, seven years.

Hello, yourself. And greetings
from your Pal Joey. That's me.

Course, my name's Frank Sinatra.

But, in my latest picture...

I play Pal Joey.

The film Pal Joey was no match for
the Rogers and Hart soundtrack.

Sinatra played a character
that mirrored the playboy role
he'd chosen in real life.

Joey has his own "slanguage",
made up purely of Joey-isms.

We'll start with the word "mouse".

This is a mouse -
a beautiful mouse called Kim Novak.

# There

# Each day is Valentine's Day. #

I suppose you think
the plural is "mouses".

Mice. And here's some dandy examples.

Wow-ee, wow-wow-wow!

Now, you must know Joey's philosophy.

Treat a dame like a lady
and a lady like a dame.

# She gets too hungry

# For dinner at eight

# She likes the theatre

# Never comes late

# She'd never bother

# With people she'd hate... #

His marriage to Ava Gardner
had always been tempestuous.

Infidelity was rumoured, and Sinatra
even admitted to attempted suicide.

We saw a great deal of them as a
couple. Volatile, to say the least.

When there were screams and shouts,

things thrown about, out came Ava:
"I'm leaving that son of a bitch!"

So, Frank took off in a rush,
and the whole time she was saying,

"He's impossible, the conceited son
of a bitch. He's not so great."

And we arrive at the Ambassador
and on comes Frank
and he starts to sing.

And he starts to sing RIGHT to her.

And she says, "Oh, look at him,
isn't he wonderful?"
Floods of tears.

And I said, "I thought you hated
him." "No, he's wonderful! Look!"

Crazy. They adored each other.
Fought the whole time.

The inevitable announcement
came in 1959. They divorced
due to irreconcilable differences.

PIANO PLAYS A JAZZY TUNE

WOMAN: I think he was the love
of HER life. I know he was.

Everything I've learned -
definitely.

Why didn't it work?

In my opinion?

In retrospect?
Too many outside pressures.
Mostly career pressures.

She was on location doing this,
he was there doing that.

Not enough "together" time.

# It's quarter to three

APPLAUSE
# There's no-one in the place

# 'Cept you and me

# So, set 'em up, Joe

# I got a little story

# You oughta know

# We're drinkin', my friend

# To the end

# Of a brief episode

# Make it one for my baby

# And one more for the road

# I got the routine

# So, put another nickel

# In the machine

# I'm feelin' so bad

# Can't you make the music

# Easy and sad?

# I could tell you a lot

# But you've got to be

# True to your code

# Make it one for my baby

# And one more for the road

# You'd never know it

# But, buddy, I'm a kind of poet

# And I got a lot of things
I wanna say

# And when I'm gloomy

# You've gotta listen to me

# Till it's talked away

# Well, that's how it goes

# And, Joe, I know you're gettin'

# Anxious to close

# And thanks for the cheer

# I hope you didn't mind

# My bending your ear

# But this torch that I've found

# Gotta be drowned

# Or it soon might explode

# So, make it one for my baby

# And one more for the road

# The long...

# The long...

# The long... #

He doesn't do anything half way.
Whenever he would do an album,

the night before,
he would always study the lyric
and treat it like a poem.

So he knew the story content,
the highs, the lows
and what he was gonna do with it,

and how it phrased properly
like a poem.

So when he went to record
the next day, he was ready.

# When love comes in

# And takes you for a spin

# Ooh-la-la-la... #

Sinatra met Juliet Prowse
on the set of Can Can in 1960.

They got engaged,
but were never to marry.

# It's the wrong time

# And the wrong place

# Though your face is charming

# It's the wrong face

# It's not her face

# It's not her face

# But such a...charming face

# That it's all right

# With me

# It's the wrong song

# In the wrong style

# Though your smile is lovely

# It's the wrong smile

# It's not her smile

# But such a...lovely smile

# So, it's all right

# With me. #

When Kruschev visited the set
of Can Can,

he wanted to meet one of the most
famous celebrities in the world.

