A Miracle Baby
Sinatra was born on December 12, 1915, in New Jersey. He was a blue baby, not breathing, taken out with forceps, and thought to be dead. He was laid down on the kitchen counter when his grandmother stuck him under cold water and revived him.
The forceps left a scar on the left side of Sinatra’s face from the corner of his mouth to his jawline and a cauliflower ear, and as a teenager, he was nicknamed Scarface. He wore elevator shoes to enhance his five-foot-seven stature.
A Gifted Performer
He was known as One-Take-Charlie in Hollywood for approaching film roles in a spontaneous rather than over-rehearsed manner. Sinatra’s debut release, The Voice of Frank Sinatra, introduced the concepts of the box set and album in 1946.
He issued 78 rpm records that sold for $2.50, topped the charts for 7 weeks, and became one of the first-ever pop music vinyl 10″ LPs.
Sinatra made his directorial debut in 1965 with None But the Brave, the first Japanese/American co-production filmed in the USA.
A Man of Tidbits
The FBI investigated Sinatra for paying doctors $40,000 to declare him unfit to serve in the armed services. He received the highest honorific decoration of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Sinatra was buried with some Tootsie Rolls and a few other choice effects, including a bottle of Jack Daniels, cigarettes, and a lighter. His will included a no-contest clause that essentially says that anyone who contested it would be entirely disinherited.