Scroll to explore important milestones for Frank Sinatra
Source: Sinatra, Nancy. Frank Sinatra: An American Legend. 1998.
DECEMBER 12, 1915
Frank Sinatra almost died the day he was born. The doctor had trouble getting the huge 13½-pound baby out of his tiny mother, a woman less than five feet tall. Using forceps, the doctor tugged away, ripping and scarring the baby’s ear, cheek and neck, and puncturing his eardrum. But the baby wasn’t breathing, so his grandmother Rose, an experienced midwife, grabbed him from the doctor and held him under cold running water until he gasped his first breath and cried out. Francis Albert Sinatra entered the world fighting for his life–and he won.
SEPTEMBER 8, 1935
Frank Sinatra’s first big break came when he and a local trio who called themselves the Three Flashes auditioned separately for an appearance on Major Bowes and His Original Amateur Hour. They put them all together and called them the Hoboken Four.
JULY 13, 1939
Frank Sinatra cut his first record with Harry James (trumpeter), “From The Bottom of My Heart” (backed with “Melancholy Mood”) on the Brunswick label. Recorded at 78 rpm, neither song hit the charts.
JUNE 15, 1944
FS began shooting Anchors Aweigh with musical-comedy superstar Gene Kelly.
1946
“The House I Live In” starring FS wins the Honorary Award at the Academy Awards.
MARCH 14, 1947
FS co-starred with Kathryn Grayson, Jimmy Durante and Peter Lawford in MGM’s It Happened in Brooklyn. FS won critical praise for his performance as an ex-solider returning home to civilian life after WWII, and he sang 7 songs.
SUMMER – FALL 1947
On weekends in LA, Frank led a softball team, the Swooners, in games against other celebrity teams. He played second base in a lineup that included other stars of era. They even had their own cheerleaders: Virginia Mayo, Marilyn Maxwell, Shelley Winters and Ava Gardner.
Summer 1934
At 19, while spending the summer at his aunt Josie’s house in Long Branch on the Jersey Shore, my father met my mother, Nancy Rose Barbato, 17, who was vacationing across the road in a big house with her father, Mike (a plastering contractor), his brother Ralph, his sister Kate and their families. Nancy was giving herself a manicure on the front porch when Frank came over with his ukulele and began to serenade her. One thing led to another and they started going together.
JUNE 20, 1948
Christina “Tina” Sinatra is born on Father’s Day