Sinatra held a grand lunch
for the Soviet premier.

Having it all in showbusiness,
Sinatra began to look
to wider horizons.

# He's got high hopes

# 1960's the year

# For his high hopes

# Come on and vote for Kennedy

# Vote for Kennedy
and we'll come out on top... #

Sinatra was introduced to John F
Kennedy, the Democrat candidate for
president in 1960, by Peter Lawford,

who was Kennedy's brother-in-law.

Joseph Kennedy asked my father
if he could get Sam Gene Connor

to help him get his son elected
as president of the United States.

And my father said, "I'll try."

And my father said, "I'll try."

And he spoke with Sam, who owned
several nightclubs where he worked.

Sam Gene Connor was a mobster
with massive influence,

especially in America's most
powerful union, the Teamsters.

If you trace the story of the Mafia,

from, um, the time of Prohibition
in the States in the '20s.

and you move to the music clubs,
from the speakeasies,

and then you migrate west
to Las Vegas,
where they owned all the hotels,

and along the way they got involved
in publishing, things like that.

It was impossible to work
in showbusiness in the '30s,
'40s, '50s and '60s in America

without coming into contact
with these people.

# ..Vote for Kennedy
And we'll come out on top... #

Sam was very connected to the big
unions like the Teamsters union

and wielded a certain power
with the voters of these unions.

And Sam, um, agreed to help
in a very big way

to sway the election to Kennedy.

And my father had to pay him back,
in that sense,

because one hand washes the other.

He had to work for nothing in Sam's
clubs. His friends did the same.

That was the deal that they struck.

Senator Kennedy will be
the next president of the USA.

But there was certainly
nothing underhanded about it,
or anything that would be illicit.

Sinatra campaigned all that summer.

The Rat Pack became associated
with Kennedy's inner circle

and Sinatra hosted the inauguration
ball when Kennedy was elected.

In the same year,
he bought into a casino

at Lake Tahoe, literally built
on the California-Nevada border.

It was a haven
and showcase for his friends.

How long have I been on?

# When you're drinkin'

# When you're drinkin'

# The show looks good to you

# When you're drinkin'

# You get stinkin'

# It helps your point of view

# But when you're sober

# The skies all seem grey

# Yeah, when you're sober

# Life's a pain

# So, keep drinkin'

# That's what I'm thinkin'

# Cos it's what I sorta like to do

# I love Las Vegas... #

NEWSREEL: In a few seconds, you will
witness a scene often viewed
by the residents of Las Vegas,

but more of a thrill for the visitor.

100 miles from here, scientists
detonated an atomic device.

Watch closely for a man-made sun.

ELVIS PRESLEY: # Well, it's one
for the money, two for the show

# Three to get ready
Now go, cat, go

# But don't you
Step on my blue suede shoes

# You can do anything but stay off
of my blue suede shoes... #

Presley challenged Sinatra for the
position of the most famous singer,

as Sinatra had challenged Crosby.

# Love me tender, love me true

# All my dreams fulfilled

# For my darling, I love you

# And I always will

# It's such an ancient pitch

# What I wouldn't switch

# Cos there's no nicer witch

# Than... witchcraft

# I love you

# And I always will

BOTH: # For my darling

# I love you... #

Man, that's pretty!

# And I always will. #

FANS SCREAM

I was driving along, and I hear
this man singing one of my songs.

Are you out of your goddamned mind?

The arrival of rock 'n' roll
put the world of the Rat Pack
into a new perspective.

Their high jinks and cool demeanour
looked stale and self-absorbed.

Sinatra never came to terms with
rock 'n' roll, and he didn't take
to the new recording techniques.

He felt a singer should record with
the orchestra live in the studio,

and that overdubbing
destroyed the interplay
between singer and musicians.

He formed a record company, Reprise,
and persuaded friends like
Ella Fitzgerald and Sammy Davis

to sign for the label.

