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Frank Sinatra An Unauthorized Biography
An unauthorized biography by Earl Wilson, published by Macmillan in 1976, contains 336 pages.
351 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1976
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
August 19, 2019
It's all here, the vocal and audio genius behind a man who was not a music linguist but had a better ear and pitch than some classical composers. This covers the mood and temperament attributed to the ups and downs of a melancholy master who lived through his art. It roasts and boasts a perfect showman and an imperfect human being who was said to party with music, movies, mobsters, Presidents, philanthropists & prostitutes.
In flashback and fast forward, the book begins and ends at or around his finest hour, after The Main Event 70s concert when Frank was still near the height of his performing powers. All in the same book we are shown a king of hearts and Jekyll/Hyde personality who liked to be rich and have money so that he could give it away. Like Elvis. That is the essence of this book. It plays good cop/bad cop but does not dwell on the fence for too long.
By a former friend who went afoul, it's a fickle, hard to get, passive-aggressive love letter. While exposing gossip, rumor and innuendo, it doesn't try to make the singer into an anti-hero, subcultural role model or feel good diplomat. The best that can be said is that it should be used as a screenplay outline for a missing epic biopic about the 20th century greatest generation's most musically immortal and vocally timeless leading man.
If you want to know Sinatra, get this book.
This is different than any other autobiography of Sinatra. It is a fair bio study from a golden showbiz age scribe who knew his subject well.
In flashback and fast forward, the book begins and ends at or around his finest hour, after The Main Event 70s concert when Frank was still near the height of his performing powers. All in the same book we are shown a king of hearts and Jekyll/Hyde personality who liked to be rich and have money so that he could give it away. Like Elvis. That is the essence of this book. It plays good cop/bad cop but does not dwell on the fence for too long.
By a former friend who went afoul, it's a fickle, hard to get, passive-aggressive love letter. While exposing gossip, rumor and innuendo, it doesn't try to make the singer into an anti-hero, subcultural role model or feel good diplomat. The best that can be said is that it should be used as a screenplay outline for a missing epic biopic about the 20th century greatest generation's most musically immortal and vocally timeless leading man.
If you want to know Sinatra, get this book.
This is different than any other autobiography of Sinatra. It is a fair bio study from a golden showbiz age scribe who knew his subject well.
August 29, 2017
Reader learned a lot about Frank Sinatra as a young boy. His submissive father and very dominating mother influenced the famous singer in very different ways.
June 19, 2022
damn this man was busy😳😳😳
April 19, 2013
I've been fascinated with Frank Sinatra's voice for a long time and in the past few years began to be curious about his life, so when I happened upon this book at a used bookshop I snapped it up. Unfortunately it turned out to be twenty-four chapters of bad behaviour. In truth I wish I'd never seen it; it left me feeling like I needed a shower.
It's hard to believe anybody could be as much of a jerk as this book makes Sinatra out to be, but there's no reason other than disappointment not to believe it. His gigantic ego, wild mood swings, heavy drinking, gambling, arrogance and contempt for other people must have made him miserable to be around and yet people hung on and seemed happy to take all the crap he dished out. I couldn't keep track of the good friends he suddenly dropped when they said the wrong thing then let back into his inner circle on a whim. I don't know how he could remember who his friends were on any given day.
He expected everybody to feel honoured to serve him and for some inexplicable reason many did, in spite of his insults, name-calling and childishness. The authour says: "He has more likability than anybody I ever met. If there is such a word as unlikability, he has that too, but when he turns on his likability you think you must have been wrong about him ever being unpleasant."
The book does talk about good things he did, charities he supported, people he helped, but those things seem less impressive in light of the awful way he treated people. He used women - dames and broads he called them - and was proud of it. He was married three times, but even then never hesitated to sleep with any woman who caught his eye. His friends joked that they would "give his zipper to the Smithsonian" when he died.
The authour hints at Sinatra being bi-polar and having a "God complex". He never believed himself at fault even when he was violent; someone else was always responsible because they had made him angry. When he made a scene at a hotel, throwing things and screaming at the staff, it was because a hotel employee hadn't done everything just the way he wanted it. He saw it this way: "...the frustrations and anxieties resulting from his failed marriage, plus his manic-depressive makeup caused him to explode; he couldn't help it and shouldn't be blamed."
As tedious as it was to read about one Sinatra tantrum after another, the writing didn't help the experience either. It was choppy at times and hard to follow. The story is told in a generally chronological way, but often the authour would suddenly drop back a few years and that made it confusing. And some pages read more like lists of facts than a story.
The writing is brash, even harsh, with little subtlety. Was that the style of the era perhaps or is it more a result of Wilson's being a reporter? Or maybe it's just not very well written. Sometimes things are referred to but given no explanation. For example, when Sinatra's father died, it is mentioned he had been a "devoted son to his father", but we aren't told how he showed his devotion or anything much about that relationship at all so it doesn't go very far toward softening our impression of him. There are things in the writing that an editor should have caught, like saying on one page that Frank "looked trim, rested and sexier....than when he was a young man" then just a few lines later "the lean Sinatra face was now round and puffy." There were other inconsistencies and inaccuracies like referring to John Denver as a "young rock star". Rock, huh? Did Wilson ever actually listen to Denver's music? That particular bit of bad research leaves me wondering how much of Sinatra's story in this book is just guesswork. Would another authour have a different story to offer?
I may try another one someday but for now I've had my fill of Frank Sinatra. He was completely obsessed with fame, money and power, and yet told people that he'd had "a great life." His wish for his first grand-daughter - his tiny, newborn grand-daughter - was that she would have "a hundred times as many guys as he'd had women". Could he be more obnoxious?