He was in control of all aspects
of his work, or so it seemed.

In 1963, when Sinatra applied to
renew the Cal-Neva's gaming licence,

allegations that he was associated
with the Mafia surfaced
for the first time.

Sam Giancana had been
barred by the state authorities
from entering any Nevada casino.

I had a telephone call from
Eddie King, one of our employees.

He said, "Giancana's here with a
lady, and we just broke up a fight."

And at that point I said,

"Get him off the property."

I never invited Mr Giancana
to Cal-Neva, I never hosted for him
and I never saw him there.

Not everyone in Kennedy's entourage
was as enthusiastic about Sinatra
as the President had seemed to be.

Bobby Kennedy, in particular, had
declared war on organised crime.

Can you tell us anything
about your operations?

I decline to answer,
as the answer might incriminate me.

I thought only little girls giggle.
GIANCANA GIGGLES

The White House
increasingly distanced itself from
Sinatra after the Cal-Neva incident.

At Palm Springs, Kennedy rejected
Sinatra's invitation and stayed
with Bing Crosby, a Republican.

At the end of 1963, Kennedy was
assassinated. Sinatra's influence
at the White House was over.

So too would be his high-profile
association with the Democrats.

He abandoned all attempts
to renew his gaming licence.

He sold Reprise to Warners
for a third of their stock
and $3.25 million.

INTERVIEWER: Were you frightened
when you went out on the night
they returned the boy?

SINATRA: When I didn't find him?
I was scared to death
when I didn't find him.

16 days after
Kennedy's assassination,
Frank Sinatra Junior was kidnapped

from a hotel in Lake Tahoe
where he was working as a singer.

As a father, were you confident
that you'd get your boy back safe?

I had trepidation - I was worried.

But then as I began to get
more phone calls,
I began to get more heartened.

I thought perhaps that they were...

they weren't out to hurt him,
they just wanted the money.

We were pleased to give the money.

At the start, I was pretty frantic.

As a father, I may have been too
much of a father from time to time.

Not that my kids are spoiled

but I was so crazy about them,
I just crowded them a lot.

The loved it and so did I.

All three of them were great kids.

How did Frankie's mother react?

She was pretty stoic, I might say,
but she had her moments.

I've always lived with a dark spot
in the back of my mind
that this could happen to us,

or any family in the public eye.

At 19, Mia Farrow was famous as a
star in the soap opera Peyton Place.

Sinatra met her while starring
in Von Ryan's Express. His lot was
next to hers at 20th Century Fox.

RICHARD ATTENBOROUGH:
I felt it was absolutely real.

She adored him.
She absolutely adored him.

He was dependent on the girl.
He was very gentle with Mia.

It was a very different
relationship than the one with Ava.

The one with Ava
you felt might blow up.

The one with Mia
was much more gentle.

It was almost an old married couple,
you know,

although this "child"
was so much younger than him.

PIANO PLAYS: "My Way"

The marriage lasted two years, its
brevity put down to the pressures
of their different working lives.

SINATRA: I tried to be as good
a husband as I could be.

It didn't always work.

It didn't work, but I still has as
much love for every one of my mates
as it's possible to have.

# And now

# The end is near

# And so I face the final curtain

# My friend, I'll make it clear

# I'll state my case,
Of which I'm certain

# I've lived a life that's full

# I've travelled each
and every highway

# And more, much more than this

# I did it

# My way

# I've loved

# I've laughed and cried

# I've had my fill,
my share of losing

# But now, as tears subside,
I find it all

# So amusing

# To think I did all that

# And may I say

# Not in a shy way

# No, no not me

# I did it

# My way

# For what is a man,
what has he got?

# If not himself, then he has not

# To say the things he truly feels

# And not the words
of one who kneels

# The record shows

# I took the blows

# And did it

# My way

# My way. #

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Sinatra claimed never to be
that crazy about My Way,
but it became his most famous song.

It was astonishingly successful
all around the world.

It was in the British charts
for two years.

Then he announced his retirement.

And so began, "the longest
farewell concert in history".

What shall we talk about?

Your colleagues have honoured you
again, are you really retiring?

Yes, that's permanent.
That's the answer to it all for me.

Would a really good part get you
out of retirement? In a film? No.

Not even a recording.

What are your plans? For the next
year - nothing. Just nothing.

Just going to relax?
I want to take it easy for a year,
or six months or seven months.

I just want to take my wristwatch
off and take it easy.

What about a song that you might
really dig? I'll tell you in a year.

In 1976, he married for
the fourth time - to Barbara Marx.

The marriage endured, but
retirement was a vain ambition.

He was performing after three years.

And he was a national institution -
honoured all over the world.

The old liaisons withered and he
became a republican in support
of his old friend Ronald Reagan.

The Rat Pack scattered
and he re-hashed old routines
with even older pals.

I think everybody went his own way.

Dean is practically a recluse now.

I don't see much of him.
We talk a lot on the telephone.

I don't see much of him.

I talk to Sammy a great deal.
Recently, he was in Reno,

and I was in Tahoe -
but we didn't get to see each other
as we work the same hours.

The rest of the guys I hardly see.
I don't know where they are any more.

It's one of those things.
You don't work together again,
that's what the problem is.

It's the same in most industries.
You make friends in one division
of a job, then someone moves jobs,

and then that's it.

Is it what you expected?
It wasn't all that I expected. It
wasn't enough? No, not quite enough.

Did you get a lot of pressure to
come back? That really started it -
all the pressure we've had.

How so? Mail, phone calls.
Just talking to people.

'I just feel that every time
I went to bat,

'to do something in my work,

'I wanted it to be the best.

'It didn't always happen because
there were...

of the frailties of human nature,

with maybe a bad throat or being a
bit impatient on a recording session

and saying, "Let's press it, anyway."

But what I've been trying
to do all these years
is to take popular singing

and make it an art -
I believe it's an art all by itself.

# ..A beautiful melody

# From some enchanted land

# Down deep in my heart

# I hear it say

# Is this the day? #

I sighed a lot when he sang
at Paramount Theater, New York.

And the most surprising thing
happened. I was his co-star,

and my knees began to knock.

I realised the "fan" in me
was taking over the leading lady.

I was very excited about meeting
my favourite crooner.

I never told Frank that.

# I alone have heard

# This lovely strain

# I alone have heard
this glad refrain

# Must it be
forever inside of me?

# Why can't I let it go?

# Why can't I let you know?

# Why can't I let you know

# The song my heart would sing?

# That beautiful rhapsody
of love and youth and spring

# The music is sweet

# The words are true

# The song is you. #

Frank...

AUDIENCE LAUGHS

I thought there was another guy here.
Speak up in here.

It's my pleasure, and honour,

to present you
with this wonderful award.

APPLAUSE

Thank you very much, Jimmy.

Thank you - all of you
who put this thing together.
It's absolutely thrilling.

It really knocked me out.
Absolutely knocked me out.

I couldn't have been...more lucky
than I've been in my life...

..because of the friendship I had
with Jimmy Stewart, Gene Kelly and
a whole bunch of people like that.

They all helped along the way,
because I...

They won't mind this -
I was a little younger than them.

LAUGHTER

But I've loved every minute

that I've had in my life
in showbusiness,
and without showbusiness.

And I thank you all
for coming this evening.
There's not much more I can say...

APPLAUSE

# But now the days are short

# I'm in the autumn of the years

# And now I think of my life

# As vintage wine from fine old kegs

# From the brim to the dregs

# It pours sweet and clear

# It was a very good year... #

# Night and day

# You are the one

# Only you beneath the moon

# And under the sun

# Whether near to me or far

# It's not matter, darling

# Where you are

# I think of you

# Day and night

# Night and day

# Why is it so?

# That this longing
for you follows... #