If you're considering reading one of his many biographies try something other than this first. I fear you won't like him much after this one. Fortunately I can still enjoy his music. I feel lucky to have gotten through the book with at least some part of my "fan" status intact. If he's a particular favourite of yours, tread carefully through this book, or even better, skip it altogether.
It's hard to believe anybody could be as much of a jerk as this book makes Sinatra out to be, but there's no reason other than disappointment not to believe it. His gigantic ego, wild mood swings, heavy drinking, gambling, arrogance and contempt for other people must have made him miserable to be around and yet people hung on and seemed happy to take all the crap he dished out. I couldn't keep track of the good friends he suddenly dropped when they said the wrong thing then let back into his inner circle on a whim. I don't know how he could remember who his friends were on any given day.
He expected everybody to feel honoured to serve him and for some inexplicable reason many did, in spite of his insults, name-calling and childishness. The authour says: "He has more likability than anybody I ever met. If there is such a word as unlikability, he has that too, but when he turns on his likability you think you must have been wrong about him ever being unpleasant."
The book does talk about good things he did, charities he supported, people he helped, but those things seem less impressive in light of the awful way he treated people. He used women - dames and broads he called them - and was proud of it. He was married three times, but even then never hesitated to sleep with any woman who caught his eye. His friends joked that they would "give his zipper to the Smithsonian" when he died.
The authour hints at Sinatra being bi-polar and having a "God complex". He never believed himself at fault even when he was violent; someone else was always responsible because they had made him angry. When he made a scene at a hotel, throwing things and screaming at the staff, it was because a hotel employee hadn't done everything just the way he wanted it. He saw it this way: "...the frustrations and anxieties resulting from his failed marriage, plus his manic-depressive makeup caused him to explode; he couldn't help it and shouldn't be blamed."
As tedious as it was to read about one Sinatra tantrum after another, the writing didn't help the experience either. It was choppy at times and hard to follow. The story is told in a generally chronological way, but often the authour would suddenly drop back a few years and that made it confusing. And some pages read more like lists of facts than a story.
The writing is brash, even harsh, with little subtlety. Was that the style of the era perhaps or is it more a result of Wilson's being a reporter? Or maybe it's just not very well written. Sometimes things are referred to but given no explanation. For example, when Sinatra's father died, it is mentioned he had been a "devoted son to his father", but we aren't told how he showed his devotion or anything much about that relationship at all so it doesn't go very far toward softening our impression of him. There are things in the writing that an editor should have caught, like saying on one page that Frank "looked trim, rested and sexier....than when he was a young man" then just a few lines later "the lean Sinatra face was now round and puffy." There were other inconsistencies and inaccuracies like referring to John Denver as a "young rock star". Rock, huh? Did Wilson ever actually listen to Denver's music? That particular bit of bad research leaves me wondering how much of Sinatra's story in this book is just guesswork. Would another authour have a different story to offer?
I may try another one someday but for now I've had my fill of Frank Sinatra. He was completely obsessed with fame, money and power, and yet told people that he'd had "a great life." His wish for his first grand-daughter - his tiny, newborn grand-daughter - was that she would have "a hundred times as many guys as he'd had women". Could he be more obnoxious?
If you're considering reading one of his many biographies try something other than this first. I fear you won't like him much after this one. Fortunately I can still enjoy his music. I feel lucky to have gotten through the book with at least some part of my "fan" status intact. If he's a particular favourite of yours, tread carefully through this book, or even better, skip it altogether.
September 19, 2014
The author prefaced the book by saying that he was at one time in Sinatra's circle, but had since been on the receiving end of Sinatra's legendary short temper. He states that he had since become friendly with the singer, but that was fter most of the book had been written. With that kind of preamble, I expected the author to write honestly about what he observed without sugar coating it for his friend. Quite the contrary is true. The entire book reads like a disjointed paean to the man that was Frank Sinatra. The author does mention Sinatra's various physical altercations and verbally abusive onslaughts, but only to record the events and try to demonstrate that Sinatra got a bad rap. He inserts what can only be described as laundry lists of Sinatra's good deeds, not even trying to put them into context or a cohesive timeframe. There is a vague sense of chronology, but the author bounces around in time to better suit his "story." Sinatra's actual work is glossed over in favor of citing his many public relations problems and social life. He forgot to actually mention that Sinatra was nominated for an Oscar for From Here to Eternity, but always has room on the page to discuss his associations with Ava Gardner or his presence at Sinatra nightclub openings. If this columnist wanted to write a memoir of his time in Sinatra's good graces, I say more power to him, but this has too objective a tone for a memoir, and to little information for a biography.
June 20, 2013
Sure, there are more respectable bios, but this one is sheer fun, lurid tabloid entertainment. For trivia nerds rather than scholars.
This is a social/behavioral bio, not much on Frank Sinatra's musical genius.
All the torrid gossip, hearsay, rumor, and brouhaha about fistfights, love affairs, and Mafia connections. Ex., there's a whole chapter of the author's search for juicy commentary from Sinatra's numerous girlfriends.
With schadenfreude, some will enjoy the failures both in his career and marriages; such as the pathetic misfit with Mia Farrow.
Great writing. Earl Wilson has an ear. I love lines like "Political winds and windbags change."
February 15, 2010
Eh, kind of a bore. Only read this to round out some Sinatra research I'm doing, and it was kind of dull. Only interesting thing was how dated it was: written in the mid-70's with Frank still having 20 decent years left. It provided a nice snapshot in time at any rate.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews